Author's Note:

I'm awful, I'm obsessed, I have a problem and I fully admit it.

I also love this show to pieces and want to write so much fanfic for it.

Now this might very obviously be proven wrong in a week's time. No one knows how the finale will go, but...I just got thinking about the consequences of Day 12 and what it might mean for Sergio and Anana and yeeah I got shippy and angsty.

Going back to school Monday. This sort of thing is what happens when you give me a week off.

Things had been happening too damn quickly to be able to pinpoint just where everyone was. Gunfire, vectors, explosions on occasion...all Sergio knew for sure in the moment was that he had to get out of this hell hole alive. He'd seen Hatake, he was fairly certain he'd seen Farragut - both of them, for that matter, which had been a surprising development - and Jordan and Walker seemed to have gotten out of the entire thing without a scratch.

The psychotic kid was dead. They had made sure of that. Hatake may have even gone as far as beheading him, and after these past two weeks it didn't seem like too much of a stretch to make sure someone like that was going to stay dead. He and his lackey were both gone, and that was good; world was better off without them. The primary threat was gone, at the base at least. Ilaria was still out there, but for now they didn't have anyone within 200 miles trying to kill them. That was good. That gave them a chance to breathe.

Daniel - Miksa - was also dead. Sergio hadn't been there when it happened, he hadn't seen the body, but he could tell just by the way Hatake had been holding himself. Though he was still just as commanding as ever, there was something in his eyes, some subtle change to his posture that spoke volumes. Miksa hadn't appeared once, Farragut had been leading much of the planning, and there was a sort of quiet solemnity among the group at the base that Sergio had seen so many times in troops that had lost men. These people weren't soldiers, but they had still seen their share of death, and while they wouldn't break down at the loss of one of their own it was still a harsh blow.

Miksa was dead. It took a while to realize why exactly that kept repeating in his head over and over again. After all, if anyone around here was accustomed to death, it was him. Trained mercenary, working with the company that had manufactured this entire fiasco for longer than most people probably thought, responsible for his fair share of assassinations and straight up murders...death was nothing new. The death of one man - not to mention one man who had tried to kill him before - shouldn't be a big deal.

But it was. And it became suddenly obvious why it was when he saw her coming down the hallway where some of the remaining scientists and staff had congregated. He hadn't expected Anana to show up in the middle of everything, especially after he'd vanished without a word...but then again, he couldn't say he was really surprised, either. She had a few singes on her coat and scattered cuts here and there, but other than that seemed to have come out of things relatively unscathed. Sergio didn't let himself think too long on why that released a knot of tension somewhere under his ribcage.

Miksa is dead. And she didn't know it yet. The woman looked tired, but that was about it. He'd seen enough people lose siblings to know what that particular grief looked like, and there was nothing in her eyes that said she knew.

There was a sudden anger, though, and he realized it was directed at him as her pace quickened. That realization sunk in just quick enough for him to manage to dodge a punch that was swung at his head and Sergio swore.

"The hell...?"

"You left," she growled. "All of that, everything you did to keep those people alive and then you just up and vanish without a word. What the hell gave you the idea that you could do that?"

Your brother, maybe? That wouldn't go over well, though, and he took a moment to get words together into something that might not get him punched. He knew from experience just how hard she could hit.

"You were handling everything fine," he said, voice low in an attempt to not draw more attention than necessary. He may have helped in the end, but it was doubtful most people here liked him much. "I had to come back here, to...clean up the mess I helped make."

"And you thought I wouldn't want to know that? I wouldn't want to help?" Anana scoffed, arms folding across her chest and he was struck yet again by just how intimidating someone her size could look. "This 'mess' is in my backyard, isn't it? Last I checked, it's my job to keep my village safe. You think if you just took off without saying anything that I wouldn't come?"

"I didn't want you to." He seemed to have the habit of being way too damn direct with her, and it got to be a problem on occasion. The man swore again under his breath, glancing around the hall quickly as he tried to get the right words. "I got everyone as safe as I could, but coming back here...you saw everything. It was dangerous. Hell if I wanted to pull someone else into it."

She seemed to consider that for a moment, eying him critically before letting out a quick breath. "You mean you're dangerous, right? Is that how Toluk worded it?" His brow furrowed a little and she shook her head. "I know my brother. I knew he'd try to get to you - I just didn't expect it to work."

"He didn't...that's not why I left."

"Isn't it?" She'd stepped a little closer and her voice was a little lower, which was at least good in that it didn't get people staring. "Contrary to what you may think, you're not that hard to figure out, Sergio. The only reason you'd risk your neck coming back here is if the alternative was possibly more of a threat. I doubt you're really intimidated by Toluk, judging by the way you took him down that first time, so what's left?"

It went quiet for a few moments. The people at the end of the hall were talking softly, and Hatake had shown up at some point, walking a little gingerly as he moved between the staff. Sergio found himself staring at the opposite wall and forced his eyes back to Anana's stubbornly. After a bit she managed a slightly weary smile and put a hand on his arm.

"Life's dangerous," she murmured. "Be stupid not to realize that. Doesn't mean we run from anything that might just potentially hurt us, does it? You don't seem like the type to run."

"I'm pretty damn good at it, though." Because hell, wasn't that all he ever did? Get sent on a job, get it done, and get the hell out of Dodge before any real heat turned his way. He survived by running, from people, from places, from attachment; this was just the first time someone had bothered following anyway. If it hadn't been for this whole mess Hatake had been dealing with, he probably would've been long gone by now.

He only realized he'd glanced over at Hatake when Anana followed the look, and he saw her eyes harden a little. She looked back up at him, tightening the grip on his arm very briefly before letting it fall.

"I've gotta have a word with that bastard before he slips off again. You better stay here - I'm not finished with you yet."

Sergio blinked once as she started to turn away, and his previous train of thought came crashing back forcefully. Miksa is dead. Hell, she didn't know...and there was no way Hatake should be the one who told her. The man who had stolen her little brother from her in the first place had no right to give that news. That didn't leave many options, of course.

"Anana, wait." He'd reached to grab her arm before he processed the movement and she stopped mid-stride, raising a brow curiously. "You shouldn't...he can wait."

"He's the reason for all of this," she pointed out. "Or, at least, the reason it's all happening here. Jurisdiction around here may be crap, but there's no way he's walking away scot free - there's at least three different charges I can think of off the top of my head..."

"He can wait," Sergio repeated, a little more firmly this time. "I know he was responsible for your brother, but -" Ah, hell, that wasn't the right thing to say.

Anana shot another glare at the older man. "No way in hell he's getting away with that," she muttered. "Guess it'd be a good case for that whole nature versus nurture thing, though, wouldn't it? Those two definitely turned out more similar than you'd think." She hesitated a moment and Sergio felt his stomach sink a little as her dark eyes did a quick scan of the hall. "Where is Miksa, anyway? He said he was coming back here to help and I just figured it was a big base, but..."

Dammit, how were you supposed to do this tactfully? He was usually the one doing the killing, not delivering the news...and usually there was no way it would matter this much. Somehow all of this had grown to matter, and he still had no idea how to deal with it, especially right now, and hell she was staring at him...

"Sergio." It was still weird hearing his first name used so naturally. He forced himself to meet her eyes and, as usual, it was a lot easier than he was used to to pinpoint the emotions lurking below the surface of her calm exterior. She was worried now, as if she could sense it, sense something was wrong. "Where's Miksa?"

For a while he could only watch her, some distant part of him trying to figure out a way to say it, some way to make the harsh reality seem a little less cold. In the end, he could only shake his head and watch as the worry shifted abruptly to dread and then just as abruptly to disbelief. She stepped back a little and he was about to let that go before realizing that she seemed about ready to charge at Hatake, and Sergio was suddenly forced to physically restrain the smaller woman as she tried to lunge away, her hand closing around the grip of her gun.

"I'm gonna kill him," she snarled. "I'm going to kill that bastard!"

"It wasn't him." Yeah, like that was going to help much... "It wasn't him - the guy's dead, we made sure of it."

"It was his fault - he took my brother and if he hadn't Miksa'd be fine, we'd all be fine - I just got him back, damn you!" Her voice sounded close to breaking now and people were definitely staring by now. Hatake wasn't looking their way but he had frozen where he stood and was now watching the floor carefully.

"It's not - Anana, listen." Sergio stepped around to the front of her, trying to block her view of the older man and meet her eyes. "He's not going to get away with any of this, but killing him won't do any good." Might not be that easy to kill him anyway, come to think of it, but that wouldn't help the situation any. Dammit, how were you supposed to do this? "Look I'm - I'm sorry."

Those words seemed to deflate her suddenly and the struggling stopped. Her hand dropped from the gun limply and for a few moments she just stood there, staring straight ahead and breathing a little quicker than usual. Then she abruptly sagged, and Sergio was practically holding the woman up.

"I just got him back," she whispered, and he could feel the beginnings of tremors in her shoulders. "We had our family back, why'd he have to - dammit."

He wasn't good at comforting, but at this point it didn't seem like there was any other option. Sergio let himself fall back on instinct he wasn't even sure he had anymore and pulled her closer, his hold tightening a little. It was hard to tell if she was actually crying or not, but the shaking was unmistakeable.

"I'm sorry," he repeated, mostly for lack of anything better to say, and again, and again because it seemed like he should say something, and hell, even if it wasn't right, it was something.

He could hear the storm blowing in again outside, with the wind whistling above where they stood. It was the kind of storm that you needed guidelines to follow, something study to hold onto. They'd need guidelines for all of this. Hell only knew what was going to happen now; Ilaria was still out there, and Miksa was dead. Anana was by far one of the strongest women he'd met, but even she couldn't push through a storm like this completely alone. And maybe she was right; life was dangerous. It always would be, and sometimes you couldn't guarantee it wouldn't turn out disastrous, but sometimes you didn't really have a choice.

The storm was here, and while he might not be the safest guideline for anyone to hold onto, he could at least be something, right?