Warnings for some serious violence and bloodshed. Have something/someone in arm's reach available for hugging. You'll thank me.
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Black
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Shinichi opened his eyes to a nightmare. It was all of his worst fears, and a few he'd never considered, assembled in a shadowy hallway. Gin was there. And Vodka. And a man he recognized from wanted posters as Jackal, but who he knew better as Snake. And even as Shinichi was struggling to raise himself from the floor, Kaitou KID was thrown down beside him. He started slightly at the sound of the thief's body hitting the tiles, as if he'd put up no resistance to the fall, and realized a moment later that he hadn't. KID's hat had tumbled away and Shinichi stared, horrified to the point of nausea, as blood crept slowly out onto the floor from beneath KID's messy hair.
"KI–" He cut off sharply when Vodka grabbed his arm, wrenching him up, and he scrambled to get his feet beneath him but they missed the floor, kicking in midair as Vodka held him aloft in a painful grip.
Wh-What–?! He grabbed onto Vodka's wrist to ease the strain on his shoulder and had to acknowledge how much smaller his hands were compared to the thug in black. N-No… No! Not again! This has to be a dream. A nightmare. I can't be him again. He tried to kick at Vodka and missed by several inches, but his violent squirming was enough that the man let him go, throwing him down beside KID.
"Tch, now he decides to get violent. Not a peep outta him for three days and now this."
Three days?! How long have I–? How did I get here? Where am I? He pushed himself upright again but his arms almost folded under his minimal weight and he looked with horror at the multiple puncture marks that dotted his skin beneath the sleeves of something like a hospital gown. They've been… They've been experimenting on me, Shinichi thought through a growing fog as his breathing sped erratically. Clips of memories came back to him – being targeted, protecting Haibara, getting captured. They'd drawn blood from him, again and again, and then… the shrinking – the bone-melting, heart-tearing agony. Then… nothing. He couldn't remember anything after that.
Conan turned and looked back at the thief on the floor beside him. The white suit was scuffed with dirt and dust and one of the glider attachments looked like it had been shot off, the cape, crumpled beneath him, hooked at only one shoulder.
Why is he here?
It wasn't a question of how. Nothing ever happened around KID without his allowing it, so if he was in a position like this… something had been worth the risk.
"He tried to steal something we still need."
Conan tore his eyes from KID and whipped around, craning his head back to look up at Gin, now standing over them both, calmly lighting the cigarette clenched between the teeth of a razor-edged smirk.
"More naive than I'd expected from KID," Snake said. He reached under his jacket and pulled out a gun and Conan immediately shifted back, covering KID as best he could with a body much too small.
"Hold it," Gin said, holding his hand out to stop Snake. "He's not going to let you shoot the thief without going through him. Like I said, we still need him."
Conan's heart lurched. KID was… He was trying to–
"My apologies… for being so naive," a weak voice said from behind him. He felt movement at his back and turned to see KID rolling slowly onto his side and rising unsteadily to his hands and knees.
"KID!"
"You're right… Snake," KID said, dropping back to sit on the floor. "It's not like me to rush in blind." He turned his gaze to Conan, met his eyes, smiled, just a little. "Don't know what I was thinking."
"You're done for," Snake informed him.
"Vodka, grab the detective," Gin said, already walking away as Snake once again raised his gun.
Vodka stepped forward and Conan shrank back, edging closer to KID. He was slightly startled when KID reached out and grabbed him, pulling him back and wrapping his arms around him with Conan's back pressed to his chest.
"I stole this detective fair and square," he said, a hard smile on his face and challenge in his voice. "Like hell I'm going to just let you take him again."
"KID–"
There was a bang and a strangled shout. KID's arms tightened almost painfully around Conan and the detective's eyes were immediately drawn down to the blood welling at the fresh gunshot wound in KID's leg. He could feel him shaking, hear his breath shuddering just behind his ear, but KID only held tighter.
"What did I just say?"
Conan tore his eyes from the blood pooling on the floor at his feet and looked up. Gin was standing behind Snake with the barrel of a gun pressed to the back of Snake's head at the base of his skull.
"He's the only one left that the drug affected this way. We need him alive. Your grudge can wait."
"The... only one left…?" Conan murmured, an uneasy feeling sinking deep into him.
"Tantei-kun…" KID's voice was faint, but Conan could still hear the sympathy there and it only made him feel worse. "Haibara-san… She's dead."
A painful pulse shook Conan's heart, a cold feeling coiling in his stomach. "No… That's impossible." He ignored how KID's arms tightened around him again. "She was safe. They didn't find her. Theytook me."
"They went back for her later… when you wouldn't wake up."
"Vodka," Gin said sharply, and Vodka moved again, bending over to grab Conan by his throat. KID gritted his teeth and grabbed Vodka's wrist, but Vodka just stomped a foot down onto KID's injured leg and KID lost his grip on them both, recoiling with a weak cry. The moment Vodka had Conan, he kicked KID to the floor and walked away, his hand still tight around Conan's neck as the boy choked and gasped and wrenched at the large hand with increasingly shaky fingers, all to no avail. Gin lowered his gun.
"Have fun," he told Snake, and he headed off down the hallway, Vodka following after him.
"Nngh… N-No…" Conan cracked open an eye to look over Vodka's shoulder as he was carried away and saw Snake walking up to KID who had not been able to pull himself up from the floor. Snake crouched beside him, speaking in a low murmur, words that Conan couldn't quite catch, and then they were out of sight, around a corner farther down the hallway.
The single gunshot echoed fiercely down the tiled halls.
KID. KID! No. He can't be… They can't have… This isn't right. This can't be right! No one can… can catch– Tears he didn't notice squeezed from his eyes. In a sudden, desperate move, Conan sank his nails into Vodka's skin with strength he didn't know he had, and used the startled reflexive spasm of Vodka's fingers to get enough leeway to tilt his chin down and bite, tearing flesh from between Vodka's thumb and forefinger.
Vodka shouted, stumbling back and dropping him, and Conan hit the ground running, a flat out sprint back down the hallway toward KID. He skidded around the corner, almost overbalancing, his bare feet sticking to the tile, but he kept forward. Ahead of him, he could see a figure in black lying on the floor, and another crouched beside KID, pressing down on the bullet wound in KID's leg with both hands.
"Wh-What?" he breathed out, jolting to a stop halfway between the strange scene before him and the point down the hall behind him where he could hear Gin cursing out Vodka. He absently spit the remnants of blood and skin from his mouth and wiped the back of his hand across his face as his mind raced, trying to make sense of Snake out cold on the floor and the woman with the half bandaged face. But he couldn't, and he didn't have time. Gin was coming.
Conan did the only thing he could think to do and ran toward the trio ahead of him. He had no idea who the bandaged woman was or how she would react to it, but he charged ahead and grabbed the gun out of Snake's slack grip. She tensed instantly but Conan ignored her, turning to face Gin and Vodka, who had followed him back around the corner. But then another man in black appeared between them, as if from nowhere, and sprayed something into each of their faces.
Vodka swayed then tipped backwards, body thudding heavily to the floor, and Gin staggered just a little toward the wall, sliding down and slumping to his knees. The newcomer walked away from them without a second glance and Conan watched warily as he approached. The man's head and neck were covered with a tight black hood, an additional covering hiding his face, leaving only his eyes exposed, but Conan immediately noted that the man was older, possibly even elderly. He stepped around Conan, not sparing him a glance, and Conan caught the scent of cigarette smoke, carried on the air as the man moved past. That was when he noticed it: Gin had let the cigarette drop into his hand – let it burn his palm to clear the fog in his mind that the man's spray had caused. With his other hand, he raised his gun.
"No!" Conan shouted. Without thinking, he raised Snake's gun and fired. Two gunshots echoed together and Gin's bullet caught the man in black in the shoulder, the force and pain knocking him to his knees beside KID with a harsh gasp. Conan's bullet lodged solidly into bone in Gin's forearm and Gin dropped the gun.
It took Conan a moment to steady himself again, the kick from the weapon more than his small body could fully brace for, but he raised it again and trained it on Gin, taking slow, measured steps toward him so he could retrieve Gin's fallen weapon.
He made it about halfway there before Gin abruptly grabbed for the gun again and another shot went off, another of Conan's bullets biting into Gin's left shoulder. But Gin didn't stop. His hand closed over the gun on the floor and he raised it at Conan who was still trying to recover his shaken grip and stance.
Three shots fired, once again in quick succession – a card whizzing past Conan's ear to cut into Gin's hand, Gin's bullet striking the floor near Conan's feet, and Conan's bullet piercing through flesh right beside KID's card. Gin finally dropped the gun again and slumped back against the wall, and Conan wasted no time in hurrying forward to push the weapon down the hallway with his foot. Then he set his stance firmly and pointed Snake's gun at the side of Gin's head.
"Don't move."
A loud clatter in the mostly silent hallway had Conan jumping a little and his eyes flickered toward the sound, determining its source in an instant. The card gun was on the floor beside KID's shaking hand. His eyes, just barely open, were locked on Conan.
"T-Tan… tei…" The unfinished name was faint and KID's eyes fell closed again, his breathing fast and irregular. Conan kept his eyes on Gin through a force of will.
"That's the detective?" the woman asked, looking to the man in black who was squeezing his bleeding shoulder, kneeling across from her at KID's side. He glanced back at Conan but didn't speak. "Take him," the woman said firmly. "I'll get KID." The man just nodded and stood, starting down the hallway toward Conan and Gin.
Shit… Conan's eyes darted anxiously between Gin and the approaching stranger. What do I do? Who are these people? Not Organization, but… that doesn't mean they're on my side. Still, he couldn't bring himself to take the gun off of Gin who was watching everything with sharp eyes, searching for an opportunity.
The man came to a stop beside them and something appeared in his hand. He pulled a pin from it and smoke began wafting out with a quiet hiss. He set it in front of Gin, and then he was suddenly behind him, wrenching Gin's arms behind his back before Gin could even attempt to knock the gas grenade away.
Conan took a few steps back without lowering the gun, turning his head away as much as he dared and monitoring his own breathing very closely as the gas billowed out. The man was tying Gin's arms now (though where the rope had come from, Conan had no clue), not bothering to be gentle or careful of Gin's wounds.
Once Gin was bound hand and foot and semiconscious at best from the steady stream of gas rising under his nose, the man stepped away from him and over toward Conan. Conan turned the gun on him immediately and the man raised his hands, his eyes flinching a little, giving away the pain the movement caused his injured shoulder.
"Here to help," he said. His voice was unnaturally gravelly, in what Conan recognized as an attempt to somewhat disguise it. It only made the detective more untrusting. "To help KID," the man added, eyes moving to a spot behind Conan.
Conan caught movement out of the corner of his eye and glanced back quickly, but it was only the motion of the woman standing with KID in her arms. Strong… Conan thought warily. "What are you d–?" He cut off with a gasp as hands closed on him, a cloth held firm over his mouth and nose. His heart jumped with a spike of adrenaline, his eyes wide, but the gun was already tumbling from nerveless fingers and he felt his consciousness slip away.
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Conan woke on the floor of a dark room. He blinked, his eyes slowly focusing on the pulsating reflections of red and blue light touching the ceiling and walls in one corner. They were coming in through the one, small, bare window, outside of which he could see dark, starless sky.
Conan pushed to his feet, stumbling a little, disoriented, and rushed to the window, standing on his toes and gripping the sill hard to pull himself up enough to peek outside. The room seemed to be on the third floor of somewhere, and, below, a squad of police cars had gathered. The light, rotating and strobing silently, illuminated Sato Miwako shoving a bandaged Gin into a patrol car. Conan's eyes widened almost painfully as he watched, quickly scanning over the others milling about. After a few seconds he spotted Snake stumbling groggily toward another patrol car, his hands cuffed behind his back and Nakamori and Hakuba on either side, pushing him along. A moment more and he found Vodka as well, struggling hopelessly as Takagi, Shiratori, and Chiba all worked together to drag him toward the cars.
"This can't be real…" Conan breathed out, unable to look away.
"It's real."
He jumped at the sound of a voice from behind him – familiar, painfully familiar, but not quite right. Of course not. Because he'd never hear that voice again.
Suppressing a shudder and ignoring the queasy feeling in the pit of his stomach, Conan turned to look up at the woman standing behind him. She was barefoot, wearing only a dirty lab coat as far as he could tell, and his legs folded as his eyes finally made out the image of Miyano Shiho standing over him in the darkness.
"H-Haibara," he choked out, staring. "Y-You… I thought–"
"I was dead?" she finished for him, just exactly as spiteful as she always was. "Thank the thief. He set it up for me to fake my death." She moved beside the window and put her back to the wall, peeking out at the activity below them. "The Organization is a lot larger than just this group, but they won't look for me anymore." Her eyes moved to the far corner of the room but Conan was still just staring up at her face, hardly able to believe it. "He called the police, too," Shiho continued. "Had it all worked out." She scoffed and folded her arms, turning her eyes back to the scene below the window. "Look what it got him," she murmured, almost to herself.
"What?!" Conan shot to his feet again and jumped to get his forearms on the window sill, hauling himself up so he could see outside. Was KID arrested? That can't– That's not… It's not right…
"Not down there," Shiho said quietly, watching him. Conan looked up at her and she nodded to the deeper shadows in the far corner of the room. Now that he was focusing on them, Conan could just make out three outlines, two of them nearly indistinguishable, but one relatively clear – a white silhouette on the floor.
"KID!" Conan dropped from the window and rushed to the corner, stumbling over a random box in his path. KID was lying on his back, his head resting in the lap of the bandaged woman who was leaning back against the wall. The man in black was sitting at her side, still squeezing his bleeding shoulder. Conan dropped to his knees beside the thief. "KID…"
The woman's gaze flickered to Conan's face then down to KID again, but he didn't notice. KID's eyes opened, slivers of light from the window's reflection, and he looked over at Conan. "Made it out… Meitantei," he whispered, his lips turning up in a faint smile. Conan's eyes darted to the bullet wound in KID's leg. It had been tied off tightly to stem the bleeding, but KID still looked ghostly pale in the dark room.
"What are you doing?" Conan suddenly demanded, looking up at the woman. "You are here to help him." It wasn't a question. Not anymore. Not with how the two in black watched KID, and how KID paid them no mind. "He needs to get to a hospital."
"It's not that simple–" the woman answered but Conan cut her off.
"What the hell is complicated about saving his life?"
"Calm down… Meitantei…" KID murmured. His eyes were closed again and Conan's hands clenched into fists on the floor in front of him.
"Every last one of us here has a secret identity, Kudou-kun," Shiho pointed out. Conan flinched at the use of his name in front of the two strangers and Shiho raised an eyebrow. "See?" she said flatly. She pointed to herself. "This body? It's the temporary antidote – they used it on me for the experiments. I could change back at any moment. And you," She pointed at Conan. "We can change you back again, permanently, so you can't let anyone see you right now. Not until we get this fixed. It would just complicate things."
"We will get KID medical attention," the bandaged woman said, making Conan turn back to her again. "But there's a right way for us to go about it… unless you intend to turn us in anyway." Conan's eyes moved down to KID again and the woman smiled. "But I don't think you would do that. Not at this point. So we'll wait for the police to clear out, then go our separate ways."
KID made a quiet sound that Conan couldn't quite interpret, but it seemed to match up with the odd feeling the woman's statement had evoked in him as well. "…The police will search this place," Conan said, pushing that feeling away without examining it too closely. "They'll find us."
KID's smile strengthened just slightly. "Now you're thinking… like a thief… Meitantei," he breathed out. Conan's jaw clenched.
"What's wrong with you, KID?" he demanded. "Did you really loose that much blood?" His eyes flickered to the bullet wound again. It certainly didn't look good and Conan had no idea how long he'd been unconscious – how long it had been since KID had been shot – but the man in black still seemed to be holding himself together rather well despite his bleeding shoulder, so it couldn't have been long.
"G-Give me a break," KID replied, his voice a little stronger now through a force of will. "Those guys… can get pretty rough."
Conan was only half listening, his eyes moving critically over KID's body, assessing the situation as best he could in the darkness, and he noticed for the first time that KID's arm wasn't just resting over his torso. It was clutching. He reached out, relying on touch more than sight to determine if the shot he'd heard in the hallway just before he'd escaped from Vodka's hold had found its mark after all, but there was no blood. Still, he could feel KID tense, hear him draw in a quick and quiet breath, when his careful exploration crossed any badly injured spot.
Cracked ribs, at least, Conan thought, pulling his hands carefully back. Maybe even broken. Could be other internal injuries too. I can't tell. "…Why the hell did you come here, KID?" he asked. He met KID's eyes when they opened again. "Why did you do this for us?"
"How… could I not?" Conan's eyebrows twitched down in a very clear that didn't answer anything sort of face, and KID closed his eyes again with a weak laugh and a wince. "It was worth it," he sighed.
Conan swallowed hard, feeling sick. "You're gonna be okay, KID," he said, the words thick.
There was another faint laugh. Another wince. "Of course I am. And you better… get back to normal again quick… Meitantei. I expect you… to be at your best… for another showdown… once I'm back on my feet… right?"
Conan breathed out an indignant laugh. "Of course," he said. "Stupid thief."
"That's phantom thief… Tantei-kun…" KID replied with a faint smirk.
"Get a room," Shiho muttered and Conan glared back at her, trying not to acknowledge that he'd forgotten about the others in the room. When he turned back again he noticed the bandaged woman watching him critically. The man beside her just seemed to be politely ignoring him.
"Crowd's thinning," Shiho said. "They're probably carting off everyone they've arrested so far. But they'll leave at least some behind to sweep the place. What's the next move?"
The man in black glanced at the bandaged woman but she shook her head a little. "You're hurt; don't push it," she told him. "I'll take care of it. You keep watch here.
"You good, KID?" she said, gripping his shoulder briefly.
"Yeah," KID answered. "I'll be okay… for a little longer."
She didn't respond, but there was the slightest hesitation before she carefully moved him from her lap and Conan, eyes more adjusted to the darkness now, noticed the blood on her pants where KID's head had been resting. Fear pierced through him but he just watched quietly as the man in black produced the remains of KID's cape from somewhere and bundled it carefully under KID's head. The woman stood and looked down at Conan.
"Keep calm," she told him, eyes sharp and locked on his. "Stay here. Follow any instructions he gives you." She jerked a thumb over her shoulder at the man in black. "And we'll survive this, secrets and all. I'll be back soon." A moment later she was gone, slipping silently out of the room through the door across from the window. Conan stared after her for a few seconds then looked again to KID.
"Who the hell was that?" he asked.
KID's chest moved a little with a silent laugh. "Phantom Lady," he said. "My… predecessor."
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Conan kept close to KID, fingers firm around one of his wrists, monitoring his pulse as they waited silently in the small, dark room. It wasn't long before they heard voices approaching from outside the door. Conan tensed, wishing he had his gadgets, and he looked around for some kind of cover or hiding place. There were various boxes, mostly around the walls, but the room on a whole was so small that trying to hide four people in it would be fairly pointless, especially with the condition KID was in.
The man in black waved at him to get his attention and made a quelling sort of motion that Conan took to mean Stay put. Then he put a finger to his lips. Conan hesitated but nodded his agreement. It wasn't like there was anything more they could do anyway. He'd just have to trust that these accomplices of KID's knew what they were doing.
Then the door opened and Conan froze, his heart pounding harshly as a police officer stepped inside.
Not good…! Conan thought, staring up at the man with wide eyes. The officer glanced around the room, surely spotting Shiho crouched by the window, and the man in black, Conan, and KID all on the floor just behind the open door, but after an extra, lingering moment of looking at KID, the officer just turned and stepped back into the hallway, closing the door behind him.
"This one's empty too," they heard him call, and then the footsteps and voices began to fade.
Conan turned his head slowly toward the man in black. "Was that…?"
The man nodded.
"So that's where he learned it, huh?" Conan muttered, looking down at KID. He could tell he was still awake, but just breathing seemed to be taking a lot of his energy and he didn't try to speak again.
"…He learned it from the first KID," the man in black said, his voice a careful undertone but no longer gravely or disguised. "What he hadn't had to teach himself, anyway. The first KID learned from her."
"But not you," Conan concluded.
"…No. Not me."
It took Conan a second to realize what he was doing. "Sorry," he said. "Habit. I shouldn't be… making deductions or asking questions now. You guys are off-limits."
"Off-limits?"
"They have an arrangement," Shiho whispered with a smirk. "They trade favors, and don't bother each other outside of heists. Guess it'll be a long time before you see him again, huh," she added casually, and Conan turned away from her, looking particularly irritated.
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Phantom Lady returned less than ten minutes later, but it felt like an eternity to Conan as he watched KID struggle for both breath and consciousness.
"It's all clear," Phantom Lady told them as she carefully shut the door behind her and took a seat on the floor at KID's side. "No cops, no Organization. We're the only ones here." She held out a cell phone to Conan and he blinked up at her, confused. "Do you have someone who can come get you?" she asked.
Conan returned his eyes to KID again. "You should–" he started, but Phantom Lady cut him off.
"We can't get him help until you're gone. Secret identity, remember?" She was still holding out the phone but Conan hesitated.
"Tch." Shiho suddenly got up, striding over to them and snatching the phone from Phantom Lady's hand. "I'm calling Agasa-hakase," she said, and she turned on her heel and moved to a corner of the room as she dialed.
"I-I think… she's probably right… Tantei-kun…" KID breathed out as Shiho spoke in a low murmur into the phone.
"What?" Conan asked reflexively, and he hated himself a little for it. KID shouldn't be talking. But at the same time, if KID had something to say now, he wanted to hear it.
"No… Nn… N-No heists f-for a while…"
"Shut up," Conan said immediately. "Just shut up if you're gonna tell me something I already know, idiot."
KID's hand turned, fingers closing around Conan's wrist just as Conan's were still on his. "I do… what I want…" he managed with the shadow of a grin. "Wait for me… okay?"
"KID…"
Shiho ended the call and stalked back over to the group. "We cannot get out of here fast enough," she muttered bitterly. She held the phone out to Phantom Lady, but before she could take it a harsh pulse hit Shiho's body, the force enough to double her over, and the phone slipped from her hand. Phantom Lady caught it without even looking, watching Shiho with wide, alarmed eyes.
"Haibara!" Conan was on his feet in a second, but he couldn't do anything to support her, as small as he was. Shiho staggered a little but pulled herself together again and straightened up some.
"I'm fine," she said, though she had a tense grip on the front of the dirty lab coat. "I should have a little time yet. Let's just get out of here."
Conan nodded and turned to Phantom Lady. "I'm counting on you," he told her without really thinking about it. "KID…"
KID's eyes opened, just a little.
"I'll be waiting."
His eyes closed again, but he was smiling, and Conan allowed Shiho to shove him forward toward the door and out of the room to go downstairs and wait for Agasa.
"H-He's… a handful… isn't he…" KID said.
Phantom Lady was still staring after them, but she shook her head a little with a wry smile. "He's exactly how I remember him," she said. She glanced over at KID. "Except for one thing."
"Wh... What's that?" KID huffed out.
"If you don't know, I'm certainly not going to tell you."
KID tried to let out an aggravated sigh, but it turned to a groan as Phantom Lady knelt and carefully slid her arms under him to lift him off the floor.
"I know," she murmured, soothing. "But the police searched this whole place. We have to get you off the premises before we can call for an ambulance. Hang on just a little longer, Kaito. Can you do that for me?"
"…Jii-chan… H-How's your shoulder?" KID said and Phantom Lady breathed out a quiet laugh.
"Changing the subject, huh?" she murmured. "Stubborn brat. You're fine."
The man in black pulled himself to his feet with the aid of the wall and went to the door. "I'll live, Bocchama," he said. "All the same, I'd like to get out of here as soon as possible." He swept an arm out, ushering Phantom Lady ahead of him and she carried KID out into the hallway.
"Hey… Kaa-san…" KID said as they made it to the first floor and out into the calm night. "Thanks…"
Phantom Lady smiled. "I've owed Kaitou KID a rescue for a long time now," she said softly. "Consider us even." There was some laughter in her voice and KID smiled as well.
Thanks… Oyaji.
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Author Note:
Think I surprised myself a little with how mean I can really be to my favorite characters… *not really sorry*
Next installment is called "Blue" and shall be oh so very fluffy. You're welcome.