She didn't know what to think when she slowly came to.

Her head was absolutely throbbing- which only made her more disoriented on her current situation.

It felt like she could barely breathe, like there was this impossible sense of weight sitting on her chest and holding her down. She kept her eyes closed, afraid that the slightest presence of light would melt them back into her sockets, and instead tried to focus on some deep breaths to keep her calm. There was hardly even an attempt to do so as the first breath left her gasping at the unbearable heat of pain that erupted with it. And the short, erratic breaths that followed only made the pain harder to ignore- forcing her to hold her breath just long enough for the sharp aching to go away.

Every part of her was in agony- hell, just the thought of moving made her hurt.

But she... she couldn't stay still for too long...

He would find her...

She had no idea how long she had been out.

She didn't even realize she had lost consciousness to begin with, but she sure as hell wasn't surprised.

After that absolute massacre in the church...

A cold shudder ran through her at the memory of that place, at the utter fear of trying to outrun the shadowed hands that grasped at her from the walls.

Forcing herself to draw in a deep breath, and hope for the best, she tried to push herself up from wherever she had been knocked down. She hissed through gritted teeth as the pain quickly made any sort of movement far too difficult to complete, or even start for that matter. Her scuffed and bloody arms weren't strong enough to support her near deadweight and the sheer agony from the motion easily brought her down.

Another sharp gasp escaped her as she tried to fight back the tears that had welled up in her eyes.

Christ... what the hell did he do to her?

She numbly moved her left arm to cradle her shifting ribs as she attempted to move again.

It hurt to even breathe, how the hell was she supposed to continue on like this?

The heavy ringing in her ears played over the sound of a door opening near her.

"Whoa, hang on, slow it down."

She turned sharply at the sudden voice, rolling slightly onto her left side, as one hand reached for her gun. Despite the urgent need to protect herself, she immediately regretted the motion as sharp, coarse pain shot throughout her entire body and stopped her in place. White stars clustered together in the corners of her eyes and the hint of blood came up from the back of her throat as she briefly choked on the sudden sense of breathlessness.

Specks of red came out with every cough, further staining her already dirtied shirt.

"Kidman, calm down."

She felt hands gently, yet firmly, grab her shoulders before they pushed her back against the soft padding underneath her.

"It's okay, it's okay..."

She could hear herself half-gasping and half-sobbing as she held tight to her broken ribs. It felt like her entire body was on fire- like every bone inside of her had been utterly shattered; she couldn't even breathe without it making the pain worse. She was completely tense, completely afraid that even the slightest movement would only drag her further down in agony.

She just... she needed to calm down.

Her erratic breathing was the main issue; it was only making everything worse and making her more desperate for air.

She clenched her teeth and tried to just breathe through her nose, which only made it feel as though she was slowly suffocating instead. But she forced herself through it and tried to hold each breath for as long as she could, feeling the air practically trembling in her chest, before she carefully let it out.

"You're okay."

She had yet to see, let alone even pay attention to whoever was speaking to her.

As of right now, they weren't trying to kill her, so it was an improvement.

She had to have at least bruised, maybe even ruptured, a few organs in that fight... it would explain the pain that was pooling into her lower back.

"Just keep breathing, nice and steady... if you can." the voice continued, as rough hands carefully tried to brush her hair out of her face. She could literally feel sweat rolling over her skin and cringed at the sticky, uncomfortable feeling. "Christ, you're in bad shape."

She moved one hand to her lips as she tried to keep pace with her breathing; partly afraid more blood was going to come out if she went into another coughing fit.

It took some time, almost too long really, but slowly, with the forced re-breathing, the pain began to ease down to a more acceptable level. She was, at least, able to breathe deeper and expand her ribcage out just a little further.

Her entire body was trembling from the ordeal.

She moved one hand to try and hastily wipe the fading tears from her eyes as she slowly forced them open. Her vision was spotty and blurred at first, making the room come together in a confusion of messy colors and odd shapes. She had to blink a few times and briefly focus on a spot on the ceiling before her sight cleared enough for her to properly identify things.

Still, she had no clue where she was.

Taking a few more calming breaths, she slowly looked over to the presence next to her and sharply inhaled for a second.

"... Sebastian?" she whispered.

She... she hadn't exactly expected to run into him again.

The last time she saw him, he was possessed or something and was running down the hallway- no... no, that wasn't right.

That wasn't the right memory.

Focus, Kid...

Right, the last time she saw him... was just before someone or something had grabbed them through the blood; it was right after both he and Joseph had saved her from that water tank trap. She had been the first one pulled down, so she had no idea where he would've gone after that.

And yet, here he was.

"Yeah, believe me, I'm just as surprised," he remarked. "After the asylum... I didn't know if we were going to see you again."

Right... he had probably been just as worried about her as she had been about him and Joseph.

Kidman briefly glanced around the room once more to try and get another hold of her surroundings. She still didn't have a clue where the hell she was now and she didn't know if there were any Haunted or anything else around nearby. Then again, the older man would never put her in danger like that; if anything, he probably made sure that any kind of creature within a ten-mile radius was dead.

From what little she could tell, the place just seemed to be some kind of small, abandoned room- much like the ones in those houses back in that weird village.

There was a small, dirty bed underneath her, which was providing her with little, but some, support.

"Where... where are we?" Kidman questioned.

Sebastian gave a short sigh and shook his head as he rubbed at the back of his neck. It was easy to tell he looked utterly exhausted, practically on the brink of passing out himself, but it seemed like he was forcing himself to remain alert. For her sake at least. The old, wooden bed frame creaked as he shifted briefly from where he was sitting next to her on the edge of the mattress. "I'm not sure exactly. All I can tell you is that we're in some kind of village just outside of the church," he started. "There weren't many places to go and this seemed like the safest bet- especially since there weren't any of those creatures around."

Perfect.

She lost some ground then...

Swallowing hard, she slowly attempted, for a third time, to push herself up. Pain still radiated from her back and ribs, but... it was manageable this time.

"Careful," he warned.

"I-its fine," she assured, as she pushed herself up just enough to reach forward and grab his shoulder. She used him as leverage to pull herself up, before she felt him gently wrap his arm around her back to help keep her balanced. It was ridiculous that moving only that much had nearly exhausted her... it was not going to be easy for her from here on out. She put one hand down on the bed and slowly forced her hips back just enough so she could lean back against the headboard instead, using it to support her mostly dead weight.

The movement left her momentarily breathless, but... she was able to recover.

It probably wasn't the best, but she really needed to move. The new position helped to keep her own weight off of her back and kept the pressure off of her already damaged ribs and organs. Not to mention, she could breathe a little easier like this- and it no longer felt like she might run the possibility of choking on her own blood.

"What the hell happened to you?" Sebastian asked, as he slowly pulled his arm back.

She knew she couldn't tell him the real answer.

She couldn't tell him about the fight she had had at the church...

Well, to call it a fight was glorifying it- she got her ass kicked.

"I... I'm not sure," Kidman started, as she briefly wiped off the blood from her lips, before she fumbled with trying to readjust the front of her shirt; she had just now realized that a few buttons had come undone. Fingers struggled to get them back into place before she realized that two of the three buttons had completely popped off- and the remaining one did little to cover the growing bruises on her chest. "It feels like I've been all over the place... it's hard to keep track."

"I know the feeling."

All she had to do was be convincing... that was it.

She touched at her left shoulder, frowning slightly at how her sleeve had almost been completely torn off. "How... how did you find me?"

"To be honest, I just kind of stumbled across you," he replied, leaning back slightly now. "You were passed out next to the church- although I'm not sure where you came from or how you ended up there. But, Christ... I actually thought you were dead."

Judging by the lingering pain and the weight of her limbs, it felt like she had been.

But it was hard to deny the sound of relief in his voice- knowing now that his fears from before were wrong.

...

As much as this reunion was going to complicate her assignment... she was relieved to see him just the same.

It felt like this nightmare was going to last forever, but at least she would have some company along the way.

Even if it was her fault he was here in the first place.

Sebastian gave out a heavy sigh and brushed the back of his hand against his brow now. "And let me just say, it was not easy carrying the two of you from that church. I thought I was going to have a damn heart attack having to carry one all the way here and then have to go back for the other."

Kidman briefly froze at his remark, no longer worrying about the slight revealing nature of her torn shirt now.

"Two of us?" she repeated.

Did he mean...?

"Yeah. I don't know what it is about that damn church, but... it must have a habit of really fucking with people. First, it was Joseph and then it was you-"

"Joseph?" she interrupted, not even caring at how quickly she had said his name. "Is he... is he here?"

If Sebastian thought her question was odd or suspicion, he either didn't show it or just didn't pick up on it.

"Yeah, he's uh... he's in the next room- unconscious," he answered slowly, looking as though he was reluctant to do so. "I don't know what it is about this place, or this world, but he's not doing so well. In the church, he just..."

She could hear him struggling to finish his words before he simply let the sentence trail off.

Whatever had happened, whatever he didn't want to talk about... it was killing him to have had witnessed it.

"I have to see him."

"Listen, you need just as much rest- probably even more," Sebastian started. "The last thing you need to be doing is moving around and worrying about him. You should just focus on getting yourself in better shape first."

Of course he would be more worried about her physical state than she was- but this was an important matter.

The last time she had seen Joseph... it wasn't pretty.

"No, please, I... I just need to see him," Kidman insisted, trying to keep her voice firm and steady despite the overwhelming feeling that it was going to crack at any moment. She blamed the brief struggle to keep herself calm on the overall weakness of her physical and mental state. She could do better than this, but... right now, it was hard enough to keep her thoughts straight without lingering on the pain.

"Kid, you can barely move without losing your breath," he continued.

She could already feel her hands trembling and felt the burning of tears in her eyes again, and she absolutely hated it. This was not who she was, but she just couldn't control her emotional state right now- hell, she barely had a steady hand on it. And if she wasn't in so much pain and just utterly exhausted, she might've felt more embarrassed by the emotional exposure... but she just didn't have the energy to. "Sebastian, you don't understand," she started, internally cursing as she heard her own voice crack this time. "I... I have to see for myself that he's alive."

It was pretty easy to see his minor sense of discomfort at the rather raw emotion that was, once more, spilling out of her.

Hell, he was barely used to her saying more than a handful of words around him and... now here she was, practically ready to cry her eyes out for the second time in ten minutes.

Still, regardless of his hesitation, he tried to comfort her.

"... Okay, alright," Sebastian gave in. "He's just in the next room..." it seemed to take him a moment before he sighed. "Which, you clearly won't be able to walk to..."

At first, she was relieved that he caved in so quickly... until he brought up his final point.

He was right before when he reminded her that she could barely move without losing her breath, so... she clearly was in no condition to get up and walk either. Hell, she wasn't entirely sure she could feel, let alone move her legs right now.

Kidman watched as the older man pushed himself to his feet.

"Come on, I'll just carry you," he offered. "It's still going to hurt, but... it'll be better than trying to get you on your feet."

Right.

Maybe at one time she would've been slightly embarrassed by the offer, but at this point, what else did she have to lose?

She had to see Joseph.

Sebastian leaned down and carefully slipped one arm against her back and the other underneath her legs before he slowly lifted her up. She heard him groan slightly at the motion and bit into her lip to try and suppress on her own groans; the movement fucking hurt, but she knew it would so she should've prepared herself for it. She would've braced one arm around his shoulder if the thought of even lifting her arms didn't make her want to pass out.

He tried to readjust her in his hold as best he could without further hurting her, before he held her against his chest; she didn't realize how small she felt until then.

"You shouldn't be walking around in these heels anyways," Sebastian remarked.

Yeah, she was beginning to regret getting stuck in them... but they made for decent weapons against downed Haunted, so she couldn't complain.

He walked her across the small room and carefully eased the door open with his shoulder before he stepped out into the empty corridor. The sheer sense of silence in the house was almost startling- she wasn't used to there not being Haunted shrieking in the distance. He really must've killed everything between the church and here.

She noted that he seemed to be walking slow, probably so that he wouldn't hurt her by accident.

At least, that was her theory until she realized he was walking with a slight limp instead.

"... Are you alright?" Kidman asked, partly kicking herself for not having asked it sooner.

"Yeah, I'm pulling through," he answered, as he stepped left and walked her the few feet it took to get to the next door.

Of course he would answer with a broad response- probably so not to draw attention towards himself. After all, he wasn't his own main focus right now.

She waited until they got to the door before she reached down and loosened the doorknob- figuring it'd be easier than him trying to do it himself. And he simply shouldered the door open once more before he stepped in. "You're walking with a limp. What happened?"

He made a brief scoffing noise, as though to tell her that it wasn't any of her business and it wasn't worth questioning either. Still, it was hard to ignore the slight tension that pulled against his jaw with every step.

"Chainsaw."

She found herself momentarily stunned at the answer.

Sebastian certainly wasn't known for his humor, and this wouldn't be the place for it anyways, so... she knew he was serious about it. But how the hell did he still have his leg if it had, possibly, been hit with a chainsaw?

"It was back at Beacon. I fell into some kind of body collection or something with this chainsaw-wielding asshole," he answered, as though knowing well she was going to press him more on the matter. "Turned out he was a lot quicker than I thought, but his aim was still shit, so he didn't just hack the entire leg off. It's healing, don't bother worrying about it."

Beacon?

Had he been dealing with this injury from the very start?

"Still not awake... not surprised."

Before she could ask any more questions, her attention was shifted to where the second man was unconscious on the bed. His glasses and tie had been taken off and set aside on the small table nearby, no doubt having been removed by the older Detective.

She felt a pain in her gut at the sight of him.

He looked pale, sickly almost, but more noticeably... he looked like he was in pain.

But he was alive...

And that was what she needed to see.

She felt Sebastian carefully set her down in a chair that had been pulled up to the side of the bed, and noted that he made sure she was settled before he moved away from her. It was impossible to not notice how delicate and tedious he had been with the entire process. He had gone out of his way to prevent causing her any unnecessary pain, which was nearly impossible to avoid in her crippled state.

Hot pain still shot up along her spine though and she had to suppress the sudden feeling of sickness that easily followed- calming it down with a few deep breaths.

There was a slight moment of hesitation before she slowly reached over and brushed her fingers against Joseph's arm, feeling the chill and cold sweat that had settled over his skin. How badly was he suffering?

"... What happened?" Kidman whispered.

Sebastian sighed and pulled up a separate chair before he sat down next to him. "I wish I could tell you... but I don't know." the weight of the situation was heavy on him. It was evident in the way he looked at Joseph, and in the way he kept his hands slightly braced together, like that would keep her from seeing them shaking. "He just... I don't know what's wrong with him."

She watched as he closed his eyes and briefly dropped his head into his hands.

There was no hesitation as she reached over and rested her hand on his arm, despite the pain that rushed into her shoulder and ribs at the motion.

"Sebastian?"

"He put a gun to his head, Juli..." he started, as he leaned back now. "If I hadn't been there... he would've pulled the trigger on himself. And back in that church, he was talking about how there was some part of him that didn't want to fight anymore- that it actually wanted to give in to whatever the hell is happening here." he paused for a few seconds, as though to recompose his thoughts. "I've seen guys blow their own brains out before and, that moment just before they do it, all you see is this utter despair. But... there was none of that with him; it was just this empty expression, but he was talking about how it was the right thing to do or some bullshit like that. That wasn't him- this isn't him, but I don't know how to handle it. It feels like the moment I take my eyes off of him, he's going to put that bullet in his head and then what? What do I do from there?"

It was hard for her to keep quiet at the near desperation in his voice.

He was hurting.

...

STEM wasn't only breaking Joseph... it was breaking Sebastian as well.

But they had to be strong- she needed them to pull through this.

"I'm sorry," Kidman spoke, unable to stop the words before they came out of her. They would mean almost nothing to him since he had no idea about her involvement with all of this, but... it was worth saying out loud; at least for her sake.

He moved to cover her hand with his and briefly squeezed it. "... Don't worry. I'm going to get the three of us out of here."

It almost sounded like a promise.

She nodded lightly before she turned her attention back to Joseph, suddenly feeling the need to make sure he was still breathing.

Long, slow breaths moved his chest in a soft rhythm, making the movement difficult to see at first and making her second-guess if he was breathing in the first place. His fingers twitched from time to time, at least giving some hint at life considering he continued to remain painfully still. It was almost odd that, despite his missing tie, his uniform was still in near perfect condition- much like it had been earlier that morning.

Meanwhile, both she and Sebastian looked as though they could barely keep their uniforms together. They were splattered with blood and pieces of tissue and brain matter; their once white shirts were, at this point, beyond salvation.

"What exactly was it that I wouldn't understand?" Sebastian asked, drawing her attention back to him.

"What do you mean?"

"You said before that I wouldn't understand why you needed to see him. Why is that?" he pressed.

She stilled at the question as she briefly glanced to him before she looked back to Joseph. In the back of her mind, she could still hear the dull thud of the axe coming down on his chest. It was still so freshly burned in her mind that she almost convinced herself to check just to make sure that he didn't actually have the injury. She had worked so hard to push that memory from her mind, but... it was still there.

"Kidman?"

... Sebastian deserved to have an answer.

"It was... it was an illusion earlier, just another mind game this place likes to play," she started, carefully reworking the story around in her head. She couldn't tell him the truth, not here, not now... probably never- which didn't make this any easier. "I saw Joseph as one of those creatures and he was chasing me down, trying to kill me. He..." she paused as she touched at her neck, still feeling the warmth of his hands wrapped tightly around it. "I don't know how many times he got close to actually doing so."

"It's possible that... that wasn't an illusion," Sebastian slowly started, as though about to admit something he didn't want to. "Back at the asylum, Joseph turned into one of those things and attacked me as well."

She had noticed the black ring around his neck earlier, but she didn't want to say anything. At this point, he had to have run into dozens of other Haunted, so she had assumed one of them had done it instead.

There was no doubt that they had run into two different versions of Joseph being Haunted, but... that didn't make it any less painful for either of them.

"I killed him," Kidman quietly admitted, feeling Sebastian's grip on her hand tighten for a second. A heavy sigh escaped her, bringing a small stab of pain across her chest and making her regret the previously, easy-done motion. "This whole time, I've been trying to convince myself that it wasn't real, that it had just been one big illusion, but... some part of me believed it had really happened." she stopped once more, unsure if she wanted to continue or if Sebastian even needed to hear what she had to say. "There was so much blood spilling out of his chest, but when he fell to the floor... when he died, he was normal. And, in that moment, I wasn't sure if he had even been one of those things to begin with."

"Kid..."

Did he hear the same amount of desperation in her voice as she had heard in his?

"Yeah, so... there you go, now you understand," she remarked quickly, maybe hoping to brush the entire topic behind her now. It was huge relief for her to know Joseph was alive and that it had all been an illusion created by Mobius; it was like a weight had been lifted off of her shoulders, but... there was too much exposure in it. She was afraid if the topic went on any further, she might slip up and say something that Sebastian didn't need to know about.

... That she might say something he was simply better off not knowing about.

But he just nodded and said nothing else.

They allowed themselves to drop into silence for a short while. They had both exposed quite a bit about themselves; they had both exposed what could be perceived as weakness- something that could easily be used against them. And unfortunately, for the both of them, it all tied back to Joseph.

Mobius had used him against her to remind her that both he and Sebastian would turn on her the moment they found out about her involvement. She needed to be reminded that they were no longer her partners, or even friends... they were expendable. They were just tools that she could use to complete her assignment.

...

She needed to get away from them.

She couldn't protect them from STEM, but... maybe she could protect them from Mobius.

"I don't know how this whole... turning thing works, how someone can just turn into one of those things within seconds," Sebastian started, breaking the silence and reminding her that she was currently failing at trying to put distance between them and her. Not that it was possible for her to just get up and go anywhere though, at least not at this moment or in this condition. "But, after Connolly, I didn't think it was possible to turn back, and I didn't want to see someone else turn into one of those things. Then Joseph did, but... a few seconds later he was fine- although he vaguely remembered what had happened. So, why does that work on some and not others?"

She wasn't sure if he was looking for a real answer, or if he just wanted assurance that Joseph could still come back to being human if he turned Haunted again. Did he want assurance that the first time hadn't just been some kind of fluke? That there was still a chance for Joseph to recover from this?

Still, she felt a hollow throb in her chest when he mentioned Connolly.

The officer had gone Haunted in the ambulance just before they crashed and... maybe Sebastian was hoping that there was still a chance for the man. But when Connolly had attacked her out in the forest, when he had shoved her off the edge of that drop, she knew he was too far gone.

And the realization that she probably still had his blood caked and dried on the heel of her shoe didn't make her feel any better.

"About Connolly-" Kidman started, figuring it was best to just let him know now.

"He's dead."

His blunt interruption stilled her and she watched as he dropped his gaze.

She didn't have to ask what had happened or how that came to be...

"I'm sorry."

"I think... he was too far gone anyways and, after everything we've been through, I couldn't just let him live like that," Sebastian sighed, his voice low. "He deserved more than that."

He did.

She supposed part of her wasn't surprised, still... the news hurt. Not just because of Connolly's death, but because Sebastian was the one who had to put him down. And, since that was the case, she could see why he was afraid of Joseph turning again. He couldn't put himself in that position twice, he just wouldn't be able to pull the trigger.

Sebastian had already lost his daughter and his wife, and now Connolly as well.

The list of people he probably still cared for was dwindling down.

And Joseph was next.

"It'll be okay," Kidman assured.

It was a lie.

But it was better than nothing.