Ran looks up.

A curtain of blonde hair, a curvaceous figure, cool blue eyes, red red lips, stained the color of blood.

Immediately, she clutches Co—Shinichi to her chest, wrenching him away from the bars of the prison and turning her body so he's as much out of the line of her sight as possible.

"Well," the woman in black says again, one hand on her hip. "Aren't you a little guardian angel?" she says, baring her teeth. It's nothing close to a smile, sharp like the teeth of a tiger.

Ran's heart hammers in her chest, a sharp spike of adrenaline coursing through her body. She keeps her eyes trained on the new threat. She breathes steadily, forcing herself to remain calm, the energy ready if she needs it. She glares, pours murder into that one look, but keeps quiet.

"Nothing to say, Angel?" the woman asks, and Ran says nothing still. A thousand questions buzz in her mind, chief among them, 'Who are you?' 'What do you people want with us?' but they're pointless. Ran has seen this play out a thousand different times in a thousand different ways on a thousand different cases, and they all end in a body bag. If they're going to die—and by god, she's going to fight like hell to keep that from happening, but it's better to be prepared—then she's going to go as nobly as anyone would. Stoically, fighting to protect her friends.

Unconsciously, she tightens her grip on Shinichi and he lets out a small whimper of pain. Her grip loosens and her eyes leave the woman, falling down to the boy in her arms. Shinichi reaches out, weakly, eyelids flickering like he's waking up. She wraps her hand around his—and how is it she never really realized how small his hands were like this—and tucks her other arm against his side, under his injured shoulder cradling his head against her neck. His blue jeans swallow him whole. He'd fit in one leg and there would still be room to spare. "Ran," he says, and then he blinks, squeezing her hand, feeling the size difference, eyes wide, "Sis?"

"Shinichi," she can't help but whisper to reassure him, her eyes tearing up again. She gives him a gentle kiss on the forehead, and he marvels at her, his face nothing short of astonished. Ran wants to reassure him, to confess, to something, but before either she or he can say anything, the woman interrupts.

"How touching!" The woman says.

Shinichi jerks in her arms, turning to look at the woman. "Vermouth!" he hisses. Ran's not surprised he knows more of what's going on than she does. He knows who those two men are, too. Shinichi is Conan, and she's starting to suspect these people had something to do with his change.

"You've gone and gotten yourself caught. Now what am I supposed to do with you?" the woman, Vermouth, tsks, shaking her head. She snaps her fingers and makes a "come here" gesture. Two women in white coats come forward just from out of sight. Ran shifts Shinichi, letting go of his hand, settling him so he's more balanced. His grip tightens on her; his face doesn't show anything, but Ran knows he's ready to move with her.

Vermouth unlocks the cell.

Before she's even cracked the door more than two centimeters, Ran is already up, kicking one of the lab coats in the throat, savage and not at all inclined to mercy. Lab coat #1 crumples, but before lab coat #2 can react, she's at the cell door, putting all the weight of her shoulder into Vermouth's chest. The woman falls back, hits her head against the wall.

Ran runs down the hall, footsteps echoing through the dull white halls. The fluorescent lights flicker as she ducks down one hall, then another. They all look the same. The hair on the back of Ran's neck rises as she's reminded of every horror movie she's hid her face through. Only this is no movie, and the killers are still coming for her in a relentless pursuit.

Shinichi is steadily growing heavier, and she still hasn't found a way out. The narrow halls are a maze, deliberately designed to confuse.

"Ran," he says, noticing her growing fatigue. "You're going to have to leave me behind. I'm slowing you down."

"No!" she says, panting, but the word near explodes out of her mouth. "I'm not leaving you behind!"

"You have to!" Shinichi urges. "I don't care what happens to me as long as you're safe."

"But you won't be!"

"Ran—"

"No! I had to watch you disappear once. I'm not letting it happen again!" And then the form of her salvation comes in the shape of an elevator at the end of the hall. A calm comes over her: there's nothing in the world but those shining metal doors. "Both of us or nothing."

Shinichi's saying something about Ms. Jodie, there's roaring in her ears. "Ran, you have to listen to me. Get out, Get to Ms. Jodie and Mr. Black, get to Doctor Agasa, warn them, Ai will know what to do. Ran, please, you can't escape with your hands full, these people are dangerous—" Ai? So familiar! He usually calls her Haibara. There's no time to think on it now.

"Don't you think I know that, Shinichi?" she snaps, pressing the up button on the elevator.

"Ran, they will kill you and won't blink an eye," he says, and Ran can hear his ire growing.

"No they won't," she says stubbornly.

"They will."

"They won't," She says. "I'm their collateral." It's the typical hostage set up. It's the only reason they had to take her as well. "They keep me alive, you cooperate. They kill me, they'll have to grab one of our other friends. It will takes time, effort, manpower, discretion. They'll keep me alive." 'Until I'm no longer of any use,' she doesn't say.

"Ran, you can't sacrifice your life on a whim!" Shinichi says.

"And you can?" she snaps back.

Shinichi has nothing to say to that so he doesn't. "Ran, please, you've got to get out of here—"

The door to the elevator opens, and Vermouth is standing there with another man in black. His cap is pulled low over his face, so she can't see any features of his face, only the light color of his hair. Ran takes a few steps back as Vermouth and the man step out of the elevator, blocking her escape. Shinichi curses, low and fierce.

Behind her, lab coat #2 has finally caught up. Breathing hard, she injects something into Ran's neck. She fights it off as long as she can, fights them off as long as she can, kicking wildly like a captured mustang, holding desperately to Shinichi as they attempt to wrest him from her.

In retrospect, that only makes whatever it is act faster. Everything blurs, and she falls back against the white wall as her grip falters and Shinichi leaves her arms. She sees Shinichi bite the man on the arm as hard as he can, the man cursing and dropping him, but by that time, she's too gone to care.

Ran can't keep her eyes open.

"I'm sorry, Angel," she hears Vermouth whisper, barely loud enough for even Ran to hear it as close as they are, Vermouth's hand brushing the top of her head softly in a tender caress, but that can't be right.

Everything fades into darkness.