Sebastian leans against the wall, heaving deep breaths; he has finally managed to lose the Lab Coats. Kurt and Blaine have been captured; it's just him now.

He admits the Lab Coat – Blaine, he reminds himself – is who he has to thank for this second chance at escape. He owes him a great deal, or he would if his situation wasn't hopeless.

Alarms are sounding and the rest of the Lab Coats are still looking for him. Admittedly, the odds are stacked against him, but if he can avoid drawing attention to himself, he might just escape from this place. Pulling the coat Blaine had supplied him tight around his shoulders, he keeps his head down in an attempt to be inconspicuous; running will only draw attention to himself. He walks in a determined fashion as people pass him, looking anxious in their search and much to his relief, they pass right by him without a second glance.

All Sebastian needs to do is blend in; if he can do that then he can get out. So when he passes a suspicious looking Lab Coat looking at him curiously, he decides to take a risk as he approaches the man. He keeps one hand in his pocket, clutching the syringe Blaine had given him just in case this doesn't work. He'd only used half on the Lab Coat before, just as Blaine had told him; the effect would be the same but he gets twice the use out of one syringe.

"You, Sir," he says not unkindly but with a moderate amount of authority. "Do you have any idea which way the escaped Prototype went or do you just enjoy watching everyone else struggle in their efforts to find him?" The Lab Coat stutters slightly before replying.

"I…I don't know Professor I was just…"

"Make yourself useful or get out of the way," he finishes with a scowl as he turns to leave at the same time the Lab Coat scrambles away to make himself look busy. Sebastian smirks to himself as he continues on his way, adrenaline pulsing through him as it hits him who it was he just spoke to. A Lab Coat just took orders from him.

He continues walking, agitated at the fact that he has to move so slowly but he keeps himself from breaking into a run. He needs to do this right this time; he won't get another chance again.

Try as he might however, Sebastian still has no idea how to get out of this place. He's never been to this part of the lab before and he knows he is far from where he is kept and has lessons but there is still no sign of an exit anywhere. He notices that the room numbers decrease as he goes. Could this mean he's getting closer to the exit? What else could happen once the door numbers reach zero? He finds a set of stairs, descending them without even thinking, and his heart sinks when the door numbers are back in the thirties again until he sees the letter A beside the bold number 39. Before, a letter B had followed the numbers. He must be reaching the end now!

It gets harder and harder for Sebastian to keep himself from running as he watches the door number slowly decline. There are still Lab Coats passing him busily, but now he is discreet enough not to draw attention to himself. Itching with anticipation, he allows himself to walk just that little bit faster as the door numbers drop into single digits.

He rounds the corner, ready to break into a sprint for the last stretch but stops dead when he sees it. Behind a set of glass doors, there is a wide lobby and an impossibly tall glass window making up most of the wall. He can see it, outside, so bright and right there. Like nothing he has ever seen before or even had the capacity to imagine. Only a fraction is visible, he sees flutters of green and a perfect, unbroken blue above but that's not what makes his heart stop. Standing just before the glass in the lobby is a group of at least twenty men, wearing black and armed with guns. Sebastian has never seen one before but he remembers learning about them, he knows what they do and he knows what the men are there for - him. They are clearly determined not to let him escape the building.

He turns, before they get a chance to really see him - he somehow has a feeling they won't be as easily fooled as that other idiot Lab Coat from before – and makes his way back where he came from. He's so close, everything he has ever wanted is only several metres away, and he's walking away from it!

But what else can he do? He has no idea where any of the other exits are, even if they weren't guarded.

Sebastian scowls at the floor as he makes his way back up the steps. He won't be defeated. He's done with playing it safe. This isn't like him at all, staying low and being quiet. If he's going to get out of this place, he needs to do so with a bang. If they're blocking the exits, then he'll just make a new one.

There are people crowding around the inspection room that he ravaged; they look like technicians but Sebastian doesn't want to get close enough to find out. The wrecked scene gives him an idea though, that much damage was caused by just a few wires being destroyed. He's going to tear down this whole place so there's nowhere left for them to keep him prisoner.

"I'm sorry," Blaine murmurs in the silence of the music room. It's being used as a makeshift prison cell for them due to Sebastian's destruction of the inspection room. The passcode had been changed and the place has never before felt so empty and damned. Kurt shifts against Blaine shoulder, their sides pressed tightly together as Kurt curls into Blaine where they sit on the floor. He shivers slightly; the lab coat that Blaine had given him had been confiscated, but he says nothing in regards to the cold.

"I can't save you, I'm useless," Blaine scowls, hating himself for his failure.

"Please don't blame yourself," Kurt begs as he squeezes Blaine's hand tight in his own. "You tried."

"I didn't try hard enough, I could have-"

"Shhh," Kurt hushes, "please." Blaine does so but it does not stop the thoughts from flooding his conscience. If only he had taken time to think rather than diving in head first. If only he had come up with an actual escape plan. If only he had fought harder to rescue Kurt.

Now they were right back where they were before. Only now Blaine is in deep trouble as well. Any chance they had of escape earlier has been whittled down to nothing now.

"I just…this can't be it," he says, refusing to accept defeat. Kurt had been anticipating this for a while; it was nothing new to him. Blaine however was having trouble grasping the fact that soon, Kurt will be dead and the only evidence of his existence will be the faint memory of soft, tentative lips brushing against his own. He squeezes Kurt's hand, as if by holding him as tight as possible, they will never have to part for anything. Resting his head against Kurt's, he breathes in the familiar, sickly clinical smell of the lab that lingers in his hair, just another reminder that Kurt doesn't belong to him; he belongs to the lab.

He presses a kiss against the impossibly soft hair but it's not enough; he needs to be closer. He gently cups Kurt's chin as he guides his face to look at him, eyes full of wonder and sorrow before slowly leaning in, tasting Kurt for what will most likely be the last time. He can't forget this; he refuses to allow himself to. So he memorizes everything.

Kurt's bottom lip quivers slightly whenever they get this close. His eyes always flutter closed after a few moments and Blaine can feel the lashes flutter against his cheek. He even commits himself to remembering the stale taste of the lab that is present even in Kurt's mouth.

Their lips part but Blaine keeps his face close, not wanting to be any further from Kurt than he is right now. He drops tiny kisses against his lips, unable to move away. He is so engrossed in the other boy that he doesn't realise that his own face is damp with tears until Kurt thumbs away some of the wetness, smiling painfully.

"Please don't be sad," he says, trying and failing to keep his voice strong. Blaine says nothing, instead pulling Kurt into his arms, hugging him as tight as possible. Neither of them whisper comforting words like 'it's okay' because they both know it won't be.

Their moment of ease is short lived, as the door beeps, opening seconds later. Blaine's heart sinks when he sees his father in the middle of what appears to be some sort of argument. He strains to see past him, noticing Mr Grey Beard and Professor Hughes with a bloody cloth pressed against his face standing behind him.

"Just give me a minute alone with my son!" Blaine's father demands. "I'll take them to you after I'm done…I can handle them!" The other two eventually grant him his request, reluctantly allowing Mr Anderson to enter the room alone as the door shuts behind him.

Blaine stares carefully ahead, hand still entwined with Kurt's.

"What were you thinking?" he hisses, breaking the unbearable silence, "Do you know how much damage you've done?" Of course he is furious, Blaine expected nothing less. He sees his father's eyes trail down to where his and Kurt's hands clasp each other, gripping it tighter in response. He says nothing on the matter however but Blaine can see him looking at him differently, as if he's a completely different person. "You don't think before you act, you don't consider the consequences. How could you have possibly thought that this was a good idea?"

"I was thinking that I couldn't let you punish Kurt for something he didn't do," Blaine answers back, finally defending himself.

"Kurt?" his father ponders curiously, astonishment briefly replacing his anger before he scoffs. "I haven't heard that name in years."

"Well it's his name. He isn't just a number, he's a person and he has a name." It's the first time Blaine has ever answered his father back like this. He can feel his fingers trembling but Kurt's hand is there to anchor him. He rises to his feet and Kurt stands with him. "What I did wasn't wrong. You're the one who's wrong, everyone else in this damn building is all wrong and what you're doing is just cruel." Blaine hates the way his voice cracks on the last word, he had been strong up until then but his father's unmoving and unreadable expression hits a nerve. It's the same way he looked at him when he came out. It's the way he looked when he brought home his first boyfriend. It's the look that hasn't left his face since he told a room full of people what Sebastian did to him.

Seemingly unaffected by anything Blaine had said, Mr Anderson unhooks two sets of handcuffs from his belt before striding towards Blaine with a determined look in his eye. However before he has a chance to handcuff either of them, a faint rumble interrupts him followed by a piercing ringing that sounds throughout the entire floor. Mr Anderson's head snaps back as he rushes back towards the door.

"Don't move," he orders - as if there was somewhere they could go - and in an instant he is gone.

"Do you know what that was?" Kurt asks as Blaine takes several steps towards the door. Kurt follows behind and Blaine shakes his head.

"It's the fire alarm but-" Blaine's eyes widen in panic. "No," he whispers to himself before hurtling himself at the locked door, banging his fist against it relentlessly.

"Blaine, what's going on?" Kurt asks in wonder of Blaine's urgency.

"If there's a fire and we're trapped in here then we're done for," he explains simply. The word if used loosely because he has no doubt about it. They wouldn't set off a drill at a time like this, when a prototype is loose.

"I…I don't understand…" Kurt says. Of course he doesn't know what fire is, Blaine thinks.

"Just…stay calm, okay?" he says despite him being the one who needs calming down. Kurt just stands by, watching worriedly as Blaine continues pounding the door. It doesn't budge and he feels so helpless. He's not used to being caged up like this.

Sebastian's eyes glaze over as he stares in awe at the mass of orange, red and yellow that dances before him. It's hot, almost unbearably, and he doesn't dare move any closer. It's something entirely foreign to him, almost like magic. How does this…thing…move so fluidly? And what is it? It's definitely not solid, it moves too freely for that. It's almost alive in its movements.

There is a sense of satisfaction when it comes to building something. Creating that which previously did not exist; inventing a solution when necessity calls. Sebastian could be considered the result of that necessity as he was once nothing more than an idea, like all inventions. The Lab Coats can have their creation but Sebastian is much more thrilled by the idea of destruction. Of bringing down something, creating nothing where something once stood.

All he had done was smash more of their equipment he had found in an empty, unlocked room. Security is less strict the further he gets from the centre of the building, where he and the other prototypes were kept. Doors are left unlocked and equipment is not put away. He had picked up one of the lab stools, tested the weight in his hand before he swung mercilessly at the table full of strangely shaped glass. Shards of broken glass and pieces of metal flew everywhere, as well as liquids that seemed to hiss and steam angrily once they met.

Sparks had flown when he smashed up their computers as they had when he ripped away the wires before, and in an instant, he was sent hurtling backwards by a deafening explosion.

For a moment he had thought it was all over, he ached everywhere and his skin was blackened and stinging with pain however it was all forgotten when he saw the room engulfed by the orange, red and yellow.

Sebastian slowly backs towards the door as it grows and grows until the room is almost entirely swallowed by it. Everything turns black, much like his skin. Whatever it is, it's destroying everything it comes into contact with and Sebastian can't keep the satisfied grin off his face when it dawns on him that this is exactly what he needs.

He is utterly enthralled by the strange substance but he knows he needs to go. The moment it burst into life, alarms sounded everywhere, even louder than the ones already filling the building with an air of panic. It can't be long before people come and the smoke it seems to be producing is beginning to choke him.

After taking one last glance at the raging mass, Sebastian finally turns to leave in search of other places where he can create more of whatever that was. He only makes it halfway down the hall however before another even louder ear shattering explosion sends him stumbling to the ground. Debris falls on all sides of him and it takes several moments to collect himself as he adjusts to the sudden ringing in his ears from the noise. Everything spins as he climbs back to his feet shakily but the moment he sees the wreckage, the burning walls and blackened floor, he doesn't even try to stop the hysterical chuckle that escapes him. He laughs freely, allowing his entire body to tremor until his gut aches. This is an escape plan more to his liking.

The room trembles as another explosion sounds from nearby, the doors rattling under the sudden force.

They're done for. There's no way out and after that explosion, there's no chance this place can stay standing for long. Blaine's breathing becomes strained as he tries to keep himself calm but to no effect.

Kurt on the other hand is seemingly oblivious to their dire situation. Either that or he truly has accepted the fact that he's going to die today one way or another. "I love you," Blaine chooses to whisper, thankful that he manages to keep his voice steady. Kurt blinks several times before smiling, a faint blush evident on his cheeks. He's not sure if Kurt really understands 'love' but he just needs to say it. He takes the boy's hands in both of his own, heart pounding as he hears a crash in the distance, knowing they may only have a short while left. "I'm sorry I couldn't get you out of here but…at least you won't have to suffer any more," Blaine promises and Kurt nods before pulling his hands from Blaine's and slinging them over his neck in a tight embrace instead.

He kisses Kurt's cheek gently as he wraps his arms around him tightly. He is jolted out of the warmness however when the door crashes open and Blaine's head snaps towards the door, fearing the worst. What he doesn't expect is to see his father rushing towards them both.

"Blaine!" he cries, panic clear in his voice. "That thing is running rampage, he'll destroy the whole lab! We need to get out of here."

"Dad! Y…you're letting us go?" Blaine says, stunned, unsure why he's even arguing.

"You really think I could just leave you here to die? Get moving," he demands, though he eyes Kurt wearily.

Without giving his father time to protest about bringing Kurt, Blaine reaches for his hand and rushes for the door.

The lab is a wreck. Everything is in disarray and people are running around in their widespread panic, trying to get out. Blaine allows his father to hastily lead the way as he and Kurt keep up the pace several steps behind. No one takes any notice of them, all too preoccupied with the fire and getting themselves safe.

It's not until they've almost reached the stairs – the elevators being out of use – that they actually encounter the fire. A row of rooms are alight, the flames clawing through the incinerated doors and licking at the otherwise empty hallway as the thick acrid smoke pours from the destroyed rooms.

Blaine makes sure to hold tight onto Kurt's hand to stop him from getting too close.

"Be careful," he warns, noticing how Kurt looks totally in awe of the disaster but it's not long before the smoke surrounds them, causing their throats to burn. Blaine covers his mouth as they wade through the smoke but Kurt begins to cough violently, clearly not knowing to do the same.

"Blaine," he chokes, clinging onto his arm with both hands as he panics. Blaine responds by ripping off his shirt and pressing it to Kurt's mouth and nose. It's not damp but it's the best he can do.

"Keep this against your face and try to stay low," he instructs, crouching down himself as Kurt follows. He nods in reply, eyes wide in panic at not being able to breathe. Blaine ushers Kurt ahead of him while he trails behind and encourages him forward. His vest is soaked in sweat and he begins to feel the burn on his bare arms in the incredible heat. "Just keep crawling," he says as he moves on his hands and knees. He can hear Kurt wheezing but they've passed the worst of it now. The smoke isn't quite as thick and he can see Kurt increase his pace once the stairwell comes into view.

The reach the stairs and race down together, both coughing and panting.

"Almost there!" Blaine encourages once they get to the ground floor. Blaine takes back the rolled up shirt, unfurls it and throws it over Kurt's head.

"What are you…!" he protests as he comes to a stop, unable to see anything. Blaine tugs on his hand to assure him that he'll lead the way.

"Just in case anyone recognises you out there. Come on Kurt, were so close!" he exclaims, pulling the boy towards the glass doors.

Blaine has never felt so grateful to be outside before. There's a crowd of people, looking dishevelled but mostly unharmed, staring in horror at the burning building though Blaine doesn't pause even for one quick glance. The fire brigade are just arriving, armed with their hoses as they target the building but Blaine ignores them, keeping an arm firmly around Kurt's shoulder as he tries to locate his car, the only thing on his mind is getting away now that he's got Kurt.

"Blaine!" It's his father and he considers just making a run for it except he's not sure Kurt can run without being able to see. Instead he faces his father, heart beating painfully, sure that their freedom will be short-lived. He looks determined and Blaine notices how he looks directly at Kurt when he speaks. "I helped you get out, but not Prototype One," He says firmly and Blaine's grip tightens around Kurt's shoulder. He shakes his head in denial, wondering how fast he can make it to his car.

"Dad please-"

"I left Prototype One in favour of saving you. He died in the fire." And suddenly Blaine understands, relief filling his veins. He nods in understanding.

"Prototype One died in the fire," he repeats and his father claps a hand against his shoulder, squeezing it gently. His lips are tight and his jaw is clenched and Blaine can tell he disapproves but he's still giving him this chance. It might not be a gesture of mercy or kindness, Blaine knows that he's only covering for him like this because he would be the one held responsible if it got out that he helped Kurt escape. He's only looking out for himself but it's still a chance and now they're so close Blaine can hardly believe it.

"We should go…" Blaine says, gesturing to Kurt. "I think I'll head back to New York. Thank you so much, Dad, I…"

"Call your mother when you get there," his father interrupts. Neither of them was ever particularly good at expressing affection around one another so Blaine is thankful for the intrusion. "She's been worried about you. But don't mention any of…" he gestures vaguely in Kurt's direction, "this."

"Of course," he promises. He turns, heading towards his before the voice of his father is calling again.

"Blaine!" He turns, seeing his father tight lipped but with a hint of concern on his face that Blaine hasn't seen in who knows how many years. "We may not see…eye to eye but…" Blaine can see this is difficult for him, but this is the most effort he's made for them to connect since before Blaine came out so he waits patiently, despite the urgent need to just get away, and allows his dad to finish. "But I'm proud of you, son. You showed real courage back there." With a nod and a quick smile of understanding, Blaine turns once more, leading Kurt towards his car. He doesn't trust himself to keep the tears at bay as they start swell.