When Hei opened his eyes, he was met with total darkness. Before the panic could set in, he remembered what had happened - the collapsing walls must have taken the lights with them. Something heavy lay across his chest, pinning his shoulder to the ground. Metal. A piece of the catwalk had landed on him. Had Misaki had time to get out? Where was Saitou?

Stifling a groan of pain, Hei attempted to slide out from under the catwalk, but he couldn't get his arm loose. He gritted his teeth and shoved at the metal with his free hand. It was just beginning to shift when his shoulder exploded in pain and he let go, gasping. He squeezed his eyes shut briefly, and inhaled a deep breath. Focus on the present. He couldn't help anyone, trapped as he was.

A cough sounded behind him, and he froze. The cough came again, louder this time.

"Saitou?"

There was no answer at first; then the detective said, "Yeah," and dissolved into another coughing fit.

Hei waited until the other man had gotten his breath back, then asked, "Can you move?"

"I think - " Saitou grunted in pain, and the sound of rubble striking concrete sent a spike of adrenaline through Hei's veins. But the building had ceased shaking, he realized. And it wasn't as completely dark as he'd thought at first; his eyes were beginning to adjust to some dim, unseen source of light.

More debris shifted, and Saitou exhaled with a whoosh of air. "Yeah, alright. I'm free."

"Do you have a flashlight?" Maybe if he could see exactly what was trapping him, he'd be able to move.

In the darkness he heard a dull thumping, like something heavy being struck against a palm, then a soft click; a beam of blue-white light abruptly flooded the small space. Saitou was a tall shadow behind the glare of the flashlight as he swept it back and forth until it landed on Hei.

Squinting against the sudden glare, Hei studied his position. One end of the section of catwalk rested atop a portion of collapsed wall; the other was buried beneath a pile of broken concrete. That was what was pressing down on his shoulder.

The light bobbled as Saitou made his way awkwardly across the few feet of debris-strewn space to Hei.

"Help me shift this," Hei said.

Saitou shown the light down on him, but didn't move. For a long, tense moment, Hei thought that he was going to leave him there rather than help. It would have been a reasonable thing to do. But then the detective said, "Let me see if I can get these rocks out of the way."

He wedged the flashlight between a chunk of concrete and a wooden beam. As he climbed over the fallen catwalk, careful not to set any of his weight on it, the beam of light illuminated a long, dark red stain on his gray pant leg.

"How bad is that?" Hei asked.

Saitou glanced down at his leg. "I'm fine."

Hei didn't quite believe him. The blood wasn't so excessive as to be a punctured artery, but there was quite a bit, and exertion could cause even moderate wounds to become dangerous. "Just be careful. You'll be a liability if you bleed out."

Rather than answer, Saitou doggedly fixed his gaze on the concrete and began lifting the blocks from off of the buried end of the catwalk and dumping them on the ground. As he worked, Hei maintained his grip on the edge of the metal and did his best to lever it free. Between Saitou's injured leg and the pain in Hei's shoulder, it was slow going; Hei had to actively force his breathing to stay even whenever his thoughts began to stray to what might be happening in another part of the warehouse. Every second mattered.

Saitou was apparently thinking along the same lines, because after a few minutes, he said, "The Chief…"

"Is fine," Hei said, with more certainty than he felt. "She's too stubborn to die so easily."

Saitou merely snorted in response. Hei knew what he meant.

At last, a large stone rolled free and Hei was able to push the catwalk up far enough that the pressure was no longer on shoulder. Saitou took up a grip on the edge and braced himself on his good leg.

"On three," Hei said, and the detective nodded. "One…two…" They both drew in a deep breath, and Hei tensed his muscles. "Three."

Saitou heaved the catwalk upwards with a strained grunt, while Hei pushed away with his free hand and both legs. He scooted out from beneath the entrapping metal just before it slipped from Saitou's grip in a billow of dust.

Hei heaved a sigh of relief, only to cough on the silty air, and leaned uncomfortably against the rubble to regain his breath. He pressed a hand against his shoulder to test it and was unable to suppress a grimace. It was painful; but not debilitating.

"Anything broken?" Saitou asked.

Hei shook his head; the other man slid tiredly to the ground beside him and stretched out his bleeding leg. "So which way is out now?" the detective asked.

A schematic of the warehouse floor formed in Hei's mind. They'd been heading towards the side door, and he didn't think that he'd been turned around at all when the ceiling had fallen in. He twisted in place to stretch for the flashlight and nearly blacked out when a jolt of pain raced across his chest. Saitou reached over him, plucked the light from its perch, and handed it over. Hei nodded once in thanks and took the light.

Slowly running the beam over the wall of broken concrete in front of them, he searched for any kind of way past it; but he didn't detect so much as a crack. He swung the light upwards. Most of the catwalk was still intact, supported from below by sturdy steel posts; that was what had saved them from being completely crushed by the roof and upper story. But if there was no exit, that simply meant that they would die a slow, dull death rather than a quick one. Misaki could be out there even now, trapped under a crushing cascade of stone, and -

No. She'd gotten out in plenty of time, and was probably already at the rendezvous.

Hei carefully levered himself to his feet so that he could inspect the area behind them. Beyond the cover of the catwalk, the debris from the ceiling and walls had buried the warehouse's central floor, piling nearly to the base of the catwalk itself like sand dunes on junkyard beach. There might be a way out through there, but the footing would be treacherous and there was no guarantee of finding an exit. The outer wall of lower story was intact for as far as Hei could see - which wasn't far, considering the rubble that was clogging the walkway. But if they stuck close to the wall, and if the cover offered by the catwalk held out…yes, that was the best chance.

"This way," Hei said. Pausing long enough to ensure that Saitou was still able to stand on his own, he led the way towards their exit.

They had to pick their way carefully amongst the debris. In addition to the broken concrete were bits of splintered wood, twisted rebar, and glass from the upper story windows. Hei regretted his cotton-soled shoes; they were ideal for silently stalking a target - not for traversing a floor strewn with jagged edges and lumpy stone. He stepped lightly, keeping the flashlight beam close to his feet so that Saitou could follow his path in the darkness. The detective was moving slowly but staunchly. Hei didn't attempt to hurry him along; it hurt too much to raise his arm much above parallel, and without that added point of balance he couldn't have gone much faster in any case.

"Can I ask you something?"

Hei was grateful that his startlement at the break in the silence was masked by the near darkness. He nodded slightly; then, realizing that Saitou probably couldn't have seen the motion, he said, "What."

The detective paused for a long minute. "You and the Chief," he said at last. "Do you actually care about her, or is this just some sort of con? A mission to get close to the police?"

"The Syndicate is already close to the police," Hei said darkly. If he ever found out who their rat was, he would kill the man - or woman - himself. Anything to lighten the burden that Misaki was suffering under.

"I know. But you didn't answer the question."

Damn. Saitou was a simple sort of man, but simple didn't mean stupid; he wasn't a detective for no reason. Hei had a feeling that the wrong answer could very easily lead to a bullet in the back of his head. But he wasn't sure what answer Saitou wanted to hear. So, he told the truth.

"Yes. I care about her."

"Why?"

"Why?" Hei repeated, nonplussed. Her fierce intelligence, how she would stubbornly pursue any line of reasoning until she found her answer; the light in her eyes when she smiled, her loyalty and sense of justice, the way her hand tangled in her hair as she slept…he felt it at a visceral level. There was no way that he could put it into words. "Why do you care about her?"

But Saitou wasn't about to let the question be turned back on him like that. "Do you love her?" he pressed, almost angrily.

Hei abruptly stopped in his tracks; the detective stumbled back a step as Hei spun to face him, his grip tightening on the flashlight. Biting back an angry retort, Hei exhaled slowly and forced the pent up emotion to subside. "How can someone like me answer a question like that?" he asked quietly, and turned away.

Saitou made no response. They continued their trek in silence.

But the detective's question had broken through Hei's focus, and now he found himself unable to keep Misaki from his mind. He'd been completely useless to her tonight. The whole point of him being there had been to keep watch - but at the slightest hint of trouble he'd abandoned his post to rush in and help. Saitou had been there, as planned; and Misaki had been in complete control, as always. She hadn't needed Hei at all; and because of his mistake, his emotions, this earthquake-causing contractor had been able to get close enough to take down the entire building. Both Misaki and Saitou could have been killed, and their blood would have been on his hands.

Worse, if the Syndicate found out what he was doing, it wouldn't just be Hei that they sent such a dangerous contractor after. The target on Misaki's back would be impossible to miss.

The most frightening idea, however, was that Amber was somehow involved in all of this. Apparently Hei wasn't the only contractor that she was trying to recruit in whatever war she was waging against the Syndicate. She'd already kidnapped Yin in order to get to him, and he knew from unfortunate experience that the line was where she drew it, and nowhere else. Did she know about Misaki?

A new light flickering in the darkness distracted him from his thoughts. A large pile of rubble blocked the pathway up ahead, but the intermittent flashes showed gaps and holes where larger chunks of concrete were stacked upon one another. Hei shone the flashlight into one of the gaps and peered through.

"What is it?" Saitou asked, his breathing a little shorter than it ought to have been for such a slow walk.

Set into an alcove in the wall just beyond the obstruction was what he had been hoping to find: the rolling metal door of the warehouse's single loading bay. It was hard to tell if the door had been damaged in the collapse; they'd have to get past the rubble first.

"What we're looking for," Hei said. "A way out. We need to shift these blocks."

On a normal day, either one of them would have been able to manage it on his own; but now it was a daunting task. The detritus was simple enough to clear away, but Hei couldn't lift any of the heavier pieces, while Saitou had trouble bracing himself for any kind of good leverage.

"Hang on," Hei said, pausing for breath after yet another futile attempt to move a large block at the top of the stack. He grabbed the flashlight from where he'd lodged it in the debris behind them and swept the beam up and down the pile. It would take them forever to shift the blocks one by one until there was a large enough gap for someone Saitou's to squeeze through. But if he could find…

"There!" Saitou exclaimed.

Hei looked to where the other man was pointing. A narrow beam of wood was wedged between a large protruding stone and the metal support column of the catwalk, about halfway up the pile. His eyebrow lifted in surprise; that was exactly what he'd been looking for.

"Careful," he warned Saitou as he pulled out one of his knives. "I don't know how this will fall."

Cringing at the unavoidable damage to the steel, Hei slid his blade between the concrete and the wood and levered it back and forth until the beam slid free just enough that he could get a grip on it. He holstered the knife, then hooked the beam with the crook of his elbow. Saitou crouched down on one knee, his bloodied leg stretched awkwardly behind him, and took a solid grip on the block.

"Okay," the detective said. "Go."

Hei heaved the wooden beam against the metal post with all of the strength he could muster. Tendons straining, Saitou pulled at the block until it budged a bare centimeter. Bits of rubble trickled down from the top of the pile.

"Again," Hei said.

On their third attempt, the block of concrete came free with a grinding screech of stone. The two men pressed themselves against the wall as the entire mountain of debris avalanched onto the floor where they'd been working in a long, never-ending rumble. Hei covered his face with his sleeve in a futile attempt to protect himself from the dust.

Saitou let out a barking laugh, and Hei risked lowering his arm enough to take a look at their handiwork. Lit by the flickering glow of twisted, hanging fluorescent lights, the space beyond was just as debris-filled as the passageway they'd been following, but it was manageable. More importantly, the door of the loading bay was accessible.

Resisting the urge to heave a huge sigh of relief, Hei followed Saitou to the door. It was the heavy roll-up kind, with a single twistable handle at the bottom. There was quite a bit of rust in the tracks towards the tops; that might make it more difficult to open, but Hei was pretty sure that they could manage. An odd buzzing noise was humming in his ears, but he couldn't quite figure out what it was.

"There's a chain on the outside," he told the detective. "Running from a ring bolt in the floor to the handle."

Saitou frowned. "If the door lifts even just an inch, I should be able to shoot the chain off. Unless it was high quality?"

"No," Hei said, then paused. A familiar prickling sensation was running across his skin, so faint that he nearly didn't sense it. By the time he realized the danger, Saitou was already crouched down and reaching for the door handle. "Don't -"

His hand closed around Saitou's shoulder just as the other man touched the metal. Saitou gasped in shock, and an instant later a jolt of electricity ripped up Hei's hand and through his arm. He reacted instinctively and directed the current through his chest, down his other arm, and into the nearest thing that he could reach - which happened to be the support post of the catwalk. Tiny jets of lightning crackled across the metal surface, then disappeared down the tunnel.

The pain in his injured shoulder nearly doubled him over; he straightened up with a groan and blinked away the residual glare. Saitou was staring at him, wide-eyed.

"Hand?" Hei managed to gasp out. Redirecting a current like that never felt good, even when he had time to prepare for it. His own electricity felt natural, even necessary at times; but any sort of external source tended to hurt.

Saitou glanced down at his hand as if seeing it for the first time. "Stings a little," he said in disbelief. "But it's fine. What…?"

"There must be live wire buried somewhere near the door. I'll take care of it."

Now that he knew what to look for, the wire was easy to find: one of the fluorescent lights had fallen from the ceiling, then been torn from its cable, which had become trapped against the base of the metal door. Drawing on his power, he sent a strong enough counter-current up through the wire. The flickering lights around them exploded in a shower of blue sparks, then winked out altogether as the circuit blew, leaving them in meager glow from the flashlight. Hei hated to do it - it was doubtful that Misaki's friend would be able to mask such a large burst of activity - but there wasn't much choice if they wanted to get out.

"Can you raise the door with that shoulder?" Saitou asked, drawing his gun and chambering a round.

Hei squatted down and grasped the handle. It turned easily enough; gripping tightly, he braced his feet and used his legs to push upwards. The door groaned, but didn't move. He leaned his forehead against the metal, breathing heavily.

"Maybe we should trade places," the detective suggested.

But Hei shook his head. "You're probably a better shot than me. I've got this; just get into position."

Saitou gave him a hard look, but he did as Hei had said, and stretched out on the debris-strewn ground as best he could. He positioned the flashlight at the base of the door where the chain was locking it down on the outside. Then he aimed his weapon at the center of the beam, and nodded to Hei.

Hei inhaled deeply in preparation, and leaned his good shoulder against the door. "Okay," he told Saitou, and pulled upwards with all his strength. The metal creaked as the rust was ground between the door and its track, and Hei felt it shift ever so slightly. Ignoring the pain, he added his other hand to his grip on the handle and heaved. The door rolled up centimeter by centimeter, sweat dripping down his brow, until at last the chain pulled taut and halted the movement.

"Hold there," Saitou said intently. Hei could hear him steadying his breath as he aimed, and braced himself for the sound of the gun shot. Though nothing short of noise-canceling ear muffs could have prepared him for the explosion that echoed through the confined space when Saitou pulled the trigger.

"Once more!" Saitou mouthed to him - or maybe he shouted it; Hei couldn't hear a thing above the ringing in his ears. He nodded, and tightened his grip. Fire was burning through his shoulder, but he focused on counting his breaths until the pain was nothing but a distant annoyance.

The gun exploded again and the door jolted in Hei's hands, sliding up nearly a foot. He grunted under the strain, but his injured arm refused to lift it any higher.

Saitou clambered to his feet, holstering his weapon, and gripped the base of the door beside Hei. They heaved together, and the wide metal sheet rolled up in a shower of rust flakes. As soon it reached chest height, Hei slipped outside while Saitou held it steady. Hei then turned back and braced his good shoulder beneath the base to allow Saitou long enough to let go and get out. As soon as the detective was through, Hei let the door fall with a crashing thud.

Fear and anticipation welled up at the thought of getting to Misaki - and what it would mean if she wasn't at the rendezvous. Without pausing to regain his breath, Hei turned to start towards his safe house - when Saitou suddenly gripped his upper arm.

Hei tensed, and faced the dour detective.

"One more thing," Saitou said, not a trace of his normal good will in his expression. "If she gets hurt because of you, I'll kill you myself."

Hei returned the look steadily. "If she gets hurt because of me…I won't stop you."