A/N: Emo, emo, emo! LOLZ, i r da queen of emo-dramaz! (Just making sure I'm doing everything that I hate: emo (check), melodrama (check) and text speak (check).)

Recap: Edward challenged Kevin to an all-out brawl at the old DMP headquarters which Kevin accepted. After explaining his motives and how he had abducted Amy as bait, Edward began to fight with Kevin. The Muscle Leaguers figured out what was going on, but couldn't figure out where the two brothers had gone to settle their dispute.


Chapter 29 – Mask Versus Mask

Kevin grabbed a handful of Edward's hair at the back of his head and thrust him towards the tangled corner of the ring, aiming his face at the roll of barbed wire. Edward quickly brought up one leg, stomping his foot onto the wires to halt the move. To Kevin's surprise, Edward then ran up the wires and flipped over, pouncing onto Kevin's back and locking him into a sleeper-hold. Kevin staggered back, growling in frustration.

"You know that was a stupid move," he sneered, turning around and backing into the corner, intent on crushing Edward against the jagged corner of the ring.

Kevin choked as he suddenly found Edward's hold tighter, his angle putting immensely more pressure on Kevin's throat. Looking back as best he could, Kevin saw that Edward had kicked out his legs as they had backed into the corner, lodging his feet against the wires and using them to lean his weight against Kevin's head.

"I know this ring better than anyone, you idiot!" Edward growled into his ear. "I trained in here everyday when I was in the DMP, nobody could beat me in this ring!"

"You never fought me here," Kevin replied, regretting using his voice as he found himself running short of air in his lungs.

"I am going to annihilate you," Edward returned.

"I beg to differ."

Kevin focussed his remaining energy and charged out of the corner, Edward slipping from the wires and hanging like a dead weight from his neck. Kevin continued running diagonally across the ring, scaling the wires at the other side to the very top before leaping into the air and opening himself out into a star formation, falling hard onto his back on the mat, crushing Edward beneath him, who had stubbornly held onto his neck. Kevin wriggled a little, surprised to find that Edward was still clinging to him, albeit it with less conviction. Kevin grabbed a hand at Edward's arm by his shoulder, yelping out in surprise as his fingers below his armour were suddenly clamped by a set of teeth.

"Biting?" Kevin snarled. "Oh please!"

Kevin yanked his hand free from his brother's teeth, but his respite was short-lived as Edward moved his attack to the nape of Kevin's neck, a deep crunching sound resounding around the inside of Kevin's head as Edward bit into him. Kevin gritted his teeth, feeling more sickened by the attack than hurt by it.

"Save the foreplay for your boyfriend," he ground out, placing his hands on the mat behind his hand and kicking up his legs to leap into a handstand.

Flipped himself over, he neatly pulling himself from Edward's teeth and arms. He stomped a foot at his brother's face, but Edward rolled out of the way. Kevin charged at Edward, who kicked at Kevin's head as he neared. Kevin dodged the kick, ducking under Edward's leg and grabbing the wire ropes behind him and jumping up, hooking his legs around Edward's arms.

"What are you–" Edward began, stopping abruptly as Kevin dropped himself over the top rope. "Are you mad?"

Kevin ignored Edward's protests, reaching around to hook Edward's legs, grabbing him into the Royal Stretch and impaling both their bodies into the three barbed wire ropes.

"You fool!" Edward gasped out. "This is a double-edged sword, you're hurting yourself almost as much as you're hurting me!"

"Who said I was hurting?" Kevin returned.

"Don't give me that shit!" Edward rasped. "If you keep this up, we'll both get stuck like this!"

"Only until one of us breaks…" Kevin pointed out.

"Well it won't be me!"

"You didn't last very long in the OLAP…"

"Ha! You don't know what you're up against, brother! Hey Kevin… Is that your blood or mine pooling on the ground?"


"I'll bet it's really bloody and violent!"

Terry and Dik Dik exchanged withering looks before turning back to Kid Muscle, who was munching his way through a pizza, his eyes wide and gleaming eagerly.

"Since when were you a fan of bloody and violent wrestling bouts?" Dik Dik asked him cynically.

"Since he found out he can't get involved in any way," Terry answered him.

"Hey Dorothy, did you locate Kevin yet?" Kid asked, turning to Wally's younger sister, who was inexplicably sat at his side, hunched over, her eyes clamped shut, her fingers pressed into her temples.

"When did da walrus clan get here?" Mars asked darkly, eying Dorothy and Mrs Tusket as he spoke.

"Dorothy told Kid she had telepathic powers and that she could use them to locate Kevin," Kiki explained before sighing. "And all because she still has a silly little crush on him…"

Kiki slowly shook her head, but Mars smirked at her words.

"Ya know, I remember not so long ago you had a silly little crush on me…" he said, watching her expectantly.

Kiki looked up at him from the corner of her eye, smirking back at him.

"What are you talking about now?" she asked slyly. "I still do have a silly little crush on you."

"Oh yeah?" Mars responded, his grin widening. "Ya wanna go star-gazin', sweetheart?"

Kiki thinned her eyes in mock anger, but smiled in spite of herself.

"But Mars, it's the middle of the day!" she said innocently.

"I know one heavenly body dat's always visible from da bedroom…" Mars growled.

"Maybe I should get to work extending the telescope for that…" Kiki replied, wiggling an eyebrow at him.

"Ya know what dey say about a ride to Mars," Mars began.

"Are you guys totally just gonna do it right here in the dining room?" Kid interrupted him. "Because Kevin totally told me not to get any bodily fluids on any of his furniture, so you guys should really be careful about what you're doing."

Mars's face dropped.

"Dis game ain't no fun when we got all dese assholes joinin' in," he grumbled.

"And it's no fun when Kevin isn't here to tell us how filthy and depraved we are," Kiki added with a small sigh.

"We gotta get Kev back here," Mars said, turning to Kiki.

Kiki nodded.

"I never thought I would actually say this, but I do miss the days when it was just the three of us living here," she confessed. "Somebody must know where he went."

Mars and Kiki both froze as the doorbell rang, each looking confused.

"I'll get it," Robin Mask offered, starting towards the main door.

Robin returned a short while later with two police officers, upon which Kid suddenly began to look guilty for no apparent reason.

"Hey, what's goin' on?" Mars asked, stepping forwards and looking between the officers and Robin curiously.

"We caught your friend speedin' on four speed cameras along the A4," one of the policemen answered. "We found 'is bike parked illegally outside 'Eathrow Airport so it's been towed. Any ideas where Kevin Mask went off to in such an 'urry?"

"The airport?" Kiki asked quietly.

"He must have left the country," Roxanne mused.

"Do you think they went to Scotland?" Kiki asked.

Mars slowly shook his head.

"Not Eddie's style," he replied slowly.

"They're back in Japan somewhere, aren't they?" Dik Dik asked.

"Probably," Mars replied.

"But where?" Kiki wondered aloud.


Kevin groaned as he landed on the unforgiving stone floor of the cave, looking up at the ring to see Edward collapsed, facedown, on the mat. Kevin was, he silently admitted, in less than great shape after winding himself and his brother around the barbed wire ring ropes and hanging their combined weight from them. As was inevitable when 650 pounds of superhuman was suspended in the air by only three wires, the wires had eventually snapped from the corner-posts, one by one, dropping the two brothers onto the edge of the ring apron, where they had been forced apart, Edward falling into the ring and Kevin falling to the ground outside. But despite being entirely covered in a slimy layer of sweat and blood, Kevin actually felt quite pleased with himself: he wanted to feel every injury, the pain somehow bringing him an odd sense of relief.

But as Kevin got to his feet, a slight buzz inside his head reminded him that intentionally tearing wounds into his skin was not such a good idea, as too much blood loss would cause him to pass out, and fainting would be a pathetic reason to lose a fight.

Kevin glanced at the ring, checking that Edward was still lying prostrate on the mat before looking about himself for any indication of where Amy might be. At first, it had seemed sensible to just beat Edward into silence and then look for Amy; but the fact that he had not seen or heard any trace of her since his arrival at the old DMP hide-out was beginning to worry Kevin. After all, it was not like Amy to be quiet or invisible in any way.

"If I told you that I changed my mind and just killed her anyway before you got here, would you be very angry Kevin?"

Kevin turned his head sharply, fixing his eyes onto the ring, where Edward had propped himself up onto his hands and knees.

"I know I said I would let you have the pleasure of watching her die, but she really was so irritating and relentless!" Edward continued. "She never stopped talking at me, and most of what she said was just utter rubbish anyway. She wasn't exactly a great wit. She wasn't even pretty. I really don't understand why you were so… "Concerned" about her."

Kevin watched Edward get to his feet, his eyes thinning as he studied his younger brother carefully.

"You're bluffing," he said quietly.

"Hm?" Edward mumbled, lifting his head and smoothing back his hair with one hand.

"You're bluffing, she's here somewhere," Kevin replied.

"Hey!" Edward yelped as Kevin took off running. "I thought you said you weren't going to run away from your problems any more! Some noble knight you are!"

Edward ran to the open side of the ring, leaping to the ground and racing after Kevin; with no real hope of catching him, as Kevin had a sizeable head start and was running far faster than Edward could. Ahead of him, Kevin had already reached the narrow corridor that joined the training area to the heart of the underground cavern, the point where all other sub-caves could be reached by one path or another.

"Get back here!" Edward yelled after him, his voice echoing around the rocky walls.

Kevin did not slow down until he reached the junction of paths, which were numerous and extensive; but in an error typical to his nature, Edward had only bothered to light the corridors that he had been using, and with only one other pathway lit, Kevin knew exactly which way to go. He took off in the direction of the lit corridor, the sound of Edward entering the junction behind him reaching his ears as he started down his chosen path.

Leaping over, ducking under and dodging around irregularities in the rocks that his brain had somehow committed to memory from his DMP days, Kevin made short work of the rocky pathway that opened out onto a plateau high in the interior of the mountain, overlooking the massive opening that had once been The Academy. Kevin skidded to a halt on the stone flat, looking about himself curiously. The Academy below was not lit as he had expected it to be, but it was still brighter than the other unlit sections of cave and intensely hotter thanks to the open pit of lava far below; the same pit of lava Kevin and Mars had so memorably traversed as part of their training.

Kevin slowly stepped up to the edge of the plateau, the air in front of him becoming almost liquid with the heat haze the lava below was creating. Behind him he could hear Edward stumbling aimlessly through the rock tunnel, his unsteady footsteps and angered cursing echoing around the caverns in a way that completely distorted which direction he really was approaching from. Kevin sighed quietly, readying himself to run back and trap Edward in the tunnel; but as he turned his back on The Academy, a faint creak reached Kevin's ears, clearly emanating from the direction of the infamous lava pit. Kevin spun around, looking up in the apparent direction of the sound, squinting as he spotted something hanging from the rocks high above, barely visible from his vantage point against the conflicting and minimal light sources. It looked like nothing more than two ropes wound together, but following them downwards Kevin eventually found why they were moving ever so slightly.

"Amy?" he muttered.

Suspended at the end of the rope above the heart of the lava pit a short distance below the rocky flat Kevin was stood on was a crumpled female figure.

"Amy?" Kevin called out, squinting curiously at the girl hanging below him. "Is that you?"

Kevin tilted his head to one side, all thoughts of Edward and their fight vanishing from his mind. He began to wonder if he had just fallen for another of his younger sibling's idiotic tricks, because the scantily clad, longhaired girl below him was definitely not Amy. Kevin snapped back to his senses as the echoes behind him suddenly died, the sound of Edward's feet clearly coming from just one source. Turning around, Kevin saw his brother leap at him, which seemed positively suicidal, as such a move would only send them both of them to their deaths in the lava pit below. A little too late, Kevin noticed that Edward had grabbed an arm around a spike of rock, his attack suddenly making a lot more sense.

Edward swung right around, kicking Kevin over the edge, swinging himself out over the ledge and back to safety, landing firmly on the flat rock. With no time to consider how sensible a strategy it was, Kevin opened his arms and aimed himself at the rope, hoping to grab onto it to save himself from certain death.

A second later, Kevin collided with the woman hanging on the rope, sending them both swinging wildly back and forth, the ropes creaking angrily.

The sickening sound of Edward laughing reached Kevin's ears, and as he began to spin around, he caught glimpses of his brother standing up on the plateau, his hands on his hips, laughing openly and unashamedly. Kevin sighed, grabbing at the rope by the woman's back and tugging against the movement to steady them both before looking down at her, the realisation of what he was doing finally dawning on him.

"Um…" he began nervously, suddenly painfully aware that his legs were wrapped around the girl's waist and he was literally sitting on her lower back and she was wearing possibly the shortest dress Kevin had ever encountered. "Sorry…"

"I'm getting accustomed to it," she answered tightly. "I've spent the last few days surrounded by idiocy, this is nothing, trust me."

"Amy?" Kevin asked, her voice sounding alarmingly like that of the outspoken chef.

"No, it's Warsman, I'm using my "damsel in distress" disguise, I figured it would make a nice change from that Lord Flash lark…" she sarcastically replied. "Who the hell did you think I was?"

She turned her head, looking back over her shoulder at Kevin, who saw only a pair of angry eyes watching him through a mass of dark hair. Kevin carefully reached a hand towards her shoulder, lifting back her hair to uncover the rest of her face, the angered scowl and distinctive scars informing him that he had just located Amy MacLeod herself.

"But you look like a slut," he said, shrugging his shoulders helplessly.

"It was intentional!" Amy snapped back, her eyes looking all the brighter against her particularly dark and heavy make-up. "Scarlet mini-dress, red stilettos and whorish make-up: who the hell dresses like this to go to a funeral?"

Kevin shook his head.

"Exactly!" Amy ground out. "I dressed like this because I had hoped that somebody on Muscle Planet would get suspicious and stop that selfish prick from taking me away from my kitchen! But of course, I was making the assumption that the Kinnikus are a smart race!"

"Oh I see," Kevin said quietly, nodding his head. "Well, bigger fool you."

"Thanks Kevin, that's really helpful," Amy grumbled, turning away from him. "I've been hanging here with no food or water for over a day, and in this heat, I'm about ready to die… I've already thrown up three times from dehydration, I've got a migraine, I want to kill your brother, and now I've got your gigantic weight attached to me… Tis the season to be jolly…"

"Well, you haven't lost your sense of humour, so it's not all bad," Kevin tried.

"I'm about to have a major sense of humour failure… Kevin why did you come through here knowing that this pit of lava was here? That was really stupid of you, you almost fell in and died!"

"I came looking for you. You are never grateful when I help you out of an undignified situation!"

"For the record, dressed as a whore and bound in rope in this position was more dignified than the situation you have just put me into: dressed as a whore, bound in rope in this position with you mounted on me!"

Kevin winced, looking about himself as he tried to consider his options for getting out of his predicament as quickly as possible.

"You were dressed provocatively the last time I saved you from thugs," he pointed out.

"That was… Irrelevant…" Amy grumbled.

"I just thought that it was ironic."

"Indeed. I suppose the key difference this time around is that I threw my shoes at Edward instead of you."

Kevin glanced over his shoulder at Edward, who was still laughing, despite the fact that it was starting to sound forced and false.

"You gave him that black eye?" Kevin asked Amy.

"Yes," Amy confirmed. "Although since we are having this discussion, your brother gave me back my shoes, which was more than you did."

"You threw your shoes at me from three hundred yards away."

"Three hundred yards? Oh please! I wasn't even three hundred centimetres from you!"

"Did you want me to go after you and return your shoes?"

"It might have been nice! Like Cinderella!"

"What?"

"Oh sorry, I forgot who I was talking to."

"Is that some sort of mating ritual for your people? Throw your shoes at a man and if he brings them back to you then he is a suitable lover?"

"Don't try to be funny, it doesn't suit you, Shouben Mask!"

"You've definitely been around those Kinnikus too long. Maybe you should consider coming back to Earth."

"I'm finished with Japan, too many bad memories."

"Maybe the other side of Earth…"

"What, South Africa?"

Kevin sighed.

"Never mind," he groaned. "Let's just try to think of–"

Kevin stopped abruptly as he suddenly found himself falling again, a piercing scream from Amy almost deafening him. A second later his body jarred to a halt, and looking up, he found that one of the ropes holding Amy in place had snapped and was hanging loosely at her side; and unfortunately, it was the rope that had been tied around her waist.

Kevin had his arms around Amy's waist, his entire weight suspended from her body; and Amy was only held in place by a rope around her neck.

"Amy?" Kevin asked nervously, suddenly frantic that he was still behind her and could not see her face. "Amy, talk to me!"

Kevin hesitated, a cold rush of fear passing over him. If the jolt of the fall had not broken her neck and killed her, the force of his weight pulling her down was certain to strangle her to death.

"Amy!" he cried, pulling himself up in an attempt to check on her condition.

But Kevin was suddenly pulled harshly downwards, a weight catching around his legs and pulling both him and Amy hard enough to make the one remaining rope groan loudly from the strain. Kevin looked down at his knees, his eyes growing wide at what he saw.

"What the fuck were you thinking?" he spat out angrily. "You'll kill us all! You were safe up there, why the hell did you jump over here?"

Edward grinned darkly up at Kevin, apparently so mentally warped that he no longer cared if they all fell into the lava and boiled alive.

"Not quite the end I was planning, but I'm still quite pleased with how this has turned out," Edward replied, his tone disturbingly calm as the rope creaked and groaned above them.

"We're all going to die, you do realise that?" Kevin asked him.

"I won't die," Edward confidently replied. "I will rise like a phoenix from the flames, and I will live on after you are gone. I was made to fly, Kevin, but you were just meant to die."

"You won't be flying anywhere other than around the nine circles of hell, you twisted little fool!"

"I'm defeating you Kevin, admit it. I've just defeated your heart, your mind, and pretty soon, I will defeat your body. I always promised myself that I would destroy you, and now my dreams are finally coming true!"

Edward began to laugh again, and Kevin found himself struggling to maintain his focus. He was sweating profusely against the searing heat of the lava below them, rivulets of sweat trickling over his body, carrying blood and dirt with them and making his grip a lot less certain. Something was going to give very soon – either Kevin's hold or the rope – and either circumstance would result in Kevin falling to his death. A sense of hopelessness began to creep into his mind, and despite trying desperately to remember that allowing Edward to defeat his mind would allow Edward to take his life, Kevin began to lose the will the fight.

"K.."

Kevin frowned, looking down at Edward, who was still laughing like a maniac.

"Ke… Kev…"

Kevin's head snapped up, his eyes locking onto the back of Amy's head.

"You… You can… Get… Out of this… Only you…"

Kevin frowned at her, shaking his head despite the fact that she would not be able to see his actions.

"Kick Eddie off… And climb up…"

Kevin opened his mouth to protest, glancing back and forth between the bubbling, angry lava below and the point in the rocks the rope was suspended from. Kevin paused, his mind showing him that Amy was in fact right: escape was possible for him. He could kick Edward down to the lava below and climb up the rope behind Amy. He would only have to climb a short way before reaching the second rope that had broken, which he could jump across to and climb to safety before the rope Amy was attached to snapped.

Survival was entirely possible for Kevin Mask, but the fates of Edward and Amy appeared to have already been decided.


The desperate shouts and cries of his fellow Muscle Leaguers and the other group of people who had attached themselves to them had finally faded from Mars's ears. He had known Edward Mask long enough to know that if the information they had gathered so far was correct, Kevin was in grave danger. Edward was insane; and that was a point Mars was beginning to think that he should have invested a lot more effort into impressing upon the others. It was all a giant trap, from which Kevin was certain to become caught in, the cost of escape being his life.

Mars was angry with himself for not having taken Kevin's sudden departure more seriously, and he was angry for not realising much, much sooner where Edward would have lured Kevin to; after all, it was so obvious. Edward loved a dramatic showdown, and what better place for the final fight between the brothers to take place? Edward had spoken about it so many times to Mars during their days at the DMP, all the years they had passed together, Edward had mentioned it time and time again.

But, Mars thought bitterly, he had never, ever taken the crazed rants of a silly, immature boy seriously, and now his best friend's life was at stake. In the days when Edward had spoken of his plans to kill off Kevin and Robin Mask, Mars had never cared for anyone, and never expected to. And now that he did care, now that he did understand the camaraderie of a good friend, he had forgotten the vital information he needed to save Kevin's life.

Mars began to slow his relentless sprint as his destination came into view. The crevasse ahead of him was legendary in Edward's eyes, as it was the place where one member of the Mask family had very nearly met his doom. Edward had always been fascinated with the place it was so glaringly obvious that he would choose it as the platform to take Kevin's life.

But as Mars neared the steep drop, he found himself surrounded by silence and completely alone. He slowly approached the very edge of the ravine, peering over the edge into its depths, gulping audibly at the thought of Kevin having already plummeted to his death.

"Kev…" he said faintly.

"Mars!"

Mars sighed, less than surprised to hear Terry Kenyon shouting after him. Terry was usually the fastest runner of the group, but Mars had leapt out of the taxi he had been taking from the airport as it had became caught in a traffic jam and the wait had made him explode with emotion, giving him a massive head-start on the others.

"Hey, there ain't nobody here!" Terry said breathlessly as he slowed to a halt at Mars's side. "Ya don't reckon…"

Terry slowly peered over the edge.

"We're too late," Mars said darkly.

"Mars! Terry!" Jaeger called as he caught up with them. "Vot's happening?"

"There ain't nobody here, Jaeger," Terry said solemnly. "We can't even see where the fight mighta taken place… Looks like we were way too late."

Jaeger gasped, shaking his head.

"What is it?" Dik Dik asked as he joined them.

"Look, I ain't gonna stand here all night repeatin' dis over and over to every asshole who takes too long to get up here!" Mars roared angrily. "Kevin Mask is dead, okay? Edward killed Kevin, and probably killed himself too, in a death match right here over dis ravine!"

"What about the bodies?" Trixie asked, jumping off of knight-form Checkmate's back along with Roxanne, Jacqueline, Kiki, Marie and Meat.

"Trixie!" Roxanne snapped, slapping her arm.

"Well, it's a good point!" Trixie sneered.

"You really wanna see da bodies?" Mars asked her in a dangerously low voice. "You really wanna see da mangled mess dey would be in?"

"Oh come on!" Trixie argued. "Robin Mask survived when he fell down the Grand Canyon! Maybe Kevin survived too!"

Mars slowly shook his head.

"I'm gettin' outta here," he grumbled.

Mars marched back away from the one time location of an epic match between King Muscle and Robin Mask over the Grand Canyon, shoving Kid Muscle to the ground as he joined the group and inadvertently stepped in front of Mars. Kiki watched Mars pass her, chewing at her lip and frowning in concern.

"Mars!" she cried after a short hesitation, running after him. "Mars wait!"

Mars kept walking, but Kiki ran as fast as her considerably shorter legs would carry her and caught up to him, running around to block his path, stretching her arms out at her sides and glaring up at him sternly.

"Not now sweetheart," he said quietly.

"I was worried that something like this might happen," Kiki replied. "When I saw you freaking out on the flight over here, I knew it would be bad… I didn't catch the same taxi as you because I went back to buy something in the airport. I thought you might need it."

Mars tilted his head curiously, snorting out a bitter laugh as Kiki produced a packet of cigarettes from her bag.

"I know you like to smoke when you're seriously upset, and…"

Kiki licked her lips nervously, her eyes lowering to the box in her hand.

"I'd rather you smoked these," she finished quietly.

Mars nodded his head, taking the cigarettes from her and moving over to a large rock nearby, sitting down onto it as he opened the packet. Kiki silently sat down next to him, searching through her bag for something. Mars bit onto a cigarette, lifting up one of his coat-tails and striking it against the rock, setting it alight. Kiki held out a lighter toward him, her jaw dropping as she watched him light the cigarette with his own flaming coat-tail. Mars smiled at her, stubbing out the small flame and taking a long draw on the cigarette.

"This is just so…" Kiki sighed. "Unexpected…"

Mars frowned at her as she plucked a cigarette from the packet, placing it between her lips and flicking the lighter at it.

"Babe, you don't smoke," he said gently.

"I figured now was a good time to start," Kiki dryly replied.

Mars quirked an eyebrow as she sucked at the cigarette for the first time, almost immediately sending herself into a violent choking fit. Mars took the cigarette from her and stubbed it out, shaking his head.

"I just can't believe he's really gone!" Kiki said weakly, turning to Mars.

Mars studied her face carefully, unsure it her red cheeks and tearful eyes were from a result of her coughing fit or if she was mourning Kevin's death.

"It's a dangerous job dat we do, sweetheart," he said gently, wrapping an arm around her shoulders and pulling her against his chest. "We gamble our lives every time we step into da ring. If we live past thirty, we've been lucky."

"Oh Mars, don't say that!" Kiki pleaded, thumping a fist against his chest. "I can't even handle losing Kevin, I would be a complete wreck if anything bad ever happened to you!"

"Yeah…"

Kiki sighed, tilting her head back to look up at Mars, gasping lightly as a tear fell from Mars's jaw and landed on her cheek. She reached up a hand to Mars's cheek, wiping away the wet line on his face.

"Damn cigarettes," he said quietly, his voice slightly uneven. "See what dey do? Da smoke is gettin' in my eyes."

Kiki sniffled a little before gently kissing Mars's chin. She rested her head on his shoulder, looking up at the darkening sky, a few faint stars already visible. Curls of smoke danced in front of her eyes and her vision began to blur again through uncried tears.

"Tears I cannot hide," she sang softly. "So I smile and say, when a lovely flame dies, smoke gets in your eyes."


Next Chapter: And on and on it goes… With their lives all in the balance, things aren't looking great for Kevin, Edward or Amy, and Kevin finds himself battling with his conscience as matters of the mind start to conflict with matters of the heart. The Muscle League return to London to break the news to Robin Mask, but when they arrive back a surprise awaits them. Chapter 30 – Oh Brother.