Hey guys! Sorry for the long wait, I've been trying to figure out where this monster ends. And I still don't know. Anyway!

Kaz

They stood, all staring at the person sized grate in an alley beside the Van Eck mansion that led to the sewers. And as far as Kaz was concerned, near certain death.

Kaz had never used the sewers as a part of any plan in any scheme before. No one did. Filled with disgusting water, dirty, dark, with constant risk of a flood or cave in, they kept everyone far away. Even cave ins were repaired only when there was a major break that compromised a canal.

Kaz knew the sewers were used to keep waste out of the canals, and to keep them from overflowing when there was a heavy rain. He knew the layout, the route they would have to take. He also possessed the frightening knowledge that if there was going to be a flood, it was going to be now. Rain was still pouring down from the bleak grey sky. But Kaz had no idea what exactly to expect from this dark city's darkest level.

Kaz and Jesper hauled the grate off, revealing the dark hole, oozing a disgusting smell. "Who's first?" Marli asked. Kaz's hands unconsciously curled into fists at the sound of her voice. Her words had torn something apart inside of him that he wasn't sure how to fix.

He sighed. This had been his idea. He had brought them here. Kaz stepped forward, then lowered himself into the darkness, dropping.

The cold was instantaneous. Kaz clapped his hands over his mouth to suppress a scream. Saints, his leg... "Kaz?" Wylan called.

"Fine." He squeaked, his voice an octave higher than it usually was. Kaz was suddenly remembering why he hated winter and spent a lot of nights restless. Because his leg did not function well in the cold.

The water was waist high, flowing with considerable force downstream. There was an oily sheen from what he could see in the light from outside. Do. Not. Fall in. The tunnel ceiling was a few feet over his head, the stone glistening. There had been a flood recently.

"Everything okay?"

"Yes. Cold." One word sentences were all he could manage now. "Coming?"

"What is wrong with his voice?" Someone up there muttered. The tunnel captured the sound and sent it bouncing off the walls in an unbelievably loud and annoying echo. With his voice...his voice...voice...

"I don't know. Why don't you go and see, Jes?"

"Ouch. Fine." A few seconds later, Jesper was beside him, hissing and doing a little tap dance, splashing water everywhere. "Cold!"

"I told you." Kaz said dryly, fighting not to whimper at the ache in his leg.

"How's the water?" Nina asked. Water...water...water...

"Come on in, the water's fine!" Jesper crowed.

Nina dropped, then Wylan, who let out a girlish squeal, Anika, Marli and Inej. They took out bonelights, the glow turning the walls a ghoulish green. Inej took one look at his face and splashed over to him. "Are you okay?" Okay...okay...okay... She frowned at the echo.

I love your voice. I love you. "I'm good. Let's go." Kaz had to keep reminding himself to breathe against the current flowing hard against his back, threatening to knock him off his feet. And having a leg he couldn't stand on for longer than a second wasn't helping. At least they weren't walking against it. He was glad he didn't have to make a return trip.

They started down the tunnel, Kaz keeping his mind busy with plotting out the specifics of the plan ahead of them, instead of thinking of the cold of the water, and where he went from there. He was not going to have a panic attack. Not here, not now.

Kaz passed a couple grates, rain still pouring in, thunder booming. A few minutes later, there was an odd sound from behind, like the storm was inside the tunnel. "What is that?" Nina asked slowly. They all stopped and listened. It got closer. And then Kaz realized what it was. A sound he was familiar with, the pulse of waves on stone times a thousand.

"Move!" They looked confused, until Kaz elaborated. "Water!" The current dramatically increased, water rising, and they were swept along, frantically treading water. Until the full force of the flood was upon them.

The water closed over his head, suffocating, and Kaz stopped thinking. He was back on Reaper's Barge, corpses everywhere, the water cold, currents pressing against him, keeping him away from shore. He felt his body get scraped against the curved roof of the tunnel, still underwater.

Minutes or hours later, he couldn't tell, they slammed into something hard, all the remaining breath knocked out of Kaz's lungs. He felt someone's hands on him, and shivered. A soft hand on his shoulder, soaked and freezing. Kaz flinched, whimpering. Dead. He was surrounded by the dead. "Kaz. Wake up." Kaz recognized Marli's voice from a long ways away. "Kaz, please." He realized he was coughing, choking up foul tasting water. A gentle voice in his ear, warm breath tickling his face. "Come on, you idiot, wake up." So maybe not so gentle. They were in the sewers. The plan. Right.

Kaz made a strangled as he opened his eyes and saw where they were. They were against a large chunk of ston, on the bottom of the tunnel, the current parting around them and rushing off into the dark. The other were breathing hard, soaked and coughing up water like him. Marli had a hand raised, and Kaz could feel the air pushing against the water. "Now we know why nobody uses these." Anika panted. A few of them had managed to keep a hold on their bonelights, thank Ghezen.

Marli scrambled onto the rock first. "Are we going, or are we staying here all day?"

"Going?" Wylan muttered. "Going?" The poor kid looked traumatized.

"What else are we going to do, merchling? We knew this could happen. We're alive. Not a big deal." Anika told him.

"Not a big deal." Wylan repeated slowly. "No, not at all." Jesper sighed, got up, and offered Wylan his hand. Wylan took it and pulled himself up shakily. "Never again, Kaz. No more sewers. I will do anything else. But no sewers."

Kaz could only look back at him tiredly. They climbed onto the rock, and Marli let the water go. The space above them was empty, full of damp dirt and stones. With their luck, more would collapse. Marli and Kaz's eyes met quickly, and then he glanced away. I don't know how to say I'm sorry.

The water level eventually lowered, and they headed to an intersection at the end, and promptly started arguing at the top of their lungs about which direction to go in. Inej stayed next to him, trailing behind.

"Flashback?" Inej asked. One half of his brain hated that she knew how weak he was. The other half was thanking every higher being there was that he'd had the strength to tell her.

"The water." Kaz muttered. He couldn't shake it. He was soaked, frozen, and his vision was blurring with the effort to keep himself here.

"You can do this. I know you can. We have to keep going." Inej encouraged. Yes. Very helpful. I have to get up so I can be tortured and possibly killed by my worst enemy. Inej sighed and leaned closer, making sure no one else could hear. "You can fight this. You will walk out of here. We're going to beat Rollins." Her tone left no room for argument.

"Then what?" Kaz asked. He didn't know what to do without revenge. It had kept him going through almost half of his miserable life.

"Then, you and me are going to have waffles."

"Waffles." He murmured.

"Yes. And coffee. Very hot coffee. Very hot and very bitter coffee."

"You'll be leaving."

"Not right away."

"What do I do without revenge?"

"You have me. You have us. Your family. Let's take it one day at a time, okay?"

One day at a time. That sounded okay. He could do that. But first, he had to get through this terrible day. He limped over to the others, ignoring the constant ache in his bad leg. "Left, you idiots."