A/N Sorry for the wait! Hope you enjoy! Happy Holidays!
Eve shut the door to the conference room softly behind them before taking in the absolute carnage all around her. It was a bloody broken mess. Chairs were overturned, the two presidents were slumped over the table and there was a smattering of blood pooling here and there. Upon further inspection, she also noticed the bodies of three security agents laying crumpled on the floor.
"Yeesh. Looks like you had quite a party in here," Villanelle said offhandedly as she glanced around, before turning on Xenon. "I can't wait to hear this," Villanelle glared at him menacingly.
Eve put a hand firmly on her assassin's shoulder making her grudgingly but obediently back down from him, just happy to feel Eve's touch. "Exactly what happened?"
"I told you they couldn't handle it," Villanelle said arrogantly, smiling, earning a disgruntled look from her boss.
"Shut up," Eve snapped before focusing on the young man. "Explain,"
"Keres," he responded between ragged breaths.
"Where is she now?!" Eve demanded, grabbing him by the shoulders. Villanelle rolled her eyes and sighed, bored of this. She really wanted to take Eve and leave this mess to the amateurs. Strolling around the room she knelt down by the security men. Eve glanced at her briefly out of curiosity before turning back to Xenon.
"I don't know," He wiped some sweat off his forehead and straightened out his uniform. "I hurt her, but she got away from me,"
"Come on Villanelle, we don't have time for this," She watched the assassin who was still kneeling over the dead men. She finally nodded at hearing her name come from Eve, and she swiftly came to stand by them again.
"Here," She offered them each a gun and an earpiece and tossed a clean jacket that she pulled off one of the men, at Xenon. "You can't go around like that," she scoffed in disgust.
"Find her and watch out for Quinton. Do not underestimate him. Vill, you're with me," Eve looked between them.
Xenon nodded and walked away, silently letting the door fall shut after him.
"What about this?!" Villanelle questioned Eve who was putting the earpiece in.
Immediately she heard the various security personnel talking over the channel. She'd know when they eventually found the bodies.
"We don't have time to deal with it, it shouldn't be a problem," Eve said quickly, shoving the gun in her purse and offering Villanelle her arm. The assassin took it and they strolled carefully out of the conference room and down the hall back to the main room.
There were still a good amount of people there, so they had to keep their composure as they walked through.
Eve felt Villanelle grip her arm a little tighter, as they weaved slowly through the miscellaneous people still around.
"Are you going to thank me for showing up, now that you know you need me?" Villanelle asked warmly.
Eve scoffed. "I will thank you when you actually do something. As of right now, my people have done their jobs,"
Villanelle kept the smile on her face but spoke seriously. "I know you're happy I'm here," They got to the other side of the room where Laura had left with the prime minister.
"That remains to be seen," Villanelle flashed an upset expression at her, but Eve ignored her and held the door open, ushering her through.
On the other side of the door, they both drew their guns. "So where is she?" The blonde peered around the hallway.
"In one of these rooms, I'd imagine," Eve responded, walking down the hall. Villanelle walked in step with her and gave a confused look.
"You don't know?"
"I was a little preoccupied! With you, Two, the council, handing over the mission to Konstantin, and so forth. He was supposed to brief them on the details," Eve grumbled.
Villanelle glanced back at her. "How did that happen anyway?" She asked, sounding genuinely curious.
"Give me a break. I didn't have a lot of options," Eve defended as they carefully continued checking various rooms on their way. They reached the end of the hallways where it split off in two directions. "Go that way, there shouldn't be any rooms to check, find us a car, and wait by the door around the corner," Eve directed her assassin toward the exit. "Give us one minute after they raise the alarm then leave, no matter what,"
"You can't be serious. You want to split up again? And you're making me get the car?!" Villanelle's eyes were questioning, a trace of concern in them.
"Villanelle! Do not make this harder for me. You cannot fight with your arm like that," Eve argued impatiently.
"And you can?! With your side barely holding you together?!" Villanelle countered with a huff.
"Please. This is important. Do it for me," Eve said with all seriousness, bringing a hand to caress her face. "Come here," She yanked the assassin closer, crashing their lips together in a swift kiss. Villanelle pulled away, eyeing her lustfully. "There will be more where that came from if we can take care of this first," She continued hastily.
"Promise?" Villanelle kept her gaze locked on Eve's, searching for any signs of deceit. She found none.
"I am still so pissed at you for leaving, but yes, I promise, now go," Eve commanded, giving her a light shove.
Villanelle smirked and Eve just rolled her eyes.
"Go on," Eve ordered again. Villanelle blew her a kiss and sprinted off down the hall away from her.
Eve started down the opposite hallway, casting one last look after her assassin before she continued on checking the rooms as fast as she could. Coming around a corner, she came face to face with Quinton, making her jump back, her grip tightening on her gun.
"Still here, Eve?" He eyed her fiercely.
Eve scowled at him, raising her weapon at him. "I'm doing my job,"
"Going to shoot me? Great way to attract a lot of attention," He laughed. "Not something the twelve needs right now, after everything,"
She rolled her eyes but did not lower her gun.
"Eve, why can't you just give up. We can be a team, work together, share in the benefits," He asked, hands raised slightly.
"Like hell," Eve snapped, taking a slow calculated step toward him.
In a swift action, he knocked her hands upward throwing her off balance. Eve tried to duck out of his way when he lunged toward her, but Quinton was faster. He caught Eve by the shoulders and pushed her against the wall forcefully knocking the wind out of her. He ripped the gun out of her hands and shoved it in the waistband of his pants.
Quinton grinned. "You might have taken out two targets, but you won't get all three," He spat viciously, close to her ear.
"How do you figure? You're outnumbered," Eve managed to say as Quinton pushed his arm into Eve's throat making her cough. She clawed at his arm, but he remained unphased, pressing harder into her neck.
"We'll see about that,"
"What is your goal here?" Eve choked out. "You've already lost, the important ones are already dead,"
In her periphery, she could see someone walking up to them. Quinton turned to look and simultaneously pulled Eve closer to him, putting an arm around her as if they were there together. The woman, clearly another guest, eyed them curiously and gave them a nervous smile as she hurried past.
"Why don't you just come with me and we can talk more," He guided her down the hallway a ways before he shoved her into a room. She went to turn around but she felt the cool metal of a gun against her back.
Looking around she saw the British Prime Minister cowering on the floor in the corner, Laura was lying unconscious on the ground against the wall with a small stream of blood around her head, and Keres was standing cheerfully watching Eve with wild eyes despite the blood streaming from her forehead and her lip. At least Villanelle wasn't in here to see all this, she thought to herself. On the other hand, though, she wondered if the assassin was going to disobey her or if she would have to get out of this herself.
Down the other hallway…
Villanelle blew Eve and kiss and ran off, her mind distracting her with thoughts of all they could do after this was over. Rounding the corner slowly, she came to the exit door guarded by two security personnel.
She made quick work of removing them from their posts and dragging their bodies outside and behind some bushes near the door. Happy with herself, and spiteful of Eve's lack of faith in her, she sauntered back inside, but not without first noting the presence of a car that she could easily use to fulfill Eve's request. Hurriedly, she resumed the search, hoping to run into Eve again, sooner rather than later.
"How is this going to help you? You have to kill him now that he's seen you," Eve sneered turning back to look at her coworker. "This is far beyond idiotic. What exactly are you trying to achieve, Quinton?"
"The council needs some fresher blood, and a new direction," Quinton stated.
Eve laughed. "You can't be serious. You caused a plane crash, you manipulated me into killing Two for you, and god knows what else, just so you could move up in the council? What was your plan, to just take out everyone until you were number one?! You don't think that's a little suspicious, a little excessive, and who are you going to replace us all with?"
"You should have died in the plane crash," He growled and nodded to Keres who more than happily stalked up to Eve.
Eve stared her down trying to anticipate her moves, but again with her injuries, she was not fast enough to dodge the knee to the not-so-healed wound on her side. Pain throbbed through her like searing electricity and she gasped for breath. With Eve doubled over, Keres took the opportunity to grab her by the arms and force her headfirst into the wall.
The impact was dizzying. Still being held tightly against the wall, through blurry eyes she peered over at Quinton.
"Oh Eve, you should have listened to me. I tried to warn you,"
Keres took that opportunity to throw her down to the ground, giving no quarter, leaving no opportunity to fight back. Kicking her repeatedly and ensuring as much bodily damage as possible without knocking her unconscious, Keres was unrelenting.
Quinton motioned at her to stop and he knelt down next to Eve. "All of that is true, basically, but I had no intention of killing all of them, some of them are good people, but I needed to give them a reason to vote me in. If any of the top three were in the picture, they would automatically win, but when this mission fails and you are dead, the rest of us are essentially on equal footing, and I have already demonstrated competency and most of them are on my side,"
"This is insane," Eve laughed through ragged breaths, her teeth red with blood.
"I second that," The British Prime Minister spoke up.
"Oh shut up," Both Eve and Quinton said at the same time, looking over at the cowering man, before resuming glaring at each other. Quinton stood again and paced around, clearly thinking about his next move. Keres sat down boredly on some boxes and messed with her gun.
Eve heard some chatter over the earpiece by various security personnel. None of it was alarming yet, but it put Eve on edge.
"Don't keep us all waiting, I for one, am so excited to know what you are going to do when they find the others. I'd give us less than five minutes to get out of here before this place is locked down and we both end up in cages," Eve said casually, waiting for Quinton to have his back to her, so she could nudge Laura.
The woman stirred slightly, groaning in pain from her obvious injuries. Eve watched her blink her eyes open slowly, and she felt a little bit of relief.
"Keres, get him out of here, and get me the car," He commanded over his shoulder. Keres stood and dragged the Prime Minister to his feet.
"No, no no, leave me here, I won't say anything, I swear," He mumbled, obviously frightened and confused by all of this but otherwise not fighting back.
Keres shoved him forward, prodding him with her gun and she followed him out the door.
"You see Eve, I do know what I'm doing. I personally am curious what you are thinking about doing next," He said menacingly.
Eve pushed herself to her feet carefully. She felt her warm blood soaking through her dress. Standing made her feel light-headed, and she could hear the blood rushing in her ears. There way that she was going to be able to fight him, even with Laura's help. Leaned heavily on the wall, she gazed down at Laura who was struggling to get her feet under her.
There was a ruckus outside the door and all three of them diverted their attention in that direction when they heard a series of yells outside the room and a faint gunshot. Laura and Eve shared a quick glance. After a moment the door was thrown open and Keres' body slumped to the ground, blood beginning to pool around her.
Eve's heart raced, happy for once that Villanelle did not follow orders.
They all watched the prime minister stumble back into the room over her body, with Xenon following closely behind. Mildly disappointed, Eve sighed imperceptibly amidst her ragged pained breaths.
"Bring her inside and close the door," The assassin held his gun pressed to the back of the Prime Minister who quickly followed his request, and he held Keres' gun aiming in Quinton's general direction. "Nobody fucking move and put your gun on the ground!" He shouted in his German accent. Quinton did as he was told and Eve and Laura just watched him wide-eyed for a moment, their pained minds still catching up with the change of events.
"Kill them both, Xenon, get it over with," Eve coughed out, now clutching her side in pain, barely able to hold herself up.
"You don't have to! You can work for me, soldier, I can make your life very comfortable," Quinton said, calmly taking a step toward the young man with his hands raised innocently.
The prime minister whimpered as Xenon pressed the gun harder into his back, while simultaneously looking between his bosses. Quinton took the lack of response as an invitation to continue, a sly grin on his face.
"You want more money? You can work for me personally and I will pay you double what you were making per assignment before," Quinton watched Xenon's eyes widen slightly.
"Don't listen to him," Laura interjected. "She is the leader of the council now, she has more power than he will ever have, she is good to those loyal to her," Laura cast her eyes at Eve for a moment who nodded in thanks.
"Ignore her, Xenon. We can come to an agreement. Surely you don't want to go back to working with the way things were. Getting underpaid, treated as a second-rate assassin. I know you're better than that, work directly for me, and you won't be disappointed," Quinton paused for a moment, knowing Xenon was going to agree with him. "All you have to do is kill them both," He spoke viciously, glaring at Eve.
Xenon began to lower the gun he held on Quinton and switched the positions of his hands to be pointing a gun at Eve instead.
"Xenon, you cannot trust him to do anything for you," Eve defended, trying harder to hold herself upright.
"Why not, Eve? So far all you have done is made one bad decision after another," Quinton came to stand next to Xenon. "Just shoot her so we can get out of here,"
Eve could see the conflict in the young man's eyes and she hoped she could either convince him to stand down or that Villanelle would magically show up to save the day as she had so arrogantly promised. She didn't count on either though. "You do not have to do this. He is a traitor to the organization,"
"Is that the best you can do Eve? Surely not," Quinton laughed. "Though not exactly as planned, it has turned out well that you survived the crash, soldier,"
Eve saw Xenon's eyes narrow a fraction, clearly thinking about what was just said. "Xenon, listen to me. He killed Zion, he caused the plane crash!" Eve could see the look on the young assassin's face change and she knew she'd won.
"That's up to interpretation now isn't …" Quinton's defense was cut off by the near-silent shots from Xenon's guns that had been turned quickly back toward him. Both he and the Prime Minister simultaneously fell to the floor with a combined thud.
"You certainly will all be getting paid more for this," Eve let out a sigh of relief. "Now we have to get out of here,"
"Initiate the lockdown procedure! The president is down, repeat, the president is down!" Eve heard the voices in her ear shout frantically. They were out of time. Xenon helped her and Laura to stand and made their way to the door. He threw it open for them but stumbled back as a gun was shoved in his face. It was Villanelle and she quickly put the gun down upon realizing who they were.
"Villanelle?" Eve said with the small amount of energy she could muster.
"Eve!" She rushed to throw Eve's arm over her shoulder, allowing Xenon to assist Laura.
Villanelle led the way, holding Eve tightly to her side, followed by Xenon who was helping Laura stumble along.
"Tell me you at least found a car," Eve said between painful steps down the hall. She felt Villanelle straining to keep her grip on her as they shuffled down the hallway. They tried to move fairly briskly, but Eve and Laura could barely keep up.
"I did," the blonde answered quickly, trying to pull Eve along with her. She glanced around, hearing a mass of frantic yelling over her earpiece.
"That's good at least," Eve coughed. Coming up to the, now unguarded exit, Eve pulled away from Villanelle enough to reach the wall where a fire extinguisher, a fire alarm, and a series of light switches were. Xenon and Laura went around them to get the car ready.
"Eve, whatever you're doing, we don't have time for it!" Villanelle argued.
"There's too much evidence. We will have thirty seconds to get from here to the car and drive," Villanelle nodded and Eve pulled the fire alarm. Villanelle wasted no time in grabbing Eve by the waist and slinging her over her shoulder before making a run for it. As she got closer, she could see Xenon and Laura already climbing into the front seats.
Yanking the back door open, Villanelle set Eve inside before running to the other side and jumping in next to her. As soon as the door shut, Xenon slammed on the gas. Not a moment later and the sounds of an explosion filled the air, the building crumbling behind them.
Villanelle turned to watch as it collapsed in on itself. Eve gave up fighting to keep her eyes open and her head up and let herself collapse onto the assassin next to her, who was still transfixed by the fiery chaos. Villanelle's attention was torn from the chaotic scene at the feeling of Eve's head on her shoulder. Facing forward again, she maneuvered Eve to be resting with her head on her lap. She gently stroked her hair, reminiscent of the way Eve had done it for her on their train ride together when they met over a month ago. She examined every speck of blood, every bruise, every cut, and every feature on her face. Eve was going to need a doctor sooner rather than later, but she would have to wait until they arrived back in London, Villanelle just hoped she could hold on that long.
Xenon pulled over briefly as dust and smoke filled the streets and enveloped the car. When the dust started to settle the air was still and silent for several seconds before the silence was shattered by blaring sirens headed their way. They waited until the emergency vehicles passed before they continued their swift drive to the airport where Eve's jet was waiting for them.
A/N Thanks for reading!
