41. Black Widow
"His time is running out, Yukiko."
Her former colleague's words caused her to skip a breath; the actress swallowed when she tried to shape her trembling lips into an intelligible question.
"What do you mean? What did you do to him?"
Sharon only sighed. Even after all the movies where Yukiko had shown her talent, her hoarse voice betrayed her now.
Yukiko was scared, scared for her son's life.
'And rightly so, darling...' But the blonde beauty allowed none of her own apprehension to get through her words.
"Did you think that the boss would just ignore what he did? That he would stand by silently while you're picking the organization apart? Certainly not..."
Yusaku swallowed, clenched his hands into useless fists.
'I feared as much… '
But Sharon had no mercy with them.
She continued to speak so that Yusaku wondered, not for the first time during this conversation, why Shinichi had agreed to her deal in the first place. Because of the way Sharon behaved, he wondered how his son could believe a word she said. The antidote could just as well have been ineffective for Ran.
'But it wasn't.' Yusaku swallowed, ignoring his son's voice in his ears, and continued to listen to the female organization member.
"And now things are getting serious, even for someone like him, it's only a matter of time. Your son's reason to stay alive has ceased to exist. The research on the APTX had been shut down since none of our chemists are willing to leave the holes they are hiding in." Vermouth swallowed, brushed one of her blonde curls behind her ear.
"It's getting tight for him Yukiko, as I said before, Shinichi's time is running out."
'No…'
Her former friend's words crept underneath her skin and stole her breath. The actress didn't notice how her hands began to tremble, so much so that the mobile slowly slipped from her fingers while a film of hot tears obscured her gaze.
"Shinichi..."
She flinched briefly as her husband's cold fingertips touched hers, and he slowly took the device from her to take over the call.
"I hope you don't think this vague information is enough for us to ask the FBI to negotiate any kind of deal for you, Sharon."
The organization member at the other end of the line only swallowed.
'Yusaku...' But there was no time to fish in murky memories now. She skillfully turned her thin lips into a smile that nestled gently against the phone's speaker.
"But of course, not my dear, there is plenty I can tell you... but first, let me ask you another question." Her grey-blue eyes sharpened, her knowing gaze sliding to the person opposite her as she listened into the tense silence on the other end of the phone.
"Aren't you missing someone else as well?"
A strangled cry left Kazuha's throat, but it was Kogoro who found his voice first.
"What?"
Sharon, however, didn't answer immediately, sipping her black coffee. She enjoyed what would probably be her last moment of power with the organization while her eyes were still fixed on her.
With a teasing tone in her voice, she finally solved her little riddle.
"I know that a little birdie escaped from the FBI that should have stayed safe behind the gilded cage, am I right?" Her lips formed a sweet smile.
"Well... because just as it happens, I'm with her right now."
XXX
He ordered his short legs to carry him up the stairs, already out of breath before he had reached the top and the door handle.
With a shaky breath, he dug the key out of his trouser pocket, missed the lock the first time before the door finally gave way. The scent of her perfume mixed with her father's cheap aftershave in this place, while the smell of home-cooked food and beer completed the mixture of aromas into what had grown to be his home - the detective agency of Mori Kogoro.
The grey light of the afternoon sun seemed to have drained the room of all its colors while the little boy's heart was thrumming in his throat.
"Ran!"
But she didn't answer. Why didn't she answer?
Conan swallowed, feeling panic crawling beneath his skin.
"RAN?!"
But just as the primary school pupil was making his way into the kitchen, a warm hand was placed on his shoulder and made him flinch instantly.
"Forget it, brat; she isn't here."
Kudo Shinichi sighed, walked past him, lowered himself onto the sofa with a distant gaze, and observed as realization slowly seeped into the little boy's features.
He groaned unmistakably and ran his little fingers through his already messed-up hair with a curse.
"Not again..."
"I fear so."
This time, however, Bell's voice made both of his other selves flinch so that the high school detective gave him an annoyed look, while the electrified hairs on the back of his neck just slowly calmed back down.
"For fuck's sake. Can we just agree that you will only speak when being asked? Please, for our nerves' sake." Bell, who had been leaning against Mori's desk, merely frowned, while the eyes of his other selfs haunted eyes still rested on his figure.
'This is sick...'
Nevertheless, he sighed and shrugged, averting his eyes from the two, trying to make his voice sound as calm as possible before he answered.
"Fine, whatever..."
But the doubt and the hint of anger was obvious in his voice. Shinichi sighed but nodded thankfully. He could understand him...
'I wouldn't like it to be forbidden to speak either, and then by myself of all people.' He swallowed, feeling how his pounding heart slowly calmed down before his gaze drifted to the primary school student who was still standing rooted in the doorway.
'But it's probably better that way…'
Shinichi sighed, his eyes roaming over Bell, who had started polishing his glasses after being declared useless for the time being, before addressing the grade-schooler.
"Calm down, Conan..."
The boy blinked briefly, then gave his older self a nasty look and crossed his arms in front of his chest in annoyance.
"Leave me alone, and don't call me that." The seven-year-old averted his eyes, not seeing Bell's eyebrows rising, as well as the questioning look he gave Shinichi, who could only frown.
"Oh, and what should I call you then? Don't you think it will get a little confusing if we all address each other as Shinichi?" But Conan just swallowed, went to the window of the detective agency, climbed onto the windowsill, and stared outside while leaning his back against the wall.
"It's still unfair..."
Shinichi just rolled his eyes and tried to ignore Bell, who obviously agreed with the little boy. But just as he was about to say something, the primary schooler's raspy voice formed a simple question.
"I thought- I thought she would be here."
He swallowed, turned his gaze out of the window. "Ran."
Bell cleared his throat, and for a moment, the elders exchanged worried glances before the high school student was able to coax his lips to speak.
"I know..."
XXX
Ran swallowed dryly and continued to stare at the blonde beauty sitting opposite of her.
Vermouth.
Her heart had stopped for a brief moment when the woman had entered the café, crossed it with her mobile phone to her ear in high-heeled shoes, only to join her at the table. She had recognized the organization member and her former role model immediately. Vermouth's disguise was minimalistic. She had already taken off her sunglasses so that only the delicate blue silk scarf around her head protected her from too many prying eyes, even though some of her blond curls were already fighting their way out.
Fear and anger had stretched the young woman's muscles to the breaking point while her mind was torn between trying to fight Vermouth and the thought of getting out of here as quickly as possible. However, the member of the organization had quickly made it clear to her who was in charge.
Even after she'd taken a seat at Ran's table, she simply continued her conversation on the phone until it slowly dawned on the young teacher who Vermouth was talking to. Fear for Shinichi tied her to her seat while she waited for Sharon to finally tell them where he was.
Because if what she said was true, they had to get him out of there - fast.
Ran swallowed, glaring at the actress, who was playing cat and mouse with them alone. A telltale smile curled on Sharon's lips as her father's voice rang out. Ran swallowed, almost ashamed when she heard the panic in his words.
Tou-san... I'm sorry.
Mori, however, couldn't see the distress in his daughter's face but barked angrily into the former actress's ear.
"What? Ran is there?! Where is she? Spit it out already, you miserable..." Vermouth just raised an eyebrow, slightly offended, and shared a meaningful look with the young woman before her before she answered Mori's accusation.
"I beg your pardon, Mori-kun. Shame on you Yukiko, where are your manners? This was supposed to be a private conversation between old friends." But the answer Sharon received was more than clear.
"We are no friends, Vermouth."
Yukiko's words struck Vermouth, deep down in a place she'd always claimed didn't exist any longer. The organization member swallowed, provoking a brief silence on the line, before the professional smile on her lips returned. An actress should always be able to improvise, after all.
"Oh, but my dear, of course we are, and I'm going to prove it to you since I'm going to stop our little Ran-chan here from doing something stupid." Ran only swallowed as her features tightened. Sharon didn't really care for the silent warning the girl's body gave her and continued to talk like she wasn't even there.
"After all, I'm sure you wouldn't want her in the hands of my colleagues, right? After all, some of these men really have no manners, you know..."
This time it was Eri who, despite all her own experience with human manipulation, reacted to Vermouth's poisoned tongue.
"Ran!" The exasperation in her mother's voice made Ran wince, while Vermouth seemed to be enjoying herself.
"Ah, I see the Mori family knows what I am talking about." She smirked, slowly drowning the white cream on her coffee in its black depths with her spoon so that the liquid gained a dirty brown color.
"Then I guess I'd better get this little birdie here to safety before it does something else stupid, right?"
"Don't hurt her, Sharon..." But the writer's raspy voice was only rewarded with a frown as she looked up over the rim of her cup at Ran.
"Oh, but Yusaku, how could I? An angel without its wings would be useless after all... on the contrary.
I'm here to stop her from trying to save someone who's probably already beyond saving."
"No!"
This time it was Ran herself who interrupted Vermouth. For the first time since she'd entered the café, Sharon's cold eyes looked into hers. Ran held her gaze so that one of the blonde beauty's eyebrows rose in interest while the girl's father made a gasping sound on the other end of the line.
"Ran? Ran, what the hell are you doing?"
But the young woman didn't react to her father's worried voice but continued to withstand Vermouth's gaze.
Even though her breath was shaking, her voice didn't betray her and harbored the same strength as her dark blue eyes.
"Keep your information, and don't believe you can stop me!" Ran swallowed, ignoring the smirk on the actress's lips, while Vermouth recognized the fight sparkling in the young woman's blue eyes.
'Just like back then...'
The organization member's silence only fueled Ran's anger.
"If your deal is as bad as the last one we agreed to, I'll pass." She blushed when she noticed the eyes of the old couple and the waitress on her skin, so she lowered her voice again, but the threat remained in Ran's words.
"Don't presume that you can stop me because you can't." Ran swallowed, feeling her heart beating in her throat as she tried to formulate her following words.
"I'll find him, no matter what."
"B-But Ran."
Her father's shaking voice couldn't reach her while she tried to hold Vermouth's cold gaze. Vermouth's eyes seemed to analyze every inch of her body before she shook her head dismissively with an exhausted sigh.
"How can anyone be so stubborn, so stupid." Ran remained silent, so Vermouth continued to talk.
"What are you trying to save? What do you think you'll achieve by getting him out of there, Angel?"
But the teacher stubbornly narrowed her lips. Sharon's nickname for her caused her goosebumps for the first time. Vermouth, however, didn't notice it while her voice regained a hint of sharpness.
"After everything that has happened, after all, you know, what do you think is going to happen?" Ran blinked, puzzled by her former idol's strange question. She remained silent, waited for the former actress to continue and explain herself. At that moment, she didn't know that she would have preferred not to hear it.
"Why don't you get it? Why can't you understand why he'd been hiding from you of all people? Why he'd been avoiding you even when you had the chance to be together." Sharon sighed. Ran couldn't tell if she was making a scene or not. Sharon wasn't done yet; on the contrary, one of her delicate hands wandered over the narrow table and grasped Ran's while she looked her in the eyes with urgency.
"He knows Ran, he accepted it, unlike you. No wonder, after all, he has been living with this knowledge for the past ten years..."
The young teacher's eyes grew wide. She pulled her hand out from under Vermouth's cool fingertips, pressed it to her chest while her constricted throat refused to say the next question louder than necessary. She was afraid of the answer.
"What, what are you talking about?"
Sharon's gaze turned cold, the jingling of her spoon coming to an abrupt end as she looked at Ran.
"You don't want to understand, do you, sweetheart? There is nothing left for you to fight for.
Sherry is dead.
The only one, who was able to bring Kudo Shinichi back to life, is dead."
She bent a little way over the table, propped her elbow on the tabletop while her chin rested on her folded hands. Keeping the smile on her lips was not easy at this moment, even for the experienced actress. She would rather spare her angel this truth, but if that was what it took to keep her from this dangerous path, so be it. She swallowed, trying to cover her raspy voice with coldness.
"There is no future for the two of you."
Vermouth sighed, sliding back into her chair, and took her silver cigarette case out of her pocket.
"I thought he made that clear to you when you last met."
She watched the young woman's reaction, just like back then when she'd observed the two of them. Ran bit her lips, trying to calm her racing heartbeat as the truth crept boiling hot beneath her skin.
A truth she didn't want to hear... it couldn't be.
Vermouth avoided Ran's suddenly far too empty gaze and lighted up the tip of her cigarette so that the grey-blue smoke condensed the atmosphere in the small café.
"Give it up, Angel... you both lost that fight - ten years ago. "
Ran wanted to say something, had already opened her mouth to argue, but her voice failed her. She would have loved to talk back to this woman, to tell her that she was wrong... but not only Sharon's but also Shinichi's words from back then choked her throat.
"It's not going to work, Ran…"
Even before she could continue her inner argument, her lips spoke what her mind was not yet prepared to believe.
"But Shinichi-..."
Ran's fragile voice felt like ice beneath her skin until it reached the place in Sharon's chest that others might have called her heart.
Vermouth eyed her through the mist of her cigarette.
"...is my business now, we'll get him out of there, but I can't bring him back to you; nobody can."
'No!'
Ran bit her lips before the first hot tear ran down her cheek, leaving an ugly red streak.
"No, that's a lie, there is a way-"
'… there has to be!'
Reluctantly, the young woman shook her head, feeling the truth slowly seeping into her bones without her being able to do anything about it. Vermouth just swallowed, averted her eyes, and focused an ugly spot on the filthy floor of the rundown café. Even the voice of the organization member seemed suddenly heavy, almost sad.
"I'm sorry, Angel... your hero has been cheating not only with time but death as well, and this is the price you both have to pay. There is no way back."
Ran's silent cries nearly drowned in the busy clanking, clattering, and murmuring of the café until another voice on the phone broke through the silence.
"No? In fact, there is."
XXX
He sighed, took his glasses from his nose in annoyance, and massaged the bridge of his nose while he spoke.
"I know I'm supposed to shut up, but you can't be serious." The other two seemed to ignore him, each entirely focused on their next move, until the high school student moved the knight forward and into a dangerous position with a sly grin.
'For what must have been the hundredth time...' But neither Shinichi nor Conan noticed the roll of Bell's eyes.
"Check."
The primary schooler pursed his lips and crossed his arms in front of his chest, seeming offended.
"Such a nasty move can damage my childish psyche. You should be nice to little children; hasn't anyone ever told you that?"
Shinichi, however, just let himself fall back into the sofa with a mocking laugh.
"What is left there to damage? But if you want us to treat you like a child, I'm sure we can arrange that, brat."
The child had already opened his mouth to complain when Bell again interrupted the two, clearing his throat.
"Do you really have nothing better to do than this?"
The other two turned to him with an annoyed expression on their faces before Conan made his next move.
"If you have something better to suggest, go ahead."
The American just sighed, ran his hand through his hair, and sank down on the couch next to Conan.
"At least I know that it's not what we're supposed to do with our time here... who knows how our condition will be when we wake up again." He swallowed, knowing he'd struck a sensitive nerve. It felt strange to be fused back into one being. Somehow alien in their own bodies, while the individual thoughts that probably more or less made up the three of them then slowly flowed together again. But at least here - wherever that was- the exhausted and dehydrated body didn't stand in their way. That is precisely why they should better not waste their time here.
"Not to mention-" Bell sighed, letting his gaze slide over the chessboard that looked almost identical on both sides.
"- you know as well as I do that there will be no winner in this game. So, give it up..."
"That's not what this is about."
Conan's voice sounded heavy as he thoughtfully let his rook advance three squares, thus clearing his king from the line of fire and at the same time making way for his queen to counterattack. Shinichi swallowed, holding Bell's gaze a little longer before his eyes turned back to the game.
"Right... has it ever occurred to you that we don't want to think about it?"
Bell bit his lips. They were probably right since his mind, too - or at least what seemed to belong to him in this version of Kudo Shinichi - had been more concerned with their game than with her.
He swallowed, feeling a lump forming in his throat, even though he was fortunately already no longer wondering how that was possible at all.
"At least we agree that it's not her, right…?" He swallowed, feeling the other two's muscles stiffen while their eyes drilled holes in the chessboard.
"It wasn't Ran."
Conan bit his lips, let himself slide back into the sofa cushion with an exhausted sigh, and, for the first time in this strange place, he took the detested glasses from his nose. With a blank look, he examined the fragile black frame thoughtfully, turning it between his fingers. So it was Shinichi who began to speak first.
"Probably not, no..." Conan, however, intervened, and for a brief moment, the fake primary schooler actually displayed a touch of childish stubbornness.
"But we don't know that. It could just as easily be a trap. What if you're wrong? What if- if she's really there?"
But the bright child's voice died in his throat, so it was Belle who broke the heavy silence again.
"I know... and one part of me even wishes you're right about that, while the other one doesn't even like to imagine what it would mean if he actually got her."
"Or she's there to get us out?" But Conan's voice made it clear that he didn't believe in that theory himself. He swallowed, watching the high school student across from him clench his jaw until his teeth grind beneath the pressure.
"Yet you are wrong. It can't be her; why would Ran say such a thing? In this situation, it's utter nonsense." Shinichi straightened up, walked away from the small seating area, and stopped at the detective agency window, looking out at the foggy street.
"This whole conversation is nonsense," he protested in a hoarse voice.
"It wasn't her, and that's that..."
"That's fine and good - we know that now, but what about when we get back? What then?" Bell's concern resonated in his voice and forced the Conan to look up again.
"What do you mean?"
Bell swallowed, avoiding the eyes of the other two for a brief moment.
"Well, the fact that we are having this conversation does show that we doubt or have doubted if it's her or not." He looked around with a help-seeking look.
"Do you get it?"
Conan sighed, dropped to his knees in front of the table, and began to rearrange the chess figures.
"Yes, even though I could do without such conversations. It's causing nothing but a headache." Bell nodded, but his voice still sounded busy.
"Our problem is that we want to believe that it's her."
"But it's not...", Shinichi affirmed again.
Bell nodded with a sigh.
"No, it's not her. And we mustn't forget that next time..." Shinichi nodded, but Conan's sarcastic tone interrupted them both.
"Well, you'd better get started on that."
"What?" The other two had just enough time to see the dense fog creeping out from under the crack of the detective agency's door, taking over the space around them until they finally lost sight of each other.
xxx
Gin enjoyed this.
He lived for moments like this - his feeling of power let him always savor every assignment to the fullest. The moment when his victims became aware that there was no turning back when they were helplessly at his mercy, and he held their lives and everything they held dear in his hands. In those moments, he alone possessed the power to decide their fate. Peace or ruin, freedom or subjugation, life or death.
He could end this life, crush it under his shoe sole like one of his discarded cigarettes until every spark of life was gone.
His gaze fell to the building behind the men in front of him; hungry flames were still blazing out of some windows, their grey ashes raining down on them. But no matter if the organization still existed or not, he would finish this now.
His lips pursed, enjoying the sound of his voice as the cold spring wind whipped it across the yard.
"Let him go... after all, we don't want anything to happen to the little one here, right?"
"TOSAN!"
His son's words finally ripped Heiji from his stupor, his nostrils quivering dangerously as his green eyes fixed the man before him, clutching the gun in his hand even tighter.
Gin, however, laughed coldly.
"I knew you could be useful to me, brat. The moment I saw you wandering around here."
The three-year-old's lower lip trembled when he saw the startled look on his father's face.
What did this man want from him? He should let him go!
After all, he was only here to help his dad.
"I'm here to find Neechan... I always find her."
The little boy's voice broke, thick tears rolled down his red cheeks.
"I wanna help..."
"Oh, but you do. You're quite helpful to me!" His gaze wandered to Akai again.
"Let him go." Gin's voice was cold, but Shuichi Akai had long since ceased to be impressed.
"Only if you let go of the child."
"I see you're getting soft, Rye." A cruel laugh flashed over Gin's smoke-stained teeth.
"In the past, you would have shot whether the child survived or not." The officer's eyes shifted to Akai in alarm, but he ignored Hattori's gaze.
"Let him go!" The agent's command only widened Gin's smile.
"Oh, I will, but only on my terms. You'll have to trust me, partner." He laughed hollowly, adjusting the weapon against the boy's soft skin, his voice little more than a dangerous whisper.
"I don't trade my goods for something that I won't get."
The agent only cursed, slowly loosening the gun from Vodka's neck before the commissioner interrupted his action.
"What are you doing?!" Panic and fear resonated in Heiji's voice, but Akai didn't look at him as he spoke.
"I'm trying to save your son's life."
"But what if he-..."
The agent fixed him with a sharp gaze. Right now, there wasn't much left of the sharp, calculating mind of the detective.
What was left behind was a young, panicked father.
"We have no choice."
The grin on Vodka's face widened as his former colleague slowly let go of his wrist, indicating to him to leave without another glance.
"I guess your mouth ain't so big now, is it?" Heiji, however, didn't react, didn't watch the organization member who was now walking towards Gin; his gaze was fixed solely on his son.
"There you go."
The little boy's tears stopped instantly when he noticed how the evil man slowly lowered him to the ground and let go. In disbelief, the watery green eyes looked up one last time at the stranger, who was not even looking at him with his cold eyes.
Then he ran off as fast as his little legs could carry him.
"Tousan!"
A relieved sigh escaped the detective's throat, only now realizing that he had been holding his breath until now. He took a step forward to embrace his son, who ran towards him with his face smeared with tears.
At that moment, a devilish grin spread across the blond organization member's thin lips.
"I told you... I would let him go."
"No!"
Gin just ignored the FBI agent's curse when he finally turned the tables. In a fraction of a second, he had raised his weapon and pointed it precisely at his target, which was slowly moving away from him on wobbly, short legs.
"You forgot to say goodbye, little one." An icy smile was about to accompany his bullet.
But before Gin could send the bullet on its way, Akai's fingers tightened around the trigger of his own weapon, but he was faster.
The shot rang out, and his body instantly slumped to the ground.
Hi guys,
ahhh I have to confess that I struggled to post this chapter. I can see more people reading my work than a year ago, however, there was just one review on AO3 (Thank you sooo much areyoufeelingalice!), that's it. I don´t want to complain, but it really put me in a bad mood. It's totally okay if you didn´t like the last chapter! I would just love to know if that was the case and what might be the reason for it- I still want to improve my writing so yeah. I still have one chapter for next month, but I'm still working on the May chapter, besides working 10 hours a day, I'll finish this fanfic and I'll try to post one chapter each month, but right now I struggle to find the motivation.
Aaaanyway, thank's to each and everyone who read the chapter and this little comment!
And of course the biggest thank's to Tobina for her beloved work as my Beta.
I wish you happy easter or spring holidays!
Till next time,
~ Shelling