Author's note: Here are again. This story is slowly ending. I've got some more chapters to get out, but it's wrapping up. I just want to thank everyone who has been on this ride with me! (Also, there was supposed to be way more smut in this story than there has been, and I apologize. It's not that I have an issue with writing it – see Constellations – see me needing to update that, too – but this story was just a bit more focused on plot if I had to put a word to it. With that in mind – I might throw in one more chapter with smut. Who knows? Not me). Enjoy! Xx

"Betty, I've tracked him," Nick's voice broke through the quiet chatter in the room and Jughead watched as both Betty and Emma turned towards the third member of their team, eyes wide.

"You tracked TBK?" Betty whispered, moving towards Nick slowly as she held a hand over her heart. Jughead's feet moved of their own volition, as did Sweet Pea and Emma's, and soon, all three of them were standing behind Nick, watching the computer screen in front of them.

"I did," Nick replied, voice quiet as his eyes traced the moving dot on his screen. "Seems like he's in that field from before."

Betty nodded but didn't saying anything out loud and Jughead knew why; after all, he too, would have been traumatized If forced to go back to the place he had been buried alive. He watched as Betty turned to look at Emma and the two women exchanged a wordless conversation before Emma nodded.

"Yeah, seems like a good day as any to go killer hunting," she said, before turning to FP. "Mr. Jones, were any of your friends from Toledo able to find any missing women?"

FP nodded, searching through his phone for something before pressing a few buttons and then the sound of Mary's phone going off a moment later. "Mary, I just emailed you some police files from Toledo. Don't worry, my men obtained them legally." This was added at both Mary and Emma's looks of hesitancy.

"Thanks, FP," Mary sighed. "That's one less law I have to break."

Nick surprised them all by laughing and he looked around at their looks of incredulity. "What? It's not like any of us haven't bent the law before. It was a funny comment."

Jughead was inclined to agree with the tech guru.

"Never change, Nick," Betty said absently as she checked her gun for bullets, before placing it into her hip holster and sliding on her jacket. She looked up at Emma in the next moment. "Usual plan of attack?"

Emma smirked. "Sneak up behind them and hit them when they don't see it coming? Yeah, sounds good." Emma replied as she readied her own gun. "We don't have time to get vests. You alright with that?"

Jughead felt a bit as if his lungs had been emptied of air as the thought of Betty being shot entered his mind. Then, he remembered she already had. Stealing a quick look at Sweet Pea, he could tell the taller was just as nervous for both women as well.

"You two think that's a smart idea? To not make time for vests?" Sweet Pea asked, voice on the edge of desperate concern but trying to mask it. Jughead understood how his friend felt all too well.

Betty shook her head, straightening out her jacket. "We don't have the time to make, Pea. Not if we want to catch him while he's unsuspecting. Which is why…" Betty trailed off, turning towards Nick, who nodded, smirking somewhat deviously.

"I've connected your number to his, so he's got the idea of where he thinks you are," he said, tone casual, and Jughead looked at him.

"Where he thinks she is?" Jughead asked, heart beating in a heavy rhythm. Betty slipped her fingers through his, rubbing soothing circles against the back of his skin, and he relaxed significantly as Nick replied.

"It's a fake number I created," Nick assured him. "I linked that number to Glen's, only having changed one digit to make it seem like she just felt like changing her number for her safety and not because we've been planning for this day to come."

That made the tension leave Jughead's shoulders and he nodded as he pressed a kiss to Betty's temple. "Come back to me alive, Betty Cooper." His voice was quiet in his request and she nodded, pressing a thorough kiss to his lips before pulling back afterwards and turning to Emma, who was sharing her own goodbyes with Sweet Pea.

"You ready, Em?" Betty asked once their friends had pulled back. Emma nodded.

"Let's go raise some hell," she smirked.

"Do well, my queens," Nick said, and Jughead couldn't help the burst of laughter that left his lips. Betty smiled as she and Emma headed to the door.

"We're going to need you to -," Betty started but Nick interrupted her.

"Honestly, Betty, it's like you think I'm new to the game or something. I've already got both your phones locked in with mine and Steve is routing out the best escape route, should you guys need it. I've called in a few of the fellow agents we do trust to be on standby. Glen's superior being one of them."

"Knew you were the best for a reason," Betty crooned, and Nick smirked.

"No, that's you two. You call the shots; I just reinforce them. Now, go. And for God's sake, keep your asses protected. Please," he added, voice a bit quieter, and both Betty and Emma paused to hug him before continuing onto the door.

"See you guys later," Betty said, and Jughead took comfort in the fact that her voice sounded so self-assured. That maybe this wouldn't all blow up in their faces by going to hell in a handbasket.

Jughead knew, that by now, he should know better than to hope for the best without expecting the worst. And, the worst was on its way.

Author's note: Short chapter to setup what comes next. Don't fight me. Thoughts lovely per usual! Xxx