The tears dry, without you

Life goes on, but I'm gone

'Cause I die… without you…

- "Without You" from Rent

Bob heard the horrible crashing sound from the front of the building, and didn't even pause to ask Helen what it was. Both of them turned in unison and ran to the front of the bank.

As they ran, they heard a shrill, piercing scream of dismay that could only have come from Violet, and then Syndrome's horrified exclamation: "Kauri!"

"Oh no!" Helen gasped, and both of them ran harder.

Bob and Helen tore down the front steps of what had once been the bank until they saw the nearby collapsed building and the silent crowd of horror-struck spectators. Bob pushed them aside so that he could get a better view of what was going on - and stared.

Syndrome was zero-pointing chunks of brick and throwing them into the street haphazardly, removing them from Kauri's limp body. Violet had dropped to the ground with her hands over her mouth and tears sliding down her cheeks, and she was repeating over and over, "Oh no… oh no…" Dash was staring at Kauri's body and kept tugging on Violet's arm, saying, "Vi, is she gonna be ok? Is she? Is she? Vi? Vi, talk to me!"

Syndrome had cleared enough brick to pull Bex free of the rubble, and he made to do so, but Helen pushed free of the crowd and stopped him with a hand on his shoulder. "Don't move her," she said gently. "If her back's broken and you shift her too much, she could die."

Syndrome stared at her with an utterly empty, broken look that made Helen want to cry.

"She'll be ok, won't she, mom?" Dash demanded, running to his mother now and clinging to her leg in confusion.

"I… I don't know, honey," Helen said softly, still staring at the look on Syndrome's face.

Syndrome knelt beside Kauri's body and gently stroked her cheek. "Bex…?" he whispered.

Her eyes fluttered open. She smiled painfully at him. "Hey, baby," she murmured.

"You're hurt," he informed her, despite the obviousness of this statement. There was really nothing else he could say.

She closed her eyes and grimaced. "I know," she said. "But it's ok."

"No, it's not ok," Syndrome said fiercely. "You're injured. When was that ever 'ok'?"

"Doesn't matter," Bex said quietly. "You're not hurt. That's what's important."

"Bex… querida… nobody would really care if I died, but if you - " he choked on the word. "… people will miss you."

"I would've missed you," Bex informed him.

Bob stared at the sad scene in confusion, and finally took action. "Has somebody called an ambulance yet?" he snapped. "Don't just stand there!"

One of the spectators said hesitantly, "But she's a super. Surely she's got some kind of healing powers or something?"

Bob glared at whoever had spoken. "Her power is to be a conductor of electricity," he said frigidly. "Not to heal herself whenever necessary. Call a damn ambulance!"

"They won't be able to do anything for her," Helen said wearily.

Bob whirled to face his wife. "Of course they will," he said angrily. "What do you mean -?"

"Bob, look at her," Helen said, tears starting to slide down her cheeks. "They're going to pronounce it a lost cause as soon as they get here."

"Well, we can't just sit here!" Bob shouted. "We've got to do something!"

Syndrome looked over at them. "Maybe the paramedics here can't do anything," he said softly, "But I can. I've got plenty of highly advanced medical technology on the base, and I've spent pretty much my entire career studying Supers, from their powers to their genetic material and all of that."

"Nomanisan's a long way away," Helen pointed out.

Syndrome smiled slightly. "See, it's always good to have minions around," he said. "When I flew in on my jet, I brought some of my people along, and they've got some of my advanced medical supplies here. They'll be able to take care of her for the ride." He jerked his head in the direction of the Incredimobile, which was now very dented but still in one piece and functional, thanks to a special outer shell built by the government's science labs. "My communicator is in there. The emergency code's 070288."

Bob ran to the car and found the communicator in the back seat where Syndrome had been sitting. He grabbed it and rapidly typed the code in. Once this was done he jogged back to where Syndrome was still kneeling by the wounded Superheroine. "Here," he said. "In case they contact you."

Syndrome took it from him and then turned his attention back to Kauri. "You're an idiot, Bexer," he said, smiling halfheartedly. "You're a stupid, stupid idiot, and next time you even think about risking your life for mine I'll - "

"What?" Bex asked, smiling weakly. "Lock me in a containment unit and electroshock me? It's not like it'll even hurt." She laughed softly, and then started coughing, blood bubbling to the surface of her mouth. Syndrome gently wiped it away from the corner of her lip as it started to slip down her chin.

"Take it easy, querida," he said. "And whatever you do, don't die."

Bex forced a grin. "I'll do my best," she promised, and then she closed her eyes and let herself relax a little.

Bob had been watching the pair of them during this entire ordeal, and when he was certain their conversation was over, he said, "I think we need to talk."

Syndrome looked up. "About what?"

Bob nodded to Bex. "I'm wondering how you ended up involved with Kauri," he said. "Since it's fairly obvious that you care a lot about her."

Syndrome looked down at her and gently ran his fingers through her hair. "We've known each other since we were kids," he said. "We dated in high school. Didn't break up until after college. She was supposed to help me with the company, but since we were killing Supers…" He shrugged slightly. "She quit. She never told me why. I found out on my own… after I escaped the jet explosion… I was furious when I found out she was a Super. I wanted to hurt her for her betraying me, but… well… when I saw what kind of life she was living… and when I was around her again… well, that just didn't work out.

"I was really confused about how I was feeling for her, so I came to her apartment and sort of 'kidnapped' her - don't look at me like that, she went willingly - and brought her back to the island so we could talk. And we did, and it was great, and everything worked out just like old times. And then you showed up and pissed me off and I spent the rest of the day hiding in my lab, and Bex came back here, and when I found out I had to follow her. She was planning on leaving Eric and I came back to apologize. The rest is history."

"She was leaving Eric for you?" Bob questioned.

"Yes, which is no surprise, since Eric beat her all the time," Syndrome said angrily.

"He what?" Bob repeated, stunned.

"He beat her all the time," Syndrome repeated. "And Bex was scared to tell anyone. She came back so she could face him down alone - and this is the result." He motioned angrily to the collapsed building. "Eric's the one who did this, you know."

Bob looked incredulous, but Violet and Dash both confirmed it. "It's true, Dad," Violet interjected. "He showed up and threw Kauri in the road. It was really scary. He threatened me too, when I tried to stop him. He's the one who knocked the building down. Kauri leapt in front of it and pushed Syndrome out of the way."

Bob shook his head. "I had no idea," he muttered.

Helen sighed and looked ashamed. "I did," she said. "Some of the guys outside Kauri's apartment told me. But I didn't want to believe it… and Eric told me that Syndrome was the one who'd beat Kauri up and kidnapped her."

Syndrome looked up, infuriated. "He said that?" he exclaimed. "When I came in, he was about to burn Kauri's face off!"

Bob opened his mouth to say something, but there was the sound of an alarm that cut across the conversation. A high-tech looking vehicle with a large blue "S" on the side came whizzing around the corner and stopped beside the road where Syndrome was kneeling. Mirage and Jason leapt out of the car. "Oh my God!" Mirage gasped when she saw Kauri. She ran to kneel next to Syndrome. "What happened?"

"Eric knocked the building over," Syndrome said wearily. "He was hoping to hit me, but Bex dove in front of it and knocked me out of the way."

"Oh God," Mirage repeated, her hand over her mouth. "Will she live?"

"We've got some of that medicine that allows the body to self-heal, don't we?" he questioned.

Jason nodded and held out a small vial. "We have a briefcase full," he said. "You'll want to wait for this one to start taking effect before we move her, though."

Syndrome uncapped the lid to expose a sharp needle. "Sorry, querida," he said gently to the very pale Bex, who had opened her eyes to see what medicine they were going to give her and promptly closed them when she saw the needle. "I know you have a phobia, but this'll save your life." He glanced at Bob, and a trace of his boyish smirk flickered on his face. "Watch while genius does its work," he said somewhat smugly. He inserted the needle in Bex's arm. She flinched, but held still while the vial emptied itself. When the last drop was gone, Syndrome removed it and capped it again.

He looked up at the anxious Super family and said, "I captured a Super whose ability was to self-heal. I did some experiments - don't worry, nothing painful - and ran some tests on her genetic material, and figured out how to replicate that power in a medicine. I tested it on myself several times. If you use enough, you can even regrow severed limbs."

"How'd you find that one out?" Bob asked, curious and repulsed at the same time.

Syndrome shrugged. "My arm got cut off in a machine I was building," he said. The entire Parr family winced. "I used up most of my supply of this stuff, just to test it, and the next morning my arm had grown back."

"It was creepy," Mirage said with a shudder. "I was forcing myself to adjust to a bloody stump and then he walked in with a whole arm. I thought it was a prosthetic for the longest time, but another guard cut his foot off in a doorway and we did the same procedure. It's really eerie watching it grow back."

Syndrome was now focusing his complete attention on Kauri. "How're you feeling, querida?" he asked.

"Vomitous," Bex said, making a face. "But not quite so sore. I think this thing's working on my back."

After a moment, there was a slight cracking noise, and Bex flinched, and then sighed in relief. "Yeah," she said. "Definitely my back."

"Well, it looks like we can move her," Jason said with a grin. "She'll live."

Syndrome looked immensely relieved at this information, and he pulled Bex out from under what rubble remained. "Your legs are broken, aren't they?" he asked.

"At least one of them is," Bex said, grimacing. "Wanna carry me?"

Syndrome was very obliging. He lifted Kauri from the ground and carried her over to the car. "I trust I have your permission to bring her back to Nomanisan for the healing process?" he said to the Parrs.

Bob hesitated, and then nodded. "But we'll be coming by later tonight to make sure you're not killing her or something," he warned.

Syndrome laughed. "What, after all that work?" he asked, smiling playfully. "If I wanted her dead, I wouldn't have wasted that medicine on her. That stuff's worth millions." He glanced at Bex, and his smile softened. "But Bex… she's priceless."

Bex grinned slightly. "You and your romantic cheesiness," she said, and cuddled closer to him.

The Parrs watched as Syndrome and Mirage slipped into the vehicle, and then watched as it drove away, until it was out of site. "Well," Bob said with a sigh. "Guess it's time for us to play the clean-up crew, huh?"

Helen nodded her head in agreement. "Come on," she said, and together the Incredible Family began removing bricks from the sidewalk.