Begin!

~Violet's POV

"Any idea what we're specifically looking for," I asked.

"Anything that can be used as incriminating evidence without arousing suspicion of the organization; we've been after this bastard for months. There have been 3 fires in the last year and we think it points to him. He's a relatively recent defector."

Fiona and I had made it out of the ventilation system and were now wandering the interior of the hideout on our quest. Every now and then a guard would come around causing us to have to hide. Duncan had informed us that an office would be the most logical place to look.

"Any kind of records of what happened would help," Fiona said softly, "Though I'm not sure if we'd find any. My mother used to say that villains were never one for paperwork. It's more of a volunteer thing."

"Believe me, I've seen enough paperwork to last a lifetime," I replied, "Let's check in here."

We headed into what appeared to be an office. Given that these were villains we were dealing with, the few books that were in here were nothing noteworthy. I even distinctly saw several books that Klaus personally hated. Lucky he's not here I suppose. I told Fiona to watch the door while I search the room.

"What do you see," Duncan asked.

"A few files in a desk," I replied softly.

I started reading them as fast as I could. They looked authentic; perhaps they would be enough for the mission. It detailed two out of the three houses that had been set ablaze in the past year. Which means the guy in charge here could only be responsible for two of the fires. Best two out of three I suppose; evidence is evidence. I shoved the files into my supply bag and left the rest of the desk exactly as it was before. It was only a matter of time before someone-

"Hide," Fiona whisper-shouted at me.

We each quickly ducked into individual hiding places in the room and listened as a man entered. From my position, I could see his face; he was the suspect we were looking for. He reminded me of Olaf. The same smug looking face, proud of the evil plots he's accomplished; it made me sick just looking at him. He looked around the room for a moment suspiciously. I knew Duncan could see us in here with his camera equipment and I felt bad that he was probably scared half to death from our situation.

The suspect retrieved a book from the nearby shelf and walked out of the room shutting the door behind him. Once we couldn't hear his footsteps anymore Duncan gave us a rather disturbing piece of information.

"Violet, Fiona, get out of there now! The building is on fire!"

"Shit!" I quickly checked the door, "Locked. Clever bastard!"

"Someone must have seen us come in here somehow," Fiona said.

"Or they had an inside source..." I replied sourly.

Fiona gave me a look, but didn't reply. In hindsight... that was probably uncalled for. I muttered an apology before checking my communicator for answers.

"Duncan can you tell us a way out of here? The faster, the better!"

If I wasn't panicking before I was surely going to panic now when all I heard on our comms was static.

"Duncan?!"

"Violet don't freak out, I'm sure Duncan is fine. If somebody found him he'd be able to handle himself right?"

I took a few deep breaths. "Yeah... he would..." I started tying my hair back before I continued. "We're going to need to break open that window if we want any chance of escape."

We gathered up what materials we could from the room to make a battering ram, I had hoped to never need to use one again, and used it to break open the locked window. I quickly looked through my spyglass to see the smoke rising into the night sky. Apparently the fire had been started on the opposite side of the building. Unfortunately, the only route we had was to climb along the rocky cliff below the window. I pulled some improved climbing materials out of my bag and the two of us started our dangerous climb along the wall. It was slightly under the hideout though so we couldn't be seen.

"Where are we trying to get to from here," Fiona asked.

I could only see so much in the dark but the burning building was illuminating a lot. "We can get to the front of the hideout from here; there should be a bridge that they use to get here. Once we're in the area we can climb onto the bridge and run the rest of the way to find Duncan's lookout point. Just stay close and don't look down."

"Don't have to tell me twice..." Fiona muttered.

It was about an hour into our sidling along the chasm wall that we finally heard some good news.

"Violet, Fiona, are you girls ok?! Please tell me you're ok!"

"Duncan! Oh thank god you're alright! What happened?"

"A couple guards found me and I had to take them out."

"Are you ok," I asked.

"Yeah I'm fine, the other 2 not so much now."

"Did you kill them," Fiona asked.

"No no, they're just unconscious, some internal bleeding... maybe a broken rib or two... I dumped them outside, they'll be fine. Now where are you guys? You're not stuck inside right?"

"We're climbing along the chasm wall to get around to the front of the hideout. We'll meet you when we get on the bridge," I replied, trying to calm my frantic heart.

"Got it, I'll be waiting."

Unfortunately, this was a particularly long climb, about as long as when I climbed Mount Fraught with Quigley years ago; only this time we were climbing sideways instead of up and down. Every now and then I would look at Fiona to make sure she was still following me. It wasn't exactly hard to tell she wasn't comfortable with heights, most people aren't though.

We could see the building had almost completely collapsed during the blaze. Duncan informed us that most of the people who were inside had fled using their cars ahead of time. He theorized that we were found out in some manner when we got inside. Hours of climbing later we started to notice the sky getting lighter as daylight was approaching.

"Fiona, do you see the bridge yet?"

"My glasses are pretty covered in dirt at this point, but yes I can see it. And watch out in this area for-"

"Fuck!" I hadn't paid attention to the rocks slightly below me and a particularly sharp one just cut my ankle. Hard too.

"Violet!"

I tried to move further but I just ended up wincing from the pain.

"Don't try to move or you could lose your grip and fall!"

I could feel a bit of blood come out onto my clothing as I searched for some fast solution. If I tried to climb up I'd probably lose my footing and fall to a very gruesome death. But it seemed that Fiona already had a plan.

I watched as she hurried up onto the ledge above us proceeded reach down to grab my arm and pull me up onto the ledge with her. I was whining the whole time from my wound but at least I was on solid ground again. We both collapsed on the dirt, out of breath from our long climb and I was injured on the job. Duncan was going to have a fit...

Fiona reached into her pocket and proceeded to clean her glasses with a small cloth before turning to me and asking, "Are you ok?"

"Yeah... I'm fine. I'll need some help walking though. And I need a bandage or two..."

She sat up a bit and looked behind us at the crumbling structure, what was left of it at least. "Did you get what we needed?"

"I got something, it's in my bag."

"Good then we didn't technically fail I guess... even though he did get away-"

"Fiona, who cares? You just saved my life!"

She looked at me with a small smile, "Yeah of course I did... did you think I was just going to leave you there?"

"I-I didn't know what would happen... I was trying to think of how to get out of it and you just... pulled me up without even a second thought. Thank you."

"You're welcome... have I ever mentioned that situations like this are why I hate shore leave?"

We both laughed lightly at that. I saw our ride coming closer down the road when I sat up a little. I looked at Fiona and noticed something seemed to be on her mind. Her expression showed she wanted to ask a question... and based on our history I was able to guess what it was...

"The answer is yes."

"You don't even know what I was going to ask."

"I figured it out. The answer is yes: I would have saved you if you were the one who got hurt."

She smiled, "You would have?"

"Absolutely... just because I was mad at you doesn't mean I'd just let you fall to your death. The guilt would eat me alive otherwise."

"Considering that your last words to me were 'vile, foul, heartless, evil bitch' you can't blame me for being a little worried..."

My stomach churned thinking that sentence was accurate... I wasn't even mad at her anymore in the first place, I'm pretty sure I was over it. I was just wary.

"I'm sorry for not trusting you..."

"And I'm sorry I ever gave you a reason to not trust me..."

"Then perhaps we could start over? As friends?"

She smiled brightly at that. It was nice to see her happy; it looked like she'd needed it. "I'd love to."

Fiona stood and started helping me up when we saw Duncan run over to us from the van.

"Violet, oh my god you're bleeding! Do you need to go to a hospital?!" Duncan's words then delved into a repetitive string of cursing himself as the "worst boyfriend ever" as Fiona helped me get inside the van.

As Duncan continued his ranting, even as he started driving us away, Fiona was laughing at his words.

"What on earth could you see in a dork like him?"

"He's great in bed," I replied jokingly.

"You're a woman after my own heart, Violet." I couldn't tell if she was being serious, but she probably realized I had far more reasons than that. "Wish I had a good man like him... though I prefer guys with shaggy hair; just a personal preference."

The sentence went completely over my head for a single instant until... I got an idea.

"You're still going to the V.F.D. Gala this weekend right?"

"Yes, I told you my stepfather is forcing me to go, wants me to start looking for a potential boyfriend... He has people on the inside that will know if I don't attend so I unfortunately can't just stay in my hotel room and read all night like I'd rather be doing. Why do you ask?"

"Just curious..." I said trying to sound nonchalant as I bandaged up my leg.

~...

It still hurt a bit to stand for too long, but my wound had healed up enough for me to still go to the Gala with Duncan. And he was understanding when I said that I probably shouldn't dance with him tonight. He had re-done his first impression on Fiona when we met up at the party since he had been so busy worrying about my injury that he had completely forgotten to introduce himself properly to my friend. And Duncan had been kind enough to assist me in a little scheme I had planned tonight by dragging Quigley away from some female volunteers and bringing him over to where Fiona and I were sitting together and talking.

"Quigley, I wanted you to meet a friend of mine. This is Fiona."

"Oh, so you're Quigley Quagmire, I've heard of you; you're famous in the organization," Fiona said.

This cartographer was always happy to meet a pretty girl; that was a fact that everyone knew. Quigley smiled at her and started up a pleasant conversation. I smiled at the fact that they were clearly interested in each other. Duncan and I held soft conversations with each other and eventually Fiona was called away for a moment due to a phone call from her brother. Quigley sat down on Duncan's other side and turned to me with a smile.

"She's absolutely lovely, Vi! Why haven't I met her before," He asked.

"We haven't seen each other in years; that's all." I didn't feel like telling the full story yet.

"How do you know each other anyway," Duncan asked.

"Oh, she's Klaus' ex-girlfriend."

Quigley and Duncan both stared at me in complete shock.

"Your brother left that stone cold fox for our sister?!" Quigley looked as if I had just personally offended him.

"It would be more accurate to say she broke up with him."

Quigley muttered something about still yelling at Klaus when he gets home tonight anyway. Nonetheless, he had a great time with Fiona the whole night and even offered to drive her back to her hotel when the party was over. (Surprisingly he didn't stay out all night doing that like I was afraid he might. I guess Fiona has higher standards than that.) The girl saved my life the least I can do is help her get a date, right?

Though I'm not sure how I'm going to tell Klaus that his future brother-in-law and his ex-girlfriend might be getting together in the very near future...

~The End!

I hope you enjoyed it! Bye!