AN: Well, the wait's over. Here's the action I've been promising! This sequence was an absolute blast to write and I hope you all enjoy it. As always, thanks for taking the time to read and review. I love hearing your thoughts!
Warning: violence against a minor (not graphic)
Though Danny would never dare say it out loud, he'd determined long ago that his partner was a bit of a drama queen.
It wasn't exactly difficult to spot. High speed chases, gunfights, grenades, and numerous explosions seemed to follow the man wherever he went. With over ten years of experience as a police officer, Danny could say with the utmost certainty that these things were not inherent to life as a police officer.
Yet, Steve seemed to think of them as a daily benchmark. Five-0 wasn't allowed to clock out until they'd had at least one chase and one gunfight that day with the option of an explosion. All too often, he found himself removing grenades from Steve's gear while his friend pouted beside him. No, Steve, he'd say, you don't need to blow the door open. No, Steve, you can't bring a rocket launcher. Five different knives on your person is a tad excessive, babe.
Frankly, it wasn't doing Danny's blood pressure any favors.
Today, however, he gave the giant lug a pass on everything. If the numerous explosions didn't take these bastards down, Danny would be more than happy to finish the job.
Breathe, Williams. Now is not the time to lose control.
Clamping down on his rage, Danny carefully harnessed the adrenaline it offered and gave Steve a silent nod. Chin and Kono mirrored his nod on the other side of the door.
Steve began the silent countdown.
3… 2…
"Five-0!"
"Hands in the air!"
The quiet evening erupted into chaos. Between HPD crashing in through the back exit and the cacophony of shouts from the trapped criminals, the inside of the warehouse was truly the definition of pandemonium. Some were raising their hands in fearful surrender, others were raising their weapons with fearful ferocity. But the wave of navy-clad HPD officers quickly quelled the attempted rebellion.
Danny didn't care. He only had eyes for their leader.
"There! He's on the upper level!"
Chin's shout crackled through his earpiece, drawing his searching gaze to the observation office situated above the warehouse floor. Through the large windows, he easily spotted Nicolas Vivoldi flanked by four of his cronies staring down at the commotion below his feet.
Gotcha.
As tempted as he was to take a shot right then and there - that bastard had used a child to murder someone, for crying out loud! - the presence of HPD made following protocol even more important. Instead, he sprinted for the nearby stairs behind Steve, his friend's death stare clearing the way more effectively than any other tactic.
Of course, it was never that simple.
As soon as the drug lord caught sight of the Five-0 team careening in his direction, he disappeared behind a wall.
"He's running!" Kono called.
"We'll catch him," Steve growled, putting on an extra burst of speed.
Apparently, he wasn't lying about the whole 'enhanced speed' thing. Bounding up the stairs, Steve reached the door before Danny - who was next in line - was half-way up. At least he'd learned his lesson about waiting for backup, waiting those few precious seconds for the rest of the team to reach the top before throwing the door open…
… and immediately ducking back behind the frame as a hail of bullets greeted him. Trapped on the stairwell, it was impossible to enter the office without catching a facefull of lead.
But 'impossible' rarely slowed Commander Steve McGarrett down.
The SEAL leapt onto the railing like a crazed gymnast and sent an answering salley of bullets through the window, somehow bending his body backwards to achieve the appropriate angle. It was enough to redirect the attention of the gunmen long enough for Danny, Chin, and Kono to storm through the door and take them both down with shots of their own.
"There's another hallway back here that wasn't on the specs!" Chin called, already moving towards it with his gun raised.
Well, crap. If there was one thing Danny hated most about criminal masterminds, it was that they always seemed to have some sort of hidden exit.
He plunged into the hallway behind his teammate, feeling Kono and Steve not far behind. Their pounding footsteps against the floor were echoed by frantic steps further ahead. Vivoldi still had two of his henchmen with him, heralding a certain fight should Five-0 catch up with the fleeing drug lord.
Danny was almost looking forward to it.
A set of stairs ran down towards a wide-open door, and he caught a glimpse of the fleeing group beyond it. Putting on an extra burst of speed, they emerged into the sunlight onto a wide strip of concrete that ran between the warehouse and the ocean. A dock with three small speed boats bobbing beside it was the clear destination of the Vivoldi and his goons, but they were caught between it and the formidable force behind them on ground sorely lacking in any sort of cover.
In other words, it was a good old-fashioned standoff at dusk. Gotta love the irony.
"Five-0! Put your hands in the air!"
"Do it now, Vivoldi!"
"Drop the guns!"
"Freeze!"
Getting to be the top guy in a massive drug operation required a fair bit of intelligence, a quality that Vivoldi certainly didn't lack. Too far from the dock and nothing but an empty concrete space to utilize, he and his men halted and slowly turned around. However, the smirk on his face and the gun barrels pointed in their direction signified anything but surrender.
Given the fact that his team also had no cover nearby, Danny definitely did not like where this was going.
"Tell your men to stand down, Vivoldi," Steve ordered in a level, confident tone. "Surrender and no one gets hurt."
Vivoldi had the gall to chuckle, which only enhanced the sinking feeling in Danny's gut. "I'm afraid not, McGarrett. See, you and your little team won't fire until my men start shooting. Now, given the various types of weapons in play and estimated response times, at least two of your teammates will be riddled with bullets before you can get a shot off. I rather like those odds."
"Maybe, but that leaves two of us still standing. Which means a bullet is still gonna end up lodged in your brain, and I don't think you want that happening."
"You're a terrible negotiator, SuperSEAL," Danny muttered. "How 'bout trying for a solution that doesn't end with me getting shot?"
"Shut up," his friend hissed back.
"It appears we've reached a stalemate," the drug lord called, still appearing entirely unconcerned at the prospect. His men continued to spread out, forcing them to choose a target.
"Not for long. This place is swarming with HPD and our backup will be here any second. Just make it easy on yourself and give up now."
Danny rolled his eyes. It was technically true, but Steve had never called for backup to their location.
But his attention quickly shifted to Chin as his teammate flinched slightly beside him. "You good?" he whispered, keeping his eyes locked on the perp nearest to him.
He felt Chin shudder and his worry ticked up a notch. "Something's not right," the older detective murmured. "Someone else is here."
Meanwhile, Vivoldi's smirk widened. "Who said I wanted to make it easy?"
It'd take an idiot to miss what that meant. Danny was already diving to the ground before the first shot rang out, sensing his teammates mirroring his action. The guy nearest to himself and Chin sent a wild spray of lead above their heads while the other henchman did the same towards Steve and Kono. Through the chaos, Vivoldi turned on his heel and jogged for the dock.
Never one to go back on his word, Steve rolled over and sent two precise shots toward the fleeing man's figure.
They never reached their target.
But the high-pitched howl of pain, well, that stopped Vivoldi in his tracks.
In fact, everyone froze as a figure appeared out of thin air between Steve and Vivoldi and collapsed to the ground, a keening wail escaping too-young lungs.
A kid.
The kid.
The entire world seemed stunned to silence, all eyes resting on the sobbing child with two bleeding gunshot wounds in her back. No word existed in the human language that adequately captured the absolute horror stifling the very air.
And no word ever would.
Like the piece of criminal scum he was, Vivoldi was the first to move. He sprinted away from the kid, racing towards the nearby boats with one of his henchmen not far behind him. The other guard took off down the pier, too far from the boats to make it before the others took off.
Rage simmered in Danny's veins, overwhelming the horror and giving him the wherewithal to take charge for his stunned best friend.
"Kono, Steve, go after Vivoldi," he growled. "Chin - -"
Bless him, Chin was already up and sprinting after the lone guard escaping down the long empty strip. Shaking off her own shock, Kono ran for the two remaining speedboats.
But Steve still hung back, his jaw working as he stared at the kid whimpering on the hard concrete. "Danny - -"
"I know, I know, I've got her, Steve. Go." When that didn't spur the man onward, he took a deep breath and mustered all the authority he could. "Go, McGarrett!"
Spine straightening, Steve visibly collected himself and sped after Kono. Danny barely glimpsed the look of murderous rage transforming his best friend's face before the man left.
With all distractions gone, Danny sucked in a deep breath and gave into the magnetic pull drawing him towards the injured girl. She was dying, he knew with the utmost certainty - a slow, agonized death no child deserved. Between the blood loss, severed spinal cord, and punctured lung, it was a miracle she still remained conscious.
Or perhaps it was a curse. He knew a thing or two about those.
Before he fully realized it, his hands were resting on that small, frail body and he could feel it all. The pain sparked along his own spine, a faint echo of her own. Instantly, his own senses catalogued the damage, the blood loss, and the seconds slowly ticking down to the demise of a young life.
And then her eyes found his own, her lips moving in wordless pleas. She barely possessed the strength to cry anymore, her body heaving and hiccuping as a harsh reality made itself known. In that moment, he saw his daughter reflected in that fragile face.
"It's okay, sweetie, it's alright," he murmured gently, one hand gently grasping her freezing fingers. "Hey, keep lookin' at me, huh? I'm here to help."
I can save her.
Still, instinct honed over a lifetime forced him to pause and consider this irreversible action. Self-preservation always reared its head, and he forced himself not to shove it aside lightly lest it not reappear later. There were others he'd passed by - whether for his own safety or for the safety of his secret, it didn't matter.
In this situation, every instinct told him not to take that leap. He'd already intervened with Chin's migraine, sapping some of his reserves that this task would certainly require. It was too open, too dangerous.
And it brought back his worst nightmares to the forefront of his imagination.
Yet, all the imperilment in the world wouldn't, couldn't change his mind. Because, in the end, it was never really a question at all.
His eyes slipped closed of their own volition. Blocking out everything around him, he focused solely on this little girl.
He didn't really know how it worked, though he'd tried to research it once. The entire world was comprised of energy in a variety of forms, energy he could manipulate. However, basic physics dictated that energy couldn't be made or destroyed, just… relocated.
And Danny was the conductor. He was the path of least resistance, both an absorber and distributor of energy. Alone, that was enough to garner all sorts of malicious attention.
The fraction of Soul in his power makeup made him a damn commodity.
It refined the Energy levels to focus primarily on biometric energy. It was easy to give his own to others… and to take it as well (though he vowed to never do it again). And with a bit of focus, he could refine that energy and use it to heal.
Of course, all that made it sound obscenely complicated. In reality, all he needed to do was push his own energy over to the other person.
It hurt like hell, the pain of the wounds transferring over to him; pain that wouldn't dissipate for hours. But that wasn't the worst part. No, the worst part was the seeping coldness and the unshakable loss that slowly overwhelmed his system as he gave himself away. His entire body felt wrong, off-kilter - like someone going in and rearranging his organs into completely incorrect places.
Still, he pressed on.
Sometimes, he wondered what it felt like on the receiving end. Part of him didn't want to know.
"It's alright, honey," he continued to reassure the girl, feeling the wounds mending beneath his trembling touch. "Just rest, I've got you."
A wave of weariness washed over his now-shaking body, but he stubbornly pressed onward. Soon, the wounds fully mended and he sent an extra burst of energy to help her body recover from all the hard work it'd just done before breaking the connection.
Gasping, he opened his eyes. He was still alone on the concrete amidst the Hawaiian sunset, the little girl in a limbo between sleep and the waking world. Blood coated the ground around him, leaving stains in his dress pants and horrid marks all over the kid's shirt. But a look at her back showed nothing but two round faded scars, seemingly decades old and hardly noticeable to any eye but his.
At some point, she'd ended up in his lap, cradled against his body. Her fingers - warm once again - clung to his shirt as she buried her face into his chest. For a moment, he relished in it all, in the precious renewal of life.
She's alive. I saved her.
Then came the crash. After all, power comes at such a high price.
~H50~
Something about this guard was different. Chin knew it from the start.
After all, what kind of henchman ran in the opposite direction of their boss? It went against all the unspoken rules of the bodyguard relationship. And Vivoldi actually earned loyalty from his men, so why would this guy abandon his boss at such a key moment?
A second indicator came when the kid got shot. Both Vivoldi and his other guard looked horrified, but this guy appeared both dismayed and… guilty. It raised far too many questions for the detective, ones he dared not consider in the midst of this foot chase.
And thirdly, the guard ran headlong towards the hubbub of voices that signaled HPD's position.
Putting on an extra burst of speed, Chin managed to tackle the guy just as he rounded the corner of the warehouse. The entire host of HPD officers and arrested criminals bore witness to a textbook shoe-lace tackle that brought the perp crashing to the dirt. His old football coach would've been impressed.
A few officers ran over to help but he waved them off. Much to his surprise, the guard put up no resistance as Chin secured his hands behind his back and read him his rights. For a man that just put up a rather impressive escape attempt, he was awfully compliant when Chin hauled him to his feet and led him towards the nearest police car.
It wasn't until Chin guided him into the backseat that the man bulked.
"Listen to me," he hissed. "I'll talk. I'll tell you everything, don't even care about a deal. There's way more going on here than a dead guy and Vilvoldi, way more. This is only the beginning, alright? Get me somewhere safe and I swear I'll spill everything. You hear me?"
Stiffening, Chin met the man's steady gaze with a piercing one of his own. Despite his doubts, all he saw was honest urgency. The guard was telling the truth.
Then a burst of fiery power flooded his brain.
His heightened senses were going absolutely berserk and it took a great deal of effort to tune out the irrelevant data and hone in on the source. Like a beacon amidst the darkest night, it signaled to the Hunter with a beckoning call.
An elite.
A powerful elite.
Danny had likened Chin's abilities to that of a thermal imaging system and he wasn't entirely wrong. Sinking to another level of awareness, nearby elites using their gifts popped up in little colors amidst a sea of black. They were flickering flames of all different shades, that pigment giving away a hint of their abilities. If he concentrated enough, he could even read the unique identifying signature of each flame that signaled which elite it was.
This flame was so bright - so incredibly powerful - that Chin didn't need to concentrate at all. Only pureblood elites at the height of their abilities could do this, like Kono when she decided to summon a literal tsunami one day when they were kids.
But this wasn't Kono.
No, that silver bonfire with flecks of gold carried a newly familiar signature. One that sent shivers down his spine.
Danny.
Mind racing, he recalled Danny heading for the injured child. Someone must've ambushed him or something. He was in danger, he had to be!
Spinning, he made eye contact with Duke and motioned him over. "Get your most trusted officer to take this guy to Five-0 rendition. Nobody goes in or out, understand?" When Duke nodded, he dropped his voice further for one last order.
"Keep everyone away from the side of the warehouse facing the ocean. I mean it, Duke. No one goes back there until I say."
Then he was off, sprinting back the way he'd come towards the slowly dimming flame.
He wasn't sure what to expect - he'd never seen one with silver as the primary color before - but he knew it'd be huge. People-flying-through-the-air-shooting-lighting huge. But there was nothing - no visual indicators of a struggle or a reason for such a power surge.
Nothing but a single figure kneeling on the concrete in the light of the setting sun.
"Danny!"
But the blond didn't move, remaining hunched over on the ground in what Chin now saw as a pool of blood. Heart leaping in his throat, he threw everything he had left into a final burst of speed.
No, please no, please, please…
His gun was out of his holster and at the ready as he scanned the surrounding area for threats, just as his training dictated. Steve and Kono were nowhere to be found, probably in pursuit of Vilvoldi and his other goon. Likewise, Chin didn't see anyone else on that deserted stretch of land.
What the hell?
Concentrating, he took a peek at the 'elite view' and found the same confusing result. Only that fading silver and gold flame remained, as well as the faint imprint of the invisible young girl's signature.
With no threats to contend with, Chin crashed to his knees beside his unresponsive teammate and fully absorbed the entire scene. His initial thought that Danny was alone proved to be false. The girl - their initial suspect - who took two shots in the back from Steve's gun lay cradled in the Jersey native's arms, asleep with a healthy pink to her cheeks. Her hand clenched the bottom hem of Danny's shirt even in her sleep, and it once again struck Chin just how young this girl was.
Danny, on the other hand, looked like death warmed over.
Chin had seen corpses with healthier complexion than the ashen gray of Danny's skin now. His entire body trembled like a tiny leaf in a stiff breeze, muscles practically convulsing with no apparent trigger. With dark bags under his eyes that definitely hadn't been there that morning, Danny's face was dulled from weariness.
It didn't make any sense.
"Danny," he tried once more, this time kneeling before his catatonic friend. "Danny, what happened?"
Blue eyes slowly rose to meet his, half-lidded and exhausted. "S-saved her," he slurred, another tremor wracking his frame. "She-she's okay."
Frowning, Chin examined the girl more closely. Her entire shirt was saturated with tacky, drying blood with two little holes showing where the bullets had entered her body. Yet the skin beneath those holes was completely unblemished, as if she'd never been shot at all.
But that was impossible, right? He'd seen her go down, watched as blood spurted from her back. She'd been hit, he was sure of it!
Blinking, he reexamined the girl's back, only to find the exact same thing. Nothing but two round, faded scars adorned where he thought the bullets entered.
What the hell?
"What did you do?" he asked incredulously, shaking his friend slightly when Danny didn't respond.
"She's 'kay, right?" A whimper escaping his lips, Danny was nearly limp in Chin's arms. Pure stubbornness kept him semi-upright, but a collapse was soon coming.
Shoving his questions aside, Chin nodded and gently rubbed his hands against the detective's freezing biceps. "Yeah, she's fine. I'm a little more worried about you right now. Can you tell me what's wrong?"
But Danny's eyes were already slipping shut. "'M sorry," he murmured. "D-didn't-t tell you."
Then, he truly collapsed, his body deadweight against Chin's iron hold. Shallow breaths puffed against his neck, but somehow, they did little to comfort the older man.
What had that guard said?
This is only the beginning.
Though he wasn't sure he believed it then, he agreed wholeheartedly now. Judging from the lead ball of dread in his chest, this beginning would surely lead to nothing good.
No, nothing good at all.
I know, I know, I'm evil. Some of you called this part early on, and I hope it lived up to your expectations! Really excited to keep sharing this story with you, and I'd love to hear what you think of the big reveal! Until next time...