Hello everybody!
So, the past months have been intense, so I do apologize for the lack of updates.
The good news is: i've finished the story.
I want to thank FictionWriter91 from the bottom of my heart for all the help, friendship and support.
Enjoy your reading!
Pavs.
Chapter Twenty-Eight: Bring Me to Life
[Woodsman]
He had been there for almost a month, trying to blend in the community and working a low-profile job so that he would not be on anyone's radar. He had failed Gabrielle and Barney once; he would not do it twice. The guilt inside was already immense. He was walking to work that morning when he spotted a familiar face. He kept looking at the man, trying to remember why he was important when it hit him.
This was Yin Yang, one of Barney's men.
He smiled, knowing that he may finally have a chance at getting her out of there.
[Yang]
This mission had been a success, far from the mess that had been his last mission with Trench. He sighed. They probably had not been ready to go back on the field yet, but they'd pushed themselves to go anyway. Yang looked at his suitcase and felt like delaying his return to New Orleans. He took out his wallet and looked at the picture of his wife and son. He had always mentioned them as a joke, not being fully able to admit that he did have a family once upon a time. His son would be turning 6 years old in a month, but he would be celebrating it with his new family.
Yang hadn't been there when his wife gave birth and died in the process. Nobody knew where he'd been, let alone if he was alive or not, so they had put the baby up for adoption. Yang had been heartbroken and had fought to have his child back but to no avail. He did make sure his son was well taken care of, though.
He couldn't imagine the pain Barney was in. At least he knew his son was alive. His friend, however, had waited 22 years to learn about his daughter, only to lose her a couple of months later. It was not a pain that a father should feel, and as Gabrielle's friend, it was not a pain he wanted to have either. But she was gone.
He took out another picture, one she had gave him. It was one that Gunnar had taken of the two of them talking in Tool's tattoo parlor. She was smiling. He smiled too while he let the memory come back to him. He wished he'd been more expressive, that he would have told her how much she meant to him while he still had the chance. She never held it against him, though, that he knew.
He heard a commotion outside his window and frowned. He was about to go and see what was happening when he heard someone knocking at his door. He took out his gun and positioned himself to make sure he wasn't vulnerable to whoever was on the other side of the door.
''Yes?'' he said in mandarin and was answered by a woman.
''I mean no harm, but I am afraid we must go now, mister Yang,'' she said, and he opened the door just wide enough to see her face.
It was Maggie, the woman who'd worked Vilain mission with them. He frowned, wondering why she was reaching out to him.
''May I please enter?'' she asked, and he let her in.
''What is it?'' he asked her, and she reached out in her pocket to show him a picture.
''I believe we both know her?'' she said, and Yang felt his heart stop at the sight of Gabrielle's face.
Then he noticed her hair was different and there were new scars.
''She's alive,'' Maggie said, and Yang looked at her straight in the eyes, trying to see the lie.
He did not dare hope.
''Why are you telling me this?'' Yang asked, and she looked down.
''As you know, I was there when she was shot,'' she explained with a sad look on her face. ''I had been assigned by Church to help on that mission. I saw her disappear with Vilain, and then I saw her suffer from the way they tortured her…She was so young, yet so strong. I really thought she would make it.''
Yang felt a pang of guilt. He had promised her to bring her home.
''I can still hear Barney's screams,'' Maggie added, closing her eyes briefly. ''I couldn't get that mission out of my head. Then Church called, asking me to help find her body. I, of course, accepted. Then I found this picture three days ago. I sent it to Church, who I believe will send it to Tool as soon as we gather more information. From what I heard last, Barney and the others have no clue.''
''Why?'' asked Yang.
''Would you rather have us give him hope if she turned out to indeed be dead?'' asked Maggie, and Yang nodded.
He knew from the guys just how bad Barney was right now. Tool would make more sense.
''What now? What info do you already have?'' asked Yang.
''We found out that a man called Conrad Stonebanks was behind it all. This is what we have so far,'' Maggie explained as she gave him a USB flash drive.
He took it before getting his computer out of the suitcase. He read the file once, then twice. He could feel the anger rising, the fear too.
''How soon can we get her out?" Yang asked.
''As soon as we find where he is keeping her,'' she replied, and they repacked Yang's things before they went to Maggie's safe house.
[Woodsman]
He saw a woman taking Yang away and frowned. He followed them for a while and swore when he lost their trace. As useful as their ability to not being followed would be with Stonebanks on their arses, it was a pain for him right now.
He got back to his place and decided to make a call that would make or break him. The phone rang twice before the man answered.
''Church here. Speak,'' the man said gruffly, and Woodsman spoke.
[Maggie]
She knew there was something wrong when Church hadn't answered. One look at Yang let her know that she wasn't the only one thinking it. They didn't wait to see if it was them over thinking it before searching for info on his last whereabouts.
Maggie was the one who found him first. Yang noticed from the way she tensed. She felt him getting closer and knew that he was reading over her shoulder.
''You should not believe everything you read,'' said a voice from the doorway, and they both turned, weapons in hand, to face the intruder.
It was James Woodsman. A bloody, barely standing James Woodsman.
''What should we believe then?'' asked Maggie, and James let himself fall on a nearby chair.
''You should tell Tool that Church has been missing, but leave my name out of it. Then, only then, find the new C.I.A agent assigned to your old team and send him the complete file,'' said Woodsman.
''Why would we do that?'' asked Yang, curious about this unusual demand.
''Because I need Stonebanks to believe I have not gone to you for help, and for that, I need Tool to believe I am a danger. Because I had to watch the girl being tortured to no end, and I owe it to Barney to save her,'' explained a breathless Woodsman. ''Fuck, it really is the least I can do. And before you ask, I had managed to get Church's help before one of Stonebanks's men discovered us, which explains Church's arrest and my blood on your floor.''
''We will tend to your wounds, but you have to let us verify that and tell us where she is,'' Maggie ordered while looking at an approving Yang.
''Let's get to work then,'' concluded Woodsman.
[Yang]
The information Woodsman had provided turned out to be more than useful. He knew everything from the location, to the staff, and all the way to Stonebanks's plans regarding Gabrielle. Yet, he couldn't help but think that something was amiss. He was looking at the picture that Maggie had first shown him while thinking about Tool's recent call.
He hadn't told him about Woodsman, but he did confirm Gabrielle's state. She was alive, she was captive, and Stonebanks was behind it all. He could feel his friend's fear and pain, which made him feel relieved that Tool was with Booker.
Yang had also seen the sadness in James's eyes while he was listening to the phone call. He had searched the man right down to his possible birthmarks and all the way up to his great-grandparents. There was nothing that James was hiding, which was the best he could get from a man like him.
''Did you find something new?'' asked Woodsman while entering the office, and Yang shook his head.
''No. I was simply looking at the picture Maggie gave me when she found me,'' Yang explained, and James motioned for the picture, which Yang gave him.
''Well, it was about time the woman breached the security camera system. We'll be able to go and get Gabrielle faster,'' said James.
''What do you mean?'' Yang asked, and James gave him a weird look.
Why wouldn't Maggie tell him that she had hacked the system? James seemed to realize something, and he called Maggie's name softly. She came to the room and saw them both with the picture. She exchanged a sad look with James, and Yang grew impatient.
''You could have told us! We've been waiting to get images for days,'' Yang said angrily.
''I didn't delay the rescue mission. I gathered almost all the intel we will need,'' she said, and when Yang kept glaring at her, she sighed. ''Yang, I had access to all of the camera footage. I could barely watch it, or listen to it. It was…I tried to save you from this torture. I know she is a very close friend to you, so you should not have to see her like that. And when I realised that Woodsman really was on our side, I wanted to spare him the guilt of having to leave her behind.''
Yang felt the anger slowly fading while a single tear rolled down Maggie's cheek. She turned to the desk, opened a hidden compartment, and gave him a USB stick.
''This is where I stored the camera footage. I worked on the plan while hiding them. I hope you know that it was done with good intentions. I'm sorry,'' she apologized, and Yang nodded before he sat at the desk, putting the USB stick in the computer.
The files appeared on the screen, and he took a deep breath before he opened the first one. He watched as a deep fear seemed to spread through his entire body, and he kept watching as the fear was replaced by pain, then by an indescribable rage. He spent hours in front of the screen with both James and Maggie by his side. He said nothing, showed nothing.
Not when she bled, not when she screamed, nor when she struggled to fight back. Not even when she begged, cried, and suffered. He was like a statue made of stone as he saw her shatter like a ceramic vase that somebody had thrown against a wall. He was frozen in time, speechless. And she was moving, trying to get away from the twisted men, the knives, the white-hot irons, the whip, and the ropes. He felt vulnerable as he saw her waking up, again and again with less and less memory, but with more and more will to fight and to remember. He felt the names of his teammates getting tattooed in his brain as she recited her list like a morbid song. And he listened to her telling Isaacs and Stonebanks to fuck off whenever they would try to get her to betray the Expendables.
But when he saw her fade away, winning more but remembering close to nothing, when he saw her accept her fate with sadness in her eyes as Isaacs took pleasure with her almost unconscious body, and when he heard her call Conrad Stonebanks ''father'', he felt his whole body getting wide awake.
He got up so fast that the chair he was on fell backwards to the floor, and he let out a deep, primal scream. He was enraged, mortified. His heart was beating so fast that he felt like he was going to pass out. But the adrenaline, the anger, wouldn't let him sit still. He stopped screaming and saw both James and Maggie looking at him, waiting for something.
''We are going tonight,'' he declared, and nobody objected him.
Yang knew they weren't quite ready, but he couldn't wait.
Gabrielle had already waited far too long to get back home.
[Gabrielle]
I woke up in a small room with only a sports bra, tank top, and shorts on. It was quiet except for a television playing in a distance. I sat up and noticed that there were closed curtains in front of a window. I opened them to see a beautiful mountain view. Then I focused on the forest and the trees. I gasped.
Where was I now?
I looked at myself and noticed that someone had tended to my bandages too. I got closer to the door and opened it slowly. There was a woman asleep on the couch in front of the TV. She looked familiar, almost as if…
Another door opened, and two men came out.
''Gabrielle,'' the smaller one whispered, and I tasted blood in my mouth shortly before my legs gave out.
I would have fallen to the ground had the taller one not caught me. I couldn't breathe. I felt like my blood was boiling in my veins. My vision was worsening by the second as years of memories flooded my mind.
[Safe house]
''Fuck, that must be the poison! Do we still have the antidote?!'' James exclaimed as Maggie was searching frantically through the stolen drugs, they'd gotten from Stonebanks's doctor.
''I'm looking!'' she said before she saw two more bottles. ''Got it!''
Yang took one from her and proceeded to put the content in a syringe to give it to Gabrielle. He had barely managed to give her a dose when she rolled over and threw up. Then she laid still for what seemed to them like hours before she woke up again, coughing and searching for air. Maggie helped her into a sitting position before the girl finally managed to breathe.
''Are you alright?'' James asked as he was taking her pulse, she nodded.
Then she looked at Yang and felt her heart skip a beat.
''Yang,'' she said in a half-whisper, tears rolling down her cheeks. ''You're here?''
He felt the tears in his eyes as he kneeled in front of her. She threw herself into his arms as she started sobbing uncontrollably. He held her as she cried, as she screamed her pain, and as she pleaded him to be real, to be there. He only talked to her to reassure her. They stayed there for almost an hour before she fell asleep. He took her in his arms and put her on her bed, sitting at her feet, his back to the wall so he was comfortable enough to stay with her.
Maggie came to the room to ask if Yang was alright, but he had fallen asleep too, holding Gabrielle's hand. She smiled with emotion in her eyes before she closed the door behind her.
.
Both Yang and Gabrielle had been sleeping for close to twelve hours, and neither Maggie or James had had the heart to wake them up. Gabrielle obviously needed the sleep to heal, and Maggie knew that Yang hadn't slept more than three hours at a time since she had brought him to the safe house. She did, however, check on them from time to time. Yang had slipped from his sitting position to lying beside Gabrielle. They were facing each other, and Yang still held the girl's hand in his own.
Maggie was looking at them from the doorway and wondered how life would have been if she had a friendship with someone like Gabrielle and Yang had with each other, or like the Expendables had with each other for that matter. She could still remember, no matter how hard the situation had been during the Vilain mission, the Expendables team supporting each other in their own special way. It made her think of Barney again, and she sighed. She had met a lot of people in her line of work but nobody quite like him.
She had wanted to be there for him after they thought Gabrielle was dead, but Church still needed her. They had grown apart, but she always held a special place for him in her heart. She wondered how he would react to his daughter being alive. Then she found herself thinking about Yang's reaction to the camera footage.
Would they show him? Yang had wanted to see, but she knew it would haunt him forever. She'd seen it in his eyes. It still haunted her too. She felt a shiver running down her spine. Barney, Gunnar, Lee, Tool, Toll, Hale and Trench. All different, all loving Gabrielle deeply in their own way. How would they react?
She remembered the conversation she'd had with Gabrielle in the plane, and she knew that the girl would want, maybe even need, to talk about it in her own terms, to at least be in control of her words since she hadn't been in control to what happened to her.
Then she remembered the guys having a lot of difficulty dealing with her coming into their world, their protectiveness of her. She had to tell Yang, to ask him not to tell the others. It could damage the girl even more if they didn't let her heal at her own pace, not to mention the shock of seeing her tortured like that.
She was brought back to reality when Gabrielle started to turn and cry in her sleep. Yang woke up, but before he could say anything, she was screaming.
''NO! STOP! LET ME GO!'' she screamed at the top of her lungs while Yang was trying to wake her up. ''DON'T TOUCH ME! PLEASE STOP! IT HURTS!''
James had come into the room, and before long, they were all trying to wake her up.
''PLEASE GET OUT OF ME! I AM NOT YOURS! GET OUT! STOP!'' she screamed before she finally woke up.
She barely had time to turn before she threw up on the floor.
Yang pulled her hair out of her face while James went to retrieve something to wash the floor.
''I'm sorry,'' she said with a trembling voice.
''It's ok. Come with me, and we'll get you cleaned up,'' Maggie told her, and Gabrielle followed her to the bathroom.
Maggie started the shower, and Gabrielle looked at her.
''I don't want to look at them,'' the girl whispered, and Maggie felt her heart drop.
''Do you want me to help?'' she asked, and Gabrielle nodded. ''Tell me if anything, and I mean anything, makes you feel uncomfortable at all.''
Gabrielle agreed with another nod, and Maggie proceeded to help her remove her shirt and pants. She then helped Gabrielle in the shower and washed her face, arms, legs, and her hair. The girl got out, and Maggie helped her with the towel. Once they were done, Gabrielle sat on the floor and began crying. Maggie sat with her and put an arm around the girl shoulders.
'' I want my mom and dad,'' Gabrielle said, and Maggie felt the tears rolling down her own cheeks.
She knew the girl's mother was dead and that they couldn't get to Barney yet.
''Your mother is and will always be right here,'' Maggie said while pointing at the girl's heart. ''As for your father, we will see him soon. I promise.''
''Will you stay with us?'' Gabrielle asked after a moment of silence. ''I remember that too you know. You really seem like a good person.''
''I could, yes,'' Maggie replied after a few seconds, and Gabrielle let her head rest on Maggie's shoulder.
They stayed like that until Yang knocked at the door to make sure they were all right.
.
Gabrielle had woken up screaming again, only this time Maggie was on a supply run and Yang was out doing God only knew what. It was the third time in a row, not that anybody would blame her. James got up from his chair in the office and went to the living room where he saw her sitting on the couch hyperventilating.
''It's ok, you're safe. You're ok. Breathe with me,'' James said, and she listened.
''I'm sorry. The nightmares just keep coming,'' Gabrielle said, and James nodded.
''I know. You don't have to apologize. I get it,'' he said before he sat beside her.
Gabrielle could see him get lost in his thoughts, and she took his hand. He looked at her with a small smile.
''You don't have to…'' James began, but she interrupted him.
''Of course I do,'' she told him with a soft voice. ''You did save me, you know? And you're taking care of me too. You were my only friend there.''
James got up and started pacing.
''I mean it you know?'' added Gabrielle, and Woodsman looked at the ceiling while trying to avoid looking at her.
''I know you do. That's why I am reacting this way,'' he answered with a shaking voice before he looked at her in the eyes.
Her beautiful, sad eyes.
''Do you know how many people I heard scream and beg like you? How many I have killed or let die at someone else's hand?'' he asked her, and she got up to face him. ''I am not a good person, Gabrielle. I may have been once, but not after Stonebanks. And I can't blame it all on him either. I just can't. Yes, I saved you. I saved you because you reminded me of another life, of another time where I still believed in fighting for the good side. In saving people and arresting the bad guy. But the line got so blurry, Gabrielle. I lost myself. I am not a good person, not anymore. I just want a chance at a redemption I fear I don't deserve…''
Gabrielle didn't let him finished before she hugged him. At first, she could feel him tense, but then he relaxed and hugged her back.
''It's ok. I know you tried. I hear you. I can't forgive you in their names, but I can tell you that I won't let you get lost again. You brought me back where I belong; it's my turn to help now. That's how friends work,'' she told him, and he hugged her tighter.
''As long as you remember to take care of yourself first,'' said James, and Gabrielle found herself rolling her eyes with a small smile.
''Yes sir,'' she replied before he let her go.
''James,'' he said with a smile.
''James,'' she agreed before they turned the TV on and waited on the others to arrive.
[Gabrielle]
It had been a week since I'd been there. I had finally agreed to take medication to help me sleep. My body was slowly but surely recovering. but I still hadn't regained enough weight to look healthy. I thought it was weird since I felt stronger, but Maggie had explained that it was because of both the lack of regular food and high training.
I spent my days watching TV, going out on supervised walks, eating, sleeping and wondering when the hell I would be authorized to speak with my dad or Tool, or any of the guys really. The memories had come back, but my mind was still having a hard time with placing them in order, which was the reason Yang had given me for not talking to them yet. I'd scoffed at that.
There was something going on, and I needed to know what. I saw it was almost time for dinner, so I went to the kitchen before stopping dead in my track while hearing Yang.
''Hale is at the hospital, Stonebanks got to them. Tool has reached out to me talking about you. What do we do?'' Yang asked, and I didn't let James answer.
''What do you mean Hale is at the hospital?! I thought we were here because Stonebanks was following us?!'' I exclaimed, and James looked at me.
''Sit down Gabrielle,'' he said, but I refused.
''Don't fucking get paternal on me! What, you didn't think I could take it? Hale is my friend; I had a fucking right to know! And what about the rest of them? Do you think they aren't fucking missing me?'' I said before I saw Maggie's expression.
Then it dawned on me.
''You didn't tell them,'' I said slowly. I could feel the anger rising.
''We couldn't,'' said James before I could add anything. ''Gabrielle, we just couldn't. Isaacs hasn't told Conrad that you are gone. Any contact with them would be a dead giveaway.''
''What about before you came to rescue me?'' I asked, still pissed off.
''We didn't know in what state we would find you,'' said Yang. ''Gabrielle, you know me. I didn't hold back when you found out about us, and I won't now. Your father is in a really dark place. Losing you has broken him. It broke all of us. I could not give them hope without knowing if you really were coming back to us. He wouldn't have survived it. None of us would have. It is a miracle that you are alive, even more so with your memories almost intact. I know it doesn't feel like a blessing, that you are still in a nightmare, but for us, it is a hope we never thought we could have.''
I looked into his eyes and saw that he was sincere. I felt my anger fade away.
''Will Hale be ok?'' I asked, my voice breaking.
''They are doing everything they can. I am sure of it,'' Yang answered, and I started crying.
I couldn't lose Hale to Stonebanks. I simply couldn't. I had fought too hard, lost too much to let him take away my family. I felt a hand on my shoulder, and I forced myself to calm down. Then I looked at Yang.
''Whatever happens from now on, I want to know. They are my family, our family. I can't and won't let them fight this alone,'' I said, and Yang seemed to hesitate for a second before he agreed. ''So, what's the plan?''
James smiled.
''As your father always says: track 'em, find 'em, kill 'em,'' he said, and I smiled back.
[Safe house]
Tool was reaching out to Yang again. The first time it happened, he and Maggie had looked at the phone ringing before he finally answered. They still were working on a way to rescue Church, as per Gabrielle's request. They hadn't found him but had found Doc instead, which was kind of a shock to him as well. Yang had proposed to send the info and had recommended that Tool give it to Barney without telling him that Yang had been the one to send it.
After all, it appeared that Tool had worked with Booker and Bonaparte, trying to gather info from where they were, and that none of them wanted to test the limits of Barney's mental health. So, they had kept Church's arrest silent as well as the picture of Gabrielle and Woodsman that had somehow ended up being in Church's files too.
That hadn't been a part of the plan, neither had Hale's wounds, Stonebanks reappearing, and Gabrielle deciding to fight with them. Yang was still trying to convince her to change her mind, but it was hard for him as he did understand her need to take control of her life and to protect her family.
The second time, Gabrielle was there, and it had been almost impossible for her not to tell Tool that she was alive and well cared for. So hard in fact, that Yang had simply walked out with the phone in his hands to talk about finding her and being careful with Stonebanks.
Gabrielle had had a fight with Yang, begging him to tell at least Tool. Yang had refused, knowing that from the moment he would tell him, there would be a higher risk that Stonebanks would notice a change in their habits and, therefore, realize that Gabrielle was missing from him. It was the only advantage they had on the man; they couldn't afford to lose it.
Now it was the third time, and Yang could feel that their time was up.
''Hey Yang, I hope you're alright,'' Tool said, and Yang looked at Gabrielle, who was struggling not to cry.
''It's fine. Do you know if Hale is going to be ok?'' Yang asked, and James kept looking at the phone.
''Yeah, he's stable. Problem is, I won't be able to give you any more info about him. I am with Booker; we've gone looking for Gabrielle. I can feel we're close, but we're trying to go faster. Barney is getting darker and darker, you know? He dropped the team to protect them after Hale was shot. Trench tried to convince him not to go alone against Stonebanks. He's killing himself, and it's killing me,'' Tool said, and there was a long pause where Yang said nothing. ''Yang?''
''What do you mean by going after Stonebanks?'' Yang asked, alarmed.
Gabrielle got up and was about to betray herself when James stopped her.
''He was preparing a mission with Drummer's intel. Barney, Trench, and some youngsters he's been collecting to assemble a new team will try to kidnap him and bring him to the Hague in the next few hours,'' Tool explained, and this time James had to physically restrain Gabrielle from saying anything.
They all looked at the phone, and Yang knew it couldn't wait any longer.
''The picture you found was taken three months ago,'' said Yang, and Gabrielle looked at him. ''I found her. She is alive, Tool.''
''Don't…Don't tell me that if you don't mean it…I can't…'' said Tool with a shaking voice, and Gabrielle felt the tears rolling down her cheeks.
''I mean it, Tool. I am working on a way to get her back home,'' Yang said, and they heard Tool cry on the phone. ''I am sending you the file now.''
Gabrielle put a hand on her mouth while trying not to cry loudly. There was a very long pause as Tool was reading the information Yang had just sent him.
''We can't tell Barney,'' Tool said after a while. ''Not yet. We, uh, have to make sure that she is well and safe.''
''Do you know when they'll leave?'' Yang asked, and Gabrielle stopped struggling. She was suddenly abnormally calm.
''I'll try to find out,'' replied Tool. ''Shit. Doc is calling. Got to go.''
''You have to,'' said Yang. ''Take care, Tool.''
''You too,'' said Tool before he hung up.
Yang was about to talk to Gabrielle when he noticed she was gone. He went to her room and knocked. No answer. He opened the door and saw that she was packing the few things that she had.
''Gabrielle we can't…'' Yang started.
''Yes, we can, and we WILL,'' said Gabrielle, clearly pissed off. ''Did you not hear what Tool said about my dad? Did you not hear him cry?!''
''Gabrielle this would be suicide!'' exclaimed Yang loudly.
Gabrielle froze, and Yang felt his heart drop to the floor. He took her hand in his and she averted her eyes. Neither of them could say a word, as if time itself had stopped. She had been getting better over the past weeks. He didn't think…he should've had. Yang was about to hug her when Woodsman phone rang. They turned to him, and James gave Yang his phone.
''I do believe Stonebanks knows now,'' whispered James, but it sounded to them as loud as a scream.
Yang felt the blood drain from his face as Gabrielle got a closer look at the picture.
''Who's this?'' she asked.
''My son,'' Yang answered.
Gabrielle didn't even ask; she didn't need to. Yang was family, so his son was family. It was a simple as that.
''I'll get everything ready,'' said Maggie, and they packed one of the trucks before setting everything else on fire.
.
They'd gotten there just in time to see Yang's son, Bohai, trying to fight against one of Stonebanks's men as his adoptive family was lying in a pool of their own blood. Yang went to get his son while Gabrielle was running behind him. Woodsman took out his rifle, trying to cover their asses as best as he could while Maggie was making sure to make the men's chances to escape was as small as possible.
Yang was seeing red. There was no honor in killing a child and the child's family, certainly not his child. He was ruthless, killing every single opponent with as little mercy as possible. He pushed one of his blades into his last opponent's chest, feeling his heart beat in his temples. He could see Bohai looking at him with big, frightened eyes. He dropped his blade and fell on his knees. The child kept looking at him.
Neither of them noticed the shadow until it was too late. In a leap of faith, Yang took his son in his arms and held him as tight as he could against him for the first and possibly last time. They heard a shot being fired. Woodsman held his breath while looking at the scene from afar while Maggie shouted ''no!'' at the top of her lungs.
Gabrielle looked at the man she recognized as Stanislas drop dead to the floor while her hand gun was still fuming. Then her eyes met Yang's, and the man began crying. They waited a moment for Yang to regain his composure before explaining to the small child who he was.
Gabrielle couldn't understand a word of what was being said. Maggie was about to translate for her when Gabrielle put a hand on her arm as if she was stopping her. This was a private, precious moment, a moment she knew too well.
''I know,'' was all she whispered before turning on her heels to head out.
Bohai had found his dad by going through hell.
She would be doing the same all over again for her dad, for her family.
She was going back to them.
She was going home.
.
Bohai had woken up in tears at the back of the small plane they'd gotten on to go and find their team. Gabrielle hurried to his side as she saw Yang was still sleeping. The man never slept, so she didn't want to wake him up. Plus, the child did speak English well enough to get by. Gabrielle took the child in her arms, and Bohai gripped her shirt, trying to hide in it. Gabrielle caressed his back in a soothing manner.
''It's ok. You're ok. See? Your dad is asleep,'' Gabrielle said, and the child looked at her with tears in his eyes.
''I had nightmares,'' he told her, and Gabrielle felt her heart melt for him.
''It's ok. I get them too,'' she replied as she wiped away Bohai's tears with a piece of her shirt.
''Really?'' Bohai asked, and Gabrielle nodded. ''How do you make them go away?''
Gabrielle felt the tears in her eyes as she thought about Gunnar's songs, Christmas and Trench's reassuring presence, Toll's books, Hale's teas, and her father and Tool's stories. She began to sing to Bohai while rocking him, and the child fell back asleep.
She was so lost in her thoughts that she never noticed Yang's smile or Woodsman and Maggie's soft looks.
.
Bohai had finally fallen asleep. They were on a plane to intercept Barney, Trench, and their new recruits. Woodsman was in the cockpit, talking plans with Maggie while both Yang and Gabrielle were looking at the sleeping child.
''Thank you,'' Yang said, his voice shaking.
''Of course,'' replied Gabrielle before she looked at her friend.
''I owe you two life debts now,'' Yang added, and Gabrielle was about to tell him not to bother with that when she noticed tears rolling down Bohai's cheeks in his sleep.
She knew that pain. She knew it well. She felt an echo of it coming back, along with fear, and could already feel the guilt of what she had to ask of Yang.
''Gabrielle?'' Yang asked while comforting his son by taking his hand.
''Yang, I am so, so sorry,'' she answered with a shaking voice.
''Gabrielle, what's wrong?'' insisted Yang, worried.
''I am sorry because I know where we are going, and these life debts are my only chance at making sure that I'll never fall back into Stonebanks's or Isaacs's hands.'' Gabrielle said, and Yang felt his heart skip a beat.
They kept looking at each other, each second passing like minutes.
She didn't have to use words. He knew, and he dreaded those unsaid words like the world, his world, was about to end. He wanted to be mad at her, but he understood. Still, he wished she wouldn't ask for it. Still, she talked.
''If Stonebanks, or Isaacs, or anyone willing to hand me to either of them takes me, I want you to kill me first,'' she said as he felt time stop.
He could still see her beautiful, sincere smile while she laughed with the team at Tool's. He could still hear her begging Isaacs to not kill her.
He nodded, because his voice wouldn't carry the words she'd been brave enough to use.
If it was her last chance at not suffering anymore, he would do it.
He loved her.
He would kill her.