The song for this week is an excellent theme for Leverage: "Wrong Side of Heaven" by Five Finger Death Punch.

We're starting to draw towards the end, though we have two weeks yet to go. After that, I'll be taking a week or so off, and then there will be a set of Leverage AU oneshots. Basically, I got bored last summer and decided to split the team up and plop them in different settings, like the Wild West or a zombie apocalypse. It was fun. There are six of them. Then there's a 3-chapter post-series thing mostly centered around Eliot and Nate – I know you're shocked.

So there's quite a bit more to come from me in the world of Leverage when this is done, at least for now. Thanks for sticking with me this far, and I'll see you in a week!

Enjoy!

Chapter 11: The Righteous Side of Hell

"Damn it!" Nate slammed a hand down on the dashboard. "Hardison, are you sure he didn't go back into the auction room?"

"Pretty sure, Nate. I mean, it's hard to tell given that he shot a giant hole in my camera coverage, but he's got to be in there somewhere."

"Not necessarily," Parker said. "He could have left."

Nate turned to her, his jaw tense and his eyes narrow. "He wouldn't."

"Um."

They both turned to where Molly was crouching in the back of the jeep they had broken into. It had made a good hiding place away from the chaos in the estate, and it could double as a getaway car if necessary.

"What is it?" Nate asked her more sharply than he really intended.

But Molly was used to Eliot now, and Nate didn't intimidate her. "I...I don't think he's coming this way."

"Why not?"

"Because he called me 'Rats.'"

"Rats?" Sophie repeated. "He said it several times, though."

"What does it mean?" Nate asked.

Molly wasn't completely certain she should be sharing the secret with them, but she also thought maybe Eliot knew she'd end up telling them. He'd already sort of told her what he was going to do, after all.

"I'm only going to tell you if you make me a promise," Molly said.

"What kind of promise?" Sophie asked.

"If I tell you...you have to promise that you'll...you'll trust him."

"Trust him how?" Parker asked.

Nate's stare was still not intimidating, but it was intense. It made all the words dry up in her throat. Molly forced them out anyway.

"Eliot...he made me promise to do what he said, because he knew what he was doing. He said he wanted to protect me. And...and he did. But...it was hard. If you...if you try to do something wrong now, it'll be even harder. Because...because he's still protecting us. All of us."

"What exactly do you want us to promise to do?" Nate asked.

"Promise me you'll let Eliot do what he has to do to protect us. Or...he'll get hurt. And I don't want him to. Not anymore. Okay?"

Nate drew in a slow breath, but Parker looked Molly right in the eyes. "We promise." She poked Nate. "Right?"

"Yes, all right. So – Rats?"

"It was a code. If he called me 'Rats,' it meant he wanted me to do the exact opposite of what he said. Like once when he told me to stand back, I jumped in front of him, and he used it to take somebody down and grab their phone."

Nate closed his eyes.

"Wait, y'all had a phone?" Hardison asked, incredulous. "And you didn't, I dunno, call the police or some kind of goon squad or nothing?"

"Eliot had a plan," Molly said.

Nate was nodding. "Yes. He did."

"Nate?" Sophie asked.

The pieces were slotting into place inside Nate's head now.

You're with me, Rats. To the end.

Well, get over here, then. It's your turn to be Rats.

See you later, kiddo.

And, of course:

You're going to betray me. And then I'm going to betray you all.

Eliot had given Nate more than a dozen clues. He'd given him his entire plan.

"Eliot's already gone," Nate said into the silence over the comms. "That's why he took out his earbud and destroyed the cameras. He's probably already off site."

"He wouldn't leave you three there unprotected," Sophie said.

"That's why he asked Hardison if he had control over the cars. If anybody comes our way, Hardison can run them off the road." Nate rubbed at his forehead. "Because the job isn't about Borzoi or the auction, is it, Molly? Not anymore."

He opened his eyes to see her shaking her head.

"Then what's it about?" Sophie asked.

Nate looked steadily at Molly and waited until she answered.

"He's going to get rid of the price on your head," she said.

"How?" Parker wanted to know.

"He'll do what he has to," Nate said.

They could hear Hardison gulp over the comms.

"We have to get to him," Sophie said. "Nate, we can't let him do this!"

Nate reached for the keys to the jeep, only to find them missing. He looked across to Parker sitting beside him.

Parker was looking out the passenger-side window.

"Parker?" He aimed for gentle. "If we go now, we might still catch him."

"No." Parker didn't turn around. "No, you have to let him do what he thinks is right."

"What?" Hardison yelled.

"It's like the mountain. The second one we stole, when we found that frozen dead guy and his notes and his phone."

Nate waited. Sometimes it took the patience of a saint to let Parker put her meaning into words in her own time. Especially times like now, when every second was precious. Every second, Eliot was getting farther away. Every second, Eliot was making plans, intent on one thing.

The thing Nate had never, ever wanted to ask of him.

"What happened on the mountain, Parker?" Sophie asked, her own voice warm, safe.

"We...we found him. Alan. But we couldn't bring him up. There wasn't enough rope. And I wanted...I wanted to bring him. I wanted to...to do the right thing. Like...like you would have done."

She turned to face Nate and he was surprised at the tears in her eyes. Barely there, but there nonetheless.

"And Eliot told me...he told me it was a good thing it was us down there. That we…"

She stopped, and Nate didn't know how to make her start again.

But Hardison's voice came, soft and low and just for her. "What did he tell you, Parker?"

She took a deep breath. "He told me that the two of us do things the rest of you can't. Can't or won't. And he said...he said it could be a gift or...a curse. That it was up to us to decide."

Nate's chest ached. If Parker were anyone else, he would reach out, put a hand on her shoulder, maybe even hug her. But right now she was wound tight, her shoulders up, her body defensive and prickly. Hardison could have hugged right through all those signals, either oblivious to them or willing to risk being wrong. Eliot wouldn't have hugged her, but Nate thought maybe he could have just like Hardison could – the three of them had an ease together that was theirs alone.

Just as he had an understanding with Eliot. Just as Hardison hid behind Eliot. Just as Sophie confided in Eliot about Nate, a fact he was certain they didn't think he knew – they should really know better than to talk about him in his own apartment by now.

But, as much as he hated it, he couldn't argue with it. "He's right, Parker," Nate said quietly.

Her face quirked, a slight flinch of incomprehension.

"Eliot's right," he repeated. "You and he...you do take care of the things we can't. And sometimes we ask you two to do the things we won't. And it's...it is a curse. And maybe a gift, too. But today it's a curse. Because that's what Eliot's doing, isn't it?"

Parker nodded. "They want you dead. You. And we can't...you heard him. We can't play with this guy. He just wants to kill you." She swallowed. "Eliot can't let that happen."

"Parker." There was sympathy in Sophie's voice.

But it galvanized Parker and her expression went hard. "And I'm not going to let you stop him."

Nate put out a hand for the keys. "Parker, if we don't stop him, I mean, just think about what he's going to do. What it's going to do to him."

She shook her head, her eyes going dark and furious as they did only when people threatened her money. And, if Nate was honest with himself, when people threatened their team.

"Eliot can handle doing what he has to do. He trusts me and I trust him. And you promised Molly that we would trust him, too. And I'm not going to let you die, either."

There as a sound of sudden clicking and typing from the comms, and then Hardison swore.

"What is it?" Nate asked, looking up.

"Well, looks like it won't matter much anyway."

"Why?"

"'Cause you're not going anywhere."

And a crowd of paramilitary soldiers swarmed them.

-==OOO==-

"Well, this looks like a lovely party."

"Sterling." Nate sighed.

"It's amazing how quickly you can get an international peacekeeping force together when you mention the word terrorism," Sterling said. He sauntered in wearing a suit without the bulletproof vest of the guards standing outside the door.

"I'm surprised the Venezuelan government played along," Nate said. "They're not exactly known for international cooperation and the sanctity of law."

"Oh, we gave them good reason," Sterling said. He smirked at where Hardison was still pouting – he would call it 'fuming,' of course, but it wasn't – in the corner. The cheap van had been surrounded at the same time as the rest of the complex, and now four members of the Leverage and Associates team, plus Molly, sat in a single, smelly police transport vehicle.

"You're welcome," Hardison grumbled.

Sterling's smirk turned into a wide grin.

"What do you want?" Nate asked.

"Well, at the least, it seemed a courtesy to come and thank you all." He put his hands into his pockets and rocked on the balls of his feet. "Thanks to your little game, I'm now going to go down in history as the agent who single-handedly oversaw perhaps the biggest bust of criminals in history. We've got all kinds today, from terrorists to mafia." He winked at Sophie. "And an art thief."

"Ex-art thief," she corrected.

"So?" Parker was glaring at him with the kind of expression that usually ended in people getting tased. "Why are you here now?"

Sterling tipped his head to Nate. "How about a little chat? Just you and me. For old times' sake."

Nate looked at his group and gave a single nod. "I'll be right back."

Sophie edged closer to Molly as Nate rose. "Be careful."

"Oh, how's that for trust?" Sterling asked in mock outrage. "After all we've been through together?"

"You're lucky Eliot's not here," Parker said.

Sterling tipped his head. "Maybe I am at that. Nate? After you."

Outside the van, Sterling waved to several more guards and set off along the fence at the edge of what had been Borzoi's property. When they were properly out of earshot, he stopped and pointed at Nate's ear.

Nate nodded and pulled out his earbud, tucking it into a pocket and stuffing it way down where it wouldn't pick up much in the way of audio.

"So. Your puppy's still missing?"

Nate scowled. "Stop it. What do you really want?"

"Olivia says hi."

Nate growled.

Sterling considered him. "I think you're more impatient than you used to be. Apparently being a criminal has caused you to lose focus."

"Sorry for being distracted," Nate shot back. "It's been a very busy day."

"Oh, I know. Kidnapped by the Russian mob, then assuming control over that self-same mob, auctioning off your puppy to a room full of people who make him look positively angelic, coordinating evidence that changed the prize of this little auction into a stolen copy of Interpol's criminal database, hacking my division's private funds to pay your little mob, and then being placed under arrest. Oh, and after all of that, losing your precious puppy all over again." He smiled. "Did I miss anything?"

"If you need more time to get to the point, I could go wait in the van," Nate offered.

Sterling chuckled. "I knew you were going to lead me to something big, Nate. I had no idea it would be the case of my career. I might even owe you another favor for this."

"I don't care," Nate said. "What do you really want?'

"It's not really about what I want. It's about what you want. You and your team."

"Well." Nate folded his arms against his chest. "A pass out of here would be nice."

"That's easy enough. Thanks to Hardison, there's no evidence of you or your team being connected to any of this. Even Spencer. We've got no reason to hold you."

"Good. Then we'll be on our way." But Nate didn't move and inch and didn't look away from Sterling's eyes.

"Before you go, a word to the wise."

"I'm listening. Barely."

"Don't chase after Spencer."

Nate's eyebrows rose and he couldn't stop them. "Is that a professional opinion?"

Sterling shook his head and Nate was surprised. The smugness that usually radiated off the man was dimming.

"It'll be better for you and him if you leave well enough alone this time. Go home, take your people back to the States, and let him go."

"Sterling, you – "

"I know about the bounty, Nate. Tretiak let something slip to his mistress who we took into custody on our way up. Why else do you think Spencer didn't escape when he had the chance? He's trying to save your life." Sterling frowned. "You're a bigger bastard than I am if you won't let him do that much for you."

Nate considered Sterling more carefully. "Why are you doing this?"

Sterling shrugged far too casually. "Piece of friendly advice. For old times' sake, like I said."

"No." Nate shook his head. "You're doing this for Eliot. He contacted you, sent you down here to stop me. Why?"

"What makes you think that?" Sterling asked, and if the question was meant to sound innocent, it failed utterly and deliberately.

"Molly told us Eliot had a phone, but he didn't call us. You showed up within hours of us. You just told me Eliot had a chance to escape but didn't." Nate swallowed a mix of fury and more fury. "He contacted you. Sent you to slow me down. I missed it in our first conversation, but now it's obvious. So, tell me – why?"

"You know why," Sterling said, disappointed. "To save your life."

"Why are you helping him?"

Sterling's eyes crinkled though he didn't smile. "I owed him one."

Nate stopped. Considered.

"Dubai?"

Sterling inclined his head ever so slightly.

And Nate remembered. Remembered Sterling drugging Eliot to get him out of the way while he rescued Olivia from her step-father. Remembered Eliot being enraged, albeit groggy, for being put out of commission.

"I wouldn't have thought you cared about that," Nate said carefully.

Sterling raised one shoulder in an almost-shrug. "If things had gone differently, you or your team could have gotten hurt. I'm the one who took out your protector." Then his eyes met Nate's unflinchingly. "I may not respect what you do, Nate, but don't think for a moment I don't understand the responsibility to take care of what's yours. If our places had been swapped, if Spencer had drugged me and put Olivia in a position to get hurt, he'd owe me one, too."

"What did he ask you to do?"

"Nothing." Sterling wasn't lying – Nate was sure. "Told me he was in a position where he couldn't watch your back and it was my turn to do it. In his own, cryptic way, of course."

Nate didn't care about that part. "And that's what you're doing now? Watching my back?"

"Yes." Sterling rolled his eyes. "If you'd stop being so stubborn about it."

"This isn't me being stubborn," Nate said. "This is me taking care of what's mine."

That won him a tiny smile. "Good. Then take your merry band of ragtag thieves and go home."

"And what about Eliot?"

"What about him?" Sterling replied. "He's finishing the job. Distasteful, yes, and totally illegal, of course, but you have to admire the dedication to his work."

"He's going to kill Amand Gauthier."

"After today, that's barely a chaser."

Nate blinked at him. Sterling shook his head.

"It wasn't your plan to start World War III in there, Nate. I know it wasn't. That was Spencer."

Nate couldn't argue the point honestly, so he didn't.

"Do you want to know how many bodies we're pulling out? No? Well, more than enough. It would be tragic if they weren't all some of the most criminal, deplorable, dangerous people on the planet. But he killed them, Nate, even if not with his bare hands. Killing one more isn't even a drop in the bucket."

"It is to Eliot."

Sterling scowled. "No. Not him. You mean you."

Nate blinked. "What?"

"Spencer's probably killed more people than either of us will ever know, Nate," Sterling said, and he said it as casually as if he were discussing the landscaping. "He's immune to it by now. It's you who's bothered."

Nate curled his hands into fists. "I don't think, for one second, that Eliot will ever be immune to killing people. He does what he has to, but he feels it. Every time."

Sterling shrugged. "Either way. You're the one taking it hard. I wonder what your team will think when they can't pretend they aren't working with a murderer anymore."

Nate thought of Sophie and dropped his eyes.

"Exactly." Sterling actually patted Nate on the shoulder. "So go home and let him go. Better for everybody." He started to walk back to the controlled chaos that was the cleanup of the operation. "Come on. I'll get your people out of here."

Nate followed more slowly, his heart hammering.

"Oh, and Nate?"

Nate looked up.

"If you ever do see Eliot Spencer again, be sure to tell him that we're square. I am not doing this babysitting thing for him anymore. You're too much of a pain in the ass."

-==OOO==-

Nate was quiet all the way back to the hotel – the eleventh hotel they'd rented in Venezuela in an attempt to throw off Borzoi and evade Sterling. Parker drove, which was possibly a mistake, and Molly spent the ride clinging to Hardison, who was clinging right back.

But when they entered the room, finding it tossed probably by Sterling because of course it was but otherwise not overly disturbed, he turned to Hardison.

"I need you to find Amand Gauthier."

Hardison nodded and flipped open the laptop he had managed to keep from the international force of military and police – probably because Parker hid it somewhere and Nate did not even want to think about that.

"I kinda started before, when I got his name. He moves around a lot, but I think he's probably somewhere in Europe."

"Then that's where Eliot is going."

"Nate," Sophie began.

"I know, I know." Nate ran his hands through his hair. "He's probably going to kill him and none of us signed on for that and – "

"Nathan Ford, sit down."

That commanding tone actually stopped Nate in his tracks before he could even begin to pace properly. He blinked at Sophie, who was glaring at him with a glare eerily similar to one of Eliot's. Then she turned it on everyone else.

"You too. Right now."

Nate sank onto the edge of a double bed, Hardison beside him. Parker flopped at the end of it, her head dangling upside down. Molly looked up at Sophie, grinned, and clambered onto the head of the bed, curling up amidst the pillows.

"Now." Sophie's voice was dangerously calm. "I am aware of the fact that you would very much like to panic at this juncture." She pinned Nate with her gaze. "Our Eliot is out there making some...narrow-minded decisions. But I think you've missed the point here."

Nate opened his mouth to reply, but shut it again when another of those dangerous looks was aimed his way.

"We all agreed on the plane to Boston that we were willing to chase after Eliot no matter what. Nothing about that has changed. We also," she peered at Nate, "have had to deal with your doubts and hesitation and misguided attempts to protect us from Eliot."

Parker snorted from upside-down.

"But Nate." Sophie's voice softened ever so slightly. "We have never needed to be protected from Eliot. Sometimes, however, we need to protect him from himself."

Hardison raised a hand. "Then why…?"

She glared again and he froze.

"Can we all agree that murder is wrong? Of course we can. But that's hardly relevant."

Nate blinked.

"The thing in danger right now is not Amand Gauthier. Well, he is, but he's also trying to kill you, Nate, and I take that poorly." She shook her head. "No, the thing in danger is not Amand Gauthier and it isn't even Eliot." Sophie looked at Parker. "What is it that's in danger, dear?"

Parker nodded, blonde hair flopping on the floor. "Family," she said.

"Exactly." Sophie folded her arms. "By all means, let's chase after Eliot and see if we can keep him from doing something he'll have to live with if he's going to regret it. I don't actually know if he will, and I'd rather ask him than make assumptions. But."

And she held them all with her fierce expression again.

"Whether or not he kills Amand Gauthier, he is still going to do something he's going to regret."

"He's going to leave."

Nate turned to Molly, who was holding a pillow to her chest. She regarded him with sad eyes.

"He's not coming back. He said so. Or he didn't say so. But...I know."

"I do, too," Sophie said, and now her voice was low and her face had lost its scary steel. "Eliot believes he is a danger to us now. Half the criminal underworld knows he is connected with us, and as much smoke as we blew at that before the fight broke out, it still might not help."

"So what do we do?" Hardison asked.

"We go after him." Nate said it and felt surer about it every second. "We go after him and we bring him back."

"Even if he kills Gauthier?" Sophie asked, raising an eyebrow archly.

"Even if he kills everybody between here and Gauthier," Nate said. "Because it's not about that. He's not about that. And I'm not going to let him forget that."

Sophie smiled at him. "That's the right answer. Isn't it?"

Nate saw Parker nodding vigorously, which looked oddly graceful the way she did it – probably because she spent half her life upside-down. He turned to Hardison, who gave a small shrug.

"I've already got us tickets to Paris. I'll narrow it down on the way."

"What about me?" Molly asked. "Can I come with you?"

"For now, you probably should," Nate said. "We still have to sort out stuff with your dad, too."

"Already done that, man," Hardison said. Everyone looked at him in surprise. "What? You think I been sleeping the last few days? Hell no!"

"So what did you do?" Parker asked.

Hardison grinned. "Contacted our old boy Agent McSweeten. He's working the case as we speak and should have Molly's dad in real witness protection in a couple of days, especially when he finds out about Sterling's bust." He nudged Parker's foot with an elbow. "I told him Molly's in our custody. He emailed me something for you."

"What is it?" Parker didn't even bother sitting up.

"Uh...some kind of music video with a lot of pictures of flowers and Bryan Adams singing in the background."

"Ew." Sophie shuddered. "Delete that."

"Already done. Wish I'd never seen it."

"Glad I never saw it," Parker added.

Nate shook his head. "So. Once more into the breach, dear friends?"

"We're going to the airport, not the breach," Molly said. Nate glared at her and she grinned. "You walked right into that one."

"I suppose."

And even as they gathered what of their belongings was worth dragging onto another plane, he thought about Eliot. Probably already halfway across the Atlantic. With death in his heart, and thinking there was a broken team in his wake.

Nate had said before that he thought Eliot would walk into hell on broken legs for the team. Now, he knew for sure that Eliot would go farther than that. All the way down.

And Nate would follow him there. Would chase him down as he had years ago when they'd been on opposite sides of the game. Would run him to the ground and catch him and turn him around.

Nobody was walking back out of hell unless they all walked out together.