A/N: Okay, so when I said that this chapter was already halfway done, I was exaggerating a little… or well, I thought it was true at the time, so guess it would be a little more accurate to say that I was just plain old wrong. So, sorry this took longer than expected but really ten days between chapters is practically nothing after waiting five months, amirite? Thanks to everyone who follows/favorites/reviews, I'm glad to know that you're still enjoying this.

And now we finally get to the conflict part of the "Contacts and Conflicts" arc of this story. I've never really written an action scene before, other that the brief and entirely one sided throwdown between Santana and Sam back in chapter three. I hope I did okay. Reviews of this chapter in particular would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Edited: Trigger Warning, Violence and Character Death. Sorry I forgot to tag this before.

Chapter 8

Contacts and Conflicts Part 3

They were both awakened by the sound of an alarm. Brittany sat up slowly, but Santana practically leapt from the bed. She was out the door and down the hall to the main room in less than thirty seconds. Brittany just blinked in surprise at the speed with which Santana was able to move. If all assassins were that fast, she suddenly understood why Santana had insisted that she run from any confrontations with them.

Down in the main room, Abe was in the process of shutting the alarm off when Santana burst into the room. "Have we been breached?" She asked.

"No, that alarm is much louder and comes with flashing lights," he said, "This is just my biometric scanner alert. It means there are assassins on the campus, probably the pair tailing me, but let's look to be sure." Abe finally got the alarm switched off and brought the video feed that had triggered it up on the monitor wall. There they saw a woman with long blonde hair pulled back tight in a ponytail, dressed fairly inconspicuously in black pants, a loose white shirt, and a moss green, light jacket. Walking with her was a tall guy in a long trench coat with all black clothes underneath wearing big black sunglasses. "That's them," he said.

"He's an assassin?" Brittany said from behind them having entered the room unnoticed, "He looks like he just walked of the set of The Matrix."

Abe laughed but Santana didn't get the reference. "Is she just really short or is he insanely tall?" Santana asked.

"He's very tall," Abe answered, "Six foot three, at least."

"Who are they?" Brittany asked, "Are they after us?"

"They're babysitting Abe," Santana said, "Making sure he doesn't get grabbed by The Templars." Brittany didn't seem to understand. "Abe used to be in The Brotherhood, so he knows a lot about us...them," she corrected herself. "They have to make sure he doesn't get abducted and tortured for information." Brittany nodded. Santana turned her attention back to the screen and said, "But Brittany brings up a good point, who are they?"

Abe clicked on a couple of things and brought up a picture of the guy. He had short dark hair, dark eyes, and crooked smirk. "His name is Longhorn. Looks like he's fairly new on the job, hence why he looks so ridiculous. No other assignments in his file. Looks like I may be his first job."

"He's got something slung under his shoulder beneath that coat," Santana observed from the video feed, "Does his file say what sort of weapons he specializes in?"

Abe's eyes went back to the file on his computer monitor as he read, "Oh, well that's fucking… that can't be right," he said, "Says here that he carries an HK G36C."

"What?" Santana said.

"What's that?" Brittany asked.

"It's an assault rifle," Abe said.

"This moron's everyday carry weapon is fucking automatic rifle?" Santana yelled at the monitor wall, "How the hell do you leave no evidence behind when you're pumping out 750 rounds per minute? How do you protect innocent life when you're fucking spraying bullets everywhere?"

"He's never had a kill order before," Abe reminded her.

"How the hell did he even get off the damn farm?"

Abe, still looking over his file, laughed a little and said, "Nepotism. He's a legacy."

"That figures," Santana said.

"What's that mean?" Brittany asked.

"The Brotherhood likes recruiting what they call legacies, family members of past and current assassins, because at least to some extent they already understand the sacrifices necessary to lead this life," Santana explained, "I'm one of them. My father was an assassin before me. He's a full-fledged Brother now, part of The Brotherhood's command structure. Sometimes legacies turn out like me and sometimes they think they're in a John Woo movie."

"You don't know what The Matrix is, but you know who John Woo is?" Brittany asked.

"My pop culture is very hit-and-miss," Santana said, "I've told you that before, but I've spent a lot of time in Hong Kong, so yeah, I know who John Woo is." She returns her attention again to Abe, "Do we know who the girl is?"

He clicked on something and his picture is replaced by hers. Her hair is loose in the picture, hanging down past her shoulders. She has hazel-green eyes and very stern expression on her face. "Wow, she's really pretty," Brittany said.

"Her codename is Ladybird," Abe said.

Santana turned away from the monitor that still showed them walking around the campus. "Ladybird? Seriously? Are you sure about that?"

"Yeah," Abe said confused, "I know her… professionally, I mean. We worked together a couple of times. Why?"

"I really just wanted to ignore these people and just go about my damn business, protecting my girl, but I've got a message that I said I'd deliver to Ladybird if I ever ran into her. Damnit, Sam!" She looked to Abe who apparently hadn't fully grasped her meaning, "I've got to go out there and talk to her," she said.

"That's a terrible idea," he said, "In fact that may be the worst idea you've ever had. There's a really high likelihood that The Brotherhood knows that you're off mission. You know as well as I do that rogue assassins are the most well known people in the whole Brotherhood, and there are many of them who shoot first and ask questions never. You going out there is borderline suicidal." He studied her face and saw clearly that he hadn't said anything she hadn't already thought of herself. "I could give her the message," he offered at last.

Even before he finished speaking Santana was shaking her head, "Can't risk it," she said, "If they're wise to me going off the reservation then they could be onto you, too. If they think that you're working against The Brotherhood, which you sort of are, they'll just kill you to save themselves the headache of having to deal with you."

Abe seemed to take this to heart. "And you can't let this one slide?" There was pleading in his eyes but it was no use. She wasn't giving in.

"Sam helped us get away," Santana said, "Covered our tracks and gave a day's head start, so you know I can't go back on that."

"Okay," he sighed as he started typing quickly on his keyboard, "Give me an hour to lock everything down and I'll be on my way. Then you can go have your face to face with the trained killers who probably want you dead." His naked contempt for Santana's plan was obvious but then that was part of what Santana liked so much about him. Abe was a straight shooter, no bullshit. If he thought you were being an idiot, he'd tell you.

"Sorry you have to flee your Batcave," Santana said.

"It'll be fine," Abe said still typing, "They'll never find this place. I'll be gone before they know what's what and for all they know I was never in Boston. No connection to you, thus no reason to do me any harm."

As Abe went about the business of locking down his base, Brittany and Santana grabbed their things from the room they'd used. Then Santana brought them back into the dojo and started pulling open lockers one after another. Finally at the fourth locker she pulled out a Kevlar vest and held it out to Brittany and said, "Put this on." Without missing a beat she continued pulling open lockers. Two more lockers down she found a belt of throwing knives that she quickly secured around her abdomen and covered with her shirt. Three further lockers down she pulled out a pair of jackets and handed one to Brittany who was still struggling with the vest.

Santana stopped her searching and helped Brittany get the vest secured. "It's really heavy," Brittany said, "Kinda hard to breathe."

"Yeah, well, it will keep bullets out of your major organs," Santana said.

"What are the coats for?"

"They're Kevlar weave fiber with plates to protect your arms too," Santana explained, "Extra protection." Santana stared at Brittany for a long silent minute. "No chance I could convince you to go with Abe and I'll catch up with you later?"

Brittany slowly shook her head. "Because what if that's what they want me to do? What if they want me with him and not you and someone else is laying in wait? No offense to Abe but I don't really trust him to be able to protect me like I do you."

Santana smiled at her. Trust was a word that had been on her mind a lot the last few days, as in would Brittany ever trust her again, now she had her answer. She pressed her lips together before rocking up on her tip toes to press a kiss to Brittany's lips. "Your first instinct still needs to be to run," Santana said, "even if that means leaving me to deal with these guys."

"What?" Brittany said, "No!"

"Brittany," Santana admonished, "You promised me. We pinky swore."

Brittany sighed and looked down. "I know," she said, "I just don't like the idea of leaving you behind."

"I don't like the idea of you leaving," Santana said, "Not at all. I want you with me at all times, always, but if it's between that and keeping you alive, you know what I'm going to pick."

The vest was finally secured to Santana's liking so she had Brittany don the coat as well. "Can I ask you something?"

"Anything," Santana said.

"Why do you call him Abe?

Santana's left eyebrow arched as she looked for any indication that Brittany was kidding. She didn't appear to be. "That-that's what you want to know? Right now?" Brittany smiled softly. "I hate this stupid codename shit that we're supposed to use, so I usually make up nicknames for everyone. His codename was Lincoln and he's a shitty liar, so I called him Honest Abe which eventually got shortened down to just Abe."

"Cool," was all Brittany said as she turned and walked out of the dojo slinging the coat over her shoulder. Santana followed after her. Abe still had some time to go on what he was doing, so they raided his kitchen for some food and water to hold them over in case things with the assassins went badly and they wound up needing to hole up somewhere without provisions.

By the time they were loaded up with as much as Santana would let them carry, Abe said that he had everything in the base locked down to the best of his abilities, which meant that it was damn well locked down. He led them through a door in the back of the main room which opened into the server room for his computer network. Passing through the doorway felt like walking into a sudden snowstorm. The room was kept colder to keep the servers from overheating but since the servers were now shut down there was no heat to off-set the temperature.

They both quickly donned their jackets, knowing that they'd likely need them outside anyway whether there was violence or not.

Another door on the far side of the server room opened onto a short hallway with three sets of elevator doors. The button panels only had up buttons, which was hardly surprising considering how far underground they already were. Santana reached out and pushed the button as Abe flipped open his tablet and brought up the surveillance footage of the two assassins outside. "The elevator will let out in the parking garage. They're up by the Athletics Center, due north of where you'll be." The door in front of them opened and all three of them moved into it. Abe hit the G button for the Ground Floor and the LL button for Lower Level. They rode for a few minutes in silence before the door dinged as the elevator car came to a gentle stop. "I hope you aren't horribly killed in this ridiculously stupid plan."

The doors slid open and Abe rolled himself out. Santana moved to stand between the elevator doors before they could slide closed. "Abe, come on," Santana called after him. He stopped himself rolling away and turned back to face them. "You don't have to think this is the best idea in the world. God knows, I don't," she said smiling softly, "but, please… you understand why I'm doing this, right? I gave him my word. You of all people know what my word means to me."

"I know," he said softly as he looked at his lap, "but you're my only friend in world, Mac. And there's an idiot up there with a machine gun who probably has orders to kill you and no compunction about doing it."

"I'll be careful," Santana promised.

"Of course you will. You're always careful," Abe said, "I'm just scared that's not going to be enough this time." There was heavy silence between them for a long, strained moment. "I dunno, I've got a bad feeling about this." Santana didn't know what to tell him. She was pretty sure there wasn't really anything she could say that would make him feel any better. "Take care of your girl, Mac," he said finally before giving her a sad smile and turning again to wheel away.

Santana stepped back into the elevator car and back into Brittany's waiting arms. She wrapped Santana up and held her so tight that is was well past uncomfortable with the armor from Brittany's vest digging into her back, but Santana didn't say anything, instead just placing her hands over Brittany's joined hands on her stomach. A simple gesture hadn't meant so much to her since before her mother had passed. "I'm sorry," Brittany whispered.

"Not your fault," Santana replied just as softly. They rode in silence for the brief remainder of the trip up to the next level. Brittany let go when the doors dinged again. Santana reached back with one hand and took hold of Brittany's leading them both out. Both of them walked softly through the garage.

As they neared the door that led out onto the campus Santana stopped and turned to look back at Brittany. "Is this stupid?" Santana asked, then before Brittany could voice her confusion at the question she said, "What are odds I'm projecting on her?"

That seemed to clear up nothing for Brittany, "Who?" she asked.

"Ladybird," Santana said, "Sam said he fell for Ladybird. He never said whether or not she ever loved him back. What if I'm risking my life and yours to deliver a message that she doesn't give a shit about? Am I just projecting our situation onto them?"

"I...I don't know," Brittany said, "Do you think you are? Do you... you don't know her at all, do you?"

"Never saw her before, never heard the name before Sam mentioned it the other day," Santana said.

"Then what do your instincts tell you?"

Santana shut her eyes took a deep breath. "My instincts are to tell her," Santana said, "Maybe she cares, maybe she doesn't, but my instincts say tell her, to keep my word to Sam."

"Then that's what we'll do," said Brittany.

Santana nodded. She was slightly in awe of the trust that Brittany had for her after so short a time. She wasn't sure what she'd done to earn it, but she wasn't about to question it now though. "Brittany, if this guy out here even so much as raises that gun in our direction, I want you to run. Run to the bus station, train station, or wherever and get somewhere safe."

"But..."

"I'll find you, Brittany," Santana cut off any forthcoming argument. "I don't want you to tell me where you'll go, because if the worst should happen and they take me alive, I don't want them to torture it out of me. Just go where you feel safe and I'll pick up your trail again, I promise. I'll always find you."

Brittany smiled and pressed her lips to Santana's in a bruising kiss. "I love you," she said.

"I love you, too."

X

Santana's first impression of Ladybird and Longhorn was that they didn't get along at all. She and Brittany had tailed the assassins for a few of minutes now and they hadn't even once looked at each other in that time. There was never once so much as a hint of a smile. Their bodies were both rigid and stiff. Ladybird honestly looked like she was wound so tightly that Santana wouldn't have been surprised if her head just exploded spontaneously.

Abe could hide and protect himself as well or better than anyone she'd ever known, so both of them were taking what was basically a glorified babysitting job way too seriously. That is, of course, unless they knew that Santana had gone rogue and someone had tipped them off that Abe was her best friend and thus she'd be most likely to turn up here. That thought had her once again reconsidering this plan.

But really if The Brotherhood had expected her to surface here, there would be twenty assassins here, not two, and it certainly none of them would be this useless tit Longhorn. Abe's biometric scanners where state of art, so if there were more assassins around, he'd have known about it, so the only conclusion Santana could come up with then was that these two were just way too uptight about what was basically a bullshit job.

They were currently patrolling along the edge of the faculty parking lot outside the Athletic Center. Santana and Brittany were taking cover crouching behind a row of cars. Santana was surprised, though she probably shouldn't have been, about how quietly Brittany could tread when she needed to. Thus far she'd been so quiet that Santana might have had to check to see that she was still back there if not for their joined hands.

When they'd been following them for more than twenty minutes without detection, she didn't know whether to be proud of their stealth skills or embarrassed for Ladybird and Longhorn's lack perception. Eventually it became clear to Santana that they were never going to separate. She wasn't expecting them to, just sort of hoping they would so they could avoid even speaking to Longhorn. She looked back to Brittany and silently mouthed Stay Down to her. Brittany nodded and released her hand. Santana then crept several cars down the line before moving around the side of an SUV keeping low to the ground.

Despite it being night the parking lot was very well lit, so staying out of sight wasn't really an option. She had to settle instead for going unnoticed. Her coat had a hood on it, although as far as she knew it wasn't armored. It was just a hood. She flipped it up over her head, stuffed her hands into her pockets, and walked roughly in the direction of the Athletic Center, timing her pace to cross just behind them as they came her way. She had to hope that they didn't slow down since she couldn't turn to look at them without them potentially identifying her.

Sure enough, mere moments later they walked past her. Longhorn looked even taller in person than he did on the video feed which was slightly freaky. Ladybird was fairly tall herself, a good three to four inches taller than Santana, which made her a pretty good human shield. Just as they were past she pulled her hands back out of her pockets and quietly slipped a pair of knives out of the belt around her torso. She moved silently up behind them and then all at once she grabbed Ladybird from behind and pulled her between herself and Longhorn.

She wrapped her right arm around Ladybird's neck hold the blade of one knife against her throat. However, as she did this, she heard the distinct click of someone taking the safety off of a handgun. A split second later Santana could feel the barrel pressed against her ribs just above her stomach. Presumably it was still in a shoulder holster under Ladybird's jacket. "Nice reaction time," Santana said into her ear, "Got a message for you, Ladybird."

"Let her go!" Longhorn roared when he finally noticed that his partner wasn't beside him any longer. He reached for his gun also slung from his shoulder.

"You leave the gun where it is, Longhorn," Santana admonished, "or I'll put one of these in your throat."

"You think you're better than me?" he said.

"Quite certain of it, in fact," Santana replied confidently, "But at this point you couldn't possibly shoot me and not hit Ladybird here as well. That's sort of the major downfall of using firearms." He made no immediate move to lay hands on his gun. "Now," Santana continued, "despite our current situation, I actually have no interest in harming either of you. I'm just here to give Ladybird a message."

"You're Firebrand, right?" Longhorn said, "We're not interested in your message."

"Who or what is Firebrand?" Santana said, "I'm Lady Christina Vargas and I came here to deliver a message to Ladybird from a guy who called himself Barracuda. You guys all have very interesting names, by the way."

"You're lying," Ladybird growled, "Barracuda's dead."

That tipped Santana's curiosity about what exactly had gone down between them. Although it was a curiousness that would have to wait for a different time, now certainly wasn't the time to get into it. "He was alive and well and living in New York City two days ago. If he's died since then, I'm sorry I didn't get to you in time."

"Let her go," the idiot said again.

Santana felt Ladybird tense up in her grip and she worried that the bullet in the chamber of that gun was about to rip through her. It seemed unlikely since the gun was still holstered. If she pulled the trigger now, she ran a serious risk of it backfiring on her. If Ladybird was any kind of profession (and that was kind of a big "if", considering her partner), then she'd wait for the chance to actually draw her weapon. "I swear to God, Vargas," Ladybird said, "If you're using him… my memory of him, to get to me there's nowhere you can go that I won't find you. There's no hell I won't put you through…"

"He said," Santana whispered, "he said to tell you that he's lucky to have been where he has been."

Ladybird quickly yanked not one but two handguns free of their holsters. However instead of pointing them at Santana, she had them trained on Longhorn. "You son of a bitch!" she yelled, "You told me he was dead. You said you saw it. I'm gonna fucking kill, you motherfucker!"

"That's what he told me to tell you," Longhorn bellowed over her.

Santana was stuck for what to do; this was not a situation she had begun to anticipate. Ladybird was right on the verge of putting bullets in her own partner and she seemed to have entirely forgotten that Santana was even there. That being said she didn't feel it wise to let her go either since she was her only line of defense against Longhorn who had definitely not forgotten about her.

"Who?" Ladybird snapped out at him, "Who told you to lie to me for over a year?"

"I… I… I'm sorry," he said and then with more speed than Santana would have thought him capable of mustering he raised his automatic rifle. Just as he got it to shoulder level, as he was bracing it with he left hand, Santana threw the dagger in her dominant left hand. It sailed through the air, turning as it went and imbedding itself in Longhorn's right thigh, just above the knee. He screamed in pain and his first three shots went flying off into the sky.

Santana let go of Ladybird and ran for the relative safety of the parking lot once more. She looked back only momentarily to make sure she wasn't about to get one in the back from Ladybird, but she too was running away from the guy who was now apparently set on killing both of them. She caught Longhorn leveling to shoot again and she let loose with the knife still in her right hand. It was a wild throw over her shoulder, on the run, against a moving target, so it wasn't her best throw ever and yet it still passed close enough that he had to duck it which bought her a few precious seconds to make it to cover.

She lost sight of Ladybird but could hear her shooting back at Longhorn. She ran between two cars and slid to a stop behind a different SUV than she's passed on her way in. This one was one of those enormous Chevy Suburbans, the kind that take up an entire parking space and then some. She thought it would make good cover for the moment. She looked down the line to find that true to her word, Brittany was gone. She had to remind herself that that was a good thing.

That reminder came just moments later in the form the sound of Longhorn's rifle firing again, the first shots impacting the vehicle that she was taking cover behind. She heard the sounds, felt the vibrations, and soon she was showered in shattered glass as it rained down on her. He was plainly coming after her first.

That makes sense, Santana thought. She was a higher value target to The Brotherhood and he likely knew where Ladybird would run to… or at least had a decent idea anyway. This position was untenable, she decided. She pulled two more of the throwing knives from her belt as another round of bullets plugged the SUV. She no longer heard Ladybird's handguns. She wanted to try to guess which way Brittany had fled so that she could go the other way but she really had no clue.

She took a guess and said that Brittany went back the way they came so she took off to her left. In the gap between the Suburban and the compact car next to it, Santana let fly one of the daggers. She listened and heard it impact something metal just as bullets stopped flying. Presumably, he'd batted it away with the barrel of the gun but at least it had stopped him shooting at her momentarily. She tossed the next dagger completely blind over the top of the next car as she kept running. She heard him wince in pain.

She stopped and looked back at where she'd been running from when a familiar scent hit her. It was gas, and not a little bit of it. Some of his thirty odd stray bullets had hit a gas line or two in these cars and it was starting to pool up enough to be smelled. Sure enough it was running out from under the Suburban and at least one of the other cars she'd run past, and as Santana's luck would have it she was currently running downhill.

All of the glass in the car she'd just passed exploded and snapped her back to more immediate problems. She switched directions, turning to her left again and running laterally away from the flow gasoline. Another, smaller SUV was just ahead in the next row of cars and Santana made for them.

The bullets stopped momentarily and Santana looked through the window of the truck to see Longhorn stride through the first line of cars and begin looking for her. He'd lost her for the moment. She ducked down to re-examine the gas situation and sure enough it was quickly becoming a river. Also, moron was standing in the thing and didn't seem to care.

She circled the SUV to stand behind it, between it and an actual pick-up truck. Longhorn fired but not at her. She wasn't sure if he was just trying to flush her out or if he was shooting at someone else. Santana's brain went immediately to Brittany but that notion was dispelled when she heard handgun fire.

Santana dared to take a glance out at where they were. She couldn't see where Ladybird was (if indeed it was Ladybird and not Campus Police or Boston PD) but Longhorn was facing generally away from her. This meant she had time to come up with and execute a plan.

She hated unpredictable and uncontrollable elements in her plans and there were two in this situation: Longhorn and the stream of gas. She still had no idea why he'd attacked Ladybird and the gas… well one stray bullet bouncing off the asphalt could cause a spark and ignite the whole thing. So she opted to use those two things against each other. She unsheathed two more daggers. Her first instinct was just to bury both of them in his back but that was pretty likely to be armored. She knew his legs were exposed since he still had one knife sticking out of him. She let loose the daggers one after the other and both of them stuck just as she'd meant them to, one in his right calf muscle, one in his right ankle just beside his Achilles' tendon.

The pain had to be excruciating judging by the sounds he made. Santana continued making her way back up the row of cars, away from Longhorn and away from where she assumed Ladybird to be. She looked back to see him fall on his face in the river of gasoline. There, Santana thought, now he's covered in it. He can't shoot anymore.

That didn't stop her desire to vacate the area though since for all she knew Ladybird would be coming after her next. She chanced one more glance back to see Longhorn pushing himself up off the ground and Santana had to give him credit for tenacity, if nothing else. He used the barrel of his gun for leverage since as Santana had guessed his right leg looked pretty much useless. He pushed himself up and leaned his weight against the nearest car, but then he did something that Santana hadn't anticipated. He raised the gun and leveled in at her. "Oh my God, you jackass!" Santana shouted at him, "You're covered in gasoline…"

The plea was all for naught and cut short. Longhorn pulled the trigger and the muzzle fire ignited the gas on the end of the barrel which sent everything else, including Longhorn, up in flames. He screamed in pain once more as the gasoline soaked leather he was wearing not to mention his gasoline soaked hair caught fire. He fell back down again which served to catch river of gas on fire as well. The fire quickly spread in both directions.

Unfortunately for her, Santana wasn't aware of any of this because Longhorn's last shot had hit the parking lot not three feet from where she was standing and skipped off hitting her in the left thigh just below her butt. Her leg as well as her lower back on that side screamed in pain and her eyes slammed shut. She tried her best to force the pain down and regain her bearings but just as she was starting to get a sense of herself once more, the fire reached one of the leaking cars in the next row and it's still mostly full gas tank went up and the car exploded in fairly spectacular fashion.

Though she was far enough away to avoid the fire from the explosion, the shockwave that came with it was enough to cause her head to slam into the car in front of her. After that, everything else just went dark.