"Oh," Jennifer said, sweetly surprised.

To Vanya's hearing Jennifer's voice didn't sound too surprised though. She had had years around the greatest liars and most passionate people in history to hear nuances in voices, the difference between sarcastic and furious. To Vanya it didn't sound surprised, it sounded downright excited.

She wanted to say something, warn him that he was dealing with a psycho, but her lips didn't work. Her tongue felt like lead in her mouth and she couldn't even bring up her hands in a warning gesture.

"Wasn't expecting you here," Jennifer finished.

There was a moment when Vanya half expected Kraken to leap forward and do something horrible. Instead he clenched his fists and spoke through gritted teeth.

"Couple ways this can go," he said, "I've got cops coming, so you can put everything down and go quietly, or you can stay, persist, and get killed."

"Who, me?" asked Jennifer, seeming genuinely surprised.

"Yes you."

"I think you misunderstood my intentions," she said, walking behind the chair Vanya was held and pointing the gun at her head, "Whatever happens, she's not getting out of here alive. Told your little sister here much too much for her to be able to get out, don't you see?"

The cold muzzle of the gun was actually the most comforting thing Vanya had felt all night. She had actually given up hope of getting out alive hours ago. Now she only needed to communicate that to him somehow, to make him understand that she didn't matter anymore and he needed to get the fuck out.

"Jennifer," Kraken said quietly, "hurt her any fucking more and you have no fucking chance of getting the fuck out of here either. You think you're fucking creative when it comes to hurting people? You have no fucking idea how much I can fuck you up before the fucking law gets here."

Behind her she could feel Jennifer's neck crane over the top of her head. By now of course, things were taking a turn for the blurry side.

"Talking like that's a bit of a turn on actually," she said, "But you wouldn't do that. It would be too obvious what'd happen."

"Doesn't fucking matter as long as you'd be taking a dirt nap," he said, "But know this; if that fucking gun so much as fucking twitches then you'll fucking wish that they'd got you first and went fucking medieval on your ass."

There was a slight pause.

"You care that much about your sister?"

In the seconds that followed Vanya could feel the wheels turn and the world come together for Jennifer. She recoiled in disgust.

"I know you're adopted but ewwwwww!" she mewled, "I mean, you're fucking her? Seriously?"

She felt Jennifer peer at her.

"She's so ugly too," she said, "I mean, if she was pretty then I'd understand but come on here! Just-"

Jennifer's tirade was cut off as Kraken's knife sailed through her wrist. She screamed and dropped the gun, stumbling back a bit. Kraken rushed up to her, his fist smashing into her face. There was a snapping of bone and cartilage and something landed in Vanya's hair. She didn't have to look to see that it was a tooth.

There was another scream and the dull sound of a body hitting concrete. There was a silence interrupted only by footsteps as Kraken rushed to her side.

"Vanya?" he murmured, "Come on, stay with me."

"…fine…" she managed.

"Don't worry about a thing," he said, his words fast and running together, "Lupo's bringing medics, and they have drugs and they'll get you to the hospital and everything'll be fine."

"Di…behind…" tried Vanya.

A shot rang out and Kraken doubled over, clutching his shoulder. Although battered Jennifer had managed to get up and limp over.

"One more shot left," she said, slurring her words, "Nice way to go, don't you think? Just a little bullet to the brain?"

Using all her strength Vanya rammed her broken and torn foot into Jennifer's ribs. She tottered and fell to the ground. Unfortunately the shock impact made Vanya slide to the ground as well. Before she even hit she was in pain from just the movement hurting her injuries. When she fell however, she heard and felt cracks and pops that disconcerted her beyond measure.

The doors that crashed down alerted her that for once her taxes were working for her. Guns' safety catches were removed and she heard Lupo's cool voice call out;

"Raise your hands miss; we don't want this to get messy."

Jennifer rose slowly to her feet. She looked around as though confused before shaking her head.

"I'm not going to prison," she said, "I'm just not."

Giggling insanely to herself she pressed the gun up to her temple. There was a bang and blood spurted from Jennifer's forehead before she fell to the ground.

"Fucking insane," muttered Lupo, "Medics!"

The last thing she remembered before passing out was the medics scurrying to obey.