A/N: Just a warning, this will be sad.
Jeremiah watched as Agent Pearson jumped in front of the bullet meant for Kara and hit the floor. He couldn't take this anymore. Reaching into his belt, he grabbed a grenade and discreetly pulled the pin. Then right at the last possible moment, he aimed it at the wall directly to the left of him.
The charges from earlier had already weakened the infrastructure of the building and its structural integrity was quickly deteriorating. The grenade's explosion rocked the entire building because of its weakened framework, and chunks of the walls and ceiling came down. Ultimately, it achieved his one goal though.
Rocks and debris had piled high in front of him. This meant there was no way Lillian could access either of his girls. As long as they made it out on time, they would be home free. On the other side, his girls and Hunter were left alone with the escape door.
Jeremiah realized that it meant he was left alone with Lillian, who currently had a gun to his head. But it was worth it. He slowly turned around and saw Lillian's face redden with anger. She pointed the gun directly at him.
The girls watched in panic as their father was closed off from their line of sight by a huge rock wall. Their panic only increased when they heard a gunshot from the other side. Alex screamed, hoping her father was okay.
Kara couldn't take her eyes off of the fallen agent next to her. She sat next to him and took his hand. "Hunter, why in the hell did you do that?"
His pained blue eyes met watery blue ones. "Would have... killed... you."
Kara couldn't stop the tears from rolling down her face. "But now it's killing you. You should have just let me die. Then you could have had your freedom. The freedom that you deserve. That you've wanted forever. The freedom we promised you."
He shook his head. "This was... millions times... more worth..."
Kara was full blown crying. It felt like forever since she'd experienced the loss of a loved one, and she forgot just how much it hurt. "Hunter, please. You should have kept your promise. You made a promise to me!"
He gave a sad smile. "I knew I could never... keep it anyways. I- Imagine me leaving you behind... Funny..."
Kara returned a sad smile, guilt weighing down her shoulders. "Thank you for everything you've done. I can't put into words how much your friendship has meant to me. And the gratitude I have for what you've done for Alex. I'm sorry, this is all my fault. This... I-" She was hiccuping through her tears. "I won't ever- forget you."
He adamantly shook his head, strength waning. "Not your fault. I'll be watching... over you and Alex... Won't ever forget... you either..." He smiled, and then the light slowly faded from his eyes. Hunter's hand grew limp and cold, and just like that, he was gone.
He was gone.
Kara was devastated. She was hysterically crying, this was a sensation she hadn't felt in so long. A fresh wave of grief washed over her.
Alex crouched down next to her, tears in her eyes, and put a hand on Kara's shoulder. "Kar, it's not... it's not your fault. Please, don't think it's your fault." Kara couldn't even process anything. She was numb.
Alex sat silently, allowing Kara to grieve, while trying herself to process her own grief. Hunter had been like a brother to both of them, and had been the only light in the darkness that was Cadmus. He was the reason they were at an exit door right now. They had promised him a life of goodness and freedom when he finally left Cadmus, but they couldn't even keep that promise to him. In addition to Hunter's death, she didn't know what came of Jeremiah.
Alex was abruptly jolted out of her grief when a huge chunk of ceiling fell inches to her right. "Shit, shit, shit! The grenade must have taken out whatever was left of the infrastructure. Kara, we have to move, now."
Her little sister didn't even budge. She was still holding Hunter's cold hand, hoping somehow that she could bring him back to life. Alex knew she was in pain, knew because she herself was feeling the same exact pain, but they had to get out of here if they wanted to make it out alive.
If they wanted to make Hunter's sacrifice worth it.
She violently shook Kara's shoulder and finally jolted her out of her daze. She looked around, quickly realizing what was happening and stood. She looked at Alex with tears in her eyes.
Her big sister pulled her in for a quick and comforting hug, before another chunk of ceiling fell right next to them. "Listen to me, Kar. I know this sucks, and I know it hurts like hell right now. I know you're hurt mentally and physically. But if we want to make his sacrifice worthwhile, we have to make it out of here alive. So you need to help me, okay?"
Kara nodded, determined not to let Hunter's life go to waste. Even with the searing pain coursing through her body, she could still limp. Alex's leg was still injured from that other piece of debris from earlier, and was leaning heavily on the wall for support.
Kara saw this and pulled Alex up against her, taking on almost all of her weight. She then started trudging towards the keypad by the door, painstakingly slow. Rocks and debris were falling everywhere around them, and if they didn't work fast, one of them would get trapped.
Alex felt her sister struggling painfully, supporting both of their weights even with all of the injuries she had sustained recently. She turned to Kara and motioned for her to let go. Once she was free from Kara's grip, she hopped on one leg the rest of the way to the keypad.
Kara collapsed to the floor, heaving in air. Every time she inhaled, a spike of pain ran through her body. One of her ribs must have re-broken from all of the sudden movement and pressure, and punctured her lungs. Alex tapped furiously on the keypad, trying to get the door open.
Her little sister was crawling towards her, frantic to make it out of the door before the whole building collapsed on them, but unable to stand from the severity of her injuries. She was still sporting stab wounds, in addition to her entire set of damaged ribs and punctured lung.
Finally, Alex got the door to swing open, and daylight came streaming in. She turned around to help her little sister out the rest of the way, as Kara had done for her just minutes ago, but right as she whipped her head around, she was forced to watch as a large chunk of the ceiling slammed right into Kara's back.
Her panic increased as her sister's struggling abruptly stopped. Alex couldn't tell if she was even breathing. Looking longingly at the daylight outside, she ran back into the danger to pull her sister out.
It took precious seconds to dislodge her sister from the gigantic chunk of debris that had fallen on her, especially with her injured leg, but she finally freed her. The entire building was falling around her, and she dragged Kara across the floor as fast as she could. Ignoring the searing pain in her foot, she ran and ran until finally, she reached the door.
Alex dove out of the building, yanking Kara as hard as she could. She fell onto soft grass, body slowly failing in exhaustion. As her eyes slowly closed, she witnessed the rest of the building collapse. She felt someone grab her arms with a firm grip, but wasn't alert enough to see who it was.
Her eyes finally shut, and she blacked out from the pain, hand still grasping Kara's.