The trip, though short tore at Rose's mind, pain rippling through her as their feet landed on solid ground once more. Will barely caught her around the waist before she fell to the ground.

Bricks and debris littered the ground, untouched since the explosion. A little clean up had occurred around the edges but here, at the back of the plot, the destruction was undisturbed. Half a wall stood to their left while the rest of the structure lay in ruins around their feet. The ground was uneven, mounds of rubble shifted to create paths to better search for bodies.

Of course, they'd only found one and it had been lying on the footpath outside the grounds of the Sanctuary. No one questioned it when the body promptly disappeared from state custody though.

Nor did they question the lack of any other bodies within the explosion itself. The fire had raged for three straight days so it was only natural that no remains were able to be identified.

Rose had been privy to very few details surrounding Helen's 'final solution' in regards to the problem the world's governments presented; she'd been far more involved in setting up the underground facilities. If you could really call it involvement. Helen had worked hard to keep everyone at arms length. Rose had protested that, in that she couldn't not know, she ought to be allowed to help in some way but rarely had Helen relented.

Which, Rose often suspected, was the entire reason they had ended up where they were now. Bloody Helen Magnus; making everything harder for everyone, she thought as she grabbed onto Will's jacket to keep herself upright. He held her tightly and suddenly Rose had the most intense desire to simply melt into his arms. She half smiled at that. If they had had more time, if this hadn't happened the way it had... In her mind's eye she could still see that overpowering vision she'd been presented with the first time they met.

She swallowed, unwilling to think on what could have been, instead focused on what she was there to do.

Pushing Will away, Rose stumbled forwards. She closed her eyes, trying to picture the grand laboratory as it had been. Sally's tank was behind her, the one Rose and Ashley had cracked the glass of to her right and, as she turned, Rose knew she was in the right place. She hadn't been there at the time, all she'd gotten were sketchy second hand accounts tainted by emotion but there was no doubt in her mind.

Hacking only slightly (the amount of blood that came up this time was surprisingly minimal), Rose fell to her knees.

"Come, John," she whispered, holding a hand out to where he stood a few feet away. He still looked so very lost that her heart would have gone out to him under any other circumstances.

But not today, not when the anger was starting to remind her of why she was there.

He moved with wooden limbs towards her, only falling to his knees with a little mental assistance.

Reaching out unsteadily, Rose clasped his face in her hands, dragging them closer together. Her hands, much to her shock, were covered in wet blood still and it took a moment for her to realise that it was Helen's. John's lower lip trembled slightly as he gazed down at her, eyes unfocused and unseeing.

She coughed again, the taste of blood filling her mouth.

"This is going to be unpleasant, John," she said softly, leaning into him a little more. He grabbed her shoulders tightly. "You will have to try and let it go for me, all right. You won't want to but you have to try. For Helen. Can you do that?"

"I... I don't..." he murmured. "Rose. What are we doing?"

"The right thing," she promised with a small smile.

She turned to Will and gave him a stern look.

"Get out your gun," she ordered. "I can't predict what state she'll be in but it may not be pretty."

"State?" Will echoed. "Rose, what's going on? What are you doing?"

"The right thing," she repeated. "Now keep that gun out and do not hesitate to shoot."

"Shoot you?"

"No," she said with as much scorn as she could muster. "Ashley."

And with that she turned back to John, pulling his mouth down to hers in a sloppy, unwelcome version of a kiss. It didn't take much to find the creature, lurking deep within him. She bit down on his lower lip, letting John's blood roll over her tongue and the creature grew angrier and angrier at the predicament John found himself in which, of course, was what Rose was counting on.

That creature was rage, pure and unadulterated rage. Much as Rose was herself.

It lashed out at her, trying to burn away at her mind but Helen's blood had already done enough damage that it barely even tingled. But it was the opening Rose needed.

Feeling inside herself for that little spark of light she'd never had real cause to use, Rose reached out to the creature, trapping it with her mind as she sent waves of energy back through John to try and heal the damage the creature had done. It wasn't overly effective but she didn't need it to be.

It worked, the creature rebelling against the foreign power source so violently that it had nowhere but Rose to turn to. It leapt into her body through their still fused mouths and Rose could feel its power surging through her veins. The pain was intense, joining with the poison still searing through her body until she thought she just might explode from it.

When she was certain that the creature had left John well and truly alone, she pushed him off of her with all her strength. He collapsed back against the uneven ground with a gasp but she barely noticed him.

With a cry wrenched from deep within her, Rose eyes snapped open as her back bent until she faced the sky. The energy elemental raged within her, its power daunting yet seductive. It wanted to be free again, it wanted to exercise its fury and it wanted Rose to be its vessel to do so. All of a sudden she completely understood how John had been held captive by it for so very long.

But Rose didn't dwell on the thought, instead pushing and pushing and pushing until she could feel the electricity dancing over her skin. It reminded her vaguely of the way Nikola used to fiddle about with his abilities as they lounged about on lazy afternoons only more intense. This time she could control it rather than just being subjected to it.

When the power was crackling over her she again reached for that tiny spark, this time letting it flood her body too. It was a calming sensation, like a warm, soothing light that had the power to heal all wounds. Which, in a way, it did, she supposed absently.

The spark grew, filling her body and reaching into the energy elemental. It screamed at the treatment, now begging for release but Rose wouldn't let it, not yet. She had to wait, wait until the pain got worse, until the spark ignited with the DNA catalysts she'd fed it with and then, finally, she let it all go.

Energy burst from her chest into the night sky. It seemed to hit a barrier of red light that rippled and cracked as it absorbed the burst until it too finally gave way, shattering above them with a loud pop. Electricity continued to bounce about the space, surging from Rose's chest as the elemental was slowly leached from her. It could never be fully dissipated but she could feel it grow weaker and weaker as her spark carried it from her body.

And then she heard a scream.

It was familiar and feminine and heartbreaking and the most glorious sound Rose had heard in her entire life.

Will swore vibrantly a few times, his voice carrying over the crackling electricity and Rose would have laughed if it hadn't been for the focus her task needed.

The electricity stopped almost as abruptly as it came, leaving the late night air still and silent once more. Rose looked through hazy eyes towards Will, following his eye line to where Ashley stood, panting hard. She swayed on the spot, bright blue eyes unfocused.

"Muh-," she breathed, mouth opening wide, lips shuddering before she fell to the ground without a sound.

"Holy shit," Will breathed, his hands shaking. He dropped his gun to the ground and it clattered loudly against the debris. "Holy mother of shit."

"Will," Rose gasped, reaching for him. "Help me. I need... I ne- need to see her."

In half a second he was by her side, an arm around her waist as he dragged her the short distance to where Ashley's unconscious body lay.

"How the hell..." he tried as Rose knelt over the body. "I mean... Rose, she was dead. She is dead. H-how?"

Rose ignored him, stroking Ashley's cheek gently. Only when she left bloody smears on the otherwise pristine skin did she rethink the sentimental gesture. There wasn't quite enough time for sentimental.

"She's alive?" Will asked, grabbing Rose's shoulder to get her full attention. "I mean, there's a pulse? You can hear her?"

Rose frowned. She couldn't. She couldn't hear anything. Well, she could hear Will's laboured breaths, she could hear John moaning softly as he stirred and she could hear the gentle lap of the river against its banks but she couldn't hear.

"It's fuzzy," she said to Will, really focusing. She could feel his concern, his confusion but there was no clarity to it. A sudden wave of terror washed over her and she grabbed for his hand.

"John," she cried with as much force as she could muster. "John!"

She heard him lurching through the rubble towards them but still she frantically clutched to Will as if it would hurry things along. If she was to go through with this, it would have to be now.

"My word," John breathed as he came to a stop beside Will. "Rose, what have you done?"

"Take us back to Helen," she pleaded, almost in tears. "John, take us back to her now."

"Rose..."

"Now. There isn't much time. Please John."

He paused for a second, regarding her with eyes that were far clearer than before. John nodded minutely before kneeling down, wrapping one arm around Rose and Will before tentatively placing a hand on his daughter's knee.

Rose closed her eyes this time, not wanting the disorientating blackness in her vision as they hopped back to the stately gardens behind the ballroom that hosted the fundraiser.

When she cracked her eyes, Nikola was as they'd left him, kneeling beside Helen's side with his hand on her wound.

"She's almost gone," he whispered, hearing their arrival but not looking up.

"Help me," Rose panted, looking up to Will who cast an uncertain look towards Ashley as if he couldn't believe what he was seeing, before wrapping her more securely in his arms and carrying Rose to Helen's side. He deposited her on the ground softly before shuffling back.

"What the fuck?" Declan muttered from somewhere off in the dark, obviously having awoken recently.

"Is that?" Henry breathed his voice cracking. "Oh shit."

"I don't get it," Kate said softly. "She's... But she's..."

They may have continued to speak, Rose wasn't sure but she didn't care. All she could see was Helen. Her face was whiter than it ought to have been, her breathing slow and, by the looks of it, the rate of blood seeping from her wound was slowing.

She was dying.

The death of Helen Magnus.

It was something Rose had always known she would witness, it was inevitable really but she never, for one second had thought that the sight would make her happy. Never had she longed for Helen's death but now it was something to be welcomed.

It meant she could help her friend one last time.

Carefully she moved closer and closer until she could feel the last skerrick of heat from Helen's body though the silk of their dresses. She reached for the wound, pushing away Nikola's hands silently before bowing her head.

There was much she wanted to say, things that needed to be expressed but she couldn't say anything. This was Helen, her friend, her love, her life in enough ways that they'd often joked that they were far too dependent on each other. Helen deserved a proper good bye but it was the one thing Rose could not give.

Not this time.

"Be good," she whispered, her words barely reaching her own ears.

And then she reached inside herself for the very last time.

The spark was easy to find now, burning away with the last dregs of vitality in a final attempt to rekindle something that was already burnt out. Rose grasped onto it with everything she had, pulling it forward until it flooded her being once more.

The light poured from her body into Helen, flowing down Rose's arm to the ghastly wound beneath the palm of her hand. A sense of peace washed over her and Rose smiled, looking down to Helen again.

Slowly the spark began to flicker, slipping from Rose's grasp until she felt suddenly cold. She didn't pull away though, determined to keep going until the spark disappeared completely. The power and heat of it was ebbing away, becoming more and more elusive as it shifted from inside of her to outside.

Suddenly something beneath her hand shifted, the movement making Rose dizzy. She would have fallen backwards to the cold ground if it hadn't been for the blazing hot hand that closed around her upper arm.

"Rose."

It was her name, soft and distant yet infinitely loving.

She smiled, blinking slowly. She was tired, very tired. She wanted to rest but the blue eyes that met her own demanded reply.

"Helen," she said with another smile.

The cold was seeping through her now faster and faster, calling her to the darkness that promised comfort and warmth. She wanted to go to the darkness, to the peace that beckoned. She could hear her names, see more blue eyes but Rose could do nothing but smile.

She was happy.

And, as she fell backwards slowly, crystal clear tears tracked down her cheeks.