Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Author's Note: This episode had the team discovering Leena's death before beginning their race against Artie. Early in the episode there's a scene where Pete thinks he sees Leena. At the end of the scene a visibly upset Claudia heads back into the office alone and Myka goes after her. When Pete reenters the office, both of the other agents are busy researching. The first half of this chapter explains what I think happened between those two scenes. The episode ends with Artie releases the deadly Chinese orchid into the world just before Claudia stabs him with the dagger. The second half of this chapter shows what I think happened in the immediate aftermath of the orchid's release. This chapter deals mainly with Claudia's immediate reactions to Leena's death and Artie's stabbing because we never really got to see those initial scenes. It also features a lot of Myka because I think her big sister instincts would make her the best at handling a truly heartbroken Claudia. The title of this chapter comes from the song "World on Fire" by Les Friction. (Awesome band, btw.) A line in the song says "Brace yourself for all will pay." To me, that line basically summed up this episode in a nutshell. Since this chapter is pretty sad, I'm not going to say enjoy. But hopefully it furthers this story and does the characters justice.

All Will Pay

Myka stepped into the office to find Claudia pacing back and forth. The younger agent had her hands on top of her head and there were tears welling in her eyes.

"Claudia," Myka said quietly.

"This is insane," Claudia choked in disbelief. Her voice was thick with emotion. "I can't... I can't even begin to process this."

"I know it's a lot to take in-" Myka began.

"A lot?" Claudia asked. "Leena is dead! Artie killed her! And now he's gone psycho and if we don't figure something out..."

She trailed off as she pulled at the roots of her hair.

"I can't go through this again," Claudia said brokenly. "I can't lose someone else."

The sound of her voice was too much for Myka to handle. She walked the short distance across the room so that she was standing in front of Claudia.

"We can't think about that right now," she said rationally. "There will be time later to deal with... with what happened. But right now we have to focus. Artie has a plan and we have to figure out what it is."

"How can you say that?" Claudia cried. "Our friend is dead, Myka! Gone! Never coming back! How can you just stand there and be so calm about all this?"

"I have to be rational," Myka said fiercely. "Because if I don't, then I will lose it!"

"I'm not like you!" Claudia protested. "I can't just flip this switch and shut it all off!"

She swallowed hard as her throat tightened. There were now visible tears welling in her eyes. Myka immediately took hold of Claudia's shoulders in a tight grip.

"I know this is hard, Claude," she said. "But I need you to keep it together. Because if you go to pieces, then I will too. And once that happens, I don't know if I can put myself back together again." Her throat tightened up and she had to swallow hard before she could talk again without fear of her voice breaking over the words. "I need you to be strong for me, okay? Can you do that?"

Claudia forced a nod as she rapidly blinked back tears.

"Okay," she choked. She reached up between them and wiped at her eyes. Then she squared her shoulders and nodded to Myka. "I'm okay."

"Okay," Myka said strongly. "Now. What do we need to do?"

"Um, the astrolabe," Claudia said, trying to refocus her thoughts. "We know that's what whammied Artie. So we should... we should see what information we have on it."

"Good," Myka said with a nod. "Let's do that."

She let go of Claudia's shoulders so the younger agent could walk over to the file cabinets. Myka took a deep breath and let it out to get herself together before following after Claudia. They had a job to do. They had to stay focused on that. It was the only way they were going to get through this.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

It was amazing how little time it took for the entire world to change. One second for the dagger to bury itself into Artie's chest. One blink for the orchid to crumble to dust. One breath for them all to be infected. One flash was all it took for the whole world to go to pieces.

Then there was only silence. No one moved. No one breathed. They all simply stood there, frozen and silent, almost as if they were hoping that by refusing to acknowledge this new world that they could somehow forestall its existence. That they could make this one moment last for eternity. It was like standing in the eye of a hurricane, like the agonizingly long stretch between a flash of lightning and the roar of thunder.

"No."

It was Pete who had broken the silence. He was still on the ground, his hand outstretched. His eyes were locked on his palm where the orchid had turned to dust.

"We failed," Steve said quietly.

Then came the sound of a broken sob. Claudia. She was kneeling beside Artie, her face buried in his jacket as she wept. His eyes had drifted closed, and he would have looked like he were sleeping if it weren't for the dagger buried in his chest.

Pete pushed himself up on all fours and crawled over to Artie's body. Claudia pulled back enough that she could watch as he rested his hand on Artie's wrist. Myka held her breath as she watched.

"Is he..." She didn't have the heart to finish the question.

"He's alive," Pete breathed in relief. "He's still alive."

"I had to do it," Claudia choked. Tears were trickling down her face as she spoke. "It was the only way to save him. I had to cast out the evil."

"I know you did," Pete assured her as he placed a hand on her shoulder. "I know."

"What do we do now?" Steve asked in shock.

"I don't know," Pete admitted. He sounded like he was one breath away from completely breaking down.

Myka bit down on the inside of her mouth so hard it began to bleed. The sharp copper taste was enough to clear her mind. They had to act and they had to do it now.

"The... the sweating sickness takes twenty-four hours to... to begin killing its victims," she said, forcing herself to focus. "That means we have twenty-four hours to find a way to neutralize the orchid. Pete, you need to call your mom and tell her what happened. Maybe the regents will know a way to stop this."

Pete looked down at Artie, Claudia still huddled against him, and then back at Myka.

"Mykes, I-" he began with a pained shake of his head. Myka promptly cut him off.

"We're on the clock here," she said sharply. "In twenty-four hours people will start dying. We don't have any time to waste."

"Okay," Pete said shakily. He was a military man. Having a task was something his brain knew how to handle. He took a deep breath and let it out before pushing himself to his feet. Then he headed out of the room in search of better reception.

Myka turned to Steve, who was still staring at Artie.

"Steve?" Myka said, laying a hand on his shoulder.

"Yeah," Steve managed. He pulled his gaze away from Artie and looked over at Myka.

"I need you to call Mrs. Frederic," Myka told him. "Bring her up to speed on the orchid and tell her what happened to Artie. Maybe she'll know something helpful about the knife. At the very least, she'll know who to call to get us some help."

"Okay," Steve said. He pulled his Farnsworth out of his pocket, but then he froze as he caught sight of Claudia. She had gone deathly quiet as she huddled against Artie.

"I'll stay with her," Myka assured Steve. He nodded and then turned in the direction Pete had gone so they could have a bit of privacy.

Myka waited until Steve was gone before crossing the floor and kneeling beside Claudia. She laid a hand on her shoulder, but Claudia didn't respond.

"Claude?" Myka asked softly.

"He was still in there," Claudia choked. "I saw him. He was there."

"We're gonna get through this," Myka told her. Claudia pulled back from Artie and sat up so she could look at Myka. The younger agent's face was streaked with tears.

"No, we're not," she said flatly. She swiped her sleeve across her face in a failed attempt to get rid of the tearstains. "We failed. Artie is dying, and in twenty-four hours the rest of us will be dead too. It's over, Myka. We lost."

"No, we didn't," Myka argued. "We are not done. We are going to fight this. All of it. We are not giving up!"

Claudia looked over at Artie and then back at Myka.

"What if he dies?" she choked. There were fresh tears in her eyes threatening to spill over. "He killed Leena. What if I killed him?"

"It's not the same," Myka told her. It was getting harder to talk around the lump in her own throat. "You were trying to save him."

The truth was that Myka didn't really understand just what had happened with the dagger, but she knew that Claudia would never have stabbed Artie unless she truly believed that it was the only way.

"Everybody just keeps dying," Claudia sobbed. The dam seemed to shatter as tears began running down her face again.

Myka couldn't take it anymore. She reached out and pulled Claudia into her arms. The younger girl collapsed against her as silent sobs wracked her body. Claudia's hands took hold of Myka's jacket so tight that her knuckles turned white. Myka could feel her own tears beginning to fall as she rested her head against Claudia's. She couldn't hold herself together any longer.

She wasn't sure how long they sat there on the floor before she felt a hand on her back. She looked up to see Steve kneeling beside her.

"Mrs. Frederic is sending someone to get us," Steve told her. He sounded close to tears himself. "They should be here soon."

Myka swallowed hard and nodded. She knew she should be telling him that they would be okay, that they were going to figure this one out just like they always did, but she couldn't do it because the truth was she didn't believe it anymore. In twenty-four hours the people of the world were going to start dying. Saving them was going to take the biggest Hail Mary of all time. But then what? Leena was dead because Artie had killed her, and now he was dying because Claudia had stabbed him. Even if by some miracle they did somehow manage to save the world, nothing would ever be the same again.

I'm still not entirely happy with this chapter, but I never could figure out why so I posted it anyway. Hopefully it wasn't too angsty or OOC. In other news, I made a few small changes to some of the dialogue in chapters 25 and 29 so that the references to Claire are consistent with the show. You can reread it or not. Up to you. But either way, I'd be much obliged if you would review this chapter. Sorry if I'm starting to sound like a broken record. I just get tired of feeling like I'm writing to a wall.