I will encourage watching the Expendable films (if you haven't already) so as to know what happens because I'll be following the canon storyline while adding my own touch to it, and when I make references to things that happened that I didn't get into details about, I want you to know what's going on lol. Same goes to those who maybe haven't watched Looper...I encourage you to watch it too. Happy reading!

Once they landed in Vilena, they geared up. Sara was grateful that Lee had grabbed her weapons. He'd also given her a spare black shirt, which she'd put on and tied at the waist to make it fit. She strapped her pistol to her holster, which was attached to her black cargo pants, before slinging a machine gun over her shoulder. She was leaving her bow behind for now, feeling like that was more of a long distance tool than an up close one. He handed her body armor next, which she snapped on. Her heart was pounding as she tied back her hair. This was it. She had to pull through on this or else die and never find Cid. She'd finally learned that the rogue CIA agent they were after was named James Munroe, and he sounded downright awful.

"You're not gonna freeze on me, are you?" Lee asked when they were alone off to the side.

"No," she answered.

"This is gonna get bloody," he warned. "I need to be able to trust you."

"You can," she promised, trying not to grimace at the thought of what was coming.

"We'll see," he replied, moving away from her. Sara felt a bit aggravated. What did she have to do to earn this man's trust? She joined up with the others as Barney gave his last words on the plan. Her head had been spinning from the whole incident with Gunner. Toll had explained to her that Gunner had acted out on their last job and tried to hang a pirate, which was enough to make Barney cut him loose from the team as that made him a liability to their safety if he couldn't control himself. Apparently, the attack was Gunner's way of revenge for that...plus, he was using, which Sara knew that when high, things tended to make more sense than they did when sober. She felt sorry for him and hoped that he made it and recovered.

"If we don't make it to the other side," Barney was saying now, looking at each of them, "I just wanna say that it's been an honor fighting alongside you all, and there's no one else I trust enough to have my back."

"You're gonna make Caesar cry," Toll warned.

"Hey," Caesar said, shooting him a look. He still sniffed a little, though.

"Hear, hear," Yang said, flicking his wrist. "To one last fight."

Sara felt on edge as she looked at Lee standing there quietly. She didn't want to think about the possibility of dying. She needed to get back to Cid. Was this Abe's plan all along? Had he just sent her back there to die?

"Let's go," Barney said, leading the way. She had no choice now. She was in this 100%.

...

Lee kept Sara with him as they ran around placing explosives in the building. He'd had doubts about Gunner coming through and giving them the layout to this place, but so far, things were legit. What troubled Lee was that Gunner had come all the way down here to make a plan with Munroe to kill Barney and the team out of spite, and suddenly, he changed his mind? It made no sense to Lee, and he knew he'd have a hell of a time trusting Gunner moving forward after this.

He and Sara met back up with the others once they were finished, and the only person missing was their leader.

"Where's Barney?" Yang asked.

"What's the plan?" Caesar asked Lee.

"If we don't find him in ten minutes, we go out the same way we came in," Lee said.

"We can't leave him," Toll started.

"He'd want us to," Caesar said.

"Ten minutes," Lee snapped. He didn't like it either, but he also knew Barney would want them to get the hell out of there if he didn't come back. "Let's go." He had a good idea where Barney would be. He just hoped they would get him out of there in one piece.

"Lee," Sara said as they walked quickly. She was at his elbow while the other three were a step behind.

"What?" he asked roughly.

"We're not really gonna leave him behind are we?"

"Just focus," he said, irritated. They soon heard voices talking and discovered Sandra being led away kicking and yelling Barney's name. Lee went towards where the sounds of men talking after that, and they found Barney getting strangled by a fairly large man. So that's where he'd ended up. Fabulous.

"On three," he muttered to Yang, who nodded. They dropped, and all hell broke loose.

...

Sara wasn't bad at hand to hand combat, but it wasn't her strength. She got thrown easily and landed on her back in a heap, which winded her a bit since she'd landed on her rifle. The speed of the team taking out the soldiers made her a bit nauseous. She managed to get back up onto her feet, keeping her head low. Then, she saw Lee get thrown, and she didn't even hesitate when the soldier aimed his gun at Lee's head.

She pulled out her gun and killed him.

Lee looked to see her, and her hands were shaking, she could barely breathe, and she was on the verge of throwing up, but she'd done it. She'd saved his ass. She moved out of the way when a soldier with a machete came charging, and Lee was on his feet and slicing his own knife back at him, making her turn away to avoid seeing it. Hearing the man fall was enough to know he was dead. She watched Yang run for it when his assailant started shooting at him, and Lee threw his knife into his back. It didn't take him down, though, so both Lee and Yang fought with him until Yang broke the man's neck with his foot. Bullets sounded, followed by Toll shouting that they had to go.

"Come on," Lee said, grabbing her arm and hauling her with him. She managed to keep up with him as they fled, stopping to fire back at the oncoming soldiers when they had cover. She didn't really know if she actually hit any of them, but she was trying at least. Seeing these soldiers not give a shit about her was helping motivate her to defend herself at least. They reached the end of the way, and Yang jumped over a brick wall for cover while Lee shoved her into a crevice, holding out his gun to fire blindly as he stood in front of her. She saw Toll get hit in the back and fall forward, managing to crawl behind the wall with Yang. At least he wasn't dead. That made her feel relieved. He looked in pain, though.

"What do we do?!" she shouted, feeling panicked as they all got cornered by soldiers. She was about to die pressed up against a man who clearly was not her biggest fan. That wasn't exactly how she pictured the end.

Before Lee could respond, loud, rapid shotgun blasts went off. Sara reached to cover her ears as Lee turned his head, wincing. When it was over, they both looked around the corner.

Caesar.

He yelled out something about Christmas, and Sara stepped out with Lee while Yang and Toll got to their feet and walked after them.

"Shit that's loud," Barney said, coming through the hole in the wall coughing.

"There he is," Caesar commented. "What happened?"

"Got whupped," Barney answered. "Come on, give me my rifle. Let's go!" He grabbed the one that was tossed to him.

"You good?" Lee asked her, and she nodded. They all ran for the exit, and Lee and Barney burst through it first before getting blinded by a spotlight.

"Back, back!" Barney shouted, and they all tucked back in behind the doorway. Sara couldn't breathe at the sight of all the soldiers aiming their guns at them. Without really thinking, she reached to grab Lee's arm. He turned his head to look at her.

"Focus," he said.

"I'm trying," she whispered.

"Try harder."

Someone shouted on a loud speaker for them to throw down their weapons as there was no way out, and Caesar swore.

"I think you need a new lucky ring," Yang commented to Barney.

"Not now," Barney replied gruffly.

"How do we get out?" Sara asked. She didn't want to die here. She couldn't believe she was even in this position.

"Backtrack," Lee said.

"Can't," Barney replied, shaking his head. "Building is rigged. This is the only way out." Then, they heard a man speaking loudly.

"What the hell is he saying?" Lee asked.

"Pretty much that we're dead in a Spanish accent," Caesar replied.

"We're not dead," Barney argued.

"He's talking about the American invaders wanting to kill their country. He's asking for forgiveness for being human, for being selfish," Sara said, making them all look at her.

"Since when do you speak Spanish?" Lee asked.

"Just a little," she answered. It made her think of her closest friend in high school. They'd spent hours learning Spanish together. Sara really missed her.

"Blow the building," Lee told Barney next.

"Not yet."

Gunshots echoed, and the general fell from the balcony to his death. Bullets were flying at them next, and they pressed against the walls as best as they could. Sara tried not to shriek and barely succeeded. She buried her head under her arms.

"Barney, blow it!" Lee shouted again.

"Not with her still in there!"

Sara knew he was talking about Sandra. She admired that he wanted to keep her safe, that he cared about her, but she felt afraid that he was not going to succeed, not with all of this going on. The bullets continued to rain on them, and even Toll and Caesar started yelling at Barney to blow the building next. Sara hid behind Lee, who surprised her by turning and pushing her against the wall, shielding her with his body. Out of reflex, she gripped the front of his vest and buried her head against his chest as he held her shoulders.

"Just breathe," he told her, his lips next to her ear. She nodded, trying. She felt him move again after a moment, making her let go of him reluctantly.

"Blow the building!" he bellowed to Barney. "She's out!"

And Barney did.

Sara exclaimed as everything shook around them, bracing herself as best as she could.

"Go, go, go!" Barney shouted, and they lurched out as the soldiers ran for cover. Lee yanked Sara with him by her vest, and they were soon running as fast as they could side by side. She followed his lead by throwing grenades, trying not to think about the people dying because of her. She aimed and fired, her will to survive suddenly stronger than her worry about killing people.

She got hit in the chest hard and went down, landing flat on her back. The soldier above her went to stomp on her, so she rolled away quickly, kicking at his legs. She shouted when he grabbed her by the neck to pull her up. She did her best to fight back, but her skills were nothing compared to his.

She realized that in this moment, she was going to die.

...

Lee turned to see Sara in a chokehold and felt the pang of fear go through him. Maybe he was angry at her and didn't fully trust her, but he didn't want her to die either. He'd felt the spark when they'd first met, before he learned she was joining their team. As pissed as he was, it was still in there. He still cared about her. He saw her trying to get free, and he knew he had a lot of training left to do with her.

He threw his knife, striking the soldier in the back of the neck. He fell forward, and Sara managed to get out from under him before he fell on her.

"Come on," he said, grabbing her sleeve and pulling her forward with him.

"I don't want to die, Lee!" she cried as he shoved her into another crevice with him against her when bullets flew at them.

"If you keep losing focus, you will," he snapped. "Come on, Sara! Focus!" He left her there as he jumped out and took out the soldiers after them. He saw her finally buck up and come out, gun blazing. He felt a small sense of pride. He'd have her trained to be the second best in no time.

"Barney!" she yelled, pointing to where Barney was running. Lee saw he was going after Munroe and Sandra, so he gave chase. He got there in time to finish hearing Munroe's speech about being dead inside, and he threw Gunner's knife that Gunner had given him into Munroe's chest after Barney shot him. Breathing hard and trying to overcome the fact that they'd managed to survive this fight, he walked over to see Sandra hugging Barney.

"I'd say it was a tie," he commented, referring to their previous bicker fest on the pirate job where Barney had told him bullets were faster than knives.

"Yea, alright," Barney conceded.

"I'm right, you know. You're not as fast anymore."

"I think I'm seeing that."

Lee chuckled as Barney and Sandra walked away together. He turned to find Sara standing there watching him.

"I think that's the first time I've seen you smile," she commented.

"Yea, well," he said, "it takes a lot to make me smile."

"Does it?"

"You're just gonna have to stick around and find out," he replied, walking towards her.

"Does that mean I'm allowed to stay?" she asked. He stopped in front of her, taking in the cut on her cheek and dirt on her face...her eyes. He felt something inside, something that scared him.

"For now," he answered.

"I see you're not acknowledging that I saved your ass," she said next, a slight twinkle in her eyes now. He gave a soft chuckle, knowing it was true. He'd doubted her, but she'd proved him wrong.

"Alright," he said. "Thank you for taking the shot."

"Well, I..." she started.

"But," he cut her off, holding up his hand, "it's your damn job, so there will not be anymore thanking you after this."

"Alright," she agreed. He watched her turn to look back at the fire and smoke. The smell of death filled the air. On cue, she suddenly bent over and threw up. He knew the reality of what she'd done was hitting her. He remembered his first kill; he'd felt the same way.

"There it is," he said, going over to her and resting a hand on her upper back. She coughed and retched a little more before shuddering and finally standing up straight. She wiped at her mouth with the back of her arm.

"Sorry," she said, her voice shaking a little.

"Don't be," he replied. "It shows you've still got a heart." He patted her back and started to walk to where the others were waiting. He fist bumped them and grinned at the retelling of their finest moments tonight. He turned his head to see Sara off to the side and hugging herself with one arm as she looked around at everything. She looked small in that moment, and Lee wondered if she'd even stay after this. Then he remembered that she had to in order to live. It made him really want to find out who was forcing her to do this.

"You good?" Toll asked Sara, going over to her now. Lee turned his back and searched for Barney. He was bloody well ready to go home.

The Next Day

Sara looked up when Church walked into the church and sat down next to her. He stayed looking forward, and she waited for him to speak first.

"It's done?" he asked.

"Yes."

"Good."

"Do you report it back to them or how does this work?" she asked.

"He'll be erased from the future," he answered. "Whatever impact he had will be gone. They'll know he was killed."

"Do Loopers monitor all timelines or something?" she questioned. "Because he was in his early 50s at least...he would be very old in 2050 or dead. What would he have done in the future that warranted his death?"

"You do realize that it's a syndicate running the Loopers, right?" Church said, looking at her finally.

"What do you mean?"

"They are an elite syndicate. A mafia, if you will. They've worked hard to get to the top for a lot of years. That means they've taken out a lot of competition along the way. They've removed people who threaten them."

"So James Munroe was a threat," Sara said.

"Obviously. At some point."

She shifted in her seat, desperately wanting to yell at him for shooting her. It played in her head on repeat a lot, and she wanted to know why.

"I'm sorry," he said out of the blue.

"Sorry?" she repeated.

"I know you recognize me," he said. "I know who you are."

"So...you pretended not to know me," she said back, feeling annoyed.

"That's right."

"Why did you do it? Why did you try to kill my son? Why did you shoot me?!" Her voice went up with each question.

"I have no idea."

"You don't know?" she asked, alarmed.

"No," he confirmed. "I've tried to figure it out, but I don't have the answers, just a guess. All I know is that I had started looking into a Syndicate leader called The Rainmaker, and then I got kidnapped and sent here, so my mind tells me that I wasn't meant to find out more about this Rainmaker person. I think the answers lie with whoever that is. I think my loop knew who it was and had gone to kill them to save the future."

"Cid is not the Rainmaker," Sara said hotly, knowing where he was going with this.

"You don't understand," Church said, moving to stand up. "You haven't been that far in the future. Your son becomes the world's biggest threat."

"If I had been in his life, he wouldn't have," she argued.

"Well, we will never know now, will we?"

"You don't even know if it was him!" Sara exclaimed. "You're guessing!" She was shaking inside, though. She knew what Cid was capable of doing, how her sister had died. Perhaps that had somehow been discovered.

Church said nothing as he stood up. He surveyed her carefully, and she felt nervous.

"Legend has it that the Rainmaker has a prosthetic jaw," he said slowly, "and he saw his mom get shot." He held her gaze, and she started to breathe a bit faster. It was clear in his eyes that he had put this together recently, and she wondered if he was replaying that day too. Cid had gotten shot in the jaw. Cid had watched her get shot. She knew Joe had seen her get shot by his loop, but had he seen Cid get shot? She wasn't sure. She desperately wanted it to not be true, but she'd never fully know.

"Where are you going?" she asked, getting to her feet too as he walked away.

"Back to work," he answered. "I'll be back with another target when it's time." Sara stood there watching him walk away, and she felt angry that he had claimed her son was a threat in the future. A small part of her felt afraid, though, because she knew he was probably right. Did the pain of losing her push him over the edge? Did he become a monster because of his rage? She swallowed down her sudden onset of tears, trying not to imagine it.

She grew angrier again, hating that Church had decided to kill a child to spare the future, that he'd shot her because she'd been in the way trying to protect her child. Maybe it wasn't this version who'd done it, but it was close enough. She burst out of there and went after him, jumping him from behind. He let out a yell, and then they were full out fighting. Sara was holding her own until Church managed to throw her down and land on her chest with his knee, pinning her and gripping her throat tightly so she couldn't move.

"That's enough," he ordered. "We both know you can't kill me right now. I said I was sorry. You think what my loop did didn't impact me at all? I lost years of my life to drowning from guilt! I want answers like you, and you're right, I'm guessing your son is the Rainmaker, but that's what makes sense in my mind right now from what I remembered. We're stuck here, far away from the future, so we'll never fully know what's going on unless we keep our heads down, do our damn jobs, and get the f*** out of here!"

Sara squeezed his arms tighter, and he finally let her go. She gasped in air and coughed. He got up and looked down at her on the ground.

"Don't do that again," he said fiercely, turning to storm off. Sara lay there trying to get her wits back about her. Then she sat up slowly. Church was right. They were stuck here not knowing anything, so she had to be patient and get her answers later. She got back to her feet and stuffed her hands into her jacket pockets, walking slowly away. She tried not to think about her little boy being a tyrant because that just hurt way too much.

...

Joe was shaking a little as he got into his car. He pressed his face into his hands before shouting out a curse word and banging his fist on the steering wheel. He'd remembered about the whole jaw and mom being shot thing the day before. He'd been searching his memory for everything he'd learned about the Rainmaker before getting kidnapped, and that had surfaced. He remembered at the time thinking about Sara and the boy when he'd first heard it but had dismissed it as a coincidence. Now, it made him realize his loop had probably known way more information about the Rainmaker whereas Joe hadn't gotten that far in his timeline before being sent here. He was very certain now it was the reason why his loop had gone after Sara's son. How he knew the Rainmaker was that kid, Joe wouldn't know. Or maybe it was just a guess. Joe wouldn't know that either.

All he could do was hope that perhaps they could change things in the future without killing the boy. Maybe then he'd finally be free of his guilt.

...

Lee was getting ready to throw his knife as he walked slowly outside. He was delivering a very well thought out poem, and he was feeling confident he was going to beat Tool this time.

He turned to throw, and he hit the bull's eye with minimal effort as everyone whooped and clapped. Gunner was back, looking a bit better and intrigued at the presence of Sara. There was some mistrust from everyone, not just Lee, towards him, and he knew that Gunner knew it. He hoped Barney would make sure he was getting the help he needed. Lee had never felt right having Gunner's big knife, even after he'd insisted to keep it. He'd put it in Gunner's spot in the armory when he got back from Vilena, knowing Gunner would find it easily enough.

Sara gave a laugh then, and Lee tried to ignore the feelings of jealousy as Toll laughed back with her while they sipped their drinks. He noticed she always went with water, and he felt curious as to why even though he wanted to not care. He went to sit at the bar and played with his beer bottle while the others talked and laughed.

"Well?" Barney asked, sitting down next to him. He gestured over to Sara. "Was it that bad?"

"No."

"She pulled through in the end."

"She did."

Lee watched her tip her head back in laughter as Toll touched her arm. He swallowed.

"Think she'll survive boot camp?" Barney asked, bringing him back out of his thoughts.

"I guess we'll find out," he answered, sipping his beer.

"Thanks for keeping her alive," Barney added, clapping his shoulder.

"We have each other's backs," Lee reasoned with a shrug. "It's what we do."

"That's right."

"Gunner?" Lee asked.

"I'll keep an eye on him."

"He needs rehab, Barns."

"Oh I know. Trust me, I'll get him there." Barney smiled and nodded, clapping his shoulder one last time before getting to his feet and going to talk with Tool. Lee met Sara's eyes across the room, and he saw her blush slightly. That feeling inside twinged, and he had the sudden image of pressing her down underneath him and claiming her mouth with his while removing...

"Christmas," Caesar said, nudging him and startling him. "You got company."

"Huh?" Lee asked, tearing his eyes off of Sara. He looked at the door to see Lacy standing there looking a bit intimidated.

"She's cute," Caesar said with a wink, and Lee rolled his eyes. He set down his beer and went to greet her.

"Hey," he said. "What're you doing here?"

"I just wanted to see you," she answered.

"Well, here I am," he replied. She smiled and then pursed her lips a little.

"You wanna get out of here?" she asked. Lee looked back at Sara, who was watching him. He knew that was not an option and never would be, so why did he think it could be? He turned back to Lacy, who was looking at him expectantly.

"Sure," he answered. "Let's go."

...

Barney looked up from his office chair when Sara came into view later that night. It was just the two of them since everyone else had gone to sleep. Lee was off with Lacy, much to Barney's chagrin. He didn't trust that broad.

"Do I get an evaluation or anything?" Sara asked as she sat across from him.

"Hmm, well, I'll say you did good," Barney answered, smiling at her. "You got past it."

"It wasn't easy, but it really does become about survival when you're out there," she noted.

"Yea," he agreed. Then he grew serious. "Do they know you did the mission?"

"I believe so," she answered. "No one's come for me yet."

"I really want you and your son to live," Barney told her.

"So do I," she whispered.

"I guess you're hanging out with us until otherwise."

"Yes."

Barney nodded thoughtfully. Then he pulled out a cigar and stuck it into his mouth, lighting it.

"Well," he said, taking a puff and holding it in his fingers. "Brace yourself for training."

"Okay..."

"Lee's gonna take you soon. You'll be his shadow in no time."

"His shadow?"

"Yea. You'll be doing everything he does at the same time," Barney explained, "by the time he's done with you."

"I don't know if that's something to be proud of," Sara admitted.

"One day at a time, Sara," Barney said. "One day at a time." She gave a small nod, and then she said goodnight. Barney sat there until Gunner came in. It wasn't a surprise, really, that he was also still awake.

"Barney," he said. Barney looked at him, knowing he had a long road ahead of him.

"You good, Gunner?"

"I am."

"You know the boys are gonna have a hard time trusting you now, right? After your little attempted murder spree?"

"I know."

"Why'd you do it?" Barney asked. Gunner let out a heavy sigh.

"I was out of it," he answered. "I was mad. I let that anger blind me and lead me into something wrong."

"You coulda just talked to me," Barney pointed out.

"I know."

"So next time, talk to me," Barney ordered. Gunner nodded.

"I will."

"Good. Go get some rest. And Gunner?"

"Yea?"

"Rehab. Therapy. The works. Understand?"

"Yea, understood." Gunner gave another curt nod and then left. Barney finished his cigar, wondering just how everything was going to go in the next little while.