Summary: High emotions, betrayal, and murder run wild as Michael's plan answers the question of the ages: What IS everyone doing on Wednesdays?

Warning: Extremely long and emotional chapter!

Chapter 14

The Crew was flying over the city, two of the members racing through the streets below. The bank came into view almost immediately and Michael broke out into a nervous sweat as the chatter of his gang mates filled his ears and nudged his conscience.

Michael mentally shook himself and focused on the task at hand as he reached for the parachute beside him and shrugged into it. Gavin already had his strapped on and was leaning out of the chopper ready to spring at Michael's command. Geoff had his gun in hand ready to cover them and Kerry was carefully guiding the helicopter into position.

"Michael I'm doing camera surveillance," Gavin informed him as he peered through the camera lens he had –for reasons best known to himself-strapped to his sniper rifle.

"How's it looking?" Michael asked, rolling his eyes.

"Good and green," Gavin replied.

Michael looked down at the bank which was almost directly below them. "Kerry give us some altitude." Kerry did as he was bid and Michael watched the ground drop farther and farther away.

Ryan and Ray pulled up alongside the bank and hopped off the bike, adjusting their masks. The sidewalk was eerily deserted for the most part and no one really took notice of two masked men rolling up on the sidewalk in weird clothes with guns in hand. This was Los Santos after all.

"Everyone ready?" Michael asked, adjusting his parachute once more. The Crew responded in the affirmative. "All right…3…2…1…go!"

Michael and Gavin dove out of the helicopter, the whoosh of the wind drowning out every sound as they leaped into the hard pull of gravity. Michael spread out his limbs, slowing his descent slightly so he could better time his chute pull. Gavin pulled arms and legs in tight against his body and streaked like a missile through the sky. Michael was terrified for a moment that the idiot was going to kill himself, but he pulled his chute at just the right moment, seconds before Michael pulled his. Both of them jerked upright as they came to a sudden slow and began drifting gently to the ground.

"Looking good boys," Geoff told them, talking loudly over the action-style music that Gavin was singing loudly into his head set.

"Geoff, how's your angle?" Kerry asked.

"My angle's perfect Kerry," Geoff replied, peering down the length of his gun. "If you can hover here, we're set."

"All right, coming in, Michael said as the ground got closer. He could see Ray and Ryan now getting closer…and closer…and closer…too close!

"Augh!" Michael yelled as he slammed into Ray, knocking the man over and barely getting his feet under him. Ray rolled to avoid getting dragged up in the parachute and Michael stumbled a bit before being engulfed by the brightly colored fabric.

"Nice landing," Ray growled as Michael fought his way out of the parachute.

Gavin had been making lazy loops in the air while waiting for Michael to land first and finally was closing in on the bank. His goal was to land right in front of the door so that he and Michael could burst in smoothly and start robbing the place. As he made his descent he realized that just maybe he hadn't thought his landing all the way through.

"Ooohhhpppp!" Gavin yelled as he came in way too low and way too fast. He slammed into the front stairs hard, throwing his arms out to break some of the fall. His lip burst open and blood dribbled down his chin and his kneecaps smashed against the concrete as his chute fanned out behind him.

"GAVIN!" Michael yelled. "Jesus are you ok?"

Gavin lay paralyzed for a minute as the roar of pain subsided to a dull throb in most of his body. He spat blood and possibly a tooth out of his mouth and got to his feet. Miraculously nothing was broken, though both of his knees felt like death. He might have fractured something but he could still move well enough more importantly he could lift his gun. He shook his head, trying to get rid of the wooziness and looked back at Michael.

"I'm fine. Let's do this."

Michael ran up the steps to the bank and pulled out his gun. This was it. This was the real beginning. As soon as they entered that bank some teller would raise the alarm and the cops would be all over them. Despite promising himself he wouldn't, he looked up at the helicopter where Geoff waited, faithful to Michael's plan. Then he looked down at Ryan and Ray standing armed on the street without cover and without a prayer. The full weight of his actions sank in at that moment as Ryan and Ray stood framed against the street, ready to kill for his plan. He couldn't do it. He couldn't let them get killed….could he?

"GO!" Gavin yelled, kicking the door to the bank in. The alarm immediately went off and laid to rest Michael's doubt. He was too late now. His conscience had come too late. He had to stay the course. It was better this way anyhow.

Michael and Gavin ran into the bank, guns blazing, pulse racing. "Gimme the money!" Michael shouted, firing a couple rounds into a nearby column to scare the tellers. "Where's the money!"

"Gimme the money bitches!" Gavin shrieked wildly.

Michael stared around the bank, looking for people to take hostage, but the bank was empty. Strange. And no one was screaming. Stranger. Gavin ran immediately through a door to the back, no doubt in search of safety deposit boxes, or even in search of victims.

Michael approached the teller windows and realized immediately, something was wrong: there was no one seated at the desk. Had they hit the floor already?

"Gavin get over here," Michael said, his voice oddly quiet in contrast to the adrenaline rushing through his veins. Something was off. Something was wrong. He peered over the counter. No one was there.

"Hang on, it's a big bank I'm lost," Gavin said, running in circles upstairs trying to find the door that led back down. "I'm used to convenience stores!"

Outside, Ryan and Ray kept their eyes and ears sharp on the street outside but had yet to hear the tell-tale signs of cops. In fact, they had yet to hear anything suspicious. No one passing by took any notice of them, despite the masks, weird clothes, and giant guns they had in plain view.

"Ray, does it seem like nobody is at all curious why we are standing outside with guns?" Ryan asked, trepidation evident in his voice.

"People don't ask questions in Los Santos," Ray said bracingly, but everyone could hear the doubt in his voice. Something was majorly off.

"This place is looking empty," Michael said to the group at large as she returned to the front of the bank.

Gavin wandered around looking for anyone he could rob or shoot. "Is this an alarm?" he wondered out loud, considering a giant red circle above the exits upstairs. He lifted his gun and shot it, the circle exploding in bits of metal. The ringing alarms stopped immediately. "Not anymore."

Michael stopped by the exit downstairs. He had found something. By the door was a small plaque detailing the bank's information, supervisor, contact information, and hours. He stared at the plaque, dumbstruck.

"Guys," Michael said tremulously. "Guys it's Wednesday…"

"And?" Geoff asked impatiently.

Michael stared at the plaque, at the hours, at the raised metal letters that formed the word Wednesday and the smaller letters below it that formed a word. Not numbers, but a word.

"Guys…the bank's closed on Wednesdays," Michael said.

Everyone froze, even the helicopter seemed to stop swaying as the full weight of Michael's words sunk in. Then, just to make matters worse, Ryan and Ray outside heard the very last thing they wanted to hear before the Crew had gotten away with any money.

Police sirens.

Then…it was chaos.

"Here comes the first cop!" Ryan yelled to Ray, who immediately aimed at the approaching police car. The cop leaned out of the car, gun in hand, but Ray was already on him. The entire Crew winced as gunfire rang out suddenly and the cop car slammed into a car in the nearby intersection as its driver died at Ray's hands.

"Plan C!" Michael yelled, waving to Gavin frantically and signaling that they needed to move out of the bank. "Plan C! We go to the convenience store north of here!"

"How do we get out Michael?" Gavin asked, panic in his voice as they ran for the front doors.

"I don't know, but—!" The muffled sound of exploding vehicles met their ears and Michael broke out in a cold sweat. "Oh shit Gavin, we gotta get out of here!"

Geoff shouted to Kerry to swing the chopper back into position and he leaned out, aiming at the cops converging on Ray. He was grateful he grabbed a gun with a scope as it allowed him to aim carefully into the fray. He focused his fire to provide as much back-up to Ryan and Ray as possible since they were so exposed on the ground.

"Killing cops," he yelled to Michael and Gavin in the bank. "We're killing cops, move!"

"Ryan, come on we have to get the motorcycle," Ray shouted. "We have to move position!"

Ryan sprinted to Ray, shooting wildly over his head behind him as he jumped on the bike. Ray, already on the bike, gunned the engine and took off into traffic, nearly taking them both out against a puke-green sedan. They wove between stopped traffic and screaming pedestrians, sirens blaring right behind them.

Michael and Gavin burst out of the bank into a collection of dead cops, busted vehicles, and helicopter noise. Kerry still hovered overhead while Geoff had switched targets to the incoming police choppers. Michael looked around desperately and saw an abandoned car at the curb, still running with its door opened, likely abandoned by a terrified bystander. He jumped into the car and slammed on the horn to signal Gavin who raced to him as police cars zoomed down the street in front of them, likely in pursuit of Ray and Ryan. So far they were intent on them and not on Michael and Gavin, which was good for them.

Ryan and Ray approached the convenience store with seemingly every cop in the world behind them. Ray spotted an alley on one side of the street and a large parking lot on the other side, both in easy viewing distance to the targeted store. The alley had walls and a few dumpsters and if they got desperate they could run to the abandoned parking kiosk across the street for cover.

"We've got cover!" Ray announced triumphantly to Ryan and to the others as he pulled into the alley. "This is much better!" Ryan and Ray got off the bike and each took a wall, reloading frantically as the sirens approached. They could hear Michael, Gavin, and Geoff all shouting and Ryan took advantage of their distraction to speak plainly to Ray.

"Ray we might not get out of this," Ryan said. "We might not make it to pay Michael back."

"I know," Ray replied.

"If I go down, get out of here."

"Ditto," Ray said.

Ray and Ryan looked at each other and nodded once in confirmation, both knowing full well that they would do no such thing.

Ray heard running feet coming from the sidewalk beside him and he swung out from behind the wall, unloading into the approaching assailant. The woman, clearly not an officer, shrieked as she died.

"That woman was not a cop," Ray announced, slightly embarrassed.

Back on the streets, Michael was driving crazily, jumping onto sidewalks and possibly mowing down an innocent bystander or two as he shouted instructions to Kerry. "Fly to the convenience store! Everybody get to the convenience store."

"Ryan and I are here already!" Ray shouted, stepping out again and laying into some approaching cops.

Michael finally saw the store in question ahead. They were almost there, they just had to get in, rob it, and not have Gavin get murdered.

On the opposite side of the street, Ryan ran out, yanking his grenade launcher out of his duffle and aiming at some approaching police cars. Behind them he saw Michael and Gavin approaching and it would be so easy to shift his aim just a bit and end this here. But as the chopper came into view, he didn't like the odds of outrunning an angry airborne Geoff, which would likely be the case if he took out one of their own. Instead, Ryan set his aim and launched a grenade into the oncoming vehicle. He hit the cop car perfectly and the explosion launched it into the air, spinning it a few times before it blew up on impact with the ground.

The street in front of Gavin and Michael exploded at the police car's impact, breaking the car windows and making Michael swerve from the blast. Gavin, Michael, Kerry, and Geoff all yelped in surprise.

"What the fuck was that?" Michael shouted.

"We're covering you, come on!" Ryan yelled.

Michael slammed on the brakes and wrenched the steering wheel, jumping the curb and smacking into a traffic signal as the car stopped. He reached for the car door handle, eyes on the convenience store when a second horrible realization came over him as the gated windows came into view.

"Oh God, the convenience store is closed!"

"What's everyone doing on Wednesday?!" Kerry shouted in frustration.

Ray swore. "Do you have a plan D?" He turned to look at Michael and a cop leaped into the street behind him. Focused on the newest hitch in the plan, Ray didn't see the cop as he took aim at Ray's unprotected head.

"Look out Ray!" Ryan shouted, swinging his gun around and firing. Ray hit the ground as soon as Ryan shouted and the shot caught the cop in the head. He dropped like a stone. Ray shot back to his feet and shot the cop's chest a few times for good measure.

"Thank Ryan!" Ray yelled.

"What now Michael?" Gavin asked, panicked as he helped Ryan and Ray fend off the approaching police. He was crouched behind their stolen car shooting at anything that moved.

"Hang on, hang on, hang on, I'll get it, I'll get it!" Michael said frantically, running up to the door. Behind the glass he saw the clerk ducked behind the counter, trembling and eyeing the outside nervously. Not closed then, he just locked up when he heard the gunfire…and stupidly forgot to pull down the gate over the door. "Gavin, take the car and go hide around the corner!"

In the alley, Ryan stumbled as a shot rang out and a white-hot track of pain streaked across his arm. He took out the cop that shot him, just as another slug grazed his thigh. Shorts may have been a bad idea. For every cop he and Ray took out, more were coming. In the alley they had created a crazy bottleneck where they could easily take out cops but could also easily be trapped and overwhelmed. A quick check of Ray showed him that his co-killing machine was bleeding from several exposed places on his arms and legs and he had the thought again that they may in fact die here.

"This is getting grim!" Ryan shouted to Michael, hoping the bastard would hurry up.

He didn't want to die here. Not without the chance to complete the job and make Michael pay. He could probably convince Ray to abandon the mission, but Ray wouldn't abandon Gavin. Most of them actually wouldn't abandon Gavin despite the jokes. He was the only innocent here and the only one whose intentions were always good if really fucking stupid. They also owed Geoff, even if he was in on it, because of them ditching him during the last job. Ray was a team player and despite all the double-crossing going on he wouldn't bail the others and Ryan didn't want to bail on Ray.

Besides if they got out of this their victory would be all the sweeter when they killed Michael.

Upon hearing Ryan's shout, Geoff aimed at more of the police on Ryan's side, trying his best to cover Michael (hey, they still needed the money for the RT Syndicate) and keep Ryan and Ray alive. "I'm killing cops left and right," he said to the last two, hoping they somehow understood his intention.

Michael was out of time to think. He shot through the glass door, shattering the whole thing and jumping through the opening. "Gimme the money!" he screamed at the clerk, pleased to see that the man was actually already loading the bag. "I'm robbing the store," he said to the others. "Make sure I have cover!"

Ray aimed his own grenade launcher at the seemingly ceaseless flow of police coming in on Ryan's side. Three quick shots caused a giant explosion and when the smoke cleared, they had a temporary respite. "Oh, you're covered," Ray said confidently.

"Yeah you've got tons of cover, dude" Geoff said, looking at Ryan and Ray's decimation below.

"There's cops right below us!" Kerry yelled at Geoff, who immediately leaned out and started dropping grenades like they were…grenades.

"If this was GTA I would have four stars," Ray announced as he blew up yet another fleet of approaching policemen and cars.

Suddenly there was a roar from the sky that caused Geoff and Kerry to look to their side and Ryan and Ray to look up. No less than three helicopters, machine gun mounted, came flying into their position, SWAT officers leaning out of the sides with guns trained on Ryan and Ray. One swung off and lowered ropes as SWAT members jumped down, intent on the two masked men.

"They're trying to rope them in!" Kerry yelled.

"Ryan, across the street!" Ray shouted, sprinting out from under cover. They could hide in the parking booth across the way and hopefully stand their ground while Michael completed the robbery. Ryan and Ray raced across the street and took cover behind the parking booth as they both reloaded and switched to their heaviest guns.

"This is mental right now!" Gavin shouted, peeking around the corner of his hiding spot at the cops, gunfire, and chaos. He fired rounds into the fray helping Ryan and Ray as they reloaded.

"I got the money!" Michael yelled finally, taking the bag from the clerk and gunning him down. "Let's go, let's go! Let's go! Gavin, across the street!" Gavin popped out of hiding spot and followed Michael across the crazed street, past Ryan and Ray who were still covering them

That was the signal. "Kerry let's go!" Geoff shouted. "Ray and Ryan, get out of there!"

"We need to keep giving them cover til they're gone," Ray said, exchanging a glance with Ryan as they reloaded again. They were running low on ammo now. They both had several wounds that could be serious if they ever slowed down enough for the adrenaline to wear off.

Michael jumped up the chain-link fence in front of him as Gavin took a wrong turn. Confused and panicking, he saw a ladder in front of him and climbed it without thinking.

"Gavin, don't die!" Michael shouted, not realizing Gavin wasn't behind him any longer.

"Michael, I'm scared," Gavin whimpered, running along the roof as explosions echoed behind him.

Michael landed in the alley on the other side of the fence and looked around for Gavin, finally spotting him on the roof. Michael swore at his friend but decided not to comment further. He ran for his tank. "I'm in the tank, I'm in the tank!"

"Ow!" Ray shouted, stumbling as a bullet slammed into his shoulder, pain lighting up in his entire side. "Aw man, we're in trouble guys. Aw man, we're in trouble. We've got SWAT coming in."

"Get out of there!" Geoff shouted to them, tossing one empty gun aside and fumbling for the next one, frantic to help his Crew.

"I made it!" Gavin said, sprinting into the alley and to his tank. "X-Ray, Ryan, get out of there!"

Ryan and Ray both exhaled in relief and started to run back for their bike, but before they went more than one step, more helicopters flew over them and several tank-like SWAT trucks raced into the street. Gunfire exploded around them ripping up chunks of asphalt and sidewalk that sliced the exposed skin, as did several bullet grazes

"Guys, move!" Geoff shouted desperately again.

Ryan and Ryan stumbled back into cover, still firing at the descending SWAT teams on the choppers, in trucks, and on foot. Still, for every one they killed, three more suddenly appeared. Ryan did the math and the results were bad: they weren't gonna make it to the bike. They were about to be cut off by more cops at their back. They were surrounded.

"Ray," Ryan said frantically. "Ray, we're trapped."

"I know," Ray said through gritted teeth.

"We're going down, just like he wanted us too," Ryan snarled in disgust, dropping his now empty assault rifle and switching to his grenade launcher. "We should have bailed."

"I know," Ray said hopelessly. "God damn it."

They looked at each other. Despite their incident last week, Ray and Ryan were easily the most productive of the duos in the Fake AH Crew and one of the most cooperative. One of the reasons the two of them got along was not only their matched skill level but the fact that they both were realistic straight shooters, no pun intended. Ryan knew they were done, knew this was it, so only one option made sense to him and to Ray.

Ryan lifted his grenade launcher. "Blaze of Glory?"

Ray grinned under his mask. "Blaze of Glory."

Ryan and Ray ran out from cover, launching everything they had at the cops. Geoff kept screaming at them to run while Gavin begged them to stay under cover. Ray and Ryan didn't listen.

"Oh fuck! Go back!" Geoff yelled at Kerry. "We have to go back for Ray and Ryan!"

Michael stayed silent as the R & R Connection shredded through the cops like tissue paper, but it wasn't enough. Despite his plans, it all was starting to seem wrong. In fact, guilt was consuming him. The cops had never gotten any of them before, not until Jack and even then he survived it. The only failures they had were because of each other. The only near death experiences they had all had were because of their own mistakes.

"Nothing can kill us except for each other."

Michael didn't realize he had spoken it aloud, but he had. And he was right. Ray and Ryan would probably be fine. Michael could change the plan, he could call of Geoff and call off—

Ryan's gun clicked over to empty as three SWAT guys ran at him. He wasn't going to be able to stop them, their guns were on him and Ray. For a moment he considered using Ray as a human shield, but the thought died immediately. He liked Ray. For all his talents and world weariness, Ray was little more than a kid. Ryan had been in this game much longer. Too long maybe, Maybe that's why he had let this plan of Michael's blind side him. Maybe he knew time was up.

Still, he had said "blaze of glory" to Ray. The blaze was running out but if he could help Ray complete their revenge plan, maybe the glory would still be there. Worth a shot.

Ryan dropped his gun, ripped off his tattered mask so he could see better and turned away from the cops. He sprinted over to Ray, who turned just in time to see Ryan coming at him. The larger man slammed into Ray, shoving him hard and Ray felt his feet leave the ground as he flew backward and crashed into the wall behind the parking kiosk and out of the line of fire.

Ray's vision went gray from the impact and he shook his head furiously as he tried to focus. He looked up at Ryan, who was stumbling forward after shoving Ray. For some reason, he looked up at Ray and grinned.

"Give 'em hell," Ryan said to Ray.

Ryan turned back around and ran at the cops, yelling his head off like a mad man. He only made it two steps.

Ray watched in horror as bullets, six of them, gouged into Ryan, his body jerking with each hit. One cut through the vest and a small spray of blood jetted from his shoulder. Ryan's knees buckled and he fell, twisting around as one more shot caught him in the shoulder. He sprawled out on the asphalt on his back and did not move.

"Ryan!" Ray shouted, diving forward and grabbing for his partner. He seized Ryan's ankles and pulled with all of his strength, dragging him behind the kiosk and under cover for a brief second. Ryan didn't move, his chest was coated in a layer of blood over his shredded shirt and battered vest. Ryan just stared up at the sky, still grinning like the Mad King that he was.

"RYAN NOOOOOOOOO!"

Ray felt something in him break, like a dam that had held all of his anger at this heist and this life. It didn't matter that Ryan had tried to protect him for whatever reason and it didn't matter that he knew his next move was stupid. Ray got to his feet, grabbed his grenade launcher, and threw himself back into the fight.

"YOU BASTARDS!" he screamed, launching grenade after grenade into the street, not aiming, not holding back, just turning the entire scene into a pit of fire and murder. "YOU BASTARDS!"

"Ray, get down!" Geoff yelled desperately as Kerry flew them over Ray. "Get down, we're getting you out! Ray—!"

"YOU BAST—AUGH!

Ray's screams cut off abruptly.

"Ray!" Geoff shouted, not listening to the common sense rattling around in his brain. There were cops everywhere on the ground, swarming where his Crew had been. He couldn't see Ray or Ryan, there were too many. "Ray! Ryan!" Answer me, answer me, I am so sorry I went along with Michael, ANSWER ME!

Finally he gave up. Ryan was dead, Geoff knew that much to be true because that would be the only reason Ray would lose his head like that. They were outnumbered and Ray was off his head. The abrupt end of his ranting could only mean one thing. God, why hadn't those fucking idiots run for it!

"Fuck!" Kerry muttered and bullets rattled against the helicopter's windshield. "We gotta move Geoff!"

"Did we lose Ryan and Ray?" Michael asked, his voice full of what sounded like legitimate concern. Geoff ignored him.

"Get us out of here Kerry," Geoff said gruffly, reloading his gun. He didn't have to use it on cops anymore since they were converging on where Ray and Ryan had been while ignoring Geoff and Kerry. Instead, he made sure he had fresh rounds for the moment he saw Michael on that beach. Geoff couldn't go back and undo his part in Michael's plan, but he could sure as shit get some revenge for his fallen Crew.

Meanwhile, Michael was maneuvering his tank down the street, rolling over cops with Gavin close behind him. Choppers, both police and SWAT were all over them, but they were no match for the tank's gun. The first time Michael launched a missile, the whole tank shuddered at the explosion of the police car outside. Despite his guilt over Ryan and Ray he couldn't help but take some savage pleasure from the utter destruction he was wreaking. In fact, he remembered why he had made this plan: had they lived, Ryan and Ray would have back stabbed them. This had been the only way. How had he let guilt make him forget that?

A chopper crashed out of the sky from his shot and he couldn't help but feel alive at the destruction. "Oh I am making so many widows right now," he said cackling. I'll worry about guilt and sorrow after this is done. I have to stay the course.

Up in the chopper, Geoff swallowed his own guilt and despair and forced himself to act casual. To Michael's knowledge, Geoff was still in league with him. Let him think that until Geoff could put a bullet in Michael's brain.

Christ, what Jack gonna say when he found out what had happened, what Geoff had allowed to happen?

"All right, life check! Gavin?" Geoff asked.

"AAHH AAAHHH AAAAAAHHHHHH!" Gavin yelled as his tank slammed into a strangely unyielding tree. "Stop mounting the tree!"

"GAVIN!"

"I am alive, 100%" Gavin answered, wrenching away from the tree. "Geoff, stop talking abruptly!"

"Michael?" Geoff asked, ignoring whatever Gavin had said.

"Team Nice Dynamite, 100%," Michael replied, blowing three cop cars out from under an overpass.

"Team OG 2 is fucking great," Geoff added as Kerry flew them out over the water and out of range of the police, thank God.

"We lost the R connection," Michael said. Silence met his words for a moment, a very tense silence.

"Not believing it," Gavin said finally. "Not til we know for sure."

The tension broke and Michael sighed in relief that Geoff hadn't outed him to the others.

"Gav, you still behind me?" Michael asked, rolling over what was likely a civilian and wincing as they screamed. Oops.

"Yeah," Gavin replied, firing again and disintegrating a chopper in mid-air. "I'm taking out choppers left and right."

"All right we're almost there dude."

"This is going…"Geoff stumbled over his words, "…fairly well. We got the money."

"We got the money and lost Ray and Ryan," Michael summarized. Why do you keep bringing up their deaths? he thought to himself. "We got the money and so far it's ok. We can still finish this."

"Aw," Gavin said sadly as his tank squished a cop who had been running for his life. "Aw that guy died."

"Yeah people are pissed at us Gav," Michael replied.

Geoff coughed as a blast of smoke hit his face. Squinting in confusion he looked out at the chopper's engines and saw smoke billowing out of one near him. It looked like it may have been hit in the fray. For the first time, Geoff's ears picked up on the fact that several warning alarms were going off in the cockpit. "Kerry," Geoff said carefully. "It looks like we are smoking a bit."

"Uh you know…" Kerry said nervously, eyeing the temperature gauge. "It's like…419 up in here. It's not too bad yet." Geoff buried his face in his hands and laughed loudly although nothing was actually funny.

Michael shook his head as he heard Ray laugh in his head with Geoff. He always cracked up as things went wrong. But it wasn't real. Ray was dead. "I think I just heard Ray from the grave," he muttered to himself.

A bright flash of sunlight on metal caught Geoff's eye suddenly.

"I see the getaway car, let's land!" he said to Kerry, leaning into the cockpit and pointing at their destination. Kerry began their descent and Geoff braced himself as the ground approached at an alarming rate. The chopper didn't land so much as it fell out of the sky and bounced on impact. Geoff bounced between the floor and ceiling of the chopper before falling out of the side.

"Textbook landing," he said dryly into the dirt. "Let's get in the goddamn car."

"Gavin, are you still ok?" Michael asked as the tunnel came into view.

"I just smooshed a cop up a tree pole," was the Brit's response.

"Jesus Christ," Michael muttered. "Just stay behind me dude."

"Got it," Gavin said, maneuvering his tank across a clear patch of highway. Through the visual displays in the tank, he saw a chopper approach from the left. He quickly slammed on the reverse pedal and one of the forward ones to swing his tank into position. ( Oh that's why there are six pedals even though there are only four directions! he thought to himself.) He hit the button on the missile launcher and blasted the chopper out of the sky before turning down the street to follow Michael. "Carnage!" he yelled triumphantly as the flaming bits of chopper rained down around him.

For their part, Geoff and Kerry were now in the car and racing down the mountain, performing incredible leaps and rolls courtesy of the Bifta's design and durability. Kerry was howling in fright despite the fact that they were unharmed and his cries were interrupted by a loudly ringing phone that threw everyone for a loop.

"Not now Dom, God damn it!" Geoff said, chucking his phone out of the car.

Michael was in the tunnel now, carefully making his way down the narrow space. The cops had lost sight of him and the police presence was dropping off. He was gonna make it!

"Sorry gents," Gavin said as he approached the tunnel and fired at a fast approaching cop car. The car burst into flame and flew over the tank, spinning crazily before crashing into another car on the side of the road and exploding again. "Aw, it's like a movie, every single thing I do!" He drove into the tunnel plowing over one final police car. "Is it the right one or the left one?"

Michael turned to look behind him at the display to answer Gavin and accidentally hit his tank controls. There was a loud explosion and the tunnel around him shuddered for a minute.

"SHIT!" Michael yelped. "I almost blew myself up!" He scrambled out of the tank, shoving past bits of fallen concrete from the hole above his head. Still it looked like the tunnel would hold.

"It's the right one Gavin," he finally replied. "I have abandoned my tank." He jumped over the rail to the maintenance walkway beside the tunnel and began jogging to their destination. He was almost out when he heard a horrific grinding noise and felt the floor shudder.

"Michael, I'm bringing your tank. Choo choo!" Gavin crowed excitedly. Michael turned to see Gavin pulling up in the tank alongside him having shoved Michael's tank along with him like a deranged railroad car. The top of the tank popped up and Gavin clambered out, grinning cheekily.

"Come on Gavin, let's get to the bikes!"

"I can't believe you didn't lock up my bike," Michael grumbled, jogging alongside Gavin as they pedaled for the bride and the boat parked below it.

"You didn't have a lock!" Gavin replied indignantly. They had approached the bikes to find Gavin's waiting and Michael's stolen. Only Gavin would think no one in Los Santos would steal a bike.

They approached the bridge and Gavin put on a burst of speed. "I'm gonna bunny hop down here Michael!" he said.

"Gavin no!"

"AAAAAHHHHH!"" Gavin said as he cleared the rail and fell through the air. His bike tires hit the ground hard and Gavin bounced up and over his handlebars. With a loud squawk, he cleared the concrete and the drainage pipe in front of him and tumbled into the water next to the boat.

"God damn it," Michael said, shaking his head as he watched the whole thing. "Gavin just get the boat and be ready."

"Jump down Michael," Gavin said.

"I'm not gonna jump, I'll die!" Michael shot back. Instead he ran along the bridge until he got to the long sloping walls bordering the dock. He jumped the railing and jogged down the slope while Gavin pulled the boat around.

In the meantime, Geoff and Kerry had arrived at the beach and were getting out of the Bifta.

"Which boat is it?" Kerry asked, looking at the plethora of boats and jet skis out in the water. "Oh this one!" he said pointing to a boat enclosed by a rocky cove, about 50 yards out from the shore. He started for the boat, but Geoff grabbed him.

"No," Geoff said carefully, keeping his tone calm. "Let's swim out to the one further out in the water and away from the rocks. Less conspicuous."

Kerry looked at him in confusion but did not argue. Geoff and Kerry plunged headfirst into the cold waves, striking out for the boat in the distance. Geoff couldn't say why, but he didn't trust the boat in the carefully concealed rocky area. Michael had proven to be untrustworthy and there was no way he was going to take an obvious and well-hidden vehicle on the off chance Michael was doing to him what he did to Ray and Ryan.

Geoff reached the boat well before Kerry and made sure his duffle of weapons was within reach and that his handgun was loaded and ready. He had an idea or twelve of what to give Michael when he arrived and turned over the money.

All of the ideas were bullets.

Kerry hoisted himself up into the boat and settled in, grinning at Geoff. He was proud of himself, he had actually been useful and almost good at pulling this job off. He hadn't been yelled at once by Geoff, which was always nice. He did feel bad about Ray and Ryan though. Maybe if he had flown better, they could have rescued them in time.

"I guess we didn't need those extra seats," Kerry said a little sadly looking around at the emptiness of the boat.

Gavin heard him over the boat's motor. "Yeah, Ray and Ryan went out almost completely silently." Gavin had not heard Ray's shouts as he was busy blowing things up in the tank. Michael on the other hand had heard them and would likely never stop hearing them.

"I think they went out in a blaze of glory," Michael replied, hearing Ryan's last words in his head. "I don't think it was silent at all—CHRIST!"

"Michael, get in!"

Michael picked himself up off of the ground where he had fallen as Gavin came careening into the wall with the boat. The tip of the boat was dented from the impact but it was still drivable and Gavin was grinning cheekily from the driver's seat.

"I thought you were going to fucking beach the thing," Michael grumbled, lower himself into the boat. Gavin took off, making the world's widest turn in the narrow channel. Michael tried to grab for the side railing of the boat to steady himself, but he was wrenched back and forth from Gavin's crazy driving.

"Don't drive up the stairs," Michael yelled as he was thrashed about. "Go left, go left. Not up the wall, my fucking god—AH!" Michael yelled as the boat hit a sandbar and a wall and turned completely vertical, dumping him out into the shallow water. "I fell out!" he shouted as Gavin tried to break. "Jesus Christ, why are you driving?"

"This thing has a really wide turn!" Gavin said defensively.

"So use the brakes to turn," Geoff snapped, annoyed. THIS was the guy Michael had chosen to save. Maybe Geoff would torture Michael a bit first before killing him.

Gavin picked Michael back up and they drove through the waves as the sun finally disappeared beyond the horizon. Michael kept yelling obscenities as Gavin jumped waves and drove over sandbars but as night began to truly fall, the distant light of other boats came into view.

"We're almost there," Michael said as they drove into the small beach's waters. He peered at the different boats coming into view. Was that them, far out in the water already? They should still be parked near the shore. Or...

"I can see you guys on the horizon," Geoff said, not liking how eerily calm Michael's voice was. Their boat came speeding in and Gavin executed a sharp turn past them. "You passed us," Geoff said, gripping his gun tighter.

Michael swore in his head. They had grabbed the wrong boat. They had grabbed the wrong fucking boat!

Michael swore in his head. Geoff and Kerry were not in the boat he had specified for them. They were in another boat. That could be bad.

"There's an audience of people here," Gavin observed.

"Yeah," Michael said distractedly, looking around. Where were the bombs? Where was Lindsay?

"Should we all combine on this thing?" Gavin asked after more silence.

"Yeah," Michael replied thinking fast. He reached for his phone and shot Lindsay a quick text, hoping she'd see it. "Yeah we might as well all take one boat. Gavin, switch with me."

Geoff didn't like this but he couldn't think of a safe argument. Gavin switched places with Michael and Geoff and Kerry jumped back into the water and swam over to their boat. Michael was fidgeting quite a lot while trying to look nonchalant which in turn made Geoff itch to just shoot him now. Something was off now, Geoff could feel it.

"All right let's go—!"

Almost as if on cue, a loud explosion echoed across the ocean. Geoff turned to the blast of heat on his right and saw flaming bits of boat fly up in the air. With a jolt he realized it was the one Kerry had suggested they take. "Is someone trying to fucking kill us?" Geoff asked, glaring pointedly at Michael.

"Jesus fucking Christ!" Michael shouted, wrenching the steering wheel in a wide turn as the bottom of their boat ground against the shore.

"You're the one who's gonna beach it Michael!" Gavin yelped from the bow of the boat where he was trying to pose coolly. "And who blew us up?"

Michael let go of the steering wheel and jumped to his feet. Geoff raised his gun and made to shoot him, but Michael threw himself over the side of the boat. Gavin, squawking in panic, followed as Kerry also went for his gun, wildly confused. Geoff tried to shoot Michael, but he could barely see in the darkness.

"As expected, Ryan and Ray died horribly," Michael's voice said in his ear, echoing weirdly over the water and against the background noise of the ocean. Geoff shot in the direction he thought it was coming from to no avail. "But yeah, you guys were supposed to die too on that boat and somebody fucked it up."

"I'm confused as to whether or not I should be alive or not," Gavin said nervously.

Geoff swore and fumbled for the flashlight he kept in his duffle bag.

"Sorry Geoff," Michael said calmly. "But it's time for a change of pace."

Geoff grabbed the flashlight, flicked it on, and searched for Michael. He turned around, toward the end of the boat and Michael's face was suddenly illuminated, pale and glowing in the small circle of light.

Grinning.

The sniper round caught Geoff in the chest. His gun fell from his numbed hand and his entire body went stiff. Two more rounds went into him, catching him in the shoulder and the hip. He had just enough time to see Kerry get hit three times and fall heavily into the bottom of the boat.

"Fuck…" he said, exhaling heavily. The world spun in a great arc above him before everything went black. The last thing he felt was the icy cold ocean swallowing him whole.

Michael kept his eyes on the water long enough to make sure Geoff wasn't about to surface. He kicked Kerry twice to ensure that he was dead too before shoving him out of the boat and watching his body sink out of sight.

Michael hadn't told anyone that there was more to the plan. Not Gavin, not Kerry, obviously not Ryan or Ray and especially not Geoff. The fact of the matter was that Michael was done following Geoff and he was done risking his neck for a gang who couldn't get the jobs done. Michael and Lindsay were married now and he had to think about his future so after Geoff left the heist room the day they planned the job, Michael turned to the one person he could trust.

Lindsay.

Lindsay sometimes worked jobs with the crew. She had a special talent for both planning and top-notch execution. She was a reserve Crew member by choice, preferring to work the legitimate side of Rooster Teeth and Achievement Hunter. Still she could be utterly ruthless and dangerous and Michael was depending on that when he called her into the heist room. She knew his plan already, but now was the time to put it into action.

"All right," he said, locking the door behind her and pulling the curtains over the windows. "Fuck Geoff. He's gotta die. We aren't safe if he lives. Without him we might have a chance with the Syndicate."

"Right," Lindsay agreed.

"So when we get to the end of the heist," Michael continued. "Gavin and I will be sitting in the boat, waiting. Whoever is left alive is gonna get on the boat that you prepared as they come out to meet us."

Lindsay saluted with an evil grin.

Michael matched her evil smirk. "Little do they know that there will be a sticky bomb on the side of the boat that's facing away from the beach."

Lindsay raised an eyebrow at him and shrugged. "One is a low number but yeah there will be sticky bombs."

God Michael loved this woman.

"Put the boat about 50 to 100 yards out in the water so they'll have to swim out to it. They'll get on the boat you'll be on a rock nearby— "Michael walked over to the map and traced the edge of the coast where Geoff and Kerry had been told to go. "Located here."

"Good vantage point," she said appreciatively.

"Exactly," Michael said, smiling at her. "When they get on the boat, if they don't see the bomb, you'll let them get going and we'll detonate."

"And if they see it?" Lindsay asked.

"If they are onto us, you blow it," Michael replied. "Even if someone survives, they're out in the water it'll be like fucking fish in a barrel. I'm just gonna unload into them."

"Shoot straight," she replied.

"Oh I will, don't you worry," Michael said confidently. "After that, you me and Gavin split the money three ways—granted Gavin doesn't know about it, we'll see if he is surprised and we'll see if he'll survives that long, I doubt it—and we get fucking paid. That's the real heist."

"And that leads the Syndicate with the three people who were able to get the job done and a cut of the cash," Lindsay finishes for him. Michael nods and Lindsay smiles at him for a moment.

"Michael…while I like the plan, are you sure about this? I mean Geoff is a founding member of the Syndicate and there is always the chance that this will sign our death warrant with Matt and Burnie." Lindsay shifts uncomfortably. "And when Jack gets out…"

"When Jack gets out he can step in as leader," Michael said, though he said it doubtfully. "And can the Syndicate really bitch if we come back successfully. They don't have to know what really happened."

Lindsay sighed too. "This has to work doesn't it? If it fails we are dead either way aren't we?"

"Yeah," Michael replies. "Yeah we are. So better to take fate in our own hands don't you think?"

Lindsay shakes her head. "I hope you're right."

"So do I."

Michael shook himself out of the memory. "Gavin, you're fine, come back," Michael called out to the floating Brit, who was nervously treading water nearby.

"I don't know if I can trust you anymore Michael," he said fearfully, almost tearfully. "You killed Geoff."

"Actually it was boat goer, who by the way marked the wrong fucking boat and blew it up!" Michael glared at the thought.

"Who?" Gavin asked, nonplussed.

"Lindsay, you wanna come out here?" Michael shouted.

"Already here," she replied, swimming up to Gavin. "Hi Gavin."

"I don't trust you!" Gavin shouted. "You…you…"

"Gavin, I did it to save us," Michael said heavily. "Geoff, Ray, Ryan—they were dragging us down. I mean shit we completed a successful job once Ray and Ryan were out of the way. Hell Geoff was in on that part, but he started getting a conscience. Geoff would have killed me for what I did to them so I had to kill him first. It was just business, Gav."

"They were our friends!" Gavin shouted back.

"Yeah they were," Michael agreed. "And now they're gone. Would you just get in the boat? I did it for you as much as me and Lindsay."

Gavin didn't like his options. He couldn't be sure Michael wouldn't blow him away if he didn't play along. But neither could he believe what Michael had done. Still, he had to get in the boat before he tired and drowned. Maybe once they got back he could talk to Burnie and Matt, explain things. Maybe he could fix it.

Gavin swam hesitantly back to the boat and hoisted himself up beside Lindsay without a word.

Michael rubbed his forehead tiredly. "Who else needs a fucking drink?"

It was done. They alone were left of the Fake AH Crew. Michael stood on the prow of the boat with cash in hand, his wife and best friend alive and well, and his pitiful Crew mostly dead. They had completed the heist.

So why didn't he feel better about it?