X marks the spot

Failed Experiments

She went back to her desktop, seeing the image of her kids. They were much older than they were in that image. But still, it was the only one she had. The only reminder she had that they were still alive.

She hit execute.

Just as she did, a PING! went off. The SUV had been found. She'd found him....and it was a place she never thought she'd see again...

Aaron was sure his nose was broken. The pain from it giving it away, that and the blood dripping from it.

Decon stood up, going to the one tap in the room, and turning it on, the blood leaving his knuckles like a waterfall. The sink turned red, before slowly going back to the normal pure colour of clear. Of water.

As if none of what had occurred had happened.

After that, he then looked to the dazed boy who sat in the chair, blood leaving his lip as well. He looked like a mess. Decon almost, almost, felt sorry for the boy.

The man walked over, clapping in front of Aaron's face. The boy opened his eyes, barely having the strength to keep them open.

"They'll be here soon. Then this can all feel like a dream, kid. You tried, I'll give you that. But there's always going to be a better man out there." Decon then made his way towards the door. He put his hand on it, before turning to Aaron once again, "I hope you make it there. Then maybe try again when you're actually good at this stuff." He said, before leaving the boy alone.

And so, Aaron was alone. Alone in his thoughts in a room filled with light, but alone. Maybe Decon was right, maybe he was going to go full circle. Maybe this was it. Maybe this was what it had all been building to; an attempt at doing good, but ultimately fucking it up and ending back where he started.

Hardly a hero's journey, but a journey none the less...

Sarah was always one who tried to have a backup. Tried to have a car ready to go, to have fuel just in case. To have a destination in mind.

This time. This place, she didn't. All she had was some sort of hope that it would work out. That she would find the children and then be able to run.

Her mind raced with possibilities, on where to go and just how she was going to get them out scot-free.

She knew it was a risk. She knew it was sort of dumb, to do what she had done. To expose herself like that. To show her backside to SHIELD as a surprise, "Here I am!". She knew that now, if not soon, they'd swarm in. Close in and find her. Take her away and question her for her years and years of absence from SHIELD.

So, there she was, taking down the wires, taking out the fuses to the bombs she had placed a while ago now. It seemed off to her, to not have these defenses up, to not be ready for an attack. These were always there just in case, now was that case, and she was anything but ready.

Despite that flaw, one that may be fatal - she knew - if she wasn't fast enough then both she and Aaron could be dead...if he wasn't already.

And if her kids weren't too.

The building she had seen looked simple, a warehouse, but one that was a labyrinth when entered, filled with random corridors and dead ends. It was the perfect maze to have this occur. The perfect place to hold Aaron.

And her kids.

She should've known, she guessed, known that they would never have been moved. Decon was a lot of things, but he'd never kill a kid.

She hoped. She always cared too much, that much she was told a lot at the academy. To some, it was probably why she was "buried". Why she didn't make it.