"Is it wrong?" She continued to calmly opine as she pushed back out into the hallway. The reinforcements had spilled in from the stairway exit. She let off a flurry of bullets as one by one they pushed into the hall, awkwardly having to step over their comrades.
"How could it be?" She let her blade rip through them, taking off shooting arms by the elbow, slashing their legs from underneath them.
"When I'm— just— so— good at it!"
"What the fuck is she!"
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" she wailed, dancing in the red pouring rain.
"Caleb? Where are you?" said Seguerra.
"I'm hiding in a utility closet. Why? What's going on?"
"Somebody's attacking the SWAT team. They're assuming it's you!"
"You know I'd never try to attack a SWAT team—wait—oh no. Oh God No. What is she doing!"
"What?"
"It's Ivy! She's gonna get herself killed!" Caleb shouted, crashing out of the broom closet and barreling down the hallway.
"Get to the first floor! If you can do that, I can help you from there. But you're gonna have a decision to make when I do get there, and you'd better be ready to make it." He hung up, trudging past the police barricade.
"Seguerra!" he heard his superior bellow. He dismissed his concern with a grunt, marching through the open automatic doors.
Seguerra reached over the front desk and grabbed a microphone connected to the P.A. system. "Caleb, can you hear me?" he said, setting the bait.
"Die! Die! Die!' Ivy cackled. "It's all just a game, don't you know that! So just die die die!" The buzz of the P.A. made her quiet down and listen, halting the carnage momentarily as she took cover from behind a pillar.
"Caleb, if you can, please come down to the first floor lobby. This is your only way to get out of this alive. Come to the first floor lobby, Caleb." He figured he had repeated it enough times.
"Caleb!" she cried. Ivy sent another volley of bullets before slipping away from the corner, running as fast as she could for the stairway exit on the opposite wing. Caleb did the same, though he was more cautious. As competitive as ever, Ivy outdid herself. She emerged from the stairway exit and burst into the main floor lobby first. She was too excited to stop herself. She raced right into the open area, right in clear view, right when Caleb emerged from the other direction, just in time to watch her fall into the trap she didn't see.
They tore through her; all at once, the bullets ripped through her supple flesh. She was there. And then, in an instant, she was gone.
"IVY!"
"Caleb don't go to her!"
He dove for Ivy, sweeping her up with the strength and grace he didn't know he had. Seguerra gave the signal to "cease fire," watching Caleb as he pulled her into the emergency room and shut the door behind him. He resolved to give them some time.
He cradled her in his arms, as she lay there, bloodied all over, but especially favoring the hole they put in her stomach. He desperately pawed over her body, searching for what his eyes couldn't find. He clutched her in his arms as her skin began to fall from her body in clumps of pink and bloody scarlet. His cheeks were burning hot, as they tensed and struggled to hold back the surging tears. They'd come anyway as he gazed upon her beautiful face as it mustered a dwindling smile as she choked and convulsed. His vision was blurring; his coming tears made his eyes a waxy glycerine.
"Why?" he sobbed. "Ivy, why?"
"It cut me to lie to you, my darling," she whimpered. "I couldn't bear the wound. As— as much as I've tried to turn away, I can't help that my heart screams for you, Caleb. So, so that's why—"
"Ivy, Ivy, I love you!" He cradled her face with his bloody hands as he kissed her, letting them move and linger over the contours of her dying body. He cried out to her as he held her close to him as she crumbled in his arms. All the more, she turned to him with love in her eyes, with cheer in her smile. She pressed her lips against his as they began to shake. The tears were running now from the both of them. And then, she fell away.
"The woman you knew as Ivy Quinn: her real name is Lily, daughter of, as I'm sure you're aware by now, Fred Clark," Seguerra reported solemnly as he crept into the room. "The real Ivy Quinn died when she was a child. Likely killed by her parents. Desperate to cover things up, they adopted Lily, and told everyone she was their biological daughter. Perhaps call it poetic justice, that they all later found themselves buried together in the Quinns' backyard. Their replacement daughter Lily, bore an uncanny resemblance to Ivy, which is why the Quinns wanted to have her. Lily's mother died of cancer when she was very young. Fred Clark spent everything he had on the cancer treatment to no avail, and the endeavor left him penniless and unable to support himself and his young child. So, Fred turned to crime. He came up with this scheme, seeing it as his last chance for he and his daughter to live that happy ending. And he almost had it. He found a woman, remarried, and fathered twins. Everything was going almost perfect, except, likely because of his own prejudices, he could not predict that his eldest daughter, a crucial element in his plot, would actually, genuinely fall in love with their most important pawn."
Caleb rose to his feet, lifting Ivy as her arms dangled.
"Where are you going? Caleb."
He continued walking. "Caleb! I can't guarantee your safety if you go out there!"
He walked in the plain view of them, with their guns aimed and trigger-fingers in position. A dauntless Caleb stepped past the automatic doors, the windows on either side of him were shattered completely, and there were shards of glass spread all across the floor like rock salt. He stood out in the open with her motionless in his arms; wisps of her golden hair tossing in the mild breeze. No one moved for a long time. No one spoke. They all watched as he carried her, and his somber march further and further into the void of swirling lights; until it was all they could even see.