A/N Warning: death of a character
"I'm not sure if I like this."
"Do you have a better idea?" As soon as Arsyn got close, the couple had run into the next section and climbed into the rafters. They could hear the criminal pounding up the stairs behind them and moved a little faster. Karlie, whose height made her a little less balanced, flailed slightly as she set her foot down at a bad angle, but was luckily able to grip a supporting beam to steady herself.
"Karlie! You could have fallen!" Taylor scolded, looking back at her with wide eyes.
"Really? I had no idea," Karle said, her voice dripping in sarcasm. "I'll try to avoid that, I guess." She looked down at the floor and immediately wished she hadn't. They were at least thirty feet above it, and Karlie gulped, trying not to think about what it would feel like to fall from that distance. She already had some idea, considering Taylor had survived a worse one, but had a feeling that not everyone would be so lucky.
"There you two are," Arsyn snarled, appearing in the doorway. "How did you break out?"
"Uh, isn't it a little obvious?" Karlie laughed. "You did see your entire gang attack your new pals, didn't you?"
"They couldn't have known," the black-haired girl hissed, stepping out onto a beam to approach them.
"I mean, we did have a little inside help from Cut Throat," Karlie said, backing away.
"Impossible! She's dead."
"You have a poor track record of keeping your enemies dead, then," Taylor snorted, jumping over to the next beam. They were only a few feet apart, but Karlie still gaped at her. Does she really expect me to do that?
Apparently the answer was yes, because as Arsyn approached Karlie, the blonde motioned for her girlfriend to join her. Karlie balked, but Taylor's insistent glare and the diminishing distance between the criminal and the detective encouraged her to take the leap, reaching for Taylor's hand and wrapping her arms around the supporting beam to help her stick the landing.
"Why are you running away?" Arsyn laughed. "It's two on one; why are you so scared?"
"We just want to talk," Taylor said, pacing down the wooden joist carefully while doing her best to maintain eye contact with her ex.
"We're a little beyond talking, don't you think?" Arsyn said with a smirk.
"And whose fault is that?" Karlie muttered. Arsyn snapped around and glared at her.
"Don't interrupt, Kloss. The big girls are conversing." The taller girl looked like she wanted to say something back, but Taylor shot her a warning glance.
"I just need to know why, Arsyn. Why were you so desperate to take over leadership? Why did you collaborate with Toni and use the weapon?"
"Well, to answer your first question, you really should have seen it coming," Arsyn sneered, pacing along her own beam. "From the first time I saw you, I knew you were weak. You didn't deserve to be the leader; Justice and Luna should have given me that title. I was stronger, smarter, and willing to do what I needed to in order to succeed."
"Willing to hurt other people for your own selfish goals, you mean," Taylor said. Arsyn laughed and jumped over to their side, scrambling to grab the support beam and hang on. Her shorter stature made the jump more difficult.
"We were criminals, Cat. You've done plenty wrong in your life; don't grow a conscience now."
"I never went out of my way to hurt innocent civilians," Taylor defended herself. "The fact that you and Toni used the weapon, knowing that it would affect the hospital, is despicable."
"Oh, cry me a river," Arsyn grumbled. "You were soft then, and you're even softer now. Believe me, it will be my pleasure to kill you. And this time, you'll stay dead." She moved closer to the couple, who were blocked by the major support beam in the middle of the joist. Taylor made the leap to the next one over, encouraging Karlie to follow again, which she did reluctantly. These two were a little farther apart than the first ones, and both hoped that Arsyn wouldn't attempt to follow.
If we can just keep her distracted long enough for the fight to finish up, the others could help us capture her...assuming they're still standing, Karlie thought. She hoped it was going well out there - in her experience, Taylor's old gang was much more skilled than Toni's.
"Even if you did kill us, what then?" Karlie asked, trying to keep her talking. "You'd have to deal with everyone who rebelled against you, and you'd probably have to leave this hideout too. I guarantee it's been compromised."
"I already prepared for that," the criminal said with a maniacal grin. "This whole place is rigged to explode." She reached into her pocket and pulled out a little remote. "Want to see?"
"No, wait, that's not necessary -" Karlie started, only to be interrupted by a distant booming sound. Arsyn had pressed a button.
"That was on the far side of the factory," Arsyn said with a cruel smile, "but the fire will spread quickly. And I have a few more ready to go nearby..." She pressed another button, and a louder blast that shook the building sounded near them. They all clung tightly to the wooden beams as the shockwaves passed, but that was just the beginning. Smoke began to fill the air, and loud crashes resonated through the building as pieces of wood and metal dropped to the floor.
"Still think you're getting out of here alive?" Arsyn said, a crazy gleam in her eye. "I know the shortcuts out, and you don't. When the smoke and fire come for you, you won't stand a chance. Not that you'll live long enough to see it." She prowled along her joist, parallel to the couple, getting close to them again.
"You keep saying that," Karlie said, trying to sound brave, "but I haven't seen anything to be scared of yet."
"Really? How's your hand-to-hand?" Pushing off with a tremendous amount of force, the criminal launched herself at Karlie, knocking her slightly off balance. Karlie jerked away from her and lost her footing, but was luckily able to use her upper body strength to swing herself around a beam and balance herself on the other side of it. Unwilling to give Arsyn another shot at her, she jumped away across another gap, her heart pounding furiously from her scare.
Unfortunately, this left Arsyn to find another target. Taylor was still nearby and was distracted by making sure Karlie was not, in fact, about to fall to her death. Arsyn took the opportunity to send a punch at her, but luckily the blonde saw it coming and jumped back. Unfortunately there was another beam there and the movement caused her to slam into it, knocking her breath away. Okay, whose idea was it to come up here again?
She copied Karlie's move from earlier and swung herself around it, putting the beam between herself and Arsyn to give herself a chance to catch her breath. This was unfortunately getting harder to do, as the smoke began to filter into the room with vengeance. The temperature had also increased dramatically, and Taylor looked down to see that the fire had begun spreading to the floor, which was overgrown with plants and mold, not to mention littered with garbage and chemicals. It would cover the floor soon.
She was startled by Arsyn approaching again, trying to knock her off balance from the other side of the beam. Taylor made the leap to the other joist, joining Karlie again, and tried to get closer to her girlfriend. The fire had spread under them, and the heat and smoke were rising quickly, making it very uncomfortable.
"We have to get out of here!" Karlie called over the roar of the flames. "This is all made of wood! It's bound to catch soon, and we're dead if we're not gone by then."
"What about Arsyn?" Taylor yelled back, her voice drowned out by the fire.
"Screw Arsyn!" Karlie started to move quickly along the wooden support, heading for the metal ladders on the side of the observation platforms. Taylor followed her, finding that she didn't completely agree. But this was Arsyn's mess, and she and Karlie weren't going to die for it.
Suddenly there was a jolt on the wood they were walking on, shaking the joist and making them both grab onto vertical beams for support. Looking back at the source of it, Taylor gasped. Arsyn was about twenty feet behind them and had attempted to jump onto their beam, but clearly had misjudged the distance. She was hanging by her fingertips, struggling to pull herself up.
"Stop swinging your body so much! You'll lose your grip!" Taylor screamed at her, hurrying back along the beam toward the criminal.
"Taylor! Wait!" Karlie called after her, pointing to the fire that had made its way up to the other end of the beam. "This thing will collapse any second! We need to get off!"
"Get to the metal platform! I'm not leaving her!" Taylor yelled, continuing on her way. The heat was tremendous, and sweat poured down her forehead, almost blinding her. Glancing down, she could see that the fire had swollen to the point where there was almost no floor visible, the flames reaching high into the air.
She could hear Karlie racing along behind her, but focused on her goal. Arsyn's grip was weakening, and as she slipped even more, she let out a scream of frustration. Taylor swung around another vertical beam and finally entered the same section, moving toward her quickly and reaching out a hand to help.
And then it happened. Taylor was reaching for her, kneeling on the beam, inches from her hand, when something in Arsyn's face changed. Rage changed to fear as her fingers lost their strength, and Taylor lunged forward, trying to grab her hand that was still extended up toward her. But it was too late, and their hands didn't connect. The girl slipped away from her and fell into the flaming maelstrom of her own creation, lost to their sight within seconds.