Chapter 15: Chapter 15

CODY

"You ruined my moment with your, 'language Mr. Stevenson'." Ryder whines, mocking Henri. He purposely makes his voice one too many octaves too high.

"Forgive me," Henri says flatly before swatting at the back of Ryder's head again. Ryder scowls at him.

Ryder mutters something under his breath that I don't catch...but Henri clearly does.

"Ow!" Ryder yells out as Henri slaps the back of his head yet again.

"Watch your tongue."

"Hello!" Devin shouts out, catching their attention before pointing to the screen. "Anybody want to focus on the problem at hand!?"

I look back up at the screen just in time to see Lydia pull a gun and point it at Thirteen...who scoffs and leans back against the couch, placing her hands behind her head as if she's in the most comfortable position ever.

"You do anything I don't like..." Lydia trails off as she stares directly into the camera. "And I kill her."

Devin sucks in a breath, Henri goes rigid, and I feel my heart stop for a second, and...Ryder...presses the button on the microphone and laughs loudly.

We all turn towards him and stare at him as if he's grown another head. He just continues laughing into the microphone, and it's not a fake laugh. He finally calms down enough to talk, while everybody in the room is looking at each other confused. Lydia's confident expression falters.

"That's hilarious." He says, still laughing. "Tell me another joke, go ahead."

He pauses as if he's actually waiting for her to say something else, and when she makes no move to, he continues on.

"You're not going to kill her. Not if you want to get the information you so desperately seek out of her." He says, the smugness in his voice only serves to piss her off as her hand clenches tighter around the gun.

"That's literally the only reason she's not dead yet. Both you and Garrett want the same thing, and she's got it. That must suck." He snickers at the end of the statement, trying to piss her off even more.

"You know," She says off-handedly. "You're right. But I don't have to kill her..." She smiles darkly at Thirteen who narrows her eyes in response. "I just have to kill the people she cares about. Enough of them die...and she'll start talking."

Thirteen scoffs. "Not likely."

"There's a flaw in your otherwise brilliant and psychotic plan, we're on the second floor you dumbas-"

"Mr. Stevenson." Henri's tone holds warning as he cuts Ryder off yet again, Ryder glares at him.

Lydia's smile grows even darker. "Not all of you are."

There's the sound of an explosion, followed by loud curses and screams...all coming from the landline sitting next to us, still on speaker.

Chase.

Lydia smiles smugly as Chase and Megan are dragged into the view of the cameras, Chase struggling as much as he can, but there are easily five men holding him in place, and another five never taking their guns off him.

"The doors may be bulletproof." Lydia starts. "But they can't withstand an explosion."

Thirteen who was otherwise calm up till this point jumps to her feet immediately and tries to go help Chase and Megan.

She doesn't make it very far as a gunshot echoes out and she falls to the floor with a cry of pain. Lydia lowers her gun to her side as Thirteen clutches at her leg, blood seeping through her fingers.

Lydia takes a few steps forward and bends down so she's eye level with Thirteen.

"I said I wouldn't kill you. I never said I wouldn't shoot you."

"Get away from her!" Chase growls out. He struggles even more against the guys restraining him. Megan looks horrified but doesn't say anything.

Lydia makes a simple mistake. She takes her eyes off Thirteen to look up at Chase, and Thirteen seizes her opportunity.

Her good leg swings out and slams into Lydia's stomach, knocking her back before launching herself at Lydia. The gun's knocked from her hand and immediately all the other people standing on the edges of the room rush towards the two, trying to pull Thirteen off, but not before she gets in some good punches.

She's pulled off Lydia, who gets to her feet tauntingly slow, wiping some blood from her lips. Thirteen's back is to the camera, but I can clearly picture her murderous gaze anyways.

Lydia gestures for the guys holding Thirteen to let her go. They shove her to the floor in front of Lydia. The gun in Lydia's hand slams into Thirteen's head. Thirteen clutches her head and rolls onto her back. She tries desperately to hide the obvious pain she's in.

She tries to sit up, a dangerous gleam in her eyes as she stares at Lydia. She makes a move to go at her only for the guy in front of her to lift his leg up and slam his foot down into her stomach. He pulls his leg back and kicks her in the side when she still tries to get up again.

A cracking sound is heard and her face contorts with pain as she wraps her arms around her side. He's clearly cracked or broken at least one of her ribs.

She still moves to sit up yet again, hiding her pain behind her glare as she turns her fury away from Lydia to the guy standing in front of her for the moment.

Stay down Thirteen.

"I can't wait to see the look on his face when he sees you." She growls menacingly at him. I stare curiously at the screen, as does Devin.

She uses the arm of the couch to stand shakily to her feet. But I can clearly see the lack of pressure she's putting on her leg, blood continuously seeping from her thigh into her jeans. She keeps her bad arm tucked to her side, and the other is wrapped around her rib cage.

Lydia walks right up to her and grabs hold of her by her shirt collar, and throws her into what remains of the coffee table. Thirteen still gets back on her feet. Slowly, but she's still standing.

Lydia glares at her, her entire figure shaking with anger. She turns to the guy Thirteen was talking to before.

"Shoot her."She says simply. He complies without hesitation. Lifting his gun up from its holster and firing.

Thirteen jerks backward slightly but she still stays on her feet, even when blood begins to soak through the arm of her shirt. She winces but does nothing else, the bullet just grazed the outside of her arm, and I feel myself letting out a breath of relief that it's not anything worse.

"Always the good little soldier following orders." Thirteen sneers at him. "To hell with who you hurt so long as you do as your told and Lydia is pleased, ain't that right Hayden?"

I feel my heart stop and blood chills in my veins. She says his name with so much venom, so much hatred. But at the same time, there's a hint of something else, regret.

Devin glances at me, waiting for me to do or say anything but I'm numb. Hayden can't be a part of Vendetta. He would've told if he was.

And yet as I stand here staring at him through on the screen I notice all the features that are exactly the same, even though his back is to me. I don't know what to think, but suddenly that numbness and feeling of uncertainty - of betrayal turns into something else, something I'm familiar with and readily welcome...

Rage. Pure murderous rage.

"How many more bullets will it take for you to stay down?" Lydia snarls, advancing on Thirteen who doesn't make any move to get out of the way or defend herself.

"Just one." Thirteen replies, her tone full of pain. Her voice letting on to exactly how much it pains her to breathe. Her gaze, however, is like steel and filled with venom.

"But it'll have to be in the head or heart." She adds, her gaze challenging Lydia, practically begging her to do it.

"Ryder!" I shout, pointing to the computers in front of him. "Didn't you say you could do something?!"

I stare at the screen in horror as Lydia gets closer, her hand holding the gun twitching. She's going to kill her.

Ryder begins cursing under his breath before beginning to shout.

"No, no, no, no!" He slams his hands down on the desk and I turn to look at the computers.

There are a hundred different screens popping up all on their own, and nothing Ryder tries to do does anything at all. One by one the TV screens begin to turn off on their own, followed closely by the computers as well.

"What the hell is going on?" Devin asks at the same time I hiss.

"What did you do?"

"I don't know!" He shouts angrily. "I didn't do anything!"

We no longer have a view of Thirteen and we can't do anything to help her now.

There's another blackout, shutting off the previously red lights. They begin to flicker back on, but now they're back to the white light instead of the red glow.

"Shit!" Ryder curses and this time Henri makes no move to stop him...I don't think that's a good thing. "The lock down's been lifted!"

Devin's eyes go wide. "I thought only Thirteen could lift it."

"That's what she told me." Ryder hisses, and I can't tell if he's angry with the problem...or angry with her.

He jumps up from his chair like a bullet and races to the secret door, punching in the code and yanking the door open quickly. He rushes out into the hall and looks in either direction. He looks distressed.

"Let's go, all of you." He motions for us to follow but he doesn't take his eyes off the stairway at the end of the hall. "Go find Jason and explain things as quickly as possible. Lock yourselves in one of the other rooms."

I grab hold of his arm roughly when he turns to run off somewhere else.

"Where are you going?" I question.

"To buy you guys some time...and cause some trouble, you know, the kind that usually pisses people off." He finishes with a mischievous smile before pulling his arm from my grasp and running off down the hall.

"Oh and leave Elaine out in the hallway for me in case it gets ugly will ya?" He shouts over his shoulder before descending down the stairs.

"Let's go," Devin says, pulling on my arm and I turn and follow him, we make it halfway up the stairs with Henri before crashing into Jason.

"What the hell is going on?" He hisses, holstering a gun I hadn't even realized he pulled.

"Funny, I asked that like five minutes ago," Devin responds and Jason gives him a look that clearly says that he's not helping. "Where's Elaine?"

"I locked her in the bathroom so she couldn't get in the way any more than she already is."

"Ryder wants us to put her in the hallway."

"So they can shoot her?"

"I believe that's the idea."

"Give me thirty seconds."

I grab Jason's arm as he turns to run back up the stairs before he goes through with Ryder's plan. We explain everything as quickly as possible before telling Jason we need to go back up the stairs. As soon as we make it to the third floor, six gunshots echo out. One right after the other.

"I really hope that was Ryder shooting," Devin mutters as he pulls his gun out and loads it.

"Yeah," I agree. "So do I."

But somehow...I know it's not. If it were Ryder shooting, there would be shots firing back by now...unless it was Thirteen they were shooting at.

A slamming sound can be heard followed by shouts and more slamming before everything is quiet...too quiet. I pull my gun out as well as Jason, even Henri pulls out a gun I didn't even know he had. We all shoot him a questioning look.

He shrugs. "You live with Thirteen long enough, you learn to be prepared."

I hear footsteps thudding up the stairs, up towards us. My grip on the gun tightens and I wait for whoever it is to come around the corner. As soon as they do my gun swings around, aiming right at their head. There's a startled scream followed closely by a hand slapping the gun away.

I stare at Megan as she trembles slightly, blood staining her clothes but none of it seems to be hers.

"I...they...We need help." She finally says before rushing back down the stairs. We all quickly follow, guns still drawn. Though I doubt Megan would've made it all the way up here if these people were still in the house.

My suspicions are confirmed when we finally make it to the first floor only to see a lack of Vendetta agents anywhere. We follow her quickly to the conference room, there's a huge hole where the door was, but clearly isn't anymore.

Chase is standing outside the room, his back pressed against the wall, his hands hold his side as blood seeps through a gunshot wound.

Devin rushes up to him immediately but Chase waves him away.

"I'm fine." He dismisses quickly. "it just barely grazed me, but-" He stops himself short.

"But what?" I ask, afraid to know the answer.

"But Thirteen, she's-"

I don't wait around to listen to him finish. I look over at Megan who points with a shaking hand into the conference room. I waste no more time and rush inside, Devin and Jason close behind.

I see Thirteen on the floor by her office and immediately dread sets in as I slowly walk closer. I let out a breath of relief when I see that she is in fact breathing, and her body shakes. Her back is to me. I stop in my tracks when I realize why she's shaking.

She's trying not to cry...but not from the pain.

She's lying half on top of him, her head resting on his chest, her hands fisted on his shirt. The pool of blood that lies around them both isn't just hers, it's also his.

She doesn't move away when she hears us come in, doesn't even look over at us, she just keeps her face buried in his chest.

She moves slightly, enough for me to see only some of the bullet holes covering his torso. Six shots rang out. Chase only got shot once...Ryder got the other five.

His body doesn't move, there's no rise or fall of his chest, no twitch of his hands, no irritating smug smirk. Nothing.

Nothing.

Empty.

Lifeless.