Luka watched the destruction from afar, from the very edge of the wards.

This wasn't what he wanted, it never had been.

He told Garrett his life wasn’t worth this, and this was how he responded? Although, it really wasn’t Garrett’s fault. He should have run, but it should never have come to this in the first place. The thing that grated at him the most was how close he had come. Even the magic stabbing at the nerves in his hand couldn’t distract him from that.

He exhaled, and let the magic go. Even if it was too late now, he did have one move left. He had no choice but to trust the patchwork of his spell, instead of wishing there was someone who could remove those last remains of doubt from his mind. He was settling into the final gamble, the one that would either get him arrested or set him free.

Once the balance of the fight shifted, coming out in favor of the Agents, he left. He didn’t need to see Garrett be led away in handcuffs to know that they had him. Returning to the street and the press of strangers, the gun became a heavy weight at the small of his back. The reminder made his chest feel too narrow, and he kept wiping at his face, thinking he had gotten Lewis' blood on him, but his hands kept coming away clean. Smoking only barely helped, but at least filling his lungs with something more tangible than air, reminded him that he could breathe.

He needed to focus. The hard part would be getting into the Academy, without being arrested before he could even attempt to cure someone. Most of the Agents were busy with the raid, but not all of them would be. He needed help to get past the gates, but he didn't know where he had Alice right now, and Hadley would be no help at all.

The only thing he had left, was a really bad idea. He called Constance Van Aller.

"Well, if it isn't the traitor," she mused. "Are you calling to negotiate the release of your boss? Because you might as well save us both some time and give it up."

"When you hired me," Luka said, with calm, deliberate care. "You allowed for some… alternative methods to solve this problem. Now, if your people had minded their own business, instead of running interference, this would have been settled peacefully. While you have been busy getting mages killed for no reason, I have been doing exactly what you hired me to do. I have the cure."

"Really," Constance said, sounding unconvinced. "Well, Mr. Lavrin, I don't know if you have been paying attention, but so do we."

"No. You have the man, who you think is going to give you the cure. He won't. Do you know who you're dealing with? Did any of your Agents recognize him?"

"He's no one." An edge entered her voice, and maybe she did know who he was. "An insignificant Rogue with a grudge."

"Garrett Warren Bailey did not get caught. He marched through your front door in cuffs, so he can laugh in your faces, when you fail to break him. He would rather die than see you win, and once he's dead, he'll finally be a true Legacy. One way or another, the Academy will burn down in his name, unless you allow me to handle this."

There was a pause on the other end, and Luka thought it was going to stretch into eternity. "What is it you're proposing?" Constance finally asked.

"All I need is access," he said. "Tell your Agents not to touch me."

"One hour," she said. "You get to be untouchable for one hour. Then you're going down with the rest of them."

"Fine," he said, and hung up on the most powerful mage in the district.

An hour wasn't a long time, especially since he would be using half of it getting to the Academy, but if his cure worked, it would be enough. When he arrived and saw the Agents at the gate, his first assumption was that Constance had lied, but not only did they let him in, they also escorted him to the hospital.

From Constance’s perspective, it would be about controlling the situation, but for Luka it meant easier access, which saved him some time. Dr. Garland looked startled to see him, and ready to protest, but the Agents stopped her. She said nothing as they stepped past her and into the room with the students on the verge of death. There was about the same number of patients, but not the same faces. It had taken too long, and lives had been lost.

Dr. Garland had followed them inside, and Luka turned towards her. "I'm sorry," he said. "I didn't think it would take this long."

"You're here to cure them?"

“That’s the idea,” he said, with more confidence than he possessed.

He didn't have to ask how many had been lost, because they were already burned into his mind, hovering there like ghosts and weighing down his already burdened soul. He placed his hand on the forehead of the nearest girl, and closed his eyes. He cleared his mind of the worries, the anger and the disappointment. Everything counted on this moment, and he couldn't allow himself to be distracted. He formed the spell in his mind, and wove it into the spell already inside her. It was like an untying of knots, that feeling of release, when his spell undid the damage of the virus. It was a slow progress, and it required his full attention. When he was done, he wondered if his time was up, but it wasn't. He was left with around ten minutes. He took a step back, and gestured for Dr. Garland.

"Check it. You can use me to compare, if you need to."

The doctor nodded, and stepped closer. She ran the check, a spell with a build-in ward that was completely unnecessary in this case, but the Spellcaster wouldn’t have constructed it for people who were confirmed infected. She frowned, and Luka assumed it had come back negative. She performed the spell once more, before she dared put her hand on the girl and use her magic.

“She’s clear.”

"Good," Luka said, and turned to the Agents. "Will you take me to Mage Thomas? I need to see him."

"That's not our job," one of the Agents said.

"No?" Luka asked. "Well, in that case, I'm guessing my remaining time is best spend getting as far away from the Academy as possible. Unless proof of concept is enough?" He gestured towards Dr. Garland and the girl. The Agent crossed his arms, but didn't respond.

"Right," Luka said, and pushed past both Agents. They still couldn't touch him for another five minutes. Whether or not he could get to the other side of the gates before then was the real question.

"We'll take you to Mage Thomas," the other Agent said, earning a glare from his partner.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

They headed for the administrative buildings, but instead of going up, they went down. Luka knew about the basements, where the Academy had a small selection of holding cells and soundproof chambers, and if he'd had to guess, this was exactly where he would expect to find Hadley. After a good five minutes of turns and doorways and a single flight of stairs, taking them deeper underground, Luka and his escort reached a room with two guards posted outside.

"Is Mage Thomas available?" The friendlier one of his entourage asked.

One of the guards, the younger one, shook his head. "He's still with the prisoner."

"It doesn't matter," Luka said. "He'll see me anyway." He was distinctly aware that his time was up, that they didn't need to listen to him, and might as well just arrest him here and now. The holding cells were convenient, after all. The Agents all traded glances, until one of them finally pounded on the door. It had no handle, and Luka suspected it was magically sealed. It took a moment for it to open, and Luka pushed his way in, not even glancing at Hadley as he passed him. He found himself inside a concrete block. Garrett was seated on a chair, a suppressor visible at the back of his neck, running beneath the collar of his shirt along his spine. His arms and legs were chained and he was sagging forward, but he stirred at the sudden activity.

His eyes lifted and landed on Luka, who recognized none of the charismatic man he knew. Dark shadows marred his steely eyes, partially dried blood from his nose and mouth stood out against his too pale skin. However, there was no mistaking the tug of his lips as he attempted to smile through bloodied teeth.

"What are you doing here?" Hadley asked, closing the door behind him.

"Urgent business," Luka answered, not yet turning to look at him. He wasn't done taking in all the things that had been done to Garrett, before he managed to get there. He wasn't entirely sure who he was more concerned for, the tortured or the torturer. Hadley appeared untroubled, but it seemed like his soul ought to suffer from the gruesome nature of the work. Like every scar left on Garrett's skin, would leave a different kind of scar on Hadley in return.

"You're here to save him?" he asked.

When he finally turned to look at him, Luka tried to ignore the blood staining Hadley's hands, but couldn't quite manage to keep his eyes averted.

"In a sense."

"So, what's your plan?"

Luka saw him eyeing the artifacts, trying to plan his way out of a fight. When he reached for a serrated knife, Luka’s heart cracked a little. Their animosity was his fault, he didn't deny that, but he had never intended it to come to this. Hadley thought he was there to fight him, and he was prepared to fight back.

"Relax," Luka said. "You saw the Agents. Constance granted me safe haven. Well, until about five minutes ago, if I'm being honest."

"Why?"

"Because I found the cure," Luka said, and watched Hadley's eyes shift between him and Garrett.

"No, that's impossible," he said. "You said that yourself."

"When Garrett cured me, it left traces. I recreated the cure from there. I don't expect you to believe me, but you can call the doctor. She'll tell you."

He pulled back his hand. "You cured them?"

"One of them," Luka answered. "To test the theory. Before I continue, I'm going to need something from you."

"What?" Hadley asked. His questions were sharp, as cutting as his instruments of torture. Luka made an effort to sound unaffected, calm.

"Constance gave me an hour. That hour is up. Now I need you to convince her to make it more permanent. I want the charges of treason dropped."

"Why me? Why not just talk to Constance directly?"

"Because I don't trust her."

"But you trust me?"

Luka took a breath, pushing away his doubts. "Marginally."

"Fine," Hadley said. He slid his phone out of his pocket and stepped away, leaving Luka with a bleeding villain.

"Better late than never, I guess." Garrett smiled through the blood, through the pain.

"What?" Luka asked.

"I told you I needed a Healer."

"That's not why I'm here," Luka said, but he stepped closer, trying to assess the damage. It was too dark to see anything, except that there was a lot of blood, and Garrett sounded pained.

"So why? Saving your friend from having to torture me? Because if that's it, I have to tell you that he's quite good at it. Too good to not have practice." He coughed, and blood spattered the floor.

"Fuck," Luka muttered and knelt next to him. He put his hand on him and assessed the damage. "I thought the torture wasn't supposed to leave marks."

Garrett shrugged, but it turned into a wince half-way through. "He wanted to see blood," he said.

"Who wouldn't?" A red glow settled between them, as Luka took care of the internal injuries and broken bones first. Garrett took a deep breath, as the worst of the pain faded. He was working on the more shallow wounds, when he heard Hadley hang up.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

Luka got up and turned towards him, his eyes cold. "Oh, sorry. Did I ruin your attempted murder? I thought maybe you didn't want that on your conscience, but of course I could be wrong."

"He wasn't dying. I know what I'm doing."

"I heard. Although, since I'm the one who assessed his condition, I think maybe you should take my word for it. I can give you the rundown, if you want."

"It's done," he said, and held up his phone.

"So?" Luka asked, waiting for more.

"So, you're free to go. All charges against you are dropped. Go cure the rest."

"You're too kind," Luka said, sarcasm burning through his words. "And Garrett? Do you promise to stop beating the life out of him?"

"Yes," he snapped, crossing his arms. "I'm done here. He'll be moved to the caves as soon as possible."

"Great," Luka said flatly. "Can I have a moment?"

Hadley glanced at Garrett. "With me or him?"

"You," he answered, probably slightly harsher than necessary. It was insulting, though, that Hadley would think he was stupid enough to ask for a moment alone with Garrett. Even cleared of all charges, it didn't seem like the best move.

Hadley nodded and followed Luka outside.

"Prepare the prisoner for transport," Luka ordered the Agents. They looked at him uncertainly, unsure of whether they were taking orders from him or not. Hadley nodded at them, and they joined Garrett in the other room, leaving Luka and Hadley alone.

Luka still had trouble wrapping his head around this brutal, violent version of Hadley, and everything he had planned to say seemed to vanish. The light was brighter here, and the blood shimmered on his hands. He noticed more spattered on his shirt, some of it already turning a rusty brown. He focused on his eyes, afraid of what he might find there, but they looked the same.

"You don't get to be upset about this," Luka said. "You expected me to do something reckless and stupid, and I did. It worked, Thomas. I did exactly what you hired me to do."

"I didn't think—"

"I'm not done," Luka continued. "After what I just witnessed, you absolutely do not get to fucking judge me. You think I’m the problem, but you were the one who just tried to torture your only lead to death. How exactly were you planning on getting the cure after that?“

“I wasn’t—”

“You were. I don’t know what you did to him, and I don’t want to know, but he had some severe internal bleeding. I don’t know how he was still conscious.”

"Done?" Hadley asked. Luka inclined his head in the slightest gesture he could possibly make to allow him to speak.

“You crossed the goddamned line, Lavrin. You committed treason. Of all the stupid things I could have imagined, that wasn't even…" The sentence was left hanging, as he struggled to convey his outrage.

"Are you really surprised? My loyalties were never to the Academy, you knew that."

Hadley's fists clenched, and his eyes darted away from Luka. "You were supposed to be loyal to me."

Luka shook his head. He didn't even know what to say to that. It wasn't even that much of a deviation really. Hadley had just chosen to forget who he really was, and what he was willing to do. Letting Abel die had been a choice he made, because the alternative would have been so much worse. Was treason really that far off? "Report to the hospital when you want to be cured."

"You can't just do it now?" Hadley asked, frowning. His voice was still harsh, and Luka could see him struggling with his anger, while trying to focus on the turn of the conversation.

"I won't," Luka said and left the room, ignoring Hadley's protests as he walked out.

Luka wasn't prone to claustrophobia. It was irrational to fear walls, when he felt connected to them, when close proximity to concrete was a comfort. Even so, he suddenly felt himself unable to breathe in the narrow hallways, as he walked himself back to the surface. His steps were confident, and he barely had to think about the turns he took, but he didn't feel like he was getting anywhere. The route was impossibly long, and as his panic climbed, he started doubting his sense of direction after all. He finally reached the exit and pushed through the last door between himself and the outside. He breathed deeply, filling his lungs with fresh air, and the panic slowly settled. He took a moment, focusing on his breaths until they returned to normal. He stood up straight, running his hand through his hair, and headed back towards the hospital.