staring down the sun

[14] silent rage now that fills my lungs

She's killed people before. For orders. For self-defense. And then for justice she knew would never come.

It still leaves a bad taste in her mouth, though, taking someone's life. She'd be lying if she didn't admit she still has some reservations about the Saints' approach to justice. Hell, in their first couple of days as vigilantes, they quickly surpassed her total number of kills from her first five years with the CIA.

But being with the brothers helps make the bile at the back of her throat easier to swallow. She knows evil has many faces, sometimes hiding behind feigned innocence. She knows Connor and Murphy have grown past the naive thrill they initially felt. She knows they can navigate the grey area between good and evil.

Destroy all that which is evil, so that which is good may flourish.

Maybe God really did call on them...

Elena looks at her watch, practically holding her breath for the minute hand to land squarely on the 9, when they agreed she would go into action. She exhales quickly as the time ticks into place and inhales while kicking in the door.

Their luck has got to run out eventually, as everything is strangely going to plan again. She enters the building from the alley entrance, firing her Glock at the group of men trying to charge after the boys. A bullet rips into one man's head, throwing him to the ground instantly. Another man turns his face in her direction, but Elena fires into his chest twice.

One by one, Lombardo's soldiers fall, encircling the twins with death and blood as they stand back to back with both hands firing. Another man peers around the corner, eyeing Elena, but as he raises his pistol in her direction, Connor shoots him in the head.

The first wave settles, and Connor and Murphy quickly swap out the magazines on their guns and move toward the center of the building, with Elena watching their backs. The trio carefully position themselves against the walls, Connor on one side and Murphy with Elena on the other.

They close in on Lombardo's office, fast firing at the men guarding the door. A handful of men appear behind them, but Elena and Murphy take them out.

Murphy spins around to catch up to his brother, who is already holding the one and only Anthony Lombardo at gunpoint. Murphy hits Lombardo on the back of the head, hard enough to knock him to the floor, but not hard enough to knock him out—they still need to use him.

"Where are the girls, motherfucker?" Connor hisses as Murphy grabs hold of Lombardo's shirt, holding the gun in his other hand against the Italian's temple.

"Is that what you've become? Saviors to whores?" Lombardo taunts, prompting Murphy to tighten his grip and press his gun harder into his head.

"The girls, ye son-of-a-bitch!" Murphy yells, his voice overlapping with Connor's barking, "Where are they?"

Lombardo smiles smugly, nodding at his desk. "The key to their room is over there. They're down the hall, locked away for safe-keeping."

Connor looks at Elena, and she grabs the keys from the desk as he points a gun back to the door to cover her. "Let's go," Connor instructs, and Murphy drags Lombardo into the hallway.

"Is that why she's here? This another whore saved by the fucking Saints?" the crime boss taunts again, smiling at Elena.

Suddenly, Connor grabs Lombardo from Murphy and punches him in the nose. The dark-haired twin stops him from full-on wailing on the guy but lets Connor take hold of their hostage.

Lombardo spits blood onto the floor and directs their attention to the pad-locked door in front of them. "Your girls are in there. You can save them, but know there will be others, voi patetici santi."

You pathetic Saints.

The seediness of where Lombardo keeps the girls compared to the clean, modern aesthetic of his office is enough to make Elena sick to her stomach. She hands the keys to Murphy, keeping an eye on Connor and the pure anger she sees building in his face. He presses his gun harder against Lombardo's head, his veritas finger poised on the trigger. She shifts her attention as Murphy unlocks the door, revealing a group of close to 30 young girls, ranging from mid-20s to 14 years old if they had to guess.

The memory floods under Elena's skin, sitting with the girls in that dingy room above the Russian club after one of them was raped. Natasha. The girl was barely 18, and her usually mousy voice had fallen silent as she curled up in the corner. Elena tried to ask her what happened, even though she knew already. She felt that if Natasha said it out loud, it would justify going after Nikolai right then and there. Her eyes scanned the bruises all over Natasha's body before resting on the blood that soaked her panties. Natasha didn't need to say anything. Elena asked if it was Nikolai, and when the girl squeezed her eyes shut, tears released down her cheeks. That was all the confirmation she needed.

She didn't slow down as she left the room and verified with one of the cronies that Nikolai was in his office. "You fucker," she growled in Russian as she slammed his door shut behind her. Nikolai's smile was always evil, but somehow, it had reached a darker, more insidious level. He stood up, towering over Elena with his broad body. She didn't care. She could still take him down. CIA mission be damned, she wanted to destroy him. He grabbed her and shoved her against the wall, ready to repeat his crime as he threw his hand up under her dress. Elena spat in his face and clawed at his arms and hands to let go of her. Nikolai stopped fighting and stared with dark eyes before throwing his fist across her cheek.

"You're not worth the fight," he sneered in Russian.

Connor kicks Lombardo so he falls to his knees, drawing Elena's attention. As he holds the gun with his left hand to the bastard's head, Connor grabs a tighter hold of the Italian's shirt collar. He lowers his face close to Lombardo's ear, with his voice low, angry, and vengeful. "The last thing yer ever going to see are the faces of all these girls ye hurt."

Turning back to the girls, Elena and Murphy assure them that they will be okay once they get out. Their faces are dirty, tear-stained, and still so frightened. But a glimmer of hope and relief shines in each of their eyes as they're directed out of the building. One girl resembles Natasha, as if she had been frozen in time and never aged, but her voice carries a Midwestern accent instead. "Thank you," she softly tells Elena, her brown eyes sparkling as she hesitates before running off with the others.

She shifts her attention back to Connor, his voice still heavy and his eyes dark as he holds Lombardo in place. "Righteous Judge, for sins pollution, grant Thy gift of absolution, ere the day of retribution."

The Italian appears strangely dejected, perhaps accepting his fate. He rubs his wrist and closes his eyes, taking a short breath as his arrogance fades.

Murphy walks around and raises his gun to mirror his brother, their voices synchronized as they begin their prayer, "And shepherds we shall be..."

Elena looks to the door, watching the girls run out into the night, heading for the Catholic church that agreed to take them in and knowing that Dolly and Duffy have eyes on them along the way.

"...In Nomine Patris, et Fili, Spiritus Sancti." Two suppressed gunshots fire from the brothers' hands, effectively killing Lombardo.

But the silence that should follow is broken by a beeping sound.

"The fuck is that?" Murphy says, sharing the same look of confusion and annoyance as Connor.

The asshole must have tripped some security system before Connor and Murphy killed him. Elena and the boys look around quickly, trying to locate the loud beeping. As it seems to be coming from Lombardo's office, Elena enters first with her gun raised, with Connor and Murphy flanking behind her. But as she takes another step, another strange alert sounds, ricocheting into a new beeping steady like seconds on a clock.

She spins around as a loud mechanical sound cuts in, and a thick steel wall slides in fast, enclosing the room and forcing Murphy to stumble backward. Connor and Elena scream as they rush to grab the separated MacManus twin, but the steel locks into place, and the beeping continues.

Connor pounds on the wall, yelling for his brother, when Elena turns to see the glowing red digital timer sandwiched between stacks of C4 explosives embedded into the wall on the other side of the room...counting down with just under a minute left.