Saving the Broken (Peregrine x Laggy)

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At first the silence was comfortable enough. Adam was not someone who needed conversation to drive him. He remained quiet, wondering if his partner was going to take a nap. The drive wasn't long enough to do him any good, but nor would Adam begrudge it. Right about at that point he wouldn't mind a nap either.

But eventually the silence began to weigh heavier on him. It changed from a gentle silence of two people who were comfortable enough to not need to fill a silence with chatter, to something foreboding, ominous. It began to feel like the silence before a funeral. Adam literally shook that thought out of his head. Such thoughts would never aid him. They were going on a small reconnaissance mission, just enough to see if there was anything worth finding in the sewers. There was no reason for them to be so worried.

But the silence continued to grow, and eventually Adam decided to break it. He fished desperately for a topic, something that the two of them could speak about comfortably, something that wasn't the case or the weather. But nothing came easily to mind. He didn't even know what he could speak about that Ben would be interested in.

"What are you going to do when this is all over?" he finally asked, hoping that none of his own uncertainty colored his tone. "Aside from sleeping for 24 hours straight?"
 
Ben enjoyed the silence. Sure, he talked, and when it was with people he liked, he enjoyed conversation. However, to him, there was just something special about silence. The ability to just be able to collect your thoughts without a thing interrupting you. Watching the scenery roll by without having to drive the car - it was a good feeling. He leaned against the door, not the least bit uncomfortable with the lack of conversation between him and his partner - in fact, he seemed to welcome it. And, if he was to tell the truth, Ben just wanted to calm himself.

This was a dangerous case. He didn't have mounds of evidence and genius solutions - he just had his gut instinct. And, if there was one thing he'd learnt, it was to never ignore a gut instinct. Going off on it was bad, but he couldn't count the number of times he'd wished he hadn't done things in such a by-the-book manner. He had no idea what would make this case dangerous - apart from the danger of being killed - and he had no idea what would happen to him and Adam if they found out more than they needed. Nevertheless, he had pledged to go on, so he would.

Ben was jolted out of his thoughts by the sudden question posed - but quickly settled back into his seat. He mulled the question over for a few seconds. And then, he shrugged.
"Honestly? I don't know." He replied, a little despondent. "You know how it is with me. Never had time for a wife or for kids. Not really got many friends outside of the force. If I can get some time off, I suppose I could drop in and see my brother. He's always pestering me to let his son see me - he says the kid wants to see his 'Uncle Cop.'"
Ben chuckled half-heartedly, butt didn't seem to want to elaborate on the subject. "So how about you? Got any plans?"
 
Adam took a moment to think, his head dipping slightly to the side, but his eyes still firmly fixed on the road. He and Ben were in the same seat. It was part of the reason they had this job. Or, maybe, part of the reason they were the way they were was because they had this job. When your work is your life, you don't need a life outside of your work. It was, in all honesty, part of the reason he had chosen this job, why he had dedicated himself to obtaining something fifteen years ago. It was a distraction from his life.

But Ben had still told him something, and Adam had been the one to initiate this conversation. It would hardly be fair of him to just shrug his shoulders and go back to driving. The silence waited in the back of the car, ready to slink back forward at the smallest opportunity. But what could he tell Ben? He had no life, even more so than his partner. He didn't have a family he could go visit, didn't even really have any friends with whom he would like to spend time. Sleep would be welcome, but even that was another distraction, a way to pass the time when nothing else was happening and his thoughts might just jump forward and drag him away.

What should he say? Should he just make something up? The silence was starting to creep in.

"Someday, I want to go walk on the Arctic Ocean," he replied, licking his lips. "There are tours that let you do that, from what I've heard. Not that I'm expecting to go at the end of this case, but..." he shrugged, unable to complete the thought.

The funny thing was, he hadn't even realized it as he began speaking, but that wish was true. Such a massive body of cold water. Perhaps it was something that even he wouldn't dare touch.
 
Ben took on something resembling an interested expression. While he was still a little incoherent, he was still able to process what Adam was saying. Granted, if he did it any slower, he'd be processing it backwards, but he was managing it nonetheless. If he was honest, he didn't really think much of what Adam had said he'd wanted to do - and he counted himself lucky that he could use what tiredness he had left as an excuse for not answering immediately. He was having a hard time thinking of what to say in response - after all, a simple "That's nice" would be more than a little insulting.

Ben wanted to be interested - he really did. he just couldn't be, though. Adam was his partner, and in many respects, they were similar. They worked well with each other as a result, and Ben couldn't be happier with how things were. But he couldn't escape the fact that there were just some things that he and Adam just wouldn't agree on. That wasn't to say he couldn't be civil about it, however. His disinterest aside, it wasn't like he had anything to add either. He had talked of family, but didn't really feel like talking about them. Or anything else, for that matter.

"Oh? This is the first I'm hearing of it. Any particular reason you want to do that, by any chance?"
While the actual tour didn't interest Ben, he felt that asking his partner would at least provide some insight into him. He'd known the man for an ungodly amount of years, and he still didn't know that much about him. Not that he cared to ask. He believed in letting people raise the issue of family by themselves - he wouldn't enquire unless he had to. Asking anything about someone's family was like walking on eggshells. And mistakenly saying something bad about someone's family, or making a faux-pas about them never came with any less embarrassment.
 
Adam shrugged slightly, a part of him wishing that he had just left the car in silence. He and Ben did much better in silence, apparently. Neither one of them was particularly social, neither had ever approached the other in an attempt at friendship. They were work colleagues, and most of the time that was enough.

"I heard once that most of the Arctic ocean is frozen over." He replied carefully. "I've seen the ocean before, but it is in constant change. I would love to see something that would be impossible to change." There was certainly a chaos in Adam, something just below the surface that he kept carefully restrained. A part of him believed, though, if he could ever find anything that chaos inside him could not defeat, it would vanish altogether. And that was worth a trip to the ends of the universe.

There was something of a completion in Adam's statement, a nonverbal hint that no more conversation was needed. They would get to the entrance of the sewer, and then it would be back to business. Then they would know how to act, what to say. And hopefully they would finally find the secret they needed to close this case.
 
Ben didn't bother to inquire further, instead just nodding and acknowledging what Adam had said. There was really nothing for him to say - they were terrible at conversation normally. When the hour and the case were factored in, it was little wonder how they managed to stay like this.

Ben remained mostly silent for the rest of the journey. While the silence was little uncomfortable, it was welcome nonetheless - it wasn't like he wanted to talk to Adam, anyway. They weren't the kind of partners who talked much about anything that wasn't work. If the 'conversation' in the car was anything to go by, he guessed that it would be better for him to just keep quiet. In fact, if they weren't so near to their destination, Ben would have considered taking a nap. A little tactless, to be sure, but he figured Adam would have understood.

Ben snapped out of his train of thought in time to see that they were approaching their intended destination. He sat upright, and pulled himself straight - he resolved to be wake, at least for this. He and Adam could finally get one step closer to solving the case. Trap or no, there had to be some sort of clue somewhere there.
 
The entrance to the sewer was just off a side road in a subdivision, down a hill to a small retention pond that would keep the little creek from completely flooding over should a big storm hit the city. Adam pulled the car over, parking it parallel to the curve in a spot that was not exactly idea, but at least didn't have a "no parking" sign within fifty feet. He checked that his gun was still strapped to his waist, before asking Ben to fish out the flashlights that he had in his glove box. Once those were firmly in hand Adam opened the car door and made his way down the hill.

It was covered in enough grass to keep Adam from skidding the whole way down, but it got steep enough that Adam had to jump the last few feet of the slope, landing somewhat heavily at the edge of the retention pond. The water level was noticeably low, but if anything that made it easier for the two cops to hop their way over to the entrance of the sewer. The rocks that lined the edge of the pool were coated in a faint green powder. Had the water level been higher the dried algae would still have been wet, and one misplaced foot would have sent them toppling into the drainwater.

The entrance to the sewer was a concrete flair that quickly narrowed down to the proper tunnel. It was wider than it was tall, but at this point it was still meant for relatively comfortable human access. Adam would have to spend the main part of their journey walking with hunched shoulders, but they would not have to crouch down. He quickly flicked on his flashlight and shone it into the darkness. Up ahead was a touch of light where the manhole cover in the street dropped down to the concrete pipe, but beyond that the sewer turned, and there was only inky blackness. There was only the faintest trickle of water running past their feet. Not enough to get their feet wet, but more than enough to slip on.

Adam flicked the light on his flashlight on, ducked his head, and began to walk down the sewer.

"Please tell me we thought to bring along the relevant portion of the map?" Adam said, letting out a sigh. "If I remember correctly, the passages start forking up ahead, and I'd hate for us to get lost down here."
 
Ben followed hastily, mimicking dam's actions as best he could. It wasn't like he had much reason to do anything else, after all. Nevertheless, he was still uneasy about going into the sewers. Not because getting in there was liable to have him leave soaked in filthy water. Not because of the slight fear of the dark he'd had for as long as he could remember. Not because he knew it was a trap. It was because something just felt off. he couldn't place it, but something wasn't right. But he knew this was their only lead - he couldn't let his gut instincts tell him "no."

It would be extremely difficult for Adam to notice, but Ben was walking a little closer to Adam than normal, and he was hunched over more than was necessary. This was his childhood fear playing up - not to a debilitating degree, though. He could still function perfectly well, but that wasn't to say he was comfortable about it. He gripped the torch hard enough for the skin on his knuckles to turn white, and the beam shook a little, but this wouldn't be anything worth drawing attention to. Having worked with dam for so long, Ben would have been surprised if dam didn't know what he was like in the dark already.

The moment Adam mentioned the maps, Ben patted himself down, checking every compartment that he could, before letting out something that resembled an exasperated grunt, and a tired sigh.
"Damn... I don't have it on me. We might have it in the car, but I wouldn't bet on it."
Ben mentally scolded himself for overlooking this detail. He knew he should have known better - the system wasn't exactly linear, and getting back wasn't going to be easy. If they got in at all. Ben was fully prepared to go back and check, but didn't think that there was any map - he hadn't seen himself or Adam pick one up on the way out.
 
Adam shook his head, the beam of his flashlight bouncing slightly. "I don't remember grabbing it," was all he said. "It probably isn't there, and there is no point in delaying the inevitable. If we get really lost, we can always just climb up into one of the manholes and shout for help." He laughed slightly at his own brand of dark humor, before turning back to the sewer.

The walls were covered in graffiti from various teengers who had crawled into the space and decided to announce their presence. However, the further in they got the less frequently the graffiti began to show up. Kids were bold, but the sewers were dark and unfriendly, and the dark always hid things in the shadows.

The dark had always been one thing that Adam was not afraid of, but he could see it acting ever so faintly on his partner. What the both of them could easily agree on was it was time to get this over and done with, as much as possible.

"We know that they should be somewhere close to this exit. Lets get to the first fork, and then we can start making predictions."

And so the two cops delved deeper, flashlights in one hand, the other hand hovering close to their holstered pistols. The first branch they reached was a obvious choice, the outlet was less than three feet in diameter, and even serial killers wouldn't want to go crawling belly-down through pipes. The second choice was a little harder, but ultimately Ben and Adam decided to continue down the pipe that was wider. There was little reason to it, only a guess that, when escorting upset women, it was better if it was harder for them to have anything to latch onto. After that, though, it was pure guesswork. Adam did his best to keep their changes of direction in mind, trying to build a mental map of the area based on what he remembered of the sewer map, but he had the sneaking suspicion that all of the pipes curved subtly, meaning that what he now thought was north could just as easily be any direction.

Eventually they stumbled upon a nexus, one that had five offshoots, not including the one that the two had just arrived from. Adam paused, looking around. "I think I remember this place..." he said quietly, the beam of his flashlight flitting from point to point in the empty room.

In the center, a small wire caught the gleam of his flashlight. Adam, far too occupied with looking down the other passages and up towards the ceiling, did not notice it.
 
Ben let Adam take the lead, and remained silent as he followed. It wasn't as if there was much to say, though. He acknowledged him when he said which way to go, and occasionally made it obvious he was still nearby, but otherwise, he resolved to make as little noise as possible.
His hand seemed to be slightly more gun-ready than Adam's. Understandably so, given how uncomfortable he was feeling in this part of the sewer. It seemed that any slight noise was able to startle him, any anomalous part of whatever his torch shone on. For someone who was supposed to be at least a little battle-hardened, he certainly seemed to have a fair few weaknesses.

If there was one thing he managed to do well, however, it was remembering their path. He needed to concentrate on something, as the ever-increasing darkness was getting to him more and more. He knew it was all in his head. Just a primal fear of the unknown. Sure, there was the possibility of someone lurking in it, but he was expecting that.
In his head, he repeated the path, over and over again. He played a mental recreation of it on a loop. He did everything he could to take his mind off of his oldest fear.

What Adam had missed, Ben had barely noticed. Something gleamed in his torch's glare. It was subtle, at first, mixing in with whatever had made the roof of the sewer damp. However, something seemed odd about the spot with the wire. Curious, he shone his beam on it, following the wire. This only served to fuel his worry even more. Without looking at his partner, he called out to him.
"Adam... Do sewers usually have wires running through them?"
 
At Ben's words Adam quickly redirected the beam of his flashlight towards the floor. This time, the light reflected fully off of the silver wire, creating something that looked very much like a burning thread running through the middle of the room.

"I... don't know," Adam replied. "I wouldn't think so, but I can't say I've spent much time in sewers." He lowered his flashlight slightly, before stepping into the room carefully. He ran his flashlight up and down the length of the wire, from wall to wall. On one end it was firmly anchored to an eyelet screw that had been carefully drilled into the wall. The other end vanished into one of the smallest tunnels that came off of the nexus. The tunnel was large enough for a small man to fit into, but not with much comfort. Adam moved a little bit closer to that end, shining the beam of his light down the small tube.

"Do you think this is what we were looking for?" He called back to Ben. "It seems a little... obvious, especially if the person or people we are looking for are as smart as we think they are."

True, the wire was only a couple of inches off the ground, but that also made it far more likely that someone who was passing through the tunnels could step over the thing, entirely by accident. Adam shone his light around the room, still haunted by the feeling that they had missed something.

"What do you want to do with it?"
 
Ben examined the wire as close as he dared, trying to think of anything that could relate to it. Why was it there? Were the murderers the ones who put it there? Was this another scheme entirely? He didn't want to touch it, in case he triggered something he would regret later. instead, he peered inside the tunnel as well, but failed to spot anything worth noting. he thought for a few seconds, and then spoke.
"I say we move in a little deeper in the sewers, to see if there's anything else like this. But we turn back, leave, and reflect, if we don't find anything. Chances are, this is something that's either something common, or something we'd be better off not touching with a ten foot pole."

He furrowed his brown, and began following the wire again, pondering its usage.
"Still," he said, ignoring the echo that seemingly mocked in him the gloom, "Why leave the wire here? There was the possibility of us coming here, sure, but what were the odds? To set up something as obscure as this as a trap, in such a location... My gut doesn't like this, Adam. I don't know much about sewers either, so maybe I'm getting worked up over nothing, but I really think it'd be for the best of us if we left now."
Truth be told, he didn't see how an electrical wire in a place with so much water and moisture in general added up. Something wasn't right, and he didn't want to stick around to find out what.
 
"Fine," Adam agreed, straightening up from his position over the wire. He wasn't anywhere near as antsy about the situation as Ben was, but he was willing enough to trust his partner's instincts. Adam knew when to trust his own gut, and if Ben was this concerned that he was willing to give up the only lead they had,Adam would have to trust him. "We can head back to the station and see if we miss..." His phone beeped, followed half a second later by Ben's. His hand dropped to his pocket immediately, well trained by the noise, and it was halfway out of his pocket when there was a small click from the same, small tunnel down which the wire disappeared. There was a brief flare of right orange, and suddenly everything that Adam had been missing came together.

The first and most obvious was the wire. It had been a trap, but not the kind of trap that Adam and Ben had been thinking. It had been a delaying tactic, something intended to give the bluetooth device

or something similar hidden in the walls enough time to sync with their phones. And detonate... something. They had both known that the killer or killers was trying to highlight police incompetence. That was the most logical reason for putting the bodies in such public places, and taking such a long time to set it up. And now the police were going to be responsible for the detonation of a bomb underneath a massive residential neighborhood. If they had gone through the official channels, if they had gotten permission from their superiors to come, it would have been even more blatant of a failure.

Down each of the largest tunnels more of the brightness bloomed. And another thing clicked into place. The sewer lines lay in the exact same shape that the cultists had painted on the floor in their victims blood. It would be the ultimate calling card,stained with the blood of hundreds.

In that moment, Adam was grasped by a painful instinct, one he had suppressed for the last fifteen years through sheer willpower. He could stop the explosion. He could save all those lives, and the only cost would be his humanity. How could he not take that, the darkness within him beckoned.

"Stop."

His voice was not loud. It did not shout, it did not bellow. But still it echoed through the chamber. It wrapped around the explosions, and they were forced to obey his command.

"Go back."

Slowly the explosions began to retreat, edging back to their fragmented casings.

"Go!"

And they were gone. Each explosion an incredibly dense pinprick of energy, sitting in the middle of space, longing through every law of the universe to expand, but held in place by Adam's order.

"Ben," he whispered now, the perfect quality of his voice lost. He was homicide detective Adam Tinsley once more. At least for the moment. "This is bad."
 
Ben visibly flinched when his phone went off, almost sending him three feet into the air. Something was off, though - Adam's phone had gone off at the same time. he wondered what this meant, but only briefly. Because, immediately after, he heard what was essentially the herald of his demise.
Click.
A single, simple, sound. Something that would likely have been innocuous in everyday life, and would have been ignored in any other environment. However, this was not just any environment. Ben had known that he and Adam had been walking straight into a trap, so a click like that would have been the worst possible sound to hear.

Unlike Adam, Ben was a man of action, not a man of deduction. He didn't realise what was coming together in Adam's mind, but he didn't think was important. What he was prioritising was fleeing, so that they could actually stay alive, instead of being buried under rubble, only to be found when they were little more than mouldy cadavers. After the millisecond it took him to pull himself together - and for the adrenaline to kick in - he reached out for Adam. He wanted to pull him back, to get him out. He didn't seem to want to do it himself, after all.

However, he stopped, upon Adam saying the word. At first, he thought it was directed at him. But, as he watched, he found it hard to form any sort of coherent thought at all. Adam was commanding the explosions.
"No," Ben thought, finally managing to form something coherent, "That's not Adam. That's not him at all."
Something was wrong. Not with the explosions, but with Adam himself. he'd known the guy for years, and he'd never even seen little signs of this sort of thing being within the range of his abilities.
"Bad? Bad? Adam, I don't know what just happened, but I don't think bad covers it."
 
"You are right," Adam replied, a brief smile touching his face. It was gallows humor, the smile of a man at his own execution who was trying to find even a taste of sweetness at the end of his life. "Would it make you feel better if I said this is very, very bad?"

He seemed to catch himself somewhat by surprise. Throughout his entire career, as long as anyone had known him, Adam had always seemed to be rigidly in control of himself. Anything that seemed even remotely caustic or bitter would be relegated away and buried. It made him very easy to work with, but it also made him quite boring as a friend. However, even as he stood there, he could feel that rigid control he had put over himself slipping away. It shouldn't have been that easy to lose. Not now that he had made it so instinctual. But it was. The power buried within him turned him into a completely different person. And, to Adam, that person was the exact opposite of everything he had tried to be for the last fifteen years.

"We should get out of here." It was like there was some sort of flickering going on behind Adam's eyes. It wasn't anything physical, but anyone who was even remotely familiar with people would be able to see it. The two personalities within him were quarreling violently, the shell trying to cover up the inner one, and the inner one doing everything within its power to break free. And it was starting to look like that caustic, dominating personality was winning.
 
"Oh, we're getting out all right." Ben said, his voice taking on a surprisingly determined tone. "We're getting out, and then you're going to tell me exactly what's going on. You're going to tell me how you stopped those explosions. You're going to tell me how you managed to react before we were engulfed in flame. You're going to spill everything."
Ben, while taken aback by Adam's strange shift in mannerisms, was not one to delay. Something was wrong with Adam. He didn't know what, how, or why. But he wasn't going to let him off the hook and try not to think about it. He turned on his heel and prepared to go back.

"Oh, and one more thing."
Ben turned back to Adam, with something of his own flickering in his eyes. The look of sheer, unadulterated doggedness.
"I don't know what's gotten into you, but you'd better straighten up before we get back, or I'll do the straightening for you. Are. We. Clear?"
Ben knew he was starting to sound unnecessarily aggressive. But, in his mind, he was justified. He had just survived being turned into a charred skeleton. His partner was seemingly losing the plot. And all this was taking place while he was in the dark. It was little wonder that he was getting antsy.
 
It was with great difficulty that Adam suppressed and indignant laugh at Ben's orders. Orders. As if Ben had any right to order him around. But, in the end, he did catch himself before he laughed, and he focused in on what Ben had said. It was, perhaps, the only lifeline he had right now.

Explaining how he had managed to stop the explosion. That would be easy enough. It wasn't that complicated of a thing. But explaining what was happening inside of his head... perhaps that would be easy, too.

If only stopping it was so easy.

If only he could just "straighten up" like Ben ordered. If it was that simple, Adam would not be who he was. He would not be the rigidly self-controlled person, the man who never let loose and always put the tasks around him in front of his own life. If it was that easy to get his own head back under control, his life would be the easiest thing in the world.

Was he going to have to explain all of that? How could he, when Ben could not even begin to comprehend what the inside of his head was like.

He was beginning to walk away when he remembered something, and he winced again. If he walked too far away, his orders on the explosions would fade, and they would detonate like normal. And the whole reason he had begun this slippery slope would be lost. He could get rid of them, but then he would be slipping even further down, and he might lose his ability to ever turn back.

Ben was walking away, and Adam had to do something. He had to make a decision right now. No matter what, there would be bad things. And everything that happened would be his fault.

Ben was gone. "Vanish," he told the explosions, his voice fierce. They dared not resist.


It wasn't until they started walking back the way they came that Adam started remembering that they had not brought the map of the sewers with them, and they did not perfectly know the way back. The first several turns were easy, but it only took one wrong move to get them both hopelessly lost.

The frustration was building within him, the complete indignation that he should be subjected to such a thing as this. He tried the usual patterns, the ways he always distracted himself from the natural frustration of life, but it only repressed it slightly. It kept him from saying anything, from bursting out. It was like a volcano that had been stoppered. He could not see it right then, but it would have to erupt at some point.

Finally, as Ben was starting to acknowledge that they had gotten turned around, Adam lost the last dregs of cool he possessed. Before he even thought about what he was doing, thought about the consequences or the dangers, his next order was issued. "Straighten out," he snapped in frustration.

Ben turned around, wondering to whom Adam was talking, but Adam just shook his head, let out a tired sigh, and pointed back behind Ben. The wall that had been blocking their progress was gone. it was a clear, straight line, and at the far end a hint of daylight glowed.

"We should get out of here," Adam finally repeated.
 
Ben had no idea what was going on. He didn't have the whys, the hows, and only vague whats. What he did have, however, was determination people would rarely see come out of him. Sure, he did cases, and he did them well enough. But it was rare to see him properly invested in them. Now, however, purpose laced everything he did. He seemed to radiate determination, his stride alone making him seem like the unstoppable force. And the reason for this was simple. Adam was at risk. He didn't know what from, or how he was. But he knew enough to know that Adam wasn't himself.

However, it seemed s though this newfound well of perseverance was clouding his judgement. He remembered the route out well enough, he thought, but he was rushing through it. Numerous turns were made, but to no avail - no exits were in sight. Numerous manhole covers were passed by, but given the fact that they were locked in place - and that a large lump of metal would be extremely difficult to remove - they weren't a viable exit. Which, Ben had to admit, was a little cruel. He didn't even notice Adam causing the explosions to vanish, but given that he had seen him force them back, he probably would not have been that surprised.

"maybe I got something wrong..." Ben muttered, looking to and from like a panicked animal. He hurried along, trying to stave off the fear he had of being lost, but it wasn't working. He began to acknowledge it - he was lost. Lost in a place where the murderers could run as free as they pleased, while he and Adam stumbled about like drunkards on a Friday night. It was now that he began to think that it would have been worth going back to get the map. It wouldn't have been n especially long walk. He could have brought a torch to read it in the dark.

He cast the thoughts out of his mind. He didn't fancy thinking about the dark. There was enough to worry about, without the prospect of being lots in a confined space, in the dark.

Ben heard Adam snap, and when he turned around, his hand was already at his holster. It was an instinctive reaction - Adam wasn't being himself, and him suddenly snapping in a tight, light-deprived area wasn't exactly going to make Ben feel any easier. What he saw when he turned around didn't make him feel any easier.
"I'm not even going to question that." He said, in the most exasperted tone a man could possibly use.
 
The two started walking again, both seemingly in perfect silence, just like the car ride over here. But now that there was finally so much to say the silence seemed to fit perfectly. Adam was far more concerned with his own thoughts than anything Ben could say anyways.

He knew he was standing on the edge of a precipice, and if he stepped over there would be no going back. The problem was the longer and longer he waited, the less and less the step started to look like a fall. No, just a few more short steps and he would be flying upwards, unstoppable. The whole world would fall away underneath him as he rose.

Once the two of them passed the tunnels closed behind them, returning to their normal complicated weaves. It did not really concern Adam, since by that point he had already passed. His order was no longer of any concern. No, his thoughts were all on the future, on what was coming towards them at the end of this tunnel. The light was drawing ever closer, and he was waiting to emerge. The underground would be past, and he would be free.

But Ben's rigid form kept bobbing in front of him, interrupting the light. It was enough to, at least temporarily, distract him. He was going to have to tell Ben something. The part of him that was still Adam as Ben knew Adam was certain of that. Without Ben there would be nothing to stop him. That part of him knew that the fight was drawing closer and closer to an end, and he had to do something to make sure that it would end the right way.

His own death was something that Adam had been contemplating for years. The first time he had managed to convince himself that he would never use his orders again. It was a selfish thought, one that put his own life over the lives of everyone else on this planet. And, ultimately, it was a natural inclination. He had accepted it, and slowly begun to think about what he would do if he ever began to change again. Adam had thought he would have more time, but he always had worked better on a deadline.

They stepped out from the sewer. There was no point in holding it off any longer. He and Ben needed to find a way to end this, and they needed to do it now. The only way he had to begin was to tell him what exactly was happening.

They went a few paces beyond the entrance, just enough to make it feel as though they were separated from the darkness and abnormalities that existed in that tunnel. And then Adam stopped, and waited for Ben to turn around and face him.

The Chief is the most important man in the station. When he tells you to do something, you do it. That is just the way it works. You may not like it, but you do it." He lifted a finger, foregoing any questions his statement may elicit from Ben. "He has power over the station. Well, I'm the most important man in the universe. And I have power over the universe. If I give an order, it will be obeyed."

There was so much more he could say at that point. So many explanations he could offer, or justifications. But, right now, it was far better to let Ben reach his own conclusions, and let him come up with the questions that were most important to him.
 
The job was Ben's life. There was no two ways about it - he was married to his work. Sure, there were times when he went to visit family, or when he just took some time off to recuperate. But, by and large Ben was worker.
As he was so dedicated to his work, it was obvious that Ben would have seen a fair few things on the job, and then some. Dead people, people who should have been dead, and people he'd thought were dead. Underneath it all, he was a bitter and jaded old man. But nothing - nothing at all - had prepared him for what had gone down in the sewers.

He thought he knew his partner. He thought that they didn't have any secrets that the other should have known. It was an agreement between them, even if it was unspoken, that they would do as little as possible to hinder each other's work. But now, Adam was revealing he had powers that seemed like something out of a comic. It wasn't as if he was ungrateful for Adam saving him from being turned into a pile of bone and ash, but this raised too many questions. It was taking him all he had to wait until they got outside, instead of just interrogating him on the spot.

The moment they had both gotten out, Ben turned abruptly to face Adam. The look on his face was one of steely determination - to challenge him would be futile. He wanted answers, and he would drag himself to the ends of the Earth and back if he had to get them. He opened his mouth to demand something, but before he could say a word, dam cut him off.
He listened intently. He wasn't satisfied with the answer, but he didn't expect to be. Which was a little ironic, to him. They'd been getting answers as a job, but the moment it came to what could have been the single biggest moment in their careers, he felt no answer could satisfy him.

He sighed, and clenched the bridge of his nose. This was all a bit much for him - he needed a moment. Once he'd collected himself, Ben looked his partner dead in the eye, and asked him.
"Just what in the name of all that is holy are you?"
He could have worded it better. He knew that much. What he also knew, however, was that this was a situation that would be fairly alien to a lot of people. He felt he deserved to be cut a little slack.
 
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