What Will Be (Peregrine x cyclopsdoe)

[Peregrine]

The blast from the building had thrown him a good twenty feet, until Cole collided harshly with the far wall. While the shield he had erected did wonders for protecting him from the deadly heat of the explosion and breaking any bones from the throw, it did not save him from scraping his elbow against the wall. It wouldn't be until a few moments later, when adrenalin allowed him to peel himself off the floor under the wall and throw himself out the door from among the flames, that he would notice, but a small burst of white light would heal the skin, rendering it as though it had never been wounded.

The explosion had been entirely unexpected, although he couldn't help but admire Cox's dedication to have set up such a thing. Then again, perhaps it had been easy knowing that he would not die in the heat of the flames. That man who had just been waking up, though, had certainly died, but as close as he was to the source of the explosion it had to be near instantaneous.

Cole knew that Agent Collins would be running this way as fast as her legs could carry her, and that she would likely be here in less than a minute. Therefore, he didn't give himself any time to delay as he raced away into the shadows, double checking himself for any further injuries. There were none.

When Agent Collins had been in the area for a couple minutes he returned, heaving deep breaths of air from having sprinted a good block and a half so that he would have the right air about him. It wasn't hard to fake the necessary panic to widen his eyes, the instinctual panic of having just been in a position where he should have been fried alive was doing just fine at creating the appearance. Who knew when his heart would settle down?

"I'm fine," Cole replied, heaving one last breath. "I came running as soon as I saw the explosion. I have no clue what happened."

The two of them stood in uncertain silence a block away from the fire. It would have been mesmerizing if it hadn't been so utterly terrifying, and even from this far away the fire was warm enough that Cole found it necessary to strip out of his jacket and tie it around his waist. The sirens grew closer.

Within six minutes there were hundreds of gallons of water being dumped on the burning building. By this point the fire had already somewhat burned itself out, owing to the fact that almost the entire building had been made of metal. It also hadn't been able to spread very far. As the flames died down Cole began to shiver, but he forgot to put his jacket back on. He knew what was going to come out of that building once the police went in to investigate.

He wondered if Katherine could guess.

Twelve minutes after the explosion a suited monster began to approach them. When he was twenty feet away the fireman pulled off his mask, leaving the center of his face clean even though the outside edges were completely covered in ash.

"Are you Agent Collins? We found bodies. Two of them."

 

[neptune]

Having been all the way on the other side of the marina, Katherine had no idea why the building had suddenly gone up in flames either. The important thing was that no one had been hurt, and that Cole would be able to return to the Delaware office completely unscathed. Now that they had found one another again, the pair of agents moved down the block, a safer distance away from the scene as the fire engined rolled up and men began to mobilize. Katherine watched as they began to get the fire under control and extinguish the flames, but the residual heat was starting to make the other side of the street uncomfortable. Breathing a heavy sigh, the redhead fanned herself with her hand, while Cole thought to remove his jacket. She was moments away from joining him when the flame was doused with water and put out completely.

"This is the weirdest night I've had in a long time," Katherine admitted before glancing to the man beside her. When the search for Cox became more frantic on her end, Katherine's desire to know the other agent's information had been shifted to the back of her mind, but now that there was a spare moment, she wanted to ask again. There was a pit in her stomach that said they weren't going to find Cox and with a new day only a few hours from dawning, Katherine wanted to make progress somewhere. After all, government work didn't wait for personal issues and without Raymond there, she was the next best option.

Opening her mouth to speak, to broach that topic just one last time, Katherine paused as Cole's attention remained elsewhere. She looked ahead and caught sight of a fireman coming toward them, his respirator in hand as an oval of clean, pink skin came into view—a cloud of soot seemed to trail behind him and the heat that had been in the air was now replaced with the wet smell of ruin. When the man said her name, Katherine nodded, "that's me." Finding one body in the aftermath of a fire was bad enough, but two was a nightmare. The redhead braced herself for the possibility of one of the dead being Cox based solely on the fact that the tech from the office hadn't called her with anything new.

Looking to Cole, Katherine wanted him to follow along even though he hadn't been addressed. As far as she was concerned, this was now a shared case. Hurrying across the street with the fireman, Katherine wanted to get a look at the bodies before the coroner came down along with other investigators and barred others from the scene.

"Just the two?" she asked, trying to keep her voice as even as possible.

"Yes, ma'am," the man nodded and lead the two into the warehouse. He moved in front of them, showing them were to step and where to avoid—some parts of the warehouse were still smoldering and the whole place stank of damp chemicals, but Katherine continued to follow along without missing a beat. After such a long day that had turned into an even longer night, the redhead just wanted something of a conclusion, or just a reason to go home and crawl into bed for a while.

The first body didn't even resemble anything human, just piles of skin, marred with chemical burns and melted bits of clothing. Katherine didn't look away, or wrinkle her nose, having seen more than her fair share of corpses in her time. By her guess, dental records would have to be used to identify the man—or woman. The second body, however, closer to the door had fared a little better. It wasn't so mutilated and the shape on the floor, wrapped in a coat that Katherine recognized right away was enough to make her still. She set her jaw, her chest feeling tight.

"You recognize this one?" the fireman asked.

Nodding, Katherine took a deep breath of the acrid air. "I think that's my partner."

 

[Peregrine]

It took all Cole's self-control not to glance towards where he knew Raymond Cox's body lay. Instead he moved his eyes about, trying to study it from the perspective of a law enforcement agent. It wasn't easy, Cole didn't have any real experience in that particular field, but from what he could gather, both from his own observations and Agent Collins' reactions, Cox had stayed true to his word. This really would close up the case on the strange, causeless death of the Senator, and the few others who had been found in the process.

As they moved closer to the other body, Cole lifted a hand to his nose to cover the smell of burning flesh. Cox looked a mess. It was only a small reassurance to know that he had died without suffering, and had been completely gone from the world by the time that chemical explosion had been set off. Katherine didn't have that reassurance, however. Even in the face of such an awful situation her face remained distant. Perhaps when she got home and was all alone she would allow the tears to fall.

It wasn't his business. Raymond had made his choice when he made the deal. He had traded his life for his wife's, plus another ten years. Perhaps that truly had some meaning.

Cole remained a step behind Agent Collins the whole time, stifling the feeling that he didn't belong. For right now he still had a role to fill.

Only a short while later Agent Cox's death had been reported, and a fleet of state and federal police was surrounding the building. Crime scene analysts covered every surface, or so it seemed, gathering up the information on the two deaths.

He and Katherine did not remain once the scene was well in the hands of several other agents. A poignant glance from one of the top agents at Cole had him grabbing onto Katherine's shoulders, gently leading her back to the car. They drove back to the office without exchanging a single world.

The Philladelphia Field Office was oddly silent, and when Katherine entered the building the people around her stepped back, clearing a path. There were a couple of people who awkwardly cleared their throats, turning away with a pretense to cover the fact that their attention was on Agent Collins. The rest made no such effort. Within a few moments, Katherine would be swarmed by the people of her office, who would offer what little consolation they could. Cole came to a stop.

"I should return to my office," he said. When she turned around, words seemed to freeze in his throat. Instead he lifted his hand, placing it gently on her shoulder. He squeezed gently. "Agent Collins... Katherine. I'm sorry." Then his hand dropped from her shoulder somewhat listlessly, and he turned to go. There was a face swimming in his mind's eye, another person whose soul was due. Life went on, and so did death. There was nothing else for it.