The thief wished she could say she wasn't out for revenge.

But when she entered the old warehouse with the knowledge that Paper Star was inside, it was all she wanted.

Never mind that the warehouse was basically the perfect place for a trap, with poorly built rooms and hallways that stretched like a labyrinth, the unnecessary and unstable heavy metal beams probably ready to collapse at any moment.

Never mind that she knew ACME was going to be here tonight, and that her intel said only Paper Star was going to be present, and there was no plausible reason for the operative to be back here in France.

Paper Star had tried to murder Jules. She wanted her rotting in a cell. It was perfect that ACME would be here tonight.

Her eerie little tune was already echoing through the echoey hallways as Carmen made her way to the very center where she knew the origamist would be. Player had stopped trying to convince her not to go and simply warned her to be careful.

The rage she felt when she saw the operative was unlike anything she'd ever experienced.

"Black Sheep," Paper Star smiled, not looking up. She was far across the large room but her voice echoed clearly.

"You tried to kill Jules," Carmen snarled, her voice coming out much louder than she expected and echoing away through the halls. "I'm going to make sure you never see the sun again."

Were those footsteps nearby?

Paper Star smiled and stood from where she'd been sitting cross legged on the ground. "You can try, little lamb." She said softly, sidling under a hallway's shelter behind her and pulling something out of her pocket.

Carmen tensed.

She realized it was a remote when the doorway behind her exploded.

She was thrown forward with the force and landed heavily, not even bothering to check if the passage was closed. Paper Star was gone, but she wasn't done.

As the thief scrambled to her feet, hearing the ceiling rumble made her realize:

They aren't trying to catch me anymore.

"Its like a damn labyrinth in here." Zari muttered.

"Let us hope we do not meet a minotaur, then," Julia quipped, not really expecting a response. She wasn't disappointed.

Carmen would have gotten that.

Their footsteps pattered through the warehouse; was it the echo of them or others that they heard? VILE was scheduled to be here tonight. So was Carmen.

The voice that bounced to them then made them both stop. It was a voice Julia knew very, very well.

"You tried to kill Jules."

Zari and Julia barely glanced at each other before they tore down the hallway towards the voice.

"I'm going to make sure you never see the sun again!"

Another voice, a whisper like a ghost, too quiet to make out, and then-

Zari stopped at the unmistakable noise of the explosion.

Julia didn't.

"CARMEN!"

"Argent!" Zari yelled hoarsely, making herself move. "No!"

Julia was fast. Zari was faster.

When they reached the center building, they barely caught a glimpse of a panicked red figure trying ever so hopelessly to reach their door before the roof collapsed.

Julia didn't feel Zari holding her back. She just struggled. She had to get to Carmen. The image of her face, the look when she saw her and how she'd pushed herself and then disappeared under rubble and dust-

She was screaming Carmen's name. Someone else was, too. Faintly. But the dust was settling and there was no more noise.

"Carmen??!!" came the choked young voice. Julia wrested herself from Zari's grip and dove towards the voice where she knew Carmen's young friend was screaming in her ear.

A red sleeve poked out of the debris. No. A dust covered face, too. A face tight with agony.

"Carmen!" Julia choked, heaving rubble off of her. How did this happen? Who had done this? Who needed to pay?

Carmen's fingers twitched and she shuddered in an agonized breath, her eyes squeezed shut, tears of pain leaking down her face.

"Carmen??" The voice from her earring sobbed again, loud enough to be heard this close.

"She's alive," came Zari's voice. When she'd started helping shift the rubble off, Julia didn't know. She was focused entirely on Carmen's face. She took her hand and squeezed it.

Carmen hissed out another breath and Julia saw her posture begin to slacken. "Keep her awake," came Zari's command, before Julia could say so. She knew. She grimaced as she slapped Carmen's face, as gently as she dared- which wasn't very gently.

"Stay awake, Carmen, st-stay awake," she sobbed, still shifting off bits of the exploded roof. Julia normally wasn't one to cry, or panic. This was different. Very different.

Julia was beginning to hope Carmen was going into shock from the experience, or the bruising that the looser, smaller debris had caused her on her torso.

She shouldn't have let herself.

A huge chunk of solid metal from who-knows-where had landed squarely on her hip and leg. She saw Zari pale slightly when they uncovered it. Julia turned her attention directly to getting it off.

"Carmen," she breathed, "I lived, you have to, for me, come on.."

Carmen weakly squeezed her hand back and let out a small whimper. "That was stupid." She said, strained. "Trap."

Julia and Zari managed to get the twisted metal off of Carmen's leg and the thief groaned.

"No falling asleep," Julia reminded her, voice cracking at the damage on her leg as she shifted the last of the rubble off. She turned her attention briefly to Zari, urgent. "The ambulance-"

"Already called." Zari said, crouching down. "Do not panic, Argent. For her."

"Keep talking to me, Carmen." Julia said firmly, trying to hide the shake in her voice. "Until the paramedics come."

Carmen inhaled shakily again. "Need to stay out of France," she muttered after a moment. "You should move."

Julia smiled weakly.

"..Shit, this hurts." The thief said hazily. "And I went though VILE...interrogation training and everything."

Zari kept glancing back at her. Julia realized she was still on the phone with 911, ready to relay directions inside. Julia snapped her focus back.

"Talk to Player," Carmen said, still wincing, motioning at her earring, the stream of tears down her face not lessening. "He's worried."

Worried didn't really do justice to the hysterical sobbing Julia heard when she held the removed earring to her ear.

"Player." Julia's voice trembled. "She's alive. We've c-called an ambulance. We.."

Carmen glanced tightly up. "Tell him how bad. Tell me."

Julia looked at her again.

Carmen winced, shifting, allowing a little muffled scream as she buried her face in her jacket sleeve for a moment.

"Her entire right leg and I- I think part of her hip are just- c-crushed." Julia got out.

She heard a gasp from Player and a sniffle. "I'm- keeping tabs on your ambulance. Should be there within a few minutes." He said shakily after a moment, clearly still crying.

Zari glanced over. Carmen's head, against the floor, was dropping. She barely saw Julia jump and start yelling at her to stay awake before she slipped into unconsciousness, the sound of sirens wailing like a lullaby, a relief from the agony.

Carmen regained consciousness and her first thought was, Huh. I'm not dead.

Why was she supposed to be dead, again?

She expected the pain to come racing back like it had many times, but this time it did not. She did not open her eyes.

A bed. A rhythmic beeping. Distant clatter.

Hospital.

Her eyes did not open easily. The memories were hesitant with them.

Explosion. The metal beam. Agony.

Player screaming, Julia screaming-

She immediately tried to raise her hand to her ear to check for her comm earring, but it was stopped by a cold chink of metal around her wrist.

Her eyes opened.

Her hospital room was small and trying to be bright, a mediocre shade keeping a lot of the light out. A whole host of things were attached to her arms- including handcuffs, linked to the bed. She shut her eyes and sighed.

She was startled by the voice that came from near the door.

"Welcome back, Sandiego."

The voice spoke words not unlike Chief's the last time she'd been injured, after Stockholm. She grimaced. The voice was not the hologram's..

"Agent Zari." The voice was a little quieter. "How are you feeling?"

Carmen blinked hazily. "Drugged up on pain meds." She said, words slightly slurred. She narrowed her eyes at nothing in particular, struggling to remember through the haze of pain clouding the memories.

"How long has it been?" She settled on finally. She registered the lump of a cast that was her leg suddenly, elevated in a sling.

"A few days. You were...not in good shape."

"Mmph. So not much changed since I passed out dramatically." Carmen said dryly. "'Cept the cuffs."

Zari looked slightly sympathetic. "We figured you could get out of just one. Not that you're going anywhere any time soon."

Carmen finally glanced at her. "Why are you being...decent? The few times we've met you've been pretty...hostile."

Zari frowned. "I'm not a bad person. Just dedicated to my work."

Carmen blinked. "I seem to remember something along the lines of Julia tripping and ripping out some stitches from her stab wound, followed by you saying something like..." She lowered her voice in an imitation of Zari. "What are you two doing, fooling around? You let her get away, you should have kept going and left your injured partner behind, Devineaux, Carmen's the number one priority, Julia, you hurt yourself because you like her!" She deadpanned. "Yada yada."

Zari was a little pink, looking embarrassed. "I get carried away. I...apologize. I admit I also did not trust you up until what happened at the warehouse."

"And you trust me now? Why?"

"You and Julia are clearly in love."

Carmen snorted, feeling a little loopy. "Got that right. You're actually the second person to randomly trust me because of the love in our eyes." Despite the thief's tone, she blushed a little. She hesitated. "By the way, where..?"

Zari grimaced. "Argent's been under surveillance. Unfortunately they think she's a spy. Not that I don't, but the rest of ACME...is a little concerned about the relaying of classified intel to a superthief."

Carmen sighed. "Shit. Our phones."

Zari made a little grumbling noise. "Haven't decoded them yet. Whoever did it is good. But the fact that she was in communication with you is...well...not good in and of itself."

Carmen dimly registered that she should be more suspicious before a very familiar purple-haired hospital worker came in. Audric stopped and they looked at each other for a second.

"[If its not one, its the other, huh?]" Carmen said with a little smile, the French not as polished as usual.

Audric's little smile barely appeared as his gaze travelled to her elevated leg. "[I guess so. Glad you guys keep getting attempted-murdered near me. Who else would you go to?]"

Carmen chuckled slightly, the smile dropping as Audric's face sobered again. Zari was watching carefully, able to follow along, just barely.

"[You seem very calm about this.]" Audric mentioned.

["I suspect its the pain meds. Otherwise I'd probably be screaming. But I really do want to know..."] She looked at him, hoping he'd get it.

Audric dipped his head slightly. ["Hopefully you will be able to walk again. If we're careful and lucky you could make a pretty good recovery."]

"[Pretty good?]"

"[You'll walk with a limp, for sure. Your hip was shattered along with your leg. You have a lot of metal in you now. Almost more than what landed on you.]"

His smile was hesitant and faded quickly when Carmen did not smile with him, her gaze pinned instead to the cast. She took the news with a nod and nothing else.

Audric sighed. "[I'm sorry.]"

"[Its better than what I feared, actually. Hopefully I can.."] She trailed off. Her face creased with sadness. She picked up without finishing her last thought. ["I mean, at least it wasn't my skull that was shattered.]"

"If you hadn't been so fast, it would have been." Zari mentioned.

Carmen didn't respond, her attention now snapped to the door. Audric and Zari turned too as a host of ACME agents filed in. Audric scowled along with Carmen.

Carmen's face immediately brightened, though, when she saw Julia in the middle of the agents. The freckled agent's face lit up and she tore away from the group, practically throwing herself onto Carmen.

"You're awake!"

"Ah! Jules!" Carmen said, grinning through a small wince. Her hands lifted to hug Julia back but were stopped by the cuffs; a brief scowl crossed her face before she settled on squeezing Julia's hand and leaning her face into her shoulder.

Julia sniffed, grinning. "Sorry. I'm just really glad you're not dead."

Carmen smiled back. "You wouldn't believe that I feel the same way."

The moment was shattered quickly.

"I hate to break up this little soiree," said a chilly voice, "but we have a few things to talk about."

Chief was not on the pen this time. Carmen shouldn't have been surprised. They broke apart.

"Chief." Carmen said coldly.

"Glad to see you've healed from the last injury."

"Very funny." The thief replied, remembering the comparatively small wound she'd gotten on her arm from the knife fight. "You could be a little more sympathetic."

"You've been being fed classified intel by Ms. Argent here, which is highly illegal. Not to mention you're suspected for a count of attempted murder-"

"At least I get to live with the fact that I haven't actually killed anyone." Carmen interrupted with a snarl.

Chief went stock still and pinned her yellow gaze to Carmen's stony face. "You-"

"Yes, I knew the man you took the life of." Carmen said.

"That was twenty years ago. That's...impossible. You're hardly that old."

"Come on, Chief, you're smarter than this."

The leader of ACME hesitated, thrown off. "Wolfe was..." Chief stared at her. "Your father..?"

"And bingo was his name-o," the thief said stonily. "Do you see why I haven't trusted you?"

Chief's mouth was slightly open. Carmen hadn't noticed that Julia was tightly gripping her hand. She squeezed back. The other ACME agents in the room had expressions varying from surprised to indifferent to fearful.

Chief noticed.

"I've regretted that accident from the moment it happened." Chief said. "I hope you know it was an accident."

"I understand why you did it." Carmen stated. "It does not change the fact that your doing so caused me to be raised an orphan, raised by VILE."

Chief shook her head. "What's past is past. What we need to focus on now is you two. Your little escapades and forbidden romance and whatever the hell else you've been doing. I understand that many of my agents think you tried to kill Julia and cover it up."

"[That's not true.]" Audric pitched in suddenly. Chief glanced sharply at him, clearly just noticing him.

"[You can't be in here,]" she replied. Audric shook his head.

"[Carmen would never try to hurt her. I saw her bring Julia into the hospital myself. I've rarely seen someone so distressed. You may ask my co-workers, or review security tapes. It was Carmen who brought her in and provided details.]"

A contemplative pause, then-

"I recognize you." One of the agents said. "You were here when Sandiego snuck back into Argent's hospital room. You were at the front desk. We assumed Sandiego was here to finish her off.."

"For the last time," Carmen hissed, "I am not trying to kill Jules. Do you think she would have hugged me like that if I had been trying to kill her? Or have saved me in the warehouse?"

Julia shook her head. "Carmen has never, ever tried to kill me. She saved my life."

Chief sneered. "Even so, you were raised by VILE and have stolen millions of euros worth of artifacts."

"And returned every one??" Carmen said. "Or donated the money to charities and such. I've only kept VILE's personal funds for myself, to afford a ba- plane tickets and whatever else I need for basics."

Carmen avoided mentioning her base; her team needed to stay safe and hidden if something happened.

Chief studied her, visibly getting slightly less tense. Julia seemed to wholeheartedly trust her, and her story did line up better than the rumors. "Then why on earth haven't you gone to us? We're an enormous agency, we could help you take VILE down."

"A number of reasons, the foremost being I don't trust you. You didn't trust Jules."

"I want the info on VILE." Chief said.

"Give Jules and I a full pardon and maybe I'll give it to you."

Chief frowned, glancing at Julia's hand, tightly holding Carmen's. The fight went out of her. "Even on meds you're a good negotiator, Sandiego. You'll both have your pardon."

Both young women smiled and the tenseness of the room vanished. Julia leaned into her and Carmen pressed back happily.

The thief grinned. "Now, get these cuffs off and lets get this party started."

As soon as Carmen gave them the all clear, the rest of Team Red came to visit her. Though they were, of course, very happy to see her alive and no longer being hunted by ACME, an unspoken question hovered over them like a dark cloud the whole time.

Would Carmen walk again?

They got their answer months later when Carmen took her first steps again. It wasn't long before she regained near the same mobility she'd had before the cave-in, though, as promised, she had a limp. Every step of the way Julia was by her side.

ACME had been helping Team Red with VILE's missions, able to thwart most of them, aided by Player and Carmen's extensive knowledge. But, they'd left one mission for Carmen and Julia alone.

Julia's shorter stride was like a harmony to Carmen's uneven one as they boarded the train, making their way down its snakey length.

"On a train again. I'm getting deja vu." Julia mentioned, laughing.

"Also with Paper Star. And swords. The coincidences are crazy."

Paper Star was transporting, of all things, the sword of Charles X, the sword that had started all of this.

They reached their targeted car and stopped.

"Ready to bring in a criminal?"

Their eyes both glittered with a vendetta. Neither had come out of their last experience with the origamist looking good. This time would be much, much different.

Carmen nodded and they slid open the door.

"Paper Star. I believe we have some unfinished business."

The origamist turned and smiled. "Then let me finish it."

She pulled out two swords, copies of Charles X's and swung them around showily. Julia had no doubt they were just as sharp as the original.

"I do hope this won't be too easy...then again, I am going against Julius Caeser and Doyle Lonnegan."

Carmen and Julia glanced at each other and gave a slight smile.

"Bring it."

To make a long story short, they annihilated Paper Star in the fight. The operative ended up pinned by the shoulder fabric of her jacket with two swords, unconscious from Julia's ACME gas.