CHAPTER TWO ♔ a sigh escapes from heaven and worlds end

[savemyself]

♬ The Dream Within - Lara Fabian

WHO || Rafael Giovanni, Burt Becksworth, Isabella Alessandro, Finnick Odair, Myrilandel de Tanos, Buffy Summers, Spike, Elena Gilbert, Dawn Summers, Desmond Descant, Jeanne Gar, Kat Samcelot, Mark Sandazhard, Violet Fiore, Sterling Archer
WHAT || CHAPTER TWO: Following the traumatic and tragic events of Finnick and Rafael's concert, our heroes are taken to be interrogated at the police station
WHERE || Concert Hall > Chicago Police Department, Chicago, IL
WHEN || July 3rd, 2013 [ forward dated]
HOW || Actionspam

Nothing is okay.

What was meant to be the Knights' triumphant collaborative effort to cut off Chad Becksworth's bid for total control of NOVA Records, allowing them to follow the trail elsewhere, has descended into chaos. Rafael's songs triggered some kind of reaction in Jade that allowed her to regain her lost memories, only to have their reunion cut tragically short by the actions of a hitman who took her hostage on stage, demanding her necklace. While Myri and Violet attempted to convince him that the necklace did not lie with her, Jade signaled to Rafael that she meant to utilize the distraction to break free - but things went out of control and Rafael's bullets struck Jade instead. The Knights felled the hitman, as the world watched, and Rafael begged a distraught and enraged Des to end his life. Meanwhile, a mysterious figure that only Buffy & Spike could see assisted Myrilandel in healing Jade enough to hang on for a little time more...

Time for people to say goodbye.

In the meantime, the police have arrived, arresting Rafael, Archer, and Des (or attempting to), and preparing Jade to be taken to the hospital. Everyone else is being ordered to head outside to be taken down to the station for questioning. It's a hectic scene, but people can finally snatch a few moments amid the chaos to try to make sense of what just happened...

Comments

[nothingsodivine]

[He grunts pointedly, but when she gets her arm free, he just raises his hands defensively and pulls a face before moving onto the barstool. Hilarious how this is where he ended up moments before Jade's death. He holds up two fingers and the bartender arches an eyebrow at him, because that is not an order, cowboy.] Surprise me.

[That done, he glances back at Buffy.] I thought it was bad before the Mexican stand-off. If I knew then what I know now.

[slay]

Then, it'd still be bad pre-standoff.

[ she finishes his sentence for him as she pulls up onto the stool beside him. ]

Because it wouldn't just be losing her; you'd know the danger he chose to put her in, when she wanted no part in it.

[ yeah buffy is still coming up firmly on the side of anti-brain rape. she shakes her head. rafael didn't just kill jade by shooting her on accident - he killed her by brining her memories back and making her a target that he wasn't prepared to defend.

if the same thing had happened to the old jade, at least she would have gone out surrounded by friends and people she loved - even if rafael wasn't one of them. now he chose to sacrifice all those bonds in favor of his one, so she could die surrounded by strangers who all expected something from her that she couldn't give, while the one she did remember was in prison. ]

[nothingsodivine]

You didn't hear her, Buffy. [Even if he refuses to believe Rafael was right for what he did, that doing it there in front of her mom and everyone was probably not the best idea... He still can't shake that there was a part of Jade that would have wanted it that way.] When I was taking her backstage, all she could talk about was how she ditched those memories because she didn't think she could live without him. She wanted him.

[slay]

She hardly even has a blurry watercolor of what her life was like without those memories. I don't think she's really in a position to be comparing which she'd prefer now.

[nothingsodivine]

[Bitterly as he starts sipping his "surprise liquor."] She's not really in a position to compare anything right now.

[Which, yeah, is his way of saying she has a point.]

[behindcloseddoors]

[ ♬ Three Libras - A Perfect Circle ]

[slay]

I'll get what he's having.

[ yeah welcome to buffy needing a drink and actually admitting how crushed she is by all of this. ]

Any word from the hospital how long she's got?

[nothingsodivine]

I didn't ask. Whatever Myri did, it's not gonna help us any. She's gonna die surrounded by strangers. [He shakes his head.] He couldn't have waited. He knew she was a target there.

[slay]

I don't think anyone's under the impression that Rafael was thinking of Jade right then.

[ he was thinking of himself. he was so wrapped up in how he needed her, how he missed her, he didn't think for once that she was safer this way, didn't stop to think for a minute that this was dangerous or wrong. all he could think about was himself - and that vastly shifted buffy's view of him. ]

[nothingsodivine]

You'd be surprised. They all saw how happy they looked. Hell, even I believed it. [But he was on the defensive, trying not to be a jealous suitor, and now she's going to die and he doesn't know what he believes.] You know the old fable. Don't open your yap to get the bigger piece or you'll lose everything.

[slay]

I don't think she looked very happy when he shot her. Maybe Rafael's the one who should have kept his yap shut.

[nothingsodivine]

Not too happy with Fluffy, are you? [He takes another pull on his drink.]

[slay]

What he did was wrong. It wasn't his choice to make, and it was stupid to do it the way he did. It wasn't just Jade's life or his own he was putting in danger, it was all of us, and he didn't think to warn anyone!

[nothingsodivine]

Yep, that's a real litany of damage. And maybe if he ever gets out of prison, we can yell at him for it. Assuming he doesn't provoke some asshole to shiv him in prison.

[slay]

He's not going to prison.

[ she says it softly, like she's fairly certain des wants him to because he killed jade. she's not sure she blames him for that. but she still has to break that news. ]

The cops know they don't have a leg to stand on. No one thinks they were anything but in love, everyone saw the look on his face. He didn't mean to hurt her. He was trying to save her. He just ... should have known the best way to do that was to let her go.

[nothingsodivine]

'Course he's not.

[It's cheerful, because as broken as Des is, he tries to maintain a nonchalant attitude. Also if Rafael gets out, he can punch him in the face.]

That's not what the cops told me. [He lowers his voice, not wanting to harp on the what-ifs anymore. He's immortal. He could go crazy doing that.] They got a tip before the concert. Something about it being pre-meditated. I don't think the little moptop SOB did it on purpose, but who the hell would know that this was how it was going to go down?

[slay]

[ a tip. buffy's attention rivets onto des, and she glances around them as if to triple check that no one is listening where they aren't welcome. she leans in. ]

If I had to guess? My money'd be on whoever sent the guy with the gun. But, thanks to Archer, he's too dead to interrogate.

[nothingsodivine]

We do know that Chad's got an in with a lady who hangs around snake cultists and has freaky mind powers. One of those two things ambushed us tonight. Who's to say the second didn't, too?

[slay]

Any chance our friends with the Chicago PD mentioned something else about how our anonymous tip sounded?

[nothingsodivine]

Wouldn't say. By the time, they started talking premeditation to me, they were half-convinced Rafael shot Jade because she was having an affair. I had to get him to drop it.

[slay]

An affair? An affair with - [ 'who' is obviously going to finish that demand, but she figures it out, so the next word out of her mouth is; ] ... Oh.

[nothingsodivine]

[Des deadpans at her.] Yeah.

[He draws back a bit.] They wouldn't have told us shit anyway. Anonymous tips are anonymous for a reason.

[slay]

And yet they seemed to struggle with the concept of not being allowed to have my name. Why am I more suspicious than some anonymous mouth-breather on the phone?

[nothingsodivine]

Because you shit-kicked a hitman.

[slay]

And the creepy mouth-breather on the phone probably sent him!