"I've finally broken into this place, the hideout of my arch-nemesis." Jules thought to herself "But where to go from here..."
She had long waited for this day. This building might contain some highly sensitive documents, containing secrets that Jules has been chasing half her life! But the young heiress also realized that those documents would not just be laying around, ready to be taken by her. Things were never that easy.
Jules arrived at the old warehouse alone. Erin's sources tells her that this is where Varna frequently stayed up from time to time. With a gun on her back, she cautiously entered it.
It was decided. Jules needs answers. Why would he keep tormenting her, why would he harm the ones closest to her, why won't he kill her. Only Varna will be able to give her the answer she needs
Jules looked around the warehouse, turning over every corner and hiding spot, desperate to find documents, intel, anything that could give her an insight into Varna's mind.
"It's not like the man himself is going to answer me..." Jules mumbled.
Then, a voice called her name out from a distance.
"So you've found out where I've been hiding all this time, huh"
It was Varna, sitting on a scaffolding. This time he never wore his mask and cap, revealing his face to her; grayish hair, ashen eyes, handsome looks. Jules was left in awe. How could a man like this commit a series of brutal crimes and tortures like a serial killer? Jules needed a moment before she found the strength to speak.
"So, you reveal your face to me at last... The face of the one who kills people by the dozens, who captures and tortures my friends... and who is out to kill me?"
"And you decided to brazenly come at me alone... or is Erin waiting outside? Looking for an opportunity to jump on me?" he retorted with a question
"I came alone." Jules admitted "And I have come here in search of answers."
Varna leapt out of the scaffolding and into the ground. Jules took ready, trying to find an opening. Meanwhile, he immediately deduced her intentions and laughed menacingly. She braced herself and took a deep breath.
"I know that look... that's the face of someone wanting some answers." He pointed at her
"Why haven't you killed me yet? Why do you keep hunting my friends and hurting them?"
"Why? Because all of you ruined my life." he angrily replied, throwing a punch at Jules' face that knocked her down
"You live your lives without care, snoop all you ever want without thinking of the consequences of your actions, and then act like nothing HAPPENED!!!"
Jules fell flat on her back but did not back down yet. She tried to take out Varna with a sweeping kick.
Failing that, she got up and assumed a fighting stance "Come on then, I'm right here! come and take your revenge, you fucking bastard!"
"Oh...I will..."
He then assumed a quickdraw the stance, preparing his revolver from his holster
Elsewhere...
Erin Duvall was about to turn in her paperwork when a woman wearing a beret rushed in. Rebecca paused for a moment, the officer was obviously distracted. "Detective, its me, Ms. D'Anjou. I haven't been able to find Jules, I fear she may be in danger again!"
Erin gave Rebecca an alarmed look. Jules missing... They were kind of used to that. But with this Varna out for revenge, it cast a whole new light on it!
"I believe I know where she might be." Erin replied, grabbing her coat "I gave her the coordinates of Varna's hideout... only I didn't think she would be brazen enough to go there by herself!"
"You found his hideout?" Rebecca was rather briefly impressed, the detective had found it before she had! "You rather do not know Jules well, dear," she said as she followed the other woman out the door. "She's always brazen enough."
And, wait, she's following? The heiress had a rather worried cast to her blue eyes, "And I will come with you, dear. I may be able to talk them both down."
Erin gave Rebecca a puzzled look, but then she remembered that the socialite did have an odd sort of hold over Varna. Somehow, she knew how to calm him down...
"Very well, but stay close to me, we don't know what he might be planning." Erin replied, getting into her police vehicle and putting on the sirens.
"Of course, dear." While Rebecca did trust Varna, that wasn't with Jules around and with both of their emotions rather charged. She's definitely going to be right next to Erin up until she knew they were safe! The heiress buckled herself in for the ride, preparing herself for what might be a rather awful sight.
Erin would race through town like a madwoman, since time was paramount! Eventually, they reached the location of Varna's abandoned warehouse... from which gunshots were clearly audible!
"Shit." Erin took out her own service revolver and gave Rebecca a look of slight panic "They're killing each other in there... we need to hurry!"
Back at the hideout, Jules picked up her own revolver and opened fire, trying to out-draw Varna!
After she fired, she quickly hid behind cover.
Varna also fired at her, caught off-guard in a split second. He then took cover at a nearby crate. He knew he got her by the shoulder, she was also thinking the same.
"Let me ask you a question Jules, how do you sleep at night for the last two years? Have your pride overtook your guilt of killing a detective?" he taunted her
"Goddamn you, Varna..." Jules growled "It did not mean for that to happen!"
She fired twice more and then attempted to get closer.
"Easy for you to say you blonde fuck. Did you even gave his family some closure?" He retorted back, firing two shots at an approaching Jules. One of them hit right on the shoulder
Jules screamed and held her hand against her bleeding shoulder.
With a shock, she realized that, no, she never did give them closure...
"And is doing all of this going to bring him back?" She taunted back.
"I know doing this wouldn't bring my friend back... That's why I did this...hoping I could find myself some closure with him"
He checked the bullets on his pistol. He got three rounds left, two spent on a miss, one hitting her right arm.
"Better make this count" he thought.
Erin and Rebecca are now headed to the warehouse, time is running out. There was a tiny squeak as she heard the first gunshots. Rebecca had her hands to her chest with a breathless, "Oh goodness" before turning to the detective. "We had better hurry, dear, there's no time left!" She did, however, have the good sense to stick to Erin's side as they entered - even at a quickened pace.
They reached inside the hideout, and it was as confusing as a labyrinth. It was empty, but there were traces of a brutal shootout and a scuffle. This broke Rebecca into tears
Meanwhile, Erin's climbed upstairs and find documents pertaining to the case. Pictures of Jules, Ophelia, Helen Lockwood, and herself were pinned on the board, as well as the crime syndicates that abducted them on several occasions. They were all connected by a red thread that converges into one picture: the article about Detective Malloy's death.
"So this is where it leads huh?"
A few moments earlier...
"I know doing this wouldn't bring my friend back... That's why I did this...hoping I could find myself some closure with him"
He checked the bullets on his pistol. He got three rounds left, two spent on a miss, one hitting her right arm.
"Better make this count" he thought.
He shot at a weakened pillar, causing it to collapse from above. Jules had to leave cover, she had no other choice. This gave an opening to dash on her, but just as she was about to engage Varna again with gunfire… Rebecca and Erin burst in!
Both Jules and Varna turned their heads towards Erin and Rebecca. Jules did not lower her pistol.
"Get out of here!" She snapped "This is between me and him!"
"Drop your weapons. Both of you." Erin commanded "I know what this is all about, but no one else needs to die!"
The scene was set for a massacre... unless cooler heads prevailed. Fortunately, a cooler head was there.
"Is it, truly?" Rebecca stepped up next to the detective, eyes glistening with worry as she surveyed everyone here.
"I believe many more than simply you two are involved now. Myself, Mairin, Detective Duvall, your sisters, Hannah..."
Her eyes closed to bite back a tear at that, before they opened wide again.
"If anything happened to either of you, or both of you, would it end anything? Would you truly have that closure? What of the closure of others? Where would we find ours if we lost you?"
"You don't understand, missy. Killing her isn't the closure I need"
Just right in the spot, Varna made another shot. It did a double effect; first, the shot rang near the ear of Jules, momentarily deafening and disarming her. Then the shot landed at Erin's gun, disarming her as well.
Erin grunted in pain as she dropped the gun. True, she wasn't directly shot, but that ricochet hurt her hand like hell. Rebecca immediately checked on her
Meanwhile, a deafened Jules subconsciously pointed her gun and shot Varna in his sides before dropping it, causing him to drop his gun as well. Jules approached Varna, murder in her eyes. The young heiress was determined to finish this whole matter, here and now!
"Die, you piece of shit." She growled, aiming her gun at Varna's head.
"Jules, don't!" Erin grunted, but she was unable to stop Jules…she wasn't going to make it with her hand stinging.
Blue eyes closed in determination before she rather daintily ran out to put a hand over Jules's and lower the gun.
"Jules, no," she stated softly, if still directly. A tone rarely heard from the gentle heiress. "Look at him. Look at you," Now that tone turned to Varna, "Both of you, look at yourselves! Is this how you truly want it?"
Jules looked at Rebecca, tears in her eyes. Of course she didn't want this, but what choice had he left her?!
"I can't let him live... He did this, not me!" she said with a shaky voice "Look at what he did to Hannah! To Ophelia, to Emma, Erin, Helen... even you! He's hurt, tortured and attacked all of you because of me!"
She looked back at Varna and shook her head "This needs to end... And it's either him or me..."
Varna leaned back to the pillar, looking at his left side. The bullet passed through his left side of the body, causing it to bleed slowly. Luckily, no vital signs were hit.
"Jules, it doesn't have to be that way-"
Before Rebecca could even add, Varna intervened between them
"Dear, please," she tried pleading to the young man, perhaps surprising everyone. She normally wouldn't be calling someone who tortured her 'dear'! Let alone, trying to gently get around him! "These are the risks I take!"
"Rebecca...Stay out of this...I don't want you to get hurt anymore because of me." he genuinely pleaded to Rebecca, then he turned his attention back at Jules
"Go ahead, do it. Kill me like how you ended up killing Percy. Have everyone show how much of a monster I turned you into. I hope you sleep well at night knowing you have shed another blood in your hands like you did two years ago"
She paused, listening to those words as a rather hesitant glance was given between the pair. Those weren't the words the heiress would've used herself, and her breath caught as she feared how the young lady would respond! "Jules, please, you are no monster, dear, and we know it. I know it. Don't do this."
A look into her eyes and he knows Jules hesitate pulling the trigger. Perhaps deep inside, she's afraid she might become like him.
And with that...
Jules raised the revolver up and wasted the only shot that would end it. She later broke down in tears, muttering the only thing Varna waited to hear from her mouth.
"I'M SORRY"
Jules broke down crying as she returned Rebecca's hug... and dropped her pistol to the floor.
"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry..." She apologized, both to Rebecca and Varna... as well as herself!
She was truly grateful for Rebecca's motherly hug, something she truly needed in this moment "I... I don't want anyone else to get hurt."
Rebecca gently let go of Jules so she could stand on her own to give the rest of her apology. The latter then turned to Varna, steadied her breath and addressed him directly "I apologize for your partner's death, Varna... But we can't let more death be the answer. I will not be a part of that, and neither will you, I hope."
Varna heard her apologies, something he was just waiting to hear from her, and looked at her with a faint smile on his face. He had already forgiven her, and that settled his thirst for revenge. Seems like the devil has now been laid to rest from within. There was a bit of apprehension at how Varna would respond, the smile was not entirely surprising but it was also entirely appreciated. A weight was lifted from her shoulders, and she exhaled as she stepped forward.
While everything had settled between Jules and Varna, Erin raised the gun and pointed it at Varna. She was still a police officer after all.
"Varna Illyasovich, you are under arrest for multiple counts of kidnapping and murder" she declared
"If you want to go back to the hospital, be my guest. I could still break a leg or two with this wound of mine." he responded
Still remembering what he did to her, fear returned within Erin, causing her to put the gun down and back away. The heiress was about to ask for a moment, but the young man's response had her rather eyeing him with an almost imperceptibly lifted brow. Rebecca's version of the 'Really?' look. After all this?
"Sorry, Rebecca, but I'm not spending my life in jail. After all, I'm used to be on the run" he said to Rebecca
And with that, he dropped a smoke bomb and vanished within thin air
"Varna, dear, just one- '' But he was gone in a smoke bomb, though she dainty rushed the smoke! "Dear, come back! At least, let me give you a hug as well!"
Both Erin and Jules looked on as Varna vanished into thin air… Their conflict had been resolved, but Varna was still a wanted criminal.
Erin sighed "I suppose… if he doesn't attack any more people, I can put him at the bottom of my priorities list. Thank you for your help, Miss D'Anjou."
"Yes, thank you Miss Rebecca." Jules smiled softly "If it hadn't been for you… I don't know what I would have done…"
Left with empty arms and a bit of coughing, Rebecca sighed with a small smile of her own and a muted, "You'll have that hug someday, dear."
"Oh," she turned to Erin, a thoughtful finger to her lip. "Yes, he wouldn't be much of a priority, though I can always spare the time to try and track him down myself." Again, a gentle smile at that, "I'm rather good at mysteries, after all!"
Then, finally, for Jules, she came back to give her another hug. "It's quite alright, dear. The final decision was all yours, and your heart was still in the right spot. I rather hope his is as well." Perking up with her ever gentle smile, "Now then, we rather should get that wound of yours looked at."
Wait, there were gunshots. Alarm crossed Rebecca's eyes before she calmly turned to Erin, "And rather get an ambulance for her, dear? So much for chatting over tea..."