Erich followed his sister down the stairs, pushing past her about half way to the ground floor and burst through the door to chase down the big guy with the gun. It was all but immediate the look of complete destruction hitting him. Bodies strewn about, holes in the walls, a lack of any kind of door in the front entrance and three figures outside, two tangled in a fight, one much smaller one screaming at the other two. He started toward them making his way through the hallway when suddenly he heard a sickening crunch behind him. He whipped his head in that direction and saw men pouring in through a rear entrance. None of them looked like anyone he had seen before.

He didn't bother to count, he just shoved his sister into an open patient room.

"Heruntersteigen!"

Frantically he looked around and reached for a pistol off of one of the dead men.

It was too small. He had never used a gun like this one before. He was used to a rifle, something with a longer barrel. This was not going to go smoothly. He laid on the floor behind the dead man, he could feel the warmth of his blood still as it seeped into his shirt and made it stick to his skin. He sat, quietly, waiting for them to inch closer. None of them were shooting yet. But now they were only 20 meters away. He was a sitting duck if he let them get any closer. He lined up the man in front, and slowly squeezed the trigger before watching him crumple to the floor in a heap.

Thankfully, it seemed like these men were not paying much attention because a few of them started to look around the hallways. The rest though, they opened fire. This hospital was quickly turning into a hellscape.

Erich did the only other thing he could think to do. He aimed up and blew out the lights above him, behind him, and in front of him. As the last went out he felt a sharp sensation as if a dog had bitten him in the arm. He ignored it for the moment, the dark would envelope him and it would be alright.

At least now he had a chance in the dark. He would be a shadow among shadows. Only problem was, he had nowhere to go, and he was pretty sure he was down to two bullets. And that was counting the one that had just gone through his forearm.

Once again the world had turned on its head and Will found himself amidst a flurry of hammer blows from an unexpected assailant. The initial assault had left him operating on instinct which had thankfully been honed enough to save his life when his opponent's gun had been drawn. He even managed to land a solid blow to his opponent before he was driven through the door and into the open air.

As he squared with his opponent, the Wolf, Will had flashes of bar stools and shouting men overlap his perception. Something about this was all too familiar and he felt an anger rise up in him that had nothing to do with his revenge on the Dragon. This was something personal, something deep and raw from a time long before. He owed the Wolf, and though the details wouldn't come to him, he suspected that the Dragon was at least a part in some way.

"You won't fucking take her from me you son of a bitch."

He knew that the smaller man would be nigh impossible to catch in his own element, so William decided to bring him down to earth. Moving to cross the short distance between them, William suddenly ducked a shoulder and lunged, trying to bowl Gavin over and pin him to the floor where he could bring his size and strength to bear on equal footing. He knew if he could pin him down it was only a matter of time before he'd overpower the Wolf.

Fortunately, the Wolf seemed to be having trouble catching his breath from the exertions of the fight so far. He seemed to be tiring already and it caused him to be a step to slow in his attempt to dodge aside. Will's shoulder drove into the other man with a bone jarring jolt of force and Will let his weight do the rest of the work, carrying them both to the concrete with a hard thud.

Will immediately began to shift himself to straddle his opponent and make good his pin, but in spite of the impact and the weight that had settled onto Gavin, he was still putting forth a flurry of movement and strikes that brought to Will's mind an angry cat. He struggled to find purchase and couldn't get his foe's arms into a position where they might be kept from use and found little opportunity to punish him from his new position. All the same, he threw what punches he could in the knowledge that he was the larger and likely stronger of the two of them and sooner or later the guard before him would break, or misjudge a movement and leave him the opportunity he would need.

Gavin was still dangerous on his back, but it was a situation he wanted to remedy immediately. Sooner or later, his opponent would land a shot and Gavin's head would hit the pavement. Seeing his opportunity as "Will" pulled back to deliver a crushing punch, Gavin kicked up between "Will's" legs. Gavin scored a glancing blow, saw the pain flash in "Will's" eyes, and made his move. His opponent had tried to stand and stumble backwards to recover, and Gavin grabbed ahold of "Will's" tie and use it to pull himself upwards, delivering a shot to the bottom of his opponent's chin as he went. As Gavin spared a quick glance to his side, he saw Bella holding his gun. Hopefully, a gun wouldn't be necessary here... but it was nice to know there were options if Gavin lost.

One minute he had the advantage and was about to drive through Gavin's defenses with everything he had and the next he was near tears from the crushing pain delivered in the most humiliating way possible. Gavin's quick thinking had pulled him out of the fire and left Will hurting in more ways than one.

He pulled himself together from the initial strike and the ringing hit to the chin that had followed it just in time to see Gavin lunging at him again, this time with a ferocious left hook that seemed aimed to try and take his head off. It was all Will could do to get his arms up in time to deflect the hit, but as soon as it glanced away he felt another shot drive into his guts. Still half stunned from the continuous driving attack, he shifted his guard down, not wanting to risk further injury and getting knocked out of the fight so quickly.

Something was tickling the back of his mind as he did so and memories of the bar came back to him again. The blows coming at him now seemed eerily familiar and he could feel the hairs on the back of his neck stand up as his instincts told him something was off. Of course, as soon as his arms shifted down a quick right cross smashed into his face, taking advantage of the moment's opening and clearing up his confusion. The blow rattled him badly and the image of the Wolf knocking another man to the ground with an uppercut after the same attack forced itself to the forefront of his thoughts.

Will staggered back from the blow, hoping that he could make enough space to breath and end the momentum of the Wolf's attack. He couldn't take this kind of punishment much longer. He had to turn this around or he wouldn't get another shot.

Will realized as soon as he dropped back how he could turn the momentum back on his enemy. Once he'd backed past arm's reach he dropped his guard a bit and let one hand drop, pressing hard into his side as though in pain from Gavin's hard hits to his sides. He worked his hand to his replacement knife that was tucked away and palmed it, making sure wince and favor that side to help cover the movement.

As expected, the Wolf lunged forward in an attempt to keep the momentum and take advantage of Will's moment of weakness. Will pressed the button to extend the switchblade and thrust it out in an attempt to use Gavin's own movement to help drive the blade home into his stomach. The Wolf proved that his reactions, though perhaps slowed by the years, were still up to the task at hand and managed to get a hand on Will's arm to stop the progress of the blade even as its tip found purchase in his flesh. As Will realized he would get no more than a shallow flesh wound he twisted, dragging the blade across the surface of Gavin's skin and leaving an angry red trail across the front of his skin and clothes before Gavin managed to wrench his arm enough to dislodge the blade from Will's grasp.

The two men were left grappling, though each had begun to draw blood from the other.

Bella winced as Gavin kicked Will, but it was better than what she had planned to get him off Gavin.  At least Will would survive a kick to his nether regions.  A bullet to the temple... not so much.

Will fell back and Gavin pushed forward.  He wasn't yet done making Will pay for putting his hands on his wife.  Gavin was as angry as she'd ever seen him, more so than even the night she'd told him that Will had kissed her.  Gavin was letting it all out and leaving nothing on the table.  She knew he'd be upset if someone ever got that close to really hurting her... but she never dreamed it would be like this.  Was his level of anger increased because it was William?  Did he still not see that it was him?  Was he not listening to her, was he THAT focused on the fight or perhaps Will was just too much for him to spare a thought to anything or anyone else.

Then he glanced at her, no - not at her, at the gun.

Damn it, Gavin!

Clearly, he didn't think it was William.  Or, a worse thought, he didn't care.  Maybe, just maybe, Gavin would kill even a man he called brother if he dared touch his wife.  Thinking back to the younger Gavin, restraining himself as she spoke to him, that look of death in his eyes - she could believe that.  

She wanted to make Gavin see, so he'd stop this, but she didn't think Will looked like he wanted much to stop either.  If she distracted her husband too much, Will might kill him... especially after that kick to the groin.  So it fell to her to find a means to make William stop, but how?  She glanced at Gavin's car.

Would it work?

"WILLIAM BOWDEN!  GAVIN BYRNE!  I have a plane to catch.  I'm leaving, RIGHT NOW!  I am DONE watching you kill each other.  If either of you MEATHEADS are coming with me... you need to stop fighting THIS INSTANT and get in the GODDAMNED CAR RIGHT THE FUCK NOW!!!"  Bella yelled, terrified and indignant with the men as she began moving slowly towards the car still watching them, praying they both had some small amount of desire to go with her more than they had desire to make each other bleed.  Of course, if they didn't, she had no clue what other hail mary passes she had left and the gun in her hand felt like a noose around her neck and Durden was the fucking executioner.

Aurora kept her gun on Uncle William as she watched him clutch at his balls.  "Ouch."  She muttered, feeling for him, but smirking at her father's street smart fighting style.

As her mother started yelling again she realized the tone and found herself chuckling.  She didn't need to focus to know what the woman was saying.  She'd heard it a thousand times before when she and Will had dragged their feet in the morning.  Her mom was ordering the grown men to stop fighting and get in the damn car. 

It occurred to her then that her mother might have had reasons for wanting to run as she could see a flurry of movement behind the three just inside the building.  While the Byrne family was distracted with their ... whatever the hell this was, it seemed more of Durden's men had arrived.  Did they even realize?  Was mom going for the car just to stop the fight... or had she seen them?  There was no way to know and with Dad and Will distracted she didn't dare risk it.  She had to watch the entrance for fear that someone might fucking take a pot shot on her family!

Aurora muttered to herself, "Come on guys... we don't got time for this shit."

Both men were tiring. Gavin had fought as well as he had in years, and it was barely enough. More importantly, he could feel himself starting to run out of gas. When he was younger, he could have fought all day. Now, his body screamed for the fight to be over. Feeling lucky that he'd stopped the knife at the surface level, Gavin thought of his own knife down at his calf, but held off for now.

The man moved like Will, and it was getting harder and harder to view this man as an impostor. Could Durden have found someone who looked like Will, sounded like him, and fought like him? Gavin tried to be realistic... but as strange as it seemed, Will Bowden being alive and trying to kill his family was starting to sound more and more like the reasonable answer.

Gavin considered it worthwhile to test his theory; there was one chain of moves that nearly always proceeded the same way in his fights with Will; it had been the sequence that had ended their first fight all those years ago.

Gavin lunged forward, feinting towards William's head before putting everything he had into a body shot where William's hand had been a moment before. As Gavin put his weight behind his punch, William's desperate jab caught Gavin in the chin.

Both men were stunned, although it seemed like Will was slightly worse for wear in the exchange. Gavin's eyes widened in shock.

"... Will?"

There was a hushed silence as both men dropped their guard. In Will's addled mind, both he and Gavin fell to their knees, and William continued falling forward to slump against the floor.

But no, this time he wouldn't fall. This time Gavin hadn't had the same fire he had back then, even if the fight truly was about the same thing.

Gavin was taking her away from him again. Somehow Will knew it had been exactly that long ago in that bar, though circumstances had been much different. Then he'd wanted her to come with him to live, not die.

William steadied himself, determined not to let things end in this familiar way. Gavin had undoubtedly been a part of what had cost him everything he had and left him in the river, just as he had been a part in tearing away what mattered before. The thought left a sort of melancholy taste that had to be forced down, but it also raised the anger that William needed in this moment. Finally Gavin had realized who he was and in that moment he'd given a moment of true weakness. His shock would be the cause of his pain.

William lurched forward, still hunched from the throbbing ache of the blow that had made his feigned side injury all too real, and drove his fists into Gavin's midsection with all the force he could muster. The blow initially drove his rival to the back foot and William pressed the advantage, swinging anvil-like punches again and again towards Gavin's guts. Once it felt as though he'd taken the advantage, Will unfolded himself and brought his back fist up in a sweeping arc to uppercut Gavin's jaw in the hopes of knocking him out while he was still stunned. Similar strikes had cost men in the Delaware fighting rings their teeth and worse, with few leaving the ring after what followed. He'd never once seen a man who could outpace it.

His fist swung unimpeded through the air to the end of its arc and found...

Nothing?

There was only a moment for the confusion to register before Gavin's fist drove all thought from his mind. The man's determination had held him together long enough to get out of the way and punish Will for over committing to his swing. It felt as though the graying wolf had put the whole of his remaining strength into this one last attempt to return fire and as Will dropped back from the force of the blow the only thought that cut through the haze was how familiar all this was. His mind seemed to disgorge memories of the falls he'd taken at the hands of the man before him, each a near thing and each ending with both men paying dearly for it.

Each time followed by the winner helping the other back to his feet.

It seemed mad, and as the haze that clung always to the edge of his vision drew across the rest of his eyes and darkness slowly replaced it he could have laughed at himself. He had to be insane.

Why else would it seem for all the world as though the Dragon was looking back towards him with anguish written on her features?

Gavin was losing stamina rapidly, and felt a strange calm come over him as he realized the next 20 seconds would decide the fight. He absorbed punches from Will, waiting for his opportunity to- there it was. Gavin dodged and delivered a crushing blow in one smooth motion that sent the other man sprawling to the ground, semi-conscious.

Gavin turned unsteadily.

"Bella!"

He took a few steps and dropped to his knees before bouncing back up to his feet, hoping no one would notice. At least the knife wound wasn't deep. 

"Aurora!"

Gavin glanced around, and when he focused again his wife was at his side. He smirked, resting his hands on his knees.

"That's definitely Will. I'd bet my life on it. Not sure how the fuck... but that's him. Aurora's somewhere with a- oh, there you are. Thanks for not shooting me. Anyway, Bella. Can I have my gun back? Thank you. Okay. Let's get him in the trunk. The two of you drive him back to Hollowpoint. I'm going to go carefully check out whatever the hell is happen over there."

Gavin waved his gun vaguely in the direction of the distant gunshots, where Erich, Adele-, and Amaryllis_Sarantou were fighting, along with any other reinforcements who'd shown up. Aurora nodded immediately to the suggestion, as Bella simultaneously shook her head.

Isabella-Luciano, as usual, spoke first.

"You're in no condition to keep fighting!"

Gavin shrugged and took a deep breath before responding.

"Well... let's get him in the car and see how I'm feeling. Sounds like they're holding their own for now..."

Bella watched as Gavin and Aurora put Will into the trunk and then she hugged Aurora and kissed her forehead quickly.  

"Hi, Mom,"  Aurora said softly.

Bella kept hold of her daughter's cheeks and stared into her amber eyes, "How are you feeling?"  

Aurora glanced briefly at her father and cracked her neck to break from her mother's empathic gaze.  "I'm ready to get back to work."

"Good, I want you to get up those stairs and bring my associates out... they're young and inexperienced and it sounds like Durden's men just got reinforced."  

”No, I’m going. If Will wakes up, I’m not sure I can take him again without killing him, but Aurora could.”  Gavin interjected.

Bella, looked to Gavin - afraid & annoyed, "You just cut your way through the damn place to get to me, went eight rounds with Will and now you want to run back inside to play hero again?  Do you have ANY intention of listening to me even once today either as your wife or Godmother or am I wasting my breath and concern?"

Gavin opened his mouth, then closed it again. There was no way to effectively persuade Bella without breaking Aurora's trust. 

"Fuck it. It's not going to take that long to drive to the other side. We're all going. Hot Rod, you've got the wheel. Rora, you've got shotgun. Get the rifle and cover us from range; my eye is a little fucked up, and I don't trust it from long range."

Gavin and Aurora both started climbing into the car; Aurora tossed her mother the keys.

Bella caught the keys, more out of habit than anything else, this was her thing... driving.  Gavin knew it.  Somewhere along the way in her marriage and through years of running together, he'd become more like her - just as she'd become more like him.  This was a subtle manipulation at it's best.  She'd be proud of him if he hadn't used it against her, but there was no time for a temper tantrum, questioning of her own life choices, or even a small power struggle in her marriage ... not while her people might be dying.   

She stared at the keys in her palm for half a heartbeat, then she got into the driver's seat without a word.  She turned the key and as the engine roared to life.  She drove her car like it she'd stolen it, angry and reckless around the parking lot to the back of the building.  All the emotions over seeing Will, the fear of dying or of Gavin being killed right in front of her, the relief at seeing Aurora, the petty-childish annoyance at Gavin's dismissal of her worries and desires... NO ... her orders; it all festered just below the surface of her icy stare.

She WOULD NOT lose her shit.  Not now, at least!  Bella would have the luxury of all that later, when Godmother Byrne's work was finally done.  

She had heard the order the woman called @Adele had given her. Unfortunately, she didn't really know what the hell that was supposed to mean, who were these bodyguards she was supposed to gather and get out of here with? What did said men even look like. 

She glanced back towards the barricaded door, hearing the voices coming up again before making the decision to book it down the hallway. She noticed that everyone else had left, she didn't have too much time to really think anything of it. She had to make it to the end of this hallway before whatever men were on the other side of the barricaded door broke through it.

'How the hell did it escalate so fast... this was supposed to be something simple... like gathering information! Not shooting at things or knocking people out... what the actual hell..'

She knew she was mentally arguing with herself when she bolted around the corner at the other end of the hallway, just hearing the echoing of a door being slammed open as the men finally broke through. Her heart was racing as she tried to find something to use... or somewhere that she could hunker down at. This wasn't her area of expertise and she was cursing herself for getting stuck in a situation like this. Distracting men and eavesdropping on a conversation or flirting it out of people was more her speed... gun fights... not so much. 

Despite the fact that they were driving from one fight to another, Gavin felt the adrenaline start to bleed away from him as he winced in the back of the car. Now that the fight with Will was over, his body was catching up with the injuries he'd sustained in his battles with the Durdens and his apparently resurrected friend. 

Will. What the fuck. Didn't seem possible... but it was definitely him. He'd have to tell Tara.

For once, he was worried about his sister.

Adele heard the crash of the door being forced opened down the hall and she was about to run towards it -- determined to meet this new wave head on -- when the next thing she knew she was being pushed into an empty patient room.  The shovel caused her to stumble and fall to the ground.  Luckily she fell more sideways and had not had the opportunity to raise a hand.  Such a reaction might have resulted in a broken arm.  As it was she felt like her shoulder was bruised to high haven.

Wincing in pain she pushed herself up onto her feet.  She was about to stumble for the door when she heard shots ring out in rapid succession just beyond the room and lights disappeared except for what was coming through the window of the room she was in.  Someone was trying to level the playfield it would seem.  Probably her brother.  He would prefer a hand-to-hand situation without guns.  Quietly she moved to the door  and dropped to a knee before carefully peering out from around the door frame.  She saw several dark figures coming down the hall towards her.  She could pick out from their shouts that someone had saw muzzle flash coming from apparently her general direction.  Erich must be between her and them, but she did not see him.

Did she dare shoot at shadowy figures when she did not know where her brother was?  She was not like him.  Her gun and surprise was all she had on her side.  Her gun, surprise and her intelligence!  Her brother was much taller than most men.  She could shoot the shortest of the shadowy figures and leave the largest.  At worse her brother would have to deal with one of the durdens, but that was much better than accidentally shooting him or him having to deal with all of them together.

She checked her gun and then spun around the door frame still on her knee.  She was a pretty good shot at the training range, but she did not have much experience in fighting in this sort of situation.  Still she thought her aim was true enough to handle the job at hand.  One shot.  Two shot three shot.  Three bodies fell to the floor.  There was no way to tell for certain if she had killed them straight away, or just injured them.  She also did not have much time to think about it.  She heard a click and saw the flash from the largest man's gun as she went diving for cover back into the hospital room.

Erich had lay there in the dark for what felt like forever. He was not a betting man. He was not a religious man. He was a faithful man. And so he waited, prone, watching as the shadows closed in on him.

Faithful.

That's when it paid off. The bond that he shared with his sister would never be broken or marred by any threat. She came through and fired, one, two, three of them went down from her shots at them. At least one of them was still groaning on the ground, but that was unimportant. What was important was that the one closest to him had dropped his gun. That meant more bullets for Erich.

Then he saw the muzzle flash and he could do nothing about what happened next. One arm feeling like it was on fire, the other raised the pistol as he stood. He fired at the man who had just fired at his sister and he yelled a blood-curdling yell that was going to be heard by anyone in the place. He hit the wall beside the man with the bullet, but it made him jump in the darkness. That was enough time for Erich to close the gap and slam his body into the stranger in the dark.

First he felt the soft give of flesh, and then it stopped as the two crashed into the wet, cold, tiled floor. The man under Erich lost his grip on his gun, but more importantly lost his grip on anything that could get him up and Erich off of him. So Erich slammed down with a fist, breaking into the man's ribs at first. He did not need to eliminate the head if the man could not breathe, and since Erich couldn't see all that well, the ribs were the better, and more importantly, bigger target.

After a few punches, he could feel the man beneath him wriggle his arm free and slam it into Erich's back. Only one arm. That meant he had broken the other one in the fall. It also meant he lost the gun. Erich used the moment to bring his knee up onto the man's throat and begin to suffocate him. It was a mistake. The guy still had a lot of strength, and he got loose. Erich jumped up to defend himself and screamed in pain when he blocked a blow using the arm with a hole in it. it was a betrayal of his own weakness. He would not do that again. The man was going to take advantage now of Erich's pain. He swung again and hit, and Erich absorbed the blow into his side. Another blow to his body, this time Erich stepped in closer and reached out with his good hand.

The man in the dark did not expect the calm nature of the tall German. He did not expect a grip that had held a thousand axe handles. Erich, for his part, stabbed the man in the eye with his thumb. Using the man's eye socket like a hole in a bowling ball, he swung his head toward the wall.

"Ein. Zwei. Drei. Wie oft, bis dein Schädel einstürzt?"

He felt the man beginning to weaken in his daze and on the fourth blow his question was answered.

He turned then and looked to the groaning man on the floor. He reached down and pulled a knife from his boot before sighing and sitting on top of the man.

"Für den Drachen, du Stück amerikanischer Scheiße."

Slowly he dragged the blade across the man's throat and listened as the groan turned to a gurgle. He sat, patiently waiting for the body to stop twitching underneath him before wiping off the blade and returning it.

"Adele-, ich weiß nicht, wie viele es gibt, aber diese Halle ist frei. Wir sollten Amy finden und dann zur Bank zurückkehren. Der Wolf wird wissen, was als nächstes zu tun ist."

He said as he stood and looked toward the room his sister was in.