Orion leaned against the side of the old brick building, trying to shield himself as best he could from the harsh wind blowing off of Lake Michigan. Lighting up a smoke, he let it dangle between his lips for a moment before drawing in a deep inhale. He shivered slightly, maybe from the wind or maybe from the nerves that were starting to creep in. 

He drew another long drag as he pulled his pocket watch from his vest, two o’clock in the morning. The Trinity wasn’t due in port for another forty five minutes but Orion knew how things like this went. They were either wildly early or late but rarely actually on time. 

Blowing in his hands for warmth he let his eyes dart around the docks. Nearly all the lights were off except for main warehouse. Orion could see the occasional worker moving about through the windows as he did his best to stay in the shadows. It wasn’t going to do anyone any good if he alerted them to his presence now. 

He drew short shallow breaths, the air swirling around him slightly causing him to draw his coat tighter to his body with a small shiver. He checked over his weapons, a small sense of comfort filling him momentarily. Checking his watch once more before slipping it away, he could feel himself tensing with every passing second. 

Trying to calm his nerves seemed like no use, there was too much adrenaline coursing through him at the moment. 

He lit up another cigarette as he shifted his focus on the drive up to the docks, hoping to see a friendly face in Charlie and Devlin soon.

Orion tapped his foot impatiently. He had already finished three cigarettes and was halfway done with his fourth by now. He kept flipping open his pocket watch to calm his nerves more than anything. The boat hasn’t arrived yet so there was still no need to panic. Besides, Orion thought to himself, if need be, I’ll just do it myself. 

He watched a few more workers pass by the window, upping his count to six now. The more eyes there were the higher chance this whole thing had of going sideways. The wind howled a bit harder now, as Orion fought off a shiver, flipping his collar up in defiance of the cold lake air. 

Checking his watch once more before he let out a deep sigh and retrieved his flask from his pants pocket. He unscrewed the cap with nimble fingers and tried his best to warm himself.

"Not who you expected, I'm sure," Catalina Rey said as she seemed to materialize out of nowhere to appear at his side. She was bundled in a familiar trench coat that brought a fond memory to Orion's mind. When he smiled, she smiled back.

"I'm here to help if you let me, though. What are we looking at, here? Half a dozen? I've got 2 guns on me, spare ammunition. Not sure how far that will take me if their firepower is heavier, or they're military. I'm good, but I'm not that good. We could use Charlie," she said quietly. This wasn't an unwinnable situation, but she would feel better if there were more of them. At least they had the element of surprise.

"So, assuming he doesn't swoop in at the last moment like a comic book hero, how would you like to proceed, Darling?" She asked warmly as she checked her weapons with a cool efficiency. 

He smiled as he heard her voice, a comfortable warmth traveling with it. Try as he might though, he couldn’t keep the fear from his eyes, “Seven if my information is correct. All armed to the teeth. But they aren’t expecting any trouble, this is as routine as routine could be for them.”

Orion pulled one of his knives out, flipping it in his palm before offering her the handle, “We do this quickly and quietly. If shots start being fired, we are done for.”

He pulled her close in a warm hug, whispering slightly in her ear. “The only way this works is if it gets messy. You up for that Cat?”

There was a certain glimmer in her eye that told him everything he needed to know without her saying a word.

She inhaled deeply, taking in the scent of him mixed with the chill air that surrounded them. Then, quietly, she paced down the dock and ducked beneath the window, positioning herself against a railing. In her pocket, her hand held the knife Orion had given her, weighing it, before she settled on a grip. 

And then, she waited. It didn't take more than six or seven minutes for one of the men, rifle strapped to his back, to step outside, presumably to take a leak off of the side of the dock. When he saw Catalina, he pulled up short. 

"Somebody called for a date?" She drawled, smiling at him. The man took a few steps towards her, then made the mistake of looking over his shoulder to see if anyone else was coming out of the boathouse behind him. 

It was then that she struck. Catalina closed the distance between them, and inside of what looked like a passionate embrace, six inches of steel went into the man's torso, just below the ribs. Catalina knelt slightly and then rose again, putting the entirely of her weight behind it as she angled the blade even higher. She wasn't sure if she'd pierced the heart, but when the body began sagging to the wooden dock, she simply let it, then used the rifle strap to drag it to the edge, and over. 

The splash was loud in the dark, quiet night. Catalina positioned herself behind the door this time, hoping only one would come out to check on his friend. When two emerged, she sighed, then lunged for the second one, dragging her blade across his neck before the first could even finish turning around to raise his rifle.

He let her fall from her embrace and watched her glide away. He kept his distance a bit. Of course he wanted to make sure that she was safe but part of him also wanted to see what she was capable of. He knew there was something just below the surface but he hadn’t had the privilege of seeing up until this point.

Orion kept a few paces distance from her. As she slid the blade across the first goons throat, he grabbed for the rifle that was being raised with his left hand, catching the man off guard and pressing the barrel towards the ground. His hand moved in a flash, three, four, five strikes to the man’s chest, the all to familiar sound of flesh squelching after each blow. 

Letting the body drop before he slid the rifle out from underneath him and sling it over his back. 

“This might come in handy. Should be another four inside if my count is correct.” He couldn’t help but smile at her as she breathed a little heavier, “I’ll swing around to the side door. Wait for my signal before you head in. We’ve got to hurry though, if that boat gets here first we’re in trouble.”

Catalina waited while Orion moved to the side door and out of sight. A few moments passed, and then she heard a low whistle. Through the door she went, as Orion did the same on the other side. There was a sickening crunch as the butt of the rifle Orion had appropriated met the bridge of one man's nose, and then Catalina was being spun around by a man she hadn't even seen; he'd hidden behind the door, just as she had earlier. 

Rookie mistake, she thought as a meaty fist met the side of her face. Suddenly, she couldn't see, but she didn't let that stop her. Pistoning her knife hand out to where she thought a stomach should be, she managed to hit just left of center. Dark blood gouted over her hand and onto the floor, but as the man doubled over, Catalina struggled to get the knife back out. She continued to yank at it as yet another man came at her, and rather than be pulled to the floor, she reluctantly let the blade go just as her newest opponent crashed into her and knocked her backwards onto the floor. Stunned and winded now, she didn't know what else to do but call out.

"Orion!" 

Another massive fist was sailing towards her face, and this one would be removing her as a threat, along with several of her teeth. Just before he made contact, a shot rang out, and Catalina watched through blurry eyes as a hole appeared in her attacker's forehead. The bullet slowed and changed the angle of the fist flying at her, causing it to connect to the wooden decking of the floor with a resounding knock. Seconds later, the man slumped to the side and fell off of her. Catalina rolled to the side and looked over to where she judged Orion to be, her hands slipping and sliding through the thick red mess quickly pooling across the floor.

Orion’s heart beat so loud that he could feel it in his ears. He shifted his shooting stance slightly, drawing a slow breath before pulling the trigger again. He let out a small sigh as the bullet lodged into the man’s upper half, sending him backwards sprawling to the floor. 

He rushed across the floor to her side, careful not to slip in the ever increasing pool of blood. Offering her his hand, he half hauled her to her feet, offering his handkerchief for the dark red stains on her hands. He took a deep breath before holding up one finger and whispering to her, “One left. Keep an eye out, we’ve lost the element of surprise.”

Swinging the rifle from his shoulder, he checked the slide briefly. He motioned for her to skip to the left as he went right. There were only so many hiding places in the warehouse; it was only a matter of time until they came across him. 

Motion thought he would take a chance, “Listen guy!” He called out, his voice echoing within the empty room, “walk away now and you will get out of this. There are plenty of jobs out there. You don’t need to die for this paycheck.”

Orion's voice bounced around the walls, seeming to come from both everywhere and nowhere all at once. Catalina paced quietly around the left side of the warehouse, her gun now held down in a two-handed grip as she moved between the various crates and shipping containers. Her face was on fire, and would be turning God-awful colors before the night was over, but her vision was clear now.

Too clear, perhaps. Catalina let out a small squeal when a rat crawled across her foot. She heard a chuckle and then he was just there, right there in front of her, his face shrouded in shadows. Catalina stared down the bore of the rifle aimed between her eyes.

"Call off your dog, bitch."

Catalina lowered her head, seemingly in defeat. 

"ORION!" She called out. She could feel the thump of her pulse in her face where she'd been punched. She felt it even more when her lips spread in a grin.

"I GOT HIM!" She yelled, and as the confusion flickered across the man's face, she dropped to her knees, raised the gun, and fired upwards, sending the bullet up into his neck at an angle that ensured it kept right on travelling through, and into his brain. 

Orion stopped on his heels coming to a skidding stop as the red mist floated into the air. The body dropped in front of him leaving only Catalina crouched down, gun raised, breathing heavily. 

She was good, she was very good. It wasn’t a surprise that she rose to where she is now. She didn’t have any problems with getting her hands dirty, part of her even enjoyed it a bit, but she’d always try to hide that part. It was bad for business being unpredictable.

His head snapped around as the boat’s foghorn shattered the silence in the warehouse. He quickly checked his weapons again making sure everything was loaded. He hadn’t planned to be using them if everything went right but nothing rarely went right these days. 

“We’ve only got a few minutes before it pulls into the docks. We’re going to have to move quickly.”

Orion paced off to the corner of the warehouse, using his knife to pry open the top of a crate. He let the lid crash with a thud as he began digging through the box, lifting off piles of hay by the handful until he found the stash of German grenades left over from the Great War. His eyes darted right and left before he found a small enough bag that he could throw it over his shoulder after filling it with as many explosives as it could hold. 

Turning back to her, he kept the glimmer in his eyes, “Ready, Lass? This is going to get loud.”

He slipped out of the door with her a half step behind. He wasn’t really sure why he did it but he reached behind himself, finding her hand with his, squeezing it silently.

Catalina's lip quirked at the contact; nothing much was a solid guarantee these days, not even the next few minutes of their lives. Orion himself was, though. Their relationship was an inexplicable, complicated thing, but she knew without a doubt he would never change his mind about her, or disappear. She'd stopped asking 'why' a long time ago. She squeezed his hand and then picked up her pace so that she was by his side, and not following behind. The bag of grenades was obscuring an otherwise lovely view of him. 

"Not to sound callous, Darling, but are we even trying to get the friendlies off the boat? We're grossly outnumbered here... would they help us, if they were able to? Should we try to get to them first, find out where they are? Or just..." She patted the bag of grenades on his back. He'd collected enough to take out a whole city block, this could easily go badly for them in so many ways if they weren't careful.

"It would be ideal if they took either the product or the friendlies off the boat first... maybe we'll get lucky and they'll be using them as labor to do just that?" She said as they pulled off to the side of the dock and into the shadows. The boat was close enough to be clearly in view now, and they watched as it pulled in silently and two men jumped down to tie it off. They'd be wondering where the dock workers were...

He crouched beside one of the pillars on the pier, still holding her hand as he did. There weren’t many things left in his world that hadn’t been taken or corrupted somehow but Catalina Rey was different. It wasn’t something that he would ever be able to quantify in words and even trying to show here would come up short. There were things that he would readily admit to her before he could ever admit them to himself. 

He took a deep breath for a moment, watching her intently before leaning forward and planting a soft kiss on her cheek. “I don’t want to be a monster but if we try to keep the innocents safe, we’re going to die here. It’s not exactly what I want but sometimes the monster has to come out so the other monsters know to keep their distance.” He squeezed her hand tightly, “I don’t want to be the monster, Cat. But I will be to keep you safe.”

She listened as Orion spoke about the monsters. If they had to be one today, she could live with that, but the long exhalation of air that escaped her as a couple of burly-looking men with rifles ushered a couple of people out onto the deck of the boat didn't go unnoticed by Orion. There was a heart in there, after all was said and done.

"Hurry up, ya fuckin' slackers! Don't know where the goddamn dock help is, probably sleeping one off. Take that crate there and set it by the doors over there. No, not that one! The other one. I've got this one," he said, his lips splitting into a greedy grin as he pulled the top off of the crate nearest him and plunged his hands into the bundles of cash inside. One packet found its way into his pocket before he pounded the lid back on again and he whistled for a companion to help him lift it. 

"Just help me get this to the door, we'll go find those assholes after and give them what-for. I should skim even more off the top for the hassle they've put me through," he said as he lifted his end of the crate. 

Four total accounted for, Catalina thought in her head. They could remove these two from the equation easily enough, and turn loose two civilians in the process. Before Orion had a chance to protest, Catalina sprang to her feet and ran at them, a gun in each hand.

Orion turned back just in time to see her take off at a sprint. He started to call out to her but stopped himself immediately; she was already on her way and his shout would have alerted them in an instant. He kept crouched as he swung out on the opposite side that she had just left, breaking into a sprint only a few paces behind her. He had to do something before this went to hell. There were at least another four hostiles left on the boat, each one with an ill temper and an itchy trigger finger. 

Pulling a blade from his waist, he let it fly mid-stride, catching the first man in between the shoulder blades, sending his arms flailing back trying to reach the hilt as he collapsed to his knees. By now, he had passed Cat as he went into a slide. His right boot was positioned upward, catching the second armed guard just above the knee. A sickening crunch filled the air mixed with a howl that Orion quickly quieted by slamming his hand over the mans mouth and plunging his blade repeatedly into the man’s chest. 

He stood quickly as Catalina was just coming to a stop, grabbing her by the collar and pulling her close, kissing her deeply. Breaking their kiss, he pressed his forehead against hers, looking her straight in the eyes, “Don’t. Ever. Do. That. Again.”

"HEY!" 

The shout came from the deck, and they both turned, weapons aimed and firing before another thought or word had a chance to pass between them. Catalina hit two, and sincerely hoped that they were the bad guys, and not two civilians being used as meat shields. Orion hit a third, but the fourth was nowhere to be seen. Catalina spared a look behind her to see if the two men carrying the cocaine had gotten away, and saw only the shadows of two figures running as fast as their feet would carry them down the dock. 

"Still thinking explosion? I'm pretty sure we can handle the one remaining, don't you? I mean, if you INSIST on an explosion, we-"

Machine-gun fire rattled through the night, and Catalina felt a sudden, burning pain in her upper arm.

Orion grabbed her by the sleeve, hauling her to the ground as the gun fire erupted. They both landed somewhat awkwardly, half rolling over each other. He kept his body between her and the machine gun, using a crate to the best of his ability for cover. His eyes caught the sight of her blood on his hands before anything else, quickly tearing off his vest and pressing it tightly to her wound. 

He spoke calmly to her, much calmer than he should have been, “I’ve got ya, Lass.” He squeezed off a couple of rounds at the attacker, not aiming at anything. “Can you move, Cat? I know you’ve got a car kicking around here somewhere, can you get to it? I need you to get out of here so I can finish this. If I go in there distracted by you, I’m not going to be coming out.”

Leaning forward, he kissed her softly, lightly brushing her chin with his fingertips, “I love you, now get out of here.”

He didn’t give her a chance to protest, quietly checking his gun before slipping from cover. Orion moved slow and deliberate, always keeping a crate of a part of the ship in between the gunman and himself. He needed to be careful with this, he was outgunned and if he missed his chance there was a solid chance that Cat wouldn’t be walking away from this. 

Pressing his back to another crate he crossed himself as he drew in a deep breath to steady himself. He let his heart rate slow as best as he could waiting for a beat. One...two...three...he stood quickly, finger pulling the trigger causing his weapon to bark, a single shot catching the machine gunner upside his head, sending him sprawling to the deck of the ship. 

Orion let out a sigh of relief as he let himself relax for a brief moment. The bag full of grenades was still slung over his shoulder, weighing down heavily. The boat was empty at this point as well as the docks but it wasn’t worth the risk trying to get all of this unloaded. There was a good chance that someone near by heard the gunshots ringing through the night.

He made his way through a hull door, wandering downwards into the freighter before finally coming upon the boiler room. Dumping the bag of explosives into a pile, he took one in his hand and moved to the top of the staircase he had just descended. Taking a deep breath, he pulled the pin, breaking into a sprint retracing his steps as soon as it left his hand.

She hadn't been given much of a choice. Out of ammunition and options, she did as Orion asked and ran back down the pier. She was almost to the end of it, and the waiting car not far from it, when the blast hit her back with a scorching heat and knocked her forward. Splinters dug into her palms and knees as she skidded across wood. Rolling to her back, she watched a great ball of smoke and flame rise into the black sky above. 

"Miss Rey. Boss!" The driver was standing above her now, trying to get her attention, to get her moving, but she ignored him and continued to watch the billowing mass as it climbed ever higher. She suddenly didn't much care for anything anymore. Her position, her money, her life. None of it meant anything if Orion wasn't here. She'd lost Daniel, and now Orion, and she'd be goddamned if she ever let herself fall in love ever again. 

They just kept leaving her.