Prologue

At first it felt like a very localised earthquake.

Or maybe that Gene had eaten too much curry the night before.

But the din of the blast and the sound of alarms going off through the building showed that there was something far worse to worry about than a small blip in the Richter scale or the state of Gene's toilet in the morning.

In the first instance Gene and Alex turned to one another as though pre-programmed to carry out that movement in case of emergency. Alex's eyes were wide and worried; Gene's more confused and disorientated. The ground was still shaking and there were cries sounding from around them. It had been just moments since Gene marked the date of the wedding on the calendar and had just dismissed his team for the night. Most were walking towards the door as the floor began to shake below them and the massive boom stung their ears.

Although deep inside she already knew what was happening there was a part of Alex that didn't want to believe it and searched desperately for an alternative answer.

"Gene," she breathed, her voice barely audible above the din, "what was that?"

Gene knew the truth every bit as clearly as Alex.

"Either that canteen woman's fallen on 'er backside and knocked the foundations out," he began, "or someone else has been visiting Mister Maile's website." He turned to the slightly panicked masses, including Terry who was running around and gathering up his water balloons in an attempt to put out any resulting fires. "Good to see the earth moved for the lot of you but I recommend an exit faster than John Major's from ten Downing Street, boys and girls," he said, waving people toward the exit.

His words masked the terror of not knowing exactly what they were dealing with. It wouldn't be the first time that a blast had taken chunks from his station. Walls he could deal with losing. It was the beating hearts that he feared for.

~xXx~

Keats wanted to make a joke about threesomes but his sense of humour was not all that brilliant and besides, there was no one around to hear it. But the three devices had been a stroke of genius, he didn't mind saying. Each were fairly small and caused limited damage but targeting three areas simultaneously caused pure chaos that he was watching with glee.

Screaming, crying, people running. The initial bang from the blast and the brightest flashes that burst forth from the building. The beginning of the flames that licked from one of the devices, smoke pouring from another and bricks and glass crumbling at the third.

In terms of recovering from it in a physical sense, the station was pretty much fucked.

When it came to a personal sense, well, that remained to be seen.

With a smug smile he heard the sound of wailing sirens; fire crews and paramedics arriving at the scene. Excellent. More chaos. More wandering individuals to distract from the man in the long, dark coat and the spectacles, walking through the crowd.

His eyes turned to one side where from the crumbling doorway he could just see what appeared to be a dog. He took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes in case he was seeing things but no, it was definitely a dog. Just behind the canine he could make out the shape of a man pushing the dog away from the danger before heading back into the building for another

"Some people have got a bloody death wish," he muttered as he opened the door of the car and stepped outside. He adjusted his suit, stared right ahead and braced himself.

The hard work was over. Now the fun began.

~xXx~

How long does it take for a world to change?

How long does it take to turn reality on its head?

Apparently not as long as you'd think.

"Apparently," whispered Kim as she stared at the desk, "it takes five hours."

She slowly lifted the name bar and her stomach sank. It wasn't as though she did not know what she was getting into but now that the storm had calmed reality was biting hard.

All that she had been through in the last few hours played through her head like a horror movie on repeat but it was the look on his face as she'd turned and walked away that slowly killed her inside.

One tear escaped from the corner of her eye and ran al the way down her cheek until it fell onto the naMe bar in her hands.

"I had to do it," she whispered, "it was for the best."

So why did she feel like her heart had been ripped from her chest and thrown into the flames?

~xXx~

A/N: This is the sequel to Things Can Only Get Better, following directly from the final chapter. This is only intended to be a shortish story, I don't see it being more than about 10 chapters (I've said that before though :P) and it will be unapologetically dark. The rating will rise to M halfway through. If you find this one too dark then I'll give a recap of events in this story at the start of the next. But do you know what? I like dark. So I'm looking forward to this! If you need some fluff to balance it out I have the yucky, puke-inducing Kim fluff challenge on Fictionpress :P The link is on my profile or PM me for it.

Disclaimers, blah blah, don't own A2A, nor do I own a heart, apparently, if my plot outline is anything to go by

I'm dedicating this fic to Rant on account of the fact that someone has to keep the torture going!