Saguru heard a gun being loaded from behind him. He was completely still as he felt the barrel of the gun pressed against the back of his head. He then heard a voice come from behind him, "It's good to see you again Kaito-chan." Saguru was shocked at this, how could one of Them know who the thief was?

"V-Vermouth…" the magician choked out, "W-what are you doing here, I thought I was under Snake's jurisdiction, not yours or Gin's."

"The Boss was disappointed with Snake's lackluster performance with finding Pandora and taking you out. Once I heard he was assigning others to your case I volunteered. Unlike anyone else in the Organization I could tell you took your father's place, he has a different air to him, it's not something you can copy like his old suit. Also, it's been years since I last met you, I think it was before the fireworks."

Kaito struggled to stand up and glowered at the figure behind the Brit.

"Aw, you look just like Cool Guy when he's angry, well you two do share the same face. Though I was surprise that you brought this detective with you." She tapped the gun on top of the blond's head, "You tend to work alone in the field, so I was surprised when he followed you. Though he knows you, so he can't be someone unimportant to you." There was something in the woman's voice that unnerved the Brit.

Then he realized, she had heard their short exchange. He let Kaito's name slip. The blond mentally cursed himself for being so careless.

"What do you want?" the thief's voice became smoother, it still had a twinge of pain laced in it but not nearly as much as before. The detective just wonders how he's even able to do that.

"Don't you want to see your Aunty-Sharon?"

"We aren't family, however close we were back when I was a kid died with Tou-san."

"Oh… but you have to remember that most members of your family and their friends are criminals. Even you keep stealing jewels every month. What makes us so different? I wasn't the one who pushed the button."

"Yet you say it so easily like it was a joke," there was a hint of a growl in the brunette's voice.

"That's because it was in a way. As soon as they found out your father was KID they made quick work of him. I knew it was only a matter of time when he got on the Organization's bad side. Just like you when you took up KID's name, and now this little detective."

Saguru fought a shiver when he felt the deadly woman's eyes fall back onto him. "Why would you include this detective in your work when you yourself are the thief he's assigned to catch, and you have distanced yourself from everyone who used to be close to you. What makes him so special?"

"He's just another critique that has gotten a little too noisy for my liking. He only calls me by my name just to see if I will show a reaction, until you just confirmed it he never had the proof to say I was KID. I was thinking if he saw a bit of the shooting I could scare him away. We may be the same age, but I doubt he could stomach this life, there are too many greys for a white horse like him."

"Oh, then why did you ask him to 'Find the APEX drug…'?" She used the magician's own words while mimicking his voice perfectly. "Also, how did you know that Snake was bringing it this mission? It almost seems like you have inside intel from our Organization and its operations." Her tone was even but it had a deadly and threatening air to it.

"For your first question, he was just mobile, and APEX is written on it, so it would be easier for the naive young master to grab it then do it myself. He would be in the line of fire if any of them were still conscious. The second, I don't have anyone on the inside helping me. I just know ways to get Snake's intel before he can even think of putting his orders into action. The only reason I didn't know about you was because it wasn't in his specific orders."

From the amused hum it seemed that she didn't believe him one bit. "This detective is not naive enough to follow your orders unless he actually trusted you. Most detectives are fine with bending the law, even allying with criminals to get their way but Hakuba-kun right here," the Brit fought a flinch when she said his name, "is one of the few pure ones in Japan. Besides I know you enough that you wouldn't let anyone take a bullet for you. You'd sooner jump in front of the gun yourself."

"Why do you even care?"

"I was just wondering whether you'd be mad if I shot him or not. Doesn't matter either way really, since he wasn't listed in the mission."

"Don't you dare," Kaito's voice was more of a growl, gruff and he sounded in pain. His act was starting to waver.

"I still have a quota to fill now. Would you rather have me shoot one of his lungs, at this range the bullet can go through his Kevlar vest, have him be forced to take the drug which from what I've heard only a rare few survive the process and is excruciatingly painful given your cousin's screams, or you take the pill yourself. You may be more resistant but with all the wounds you have now, you'd probably die of blood loss during the process." there was a hint of amusement in her voice.

The thief let out a feral growl and attempted to move toward the assassin but winced at the pain his bullet wounds were causing him. He then grunted out, "Like hell you're gonna-"

"Shoot me." The two criminals looked towards the detective, one with intrigue and the other with horror.

"I can't let you do that tantei-kun, my one rule would be broken if you got hurt because of me," Kaito tried to persuade the blond out of the idea.

"No, this is the option that has the highest chance that both of us can make it out of this alive. Even if you could survive the poison, your wounds are too severe to put that much strain on your body. You will die if you take it. You're not going to take it nor are you getting shot again."

"Well isn't he a white knight. If you insist." Vermouth then let a bullet fly through the detective's chest.

Saguru let out a scream of pain.

"Tantei-kun!" KID tried to run to the detective but his injured screamed in protest.

"As much as I'd love to stick around and catch up, I have run." It was the last either of them had heard from the assassin before they could hear the yelling of Nakamori and his men approaching the door.

"Kaito hide!" the detective wheezed out. "If Nakamori-keibu finds you, you'll be arrested."

"As much as I would like to… I can't move, and my consciousness is waning. I'm sorry but I have to leave this to you..." the thief then fainted, his blood pooling around him.

"Kaito!" Saguru dragged himself over to the unconscious magician. The blond could feel the blood seeping into his clothes as he reached the other teen. In the background he could hear Nakamori-keibu approaching the door.

The detective did his best to take off the thief's outfit and use it to help keep pressure on the various bullet wounds. He did his best to stash the cape, hat and monocle on his person before the door slammed open and Nakamori-keibu's form is illuminated by the stairwell. Before the older man could properly take in the scene in front of him, the conscious teen yelled to him with his voice bordering hysteria, "Help me!"

Yes, I know this is very late… I'm sorry, when I finished the last chapter I lost most of my inspiration for this fic. I have been working on this chapter for the past year, most of the time (when writing) I was debating whether the person was Vermouth or Snake. Also, who was going to get hurt and how. Then I couldn't decide how I wanted to end the chapter. But yeesh, over an entire year has passed and just when I felt like finishing the chapter my internet completely died and now I have one of those horror stories about people trying to fix it, long story short 9 techs and an entire week without internet it finally got fixed. Whelp I have no idea when I will update next, I haven't started the next chapter yet so… Well until next time~