It was painful, the look in Shonna’s eye. It was painful because Danny knew he’d had the same one in his eye before, at this very compound, when he’d realized what it was. The sudden clarity that came with understanding where you were, the sudden spark of grief that came with that realization of betrayal… It wasn’t something he would have wished on anyone. It certainly wasn’t something he’d wish on a kid. But he couldn’t change it, either. All he could do was find her friends and hope that they’d have a decent ending, hope that the book wasn’t already closed on this chapter.
Looking to Colleen, Danny nodded. There was no verbal communication between them in this moment — it wasn’t necessary. He could feel the anxiety coming off her in waves, was sure that she could feel his just as well. This was personal for both of them (the Hand always was), but for Colleen? This was a memory with a new face. If he thought she would have listened, he might have asked her to stay with Shonna. If he thought she would have listened, he might have told her to go home. He loved her too much to want her to relive this, and she loved him too much to let him go at it alone. This was the way their story had gone since the beginning.
“Okay,” he nodded, steeling himself. “Do you want to take the lead?” He’d been in this compound a fraction of the time she had, after all, had barely managed to escape the maze of it the first time Bakuto brought him here. Colleen had spent years within these walls. If anyone had a better shot of getting them to those kids in the basement in time, it was her.
It had been years since she had been back here with Danny. They had snuck in after a night out talking about their traumas in a circle of strangers. Talking about the need to have violence in their lives but pretending it was alcohol and not something… now what it was. Not an addiction to the adrenaline or the or the blood on their knuckles that the Iron Fist craved. But she had lived here for most of her life. And no amount of distance would make this entry way anything less than intimately familiar.
Like stepping into an old memory, she could see the entire scope of the compound as it was. With all the kids that had been there before, the ones that were raised there and the ones that were brought him from the streets after being found by someone… by someone like her.
Colleen nodded to Danny and then glanced towards Shonna, unsure of what she should say to her. It had been easier to convince people this place was safe, than to try and convince someone that they’d leave just as they came in. (No one had left this place without bruises that would never heal. Without permanent scars running just below their skin.) “Stay close.”
“I didn’t even know you were here,” Shonna whispered, looking at Colleen and then to Danny, as if he’d agree that Colleen had been too quite in her approach. “Where did you learn that?”
Colleen had started moving and Shonna did as instructed, hot on Colleen’s trail. “I learned it here.” Shonna dropped back to Danny and Colleen pretended not to notice. Pulling to the left side of the hall, Colleen didn’t glance into Bakuto’s office when they walked past. The shards of the door were still there, as if this place hadn’t been touched since the last time they trespassed.
“I thought this place would be nicer,” Shonna whispered to Danny.
“Danny.” Colleen tried the door, the handle turned but the door wouldn’t budge. It was reinforced form the other side. “They’ve blocked it. Can you force it open?”
