"Hold on, I'm coming!" Tying her jacket around her mouth, Carmen vaulted with the adrenaline suddenly surging through her veins over the towering fire, then did it again, landing and rolling onto the fourth to top floor. "Ah, ah!" She cried out and jerked her bare arms off of the ground, tears pricking her already stinging eyes. At least two degree burns.

I'll have to deal with that later.

Carmen inched her jacket down to uncover her mouth. "Zack! Where are you?" She yelled into the smoked once again, flinching away from flying embers.

There was a muffled shouting close by. "Small blue door, next to a bathroom. It might've caved in!"

Relief filled her at hearing his voice. At least he was alive. Edging around fire and coughing heavily, Carmen found a pile of rubble in front of what looked like a door. "Zack?"

"I'm in here, Carm!"

"Oh, thank goodness." She muttered, remembering what the woman had said. Looking around quickly, the thief noticed a discarded hammer, it's metal head engulfed in flames. She scooped it up hurriedly, hissing as her hands were burned yet again. "Move back, Zack!" With a grunt, the hammer managed to smash the wood away, letting the heat do the rest to crumple it. Zack looked at her from inside, lunging easily over the rubble and hugging Carmen.

"You're OK." He muttered shakily, tears in his blue eyes. 

"Of course I am." She did her best to give a smile and brushed ash off his face. "Now come on, we need to get-" A low rumble cut her off.

They both froze, the crackle of fire and wailing of sirens' drowned out by a cracking above them. Carmen's heart sputtered with fear as the ceiling began to crack, a long fissure making its way across the panels.

The building was collapsing.

Carmen shoved Zack towards a window, it glass already shattered and melting from the heat. "Come on, come on! You need to jump! There are fire fighters who can catch you, and we aren't as high up now."

Zack opened his mouth, probably to argue, but an even louder crack split the blazing air and the ceiling fell in a large square of jagged stone and fire.

Carmen slammed Zack to the floor without even thinking, screaming as sparks and melted metal shattered against her skin. She covered Zack with her own body as best she could, but he still whimpered with pain.

The barrage finally ended, but now their only chances of escape were blocked by the flaming ruins of the floor above them.

A flash of worry for the people on the top level came and went, and Carmen tugged Zack away from the fire to a small, somehow untouched corner. He was shaking violently, despite the ash darkening his hair and the sweat coating his skin. "Carm, your arms-" He cut off, choking on tears as he coughed.

"I know, I know. It's fine." She thumped heavily to the floor, her vision hazy and blood-red as even more smoke filtered itself into her lungs. "Don't worry, Zack." Even she could hear the weakness and pain in her own voice. "They'll come soon. Then you'll be OK."

He flinched and curled up next to her, getting as far from the fire as he could. "What about you?" he whispered, his eyes searching the thief's own.

"Doesn't matter." Carmen pulled him to her, putting her back to the flames. She wasn't losing Zack, not ever.

Too bad he was about to lose her.

"Carm, I'm so sorry." Zack whispered, tears dripping down his pink cheeks and mingling with sweat before evaporating. He closed his eyes and curled up further. "I'm so, so sorry. I should have known that you'd be fine."

Carmen ran a hand through his wild hair, kissing his burning forehead lightly. "Don't apologize." She paused, trying to breathe. "I love you, Zack."

He began to cry harder, hugging her. "You're in so much pain, Carmen."

"And I'll deal with it, like I have to. Don't worry about me." The words were so faint that Carmen couldn't even hear them. She bit back a rasp. "Tell Ivy that I love her."

It suddenly seemed as though fire were everywhere, and Zack was screaming so Carmen screamed, too. oddly enough, though, she felt no pain, even though she knew she should have. She covered Zack again, her vision dark and the sound around her distorted. The agony of not knowing what was happening lasted forever. But as quickly as it had started, the panic stopped.

Carmen could feel Zack shaking her, possibly saying her name, but she couldn't tell. There was an odd feeling of leather, and then lightness, as if someone had picked her up. The pain returned, burning white hot in her gut as sparks danced across the skin, searing her eyes. And then...

The fire seemed to consume her, and Carmen dissolved into darkness.

Zack was being carried out of the building by a fire fighter, the man's arms under Zack's legs and shoulders. There were burns peppering his skin and he felt he would never get the ash out of his eyes, but he didn't care.

He could only stare at Carmen.

She was held by a different fire fighter, her clothes seared and smoking. And her eyes...

They stared right back, the gray-blue irises clouded and empty. Lifeless.

"Carm." He felt himself whisper, grief filling him as unconsciousness claimed his tired body.

Ivy stared as her brother was loaded into an ambulance, her gaze flickering around. 

Where was she?

"Ivy!" Zack cried for her, struggling against the straps on the gurney as he woke up.

She gasped and raced to him, her mind snapping back. "Bro!"

He noticed the message in her expression and burst into tears. "She saved me Ivy."

Her heart sputtered. "Where is she?"

Zack pointed a blistered finger, wailing. "She's over there. She's gone, Ivy!"

Ivy turned, the blood draining from her face as she caught sight of a familiar pair of red high-top Converse.

No.

Nononononononononono.

This couldn't be happening. 

The fire fighter holding Carmen's limp frame turned towards her and noticed her looking at him, her eyes wide. He didn't stop her as Ivy raced forward and scooped the thief into her arms, sobs racking her body until she sat to the ground and cradled her friend.

The fire fighter knelt down in front of her, his face sorrowful. "How did you know her?"

"She's my sister." Ivy's voice dissolved back into sobs and she held Carmen to her. "Why did you go in there?" She whispered. "You promised you'd stay safe."

"I'm so sorry. She's a hero, you know. She saved six people."

Ivy couldn't bring herself to care. "She still d- she's dead! My sister is a hero but it got her killed!"

The fire fighter didn't flinch, only nodded. "What was her name?"

"Carmen Sandiego."

Was.

What was her name.

As in, Carmen Sandiego was a thing of the past, and the present was nothing more than a nightmarish reality.

Zack was suddenly next to her, having convinced a paramedic to let him out temporarily. He sat next to Ivy and held both is sisters, living and not.

"She loves us." He whispered through tears. "That's the last thing that she told me. That she loves us. And then more ceiling started to fall and she just covered me and let everything hit her." He whimpered and placed  his shaking hand over Carmen's bleak filled eyes, closing them.

"She's gone." Ivy bit her lip, tears streaming down her face. "I'm so sorry, Carm." She tucked the thief's broken body to her and Zack, the both of them talking to their friend until people came to wrap her in a white sheet. 

The Bostonian's cried in each others arms as the ambulance made its way to the hospital.

                                                                                          THE END

(Cries forever)

I'm only the one writing this and I still feel terrible!

...

Probs cause I made this happen.

Crap.

Someone tell Zack and Ivy that they can come beat me up.