March Friday, 2029

"You know, you brought this on yourself." Ella said roughly even as her touch was gentle. She held a cold pack of snow in a bag to Daniel's eye, re-bruised by his fight with Carver. The green and yellow of it's old discoloration was masked by the fresh black and purple.

The flicker of candlelight beside her bed in the BB&B cast a warm glow over her features as she looked down at him, standing between his legs as he sat on the edge of the mattress.

"How do you figure?" Daniel mumbled, holding his hand over hers.

Her eyes flicked over his face, the red flecks had returned and gave her gaze a soft, cinnamon color. "Your anger issues." She said gently as her free hand rose to meet his face, her fingers grazing at his hairline to push his hair out of sight. "You're lucky he didn't give you a concussion and that Hammond didn't throw us out."

"He was threatening you."

"I don't need you to protect me," she responded and sat down on the bed beside him, meeting his gaze, her hand still holding the ice to his face.

He frowned, "someone has to." He pivoted his position on the bed so that they faced one another.

"I can take care of myself."

"You're so busy protecting everyone else, you don't think about yourself," he replied, tilting his head further into her touch.

She looked away and slid her hand out from under his, leaving him to hold the pack against his eye. He looked down briefly and noticed her necklace had fallen back out of hiding, the ring resting at her chest.

"Ella, can I ask you a question?"

Her eyes fluttered as she met his gaze. "Yeah."

"What happened to Ryan?"

Her hand instinctively rose to cover the ring but instead of hiding it like he thought she might, she dropped her hand to reveal it to him again. "I was so busy protecting myself, I didn't protect him," she admitted, using his own words against him.

He internally cringed, "Ella-"

"During our first attempt to fight back, there was.... we were discovered before we got to act. Chaos erupted and the Ousia Police came after us. We had planned a simultaneous attack on all the Ousia leaders and major facets- all around the world. Thousands of people who revolted against the Ousia, the LNC and especially those who were surrogates. It was a perfect plan but-" she took a deep breath, "-everyone failed. Ryan and I were together when the alarm sounded but we split up to try and blend in with the crowd. I made it home. Ryan didn't."

Daniel tried to swallow but found it difficult. The pain in her eyes was haunting and he grunted in his own discomfort at seeing her so hurt, "did you ever find him?"

She shook her head and she appeared lost in the memory, "He found us, the surrogate anyway."

"What happened?"

Ella sniffled, "I haven't talked about this to anyone before."

"What about Michael?"

She laughed breathily, her lack of voice betraying her false smile. "He was there, we don't talk about it," she took a deep breath and continued, "we were preparing to for another strike when he showed up on the doorstep. I knew it wasn't him as soon as I saw him, I- I killed him before he got a chance to report back to the Ousia Police or Faust."

"Did you ever find him- the real Ryan," he asked and dropped the ice from his eye. He could feel it begin to water at the exposure and couldn't open it much more than a small squint.

"No. About a couple of years after the war, I gave Syndicate to Ari and followed leads all over Ataxia looking for him." She sighed heavily through her nose and rubbed the space between her eyebrows with her fingertips. "Now that I think about it, I may have given up the organization to an Ousia Elite," she finished bitterly, her lip curling in disgust.

"You can't know that," he argued, leaning closer to her in an attempt to emphasize his argument.

She smiled softly and took his wrist in order to lift his hand back to his bruised eye- forcing him to replace the pack of snow. "The timing would make sense. I leave and offer it the organization that brought down the Ousia and immediately leave. He could have been replaced and I wouldn't have noticed because I was away long enough for it to perfect Ari's mannerisms- especially if it was an Elite."

"What about..." he waved his free hand through the air as he physically tried to summon the name he was looking for, "'that lady', wouldn't she have noticed?" He substituted her name for a generalization.

"Olivia?" Ella shook her head, "Who knows. I'd known the man for over eight years by then, we led the uprising and fought in the war together. If I didn't notice-"

"You were pre-occupied."

"It's no excuse. Maybe I could have kept Ari from disappearing like Ryan... if I hadn't been focused on myself."

"Stop using my words against me!" Daniel couldn't help the outburst. He immediately softened his gaze but the words continued to resonate within his own ears.

"Don't you get it, Danny? It's like I have all these marbles on a slanted table that I have to keep from falling off. And I think I've got it all under control, everything is going well but then one marble slips through my fingers." She sniffled and sighed, her lips quivering as she pushed herself to finish, "then I go to keep it from falling and, while I'm distracted, all the other marbles fall off the table. I can't lose focus, Danny, not even for one second."

"You're torturing yourself," he dropped the ice pack and grabbed her hand.

She laughed breathily and a small smile turned one corner of her mouth. "I'm losing my marbles," she corrected and pointed a finger at her head.

Daniel laughed with her and tried to ignore the increased heart rate in his chest when she turned her hand under his to grasp it in her own fingers. "Ella, let us help you. Don't leave, not alone."

"I can't keep losing people because of one mistake."

"You can't take down the Ousia by yourself."

Her lips pursed and she looked away, pulling her hand out from his. "I have to try."

"and what? You expect us to just let you walk away?"

She stood and stepped away from him, her arms wrapped around her stomach. "Are you going to tell him?"

"Tell who what?" He asked and also stood, leaving the snow on the bed.

"Carver about Boston?"

He nodded, "it depends."

"On what?"

"Where you're going."

"You spent years tracking him down to bring him to justice-"

Daniel held up a finger, "for vengeance." He corrected, "it's not the same thing."

She turned to look at him over her shoulder, "you're right, it is different. Vengeance needs to be served much faster than justice."

"It's best served cold."

"Three years isn't long enough to cool down?"

"Ella, the only reason he's not dead is because of you."

She whipped around, her blue dress spinning around her legs like a flower before resting. "Do you wish it was different? That I hadn't stopped you?"

Daniel thought about it, his lips drawing into a tight line as he narrowed his eyes. "I think that you were right, that he has information to offer in exchange for his life. But you haven't found the justice you were seeking and I'm not entirely certain that Carver's death is what I need anymore."

"What do you need?" She asked breathlessly as he stepped closer.

They stood toe to toe in front of the window. The blizzard outside had slowed to a flurry, the snowflakes like small cotton balls falling into view through the frosted window. Dusk was upon them so the harsh white radiance from earlier in the afternoon was now a soft light.

She was looking up at him with wide eyes, her elongated lashes batted innocently against the top of her cheeks and her rose red lips parted. Her chest shuddered with her rapid heartbeat, matching his own. He had never noticed her beauty- he hadn't looked at her like that before.

Daniel lifted his left hand to her face and ghosted the back of his fingers against her jaw. She held perfectly still, her face tilted to meet his gaze- allowing him to see every soft feature of her face as though for the first time. "Ella, I-"

The door reverberated with three rapid knocks and had both Ella and Daniel reeling back from one another. When both of them were too shocked to manage a response, several more knocks followed. "Ella, I need to talk to you," Michael's voice erupted through the air.

She cleared her throat, "Yeah, Mike, come in," her voice cracked.

The door opened and Michael quickly closed it again behind him. He looked between the two of them and his face shifted from neutral to a tight expression; the corners of his eyes folded and his lips formed a tight line across his face. "We need to discuss a plan of action."

"Mike, we-"

"No, Carver is a ticking bomb."

"I know," Ella snapped. "But right now, we have an invasion in the works. We need to snuff that out before we do anything else."

"I think we should at least consider looking into this woman," Michael responded cooly.

Daniel exhaled heavily before interjecting, his hands on his hips. "Why?"

"He was your friend, did you not know his wife?" Michael asked.

"No, Jack and I met the year the war began. He mentioned a wife but said that he had a duty to protect and that he knew his wife was safe by the coast. It wasn't until after the war he got a bug to go find her," Daniel stated, stuffing his hands in the front pockets of his baggy pants.

"That's not suspicious," Ella stated, putting her hands on her hips- accentuated by the dress- Daniel diverted his gaze the moment he realized he was staring.

"I didn't think about it, then. The war was just so- I mean, you guys know, you were there too. I just figured it was the same for him. It was hard to think of anything else," Daniel excused.

Ella took a deep breath and released it slowly as she crossed her arms against her chest- Daniel had to divert his eyes again and stared instead at Michael even as she started to speak. "Do you believe his story?"

"His- oh, the 'I was under duress' sob story?" Daniel chuckled dryly and shrugged a shoulder. "I think so, I just don't believe he was as helpless as he claims. There's a lot that doesn't add up-"

"This is all great, but we have an imminent invasion and a wanted killer in the next room. What are we doing?" Michael asked harshly, clearly impatient.

"Well, what do you want me to do? Find the supreme court to hear his case," Ella snapped, "or maybe I'll call the president and warn the world about a second invasion?!"

"We also have a potential victim to rescue," Daniel imputed, raising an index finger in the air.

Ella threw her hands in the air and turned her back on them. "Danny, you know where she is being held, this is up to you."

"How," Michael asked. "How do you two know where she is? And why is it up to him?!"

She sighed but refused to turn to face them as she spoke, "I found the correspondence between Roan and Ari- the surrogates. They were talking about a prisoner transfer that had gone well- 'no witnesses' it said."

"And they revealed it through their letters?"

"Not directly- like, an 'X' marks the spot way, no. They mentioned an FBI building that they wanted to occupy."

"Oh, great, last I checked there were more than fifty-six branches." Michael mocked.

Daniel scoffed, "Why do you even know that?"

"I was in the FBI," Michael dismissed with the wave of a hand. "How do you know where FBI building they're staying at?"

"First of all, it's not a hotel- they aren't 'staying' anywhere, they are invading... this is a terrorist organization growing like rats in a cellar. Second, it's in Boston."

Michael gestured at Daniel with an outstretched arm, "see, how can you assume that?"

"He didn't, I did," Ella rejoined the discussion, coming to form a lopsided triangle in the center of the motel room. "It's less than a two hour ride from Plymouth."

"Then why not just settle on the shore there, why all the way in Boston Headquarters?" Michael argued his point further.

"The Ousia have always loved taking positions of power to humans, why do you think their human dialect is Greek based? They still prefer to assume places of power even though the FBI is long dead."

"Fine. Then we head there," Michael concurred, "it would be two birds with one stone- rescue an innocent and infiltrate Ousia outpost."

Daniel glanced at Ella, her eye twitching. Then, in the blink of an eye, a mask came over her face and she appeared passive. "I can't convince you two otherwise, can I?"

Michael, unaware of her previous decision to leave, shrugged. "What's the alternative?"

She looked at Michael and stepped closer in order to place a hand on his bicep. "What about 'the girl' in Sanctuary?"

"The girl?" Michael released a rapid breath through his nose, "I met her at a bar two nights before you came to me. I didn't plan on 'calling her'." He stated jokingly.

"You weren't even supposed to come," she reminded.

"I know," Michael nodded and covered her hand with his own, grasping it gently, "but I'm glad I did."

She turned to Daniel, "You don't have to do this anymore. You got what you came for. Take it and run while you can." 

"You know, I'm not leaving you," he said, swallowing thickly. 

Ella's simple blink in response spoke enough to Daniel. 

"We're ready," Michael spoke for the three of them.

She nodded numbly, "one of you go fill Carver in. We leave when the weather breaks. Get a good night sleep. It's a long walk." 

Daniel locked his eyes on Ella's gaze, sensing there was more to say but there wasn't the time. Her eyes followed him as he walked out of them room behind Michael who led the way back to the hall. He paused at the entry, listening as Michael's footsteps receded to his room, and watched Ella a moment longer- his mouth falling open to speak but no words came. 

"Good night, Danny," she said softly, blinking rapidly.

He narrowed his eyes, "good night, Ella," he said and closed the door behind him.

***

THANK YOU FOR READING AND FOR ALL OF YOUR SUPPORT! Your comments, votes, and regular reading has been so helpful and inspirational. I really appreciate it!

You have all been so wonderful!

This has been such a pleasure to write.  I hope you all enjoyed it as much as I did. This took exactly ONE year to make. I started writing Art of Destruction, officially, in November of 2015 and ended in November 2016. 

As an aside, check out my "Art of Destruction BLOOPER BOOK" for deleted scenes and ALTERNATE ENDINGS! :)

Please leave your final thoughts on ART OF DESTRUCTION in the comment section, it would mean so much to me!

Thank you again, everyone.

Book Two: The Art of Destruction: THE SPIRE is now available to read!