— CHAPTER FOUR,
killer within.

"BOYS AND GIRLS, MEET ELIGIUS FOUR." Raven announces.

Eloah clutches her mother's hand tightly as they sit in their seats on the rocket Eloah named Bernie when she was three. She's spent her entire childhood in their ship, she never expected to actually be strapped into the seat that was meant for Clarke Griffin six years ago while floating ik the endless black void she considered home.

"Powering A Better Tomorrow," Emori reads as she looks at the ship in front of them.

"Must be a mining ship," Ryland suggests from where he sits beside Echo.

"Mining in space?" Harper questions, her eyebrows pinching together.

"I've heard stories," Monty informs them. Ruby looks to him in questions. "Missions sent to mine asteroids or search for habitable planets, but that was a hundred years ago."

"Well, they got back somehow. That means they must have fuel," Bellamy adds.

"Well, now there's a ship with a story to tell," Raven popes. As they float past the ship she speaks up again, "it looks like one of the engines was destroyed. At least the hap is still rotating. That rotation means they'll have gravity. Sorry, lovebirds, no Zero-G space sex."

"Raven," Bellamy sighs, casting a look down at his daughter who sits between him and his wife. The child pays their conversation no mind. Her eyes are locked on the small window. She doesn't tear her eyes away from the stars.

"Sorry," Raven says. Her attention is then drawn else where. "There. There's the docking bay."

"I hate to ask this. . . but what if they're still inside?" Monty asks.

"We've been through this, if they were still inside and saw a foreign ship trying to board them, they would shoot us out of the sky." Echo tells him.

"Okay." Emori nods. "Commencing operation uninvited guests. During thrusters in 3, 2, 1."

The sudden blast off causes Eloah to gasp, she squeezes her eyes shut tightly. Bellamy and Ruby both look to their daughter in concern.

Then the chaos breaks out.

Emori loses complete control of the ship.

Eloah has tears in her eyes as she cries out in fear, "Mama! Daddy!"

"Brace for impact!"

Ruby and Bellamy both throw their arms in front of their daughter as the rocket roughly lands in the open hanger bay.

At the rough impact, everyone lets out grunts or small shrieks.

As the roughness of the landing fades away, Eloah slowly peels her eyes open. She looks around at her family.

"Are we here?" Eloah asks softly.

Murphy looks to his niece. "Yeah, Little Lola, we're here."

"Let's get you outta those restraints," Bellamy undoes his own. He then moves to Eloah, undoing her restraints. "You okay?"

She nods.

─────────

After the chaotic yet successful landing, the group of ten makes their way into the ship where they strip off their suits.

"Okay, we gotta move fast." Bellamy says. He then looks to Eloah. "Stay behind your Uncle Ryland."

Eloah watches with wide, fearful eyes as her mother unsheathes the sword she's never been allowed to touch in her five years of life.

"We don't know what we're walking into," Echo states.

Ruby's ears perk. The sound of an alarm fills her ears. "There's an alarm."

All eyes turns to her. "How do you know?"

"Super Reaper hearing," she shrugs.

Bellamy shakes his head before he pushes the button. The sealed door hisses open. The blaring alarm hits everyone else's ears.

"Now that's just annoying." Ryland grumbles.

Ruby looks down her daughter, "stay back with Aunt Harper and Aunt Emori, okay? You'll be safe with them." Eloah nods as Harper grabs her tiny hand in her own. Ruby looks to Harper and Emori. "Thank you."

"You don't have to thank us, Ru," Emori said to her. "We love El time."

"Let's go," Bellamy sends his daughter a small smile before they leave the three.

Ruby takes the lead.

"This place is like a maze," Bellamy pipes.

"Damn right it is," Ryland scoffs.

Bellamy shines his flashlight upwards. "No inmates past this point." He reads the sign on the wall.

"Inmates?" Echo questions.

"Prison labor." Monty starts. "The mining missions were dangerous. They sent people they though were disposable."

"Sounds familiar," Murphy implies about how the council sent the hundred to the ground to test the radiation.

Murphy and Ruby share a look.

"Relax." Raven tells them. "Our ancestors were prisoners a hundred years ago. Their descendants in that transport ship are survivors, just like us. The bridge is this way. Come on." Raven brushes past Ruby, taking the lead.

They rest follow behind the woman through the maze of a ship.

As they reach the bridge, Ruby's brows furrow. The door leading to the cockpit has a massive hole blow in it.

"Looks like someone forgot their key," Raven exclaims. "Jackpot."

"Something bad happened here," Bellamy states the obvious as they step through the hole in the door.

"Most definitely," Ruby pipes.

"Monty." Raven says.

"Help you access the ship's manifest and schematics so we can find out where they keep their Hydrazine?" Monty asks.

"Yes, but first let's kill this alarm," Raven orders.

Two seconds later, the alarm stops blaring. Ruby pays it no mind as she walks around the cockpit.

Something catches her attention. She kneels down by the wall, inspecting something closely. She reaches out and scratches the dark brown stuff off of the wall. She brings it closer to her eyes, realizing that it's old blood.

"Ruby." Someone says.

She drags her attention away old blood to look at her husband. Her brows bunch together. "What?"

"Lasercom," Ryland informs her before Bellamy can as he leans over Monty to look at the radio.

"We have radios?" She gasps, rushing over to the radio panels.

"I mean it, McCreary. I'm not losing any more men today." A feminine voice says over the lasercom.

"Our radios were blocked by residual radiation on the Earth, but lasercom was designed to cut through worse atmospheric conditions than that." Monty explains.

"Well, can we talk to them?" Murphy stands from where he was sitting in the captain's chair.

"Wait." Bellamy stops him. "We don't know who we're dealing with."

"McCreary," everyone hears Ruby mumble, mostly to herself. "I've heard that name somewhere before."

"So have I," Ryland nods in agreement.

"Movement to the northwest. McCreary, do you see it?" Comes a jumbled man's voice.

"I've got something better than movement. I've got tracks." Says another man. 

"That's gotta be McCreary," Ruby popes.

"They're hunting our people." Raven says in horrible realization.

"We don't know that," Murphy says, glancing at her from the corner of his eye.

"We know there was no one else left on the ground." Bellamy pipes.

"Whatever this is, Octavia can handle it." Echo reassured them.

"Move over," Raven demands suddenly. Monty obediently listens and stands up from the chair.

"What're you doing?" Ruby interrogates.

"Finding out who we're dealing with." Raven replies swiftly.

"All units, be advised. Subject is armed and dangerous. We are in her backward. She knows the terrain. Keep your eyes open," the same woman from before says.

"I see her! Moving in!" A man shouts.

"We'll go south and cut her off." McCreary states.

"Closing in!" Says another voice.

The sound of gunshots sounds over the radio. Ruby jumps at the noise, her eyes widening.

"McCreary, we heard gunfire. Report. I said report, McCreary." The woman demands.

"Relax, Colonel. I told you we'd get her, and we did. She's a feisty one. Pretty, too." McCreary responds. Ruby can hear the smirk in his voice.

"Good work. Bring her to me. We got a lot to talk about," the woman tells McCreary.

They stop talking.

For a moment, they all stand in silence as they process what's just happened.

And then—

"We gotta get down there now." Bellamy mutters.

─────────

Ruby watches the screen as Raven plays the captain's log from over a hundred years ago. Behind her, Ryland sits in the captain's chair with his thrown over the arm of the chair and his cane propped against his legs.

The footage begins to play, "I have to make this fast. The ship's been compromised." The man says to the camera. "The prisoners found out about Order Eleven. They used an explosion in the starboard engine bay as a distract—" a sudden explosion in the video caused the screen the flicker off before it comes back on, "most of the crew is already dead. They're about to take the bridge. Listen to me! With the engine damage, it'll be decades, maybe longer, before they make it back home. I tried disabling Cryo, but couldn't."

"That's quite enough, Captain." A woman's voice orders. Ruby's eyes narrow at the voice. It's the same woman they heard over the radio.

"If Eligius makes it back to Earth, blow it out of the sky! Diyoza can't be allowed to weaponize the cargo! Do you hear me!? I said blow it—" the captain is cut off as someone drags a knife across his throat.

"Diyoza." Ryland mumbles to himself.

"The bridge is yours, Lieutenant." Diyoza announces.

"You said you wouldn't kill the crew," a new voice speaks up.

"I said I wouldn't. You did the right thing. I woke forget it. Now do your job and get us the hell out of here, Lieutenant." Diyoza states.

The woman, Diyoza, moves to the camera, turning it off. But not before Ryland and Ruby both let out shocked gasps. All eyes turn to them.

"Holy shit!" Ryland yells, throwing his legs over the chair and grabbing his cane so he can stand.

"Charmaine Diyoza!?" Ruby's voice echoes in the cockpit. "Oh, hell. We are in deep shit."

"Cryo? Diyoza? What the hell are we— Bellamy, Ruby, look out!" Raven cries out.

Ruby whips just in time to see two prayers men charging at her and her husband. Before she can get her sword from its sheath, one of the men land a punch on her jaw, sending her to the ground. Her sword lands several feet away from her.

"Ruby!" Ryland shouts. Ryland hits the inmate in the chest with his cane, sending the man backwards. This gives Ruby the chance to spring to her feet and grab her sword off of the ground.

She looks back at Raven and Bellamy who are dealing with the other huge inmate.

A grunt fills the air.

She whirls back around to see the inmate send Ryland's own cane into his stomach. Ryland cries out, doubling over from the pain.

At the sight of this, a war cry pierces the air. A foot connects with the inmate's chest. He hits the ground roughly. He doesn't give Ruby the opprutjnotu to kill him because he grabs her ankle and yanks her leg out from under her.

She gasps as her head connects harshly with the floor beneath her. She gasps for the air that was knocked from her lungs. Her sword lands beside her.

As she attempts to quickly regain her composure, two large, sweaty hands wrap around her neck. They squeeze tightly. Ruby gasps again, vision blurring.

She goes still.

The man starts to remove himself from where he straddled her. As he does, the monster's eyes open. A sharp pain erupts in his body. His brows furrow as he looks down at his chest. A dagger protrudes from his chest. He looks back to Ruby's face. Her lips curl as she rips the blade from his body.

He opens his mouth to gasp, but only a gargle fills the air. Blood drips from his mouth and onto Ruby's neck and chin.

She launches his body off of her and slowly stands. When she's on her feet, she stares down at the body at her feet.

"Hey, you okay?" Bellamy stumbles over to her. She looks away from where the man she killed lays at her feet to the other dead man. A cord is wrapped around his throat. Echo stands now, Ryland limps over to her.

Bellamy approaches his wife, placing his hands on the sides of her neck, "are you okay?" He whispers to her. She can only nod.

She looks over her shoulder at the man she killed, "we've barely been off the Ring a day and I've already almost been killed and killed a man."

"At least you're not dead," Bellamy pulls her into his arms.

"Yeah," she mumbles.

Despite the fact she remains standing, her eyes fall onto the inmate. Then they harden.

She's going to kill all of them.

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word count: 1,596
episode: sleeping giants

YES ECHO AND RYLAND!!! i love their little dynamic and their love for one another. i've had their relationship planned for months and i'm actually really excited to execute it. what do y'all think about them together? was it unexpected or did you see it coming?

ryland and ruby 🤝 murderous duo.

but yeah, ryland and ruby know about diyoza and who she is. courtesy of ryland's father which we get to know more about soon.

ruby is such a baddie. i love her. she literally was being choked to death and recovered in a millisecond and then killed the mf. love that for her.

#kiswampeliisthebaddestbitchever.