Episode Seven, Part 2:
For Always

You've been the only thing that's right 
in all I've done. 

Chessca sat with Atlantis in one of the many rooms in the building, anxiously waiting for the conflict outside to disappear. She was almost grateful for the injuries that kept her down, knowing it was the one thing distracting her from the enemy from The City, outside the gates.

"I haven't heard anything in a while," Atlantis said, running her good hand through Chessca's hair to keep her calm. "Maybe that means it's over."

"Or it could mean something bad..." Chessca muttered under her breath, accidentally thinking out loud. "Sorry, I'm not trying to be pessimistic, I swear. I'm just scared."

"It's okay," Atlantis replied, making room for Chessca as she slowly pushed herself into a sitting position, resting her head on Atlantis' shoulder. "I get scared, too. But River's got this. And Dreea, Kodiak, and Wynn - they'll keep us safe."

"You're right. And even if we get ourselves killed, I'm sure we'd still be fine. They'd still find a way to save us, no matter how impossible it is," Chessca laughed.

"Exactly. What a sister we have in Riv, right? Even death can't stop her."

"It certainly comes in handy," Chessca said. "Especially if you're Wynn."

Atlantis laughed along, recalling a dozen instances off the top of her head where Wynn had landed himself in danger and had to rely on Sol to help me, even times when they were in the safety of the Bunker, or back at Basilisk.

"I'll wait a while to make sure it's safe out there, then I'll try and find Riv or Dreea for an update. I'm sure they'll come and tell us when we can come out, and hopefully they'll even be able to say that Exile Allegiance are gone."

"You really think we can take them all down?" Chessca asked. "None of us have had an easy go of it on this island, and with two failed alliances, I'm sure most of our people are wondering what happens next. I know Exile Allegiance are provoked, but if they're anything like the people from The City-"

"They're not," Atlantis interrupted, already knowing where Chessca's thoughts were drifting to, and acting quick to distract her. "They're different people; just a different obstacle for us to face, but they're nothing we can't overcome."

Chessca hummed out a smile, leaning further against Atlantis. "You would have been good company in The City," she said. "Keeping Riv and I both calm when we can't do it ourselves."

Atlantis chuckled. "The three of us make a good team."

"We sure do-"

"Guys?"

Chessca and Atlantis turned their attention to the door as it creaked open, Dreea anxiously stepping instead and glancing around.

"Is it over?" Chessca asked, sitting upright and half expecting Dreea to hurry to her side.

"Uh, did Riv come in here?"

Chessca frowned, glancing over at Atlantis who seemed just as confused. "No? We don't know what's going on. We've just been waiting for one of you," she answered. "Why? Has something happened?"

Dreea sighed, clearly not wanting to panic them both, but she had already raised the suspicions of there being a problem. "It's messy," she said. "She's not hurt, but something happened, and..."

"And what?" Chessca asked.

"And she disappeared in here somewhere, only I can't find her."

"Where's Wynn and Kodiak?" Atlantis chimed in.

"They're dealing with everything out there. Some of us got hurt, some left-"

"Left!?" Chessca exclaimed, certain she had heard the Sovereign wrong. "What do you mean left?"

Dreea tried to answer, but she couldn't bring herself to say aloud what had happened: some of their people had turned on them; Basilisk joined the enemy; they had failed.

"We need to find Riv," Chessca declared, pushing herself to her tired feet before anyone could stop her.

"You need to rest," Dreea said, finally making her way over and holding onto Chessca's shoulders. "I'll send Elara and Izzy in to keep you company - they're in here somewhere. Atlantis and I will look for-"

"No one's stopping me," Chessca said, her voice nonchalant - concluding the conversation - at least, she hoped.

"I am," Dreea replied. "And I'm not letting you get hurt, or push yourself-"

"I'm not pushing myself. I'm perfectly capable-"

"That's exactly what Elara kept trying to tell Kodiak, and we all know that she's still healing. You're staying here so nothing happens to you. I'll send Riv in when we find her, and I'll bring the others in for company."

Chessca didn't say anything, but she crossed her arms over her chest and let out a huff. Despite everything else going on, Dreea managed a faint laugh at her - finding her display of frustration nothing short of adorable. She leaned forward, kissing her cheek before she encouraged Atlantis to follow her in search of Sol.

After they both disappeared from sight, Chessca unfolded her arms and slumped. Unfortunately, she had picked up more habits from Sol than anyone had realised and once Chessca knew that the girls weren't still out in the hallway, she followed their actions, determined to find Sol and bring her out of whatever dark and miserable hiding spot she had made for herself.

//////////

Sol leaned up against the cold, brick walls of the cell, hoping that by being shielded away in the furthest, darkest corner of the building, no one would find her until she was ready to come out. Or even better, she wouldn't come out until the others had figured out a way off of the island, and Basilisk were already on their way home, spared from her ever having to force them through another war again.

But she wasn't so lucky. Footsteps sounded in the hallway again. Someone had searched around a few minutes ago, but as it was so dark inside and she sat tucked around the behind the cell door - out of sight from the light breaking in through the small window, she had gone unnoticed.

They must have been running out of places to look, Sol thought to herself, and they were double checking everywhere - every single inch of the damned building until they discovered her, and she was forced to confront the world that still existed, despite how badly she wished it didn't.

"Riv?"

A voice that reached Sol's heart before anything else; a voice that took every ounce of strength to ignore.

"Riv, are you down here? Please come out."

She still didn't say anything, but after realising the footsteps were getting closer, she knew it was only a matter of seconds before Chessca poked her head around the corner and found her dwelling in her shame.

"Riv? Riv- there you are!" Chessca hurried over to her - faster than she had moved in a long time - and wrapped the Sovereign up in her arms. "I was worried sick!"

At first, Sol almost didn't know what to do with the pair of loving arms around her, but she held back for a moment, burying her head against Chessca's neck and breathed in. Before long, she pulled away and encouraged the younger girl to sit down, suddenly worried that she was hurting herself or pulling at her newly acquired stitches.

"You're supposed to be resting," Sol sighed, barely meeting eyes with Chessca - her voice softer and more fragile than she had ever known it to be.

"I couldn't," Chessca said. "Not when I know you're not okay. I had to find you."

"You should go back. Dreea's probably worried about you, and I bet she's already told you the same thing already: you need to go and lie down. When she's realises you've been wondering this place trying to find me, she'll freak out. And Dreea freak-outs aren't fun."

Chessca glanced down at her hand - caressing her fingers over Sol's, and smiled at herself. "She hasn't known me as long as you; she doesn't know that I'm capable of breaking the rules every now and then."

Sol forced a smile onto her face; any other day, she would have bellowed out a laugh at what Chessca believed to be a bold act of rebellion - to not stay put and instead, search the dark corridors until she found her friend, but Sol didn't have it in her to make a noise.

"...She told me that people left," Chessca said, studying Sol's face to understand what was going on in her mind, hoping that she would come to learn more about what had happened. "Is that what's making you upset?"

Sol chuckled miserably at herself, still not looking up. "One of the many, many, endless things."

"How many people?"

She shrugged. "I left before I could get a vague sense," she said. "But I wouldn't be surprised if I go out there and look, and you're the only one still around."

"Ridiculous," Chessca said. "You'd at least have Dreea and Atlantis - they couldn't leave without me."

Finally, Sol looked at her - her lips tugging upwards ever-so-slightly as if to say that she had seen the humour in her comment, but she just couldn't manage a laugh.

"They should come get you and take you far away from me. All I do is mess things up. I couldn't live without myself if I was your downfall, too... Who am I kidding?" She shook her head. "I couldn't even protect you when we were fighting against Terra Firma Tribe; look what happened! You guys should figure out a way home and leave me behind. I'm just this darkness that follows everyone around - the same darkness that's been following us all around for a very long time. The real enemy was never Blood Riders, or The City of Targo, or Tobias and Calvin, it was me. It's always been me."

"Don't you dare say that about yourself. Ever. Do you hear me?" Chessca asked, suddenly squeezing on tight to Sol's hand - more out of warning than out of affection, and made sure she was looking at her long enough to see the bitter oceans forming in her eyes. "I don't need to tell you how many times you've saved me, because you know," she said. "You know that Rhea and Kane would have killed me the moment you woke up in The City if it weren't for you suddenly taking hold of my hand and telling them that I wasn't going anywhere. Or that you made sure I never had to walk any corridor on my own, or spend a single night without you there beside me, because you promised me that you weren't going to let anything tear us apart from each other, and you meant that. I also don't have to tell you that all these days I have spent with you - every single second, Riv - are because of you. Seconds of my life I would never have if you hadn't done everything right; if you hadn't been so heroic, and selfless, and noble. Maybe I can't prove to you right now how many of Basilisk are still alive because of you - how many of them truly love you, and that they're not ruined because of you, but I sure as hell can tell you that it's the case with me. You haven't ruined me, Riv, you set me free. You gave me life and promised to love every possible version of me, and if the world doesn't want that, then that's fine. More for me. All of you and all of me... We're one, after all. You're half of my soul."

Sol couldn't hold herself together anymore. She leaned forward on the bench in the cell, dropped her head to fall onto Chessca's lap, and wept.

For the part of her that still broke apart at the thought of Chessca suffering years of torture before she came around; for the constant tragedies and defeats of their world that she couldn't protect her from witnessing; for the purest love she had ever known - the one belonging to the girl whose hands were running up and down her back as she remained doubled over on the bench - Sol wept.

"You deserve so much more than I could ever give you," the Sovereign cried, her words muffled as they came out against the younger girl's leg. "All of Basilisk do, but you-" she struggled. "You deserve the best. You deserve safe, and peace, and home. And I can't give that to you anymore. I can't but believe me, I would trade my life in a heartbeat if it meant you could."

"And why would I want this world without you? You're what makes it worth living."

Sol froze momentarily, not sure if she had heard Chessca correctly. After all, how could there be someone on earth who still loved her enough to say that to her? She couldn't fathom it; she couldn't imagine a single person who would dream about standing by her side when her world fell apart more times than it was put back together, but she looked up and Chessca was still there, and as much as her heart tried to tell her otherwise, Sol knew that Chessca's love would never run out on her. It couldn't; it just wasn't possible. She was half of her soul.

"I love you," she said, suddenly sitting up and wrapping her arms around Chessca's neck. This time, she was the one leaning - now smothered by the Sovereign's ferocious hold on her. "I love you so, so, so much. No matter what I say about myself, or whether I deserve to, I love you."

"I know you do. You don't need to remind me; I feel it always."

Sol pulled back - making enough room for them to see each others faces, even though a part of her still had the urge to hide away.

Without a word - without even a second thought, Chessca moved her hands up to Sol's cheeks and began to wipe her tears away, subconsciously chewing on her lower lip as she concentrated - nothing in the world more important to her than making sure Sol was okay.

"There," she smiled, scanning her eyes over Sol's face before meeting her gaze. "You're all put back together. And if the world wants to take another swing at you, you just tell it that we'll have twice as much fun fixing you up all over again."

"Thanks, Chess."

"No problem," she said, still beaming bright as ever, relieved beyond measure that Sol's shaking had finally settled down. "Now, care to tell me why you chose the cells of all places to hide in? You couldn't have chosen one of the many rooms with a warm bed, or even a proper chair for us? I'm convinced benches weren't actually made for people to sit on; I've never come across one that was comfortable, even for short periods of time."

Sol smiled - her lips almost feeling overstretched to make such an expression. "It felt fitting."

"Fitting?"

She nodded. "Whenever there's been a traitor in camp, we always lock them up. I did it to my dad after Wynn and I returned from the DeadLands," she said. "I kept him in there until I could bring myself to do what needed to be done, and then I killed him. Sometimes we've been known to banish people instead; I tried to banish Atlantis at first, but that didn't exactly work out at the time."

Chessca laughed, failing to imagine a version of Sol that had ever been anything less than protective of her younger sister. It just didn't seem possible. "Well, I'm glad that didn't go your way."

"Me too."

"But what are you trying to say? That you feel like your dad? That you're him in this scenario? Atlantis has told me a lot of stories about him, and from what I know-"

"No one knew him like I did," Sol cut her off. "I'm sorry. I know things were different between him and Atlantis, but she never got the chance to really know him. She's lucky for that, and I'm glad I killed him before he had his chance to hurt her, too, but my dad raised me."

Chessca sat up, frowning as she figure out Sol's point from everything she wasn't saying. "That doesn't mean you're like him," she said. "Blood is just blood. You and I are family, and we don't share any blood. Quill and his siblings don't - and they're not anything like Kane. I hope you haven't been hiding away in here thinking that; that you're just like Eryx."

"Believe me, I've been wondering it for a long time - much longer than I've been here. I guess I was just hoping that Dreea or Kodiak would find me in this stupid cell, and it'd click: maybe I do deserve to pay for what I've done to us, just like my dad did."

"You're wrong."

"It doesn't feel like I am. Ask those people who just left to join our enemy because of me. Maybe I was a better Commander than I ever was a Sovereign," she said, suddenly curious by her own words. "Chess... What was I like as the Commander? I know I have my memories back, but it's different... I can't rely on myself for the answer. But you knew who I was before, and who I was when we were there, and you stuck by my side. Why, if you knew everything about me, did you you do that? How could you have seen anything redeeming in me at all? Something that didn't scream to you that I was more monstrous than any of those people in The City who tried to hurt you?"

"You're right," Chessca said, her eyebrows still held down in anger. "I knew everything about you - perhaps more than one person can know about themselves. And after all of that - all of the heroic things I had seen you do in your memories: the sacrifices and losses and people you loved, I couldn't believe that the part of you that was holding on - that couldn't be erased by The Alteration - was choosing to give all of that love, with nowhere to go, to me. I realised at some point that even if the entire world were to love me it would be nothing - nothing - compared to the way you loved me."

Sol looked away halfway through Chessca's speech. She knew if she were to meet her eyes, then she would see how profoundly she meant every word she was saying to her, and Sol wasn't ready to accept it.

"And then I started to get to know you as the Commander of The City of Targo," Chessca continued, "and nothing changed. Of course, you were more guarded by then. I think you could feel that there was a part of you that was missing - like if you were sitting down and your legs disappeared; you wouldn't need to stand up to know they were suddenly gone. But despite that, you grew into this fierce, determined leader - someone who went against everything that you knew and fought to think for yourself and make your own decisions to follow that beating thing inside of you which told you who you were. My point is, Riv, that Rhea and Kane tried everything possible to force you into this character that they could manipulate into doing every cold and heartless thing imaginable, and everything they had done to you should have been enough proof that you would turn out that way, but you didn't. Even after The Alteration and the serum and losing everything, they couldn't turn you into a monster or even anything short of heroic. Maybe we lost some of us today, and we might even lose a few more before we get home, but as long as we don't lose you, we've lost nothing worthwhile. You, our Noble Sovereign Riverly, are Basilisk, after all. So pick yourself up, out of this darkness, and go show this world what it's up against. What is it that Kodiak says? Half the fight of staying alive is wanting to? He's right."

"Your heart is much too good for this world, Chess," Sol murmured, reaching out and caressing the side of her cheek. "You give me no choice but to keep going. That's why I loved you; that's what I saw in you when we were in The City; my reason; my way out of every darkness. It's always you."

Chessca smiled, letting out a long-held breath as she leaned forward, pulling Sol into her arms and holding her so tightly that it almost hurt. "Are you coming with me? I bet the others are still trying to find you."

"I'll be out in a minute," Sol answered, managing a smile to reassure the younger girl.

"Okay, well, I'm going to head back," Chessca said. "And I'm really hoping Dreea and Atlantis haven't realised that I'm gone, yet."

Sol laughed, completely unsurprised by Chessca being the one to bring the sound of joy out of her. "Go rest up. I'm right behind you."

Chessca nodded and, quickly abandoning her rule-breaking streak, disappeared out of the cell to head back to where she was before.

Now alone again, Sol thought for a moment how easy it would be to slip right back into the bottomless pit of despair she had felt like she was falling in only moments ago. But like every time she could recall, Chessca reminded Sol of what she was fighting for; of why it mattered so greatly that she found the strength to keep moving. Even if she couldn't run; even if she couldn't walk and could crawl through the darkest of valleys, it didn't matter; all that did was that she kept going. 

Seven // Part Two
And why would I want this world without you? You're what makes it worth living.

Sol and Chessca. I FREAKING LOVE THEM!!! COME ON!!!

This scene between them has to be one of my FAVOURITE scenes in the entire book. I have ALWAYS loved them and in S6, I said that they were my favourite relationship to write (them, Kodiak and Elara, and Izzy and Elara) and boy, did I get those feelings again. The notes I had for this chapter talkde about how S6 was perhaps the most fundamental book in the entire series (that, or S8), and in this final book, I really wanted to pay homage to that. So what better way to give Sol her fight back thatn by giving it to her through Chessca? I also cannot tell you HOW MUCH I loved Chessca and Sol referring to each other as soulmates ("you're half of my soul"). I think I put that in one of my A/Ns somewhere, but those two really are platonic-soulmates, and I think they're what makes this series so special. I don't see a lot of relationships like theirs in books or film, so it's so special to me to be able to write them. They never fail each other; they love each other with nothing but good intentions and utter pureness, and they would not only give up their life for the other in a heartbeat, but they're also the one to save the other in every way imaginable.

There were so many lines exchanged between them that I love so much, but I think the one above 'and why would I want this world without you? You're what makes it worth living', has to be up there as one of the best lines in the series.

Also, my excitement for writing a solo Atlantis/Chessca scene? THROUGH THE ROOF!!! They've always been written with either Sol or Dreea with them, so this chapter was particularly special to me. ♡ And how sweet was it when Atlantis said 'what a sister we have in Riv' because it meant she was subconsciously including Chessca as a part of her family! I haven't wanted to dive into it as deep because I didn't want to take away from Quill/Wynn/Elara/Ares dynamic and their sibling journey as having one of them adopted/not-blood-related, but Sol/Atlantis/Chessca are definitely similar in a lot of ways!

What was your favourite line from this series?

In good news, today marks my 1-year streak on Duolingo for learning Spanish! Literally every day for a year, lol! I can confidentally Go to a restuarant, ask for a table, and order a sandwich, but ask me to do anything else and I might panic. Big shoutout to Froy (who portrays Kodiak) for being my reason behind wanting to learn the beautiful language and inspiring me on my language-learning journey! Have I ever mentioned he's one of my favourite people ever?

Oh my gosh, also, my Spotify wrapped came in and guess who's in the top 0.005 percent of Olivia Rodrigo listeners? That's right! It's ya girl, Nicole! I'm literally obessed! Drivers License was my top song which was no surprise, but I wish it would give my stats on my number 2 artist which was Taylor Swift, because I'm desperate to know what percentage I was for her listeners! Who was your top artist this year?

I'm determined to get this book finished before the end of the year (even though I don't want to ( don't write = book never finishes)), and I think I can do it! Also, 97K words atm!!!

05/12/21.

I FORGOT TO SAY, BUT LOOK AT THAT LYRIC UP TOP FOR SOL AND CHESSCA!!! IT RUNS THROUGH MY HEAD A LOT AND IT DEFINITELY FEELS LIKE SOMETHING SOL THINKS TO HERSELF A LOT ABOUT CHESSCA! ESPECIALLY WHEN THEY WERE IN THE CITY OR WHEN THEY ARRIVED BACK TO BASILISK  IN S7 AND EVERYTHING STARTED TO FALL APART FOR SOL. I LOVE IT A LOT.

Also, also, the metaphor of Sol hiding away in the cells!!! Ahhh!!! And Chessca being the one to free her from what she was experiencing there when Sol was the one who saved Chessca from her imprisonment/torture from Rhea and Kane's captive!!!

ANYWAY. SEE YOU LATER. ♡♡♡♡