Episode One, Part 5:

P y r i t e

"We already know that they've opened one Bunker, so if your findings confirm a second, then we'll have to assume the likelihood of an attack is on its way."

"Who's that speaking?" Atlantis asked Eryx, sitting in front of the radio - listening in to Riders' conversations like a fly on the wall.

Eryx sighed, half-amused, half-impatient at all her questions. "It's Rogue - Commander of Blood Riders. Noah, the one he's talking to, is his son. He's about to take his place in leadership."

"Like Riverly did to you." Atlantis said to herself, joining up the dots in her mind. Eryx shifted in his seat, agitated by the truth in her words, wanting to defy them.

"Alright," a voice sighed down the line, sounding younger than the one before. It was Noah. "I'll send Lyra to do it."

"No, it has to be you. This is what responsibility is about, Noah. And everything will be your fault when you're commander. Every decision, every life lost, every attack rests solely on the leader, so you need to prove to me that you can handle it. If you find anyone then you bring them back for us to use. Show no mercy."

Eryx turned the radio off and moved to face Atlantis, observing how she seemed to take in the information.

"Do you get it now?" He asked her. "This is why we have to be the ones to start it. The one who waits for war to come to him is the one that is killed first."

"But why does it have to be war? I understand that they pose a threat to us, but they haven't got our people there. The only way they're going to be able to 'use us,'" she quoted them, "is if they actually manage to get us. Why don't we focus on building Basilisk to be stronger? Better security so they can't get in? I mean, how many of us would be killed if we did go to war, even if we won?"

Eryx sighed and reached for her hand, cupping it between his. "Look, Lantis, I know this is new to you. I know it feels like all of a sudden you've been thrust into this world of war, but if we do this, when we win, we won't have to worry about Riders anymore. The ground will be a safe place for us, and we'll have it all. Say you're with me, just like your mom."

Atlantis couldn't look at his eyes, afraid that she would see disappointment staring back at her. "But why does it have to be me? Riverly is the Nobel, she's the one everyone will listen to-"

Eryx shook his head. "They listen to me," denying his own daughter of the power she was crowned, stealing away what she had trained her entire life for as if she meant nothing to him. "And you know why it has to be you. I love your mom, Lantis. Even for those 13 years you were in the Bunker, I still loved her. I've waited for you both and I've finally found you." He sighed. "Look, Riverly can't handle being a Sovereign. She wasn't born for it... You were."

-

Kodiak was pacing around the Sovereign's Quarters, anxious to find Sol. He wasn't planning on telling her because she was Nobel, but because she was his best friend, and she deserved to know that something was going on. 

He was restless with unease, scared for what it would mean for his friend, how it might change the dynamics of things. When he found in her the supply room, a bag on the counter, he could see that she was already frustrated without the added news of what he came to tell her. 

"Rogue has told him to suspect an attack if they find the second Bunker. Noah wants to send Lyra down to find it, but-" Sol was quick to turn off her radio, cutting out signal with Olympia before she could finish  explaining what she had discovered. 

Kodiak had walked in to hear the end of the conversation, curious as to what Sol was planning.  

"What are you doing, River...." His voice was cautious, concerned - his friend often unpredictable. 

"What does it look like? I'm packing." 

"I can see that. Where are you going?" 

"It doesn't matter, Kodi." She hushed him. A beat, and she looked up, pausing as she said, "please don't mention anything to my dad." 

She saw the way his face dropped when she mentioned him, a sinking feeling in her chest as if something bad had already happened. "What?" She asked him. 

"That's what I came to talk to you about." 

Sol didn't know how to talk about the situation, scared that he would side with him, came to tell her that her dad was right. 

"There's no easy way to put it." 

"Just spit it out." 

Kodiak sighed. "Your dad's been working with some of the people from the new Bunker." 

"Who?" 

"I-I don't know them all yet-" 

"Who, Kodiak!?" 

"Zara and Atlantis." He confessed. 

Sol didn't even really need to ask. The truth was that she had seen them around her father too many times to count, and she already accepted that there was something going on behind her back, but she hadn't quite mustered up the courage to approach it yet. 

When she respond Kodiak tried to understand why. "You knew?" 

"No." She shook her head, humbled by her sadness. "But I know that there's something going between Zara and my father." She told him. "What do you mean by working with them?" 

"Riv, your dad wants to go to war with Riders. He wants to take them all out." 

"Why? Why would he want that?" 

"Probably for the same reason that the Riders keep trying to take our people hostage." He admitted. "So they can decide who is worthy of survival. To eliminate everyone who isn't deemed pure to them." 

So turned away, leaning her hands against the counter for support. To think that her father was working against her shattered all the remaining pieces of her heart, stealing away all the warmth she felt inside. 

"We have no proof that, that's what they're even doing." 

"Think about it: how many of our people have they taken that have never came back? They have the old laboratories still standing from before the Great War, before the plague of The Surge-" 

"Enough, Kodi!" Sol shut him up. Hardly anyone ever mentioned The Surge, or the Great War for that matter. She could remember Wynnlow bringing it up one night and him not understanding why she was so fearful to discuss it, so angry that he had brought it up. The virus was dead - it being the reason people went into the Bunkers in the first place, but the people involved during the epidemic remained, and they carried the darkness with it - who was worthy of surviving the disease, who was pure enough to live - it was a choice people took upon themselves. The foundation of Blood Riders. 

"I know what it looks like. Okay? I don't trust them. I know they're dangerous. I'm just saying that maybe my dad was wrong about them, that he wasn't always telling the truth. I'm not going to let Basilisk go to war over something that I'm not sure about. I won't put us all in danger because of what my father thinks." 

Kodiak nodded, a little hurt over the way she had snapped at him, but understanding her point. "Can you at least tell me where you're going? So I know you'll be safe." 

"I'm going back to the second Bunker. Noah's sending Lyra there to check it for any survivors. I'm going to give her message from us." 

"And that message is?" 

"I'll tell you later, Kodi. I don't want you to worry." 

Kodiak sighed in frustration, only wanting to protect Sol from danger, but understanding why she didn't feel ready to tell him. He walked to her, helping her to pack in silence. 

-

one // part five

Triple update going for the fourth.