Episode Three, Part 4: 
D e a d L a n d s

Sol peeled her eyes open, immediately aware of the dust coating her lashes, drying on her lips. She wasn't being carried anymore, but there was a sense of movement inside of her - a wave of nausea, a storm of rage, a running in her feet that wanted to take her home. 

She had no clue how long it had been since she was last conscious, or since she was first captured for that matter, but every nerve in her body seemed to be screaming of it's approaching end. 

"Well, well, well. Look who's awake." 

Sol shot herself up, attempting to stand to her feet, but pulled down by the refrains on her wrists. She had flinched upon realization, waiting nervously for them to knock her out again with whatever poison she could still recall on the tip of her nose.  

"Relax, kid. You've still got another night or two." Ellery remarked, not even taking his eyes away from the fire to look at her. 

Sol glanced around, trying to understand where they were, but it was dark and she didn't even know which direction they had been travelling in. From what she could tell, they were somewhere far away from home - a place where she had never been before. If anything, it didn't look like anyone had ever been where they were; miles and miles of nothingness surrounded them, a desert stretch with no signs of life. Her heart sunk. Breath hitched in her throat as if came to her - the only place they could be: the DeadLands. 

"If you're gonna kill me, just get it over with."  Her voice was slurred and heavy, as if she was too weak to even speak properly, lacking in any spite she tried to convey. 

The two men laughed, sharing an amused look with each other as if there was something she didn't know. 

"All in good time." Ellery teased. 

"Who sent you to do this?" She wanted to tell them that her dad would never let them get away with this, that he would realize sooner or later that it had to have been them, but then she remembered that he was too preoccupied with Atlantis that he wouldn't have even noticed she was missing. 

Adair turned around from his place in front of the fire, Sol lying on the ground behind him - tied up around the body of a dead, rotting tree. He smiled, something about it haunting, as if he knew it would stay with her. 

"The true Nobel of Basilisk. Goes by the name of Eryx Riverly?" He asked, as if wondering if she had heard of him. "I think you call him 'dad.'" 

As quickly as Sol's eyes filled with tears, she looked away, not wanting them to have the satisfaction of seeing her cry. But the revelation burned deep inside her, burning the walls to her mind, scarring every trace of her heart until all she was left with was the agony of what remained. Perhaps what finally destroyed her was knowing that she couldn't even doubt it for a minute, as if she had known all along that her father's love was never enough. 

"I bet you wanna know why." He continued. 

Sol shook her head. "No." She whimpered, swallowing harshly, shaking her head fiercely. 

"That you wanna hear about how he told us to follow you, and to take you way out here where no one would ever see you again, only for us leave you here. For you to die alone." 

"No! Shut up!" Sol begged, covering her ears with her hands, but the sounds still coming through. If she had only pressed a little tighter against her skull, then she wouldn't have heard what came next - what would be the thing that really killed her in the end. 

"Just like your mother." 

She looked over, eyes completely glazed with tears, torn between two things: for them to tell her they were lying, or to get up a kill her. Whichever came first. 

"That's right." Adair stood up as he spoke, wandering close to Sol. He chucked some sort of can away into the distance, the rolling of it along the ground interrupting when he would have spoke. 

"Your mother's dead, Riv. Died a long time ago." 

Sol bit her lip, shaking her head slightly, her body propped up on her side. "No, she's in a Bunker. Dad and I were trying to find her." 

Adair laughed, moving in closer to the young girl, only making her more afraid. "No he wasn't. He was trying to find Alantis, and that chick. Ah, what was her name?" He thought for a few moments, snapping his fingers when it came to her. "Zara!" He announced. 

"Since you don't remember it, let me fill you in on a couple details, why don't we? They've been in that Bunker, what, 12-13 years? Your dad obviously had the affair with Zara, hence Atlantis you know, existing. Kept it a secret from your precious mother who found out right before they went into the Bunker. And to put it simple, Riv, he killed her when she found out, just like he wants you to be killed... Tell me, how's it feel to know you're ending the same way your mother did?" 

Sol stared straight onward, eyes fixed on no particular thing. All she did was shake, as if traumatized by what Adair had said to her. 

"I'll let you sleep on it. You can tell me in the morning." He laughed, standing up and moving in the direction behind her, entering one of the tents that had been set up for them. 

Sol collapsed against the ground, rolling onto her back and starring up into the dark, frozen sky hoping that death would visit her before then. Before morning was even near. 

She heard more movement - Ellery making his way over to where Adair previous hovered. He set something down beside her, hesitating before he spoke. "It won't end quick for you." He admitted, knowing that their plan was to abandon her in the DeadLands, not to harm her. "But you still fight until the end. That's how you die good." 

He waited for a moment, perhaps for some sort of recognition that Sol had registered what he said to her, that her mind was still there even if she was unresponsive. He waited, but Sol was lost to her desires, finally left alone as Ellery made his way to his own tent. 

When she knew they had gone, that they wouldn't resurface until morning, Sol turned her head to see what Ellery had set down beside her. For a second, she almost wanted to reach out for it, but she made the decision to ignore it, leaving the flask of water untouched. 

After all, you don't water a dead plant. 

three // part four

You still fight until the end.