Episode One, Part 3: 
R e a l   o r   N o t   R e a l

I'd die for you, that's hard to do. We have a list of people that 
we would take a - bullet for them, a bullet for you. 
A bullet for everybody in this room. 

Atlantis stood in the line for the gates, waiting to get the timing right as Sol passed by with her team in tow. Kodiak walked by, followed by Dreea, Wynn, and the rest of the group. As the guards all focused on the Nobel up ahead, Atlantis jumped in line at the back of the group, walking closely behind Fabian who didn't seem to notice the sudden movement behind him. 

Sol stopped at the front of the gates, checking to make sure that everyone Wynn had selected was with them, ready to take her place at the back. 

Atlantis kept her head down, foolishly hoping she wouldn't be caught, but Sol noticed straight away. 

"Hey." She grabbed onto her wrist, pulling her out of the line. "What are you doing, Atlantis?" 

The girl sighed, pulling the hood down from her head, watching as everyone waited outside the gates. 

"I was going to join you." 

Sol ooked over at Wynn and the other two Sovereigns, as if to see if they were aware of this. Wynn shook his head slightly, informing Sol that she wasn't one of the people he had decided to take with them. 

"We have enough people. Besides, it's not safe outside at the moment if you don't know what you're doing-" 

"Exactly!" Atlantis cut her off excitedly, like she was relieved that Sol had brought up an important argument. 

Sol titled her head, not sure what she was trying to say. 

"I want to be able to fend for myself out there. I want to be...like you." She admitted shyly. 

Sol bit down on her lip, sighing. She was slowly accepting Atlantis, but denying that at the same time - still not ready to accept her for what she was. 

"My hand's fine now." Atlantis lied, rolling up her sleeve to show Sol that she didn't have a brace on anymore. She still needed it, and a lot of the sensation in her hand was still missing - having to hold up her palm because it couldn't itself - but she didn't want her sister to know that. 

Wynn had made his way over - restless to get going and find something to help his sister, wanting to know what was going on with Sol. 

"What's going on?" He asked, looking between them both. 

Sol didn't budge; she was waiting on Atlantis, seeing if she had any more fight in her to persuade her place in the group. 

"You trusted him enough to let his people out in the world. What's different about my bunker?" She asked. 

Sol rolled her eyes as she looked at Wynn, having to fight off the instinct to laugh at him. It was so different to remember how intolerant they were of each other when they first met, and how challenging it was to work their way through his messes - to now, depnding on each other, some sort of unforeseen devotion between them both that couldn't be broken. 

'Wynn is different.' Sol wanted to say, but she couldn't get it to sound right. Instead, she went with: "I didn't have a choice. He forced his way out of Basilisk, and in his defence, his family did get seperated because of me. Plus, I hated him." She grinend, glancing over at Wynn in the corner of her vision, seeing him drop his head bashfully in laughter. 

Atlantis smiled slightly, but she still hadn't acomplished what she wanted to. 

"I got hurt out there last time. I don't want to be afraid of what's out there. Can I please go with you?" 

Wynn looked over at Sol, acknowledging that this one were her decision to make. He nodded once, as if knowing she would do the right thing, and returned to rest of the group to join Bas and Fabian. 

Sol sighed, playing out the options in her head, but knowing already her answer. 

"Fine." She caved. "But I can't give you a gun as you don't know how to use one yet." 

"Yet." Atlantis emphasized for her, smiling playfully as if to suggest that Sol taught her at a later time. 

The Sovereign shook her head at the boldness of her comment, nodding towards the gates in confirmation that she could tag along. 

Atlantis squealed softly, hurrying outside before Sol could change her mind, and quickly composing herself. 

"Stay close to the group." Sol warned her. "And don't do anything stupid." 

////

Kodiak felt unseasy as he stepped back inside the labs, half afraid that he would become trapped once again, unable to leave. But there was a comfort in knowing that his people were right beside him, and Elara was safe and sound with Quill at Basilisk - and no one could take her away.  

"Do we know what we're looking for?" Dreea asked as she walked past Kodiak, glancing around the building. 

"Anything they might've used on her." Fenn answered, wasting no time in digging through the cabinets, Ares helping him to read through all the lables of the items they gathered. 

"Check everything. Every draw, every bottle. The drugs they use for the Alteration are fatal if used wrong, so it'll say on the tag if you find something.' 

Everyone split up, searching different ares of the room; Bas and Dreea inspected the bed Elara was kept on, Wynn, Kodiak and Fabian began breaking into all of the sealed draws, and Atlantis was inspecting the computers - seeing if they still worked, and if she could log onto them. 

With everyone making themselves of use, Sol drifted down the hallway to see what else she could find. Even if it wasn't neccesarily helpful to Elara, it might be to the rest of her people. 

She came across a room that out of all the ones in the hall, it was the only one to have its door closed. Curious, she crept over, peering inside the window. At first sight, it looked no different than any of the others: nothing stood out about it, except that it looked untouched. 

The bed was made carefully, and as she walked inside, the medicine tray was neatly lined up with syringes and scaples, and most importantly: a needle filled with a serum of some kind. 

Almost hesitant to move it, Sol decided that would wait for Fenn to get to it, in case it was dangerous on contact. Before she went to call his name, she picked up one of the razor-sharp scaples, observing it to see if it would be useful to take back to Aeryn. 

There was a noise behind her as someone entered the room, and she turned around, beginning to speak Fenn's name in a hope that it was him, but it wasn't. 

Sol's eyes widened in horror, and before she could even scream the person had lunged forward, covering her mouth with his hand, holding the Sovereign's back close against his chest, and his other hand pressing a gun harshly against the side of her head. 

Fear swarmed Sol's entire body, tingling down her legs, making her feel weak. All of a sudden, guilt and self-hatred took it's place as she was being pushed down the hallway, hearing a sudden explosion of noise from where her group was - knowing that they had all three Sovereigns... Rogue had all three Sovereigns 

Finally, Sol reached the end of the hallway, and as Rogue pushed her into the room, she was terrified of seeing her people hurt. 

To her relief, they weren't harmed, but they were all on their knees in a row, their hands tied up in ropes behind their backs. She always knew Riders were fast at their attacks, but even this had to be a new personal best. 

She stumbled into sight of her people, wishing she could enter under different circumstances, and knowing that each of them was praying that she hadn't been caught. 

"What do you want, Rogue?" Sol growed, fighting to keep her stance as the king pushed the gun forcefully against her head. She knew there was something... He would have just killed her if it was simply for vengeance or out of spite. 

Rogue chuckled, anticipating her reaction. He glanced up at the four other Riders in the room - each of them standing behind two Basilisk, and joined in with their laughter, knowing that the answer would bring them conflict. 

"We want the Heir." He grinned from behind Sol, looking out at the people on their knees. Rogue knew Ares was Elara's brother as he recognized him from when he was a prisoner to Riders, and with Wynn's vibrant, red hair - it was a dead giveaway that they were also related. 

The two brothers - who happened to be beside each other, glanced to their sides, sharing knowing looks with each other. Nothing terrified them more than knowing the hunt for their sister was still continuing, and now it seemed that even Blood Riders were pinning for her. 

"Why?" Sol spat. "Why do you want her?" 

"Uh uh." Rogue scolded, pushing the weapon further against her skin. "I haven't finished." 

Sol rolled her eyes, exhaling sharply to communicate to Rogue that she was listening. 

"I want to know what you're doing at my labs. And... And if you've my son." He teased knowingly. "Not Jonas, the-" he bit his lip as if he had to think for a moment. "The other one." 

Sol closed her eyes, trying to bury away all her emotion in the darkness. Her heart still shattered at the memory of him, and retribution burned under her skin. She knew what Rogue had done; not only did Noah suffer in death, but in his entire life. And now that suffering was passed onto Jonas - having to grow up without his brother. 

A once fury for the mention of Elara was softened into a bitter empathy as Wynn looked up at Sol, seeing right through her. Everyone could. Everyone could see that Rogue's blantant carelessness for his sons was beginning to break at Sol. 

Someone needed to speak- 

"What do you want with my sister?" Wynn asked, his voice challenging and unforgiving. 

Rogue couldn't hide that he was impressed at Wynn for speaking out against him, but he still wanted to make him suffer. 

"A friend of mine has made a deal." Rogue began, stepping away from Sol and beginning to pace around her. It wasn't a chance for her to run: she knew that if she tried to do anything, the rest of Riders would hurt everyone in the room. 

"Seeing as our traitor burnt down his own kingdom, killing many of his own people, we were forced into a deal: we get Targo their Heir back, and they give us what we need to rebuild our camp, and if it comes to it - take you down as well." 

Sol shook her head, knowing she had to do something to save her people. 

"I-I'll make you a deal." She blurted out, her voice shaky, not desperate to be heard: she had no clue what she was going to come up with. 

Rogue laughed at her, and she knew she needed to try better. 

"We have Jonas!" 

Doubt crept in. Sol feared that confessing the secret would put the boy at risk, or make the people back at Basilisk susceptible to an attack. But Rogue turned around, his mouth slightly agape, trying to see if Sol was bluffing. 

"Prove it." Rogue dared her, half hopeful that she was telling the truth.  

Sol sighed, and bent down to the floor. The sudden and unexcpected move caused Rogue to aim his gun at her, cautious that she was up to something. 

Sol held her hands up, her eyes slowly flickering to the king. "Relax. You said you wanted proof. Right?" She spoke calmly, but the temper in her voice was still there. 

She turned to face her feet again, feeling her hands shake as an idea crept into her mind - an idea she knew might be her only chance at getting her friends free. 

"I-" Sol exhaled, pressing her hands flat against the ground where she was crouching. 

"Forget what I said. There's a knife strapped against my boot; if you pull it out, you'll see your proof." 

"What are-" 

"I'm telling you to take the knife so I don't pull it out, because you'd think I'm trying to kill you!" Sol snapped, pointing out to Rogue what he realized was true. 

He huffed, but gave in, tugging the knife from Sol's boot and inspecting it. There was brief moment where Sol was worried he would dive the weapon straight into her - just like he had done to Noah - but she refused to let the fear distract her. As Rogue stood up with the knife in his posession, Sol slipped out the scalple that had been tucked up her sleeve from the room before, and discretly hid it under the base of her boot - wedged between herself and the floor. 

Once she knew that it wasn't visible, she carefully stood up, holding her hands up in surrender for a moment. 

Rogue had disregarded the knife to the counter beside him - favouring his own gun over her weapon, and held onto the proof he had requested. 

Twirling the band between his thumb and index finger - the band that every member of Blood Rider wore - Rogue looked over at the Sovereign. 

"This is Noah's." He claimed, shaking his head. "Noah gave this to you, or you took it from him after I- after he was killed." 

Sol exhaled, a small trace of satisfaction finding her. She knew if Noah was here - and if he knew what her plan was, that he would be telling her he was proud of her move. 

The Sovereign rolled up the sleeve of her jacket to reveal a second band hidden underneath her shirt, tied to her wrist. She knew it was a Blood Riders symbol, and felt incredibly ashamed knowing that her people could see her wearing it - but it was the only thing of Noah she had left to keep. All of his clothes were blood stained and remained on him as his body burnt in the ceremonial fire when Basilisk parted from their losses, so there was nothing else except this one, small thing. 

"This one was Noah's." Sol murmured, hating that Rogue reached out to feel it under his fingers, not believing he deserved to even look at the last remainder of his son she had left. 

Rogue didn't respond with any emotion, but he moved on, clearly realizing that Sol was telling the truth - and that it meant she had Jonas after all. 

"If you let us go, I'll give you Jonas." Sol lied. There was nothing in the world that would make her give up the young boy, but if there was even a chance that Rogue cared about his other son, then it would give her some leverage. 

"Dreea!" She excalimed suddenly, taking her chance when she noticed a fall in conversation. 

Sol looked over to Dreea - who was confused at the loud and random mention of her name. Sol's eyes widened slightly, hoping that the Sovereign would see the hand at her side warily pointing downwards at her foot - trying not to be obvious about it so one of the guards didn't catch on. 

"Dreea will look for Jonas. She'll go down to Basilisk and find him. Let her go now; you can tie me up, and you can catch up to her and get Jonas." 

She knew her words would have sounded disorientating and repetative to Rogue; she usually spoke much more clear and direct, but was hoping that Dreea would pick up the three words she had emphasized: look down. Catch. 

Rogue contemplated Sol's offer - perhaps trying to determine if getting Jonas back was worth the chance for Riders to rebuild the camp, and take down Basilisk. It wasn't. And unfortunately, that was what Sol was depending on. 

"It's a thoughtful offer," he tantalized, "but I didn't come for Jonas. I'm asking for the Heir." 

There was relief and regret that overwhelmed her at the same time. Relief because she knew the result of what she said next would allow her to get one step closer to freeing her people, but regret because for a moment - she would have to allow herself to break Wynn's heart. 

She wanted to look over at Ares and Wynn, as if to say: 'trust me. I've got this. I won't let anything happen,' like Wynn had said to her a few hours before, but she needed them to believe for a minute that she would consider it. 

"Okay." She agreed remorsefully. "If you let us go, I'll give you Elara." 

One // Part Three
It was the only thing of Noah she had left to keep.
She would have to allow herself to break Wynn's heart.

Which one of those hurt more?

Really happy with this chapter! But not as happy as I am to have my book back! Honestly, this glitch where people's stories were getting deleted was terrible! I have been writing on Wattpad for 9 years, and I was so afraid that it was gone and they couldn't get it back. The book that went from my page/my works was TBFT S1. I have full backups of it, but I didn't want to lose the reads and comments.

To be honest, Wattpad should have posted a public message on their socials because no one knew what was happening and it made a lot of people very angry.

Anyway, on my last 2 chapters I published them with notes still at the bottom (because I copy the outline for each chapter over and expand on my notes) and I gotta stop doing that. I usually have spoilers in my notes anout characters' fates, so could have esaily ruined my entire book, lol. But I didn't for this one so MIP award goes to me today!