Episode Six, Part 3:
W i t h o u t   F e a r

If you're still breathing, you're the lucky ones. 
'Cause most of us are heaving through corrupted lungs. 

"MaReya!" Wynn screamed, chucking himself down to the ground where he could see his friend. At the mention of her name, Bas looked in Wynn's direction, the horror hitting him when he could see what he had found. 

As Wynn heaved to shift the rocks off his friend, Bas did the same for a while, but when he glanced back at MaReya, seeing the eyes were still shut like they were when they found her, his pace slowed down.

"Come on, Bas!" Wynn urged. "We have to get her out!" 

Bas sighed heavily, setting down the rock he had in his hands, knowing it would be the last one. He moved from the mountain of rubble to kneel down beside her. 

"Rey," he murmured softly, no expectations. He didn't try again when there was silence, the truth resolving inside him. As brushed the dust off of her face, being delicate with every touch, Wynn looked back to see why he had stopped. 

"Bas! Get up! Help me get this off of her," 

The boy just shook his head, dropping his gaze down as tears began to spill out of him. 

Wynn couldn't bring himself to yell again, seeing him like that. He hesitated but moved away from the rubble, kneeling down beside Bas.

"MaReya, wake up," he said - still in denial. 

"Wynn-" 

"No! We're losing anyone else from our family!" Wynn cried out, his tears spilling down onto their friend below. He follows his eyes down to her. 

"MaReya..." he whispered, barely able to hear himself. 

As he exhaled, and Bas placed his hand on Wynn's shoulder for support, another part of Wynn's heart broke, realizing that she was dead... 

Suddenly, not even giving him a second to grieve, Bas gasped as if the air had been ripped from his lungs. 

"What?" Wynn choked out, somewhat afraid. 

"Harlow might have been with her! I-I don't know where he is," Bas shot to his feet, regretfully leaving MaReya's side as he went to search. Wynn took a second, then followed behind, narrowing his eyes at every face he could see, hoping that young Harlow wouldn't be one of them. 

As he was walking along, not paying attention to where he was going, Wynn walked into Bas who had come to a standstill. Afraid that he had found his little brother, Wynn followed his gaze down, not finding Harlow, but someone else. 

A few metres away from his sister, Fabian was lying motionless on the floor with one of his arms crushed under a large section of the wall. 

No. Not another one. Not their family again. It couldn't be possible that they had to lose anyone else. 

Wynn fell to his knees, the lifeless face of his friend just another he would remember when he closed his eyes. He lifted up Fabian's head, resting it down in his lap as he sat with his legs stretched out, almost completely giving up. 

"I'm so sorry," he muttered, gripping tightly onto his friend. 

As there was still so much noise going on, Wynn didn't hear footsteps run up behind him until was reaching onto his shoulders, and it wasn't Bas.

Tearfully, he managed to look up, responding to a voice that cried his name. 

"Wynn!" Sol yelled, relieved to have found him, quickly realizing who she was passing, and who he was holding on the Ground. Dreea was beside her, trying to pull him along. 

"No!" Bas pushed her hands away. "My brother could be out here!" 

"Harlow's inside! He went in with Quill and Azha," Dreea promised him, waiting for him to follow.  

"You promise?" Bas' voice trembled, knowing he wouldn't be able to forgive her if she was lying. 

"Yes," Sol said sternly, answering on Dreea's behalf. "Jonas... I can't find Jonas. Believe me, I know how you feel. We wouldn't lie about this." 

Bas nodded empathetically, turning to Wynn knowing it would take a little more convincing to get him inside. Both him and Sol grabbed onto one of his arms, ready to pull him up.

"Get off," Wynn mumbled, no power to his voice. 

"Wynn!" Bas yelled desperately, struggling to see him just sitting there.

Sol had a more softer approach, bending down so she was at his eyeline, the hand that was on his arm moving down to his hand. 

"Please get up. I need you safe inside. Please, Wynn..." 

Wynn looked up at her, their gaze breaking for a second. After a moment, he nodded, apologetically shifting Fabian off of him and allowing her and Bas to pull him to his feet. 

Dodging bullets, the four of them ran towards the Quarters, stumbling their way inside. Bas immediately disappeared to find his brother, passing Ares and Quill who were waiting by the doors as if knowing that their brother would be the last one to enter. 

They could see the grief plastered across his face - a look they had seen too many times. 

"Wynn!" Ares exclaimed, pulling his brother into him who didn't even have the strength to hug back. Feeling his lack of response, Ares pulled away, searching for his brother to find out what had happened.

"Elara's with Kodiak. She's fine. They can't get out, but we just spoke to her through the door," Ares informed him, thinking he thought something had happened to their sister.

Wynn nodded, unable to express the deep solace he felt knowing that she was safe, or do anything to suggest that he was okay. 

"Wynn, what's happened?" Ares lowered his voice, holding onto either one of his shoulders, shaking him to look up. 

"MaReya and Fabian..." He muttered, watching the horror slowly settle on their face. 

Quill turned instantly pale like he was overcome with a wave of nausea, trying not to throw up everywhere. Ares let one hand drop from Wynn, wanting to give a reason why he was wrong, but he knew he wasn't. 

"River, where are you going!?" 

Wynn snapped out of his trance, turning around to see why Dreea was yelling. He looked just in time to see Sol running back out to the midst of danger, and before he could even think about what he was doing, Wynn turning and running after her. 

"Wynn, stop!" Ares yelled, grabbing onto his hand and pulling him back. 

By this point, Azha had located them and arrived just in time to help restrain Wynn, seeing from miles away what his intentions were. 

"You're not going out there," Ares stated, not even an ounce of tenderness in his voice. It wasn't up for debate. He wasn't adding his brother to the list of casualties in their family. 

Wynn huffed, pulled further away from the door. He pulled his hands free and held them up in surrender, rolling his eyes to show his anger. 

"Alright?" Ares warned, also making sure he was okay. 

Wynn nodded bitterly, straightening his shirt out as he walked between Ares and Azha to where Quill was. When they were both facing Quill completely, and barely half a step ahead of Wynn, he spun on his foot, pushing past Dreea and sprinting out to find Sol. 

By the time Ares and the others could feel him step away, he was already at the door, slipping out of sight. They ran after him but were stopped by Dreea who was expecting them this time. 

"No. Not you as well," she snapped. "No one else is leaving. Go find your sister," she ordered. 

"We know where she is-" Quill tried to explain that they were safe, but that wasn't why she had said it. She wanted them far away from the door as possible. 

"I don't care. Go to her. All of you." 

Ares chewed on his bottom lip, wrestling with his anger. He knew Dreea was trying to ensure they were safe, but in the heat of the moment, he couldn't help but feel all of his anger directed towards her. He huffed then back up, pushing on Quill's chest to turn him away, keeping a hand on his shoulder as they all followed orders. 

//// 

"Sol, what are you doing?" Wynn screamed, cautiously running close to the fence to get to her. 

The Sovereign turned around - an indistinguishable look of either fear or anger that he had followed her out there, coming so close to the fence when there was obviously still people shooting at Basilisk.

"Go away, Wynn! Go back to the Quarters!" 

"No. Not without you." His voice was so steady, so sure that it was like they weren't standing right in the middle of a battlefield. 

Sol stormed over to him, lowering her gun that she had been using to fire shots outside. She pushed on his chest - not harshly, but enough for him to fall back a place. 

"Go," she said weakly, her eyes welled up with tears. 

"Not without you," he repeated once again, grabbing onto her hand and holding onto it. If he lost her then he lost everything. 

"I can't!" 

"Why?" 

"Because Jonas isn't inside!" She screamed, pulling her hand away as she lost control. She looked over her shoulder breathlessly, Wynn's eyes following. 

"It's Targo," she told him, earning a nod as Wynn knew there was more she was trying to say. 

"I know Riders are with them. I- I thought..." She struggled. "I thought maybe if Targo were coming for Elara, then they would come for Jonas. He would have been king if he wasn't here," she said. 

Wynn nodded again, stepping closer towards her.

"But he's not there..." He whispered, realising that's what she was trying to say. 

Sol shook her head, tears rushing down her cheeks. "I didn't see him go inside." 

"There's almost 300 people in there, Sol. He's bound to be one of them." 

"No," she testified, stepping away again. "I didn't see him," she emphasised, hoping Wynn would realize that wasn't crazy. 

"I believe you," he promised her, once again trying to decrease the distance between them. "But what good are you to him if you're out here, risking your life to shoot at Targo when he would need you to be safe?" 

"I'm supposed to keep him safe! He depends on me! And I- I can't just leave my guards to deal with this. I'm supposed to be the Nobel. I'm supposed to be stronger than this-" 

"Hey, look," Wynn cut her off, nodding to the fences behind her. She turned seeing that a lot of her guards were standing up, lowering their weapons as if the coast was clear. There hadn't been any shots fired from Targo in a few minutes, and Sol was yet to realize that they had already retreated after having done their damage. 

"It seems to be calming down. No one is shooting anymore," he pointed out. "It's the guards' job to defend Basilisk. Let them deal with this and we can go find Jonas." 

Sol stared back, trying to decide if he was right, and eventually gave in, nodding. Wynn held his hand out to her, pulling her in front of him and then letting go as they both ran in search for the young boy, heading to the same place where Wynn had lost Fabian and MaReya.

Six // Part Three
Another part of Wynn's heart broke // Not without you.

It was a sad one to write, but I'm proud of this. I hope you guys like it.

Raise your hand if you have ever felt personally victimized by @/Hakuna on Wattpad?😂

Anyway, for now, I say it: Farewell MaReya Dalton and Fabian Dalton.