Episode Six, Part 1:
Do This For Me

'Cause I see you in the daytime, and I hear you at night. There's a pale imitation
that burns in my eyes. I don't wanna be here, I don't know what to do.
Sometimes I'd rather be dead, at least then I'm with you.

Wynn entered the last number of the code, stepping back from the seal as it unlocked the door to the bunker. He led the way, climbing down the ladder with Quill right behind him, pulling the shaft over the exit before he started descending. 

Once Quill was standing firmly on the floor, Wynn directed his torch over to the second door, entering the passcode once again and finally taking them inside. They walked through the section of shelves and supplies before finally reaching the living quarters of the bunker, both brothers suffering from a momentary loss of breath. 

"I'm guessing this isn't how you left it," Quill muttered, his nervous eyes glancing around in every direction. 

"No," Wynn shook his head, equally as panicked. "Something's happened." 

There was furniture tipped over, shards of broken glass beneath the counter, the entire bunker looking like a hurricane had ripped through. 

"Elara!?" Wynn called out, pushing past everything to try and find her. Quill did the same, yelling out their sister's name as he scanned every direction for a glimpse of her. 

"Ell!" Wynn exclaimed. "She's over here!" 

Quill followed the sound of Wynn's voice, running into a large, open dining room where Elara was, watching as she cried out in agony. He immediately tried to run towards her, at one point in time having believed that he would never see her again, but Wynn held his arm out to stop him. 

"She's having a vision," he declared, something tremulous in his voice. "I don't think she realises it's us here. We could scare her if we just walk up to her," he explained, not wanting a repeat of the last time a vision got this out of hand. 

"Okay, but she could hurt herself," Quill pointed out, "look at the place." 

Wynn glanced around a little, but he didn't need much convincing. 

"You go around the left, I'll approach from the front," Wynn instructed, nodding for him to walk around behind her. 

"Elara?" He called her name softly, trying to get her to focus her attention on them. "You're okay. Can you come here?" 

The young girl's eyes darted up at Wynn, realising that she wasn't alone anymore. But she didn't look at him and see her brother. She didn't see anyone other than a stranger. 

"No, don't come any closer!" She warned. 

Wynn held his hands up, standing up a little taller and he stopped in place. "Okay. I'm not here to hurt you, see?" 

There was a contemplation on Elara's face as if trying to determine if he was telling the truth, but she couldn't decide. Wynn spoke again before she could figure out what to do. 

"It's me, Ell. Your brother-" 

"No... No, I have to get to him. I won't let you stop me." 

Quill was close behind her, almost near enough to grab onto her, but he made a noise that startled her. Elara spun around, not recognizing who he was or able to comprehend how he had gotten there. The only thing she was sure of was that he was trying to stop her from doing what she needed to do, and that was saving Ares. 

With the fear of the visions having its hold on her, Elara shoved her hands against Quill's chest, sending him flying backwards into the glass-topped table behind him, knocking it over along with several chairs. Large shards scattered everywhere across the dark flooring making every movement dangerous. 

With her back momentarily turned, Wynn lunged forward to reach her, but he wasn't fast enough. Elara heard his footsteps and reeled around, doing the same to Wynn as she had done to Quill. 

With immense force, he crashed into the bookshelves against the wall, a couple of loose books falling and landing on the ground around him. 

"Elara, you're confused," he pleaded, continuing to hold his hands up in surrender as his sister made a straight line towards him, a vicious and determined glimmer in her eye. She reached down on her approach, picking up a fragment of glass that was nearly 20 centimetres long. 

"Wynn, be careful!" Quill panicked, afraid that he would get hurt like last time. 

Knowing that she had no control over her actions, Wynn knew he needed to do something fast to make sure she didn't hurt any of them seriously. Trying his luck out, he reached out for the nearest thing he could find; it was a remote - one that he remembered Atlantis explaining that it could control several rooms in the bunker. He pushed down on one of the buttons, generating a door a couple of metres opposite him to open. 

It caused a shifting sound that stole Elara's attention away for a moment. When she looked over at the door, Quill was standing in front of it, and she thought that he was up to something, trying to ruin every attempt she had made in her visions so far. 

A sudden change of mind and she now was now laundering closer to Quill, tightening her grip on the glass, piercing through her own skin slightly. 

Instincts kicked in and Wynn jumped to his feet, calling out Elara's name yet again to save his brother. He didn't want to hurt her, but he didn't have much of a choice. He grabbed onto her hands, knocking her makeshift-weapon to the ground, and pushing her away. Before anything else could happen, Wynn did the same to Quill, shoving him into the now open closet and watching him fall back against the shelves, landing with a thud on the floor as everything around him shook. 

"Wynn, look out!" The younger boy screamed from where he was, in too much fear to be able to move. 

Without a second to glance over, Elara had slammed into Wynn, once again, pushing him down to the ground. She had the glass in her hand again and seemed more desperate to use it, as if it didn't matter what she had to do anymore, just as long as no one got in her way. 

"Ell, please," Wynn breathed out, wrestling both her hands away, but she was strong. A lot stronger than he realised. 

"I need to save him!" She screamed, slowly and unintentionally revealing to Wynn what it was about. He was almost certain that she was talking about Ares. 

"He's gone..." He whispered, trying to hold her stare, but she wouldn't allow it; she glanced down at her hand, focusing extra hard at being able to free it from Wynn's hold. 

There was movement in the closet and Wynn looked over to see Quill pulling himself to his feet, preparing to make his way over to them both. But he couldn't let that happen. He knew his brother wouldn't be able to defend himself against Elara's attack, and that she wouldn't be able to stop herself from hurting him. He had to do something... 

On the floor beside him, barely a metre away were the controls for the closet door. If he could get to them, then he could make sure Quill would avoid their sister's wrath, but he couldn't say the same for himself. 

Unwilling to let anything happen to him, Wynn let go of Elara's hand knowing the consequence and dived over towards the remote. He slammed on the button, watching as the doors sealed Quill away from them both, hearing his fists begin to slam from the other side, desperate to get to them both. 

The next thing Quill knew, Wynn was letting out an agonized wail, clutching brutally onto his left arm. Elara had jammed the glass into his skin, tearing down from his shoulder towards his elbow, deeply; but as much as the pain tried to swallow him whole, he knew that he still had to be there for Elara - to pull her back into reality. 

In a moment of hesitation, Wynn managed to knock the bloodied shard out of his sister's hand, grabbing onto her wrist and refusing to let go. 

"Get off of me!" Elara screamed. "I have to get to my brother! You have to let me save him!" 

Tears pooled in Wynn's eyes, not because of the damage to his arm, but because of what he was witnessing in front of him; the look on Elara's face was the same as it had been when they watched the water pull Ares off the cliff, and when Sol set alight to his body at the burning ceremony. The sheer heartache of losing him was still present for her, and Wynn began to see that it had never left, not even for a second. 

"Ell," he said her name softly. If she wanted to hear him, she would have to stop screaming. "Ell, he's gone..." 

She shook her head profusely, desperate to deny what he was saying to her. "No! He was just here! I can still save him if you let me go!" 

As he watched her begin to sob dreadfully, still fighting to get away from him, Wynn began to understand that maybe the only way to pull Elara out of her visions was something more powerful: her grief. 

"He's dead," he whispered, almost confessing the truth to himself. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry, Elara. Ares isn't coming back."

"No! He was right her, I have to save..." Her voice began to fade away and her anger began to dissolve. Slowly, Elara was drawing back into reality, beginning to understand who was in front of her and that the words she could hear were real. The last vision of Ares she could still see, disappeared, and no matter how hard she tried to fight it, there was nothing she could to make him reappear. There was nothing she could do to save him if he was already gone. 

"I know," Wynn mourned, "I know it hurts. I know he's gone, but you're okay. We're right here." 

"Ares is gone..." Elara repeated what he said, breaking out of the vision completely. She met Wynn's eyes, giving him confirmation that she was there, and then fell against him, becoming the same girl who collapsed by the side of the dams, feeling like she had just lost her brother all over again. 

There wasn't even a fraction of her heart that could comprehend everything that had happened: Quill thought she was dead, she had just hurt him, she had cut Wynn, and Ares was still gone... The only thing she could do was cry. 

With his arm in a tremendous amount of pain, and Elara clinging onto him for her life, Wynn managed to pick up the remote on his wounded side, pressing the buttons and freeing Quill from the closet now that everything was over. 

He lingered in place for a few seconds, teary-eyed having heard everything Wynn had said about Ares and feeling his own heart break all over again, but it wasn't long before he was hurrying over and joining them both on the ground; one arm around Elara, the other around Wynn. 

The older boy winced at the contact but he refused to let Quill pull away from him because of it. After everything that had happened, every pain and suffering they had endured together, it was indisputable that the only way any of them would ever even begin to heal is if they had each other. 

So he held onto them both, still bleeding, still navigating his way through his own grief, but holding tight nonetheless. He would bear anything, anything, to keep them safe. 

Six // Part One
Ares isn't coming back.

I've had this chapter in my mind for so long, and it's one of my favourite scenes in the whole series. I can't wait for you to see what's coming up for these three.

Also, that lyric up top perfectly encapsulates what Elara's mindset has been like since Ares died. In fact, the entire song (Amen by Amber Run) just reminds me of her bond with him.

26/04/20