Episode Five, Part 1:
Uninhabitable

Elara half expected to feel the bullet lodged into her stomach and for blood to come spewing out of her mouth, but she didn't feel anything.

She heard a thud behind her and hitting her before she even had a moment to comprehend everything, Elara's body was taken over in endless shivers.

She turned around, horror already etched onto her face as she saw Diego shaking on the ground, struggling to hold pressure on his wound. Leaping into action, Elara fell to her knees, scrambling closer towards the man as she pushed down on the bullet hole, wanting to believe that it was just a terrible case of Kodiak acting out of an instinct to protect her and not realising what he was doing, but his absence at her side confirmed that she was wrong.

How could he do this? How could he just shoot Diego after everything he had done for them? How could he do it so carelessly in front of her and not even give her a chance to explain what was going on?

"Don't die on me," Elara muttered, struggling to keep her fingers overlapping each other with how much they were shaking.

"I know this m-means you won't b-be able to secure the alliance..." Diego muttered, squinting his eyes in pain.

"That's not what I'm talking about," Elara said. "I don't want you to die, alliance or not."

"Well, that's a shame," Diego tried to make the situation a little less morbid than it was, but his attempts at a laugh only caused him to cough up more blood. "Because I'm going," he said.

"Just hang on a while. I can get Fenn to come over in the jeep just like he did when Nathaniel attacked you, remember?"

"So much hope," Diego smiled. "D-don't lose that, even if my people try and kill yours."

"Not your people," Elara shook her head profusely. "You're going to come into the Bunker with us. That'll make you a Basilisk."

"Elara-"

"Here, I'll even make it official now!" She panicked. "It is by valiancy that you have made it here, and valiancy that you will make it another day... Something about a fight," she mumbled to herself, closing her eyes as she tried to focus on the words she remembered being said to her when Sol declared her and her family a Basilisk. "And we accept you in our clan. One clan, one people..."

"Elara-"

"And you are now Diego of Basilisk," she raised her voice, refusing to let him talk over her. She knew in her heart that she had completely messed up the speech, and she knew that it probably didn't count if the words weren't recited by a Sovereign, but it did count to her... She hoped it counted for Diego, too.

She forced herself to look down at him, barely able to see as the beating rain obscured her vision, also making it hard for the man to keep his eyes open as he stared straight ahead at the sky. He nodded softly, only a couple of times, but it was enough for Elara to know what he was saying.

"I'm so sorry," she said. "I swear I didn't know anything about him being here. I- I thought I was alone. I never meant for you to get hurt."

"I know, kiddo," Diego heaved out the words, reaching out and holding onto her wrist. "J-just make sure you survive."

Elara nodded, promising him that she would and as she let go of his wound momentarily to wipe the rain away from her face, the few seconds of closed eyes were all it took for Diego to do the same, only his didn't open again despite her shaking, despite her begging.

Elara froze for a few moments, staring down at Diego as she let the rain wash away his blood from her hands, soaking into the ground beneath them. She wanted to mourn for him, she wanted to stay at his side and scream out her apologies at how her intentions for a peace meeting had turned into his downfall, but she couldn't.

Rage consumed her and Elara jumped to her feet, storming over to Kodiak within seconds.

"What have you done!?" She yelled, pushing on his chest as he tucked his gun back into his waistband. "He agreed to keep the alliance! He was going to go back to his camp and tell Riders that they were safe; he was going to come into the Bunkers with us, without the rest of his people! I did what you guys couldn't do!"

"Elara-" Kodiak bit his tongue, concealing his own suffering as he realised how terribly he had hurt her. He couldn't even bring himself to look her in the eyes.

"No, Kodiak!" She refused to let him interrupt her. "They were scared, wanting to survive just like us! Any chance of keeping the peace between our clans is over because of you! Once they find out what you've done, they're going to head to the Bunkers themselves and kill any of us that go near them! Diego was my friend and I trusted him and you killed him right in front of me... I don't even recognise you lately."

As she turned around, ready to run back to Basilisk on her own, Kodiak grabbed onto her wrist. It was a tight grip - not strong enough to hurt her, but enough to stop her from getting away.

"You're not supposed to be out of camp," he said, unable to respond to anything she had said. "You know what things are like between us and Riders... It's not safe. Not on your own. You could have gotten yourself killed out here."

"You say that like you suddenly care about me again," Elara mumbled, harshly tugging her hand free from his grip. She folded her arms, glaring up at him, waiting...

"That's the part where you're supposed to tell me that you always cared about me," she said, her voice softer now, almost begging for him to say those words, even in spite of how furious she was with him.

Kodiak sighed and looked away, wanting nothing more than to tell her that he did - that he loved her with every aching part of himself - but he couldn't. He had already risked enough by coming out here and saving her life; Hannah certainly wouldn't be happy that he had gone against her orders to protect her, especially when he knew that she had forced Chessca to tell Blood Riders about the flood so that the alliance would fall apart - all contributing factors to Wynn and Elara not having enough time to focus on Quill with everything else going on; all working together as part of her plan to get her son back.

"Go back to camp, Elara," Kodiak said, holding almost no emotion in his voice as he gave her his order.

Elara looked up at him, her eyes glowing with burning tears, completely desolate at how much he had changed; how he was so far away from being the man she loved. She wiped under his eyes, wanting to make a point at how much pain he was putting her through, and spun around, picking up her sword from beside Diego's body and heading in the direction of Basilisk.

She made it a few steps up the grassy, slope, halting when a sound echoed behind her, her breath seizing in her chest when she turned around to figure out what had happened. 

Five // Part One
What have you done?

It's so strange to write this kind of tension between Kodiak and Elara as they've always been the feel-good couple that you can always count on, but now there's trouble in the water...

Anyways, this time next week I'll be in America!

Farewell Diego Aiza.

15/08/20