Episode Seven, Part 2:
Never Let You Go

But it's not the end, 
I'll see your face again.

Wynn and Sol followed Dreea out of the Quarters, immediately noticing the commotion in front of their open gates. They hurried over to where a bunch of people had already gathered - Elara, Chessca, Fenn, Liam and Aeryn all part of the small mob that had gone to investigate what was happening.

The three Sovereigns pushed their way to the front of the group, trying to get close enough to Bas and Kodiak to find out what was happening.

"Kodiak?" Sol mumbled, looking on at her friend with a terrible fear etched deep into her features.

"We have a message to deliver to you," he said in reply, his voice completely nonchalant and lacking any emotion.

Sol fell silent, looking to either side of her to take in Wynn and Dreea's responses, noticing that they were just as wary as her.

"We are about to leave Basilisk. Make no attempt to follow us unless you want to pay the consequences."

Sol screwed her eyes shut in unrest, taking a deep breath as she tried to figure out how to handle the situation. She exhaled, glancing around the people close to her and quickly locating Joren. She moved over to him, instructing him to heard her people away from the gates, knowing that they had all come over to see what the confrontation was between the Sovereigns. With all unnecessary people now being shielded out of the way, it gave Sol a little more breathing room; a little more time to figure out how to save Kodiak from the power of the implant.

"Kodiak, if you can hear me-"

"We are about to leave Basilisk. Make no attempt to follow us unless you want to pay the consequences," he cut her off, repeating his previous statement that had been drilled into his head by Hannah.

"We can't let them leave," Dreea muttered, just loud enough for her and Wynn to hear. "We need to stop them before they get out."

"Then what happens?" Wynn asked. "Their implants are still activated. Once Hannah realises that they're not following her control, she activates the pain responses, possibly even killing them like what she tried to do to me, remember?"

Dreea sighed, realising that even if they did manage to stop their friends from leaving, it didn't take away even a fraction of the danger they were in.

"Maybe we just have to hope that Fenn can get the damn implants out of them without killing them," she grieved, knowing she was stumped for an answer.

At her words, Sol looked around with a sudden spark of panic, simultaneously grabbing onto Wynn's wrist.

"What is it?" Wynn asked, trying to figure her out.

"You have an implant," she pointed out. "So does Chess... If Hannah's activated their implants, who's to say you're not next?"

Wynn felt a flicker of fear in his chest, but more for Chessca than himself. He focused for a moment, concluding that he couldn't feel any triggers from the implant or any warning sign that Hannah had activated it.

"I'm fine," he assured her. "So is Chess."

"Yeah, for now!" Sol argued.

"Okay, but we have to deal with this first. If Hannah's going to activate our implants, she's going to do it whether we're ready or not. Let's just focus on getting Bas and Kodiak safe; you don't want to be down another Sovereign."

Sol bit down on her lip, constantly looking between him and Chessca - who was also gazing their way, seeming to have the same worry as them.

Going against all her desires, Sol nodded, agreeing to sideline her fear over them and prioritise getting the other two safe inside of Basilisk.

"Wynn, you and I will go for Kodiak. Dreea, you take Bas. Get ahold of them and get them into the Quarters."

Everyone nodded, knowing what their roles were and began approaching the boys, ready to capture them, but as they got closer, there was a sudden shift in Bas and Kodiak.

Each boy drew out a blade from their belt, not holding it up to any of the Sovereigns, but to themselves.

Sol, Dreea and Wynn froze in place, completely unprepared for the counteractive move made against them.

Their weapons were pressed up against their necks, ready to draw blood at the next attempt made towards them, and it would be fatal.

"Any efforts made to stop us from leaving will be met with the immediate execution of myself and Sovereign Kodiak," Bas stated - sounding equally as emotionless as the other boy had done. "We are about to leave Basilisk. Make no attempt to follow us unless you want to pay the consequences."

"We have to let them go..." Sol murmured the declaration, feeling a piece of her heart shatter subsequently. "There's nothing we can do... Not now, at least. Maybe we can catch up to them later, but I'm not risking either of them hurting themselves, or any of us."

Dreea nodded, guiding all three of them to back away, signalling their retreat to the boys.

As he moved away, Wynn glanced around as a sudden fear reached his chest - something that had only just crossed his mind now that it was probably too late.

His eyes found his sister, seeing her breathing heavily as she stood a couple of metres behind Aeryn and Fenn, watching on as two people she loved dearly held their life on a very fine line.

As Kodiak and Bas drew down their weapons and backed out of the gates, Wynn knew he had time to reach Elara, and he hurried over to her, grabbing onto Aeryn on his way past and bringing her along.

"Elara, you need to stay in the Quarters," Wynn said, placing his hand on her shoulder to try and comfort her - bringing her attention away from the sight of Kodiak disappearing from camp.

"Aeryn, can you make sure she's safe inside with Quill?" He turned to his friend, guiding his sister towards her.

Aeryn nodded, wrapping her arms around the young girl and beginning to steer her away from the gates. Once they were heading away, Wynn looked a little to his left to see Chessca who had been in earshot of their conversation.

"You should go inside, too," he said. "Just in case anything happens with your implant." 

"What about yours?" She asked, almost not thinking it was fair that she got the relief of being taken to safety if Wynn was out there in just as much danger as she was.

"I'll be fine," he assured her. "But I know Sol wants you inside and she'll focus on everything a lot better if she knows you're okay."

Chessca contemplated for a moment, looking over to where Sol was with Dreea and seeing her freaking out about their missing Sovereign. She turned back to face Wynn, wrapping her arms around herself and nodding. "The same goes for her," Chessca said. "I need her safe."

"Don't worry," Wynn said. "I'll make sure she is... Go on. Go join the others."

She nodded her gratitude his way and ran ahead to catch up to Aeryn and Elara, leaving Wynn with the heavy task of returning to Sol and Dreea, trying to figure out what their next move would be.

"We're going after them," Sol announced, not wasting a second after Wynn reached their sides.

"Did you not hear them?" He asked. "Sol, you know what they said... If we go after them, there'll be consequences and I don't want to take a guess at what that is."
"If we don't go after them, we lose Bas and Kodiak, and I'm not going to let that happen."

"Dreea, what you do think?" Wynn sighed, turning to her for a second opinion.

"I know I'll be able to disarm them if I get close enough," she said. "But that's only possible if they don't see me. If we do this, I need you to come along to distract them; Fenn as well in case anything goes wrong with the implant... But I can't lose them, either. It's not an option."

"What are you going to do while we go?" Wynn turned to Sol, essentially giving in to their plans.

"I'm going to take the first group to Atlantis' bunker," she said.
"We haven't even got our supplies into her bunker yet," Wynn pointed out.

"I know," Sol said. "The people that come with me will each take a crate of supplies. Once you guys have disarmed Bas and Kodiak, you have to bring them over to meet us so we can keep them secured inside until the flood comes." 

"What about everyone else?" Wynn asked.

"We'll have to go back for them. I'll send some more to Atlantis bunker, and another group to yours..."

Wynn picked up on what she was saying, knowing that the sudden activation of Bas and Kodiak's implants threw all their plans off-kilter.

"I need Quill in the bunker with me," he grieved. "Quill and Elara have to be with me. I don't care if we don't end up in our bunker, just as long as I have them... And you."

Sol frowned, run-dry of promises. She reached out and held onto his wrist, trying to find a little strength in his touch before she found the courage to speak.

"I'll do what I can," she assured him. "But I get the feeling that Bas and Kodiak are on their way to tell Riders where Atlantis' bunker is," she announced, revealing the greater problem. "That's probably what Hannah is trying to do, so we need to secure the bunker with our people so we can have it sealed by the time Riders try to get inside. Everyone left outside will have to go into yours, even if they're supposed to be in Atlantis'. That means you might end up in her bunker instead of yours, or I could end up in yours with Chess or Kodiak or Quill... I don't know where we're going to end up, but I'll make sure your brother and sister are inside a bunker. That's what I can promise you."

Wynn nodded, trying to convince himself that he was okay with potentially being separated from his siblings, but he wasn't.

The truth was clear as day to Sol and she couldn't help herself from leaning in, wrapping her arms around Wynn's neck and pulling him into her. Wynn drew in a deep breath, nuzzling his face into her shoulder and savouring the comfort he found in her for whatever moments he got.

"Everything will work out," Sol whispered, reluctantly pulling back so she could see him. "Just keep holding on."

Wynn nodded, quickly composing himself as he turned to Dreea.

"Let's go bring them home."

///////

"There he is! I can see Bas," Wynn exclaimed, keeping his voice low as he cowered in the bushes alongside Dreea and Fenn.

"Where's Kodiak?" Dreea asked, trying to get a good glance at what Wynn could see.

"I don't know," his voice was full of regret. "Maybe they went in different directions. Hannah probably expected us to come after them, even in spite of her warnings. This way the one we don't find is probably on their way to tell Riders where Atlantis' bunker is, which is Kodiak..."

"Perfect," Dreea muttered, trying to challenge her frustration into something useful. "I can probably catch up to Bs on my own and disarm him," she said. "Fenn, stay out of sight. Wynn, keep a lookout in case I need backup."

 Both boys nodded, making sure they were hidden behind the trees as Dreea crept forward, hoping to stay unnoticed as she moved closer towards Bas, but it didn't last long.

Bas spun around, coming to an abrupt stop in his path as did the Sovereign.

"Bas..." Dreea said his name, hoping beyond hope that the implant had deactivated. "I'm not going to hurt you. I need you to drop your weapon and come with me."

"You will be given three chances," Bas said, pulling out his blade, once again holding it to himself.

"Bas, listen to me!"

Bas drew the blade against his open palm, causing a pool of blood to spill out of him, trailing down his arm and along his sleeve.

"One," he said, not even flinching at the wound on his hand.

"Bas, I know you're in there," Wynn stood up where he was, going against Dreea's instructions and making himself visible. The sight of his friend - his family - hurting himself without any control broke his heart. He couldn't stand there at let him continue to bleed, nor could he let him get away under Hannah's influence.

"Wynn, stay back," Dreea warned, holding her hand up to encourage him to retreat back to Fenn.

But Wynn persisted, like always, and he made his way to Dreea's side, stopping at a safe distance from his friend.

"I know you're still in there. I know you don't want to do this," Wynn said. "Think about Harlow..."

If there was any hope of Bas breaking free from the implant, it would be the mention of his brother that brought him back; similar to when Wynn broke through to Sol in The City, he knew it would take an immense amount of love to shatter the sinister power of all other things.

"He needs you to come back to us," Wynn said. "He needs you to let us take you to the bunker where you'll be safe. He needs to grow up with his brother because he doesn't have his sisters around anymore... Don't let him lose you, too."

"Two," Bas said, spinning his blade around and dragging the point along his stomach. Blood instantly soaked through his shirt and though it wasn't a conscious response, his breathing changed - suddenly heavy, clearly struggling to withstand the pain of his actions. But there was a hesitation between that and his first attack; something that suggested to Wynn that he had been listening to what he was saying; something to tell him that he was right and that Bas was able to hear him, desperately fighting his way against the implant for the sake of his little brother.

"Wynn, I don't want to know what happens at three," Dreea mumbled, grabbing onto his arm and trying to pull him backwards. "If anything, he's slowed himself down. Maybe Hannah will realise that and deactivate the implant and then we can come back for him, but for now, we have to try and find Kodiak... I'm sorry."

"It's just going to be the same with him," Wynn shook his head. "We won't be able to capture him and then he'll end up doing this to himself, and I know Elara will hate me if we let that happen."

"Wynn-"

"Sol will, too..."

Dreea couldn't bring herself to argue for once. Wynn was right; they couldn't risk the same thing happening to Kodiak as what they were seeing with Bas.

"We'll come back for him," Dreea nodded, unable to fathom the thought of not making it back to her friend before the flood came.

Wynn nodded, doing his best to offer a glimpse of a smile her way, but he was interrupted.

"Three-"

"Bas, drop the weapon!" Wynn panicked, screaming the words out as Bas reached the final number. His voice was loud enough, desperate enough to bring the world to a stop, and somehow, Bas obliged.

He nodded, chucking the blade a couple of feet in front of him, tears spilling from his red eyes. For a moment, Wynn truly believed he had broken through to him, and maybe a part of him was right; maybe the sobs escaping his friend were the only sign Bas could give them to say that he knew they were there, but it didn't mean he was in control.

The boy pulled out a gun from his waistband, immediately forming a tight grip on the weapon and pointing it at the Sovereigns.

Wynn and Dreea fell back a couple of places knowing that their friend wouldn't have any responsibility over if he shot or not, and the likelihood of one of the bullets firing was increasing with every second that passed.

"Make no attempt to follow me unless you want to pay the consequences," Bas said, pulling the trigger without even a second passing.

Before Wynn could react, Dreea pushed into him, forcing him out of the line of the bullet. The next thing he knew, she let out a shriek of pain, clutching frantically at her arm as blood began drooling out of her.

Instincts kicked in and with no choice but to abandon his desire to get to Bas, Wynn latched onto Dreea, pulling her with him to the safety of behind the trees where Fenn was reaching out for them both.

Another bullet fired, missing them by mere centimetres, and Wynn knew that if he wanted to save Dreea, there was nothing he could do to save Bas, too...

Fenn raced to wrap a tourniquet around Dreea's upper arm, doing all he could to stop her from bleeding out as Wynn assisted in whatever way he could, glancing over in Bas' direction every now and then in case he continued his attack.

Thankfully, he seemed to surrender - tucking his gun back away in his waistband and beginning to run in the opposite direction, presumably following Kodiak's lead.

Wynn didn't know if it was too far away to hear him, or if he would ever see him again, but there was still something that needed to be said.

"No matter what happens," Wynn yelled, his voice choking with emotion, "I'll make sure Harlow is safe! I'll look after him! I promise!"

Wynn never got an answer; nothing to tell him that his promise was safe with Bas or that he was leaving with the knowledge that his brother would be safe, but he had to keep holding himself together, anyways; if not for his sake, then for Dreea - who was brutally wounded by the bullet lodged in her arm.

Wynn retreated down to her side, helping Dreea to stand to her feet as she leaned against him with her good arm.

"Come on, I'll get you both to the bunker," Wynn said. "Sol's waiting for us."

"What about... What about Kodiak?" Dreea uttered, struggling to get the words out amid the burning agony in her arm. She was usually quite tolerant when it came to pain, but either it was a little different when the amount of blood running out of her was enough to kill her, or maybe it was just that she knew it had come from Bas; one of her closest friends, now someone she didn't know if she would ever see again. Either way, she was having a hard time finding the strength to continue and knew that without Wynn at her side, she wouldn't have been able to pull herself up off the ground...

"I'll go back for him," Wynn promised, his heart hurting at the idea of losing Kodiak - not only for Elara but for himself. Kodiak was his family.

"I promise I'll go back and find him, but I need to get you somewhere safe!" Wynn stressed. "I'm not losing anyone else today. I'm not losing anyone else in my family."

///////

Wynn slammed his fist desperately against the entrance of Atlantis' bunker, using his other arm to keep Dreea standing.
Fenn was behind them, glancing around in every direction to make sure they weren't being followed, radioing Sol to let her know that they were the ones who were outside.

After a minute or two, the entrance opened and Sol, Chessca and Aeryn appeared with worried eyes, hurrying to help the Sovereign down into the bunker and get the medical help she needed.

Wynn hurried Fenn inside, sealing the entrance behind him and following down the corridor into a room where Dreea was taken.

"What the hell happened out there?" Sol asked, standing to the side of the room beside Wynn, allowing as much space as possible for Aeryn and Fenn to look after Dreea.

"She got shot..." Wynn answered, almost too terrified to tell her the truth and relieve what had happened.

"I can see that," Sol pointed out. "Who by? And where's-"

"Bas shot her," Wynn cut her off, needing a few seconds to compose himself; stop his emotions from tearing him apart.

"He started hurting himself with his blade," Wynn said, "like they threatened at the gates... Dreea and I moved closer to him and he started shooting, so she pushed me out of the way... She took the bullet and she saved my life."

Sol wanted to smile at the tale of heroism she was hearing; beam with pride over what Dreea had done, but she couldn't feel anything other than the terror that was pulsing through her chest with every single breath she took. Not only was Dreea's life in the danger, but the absence of Kodiak seemed to be screaming at her louder than all of the chaos in the entire world.

She could see that Wynn was struggling to recall in detail what had happened to them in the woods, and she didn't want to press on his wound in case the pressure of everything caved in on him; the only thing she could do was put on a brave face and be strong for her friends, determined to leave and find Kodiak as soon as she knew Dreea would be okay. 

Seven // Part Two
I'm not losing anyone else in my family.

Poor Wynn! And I hate to say it, but there will be a couple of losses at the end of Season 7 (one of them who will be an extraordinary loss to our characters). I can't wait to reveal the ending of this season to you and bring to you the start of season 8! The characters are going to be thrown into a completely new environment and I'm soooo excited to reveal all the twists that are coming!

What a long chapter! I really liked writing this one, so I hope you guys enjoyed it, too!

Also, just a heads up: the next chapter is gonna break my heart to write.
So have fun!

15/09/20