Episode Six, Part 6:
Implant

"Good, you're here," Wynn let out a breath of relief, hurrying to shut the door behind Liam as he joined him and Aeryn in the small map room. "Did you manage to bring it?"

"Yeah," Liam answered, frowning as he pulled the implant out of his back pocket, revealing it to them both. "But I don't know what you're planning on doing with it. Fenn's already tried everything he can think of to figure out how to deactivate it-"

"We're not trying to deactivate it," Wynn told him, watching as recollection slowly started to appear in the boy's eyes. "We're trying to activate it."

"Like... Put it in someone?" Liam asked, realising by their awkward expressions that he was right. "Who?"

"Me," Wynn answered.

Liam shook his head, retreating his hand away and folding his fingers over the implant so they couldn't take it. "Are you guys insane? Why the heck do you want to put the implant inside you when the whole problem is that no one can figure out how to get it out?"

"Because I need to know what this implant does, how it works, why they want to give it to us," Wynn said. "As far as we know, Chessca's has only been activated once, but Kodiak seems to know a lot more about it than he can tell us and I need to make sure he's okay. I need to get answers; for Elara, Sol and Dreea... For my brother."

"This could kill you. How are you any help to your people if you're dead? To your family?"

"We're not trying to take it out," Wynn said. "That seems to be the problematic part, not getting it in. I'll be fine. I have to do this."

"Wynn-"

"I'm a Sovereign, Liam. I have to make sacrifices for my people; this is one of them."

Liam huffed in frustration, turning to face Aeryn.

"You're really going to help him do this?" He asked.

Aeryn shrugged, sharing a half-amused smile with Wynn. "I've helped him with far crazier things before," she said. "Believe it or not, this might not actually be his stupidest plan."

Wynn knew what she was saying; turning him into a Pureblood so he could take his sister's place as Commander of Targo was undoubtedly the most idiotic decision he had ever made, but this was surely a close second.

"Fine," Liam caved, "but for the record, I don't want to be blamed for killing a Sovereign if this all goes wrong."

"Don't worry, you won't be," Wynn assured him. "But if it goes right, you'll be known for saving a Sovereign. Believe me, that'll do you some favours."

Aeryn chuckled to herself, taking the implant from Liam and guiding Wynn to sit down on the chair they had pulled over.

"I'm going to try and make the incision in the base of your hairline," she informed him, wheeling over her tray of medical instruments as she prepped the back of his neck. "That way the scar won't be obvious and no one will figure out anything's happened to you."

"Unless I start acting crazy, or have a complete personality change, or a seizure," Wynn said, trying to make a joke out of it to distract himself from how afraid he was deep down.

"That's true," Aeryn replied, answering him to also distract him from the sharp cut she was making to the back of his head. "I'll make sure to look out for any of those signs," she said. "Although it's hard to tell sometimes; when you're tired, you're grumpy so I try and stay well away from you half the time."
"Funny," Wynn teased, screwing his face up in pain as he could feel Aeryn attempt to insert the implant into him.

"Liam, hold the torch," Aeryn ordered, waiting until the boy scrambled for the light, finally holding it to Wynn's head before she tried again.

"What's happening?" Wynn asked, not receiving an answer. "You know, you're currently trying to force something into a hole in the back of my head, so if you could say something, that you would be really reassuring."

"Quit being so dramatic," Aeryn still managed to crack a joke, despite the anxiety she could feel over her attempts not working. "I... I don't think I'm doing this right."

"Just keep trying," Wynn encouraged her, not caring about the barely-tolerable pain and discomfort it brought him. "I have to have this," he said. "I need the answers. I need to make sure this doesn't happen to Quill."

"I know," Aeryn sympathised with him, letting out a deep breath as she pulled away from him, clearly defeated. "I don't want anything to happen to him, either," she told him. "I want to be able to do this for you, but the implant isn't going in. Even if I could get it in there, it doesn't look like I can get it to activate. I'm sorry, but this is beyond me."

Wynn sat up in the chair, taking over from Aeryn and holding a cloth to the back of his head to try and put pressure on his wound.

"Well, I'm not giving up," he said. "We'll figure something else out."

"Unless your plan is to be another one of Hannah's victims, then good luck with that," Liam muttered to himself, somewhat relieved that it hadn't worked.

"That's it..." Wynn said.

Liam raised an eyebrow, unsure what he was referring to.

"I'll get Hannah to give me the implant."

"There it is," Aeryn clicked her tongue, her face lighting up in amusement as she looked to Liam. "There's your stupidest idea yet."

Wynn rolled his eyes, suddenly forced to lean back in the chair as Aeryn pulled the towel away from his neck, beginning to stitch up his incision.

"Whatever," Wynn said. "My stupid plans always work out in the end, don't they?"

"Technically that's true," Aeryn said, "but only because River always shows up to save your butt."

"She won't need to save me this time. No one will," he was confident. "I've already got a plan... Leave it to me."

///////

"Liam, are you sure this is where you saw them?" Sol asked, adjusting her grip on her weapon in uncertainty as the group followed the boy's lead to where he told them he had seen Hannah with someone.

"Yeah, right up here," he answered, keeping his voice hushed, knowing that they were probably getting close enough for them to hear. He glanced around the trees, seeming to recognise where he was, and giving them the instruction that the people they were looking for were just on the other side of the bushes.

Sol called everyone in, clarifying the plan of attack so they were all prepared, not realising that she was just a pawn in the one Wynn had already conspired.

"Circle around the bushes," she ordered. "Stay low and out of sight. We need to get a clear view of who's with her and what's happening; we can't act until those two questions are answered."

Everyone nodded, dispersing until they reached their positions, gradually turning to peek through the branches to catch a glimmer of who of their people they had come to rescue.

Liam stuck close to Sol, crouching down beside her and waiting for the recognition to settle in. It was hard for her to see at first but a flash of red hair was enough to tell her who the person was that was with Hannah.

Instinctively, Sol tried to rise to her feet - determined to abandon the plan and make her way over to them, situating herself in between Wynn and Hannah, but Liam caught onto her wrist, keeping her down.

"I swear if you don't get off of me right this second-"

"He knows what he's doing," Liam told her, almost fearing his life in result of the enraged look on Sol's face.

"What the heck are you talking about?" She snapped, still keeping her voice to a whisper.

"They're going to give him the implant."

"Like hell I'm letting that happen."

"Stop!" Liam demanded, more forcefully restraining her which sol didn't like one bit. By this point, Dreea had made her way over, curious to see what all the commotion was about. "If you go out there, Hannah will kill him. Just listen to me: you have to wait until she puts the implant in his head."

"No way," Sol shook her head. "Chess and Kodiak already have one because of her. I'm not letting her do the same thing to him, too. Not after everything else. Not him."

"Riv, what's going on?" Dreea asked, her eyes flickering between both Sovereigns, not sure who to focus on. "Did you know about this?"

"No, but apparently he 'has a plan.'"

"Oh dear," Dreea mumbled, already feeling a headache begin to surface. She knew the extent Wynn would go to and the number of sacrifices he would make to try and save other people. "I'll take the left side - try and get a shot at Hannah. You take-"

"You can't do anything," Liam interrupted, earning a look twice as fierce from her as the one he had received from Sol.

"Excuse me?" Dreea asked. "Do you know who you're talking to!? I'm a Sovereign and that guy standing over there about to get his head injected with an implant is one too; that makes him my family. So if you don't mind, I'm going to stab this blade through Hannah's chest to try and save his life!"

She spoke so fast and with so much rage that Liam could barely find a second to get a word in, but he pushed away the intimidation he felt from her, knowing it was important that they realised how they were all fitting into Wynn's plans.

"Wynn tricked Hannah into following him out here to get an implant. You need to let her do it, and then you guys can appear, heroic and all," he said.

"Where's the logic behind that?" Dreea asked, frustrated that she couldn't just kill Hannah and get the situation over with, but knowing that she owed it to Wynn to listen to what Liam had to say.

"So you guys have your proof that Hannah is the one behind all this," he said. "So Wynn can show Quill what she's capable of and he'll know that she's no good for him. He also did this for you, Riverly."

"...For me?" Sol asked, feeling a terrible aching inside of her chest. Why had he put himself in all that danger for her? Again...

"Sovereign Kodiak and Chessca," Liam said. "He knows you can't lose either of them, just like he can't lose his brother. Trust me, he's weighed out every possibility and there's no doubt in his mind."

Sol sighed, looking to Dreea and seeing her anger melt away, softening to a look of empathy for Wynn - standing feet away from danger.

"What does he want us to do?" Sol gave in, willing to do whatever it took to keep him safe.

///////

Wynn was surprised at himself for how fearful he felt as he stood in front of Hannah. There was cold sweat beading across his forehead and a slight shake to his hand that he couldn't get to go away, no matter how many times he cracked his knuckles or stretched out his fingers.

He wondered if he had got the timing of their plan right; if the time he had approached Hannah left enough time for Liam to arrive with the others, but just as he was waiting for, Wynn could see a glimmer of light peeking out from one of the distant bushes behind Hannah. One of his people was in place with the flashlight, sending a message to him that everyone was there, ready to spring into action once Hannah followed through on her part of the meeting.

"It's really unfortunate for you that you came out here unarmed," Hannah taunted him, making sure the ropes she had tied around his hands and feet were secure enough. "But I guess that's fate, and I've always believed in fate."

"That's quite ironic," Wynn said, "Because I do, too."

Hannah raised an eyebrow, curious how he could twist her words into fitting his narrative.

"It's fate that Quill ended up in my Bunker when there were others nearby," he said. "It was also fate that I ended up gaining another brother and that he got an entire family who loved him. So yeah, I believe in fate because of him."

"Love?" Hannah scoffed. "Sorry, wasn't there another one of you?" She asked. "And didn't he died because... Oh, that's right. Because of your dad? The same dad who tried to kidnap your sister and erase all of her memories - including the ones of everyone from the Bunker or, as you call them, 'family'? Well, I'm glad that he has me around now to show him what love really looks like."

Wynn had to ignore the brutal mention of Ares and not give in the trap Hannah was trying to lure him into; he knew at the end of the day that he, Elara and Ares were always going to be the ones that loved Quill the most, and no one could take that truth away from them.

"Just give up your game, Hannah," Wynn sighed. "This is Quill's life that you're messing with. We all know that he's going to be inside the Bunker with me and you'll be left on the ground."

"You know, I was kind of hoping you'd say something like that," Hannah smirked, pulling out a device from the back of her jeans.

Wynn had to make himself seem afraid - like he had no idea what the machine was used for, or if she was planning on killing him.

"What is that?" He asked, sounding distant.

"Stay still," Hannah ordered, grabbing harshly onto the collar of Wynn's jacket, forcing him to bend over as she brought it up to the back of his neck.

Wynn braced himself for a sharp pain, not at all prepared for the agony that came with the implant successfully being injected into the back of his head. He did his best to conceal his suffering so Hannah didn't have a chance to revel in the sight of him in pain, but he couldn't hide away everything he felt.

Wynn gradually stood up a little straighter, twitching in discomfort and breathing heavily as he stared Hannah down, waiting for his friends to come out of hiding.

"I suppose you're wondering what that is?"
Wynn shrugged bitterly, completely aware of what was inside him.

"It's a little something special that myself, Lydian and Josiah worked on in The City of Targo; something that we would have used on your dear Nobel Sovereign if The Alteration didn't succeed."

Once again, Wynn felt a spark of rage as Hannah tried to use someone he loved against him, but he refused to let her have that kind of power over him.

"It's an implant; something that's been intricately put together to-"

"To control certain people inside Basilisk to follow your orders. Yeah, I'm well aware," Wynn interrupted her, forcing his hands to thrust downwards and subsequently breaking the restraints around his wrists. He wasn't sure if Hannah was more surprised by his sudden freedom or the fact that he seemed to know about the implant.

"We're already aware of a few people who have one and although we weren't quite brave enough to take it out of them, we did try someone else who we discovered had one."

"...Who?" Hannah was unable to hide her sheer terror as Wynn confessed the leverage he had, possibly because she knew the risks of trying to remove the implant without understanding how it worked.

Wynn took in a deep breath, hating to use the child's death against her as if it was some kind of leverage they had on her or something they were careless about, but he didn't have a choice.

"Isaiah," Wynn said his name. "And unfortunately, he didn't survive."

"No..." Hannah mumbled. "No, you're lying! He's a child! You wouldn't have killed him-"

"You killed him!" Wynn roared. "You put the implant in his head for whatever sick and twisted intentions you had. We tried to get it out to save him and the other people you've done this to."

"You're gonna pay for this," Hannah growled, overcome by a rage that only intensified with every second she saw the Sovereign standing in front of her. "A life for a life - that's fair. I'm going to kill you and then your sister will have no one because Quill will be coming with me."

Wynn waited patiently until she had finished speaking, taking a step closer to her.

"Hannah, effective immediately, you and the rest of your people are banished from Basilisk. Any attempts to approach our camp and you will be killed-"

Wynn couldn't finish his declaration, suddenly overcome with an electrifying pain that took over his entire body. He cried out in pain, clutching at his head as he fell to the ground, already knowing that Hannah had activated the implant - most likely to kill him as she had said.

Behind him, Wynn could make out the sound of Liam's voice giving the signal for everyone to move forward now that things had taken a sudden turn for the worst. He tried to sit himself up - despite the implant trying to kill him from the inside out - only to feel held down by a pair of hands, trying to get him to stay still until they could turn the implant off. Using all of the energy he could muster, Wynn peeled his eyes open to see Sol at his side, desperately trying to take hold of him and make sure he was okay.

He went against all instincts to pry her off from him, pushing past her and making it the few feet over to where Hannah was, shielding himself in front of her right as Dreea approached, ready to kill her once and for all.

"Stop!" Wynn yelled, his voice just desperate enough to gain everyone's attention.

"You can't kill her..." He choked the words out, knowing that no one saw any validation behind his words or any logic.

"Wynn-" Sol murmured, only caring about getting his pain to stop.

"Quill," he muttered, no longer having the strength to keep himself sitting up, his body finally falling to the ground. Sol hurried over, trying to keep him awake - relieved that he was still hanging on.

"He'll never forgive me... If we kill her," he heaved, drifting in and out of consciousness, barely processing what he was saying. "I can't... Lose him... I love him..."

Wynn's eyes finally rolled shut and he collapsed against Sol, falling into the lull of sleep with a desperate ache for his brother... 

Six // Part Six
Wynn, Elara and Ares were always going to be the ones that loved Quill the most.

I had so much fun writing this chapter! I'm so close to Season 8 - it's unbelievable! I started writing this series mid last year (I originally started Season 1 in 2018, but I wrote about 3 chapters and left it for almost a year) and I can't believe that we're about to start book 8! I wonder if I'll finish this series (book 10) by the end of this year? If not, it'll definitely be next year!

That's actually kind of heartbreaking; I don't want to ever stop writing about these characters!

Anyway, can't wait to show you what's coming up! The ending of S7 has one of my favourite parallels in the series, and I can't wait for you to find out what it is!

09/09/20

Joshua 1:9: Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, do not be discouraged - for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.