Episode Six, Part 2:
Love is Just a Way to Die

And although it wasn't for long, 
you taught me what love is. 

Elara smiled at Kodiak as he returned to the room, only without Izzy as she had been safely taken back to the youth sector. She was expecting it to be the end of their time together and just like usual, she was trying to not to acknowledge the restless questions coming her way regarding when she would next be able to see him or Izzy again.

"Thank you for tonight," Elara said, reaching her hands out to hold onto Kodiak's as he made his way over to her. "It meant so much to me. Even more so to see how much Izzy adores you."

"She's the sweetest kid," Kodiak beamed, pulling Elara close to her so the distance between them was closed. "I'm glad I got the chance to meet her properly and let her know how I'm here. And I'm glad you had each other all that time."

"Now I have you both," Elara smiled, projecting her delight in her voice, rising up to her tiptoes so that she could kiss him.

Kodiak smiled against her lips, pulling away too soon, knowing she wanted more of him.

"Just a few more moments," Elara asked. "I just want a little more time with you before this night ends."

"Who said that this is how the night is going to end? Your lips against mine? Saying goodbye like you don't know when you'll get to do this again?" Kodiak smirked. "I'm not ready for you to leave, either."

"Well then, I guess I can't leave you," Elara murmured, beginning to shoot a smile his way only to end up frowning as Kodiak pulled away. "Where are you going?"

Kodiak chuckled as he moved to one of the cabinets by the locked door, pulling out a dark coat and jumpsuit.

"What's that?"

"Your new uniform," Kodiak said, extending it out to her. "Try it on. I think it'll look good on you."

Elara was a little suspicious, but she listened nonetheless and pulled the jumpsuit on over her clothes, spinning around on the spot for extra effect.

"How do I look?"

"Hmm..." Kodiak crossed his arms and scratched at his chin as if he was seriously contemplating his answer. "I wouldn't say it's your colour-"

"You're so full of it!" Elara laughed, swatting at his arm as she playfully attacked him. "Why did you want me to put this on, anyway? Are you recruiting me for the guard?"

"Hell no," Kodiak laughed, taking hold of the jacket and helping her to put it on. "I figured it'd be much easier for me to get you around if you were wearing this."

"Get me around as in to see Izzy or back to my cell?"

Kodiak shook his head. "There's somewhere I want to take you."

Elara let out a shaky breath, not used to doubting his plans. "Is that safe?"

"You'll be in a guard uniform, Elara; no one in the place knows everyone, so they'd just assume you're one of the 50-odd guards that they don't know. And you'll be with me; you're always safe with me. But if you don't feel comfortable, that's okay-"

"I trust you," Elara cut him off. "Of course I do. And I want as much time with you as I can get, so okay, I'm in."

"Good," Kodiak smiled, reaching for something on the table behind Elara. She couldn't figure out what it was until he had placed it around her head, somewhat slanted.

Elara giggled, adjusting the helmet over her head, for a moment, imaging she was seeing things from his perspective.

"Don't worry," Kodiak said. "You just have to wear the mask until we get there."

"Well, I'm already intrigued, so let's get going."

"Don't leave without me," he called out to her, laughing in response as Elara moved past him, already venturing towards the door and out into the hallway.

///////

Kodiak grabbed onto Elara's hand once they reached the door, pulling her close behind him as they stepped outside onto the deck of the ship, meeting the cold breeze that had consumed the dark night.

He glanced around, looking in every direction to make sure they were alone. Once he was sure they were, he led her over to the railing, squishing her in between his arms and the barrier.

"It's been so long since I've been outside," Elara hummed, not even caring about how brisk it was as it allowed Kodiak to hold onto her a little tighter than usual.

"What are you talking about? You spent the first 14 years of your life underground. Six months is nothing," Kodiak laughed.

"Yeah, but I didn't know what the ground was like before then. And it's impossible not to miss once you've seen it," Elara smiled, secretly enjoying his teasing.

"I get it," Kodiak said. "I come out here all the time and it's just miles and miles of the sea. Sometimes you can't even tell where it ends and where the sky begins. It's a little bit consuming."

Elara reached up and took her helmet off, waiting until Kodiak did the same so she could look at him.

"Consuming's a good word," she said. "Every little thing seems to consume me, too. Is there something stressing you out? You look worried all of a sudden."

"I'm trying to stay one step ahead of everything," Kodiak sighed, hating how he never did a good enough job at hiding his concerns from her; she always managed to figure them out and carry them as if they were her own burdens.

"Is everything still going along with your plan?"

Kodiak nodded. "I managed to help Atlantis and Riv get to the control room and they set the coordinates for the ship. Chess' implant is out, but I didn't manage to get Wynn's out... Although I don't think that's as much of a problem as I'm worried about, seeing as Xander is able to tamper with the results of his scans: no one should figure out he has one. They'll just assume the trials don't work on his for some reason."

"Then it's all okay then," Elara said, reaching upwards and cupping his cheek in her hand. "So why don't we allow ourselves the liberty of not worrying about anything tonight? You're here and I'm here, and can't that be the only thing that matters for right now? That we're together? Aren't we allowed to have this one night with the world on our side? Where there's nothing that can come between us for once? As far as I can see, you're my entire world at this very second. I want it stay like that for a little while longer."

"That sounds like a good idea," Kodiak said, turning Elara around so she was once again buried in his arms. "I can't get enough of you."

Elara giggled against him, something about the innocence still left in her sound seeming to fill his entire body with warmth.

"I don't want to spoil the moment, but I used to come up here every night and imagine what it would be like to feel you again like this," he said, breathing into his grasp on her. "To hold you, kiss you... Some days it felt like nothing more than a hopeless hope - existing without any sort of promise or possibility, but I believed in it for the most part, and it's the only thing that kept me going all this time: that I hadn't lost you forever. Maybe it's time I start believing that sometimes, things really do work out for the good of us. That miracles happen; things that shouldn't be possible, are possible and the people we love find a way of coming back to us."

"I think I believe in that, too," Elara whispered, careful not to say it too loud - not wanting to jinx herself. Fate hadn't been kind to her in the past.

"Second chances," Kodiak hummed to himself, smiling into his words. "That's what we get when people come back. A clean slate... Speaking of which," Kodiak trailed off, leaning closer to Elara so his head was pressed beside hers. He squinted a little, stretching out his hand that was wrapped around and pointed off into the distance. "That dark spot on the horizon. Can you see it?"

Elara focused her eyes as best as she could in the dark, taking a few moments to see what he was seeing. "What is that?" She asked.

"That's our clean state. Where the ship is heading, thanks to Riv and Atlantis. That spot right there... That's going to be our home."

"A new Basilisk," Elara murmured, trying to be grateful that they still had somewhere to go instead of focusing on the home they left behind.

"Yeah," Kodiak beamed. "We'll rebuild our camp; new traditions; no Blood Riders or Targo... Our lives together."

"Kodiak-" Elara was unable to get another word out, suddenly shrieking in both shock and amusement as water splashed up from beneath the ship, hitting her straight in the face. It was a sharp, brutal coldness - almost stinging her skin as it trailed down her cheeks and soaked the long strands of her hair that had fallen loose, but she didn't mind. She started laughing at herself, wiping the water from her eyes as Kodiak helped dry her cheeks with his hands.

"It's freezing!" She yelled at him, trying to amplify her voice over her relentless giggling and the harsh wind that swept through.

"That's probably what the helmets are for!" Kodiak laughed, suddenly hit by the realisation that this was the most beautiful he had ever seen her. The waves in her red hair were intensified by the water that coated it, clinging to the sides of her face that were lit up in sheer joy. In spite of all their challenges that were far from over, deep down, there was still a part of her that refused to let that be taken away from her. Even when she was hollowing in grief in the Bunker; even when she held the blade towards herself in the mess hall, she had never been ready to surrender... Kodiak knew that without a doubt.

"Turn around."

"What?" Elara asked, smiling expectantly at him.

"Turn around!" Kodiak repeated, unable to distinguish the eagerness in his voice. He grabbed onto her shoulders, spinning her around until she was focusing on the horizon again.

"Now what?" Elara asked, confused as his hands let go of her.

"I want you to imagine that second chance I was talking about," he said. "The clean slate; our future together."

"Easy," Elara said, proud of her answer. Visions immediately flooded into her mind of warm afternoons spent watching Kodiak teach Izzy how to fight. She'd be picking up the skills faster than they could train her and they'd get her to practise against Quill - who she would have no trouble in beating - just like it had happened for Elara. Most importantly, everyone was together and they were no safe; not even a distant worry somewhere deep in the back of their minds that danger was always right around the corner.

"Okay..." Kodiak mumbled after a few seconds, letting out what sounded like a nervous breath. "Turn around again."

"You're making no sense," Elara laughed, following his instructions and once again spinning around to look at him, puzzled for a second when he wasn't where she expected.

Her eyes flickered down, suddenly at a loss for breath as she saw Kodiak propped up on one knee, extending out a curved, ring of gold that glimmered in the dim light.

"K-Kodiak..."

"I'm pretty sure this is how people used to do it," he said, rambling on in anxiety.

"Where did you get that?"

"It was in a room full of things confiscated from the people Neptunum brought in. I kept it ever since I found it - maybe four or five months ago - as a way of reminding me what I was doing this for... It was you," he let out a long exhale, somehow already finding the answers in her watering eyes, even before he had asked the question.

"I never want to spend another day without you, let alone a minute," he said. "And I could go on for hours about every individual thing I love about you; how you persevere through everything that's sent to knock you down; how you've never let any of it take away your innocence away, even though I know you think it has. But the only thing I want to ask right now is... Will you spend the rest of your life with me? Will you be mine for always?"

Elara nodded, answering before she even knew that she was; before she could even get a word out. Tears spilled down her cheeks as Kodiak stood up, his hands trembling in emotion as he slid the ring onto Elara's finger, sealing their fate.

"I love you so much, Elara," he said, stuttering in his words, too excited to compose himself.

"I love-" Elara cut herself off, her eyes suddenly widening in recognition.

"What?" Kodiak searched. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," Elara shook her head, pulling her hands from his to reach up behind her neck, unclasping the chain necklace that was tied around her. "I just thought of something."

Kodiak watched on in anticipation, trying to comprehend what could have possibly distracted her from this moment. He gazed at the necklace Elara pulled down from her neck, holding one end of the chain as she slid something off from around it, catching it in her hand.

She tucked the necklace into her pocket and uncurled her fingers from around what she had been so determined to reveal. It was Fabian's old ring - the one she had given Kodiak as a promise ring not long before they made the journey to find Sol and Chessca in The City. The one that meant forever.

Elara took hold of Kodiak's hand, pulling it towards her and delicately sliding the ring onto him.

"You kept it?" Kodiak asked, remembering how she had reclaimed it after he was forced into ending their relationship. "You had it on you this entire time?"

Elara shook her head, smiling fondly at him. "I never took it off," she confessed. "I always knew one day I'd get the answers to what happened that day and somehow everything would go back to normal. And when I was in the Bunker, even though I thought you were... You know... It proved to me that you were mine, no matter what. And I was yours."

Kodiak didn't know what to say; there were no words he could come close to finding that would sum up how he was feeling, but thankfully, he didn't need to. Elara was standing in front of him, feeling the same way, and as he grabbed onto the sides of her face, pulling her so that her lips crashed against his, it was as if nothing was left unsaid.

"And I love you too, by the way. For always," Elara murmured against his lips; the heat of her breath tickling his skin.

Kodiak smiled and leaned in to kiss her once again, almost lost in the way her arms slung around his neck and her fingers danced in his hair. He thought the rest of the night would be spent like this - inexplicably lost in each other - but fate had already arrived at their feet and was watching on, waiting to be seen.

Kodiak pulled away from Elara, startled by a distant noise that came in the direction of the door. It was so dark outside that he wasn't expecting to see anyone, but he did.

Athena was standing in front of the door, watching on with several guards lined up at her side, a disapproving expression plastered across her face.

Instincts forced Kodiak to push Elara behind him in an attempt to conceal her away as if she hadn't already been seen. He believed for a moment that she was safe because he remembered putting the helmet on her before they left the room inside, but as a stray drop of water splashed up and hit his face, he was reminded of how exposed they were.

"Athena, I can explain-" Kodiak began to say, taking the slightest step forward with his hands held up in front of his chest; some sort of surrender. But as he moved, so did Elara.

She peered out from behind him, taking a nervous step to his side to see what was happening; to figure out how much trouble she had landed in, and that was when she felt it.

There was a loud noise that erupted from beside Athena and a gush of gunpowder that caught in the air and blew straight towards Elara. At the feeling of something warm beginning to soak through her shirt, she looked down, petrified to see her hands already stained in her dark, red blood that was spilling out of her at an unstoppable rate.

"...Elara?" 

Six // Part Two
Will you spend the rest of your life with me?

Oh, the irony.

"You were mine, no matter what. And I was yours. And I love you too, by the way."

WHAT THE HECK!? SO MUCH JUST HAPPENED THERE!
KODIAK PROPOSED TO ELARA!?!??!? AND THEN???? ELARA WAS??? SHOT!?

This was maybe the most fun I have ever had writing a chapter. I was literally dancing in my room last night when I was writing the proposal scene. Anyway, there's so much to come. Next chapter will be brutal (kind of like this one haha). Thank you for sticking with me.

What do you think is going to happen?

29/11/20.