Episode Four, Part 5:
By Blood

I've got you brother.

Tobias had been reluctant to return back to his people and leave Ivy behind, but he didn't want to put her life in jeopardy by being around her in case anyone from Terra Firma decided to pay a visit. He eventually left, without the possession of his journals, but he knew they were in trusted hands.

Kodiak and Sol made their way over to Wynn and Ivy, noticing that Ivy was rather conflicted about Tobias' departure, especially given that he didn't take the chance to talk to her again.

"He's leaving?" Ivy asked, not having said much to any of the Sovereigns since her arrival, but she felt as though she no longer had much to hide.

"Yes, and he told us everything," Sol answered. "About the two of you."

"What are you talking about?" She tried to play dumb to it, hoping to convince them that she had no idea what they could be implying, but Sol saw straight through her.

"Cut it out, Ivy," Sol sighed. "We know the history you two have. More importantly, we know that you were one of the founders of Exile Allegiance and, what I'm assuming you don't want Calvin to know - that you've been secretly communicating with Tobias all these years and keeping him alive. The journals that you thought were hidden in the greenhouse? The ones you were hoping we wouldn't give to Calvin? We have them..."

"So what do you want?" Ivy huffed, hating that she felt so out of her depth. "You're going to sell me out to Calvin? Show him that I've been helping Tobias all this time because I still care about him? Whatever."

"No, actually," Sol mumbled, "and I didn't know for sure that you still cared about him, but I guess now we do..."

Ivy rolled her eyes, making a mental note to shut the hell up next time so she didn't give anything else away. "You can't tell him that; you don't know how angry he gets," Ivy warned, a sincere panic filling her voice; something widening her terrified eyes. "And your friend-"

"Relax, we're not planning to tell him," Sol said. "Not if you're going to cooperate, that is."

"You want my help?" Ivy asked. "You want me to lie to Calvin to help you? Go against my own people?"

"You've done it before," Sol folded her arms. "Shouldn't be that hard for you to do it again, right?"

Ivy exhaled a sharp breath, agitated by the smirk on Sol's face, hating that everyone seemed to know the truth about what she had done to Tobias; how she could never escape it. More than anything, Ivy hated how it was something she could ever go back and stop herself form doing.

"What do you me to do?"

"Not much at the moment," Kodiak spoke up. "We just want your silence about what's happened here. We're guessing that Calvin isn't likely to know any of this and you probably want it to stay that way so you can continue helping Tobias. If you tell Calvin about today, we'll tell him about everything that's been going on between you and-"

"Believe me, I'm the last person who wants Calvin to know about me helping Tobias, let alone even talking to him today. It wouldn't end well for anyone that's involved."

"Good," Kodiak answered. "And I assume you already have your theories about what's happened between us and Tobias?"

Ivy shrugged. "You people don't seem cautious of him. And I know what Tobias is like; you've probably requested some sort of alliance with him, even though you already have one with us, haven't you?"

Kodiak looked over at Sol, wondering if she was planning on admitting it.

"There's a lot of people at Exile Allegiance worthy of being protected-" Sol began to explain, but Ivy cut her off.

"No, I get it," she said. "And I think it's the right thing to do. Something I wish I was strong enough to decide sometimes..."

"Ivy, do you..." Sol cut herself short, considering the best way to pose the question. "Do you like being with Calvin?" She asked. "Do you even want to be at Terra Firma?"

"It's not as simple as that-"

"It's supposed to be."

"Well it's not," Ivy argued. "So why don't you focus on your people, and I'll worry about mine."

"But that's exactly my point, you're not going to be worrying about your own people, you'll be thinking about Tobias," Sol pointed out. "You'll be thinking about our plans with him and if he's going to survive this war Calvin wants to initiate against him."

"Why does it bother you so much? I'm obviously not going to tell Calvin about your alliance with Tobias because that would get everyone killed," she snapped. "And your hostage friend will be fine. Can you just stop talking to me about him and mind your own business? My relationship with Calvin doesn't concern you."

Sol widened her eyes in amusement, impressed at Ivy's fierceness towards her and for putting Sol in her place.

"Let's get you back home," Sol smiled, a hint of teasing in her voice as she looked to Wynn, ready to begin the walk back to Terra Firma and retrieve Dreea.

"Actually, I need one of you to go pick up Ell, Izzy and Chess, instead," Kodiak said.

"Why?" Wynn asked. "I thought you were meeting them? And isn't the hideout hidden?"

"It is, but it's pretty easy to find once you know what you're looking for," he said. "The journal does a good job of leading you to it and I expect one of them will be looking out the watch-space, waiting for us anyway. Besides, I, um... I need to talk to Quill," he confessed.

"Quill? Is everything okay?" Wynn asked, noticing the hesitation in Kodiak's voice and beginning to worry that something was going on with his brother.

"Yeah, it's fine," Kodiak answered, trying to avoid their gaze. "Just go. I know they're all eager to get back here."

Wynn nodded, mustering a smile Kodiak's way, though it wasn't one of confidence. "I'll meet them," he said. "Sol will go with Ivy and get Dreea back."

Kodiak let out a breath of relief and watched them leave, waiting a few moments until he was sure they were gone before retreating to his tent and uncovering the journal he had hidden. Still keeping it discreetly held against him, Kodiak wandered over to find Quill who was sitting, talking with Bas and Fenn.

"Hey Quill, I need to talk with you," Kodiak announced, trying to hide his nervousness over the situation.

Quill initially smiled at him but quickly noticed his hesitation, beginning to speculate that it had something to do with Elara and Izzy considering they hadn't been at camp for a majority of the day. He hurried up from the log he was sitting on, following Kodiak's lead away from everyone else, and rushed out the question that was anxiously pressing on his mind.

"Has something happened to Elara and Izzy?"

"Huh? No! No, they're fine," Kodiak assured him, wishing he had done a better job at alleviating his fears; he should have known Quill's first thought would be that something had happened to them...

"Oh..." He mumbled, raising a hand to his chest as he caught his breath. "What's this about then?"

Kodiak sighed, subconsciously bringing the journal into sight and steering Quill over to the furthest fire pit from their camp, allowing them to be well out of ear shot from everyone else. "We should sit down," he said, motioning over to the log and making the first move.

Quill frowned but followed Kodiak nonetheless, unable to fathom what the conversation was about to bring. If none of his family was in danger; if it wasn't anything to do with Elara, then Quill couldn't figure out why Kodiak was so afraid.

"Kodiak, if there's something wrong, you should just tell me," he encouraged. "I can handle it, you know."

"Yeah, I do," Kodiak assured him. "I saw how brave you were on Neptunum; don't worry, I see that in you," he promised, "but this... I don't know. I don't even know how to start."

"The journal?" Quill asked. "Wynn mentioned something to me about them. He said you guys needed them for the alliance somehow?"

Kodiak nodded. "But after I dropped Ell, Chessca and Iz off at the hideout, I went back to the greenhouse and did another search," he said. "And I found this one."

"Okay..." Quill replied, still not sure how any of this was important for him to know.

"Has Wynn told you anything else? Anything about the other clan? The leader of which we were all just speaking with?"

"Yeah," Quill said. "Wynn told me that he thinks they might be from The City of Targo. We were trying to figure out a way to talk to Elara about it without freaking her out. We didn't want it to open old wounds or I don't know, bring back the visions. I'm not even sure that's possible, but it's still something we're afraid of."

"I told Ell on the walk up to the hideout," Kodiak said. "She didn't take it well initially; she thought that it must have been pretty bad for us to take her and Chessca out of camp, but I managed to keep her calm. She was alright when I left and Wynn's gone to find them now; I'm sure once she's back and we update her on the meeting with Tobias, she'll be less anxious about everything."

"That's good," Quill said, "but I still don't understand what you need to tell me and why you seem so worried. And how this journal comes into everything..."

Kodiak sighed. "I think I just need you to look at it for yourself," he said, running his fingers through the pages until he found the one he was searching for - opening it up and passing it to Quill.

His attention was on the Sovereign, even as he took hold of the journal, trying to prepare himself for whatever it was that was making Kodiak feel that way...

Quill glanced down at the page, reading the title, 'First Descendants of West of The City Exile Allegiance'. He scanned through each individual name, not wanting to miss anything, until his finger suddenly stopped tracing them, pausing right at the name of 'Hannah Kady'.

He wasn't sure at first; if anything, there was a buried twinge in his chest that he almost didn't pay any attention to, but then he read the names beside it: 'Lara Kady, Josiah Kady, Isobel Kady'.

"This is... This is my biological family?" He asked, needing Kodiak to confirm it for him.

"Yeah," He breathed out sorely, trying to prepare himself to hurry after Quill if he were to suddenly walk away - unable to process the revelation that was lost inside the journal. Kodiak waited for some kind of response; waited for Quill to say something else, but he was silent for a while - reading the same names over and over. "I was reading through it at the greenhouse when I saw it," he said. "I-I didn't know what to do with it."

"When Hannah was at Basilisk, she mentioned something about my biological aunt," he said. "I was talking to her about when Elara was born and how mum and dad let me name her so I would know I was still a part of the family, even though they had a new baby in their lives," he murmured, smiling softly - only at the memory of Elara being born. "She said that I had an aunt named Lara which is where I would have gotten the name from, but it wasn't. It was in a book Ares read to me on my first night in the Bunker; one he read to me almost every night for months on end; one he always kept wedged between the wall and the side of the bed so he could read it to me when I got scared at night and snuck into his bed. I did that a lot in our first year in the Bunker," he chuckled, more grateful than he could express at still having those memories of his brother; beyond that, more grateful that he could still think about Ares without feeling like he was dying somewhere inside.

"And now that I think about it, I remember Izzy saying something about her 'Auntie Lara' when were down there. I can't even remember why, but I know she didn't say anything about Hannah. I would have pieced it together, for sure," he said. "But if that's the case, then it must mean that Hannah was also her aunt, and... And Josiah was my uncle."

"I think so," Kodiak nodded, resting his hand on Quill's shoulder.

"Which would make Izzy my..."

Kodiak smiled at him to encourage the words out, knowing that despite how everything else was making him feel, this would be worth it all.

"Izzy's my cousin," Quill chuckled, his face consumed in a bright, undeniable smile. "She's my cousin! A-and my adopted niece," he added.

"And my adopted kid," Kodiak contributed, smiling at how bizarre it still felt to say.

"This is crazy," Quill said. "In a good way. I just can't believe it."

"I was so afraid to tell you," Kodiak said. "I didn't want to bring up anything that happened when Hannah was around; I know what she put you through, and Ell, and Wynn."

"Yeah, and you," Quill mentioned, not wanting Kodiak to minimise the trauma Hannah put him through, as well.

"I didn't want to hurt you," Kodiak continued. "I know I'd gladly go without ever hearing her name again, so I assumed it was the same for you. But I couldn't not tell you this."

"I'm glad you did," Quill assured him. "I thought I knew it before - when Hannah was around, but I didn't: family isn't what you're born into, it's who loves you the most; who's there in the best memories you have, and who was there in your darkest ones to pull you out. There's no doubt about it that, that's my brothers and sister," he said. "And I don't like to talk about them very much, but despite everything, it was Martha and Kane, too. It was mum and dad."

"Family's what you make," Kodiak murmured. "My parents died when I was a kid and so did my aunt who took over for them, but Riv and Dreea are a couple years older than me so when I lost everyone, they took it upon themselves to kinda raise me, even though we were all just kids ourselves," he smiled. "Those two are my family. Always have been. And I wouldn't have it any other way."

"And we all know that I'm an advocate for adoptive families," Quill joked, "but in all seriousness, it's been the same for Izzy. She's already my family because of who she is to Elara and you, and this doesn't really change anything, but man, it's pretty cool. It's pretty special."

"I agree," Kodiak patted him on the back. "And I'm so relieved that I didn't upset you. But, I'm still a little nervous about telling Wynn and Elara," he said. "I haven't even talked to Elara properly about everything that went down when Hannah was around."

"I forget that you weren't with us in the Bunker," Quill nodded. "Sometimes it feels like you were never gone, other times I have to do a double take that you're here."

Kodiak laughed a little, but under the surface, the memory of being apart from everyone - Elara in particular - still felt too painful to confront, even though he knew it was over now.

"The whole time I was on Neptunum, I knew Elara thought I was dead, and that killed me to think about. I know how it was for her when you lost Ares and thinking she'd lost me as well..."

"She loves you more than anyone in the world," Quill murmured, speaking so fondly of them. "That was clear when we were in the Bunker. Losing Ares, she could recover from because she still had me and Wynn, but they'll never be another you. She wouldn't want there to be."

Kodiak smiled, but he wasn't sure if he was relieved or miserable. "I hated that the last few days I had with her were so cruel," he said. "Hannah made me end things with her to distract her from you," he confessed, wondering if Quill had ever known all the ways Hannah had tried to destroy his family. "And the implant... Well, I think that speaks for itself. Elara and Wynn found me when I think they were on the way to your Bunker," he said. "And I was so sure that if I stayed, I would hurt Wynn; I would kill him. So I had to go, but then Elara showed up out of nowhere, and... I thought I'd never see her again. When she left, I didn't try to fight the implant anymore, but Hannah deactivated it at some point and I made my way back to Basilisk to find Bas. Everyone else was dead and then Neptunum showed up."

"I'm so sorry you guys had to go through that," Quill said. "No one deserved it, you two especially."

"I'm just glad that we survived. Most of us," he said. "But still, after everything, it's why I'm so hesitant to tell them. I don't want Elara to hear Hannah's name and have to remember everything she's overcome. I just want to have peace. She needs that."

"We can tell them together," Quill said. "Because we're a family. Aren't you like, my brother-in-law or something now?"

Kodiak laughed at him, shoving him playfully. "We were already family," Kodiak declared.

Quill joined in on his laughter, amused with himself that he always seemed to be the one making people laugh, but he softened just enough to let his sincerity right through. "I know." 

Four // Part Five
Family is who loves you the most; who is there in the best memories you have, and who was there in the darkest ones to pull you out. // We were already family.

Y'all, I cannot tell you HOW much I loved writing this scene between Quill and Kodiak. I get a lot of scenes between Wynn and and Kodiak because of them being Sovereigns and obviously a lot between Elara and Kodiak, so it was nice to show his bond with Quill, as well. I loved their vulnerability with each other and how they also see each other as family/brothers (and not just because they're actually brothers-in-law) and also how they have felt that way about each other for a really long time. Also, the lyric up top for Kodiak and Quill is just *chef's kiss*.

IZZY BEING THE ONLY BIOLOGICAL FAMILY THAT QUILL FEELS CONNECTED TO BUT ONLY HAVING THAT CONNCTION BECAUSE HE THOUGHT THEY WERE ONLY RELAATED THROUGH ELARA ADOPTING IZZY IS SOMETHING SO SPECIAL TO ME. ADOPTION REP! ADOPTION REP!!! 

11/03/21.