Episode Four, Part 3:
Imitate

"Let me guess, you have conditions," Wynn searched, one of his eyebrows arched up slightly, certain that her help wouldn't come without a price.

"I have a few," Sol stated, standing up and taking a step closer to Wynn. She walked around him and pulled out a gun from her waistband, spinning the edge of the weapon loosely on her finger. Under usual circumstances, Wynn would have felt nervous, but the action seemed so nonchalant that Wynn suspected that Sol wasn't even aware she was doing it. 

"The first thing is that I want to know about your life in the Bunker; why did you guys go down there? How long were you down there for-" 

"We moved into the Bunker when I was-" 

"I wasn't finished." 

Sol was standing behind Wynn as she spoke and, knowing that he couldn't see him, he rolled his eyes. 

"I want to know how you survived. Prior to a couple of weeks ago, no one at Basilisk knew about your Bunker, so I'm guessing you've been down there a while. And what technology did you have to sustain you? Resources?" 

"Anything else your highness?" His remark was somewhat taunting, but it still made Sol smirk. 

"Yes," she extended her hand out, causing Wynn's eyes to widen as he scrambled to figure out what was happening. "I want you to learn how to shoot." 

As Wynn went to take hold of the gun, a sense of power building inside him, Sol retracted her hand, a sarcastic smile appearing on her face. "But we'll get to that later," she teased and returned to her seat opposite him. "I want to hear about that Bunker."

"Now? It's late, Sol. Can't a guy get some sleep around here?" 

"Says the guy whose been wandering around camp instead of sleeping in his tent. Besides, the quicker I learn about the Bunker, the quicker I can train you to shoot. Once you know how to shoot, I'll take you out of Basilisk."

Wynn didn't need any more convincing; leaving Basilisk meant finally searching for his family, and he would do or say whatever he needed to make that happen. 

"We moved into the Bunker 14 years ago," Wynn began. "Maybe closer to 15 years. I was three at the time," he said, his uncertainity suggesting that he wasn't even confident of his exact age. "I don't know where we came from before - I think it was a city, but it definitely wasn't around him." 

"Why did you guys move in?" 

"Because of all the war," Wynn answered and Sol gave a knowing look back. "It was really bad where we were. I don't have a lot memories from before the Bunker, but I still remember hiding with Ares when we were kids, and someone was bombing the city..." He trailed off slightly, tender at the mention of his brother's name. "People heard about others moving into hiding and my Mom and Dad knew about some people investing in a Bunker, so our family went in. That's all I remember until we were inside." 

"Your family meaning you, your parents, and your brothers?" 

"And my little sister, Elara," he said, holding back emotion. 

"She's-" 

"She's not here." 

There was a recognition that flashed across Sol's face; some sort of sympathy that meant a great deal more to Wynn than he would ever admit. 

"How many other families were with you?" 

"Four families, 18 people," he said. "Although, there were 17 when you invaded us." 

Sol pieced it together in her head, but she was still curious. "What happened?" 

"We lost someone... Holden Blackwood: Bas' father," he said, hoping Sol would recognise the name of his friend who was somewhere in camp with them. "The Bunker's heating system failed one winter. My Dad said he had pnuemonia and he just didn't get better." 

Surprisingly, Sol was most interested in understanding what had happened to his body. Surely they would have left the Bunker to discard of it... But she bit on her lip and fought off her habits and every other question she held that remained unanswered. 

"I'm sorry."

Wynn smiled softly, but he didn't look up at her to show his thanks. "Four of us were born down there. I don't know what our parents were thinking, but all of them survived... Well... I don't know if they're alive anymore."

"Who was born in the Bunker?" She asked, trying to distract him. "Your sister?" 

Wynn nodded. "Elara was the first."

"And the others?" Again, she was quick to move him on, but even the mention of Elara's name was enough to make Wynn uneasy.

"Harlow and Hayzel. Twins. Bas' and Lyra's siblings." 

"Lyra-"

"She's my best friend," he knew the drill now: don't talk about them too much; move on quickly before it hurt. Yet, the ache of his friend almost felt a little different than all the others...

"And there's Lili. She came along around 2 years ago. The last of us."

"What about everyone else? The ones who aren't at Basilisk?"

Wynn sighed. He dropped his head in his hands, staring down at the ground as his feet grazed over the dirt. "Mom, Dad, and Elara, as you know. They're my direct family; Valarie and Lili - Azha's family; Fabian - who's MaReya's brother, and her dad, Junius... There's Emlyn who's Bas' mother, and his siblings, I told you about." 

Sol nodded, making a mental note of all that Wynn had told her, but he was missing someone. 

"Considering it was only designed for 13 people to live in, I'd say we did pretty well surviving 14 years down there." 

"Wait... Designed for 13?" Sol asked. "I thought you said there were only four people born down there?" She tried to do the math; even with his friend's father passing away in the Bunker, there was still one extra person she couldn't account for. 

"That'd be Quill," Wynn said, smiling fondly. 

"Your brother? What do you mean?" 

"Quill wasn't even supposed to be in the Bunker," he said. "He came down alone." 

Sol frowned, evidently confused. Though she didn't know their exact ages, she was certain that Wynn and Quill were close in age, so she couldn't understand how Quill had persuaded his place in the Bunker if there was no one to fight for him. 

A bashful smile appeared on Wynn's face, a genuine spark of joy as he recalled the story of his brother. "Quill wasn't even supposed to be in the bunker. He came down alone."

"It was day we all actually moved into the Bunker; the furniture was all ready, we were just taking in the last of our things: toys, clothes, all that," he said. "When Ares went into our room he found Quill curled up, sound asleep on his bed. The Bunker had been closed by then, and there was no sign of his parents. He was only two; I was four, Ares was seven... When we asked him how he got inside, he couldn't remember. He was too scared," there was a bashful look on Wynn's face as he spoke about his brother and Sol couldn't help but admire him for how deeply he cared about him. 

"Obviously we weren't going to kick him out; he wouldn't have survived a day on his own on the ground, so we let him stay. At that point, it was only one extra mouth to feed, and between Ares and I, we had more than enough clothes to share with him. He roomed with me, but had a soft spot with Ares, so he slept with him for most of the first year until he wasn't afraid anymore. It wasn't long before Ares said that we should be the ones to adopt Quill, and Mom and Dad did, and he's been our brother ever since - the same way Ares is my brother, or Elara is my sister. There's no difference," he murmured. "Actually, I think he was probably our brother from the moment he was born." 

Sol nodded, the warmest of smiles finding her. Wynn's passion and intensity for his family were something Sol wasn't used to seeing. If Wynn being on the ground didn't change him, she hoped it would change her. 

Four // Part Three
I think he was our brother from the moment he was born.

Adoptive family is real family.
𝘼𝙙𝙤𝙥𝙩𝙞𝙫𝙚 𝙛𝙖𝙢𝙞𝙡𝙮 𝙞𝙨 𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙡 𝙛𝙖𝙢𝙞𝙡𝙮.

That's one of the biggest themes of this story (especially book 7) and I absolutely love, love, love every chance I get to write about Quill and his siblings.

18/08/22.