( gif by ; -tzarrion )

━ CHAPTER TWO ...

' when you're lost in the darkness , part. 2 '

The sound of manacle was clanking in the room the sisters were in, as Ellie was tugging on the chains that were clamped onto their ankles. Outside, the sound of rain dripping onto the roof, and patterning was also heard.

Ellie grunts in frustration when the chains wouldn't break free from the wall, as (Y/N) leans her head back against the wall, already knowing there was no way to break free without a key.

"Ellie, that's not gonna break without a key." She reminds her younger sister with a sigh, as Ellie ignores her sister and leans back to pull on the chains more.

However, rain from outside somehow dripped down from the small holes in the roof, and ended up falling into Ellie's mouth, causing her to freak and spit it out franitcally.

"Agh! You fucker!" She curses, wiping her mouth with her sleeve and sat down next to (Y/N), who was giving her a knowing stare and Ellie grumbled seeing it.

The entrance to the room squeaks open, as someone had opened to door to enter and closes it behind them. (Y/N) didn't see who it was, as her eyes were closed and she automatically started to count slowly ten, not wanting to make them pissed off even more for Ellie's safety.

Though, she opens her (E/C) tired eyes feeling Ellie's hand grip her bare arm tightly, and see spots Marlene, the one who had opened to door and was now walking into the room.

She stops just near the exit, holding two backpacks and a decent sized bow, that belonged to (Y/N) and she slid them all across to the sisters.

The William sisters both grab their stuff, and (Y/N) straight away opens her backpack, searching for her arrows and found them inside her bag, making her release a breath. Ellie pulls out her switch knife, flipping it open in warning as Marlene sits on the other side of her older sister.

(Y/N) tenses a little bit as Marlene does this, keeping a few fingers on her bow in case but could sense this woman meant no harm to them, at least not yet.

"You're not scared." Ellie speaks up in a low voice, breaking the silence between the three in the room.

Marlene looks between the siblings, seeing how their hands were on their weapons and shakes her head, not saying anything.

(Y/N) adjusts her leaning position, sitting up more straight and stared at Marlene's face with a scowl, "Then unlock us."

"How about we start with a 'thank you'?" Marlene redirects the statement, rising her eyebrows at the older sister.

Ellie scoffs a little bit, looking at the woman beside her sister incredulously, "For what?"

"For saying your sisters life?" Marlene fires back, motioning to the listeting (Y/N), "I am the one who told 'em not to shoot her, or you, if you two recall."

The siblings both mutter their agreement, sharing a small look as (Y/N) places her bow down on the floor, giving Ellie the okay to do so also as she flips her knife away, all while Marlene watched them interact.

(Y/N) clears her throat, fiddling with her bracelet and doesn't exactly look to Marlene as she questions lowly, "Why did you stop them?"

"We'll get to that." Marlene assures the unsure woman, as she goes to lean forward and reach for (Y/N)'s chains, but the slightly younger woman reels herself back away from her, no trusting the leader.

Marlene sighs under her breath, understanding why she was acting like this and holds up the small key for the siblings chains. Ellie looks to (Y/N) for reassurance, as she slowly nods, and the sisters hold out one of their hands to get their chains off.

"So...(F/N)....Veronica.." Marlene starts off, finally getting their chains off and placed them to the side, as she glances between them both, and lands on the oldest last, "how ya feelin'?"

"The same." (Y/N) answers shortly, shouldering her flannel so it covered her arms and swallowed hard as Ellie stares worriedly at her, "Is it gonna happen?"

Marlene smiles gently, shaking her head side to side a she continues to hold the key, "No."

(Y/N) tilts her head at the answer, now glancing up at the watching woman, "So, can we go?"

"No." Marlene straight away replies, pursing her lips as she shuts the woman's wants down.

Ellie groans annoyed at her response, moving her body a bit so her legs faced front to (Y/N)'s side, "We won't tell anyone about any of this." She promises strongly, looking at Marlene, "We swear."

"Where are you two gonna go?" Marlene queried, tone argumentative as she knew they had not where to go, "Back to FEDRA military school? You two are that anxious to be a soldier?"

(Y/N) clenches her jaw at her words, narrowing her eyes down on the leader, "You think we chose that place? They put Ellie there when she was a baby, me being the only one to take care of her." She grits out harshly, "Its for orphans."

"'They' didn't put you both there." Marlene corrects the younger woman's words, eyes flickinger between them both with a different emotion, "I did. (Y/N). Ellie."

The Williams sisters eyes went wide, at the fact she knew their real names and that she placed them at a military camp. (Y/N) furrows her eyebrows in thought, while Ellie goes to ask a silly question, "You our fucking mom or something?"

Marlene bits back an amused smile, and raises her eyebrows at the youngest, "Do I look like your mom?"

Ellie winces a little bit realising her mistake, giving her older sister an awkward smile as she laughs behind her hand, "Nooo," Ellie trails off, "you do not."

"My name is Marlene." The older woman finally tells the sisters her name, and continues to explain her role, "I'm the leader of the Fireflies in the Boston QZ."

"Why would a terrorist dump us with FEDRA?" (Y/N) asked interested, and also baffled with this news as she frowns at Marlene.

"Because its where you'd be safest, and you two were safe there," Marlene now raises her voice a bit, and then motions to Ellie, "until your sister decided to sneak out, with you following along, (Y/N). And 'terrorist'?" She looks incredulously at the claim, "Was Riley a terrorist?"

(Y/N)'s breath hitches at this, lips turning into a frown as she looks away and grips her wrist more tightly, feeling Ellie shuffle back to her original spot hearing Marlene's words.

The (H/C) haired girl looks down her sister, seeing her with a teary eyed expression and it breaks her heart knowing she was the cause of this. She exhales shakily and turns to Marlene, voice waverly, "Why won't you let us go home?"

Marlene frowns sadly hearing the crack, and seeing the sisters expressions but pushed it aside, as she looks at (Y/N) meaningfully, "Because you have a greater purpose than any of us could've ever imagined."

Her words once again left the oldest Williams sister speechless, as she never expected this to happen to herself. One minute her life was simple, boring but simple with her younger sister, and the next she was here getting told this.

"So we've leaving tonight, and we're taking you two with us." Marlene finishes her explaining, knocking (Y/N) out of her thoughts as she pulls Ellie close and the trio hear a loud knock at the door.

The regular medic walks into the room, looking at the leader next to the girls, "He's here." She informs.

"Five minutes." Marlene demands, and the medic took that to leave the room, closing the door shut behind.

When the medic left the old room, Marlene moved her body towards the sisters waiting for more answers, as they hold onto each other.

"What I'm about to tell you two cannot be repeated to anyone." Marlene starts off her warning, making the two pay attention closely, "Because if you do...I assure you....you will die."

(Y/N)'s (E/C) eyes went wide, gaping with horror.

...

Tess grunted as she pushed opened the door
her and Joel needed to get into, and a dead body fell off from leaning against it, the one who was creating dripping blood from underneath the entrance.

She peeked her head around the door, moving out from it and raised her gun in case, but found more dead bodies all over the place in the hallways. She shined her light on one she knew, the guy who took the battery they needed as it was just near his body.

Joel joined her and stood near the door they came out of, gun in hand also as he looks back and around the place, where they could only guess fighting went down.

Tess bent down to the battery, using her torch to look at it more closely, and saw it was ruined, "Well, that battery's no good. And he still tried to sell it. Twice." She motions to the dead man beside it, "You greedy fuck."

A person wincing down the hallway caught Joel's attention, making him turn and slowly make his way down the path more, Tess following his moves with their guns out.

The person continues to grunt, as indistinct talking is also heard while Joel and Tess continued to sneak up on the supposed threat. Joel comes up behind a corner, and peeks up from behind it, seeing a figure helping up another figure that looked wounded.

Joel comes out from behind the walls corner, walking in the same hallway the other two were as he held up his gun.

However, before Joel could go any further, the door next to him swings open forcefully and the figure of (Y/N) appears with a small knife, going to charge at him but Joel dodged, and ended up shoving the woman a bit to hard against the wall.

"(Y/N)!" A familiar voice exclaims, as Ellie comes rushing out of the same room and kneels down to her groaning sister, helping her sit up on the ground.

"Ow, that's gonna leave a mark.." (Y/N) muttered to herself, grunting a little bit as she catches her breath and holds her sore side.

And only then, did she realise the gun pointed at her as she looks up, and makes eye contact with Joel's dark brown eyes, the one holding the gun with an astounded expression.

(Y/N)'s breath hitches seeing the older handsome male in front of her, heart beating faster at the new face and the gun straight at her. She keeps an arm outstretched in front of Ellie, continuing to hold eye contact with the male.

"Joel?" Marlene's voice questions from down the hallway, breaking the two's staring contest as he turns to her and Kim, repeating the leaders name back in confusion.

"You okay?" Marlene now asked (Y/N) on the ground, her eyes moving to her as she kept her weapon aimed at Joel.

"Yeah." (Y/N) breathes out, her dazed gaze not moving from Joel in front of her as she goes to get back Ellie's knife from the floor, but Joel's boot stops her and steps on the weapon.

She makes an annoyed noise at this, and Ellie scowls at the older male as he goes back to staring down (Y/N) in warning.

"(Y/N)...Ellie.." Marlene called out to the sisters, making them turn their heads her way, and she motioned for them to step down, and calm as she lowered her gun.

(Y/N)'s face dropped seeing the wound on Marlene's stomach, as she keeps a hand on the bleeding, "Oh, shit." She curses with concern, going to get up with Ellie but Marlene motion to stop.

"No, it's okay. I'll be alright." She assures them, exhaling heavily and gives (Y/N) a scolding look, "And you can't be stupid like this."

The slightly younger woman scoffs under her breath, looking down at the ground as she hated when people treated her like this. She may not be as old as some of the adults around her, but she was still one capable of making her own decisions.

Joel, however, took notice of her attitude to this as his eyes sometimes flicker back to her face.

"So this is who Robert screwed us over with?" Tess comes around the corner, seeing the situation that was going on. "The Che Guevara of Boston? I mean, war must be goin' pretty shitty for you to be buying from scumbags like him."

"Yeah, it kinda has been." Marlene answers her back, voice raised a bit as she leans her side on the wall, "The merch was bad, and he obviously didn't take 'fuck off' for an answer."

As they were talking, (Y/N) looks down at her sister knife under Joel's boot, and wanted to get it back for her, "Gimme the knife back."

Her words were either ignored, or not heard by the male as his attention was on the woman in front, "What do you need a car battery for?"

(Y/N)'s right eye twitches a little at being bluntly ignored, and made sure to keep Ellie behind her as she goes to swipe the knife back, but Joel just turns his gun on her instead, "Don't." He rumbles, voice low making her body tense up.

"Not at her." Marlene orders fastly, her and Kim's guns up now and pointed at Joel, causing Tess to point hers at them in response. Marlene lifts her shoulders up a bit, and moves her head sideways, "Point it at me."

Joel doesn't say anything, and looks from them to (Y/N) on the ground who was breathing heavily, arms securely around Ellie as she stares up at him through her messy locks.

The older male raises his eyebrows at (Y/N), giving her a warning look as she sticks her nose in the air, hands up a little bit showing surrender as she started to become nervous under his gaze.

He takes this as she understood the warning, and moved his gun away from her and aimed it at Marlene and Kim.

Marlene slowly lowers her weapon, touching Kim's arm to silently gesture for her to do the same, "And to answer your question, I need it for a better reason than you do." She tells the two new adults, hand still covering her wound, "No offense, but Tommy's just one man. It's our business to know things."

"'To know things.'" Joel repeated the line back, a heavy, angry frown shown across his features, "You're the cause of it. You turned my own brother against me."

"Okay, Joel." Marlene muttered, eyes trained on the ground as she was breathing a bit faster now which was most likely because of her bleeding.

"That was a lot of gunfire." Kim reminds the woman next to her, side glancing her with worry, "FEDRA's gonna be on the way."

"I know." Marlene sighs briefly, looking over to the sisters and sees Ellie wiping off the dust from (Y/N)'s cheeks, as the older one touches her sore shoulder and meets Marlene's gaze.

Marlene purses her lips, and clenches her jaw before explaining to the new incomers, "We were gonna move (Y/N) and Ellie outta the zone tonight."

As she exposes the siblings names, Joel's brown eyes move straight away back to (Y/N), brows furrowed in deep thought as he looks her up and down.

"But we won't make it anywhere like this. Not for a while anyway." Marlene continues talking, nodding her head as she does so, "So now I'm thinkin'...." She releases a deep breath, eyes moving to the distracted Joel, "you're gonna do it."

Both parties exclaimed their protests on the idea at the same time, "The hell we are." "We are not goin' with them!"

"Let me take them." Kim suggested from beside Marlene, turning her head in her direction.

"Tess, we don't have time for this." Joel announced to his friend, shaking his head as he spins halfly to face her.

"Oh, you don't have time?" Marlene exclaims annoyed at his words and attitude.

Tess tilts her head, confused and also a little interested on who the girls were, "Who are they?"

"To you? They are, she is cargo." Marlene fires back, motioning to (Y/N) who was looking back and forth as they talked, not knowing what to do.

"We don't smuggle people. Sorry." Joel simply tells Marlene, shutting her idea down straight away.

"I can do it." Kim once again offers, looking at the leader next to her as they both had blood and wounds from the fight they were in just before.

"Kim, you don't have a fuckin' ear on your fuckin' head!" Marlene snaps at the woman, voice agitated and Kim shuts up after it, "Could you please?"

Marlene inhales to recollect herself, "There's a team of Fireflies waiting for them at the old State House."

Joel scoffs at her words, and Marlene continues, "I know what's out there. We were going with an entire squadron for that very reason. But now I don't have a truck, I don't have a squadron, FEDRA's five minutes away. What I do have is you." She looks between the two holding weapons, "And I know what you're both capable of. For better or worse."

(Y/N) quirks an eyebrow up amused, as Ellie's eyes go round with interest beside her sister, "What are they capable of?"

"You get them, (Y/N) there safely and they'll give you what you need." Marlene explains to Joe, as he listens closely, "Not just a battery. The whole thing. Fueled-up truck, guns, supplies, all of it. I swear." She listed the items, then promised, but him nor Tess didn't say anything making her plead now, "I swear."

Joel, still keeping his gun aimed turns his head back to Tess and she gestured with her head to the side, signally to talk back a bit away from them.

Joel looks down at the knife under his boot, eyes flickering up to (Y/N) momentarily, which she didn't catch, but Ellie did and it made her scowl at him, resulting in him to push the knife away with his boot.

"Asshole!" Ellie cursed a yell, huffing loudly as (Y/N) shakes her head at her sister's swearing, rolling her eyes at the two who move a few feet away to talk.

Marlene gives the two another scolding look, resulting in (Y/N) to now scoff with a tongue click, and uses her palms to rub her eyes.

"You alright?" (Y/N) goes to softly question her sister, who was still kneeling on the ground next to her, and she receives a small head nod, with a reassuring smile.

"Y'all talk it through, but please remember that I'm bleeding out." Marlene reminds the two talking loudly, stopping their conversation short.

"Okay. Here's the deal." Tess turns back around to the two Fireflies and walks up a few steps to where the sisters were sitting, "We'll get them to your crew at the State House. But before we hand them over, they give us everything that we want. If not, we kill them there and then."

Marlene doesn't hesitate on this proposal, knowing all that matter was to get (Y/N) to where she needed to be, "Deal."

The sisters were speechless at her acceptines so easily, as (Y/N)'s eyes go big and mouth open a little in shock, "Really? That fast?"

"You are all that matters." Marlene reminds the woman with a knowing look, "My team will not jeopardize that. Remember what I told you two? Now go with your sister to get your backpacks."

(Y/N) sighs through her nose, no use in arguing with the situation as she stands up and helps Ellie up with her, as she avoids Joel's eyes on her and the siblings walk into the other room.

Marlene looks at Tess, as she was already staring and the leader gives her a brief nod, just as the sisters came back out with their backpacks. (Y/N) had her bow around her shoulders, as she slipped her backpack on, hiding majority of the weapon as she stops in the middle of the hallway, staring at Marlene unsure.

"Let's go." Tess calls out to them, as she starts to turn and walk off down the hallway, while Joel and the siblings stayed put.

(Y/N) holds onto Ellie's hand tightly in her own, as Marlene gives her a head nod to go, and she inhales deeply before turning around with her sister, and gave Joel a small shoulder bump on her way past.

He watched her leave with a frown on his brows, going to follow along behind but Marlene's voice stopped him.

"Don't fuck this up." She asked of him, expression serious but mostly pleading as this mission was the fate of the world important, "Please."

Joel took notice of how desperate she was, but decided to say nothing and turned around to walk down the hallway.