Gill and Maya placed the three into the cell. The obsidian walls looked so boring. Everyone was exhausted. Petra leaned up against a wall, arms folded. Ivor sat close to her and Milo just stood, staring at the Blaze Rods as they closed and locked their only means of an exit. Gill was sad about it, holding an expression of fear and mild confusion, no doubt thinking about his closest friend's sanity. Maya hurried him back upstairs in case Aiden needed anything.
"Is this what you do in your world?" Milo asked. "Kill people?"
"No, Aiden's just insane." Petra said. "Now Lukas is there by herself. This is all crazy."
"You don't think he'll get her next?" Ivor worried. Before he could say something else Petra cut him off.
"Don't even think that. Aiden's got nothing bad with Lukas. Sure, they fell out, but he wouldn't hurt her."
"What do you mean 'fell out?'" Ivor's voice rose; something he did when he was shocked or surprised. "They used to be together?"
"And i'm guessing Jesse was the 'new guy,' right?" Milo got closer to the two, getting curious.
"I can't say much about that, but yeah, Aiden didn't used to be like this." Petra tilted her head, reminiscing. "They used to be all lovey-dovey. He was still a bit of a jerk, but he was a funny jerk. She said it was one of the best parts she liked about him."
"How heartwarming." Ivor said, rolling his eyes. "Hopefully he'll be lovey-dovey now or Lukas will be in big trouble."
"And we need to find some way out before he gets to any of us." Milo said. "And the only way to do that is to get his group on our side. Then we can get him."
"And what? We throw him into the Void?" Ivor questioned.
"There's a whole city at stake while this punk is up there. He has the eversource." Milo began pacing. "We need call his friends back down to persuade them, they can make weapons, and we go show him what's what."
"Ok, but we should rest and think this over again later." Petra suggested. "Maya and gill are upstairs now. And if I'm tired, what makes you think that you and Ivor can make any progress?"
She was right. She was probably stronger than the both of the older men. The only thing they could do was rest. Milo was never the type to not take action. He saw all those chests in the founder's secret room. Aiden could be looking through those as they speak, probably grabbing anything that can be used for a weapon and making himself more threatening.
"I still can't believe it." Petra's tired voice took Milo out his train of thought. He assumed she was talking about the death of her friend. Ivor patted her armored shoulder.
"I know," he began. "there's… nothing we can do."
"it happened so freaking quick. Once the founder caught us off guard I couldn't think. If we had just been more careful- I could've been looking out better…"
She placed her gloved hand on her forehead with a sigh, taking it back to her bandanna and pulled it off. The red hair that was held back fell to one side of her face.
"And because of that, he's gone."
Milo folded his arms. He didn't know the new group that much, but the way they felt about their friend reminded him of his underground group of people. He knew how it felt to lose one of his members… his "family" members. At the same time, with his experience, he can't dwell on it too much, in order to help those that are trying to take care of themselves. He cleared his throat.
"hey." Milo spoke up, and the other two looked at him. "Jesse was your leader, right?"
"Yeah. he was." Petra answered. Ivor just listened.
"I know how it is to lead. To worry about the people that are in your care. Say, since I'm stuck in here, what do you think my group would do?"
After looking at him, Petra and Ivor glanced to each other, their saddened expressions lighting up as they were intrigued by Milo's question. Ivor turned to him.
"Well, they'd probably would want to find you."
"Sure, they would. Some are much younger than me, they'll have the spunk to do it if they want to." he chuckled softly. "But here's what I do. I train them up for when something like this happens. So that they can take care of themselves."
"Wait," Petra began, "so it's like they're forgetting about you?"
"Just listen." Milo continued. "My group is not big or strong enough to try and get me out of here. And I wouldn't want them getting themselves hurt to save some old blonde guy. And they learn from this. Then they tell this to the next future members, and one day, when one of them ends up getting captured, they can save them. Because then, they'll be bigger and stronger."
Petra's face softened. At first, she hadn't thought about what he was saying, and more on the idea of forgetting somebody. But still, she was slightly unaware of what he was really trying to say.
"you're right." Ivor spoke up. "Jesse's passing did come as a shock to everybody. But before we mourn, we got to get the rest of us out of here. Lukas is in much more danger than we are. We have to focus on somehow getting better out of this mess, and save her."
He glanced to Petra and have her a reassuring nod. She sighed.
"You're right. You both are. He'd want us to do that."
"I'm glad we're on the same page." Milo said. "now, I'm sure they're going to make us do something ridiculous in the morning. Let's get some rest."
"sounds good." Petra agreed. Ivor nodded.
They all laid on their backs, looking up to the ceiling in silence. They were still wide awake, except for Petra. She felt her eyelids grow heavy. She relaxed, breathing slower with each exhale as she held her bandanna to her chest.
