Author's note: English is not my first language so please let me know if there are any grammar or spelling mistakes. I'll still try to do make sure however to write as clean as I can but no guaranties here.

Another note: Echo and Hope are already in a relationship in this story. The events happening in this chapter are "slightly" different from the ones in the series.

Now let the story begin…

Chapter 1: Friend or Foe

Only a few hours had passed since Hope, Echo and Gabriel had arrived at Bardo, now being held in capture by the enemy. What was only a few hours however felt like a long, painful eternity to Hope who was sitting on the floor, the back of her head leaning against the cold wall. A dull sound of strange knocking noises was coming from outside the doors. In that moment the blonde wished for nothing else more than for someone to finally make it stop since her head felt dizzy from all that mess they had gotten into. Just for once she wanted to get a break from all that fuss, for once she wanted to be together with her mother and aunty O in peace. But she knew exactly that like in a long-lost dream she'd have to wait another while for her wish to come true and that they'd have to endure another round of playing hunt the sheep till they'd find a way out. Hope's teeth were gritting together as she felt an overwhelming feeling of anger coming up, making her face all tense.

"Hey", Octavia said with her stay-cautious voice, pushing Hope back into reality. "I know we fucked up. But don't let them see how you feel towards them. It'll just make it worse than it already is."

"Octavia's right", Echo added. Her eyes being fixated on the door. "You gotta get yourself together."

Hope looked up at her with a scowl but didn't say anything since she knew that they were right. After a while the door opened, and the shadow of a woman fell into the room: Charmaine Diyoza. Her eyes catching the ones of her daughter as she walked up to her.

"They will leave us in peace", she smiled warmly at her. "If we'll commit to the last war and fight for them."

"And you think that's the solution?", Hope raised her voice a bit. Now was the time she had finally enough, boiling up with anger, frustration, sadness, disappointment- all at once. She stood up, face to face with her mother. "We can't stay here! They ruined everything, ruined our lives! How can you stay calm and smile at me like that after all what they did?!"

Her voice cracked, her eyes were burning as she tried to hold it back, hold the tears back. But she couldn't as the sound of her sobs were overcoming her uncontrollably. Echo looked back at her, wanting to approach her since she knew exactly how the blonde felt in that moment. A thick, heavy lump was forming in her throat. But she couldn't since Diyoza was in her way, already embracing her tightly and being there as the comfort Hope needed. If there was only one thing Echo could've done right now to make her feel better, it would've been to kill all these people and save her own people, bringing them back safely to Sanctum where they could finally have a peaceful life together.

"What else did he say?", Echo asked Diyoza, referring to the disciples' master Anders.

As Diyoza let go of her daughter while giving her a short kiss on her forehead, her hands cupped around her cheeks she turned to the Azgeda warrior, letting out a sigh. Her gaze revealed that it didn't mean anything good.

"There's nothing we can do right now. If anything, we'll be happy to get a second chance after all. He seemed to be still quite upset after you guys killed several of their people…"

"They deserved it", Echo snarled.

Not showing any sign of regret. On the contrary, she felt as if every cell in her body was merely screaming for bloodthirsty vengeance. Vengeance for the greatest loss she had to suffer… The loss of Bellamy. And for the sake of Hope she had resisted the urge to do something extremely provoking, which was not to scar her face with the common Azgeda mark, namely two crescent-shaped moons on each side. She knew that she'd keep it for another day. The day she'd hope for to never come.

A tall man stepped into the room. He had a clear loud voice. A voice that made everyone startle as he spoke. "Intruders, you'll be called disciples from now on. Being treated as such, follow me to your dorm rooms now."

"Where's Gabriel?", Hope asked the man. But she didn't get any answer.

Echo was the first one who'd follow his order straight without thinking twice. She didn't even look back at the others while doing so. Hope had watched her acting strangely since that thing happened. And she didn't quite know how to respond to that new behaviour of hers. After all things had been different on Skyring, easy… peaceful.

As the four women were separated, each of them was being introduced a big cosy room, decorated with fluffy rugs, antique oil paintings, modern furniture, including a bed, cupboard, closet and - in between - a tiny bathroom, which was separated with a thin almost transparent sliding wall. Hope flopped right on her bed as the door closed behind her. The second her body touched the soft surface of the cotton blanket, her mind wandered off to everything that happened on that day. Now they had to wait till Anders would come to pick them up, saying that he'd want to show them something important at first. Hope wondered what it was since he had this weird, crooked smile on his face, speaking of arrogance and superiority as he was rambling on about it. She hated this look. She hated his appearance. She simply hated everything about him and his people. Revulsion was coming up in her once again, giving her the urge to throw up. There was no way Hope could stay in her room and torment herself like that. If anything, it would only waste her last remaining bit of energy she had left. And in that moment, there was only one person who she could think of, making her instantly better. At once Hope stood up and left the room, walking through the dark corridor. The sound of her steps eventually turning the lights on, illuminating her sight. Finally, she arrived at the door and touched the switch on the side with the palm of her hand.

„Echo", Hope called for her as she entered her room.

Not a second later she stopped herself abruptly, staring at a rigid figure which was merely sitting on the edge of her bed, numb, her gaze lost in space. Hope sighed at the heart-breaking sight of her beloved girlfriend. Carefully she walked up to her and let herself down next to Echo before placing her hand on her back. Unsure at first whether to talk to her about what happened.

"Echo…", she then started, hesitantly. "I am so sorry about Bellamy and what happened…"

"I don't want to talk", Echo muttered before turning her head away, avoiding the other woman's gaze.

Hope nodded at that, understandingly while lightly stroking over her back. There was nothing more she wanted than to be there for Echo.

"Can you give me some space", Echo said roughly, her voice cold.

It was her sudden distant behaviour which took Hope aback, giving her an uncomfortable feeling in her stomach. It felt like someone had punched her in the gut and she felt sick at seeing Echo like that. Suddenly she was cold. Distant. Suddenly she was far away, out of her reach.

"Y-yeah... sure", Hope stuttered and pressed her lips together, trying to swallow the lump away that was forming in her throat. Was this really the solution? Should she really have just left Echo behind like that when Hope knew exactly that the brunette didn't mean what she said?

"Actually, no. I will stay right here next to you until you let it all out. Don't even try to send me away."

And with that she cupped her hands around Echo's cheeks, guiding her gently back to meet with her eyes. The slight redness around the brunette's eyes revealed that Echo wasn't able to hold it back any longer. Slowly they became teary until the anger in her face completely vanished as she let go and placed her head down on Hope's shoulder. And suddenly she started whimpering quietly.

"He's gone", Echo whispered. "And I didn't… I didn't even say goodbye…"

The last sentence was a real struggle for her as she was barely able to speak it out loud.

"I know", Hope whispered back while embracing her into a warm hug.

And then she let her cry as much as she needed for while shedding a few tears herself in silence. Not for Echo to recognize it since she'd already have enough to struggle with and Hope wanted to give her a feeling of safety, a feeling so that she could rely on her entirely, being there for her. Eventually Echo stopped herself involuntarily, her sobs becoming quieter. It wasn't surprising since she knew that the disciples would arrive soon and so the azgeda warrior couldn't afford herself to show them being weak. Not at any cost. She raised her head and dried her face with the back of her arm before suddenly standing up and walking to the other corner of her room. Hope watched her confusingly and just when she was about to talk to her, the door opened. To be seen was no other but headmaster Anders.

"Hope", he greeted her, slightly bewildered. "I didn't expect you to be here with Echo…" One of his eyebrows raised as his glance fell over to said woman across the room. But he couldn't see her face since her back was turned in the way.

"Well then", the headmaster breathed in deeply as if he had already spent his entire energy on taming them like wild animals before he'd even started. "Follow me."