The ride back to camp had been intense to say the least, Dutch in the lead as always and Celina taking up the rear. She scratched Bullets neck, leaning forward and raking her fingers through his recently combed mane in attempt to calm herself. That back there, she couldn't get the image of Molly out of her mind. Then the ambush? There was no better way to describe it but an ambush.

A day- heck a couple perfect weeks, all to end up with this. Micah set it up, probably Molly too... possibly. And Dutch didn't want to hear anything regarding her suspicions about how conveniently Micah came to their rescue. Was it a set up in a way which he was hoping that she would have been killed, or possibly even Dutch would have been killed by the time they got there? She hoped not, but maybe, he had cut it pretty close.

She stared daggers into Micah's back as she watched him ride up to Dutch and match his pace. Just vaguely, it made her sick. He was worming his way into Dutch's head or at least trying to in the exact same way that he would have should she have never met the gang. She hoped- no, she prayed that this time he would not be successful. But would she be enough to save Dutch from Micah... from himself? If he went off the deep end, she feared there would truly be no getting him back. The thought of the Dutch she knew, the Dutch she loved being buried by insanity forever was enough for her to want to claw her skin off. It was certainly a much more pleasant option than watching his downfall first hand.

Despite herself, she couldn't let Micah talk to him without hearing what they were saying. She rode past Bill, Javier and Sean to the front of the group and inserted herself into the conversation, "What're the two of you talking about?"

Dutch looked over at her with a neutral expression but the look on Micah's face held annoyance. His voice expressed it, "What're you doing up here? This conversation doesn't concern you."

Celina shrugged, "Nothing, I just wanted in on whatever it is we're doing. Looked serious. Do we have a lead?"

Dutch nodded, "We think-"

Micah cut him off, "Don't tell her, Dutch. It's none of her business. She wouldn't have come up here like this if she trusted you."

Dutch's brows furrowed together and he made eye contact with Celina before looking back at Micah, "She's allowed to know, she's an important member of this group."

Micah scoffed, "Who wants all of us to run off and raise pigs."

Dutch shrugged, "If it comes to it, doesn't sound terrible, get us a patch of land, a good patch of land way out west. I can see it, maybe no pigs but we can truly make a life for ourselves."

"Look at you, Dutch!" Micah laughed, the rest of the group staying quiet, "She's turning you into a civilized man! What about what you stand for? What about

freedom, Dutch? What about lawlessness?" Micah stared at him expectantly, thinking he was going to give him an answer but instead, Dutch stayed silent and stared ahead. He was trying not to take the bait, right? Or was he actually thinking about what Micah had said?

Celina was all but shaking with the effort needed to keep herself in her saddle. She dropped back in the group, she needed to, she had to. She caught the look of concern from Javier and Sean, even Bill looked on edge and after a moment, he spoke up, directing his words to Micah, "Have some respect, would you?"

Micah glared daggers back at him, "Shut up, Bill. You don't know what you're talking about."

That prompted Sean to open his big mouth, "You shut up before I slit your sweaty throat-"

"Enough!" Dutch spun around his horse quickly, making everyone else immediately bring their horses to a halt, "That is enough." He raised his hand to stop any of them from protesting, "All of you, enough. I can hardly hear myself think. When we get back to camp, we start figuring out where we're going to go after that mess we just made."

Celina couldn't take her eyes off Dutch even from where she traveled a bit behind him. She was worried, it was like she had a pit of dead in her stomach. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, the last thing she needed was for Dutch to feel trapped, she would never be able to get through to him in a state like that.

Sean looked back at Celina, a small smile on his face, "The creep gates on your nerves too, does he?"

Celina just shook her head, meeting his gaze and then looked over at Javier who was also paying attention to her, "Something needs to be done about him." She kept her voice at a whisper, "He's going to be the downfall of this gang."

...

They arrived back at camp eventually, luckily not having any law nor locals following them. It seemed they really had shot practically every person with balls in the town. Needless to say, it took no time for Dutch to start barking out orders, "Arthur, you and Lenny go find us somewhere to relocate to- now. We leave tomorrow."

Arthur looked surprised at the demand which seemed to have come out of the blue and even more surprised at the way everyone dismounted and parted ways, going off to do different things, "Wait, we're leaving? Why?" He focused his attention back on Dutch, "What happened?"

Dutch brushed past him in the direction of his tent, "We just shot the whole town of Rhodes to hell."

Arthur's eyes widened at the answer, "What?! Why?"

"We were ambushed."

Arthur went to follow Dutch as he passed him by, but was cut off when Celina quickly walked past him tailing Dutch back to his tent. He backed away from the couple, quickly seeing that Celina did not look like a happy camper either.

Celina licked her lips, her steps as big as she could make them to keep up with Dutch. She followed him into his tent uninvited without consideration of his mood, "Dutch," she grabbed his arm once they were in the tent and he spun around, his eyes holding a look which she couldn't quite read, "You have to listen to me."

He took a deep breath, "I don't know what to believe right now."

She offered a sad smile and tears pricked at her eyes, "I told you in the beginning that you couldn't trust him, Dutch. He's the rat."

"If he was the rat, why wouldn't he let us be killed back there? Why would he come to our rescue?"

"Because!" She raised her arms in exasperation, "Because of this exact reason, he wants you to trust him. He's trying to manipulate you, trying to paint a pretty picture of himself in your eyes." Her voice shook as she looked into his eyes, "Don't let him, Dutch."

"I-" he looked back into her eyes to see what he thought was sincerity there, "I'm not going to let that happen."

Oh how she hoped that was the truth with everything in her. For Dutch to honestly not let that happen seemed like it would be a miracle. Did she really believe that it wouldn't happen? She believed that to Dutch it wouldn't happen, she believed that Dutch wouldn't see it happen until it was too late. Then, he'd have to fight like hell to overcome it. If... that was, if he wanted to. Still, she held onto her shred of hope that maybe, just maybe, Micah wouldn't ever get his hooks into the leader. She asked the question that she just couldn't bring herself to lose the chance to ask, "Do you trust me?"

The look on his face suggested that she may as well have grown three heads, "Of course I trust you. I may not think you're right all the time, but I trust you."

And that was the problem, Dutch actually admitting to her that he didn't always think she was right. Which... was fine, in a way. After all, no one was ever right all the time. Still, the feeling hit again that that would lead him to doubting her about Micah, "I know, but thank you." She forced a smile at him and raised her right hand to rest on his cheek, stroking her thumb gently over his skin, "I love you, Dutch."

His eyes widened, those words hadn't made his heart feel so full in such a long time... not ever since Annabelle... Annabelle, how he had loved that woman so dear. Now, now, Celina stood before him, looking up at him with those blue eyes that seemed to always get the better of him, "Celina-" that was the only word be could get to come out of his mouth. What would come next, what did he want to say? Did he love her, did he? He hadn't loved Molly, and he told her he did... that, he had to admit was wrong. But he hadn't cared. Now, with Celina? He certainly knew he didn't want to say those three words without knowing for sure if they were true. "Celina, I-"

She smiled tightly, he could see the hurt in her eyes and it pained him to know that he had caused her to feel that way, "It's ok." She had moved her hand away from his face and brought it to rest on his chest, "I know you care about me Dutch."

He nodded, that one was a no-brainer, "I definately care about you." The air between the two of them was tense, almost awkward in a way. She had just said the three words to him. The three words and what had he said, what he cared about her? And only after she had already said that she knew he cared? He would be drinking tonight for more than just the Rhodes reason.

Dutch took a deep breath and pulled her into a tight hug, not noticing when she teared up, hiding it from him. He inhaled her scent and wondered if he would ever be able to truly tell her he loved her. He hoped he could. Instead of saying anything else, he pressed a kiss to the top of her head, "You're beautiful, you know that?"

"Well," she laughed lightly and secretly used his vest to dry the couple of tears that had fallen before pulling away from him, "I feel a little prettier now."

He smiled despite himself and then pushed her away a bit when he saw that her face was slightly red, "Have you been crying?"

"No," she lied. She was a little saddened that he couldn't say he loved her back but that wasn't the full reason she was crying. She just couldn't shake the truly terrible feeling in her gut that she wouldn't be able to keep him from changing. The emotional turmoil made her feel as if it were clawing her apart from the inside out, "I'm fine."

He studied her for a moment before shaking his head, "I'm not a good man, Celina."

She sniffled and nodded, "You can be, Dutch. You really can be."

He raised a brow at her, not understanding why the woman who had been spending so much time with him would possibly think he could be a good man, "Is it all the stealing and killing that has you so convinced?"

That caused her to roll her eyes at him, "No that's not it, Dutch." She couldn't help but cracking a small smile and pointed a finger at him, "I see who you are on the inside, I've seen that ever since I laid my eyes on you in 2018... or at least a video game version of you." She laughed, "Still, I believed in you, Dutch. I believed in you when you were just history and I believe in you now. I will always believe in you until I take my last breath."

He felt so overwhelmed, to have this woman who almost knew what he would do before he did it telling him that she not only loved him, but believed in him? It was almost too much. He closed his eyes for a moment, could he really be a good man, after all he had done in his past? He opened his eyes slowly, "Tell me."

It was then Celina who looked confused, "Tell you what?"

"How the end goes for me..." it sounded like it pained him to say it, "How it could go."

She set her jaw and shook her head, "It can go any way you choose to let it Dutch. We're not living in the past, Dutch. This, this is now current time now and the future is entirely determined by your decisions and the decisions of everyone else. You can decide what kind of man you will be."

"But as you know it," he held her gaze, determined to get his answer.

She swallowed, not daring to break eye contact with him, "How I saw it, you died at the age of fifty three... you were hunted down by the law and killed." There was no way that she would reveal what a big part John had played in his death, "You died a madman, nothing more than a killer."

Dutch took a deep, shaky breath, his voice shook slightly, "And the gang?"

She tucked in her lips, "Hardly anyone lived past 1911."

...

"Dutch is asleep, you should have asked him sooner if you didn't trust me." The Irish boy was really grating on his nerves, "Are you in or not? Because we need you."

"I'm out, Micah, you snake." Sean backed away, eyeing John and Javier expectantly, "Are the two of you going to go with him?"

John shook his head, "I don't think so, Micah, Dutch would have said something to us himself if he really wanted us to go. I doubt he'd go behind Celina's back like that. You know him and loyalty, he's not a liar, not to the people he cares about."

"We've already made a big enough mess in Rhodes," Javier scratched at his dumb mustache, "I say we leave it man. Like they said, Dutch should have said something if he wanted this done. I'm not risking drawing any more attention to ourselves."

Micah nodded, looking at the three of them in disbelief, "So all of you duck out on an order Dutch had asked me to see done for him. Is that how it's going to be? You're going to choose to disobey him just because you don't trust me? What about loyalty here, boys? It will be fast and easy."

The three of them stood their ground, staring at the one who they didn't yet know as the rat. John sighed, what would Micah really gain by lying about something like this? Even if he was being dishonest out of greed, they were all packing up and hitting the road tomorrow anyway, "Ok, fine. I'll do it. But we have to be discrete. We shouldn't be stirring up anymore trouble than we already have."

Micah chuckled at John, confident that maybe his plan hadn't flopped on him afterall, "Ok," he looked at Sean and Javier, "Are the two of you coming?"

With a reluctant sigh, the two of them nodded as well and Micah smiled, the moonlight glinting off his teeth, "The best way to do this is three of us go and steal the Braithwaites horses while the other two set the Grays tobacco fields on fire. We'll meet up back here after shaking any law. Good?"

The three of them nodded, still not seeming too happy with the plan. Sean laughed quietly, "You can't even do your simple addition, who's the fith person?"

Micah cursed to himself, "Dammit, Bill. You boys mount up and head down to the Braithwaites place. Be careful. I will get Bill and we'll take care of the fields."

...

"I can't believe we're actually following orders from him." John's tone was less than pleased as they rode away from camp and towards the Braithwaite place.

"Yea, I agree with John, maybe we should just turn around. Make Micah steal the horses himself." Of course it was Sean who said this, his accent thick as ever.

"I'm just trying to piece it together," Javier paused in thought, "Why the three of us ever agreed to this in the first place."

John scoffed, "Hey, I know. I just figured since we're leaving anyway, what can it really hurt? If Dutch is mad when he finds out, it'll go back to Micah anyway. And we should be gone by the time the law can track us down, Artgur and Lenny found and cleared out that house outside of San Denise today."

"Ok," Javier said as they rode to a stop just outside Braithwaite manor. They observed the place in silence for a moment, it was dark, only the lanterns of a few guards walking around were throwing off light, "We move in quietly and slowly. Do not attract attention and most of all, do not spook the horses."

Together, they trotted their horses a wide enough birth around the manor to the back where the prized horses were said to be kept. With the stable in view, they stopped the horses and Sean hopped down stealthily as discussed and snuck up to the guard by the stables from behind, quickly and quietly slicing his throat before gesturing to the others to come and join him.

The boys each grabbed a thoroughbred, hitching it to the back of Javier's horse before they mounted up and rode out. Luckily, the stallions didn't put up much of a fuss. John and Sean ride behind the stallions, keeping a lookout over the manor and prepared to lasso any of the stallions if they would manage to break away.

John pointed up ahead, "There's a guard up there, maybe we should turn around and go the other way. I don't want to have to shoot anyone."

Javier nodded and just as they were about to turn around, one of the guards laid their eyes on them, "Hey! Those are our horses!"

"Shit." John muttered under his breath, "So much for that."

That was when the firing began.

As planned with Micah, they met up with him right outside of camp having sold the three horses for a terrible price to the rustlers who had been waiting in the dark for them to bring in their steal. Frankly, John, Sean and Javier wished that they would have been able to get a better view of the men's faces. It seemed that Micah had lied to them about the profit they could make.

"Those horses, Micah, those damn horses didn't sell for more than a grand for the lot." John shook his head, "You lied to us."

Micah looked offended, a look he played so well. He smelled of moonshine from having it splash all over him, "I did no such thing. Celina told me that we'd get at least a few thousand."

"Wait," Javier held his hand up, "Celina said that?"

Micah looked at the ground, putting on the show well, "Eh, she..." he looked back at the three unimpressed men, "Don't be mad, but Celina was the one who wanted this done. Not Dutch. I couldn't have you boys going to Dutch and ruining tonight."

Sean stared Micah down, "Like hell she did."

Javier nodded, "Yea, what would be in this for Celina?"

Micah laughed and shook his head, "You boys just don't get it. Do you? She cannot be trusted, she talked Dutch out of this and turned right around and asked me to see it done. I don't know her angle exactly, but she's trying to paint a pretty picture of herself. I think she's trying to get us all to trust her and she's gonna pull something big."

John did not look convinced, "She is clearly in love with Dutch. She wouldn't do anything like that. There's no point. Anyway, if you suspected this of her, why would you go along with it, let alone drag us into it?"

Micah eyed each of them again, a deceitful smile on his face which was too hard to be made out in the dark, "We see how far she is willing to go, and just when the time is right, we close in on her."

Sean screwed up his face in disgust, "Well, you..."

"The lot of you don't have to believe me." Micah trotted past them, "Only Dutch."

...

A/N: Ok, so...

Micah just might be the most evil person on the planet. Not only does he lie and say that Dutch wanted to go through with this, but he then lies again and 'admits' that Celina is the one who put them all up to this?

Shoot... I'm excited to see where it's going myself, guys. Definately going to be interesting from here on out. How will Dutch react, how will anyone react?

Thoughts, questions? Leave them in the comments!

Hope you all enjoyed :)

Disclaimer: I do not own Red Dead Redemption 1 or 2 or anything associated with it.