Celina sat at the bar beside Trelawny as he argued with the man whom Arthur had 'beat' at poker. She couldn't get her heart to stop pounding so violently inside her chest... Dutch had told her that he loved her. Dutch, how he had spoken to her showed her that he could still be the Dutch she loved and he told her he loved her. She bit at her nails distractedly as she thought, blocking out everything around her for the moment. He was trying... trying to keep her from leaving, sincerely and she had practically threw his near plea in his face.

She felt tears prick at her eyes and looked in Dutch's direction. Maybe leaving him was a mistake... of course it was! How could she really expect Dutch to keep from getting worse if she was gone? Suddenly, she felt sick at the thought of leaving him. He needed her and she... Well, she couldn't quite explain it, but he made her feel complete... She loved him, could she accept him back after the hurt he had caused her?

As for Josiah, would she be ok not running off with him? She had never expected Dutch to tell her he loved her. She bit down on her bottom lip, she wanted to see where things would go with Trelawny, truly. He treated her in a way that she had never been treated before and she loved it. She truly cared for Josiah and thought that maybe, eventually, she would fall in love with him.

But then there was Dutch, standing there across the room and looking as handsome as ever. He turned his head to look at her and she felt her heart skip a beat upon making eye contact with him. She swallowed and that's when she heard the gunshot ring out. She rolled her eyes, of course that had to happen.

Immediately commotion came about downstairs as people started panicking, wondering if what they heard was truly a gunshot and if so, what was going on and where it was coming from. Trelawny looked over at her, "Do you think that was one of the boys?"

Celina nodded and as he pulled her back into reality out of her thoughts, "Most certainly." Her decision was quite clear, she couldn't make her decisions worrying about how they made others feel and the actions of others were their own responsibility, not hers. She wasn't going to stay around just because it would make Dutch happy. Because when it came down to it, she wanted to leave with Trelawny. That was what would make her happy. And with Micah soon to be dead? She was sure Dutch would be fine. Dutch couldn't get his way all the time and thats something he would have to deal with.

"Oh dear," Trelawny glanced outwards towards the stairs, "I do hope they are alright."

Going off with Josiah would be good for her, he was so refreshing from the intensity of being with Dutch... really the intensity of her whole life and she loved how free she felt in his company. She needed to go with him. It was 1899, everyone was guaranteed their next breath much less in the current year than the one Celina was from and she wasn't going to spend the time she survived in the current world worrying and being stressed constantly. Dutch... unless Dutch changed, she was afraid that there would be no escaping that headpounding intensity with him. What she was looking for wasn't a love-hate relationship, as Dutch offered... but a little slice of heaven. She took a deep breath, "I'm sure they're ok."

Before long, Javier and Arthur came walking calmly into the room, acting rather convincingly as if they had nothing to do with the gunshot. Celina smiled a the men as they approached the bar, heading towards them. Dutch followed close behind them and Celina felt more torn than ever before with both the extreme Anarchist and Magician within such close proximity to her. She thought she made her decision. She thought she had, but-

Dutch spoke, looking around at the crowd picking up on what was going on more and more by the second, "We need to get out of here."

Just then, a man wearing thermal clothing came running into the room, pointing an accusing finger at Javier, "There he is! That's the man who stole my uniform!"

"Great," Celina and Arthur immediately dove behind the bar when several people started shooting at them, Dutch taking cover behind a pole as well as Javier, Celina wasn't sure where Hosea was but Trelawny hid behind the bar with Celina and Arthur..

Arthur spoke over the gunfire, "Now we've got to get out of here."

Celina nodded, firing at the men rushing at them as well, "As soon as we have an opening we need to dive off this boat."

Arthur nodded, "Agreed."

At the first break in fire, the group rushed to the side of the boat and as quickly as possible, they all dove into the water. Celina surfaced quickly, gasping for air and started swimming forwards as quickly as possible all the while looking around her, ensuring all the guys were there as well.

...

The next day came and went and Celina had admittedly spent it thinking about Dutch no matter how much she tried to get him off her mind. She had told Josiah what had happened, that Dutch had said he loved her and that that was the reason she couldn't bring herself to engage in bedroom activities with the magician from then to the present point. How could she sleep with him after the man she loved more than life itself admitted to loving her? She groaned, so incredibly tired of having the outlaw running through her mind.

She cared for Trelawny and there was something there. Now that Dutch had said that to her though? She hated to admit it but her feelings for Trelawny seemed irrelevant. They were there, but they no longer mattered, not when compared to her feelings for Dutch Van Der Linde at least. Trelawny knew that, she had broken it to him the previous night when he had attempted to seduce her and was surprisingly unsuccessful.

She couldn't help it, she had realized well and truly that the only one she wanted was Dutch and she had broken it to Trelawny wonderfully gently, all the while letting him know that she had feelings for him as well... but as a friend would. She was in love with Dutch, hopelessly and forever and no one, she felt, would ever hold a match to him in her heart.

At the present time it was morning and she was lounging on the magicians couch, staring at the ceiling. It was only a few minutes until she had to leave to meet the boys at the cabin... hopefully with Micah. As far as going back home to Dutch? The thought almost made her laugh, she would, and soon but not yet. She wanted him to think about his actions a bit more.

...

"Well," John looked over at Arthur from where he stood tacking up his horse, "Is Micah coming?"

"Yep," Arthur gave a confident nod and tightened the girth on his own saddle. He kept his voice low, "He's going to ride with us right to his own demise. Hopefully Celina knows what she's talking about. Hopefully this all works out and everything starts getting better from here on out."

John glanced over to where Dutch and Hosea stood talking, leaning against the well. What Hosea was doing was making their fake task seem more convincing in the eyes of the leader. The older man had readily agreed to stay at camp and keep Dutch distracted enough not to go with Arthur, John, Javier, Bill and Micah to take out a large portion of the O'Driscoll gang camped out by the cabin and around the burned plantation home. Apparently Hosea had luckily been successful in his task at hand, otherwise... there would be no plan.

Javier and Bill came over and mounted their horses, the four conspirators all sharing a discrete, knowing look with one another. Javier almost seemed more eager than anyone else to get the job done, "Do you think she'll be there yet?"

Arthur nodded as he mounted his horse, "Well, I would hope so, we agreed shortly after the sun rose, so around seven or so."

John shrugged, following the rest of them in mounting his horse, "If she's not, she will be soon enough. Won't have the same effect though."

"No," Arthur shook his head with a laugh, "Not at all."

...

Celina paced back and forth inside the cabin, biting at her nails nervously and looking out the window every-so-often and checking for the boys. Something could have went wrong. Maybe Dutch decided to come along and they couldn't keep him from doing so. Maybe Micah refused to go with them or maybe he did go with them and picked up on what was going on... Maybe he shot one of them- or all of them. Celina shook her head at the terrible thought.

Maybe nothing had went wrong, yet, but maybe it would. Maybe Micah would see her and before anyone got the chance to react there would be a bullet through her scull... or Arthur, John, Bill or Javier's. Again, she closed her eyes tightly. What if Dutch broke away from camp and managed to follow the five men out of suspicion of something going on?

Celina ran her hand through her hair and let out a sigh. Who knew ambushing Micah would be so stressful? Whenever she thought about it, she saw it as fun and fulfilling. She looked out the window once again, this time finally seeing the boys riding in with Micah coming right along with them, just as planned. It was fulfilling to see the rat riding right into his own trap. Part of her wanted to take his horse after he was over with. She liked that horse, always had. It was a beautiful stallion, and this blue eyes got her every time.

...

Bill was riding in the back, right behind Micah when they neared the cabins. He was ready for his cue at any second and as soon as Arthur yelled for Colm O'Driscoll, he knew that was it. The largest outlaw immediately lassoed Micah effortlessly, pulling him right off his horse and to the ground.

Micah yelled and squirmed about, struggling to free himself, his eyes growing wide with fear as the men he was riding with got down from their horses and surrounded him, "What the hell are y'all doing?!"

Arthur placed his foot on his back and crushed him into the ground to the point he was prevented from hardly moving at all, "What does it seem like we're doing?" He bent down and hogtied him as Javier removed all of his weapons from him and added them to his own stash.

"No!" Micah did his best to get away but of course nothing he could do was anywhere near effective, "Please, you guys, what did I do?"

John was the one to speak then, his tone being one of ice, "I think we'll let Celina answer that one."

"What?!" He yelled, his breathing heavy and labored as Bill tied another rope around his feet and began to drag him towards the cabin, "Of course this has something to do with Celina. Everything has something to do with her. It's been that way ever since the girl shown up. What does she do for all of you anyway? Sayyyy, Micah drawed out, she's a pretty little thing. I can't blame-"

Bill kicked him in the side, earning a grunt of pain from the less fortunate man, "You watch it." He than spit on the hogtied man and began to drag him by the rope tied around his feet towards the cabin.

Arthur chuckled as he brought up the rear of the group, "Celina is going to be happy."

"You know she is," John agreed, "And to think without her, this would have never even been happening."

Javier walked ahead of the rest of them, being the first one to notice when the cabin door creaked upon. He gestured up ahead, "She's here."

Arthur smiled warmly as he watched Celina step outside. She crossed her arms over her chest, her petite frame in that moment looking rather intimidating and screaming that she meant business, "Hello boys," she laughed, "Won't you look what the cat dragged in..."

John did a double take at her behavior and looked over at Arthur, "Dude... is she, being cool?"

Arthur nodded, surprised at the icy demeanor on her that he had never witnessed before, "She is."

Celina walked towards them slowly, a bit of a spring in her step. She wasn't acting a part at all. She just, well, she felt good and to say the least, she was excited about what was going to happen. She held her knife in her hand and twirled it as she approached, "You don't look so good, Micah."

She kicked him much like Bill had, except she drug her spur across his stomach, cutting him shallowly. Micah let out a yelp, "Stop, stop, would you?! I haven't done anything."

Celina laughed and shook her head, "You've done plenty." She looked over at the boys, "Take him in and string him up. Then we'll start with having our fun."

She turned on her hell and led the five of them back inside, pointing up to a hook in the ceiling, "Right up there."

Arthur assisted Bill in lifting Micah so that Javier could tie him to the hook in the ceiling. John watched skeptically, "Are you sure this is going to hold him?"

Celina shrugged, "If not we can work something out."

Micah yelled at them, his face blood red, "You guys are sick! When Dutch finds out about this-"

Celina circled around him, eyeing him dangerously, "What makes you think," She spoke slowly, each word calculated. The four men who were fortunately on her good side had backed away slightly, looking at her with almost uneasy expressions on her face. They had never seen her like that before, very few people had, "That Dutch is ever going to find out about this?"

Micah screwed up his face at her, a desperate attempt to appear intimidating as he hung upside down by his feet, "You think he won't find out when you all return to camp without me?"

Celina looked back at the boys who had hardly said a word since they entered the cabin, all anticipating her next move, "We got that covered, our story, right?"

Bill dipped his head, "Yes ma'am, we're out killing some O'Driscolls."

Celina smiled, "Good." She looked back to Micah, "Did you hear that, rat?"

Micah squirmed, "I ain't no rat. It's someone else, I'm telling you!"

The woman pretended to think for a moment, "False." She crouched down in front of him and spoke lowly, "I know for a fact that is not true. You see, Micah... I am from the future and from the time I showed up here, I knew a lot about what you would do before you would do it. These guys, well, they know I'm telling the truth... how else would I have," She handed her knife to John and took her gloves off, "How else would I have these?" She rotated her hands so he could see the tattoos on them.

The rat jerked, "I knew it! I knew there were something about you."

The woman shrugged, "Well... yea. The thing about me is that I am very, very ticked off that you have been doing everything you could to increase the gangs bounty so that you can make a deal with the law and get off on any charges. And I'm even more appaled that it would have worked- for a while anyway." She kicked him in the stomach, "I am sickened that you have come to close to driving Dutch to his breaking point and that you would have done it if you would." She kicked him again, "I am pissed off however, that you even attempted to peg me as the bad guy and turn Dutch against me." Her lip twitched, "That if things had went the way they could have, you would have beat Arthur to death on a mountain when he was already dying of Tuberculosis."

"I ain't even done all those things. I am sorry about lying about you. I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Please let me go and you'll never deal with me again." Micah was panicking and Celina looked back at the gang with a raised brow to see all of them looked ready to rip into him themselves.

They had decided though, that she would start the party per her request. She licked her dry lips, "Where do you think we should start?"

Arthur went to open his mouth but Celina raised her hand to stop him, apparently the question was not one meant to be answered, "I know." Celina smiled and turned back to Micah, "You're right, rat. We won't have to deal with you after today. I suggest you make things right with God now boy because you're gonna be meeting him real soon."

"No, fuck! No, no, no. I will leave! I will be gone."

Celina rolled her eyes, "That's what the captives always say... ever. You know, all you had to do was be the man Dutch thought you were. But you couldn't even do that." Her tone was emotionless, "I love Dutch. I don't think you understand that. I don't think you understood the danger you put yourself in when you crossed me."

"I'm sorry, fuck!" Micah's fear brought Celina great joy, "I will do anything. Please just give me a chance. You got to be for yourself in a world like this."

Celina took a step back, "Yeah, well, you crossed the line." She but down on her bottom lip, "You know what we're going to do, Micah?" Micah was silent so Celina went on, "Since you so enjoyed shoving your dick so far down Dutch's throat bye couldn't think straight, we're going to take care of that problem right here, right now."

Micah's eyes widened and he shook his head, realizing what Celina meant, "No, no, no, no. You're sick!" His words almost came out in a cry.

"You would almost think that I've done this before, wouldn't you?" In that moment, she was careless to the fact that there was anyone else in the room. In that moment she didn't care that she was about to spill her deepest, darkest secret, "I have." She raised her brows and shrugged carelessly, ignoring the shocked and again uneasy looks on the faces of the outlaws behind her. She was quiet for a moment as she thought back to 2015... when it had happened, "I had a brother. I loved my brother so much. He was my big brother, two years older than me. He was a great boy. Well, he had this girlfriend... She was sick. Physically sick and was dying, no one had the money for her life saving surgeries. She and my brother had been together all throughout highschool, set to be married."

Celina fought back the tears that pricked at her eyes, she had never told the story before. She thought she was over it but couldn't help but feel the surge of emotions it brought up, "My brother was a good boy, never got in trouble with the law... but he loved this girl, ok? Loved her more than the world. So... He decided he could only do one thing about it. His best friends name was Jay Kalkner..." She laughed humorlessly, "I never liked Jay... there was always something about him, you know, that just... rubbed me wrong."

Micah listened, practically able to hear his own heart beat. He continued to squirm in attempt to get down and pleaded. However, he would have been lying once more if he said he wasn't listening to the story at least somewhat. As for the four others, they remained dead silent, all interested in listening to one of Celina's stories from her past which she so rarely spoke of.

"My brother and Jay decided to go and rob a bank, and they were successful. Don't ask me how, I don't know. It was a small bank, but it paid. Thomas was excited, he was so happy he was finally going to save Ashley. She would be alright. Man, she was a good girl, a pretty girl and he had the money to save her life." Celina swallowed and shook her head, "Tom called me after they escaped the bank, called me from a burner phone. He was lucky I answered since I didn't recognize the number. He was ecstatic," she smiled fondly, "He wanted me to come and pick him up in the old junk car we kept out back so he wasn't driving the same car they left the bank in. I agreed. Heck, how could I say no?"

She licked her lips again, and took a drink of water from her canteen, "Right after we said goodbye to one another, somehow the phones wouldn't let us hang up. I noticed right away and still I think it's weird that things happened like they did but I guess the boys didn't notice it... or I should say Jay didn't notice it." She took another drink, ignoring Micah's sounds of protest and panic, "My bother yelled at Jay, asking him what he was doing. There were sounds of tires skiding across the road and sounds of a struggle. They were fighting, that much was clear and I tried telling
yelling into the phone, tried to get them to stop but I couldn't. Finally, there was a gunshot."

Tears streamed freely down her face at that point, "Jay shot and killed Tom for the money. Tom was my best- my best friend." She choked on a sob, and the outlaws behind her hesitated, not knowing whether they should try to comfort her or leave her alone for the time being. They decided to leave her alone but concern was written clearly across all their faces.

She ran her hands through her hair, "My brother is dead, but maybe... maybe... since history has changed I can save him. I don't know. I don't know." More tears slid down her face, "So, you know what I did? I risked it all. I spent nearly a year after that tracking down Jay who had completely gotten away from the law and I strung him up. Just like you, Micah," She gestured to the rat, "In a house as well, an old abandoned one. I tortured him until he died and then I dissolved his body in acid and burned the place to the ground." She smiled as if the memory made her proud, "Didn't get caught- obviously. And the money, never knew were it went but it wasn't about the money, not anymore, it was about getting rid of the one who betrayed and killed Tom." She bit her tongue, "People try to say that revenge never makes anything better, but it does. Oh, but it does."

She smiled tightly and stood back to her feet, "The Van Der Linde gang is like family to me, don't ask me why, I can't answer that, but they are and they stand for what they believe in. They're willing to fight and die for that, that is admirable to me. So, guess who that means you remind me of, Micah?"

Micah's eyes were wide with fear, "No, Celina, please. I'm sorry about your brother. I'm not that Jay guy, please, please..."

Celina raised her brows, "But you're close enough." She used her knife to cut through Micah's belt and yanked his pants up since he was upside down, revealing his pale, small penis. She laughed and grabbed ahold of it, stretching it out, "We're just gonna chop this little feller right off. Don't worry, you won't need it, you're going to die anyway." She hesitated, "You know, I think we'll deal with that last, give you some more time to think about it."

Ignoring Micah's desperate cries, Celina turned around to face her friends, "You guys do what you want with him. But don't kill him, I get to do the honors." Instantly, she regretted revealing the story about her past that she had, none of the four men looking like they had fully recovered from the story. She tried to bring them out of the states of pity they seemed to feel for her... or anything else they felt upon finding out that information, "Umm, you guys, get with it. Don't disappoint, we've been wanting to do this." She clapped her hands together, "End the pity party and let's go."

The men all looked at her silently for another moment, none of them quite knowing what to say but they did as they were told and stepped forwards, all of them pulling out a knife.

The woman pulled up a chair and sat down out of their way as she watched the four of them carve into Micah with their knives. The man screamed in pain to the point that Celina thought he was going to pass out. She watched as blood dripped to the floor quickly creating puddles. If she let it go on much longer then he would bleed out and there would be nothing left for her to do. She stood up, "Ok, enough. Y'all are gonna kill him."

Celina studied the bloodsoaked men thoughtfully, "I didn't think that through," she gestured to their clothing in concern and laughed slightly, "You really got into it. We'll figure something out."

Arthur shifted his weight from one foot to the other as he studied the mess they had made of the rat, "Well, I suppose he had that coming."

John was silent, staring at the mess with his head hung low as if he almost felt sick towards what had been done. Bill didn't look like he cared though, and if he did, he probably enjoyed it more than not. He reached up and wiped the blood from his face, "Pig sure did squeal."

Javier was the one who seemed quite pleased with his work as he stood with the rest of the guys, eyeing where he had carved his initials into Micah's stomach and wiping his knife clean with a rag as he did so.

Celina swallowed as she looked at the men and back to Micah. They had wanted this as badly as she did, right? Had she crossed the line with them? Did she really want them to see her as a savage... what if after today they all looked at her differently? She made to take her knife out but couldn't bring herself to do it. Seeing Micah hanging by his feet, so very close to death changed her mind about making him suffer any longer.

Instead, she pulled out her revolver and fired a shot into Micah's scull, immediately taking his life. She then turned around and made eye contact with the four men, for a second, not finding her words. She felt... not as good as she expected to feel. She was happy that Micah was gone forever but she was almost disturbed with herself for arranging his death to be that terrible. She should have just hung him or put a bullet in him from the start.

She gestured to the group, "Burn this place to the ground, we don't want to take any chance of Dutch finding his body."

She walked out of the cabin then, feeling all of their gazes on her. She didn't look back but mounted her horse, not being able to help but wonder if she really had any room to be concerned even if Dutch fed Angelo Bronte to a crocodile.

...

A/N: Longggg chapter lol, thank you guys so much for patiently waiting, I appreciate it! Micah's death is officially my Christmas present to all of you and myself, I've been looking forward to writing it for a while now.

Anyway, we got to learn about another piece of Celina's past (finally) which reveals she's been through quite a lot. Also explains how she referenced hating stealing in the first chapters, brings back bad memories for the most part... at least it used to. Also explains part of why she's so loyal to the gang and why they mean so much to her.

What did all of you think about this chapter? I'm eager to read any of your questions/comments and predictions. And yes, she has officially decided to follow her heart and go back to Dutch ?

However, she kinda lost it in the cabin and only became clear-minded again when she saw how beaten Micah was. Her conscious can't help but incite some compassion... thoughts!?

Happy Holidays everyone, be safe! ?

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