When Adelaide arrived back at Jordan's camp, her angry demeanour hadn't changed but she knew she needed to put it away due to not wanting to scare the other kids. Not that it stopped her before but she knew that it wouldn't help in her current situation.

Even with her anger still present and her back constantly hurting, Adelaide forced herself to smile as she walked towards the group of children who were still sitting on the grass but instead of eating, they were chatting amongst themselves. She gave a slight nod towards the dark-haired girl and the boy beside her she was about to meet before she was taken to see David before walking towards them, stretching out her back as she did.

The girl whispered something in the boy's ear before she went off, leaving the boy alone in front of Adelaide. "Hi, I'm Achilleus," Achilleus introduced himself, awkwardly holding his hand out.

"Nice to meet you, I'm Adelaide," Adelaide took his hand and shook it once before dropping it.

"Yes, I know who you are; the Queen of the Savages they called you in my camp."

Adelaide almost burst into laughter but kept it as a light chuckle to not make it awkward. "Queen? Me? Nah, I ain't no queen. A commander? Yes. A queen? No."

The pair fell into an awkward silence afterwards, neither of them knowing what to say until Adelaide spoke up again. "Listen, is there another name I could call you? Achilleus sounds way too formal."

"Most people call me Akkie."

"No way... that's awesome. My nickname's Addie. Addie and Akkie – you gotta admit, that does sound like a cool combination."

"Yeah, I suppose so."

Another awkward silence fell across them, Achilleus looking away from Adelaide for a moment. Adelaide followed Achilleus's line of sight as he looked at a boy who walked past, the pair locking eyes for a moment before the boy moved on.

"You like him."

"What?"

"You like him." Adelaide repeated in a slightly mocking tone.

"Shut up," Achilleus muttered. "How did you know?" he asked in a quiet voice.

Adelaide smirked, folding her arms over her chest. "I can tell by the way you look at him; I see that look all the time back home. There's this girl – Hannah, my second, actually – she's got this crush on one of my guards and every day she gives him this look of 'look back at me if you like me', he's never looked back once but she never gives up hope. It's kind of cute, really."

"So, what, you're like the love expert now?" Achilleus folded his arms too, an eyebrow raising.

"Yeah, I am. Now, go talk to him."

"What? I'm not going to talk to him."

Adelaide rolled her eyes, moving to stand behind Achilleus and slowly began to push him towards Will's direction. "Yes you are, now go. Go talk to your lover boy, you might thank me later."

Not wanting to argue with his new friend, Achilleus reluctantly walked towards Will slowly, cursing under his breath as he did. He looked back numerous times at Adelaide to glare at her, Adelaide gave him a sweet smile and waved him on before chuckling a little to herself.

After watching Achilleus for a few minutes, Adelaide turned her back on him to see her second in command – Hannah – standing in front of her. "Commander, there's someone else who wants to meet you."

Adelaide nodded, folding her arms over her chest. "Okay, let me see them. I think I have enough energy to see one other person before my back gives out."

Hannah rested a hand on Adelaide's arm, looking into her commander's eyes. "You don't have to meet him, Adelaide. I can tell him that now is not a good time."

Adelaide shrugged off Hannah's hand, shaking her head. "I'm fine, Hannah. Go get him and let's get this over with."

Hannah nodded and disappeared for a moment before returning to Adelaide with a boy close behind her. Just by looking at him, Adelaide could tell that he was an outsider in North London terms; he would've easily fit in if he was South London Crew – his outfit of black leather, chains, big boots, and a collection of trophy human ears around his belt made him look like one of Adelaide's guards.

Perhaps if we both survive this, I could ask him if he wanted to join; we could use someone like him.

"Adelaide, this is Ryan. Ryan, this is Adelaide." Hannah introduced, pointing to Adelaide and Ryan in turn.

Ryan waved off Hannah's hand, removing his mask off his face and let it hang around his neck. "Yeah, I know who she is... she's a badass."

"I'll leave you two to get acquainted." Hannah raised her hands up in surrender before leaving.

The pair watched Hannah leave, the smirks on their faces mirroring each other as Ryan spoke up. "So, you're the one who beheaded someone and kept his head as a trophy."

Adelaide chuckled, nodding towards Ryan's mask. "So, you're the Leather-Face wannabe."

Ryan chuckled, too, his eyebrows raising a little. "Oh, where have you been all my life?"

Adelaide raised an eyebrow, folding her arms over her chest. "Oh, you know, I've been around."

Half an hour later; the pair were sitting on the grass and trying to out-gross each other, but all they were achieving was making many of the kids around them want to puke from all the things they were saying to each other in an attempt to gross them out, not that they were successful. Both of them were far too much alike in the things they had done to survive in their new world to really be grossed out by anything.

Note

So, Adelaide finally got to meet Akkie and Ryan and beautiful brotps have been formed – although I didn't plan on Addie and Ryan being quite so flirty with each other. I might take a break from this story because I'm re-reading the series and I'm only up to reading The Fallen (fourth book since I'm reading it in chronological order) and it'll probably take me a while to get to The End and I kind of want things to be somewhat correct. Unless you guys want it to be slightly un-canon, then I can just continue the road I'm going down now – just let me know!

Although I have no idea where to go from here – any ideas? I'm thinking of having the meeting of everyone deciding who's in charge but I don't know if I'll go with that idea.

Until next time;

Lorna.