"Pathfinder," SAM says for the third time, waking Ryder up. She rolls over in the bed, groaning to the voice ringing in her ears.

"Someone better be dying, SAM," he mumbles. She opened her eyes, Reyes was facing her. He was still sleeping.

"Sloan wishes to see you right now, she isn't taking no for an answer," he explains. Ryder gets to her feet, stretching her body out as she grabs her clothes. She looks at Reyes one last time, deciding to send him a message that she'd come back after she dealt with Sloan.

"Tell her I'll be in ten minutes," she says heading to the bathroom to get changed.

The Outcast HQ was empty, with not one guard insight. Just Sloan sat on her throne, she looked tired and angry. "Sloan?" Ryder says as she approaches. "Where is everyone?" she asks, looking around.

"I told them all to fuck off. I needed to be alone," snarkily says. Ryder leans on her hip, smiling slightly.

"Well you just called me here, so you know, great job," she mocks with two thumbs up.

Sloan scoffs at her. "I'm not in the mood for your game, Ryder. The Charlatan has made a move against me. Paid my own people to beat Kaetus, he's alive... barely." Ryder's face drops, now realising why Sloan was so upset.

"Sloan... I'm so sorry. I know how much he meant to you," she quietly says. Sloan waves her off.

"I don't care for your pity. The Charlatan left me a message, they want to meet me." Ryder shakes her head.

"It'll be a trap," she quickly comments.

Sloans smiles, waving her hand in annoyance. "You think? I can barely trust my own people, but you. You're an outsider. You can come with me, cover my ass if shit goes down.

"I don't wanna get involved in Kadara's shitty business. Tann would be pissed if he finds out as well." Sloan laughs sarcastically at her.

"I don't care what Tann thinks. He's a dick anyway. If you want your little outpost, you'd come with me." Ryder looked at the floor, she really had no choice. Kadara was the last place to get an outpost and it was taking the longest to sort. Ryder nods as she looks up.

"Fine, but we do this my way. When is the meeting?" Sloan stands up, stopping just short of a few feet from Ryder.

"I don't know yet, just the location. We are to wait on a time." Ryder nods, turning around to leave. She wasn't going to take any of her crew, this was her business. They didn't need dragging into something that she barely wanted to be a part of.

Reyes slowly opens his eyes, his arm reaches for the empty space next to him. He quickly looks up, seeing the bed empty. "Ryder?" he calls. With no answer, he sits up and opens his omni-tool, seeing the first message from Ryder.

To: Reyes Vidal.

From: Sara Ryder.

Reyes,

Sloan asked to see me, she sounds desperate. I'll come back when I'm done with her.

Love you,

Sara x.

Reyes panics, he tries to call Sara and SAM but neither answers. He then calls Keema, she answers after the first call.

"Reyes, where the hell have you been? We've been waiting for you to sort Sloan out." Reyes was running around his apartment, getting his armour on.

"I overslept. Have you sorted Kaetus?" Keema rolls her eyes at him on the vid call.

"Course, we just need a time. You'll be meeting her in Drauiller." Reyes grunts, nodding at her.

"In the next hour. Have you heard anything from Sara?" Keema pauses what she is doing, looking at Reyes with nearly closed eyes.

"She was last seen entering Outcast HQ, she hasn't left since." Reyes sighs heavily. "You still haven't told her?"

"No, how can I? I think Sloan has asked her to go as cover." Reyes knew he couldn't back out now. He couldn't let Kadara fall into Sloan's hands just because he loves Sara. "Fuck, alright. I'll meet you at the shuttle in ten," he says, ending the call.

He goes through his omni-tool again. "Mr Vidal," SAM's voice fills his commlink.

"SAM, please tell me Ryder isn't helping Sloan." Reyes could have sworn he heard SAM sigh in frustration.

"Yes, she is. I have tried convincing her otherwise. Telling her this is not Initiative business, but she will not listen to reason." SAM had been trying so hard not to tell Ryder the real reason why she shouldn't go.

"Have you told her?" There was silence. "SAM, please. Have you told her?"

"No, but I fear I may have to. My priority is to protect the Pathfinder. I am lying to her at this point." Reyes shakes his head, he leaves his apartment to head to the shuttle bays.

"No, I'll handle this. Please, SAM," he begs. "Don't tell her, she'd hate us both if she knew you knew."

"As you wish, Mr Vidal," the AI says before ending the call. Reyes hated dragging SAM between all this. He'd come to greatly care for the AI, he'd helped Reyes more than once and tried his best to understand both him and Ryder.

"We got a time, let's go," Sloan says as she marches past Ryder. She first needed her armour, luckily she had a spare in the Nomad.

"Head to the Tempest, we will take the Nomad." Sloan only nods. Ryder calls Cora, "hey can you get the Nomad ready. I'll be down in ten."

"Sure thing. Do you need anyone to come with you?" Ryder looks at Sloan who shook her head at her.

"No, I'm good. Got cover already," she says ending the call. Her relationship with Cora was still very stale. Only time would heal those wounds. "How are we playing this?"

"I want to see what the Charlatan wants first. I must know them, they are very powerful and have done well to hide for so long. We will try to come to an agreement. I cannot afford a war between the Outcast and Collective." Ryder knew the Collective had grown bigger and bigger in the last few weeks. More and more joined as the Outcasts were just too badly run and corrupt.

The caves were dark, cooler than outside. It was a nice breeze, but that wasn't why they came. Ryder and Sloan slowly walk through the main tunnel, it wasn't a very big cave. It slowly opened up into a circle with jagged rocks surrounding them.

They both stood very still, waiting to hear any sort of movement or voice. Then he spoke, Ryder's spine ran cold. "You look like you're waiting for someone," Reyes's cold tone says as he comes out from behind a boulder. The light in the tracks shone on his dark complexion.

"Reyes?" Ryder breathes in shock. She almost faints on the spot, this whole time. Sloan wasn't that easily convinced, she looked Reyes up and down.

"I'm here for the Charlatan, not some third-rate smuggler," she hisses. Ryder scoffs, glaring at him.

"They're one and the same," she whispers. Reyes drops down from the small boulder, standing about ten feet from them.

"Surprise," he says. Speaking mostly to Ryder.

"This whole time. YOU FUCKING LIED TO ME, YOU BASTARD," she screams. Even Sloan is taken back from this. She holds her hand up to Ryder.

"You said you wanted to settle things... how?" Reyes keeps looking at Ryder. She was shaking, holding back tears.

"A dual, you and me. Winner takes Kadara Port." Sloan laughs, Ryder shakes her head.

"You want to avoid war by shooting each other?" Reyes nods, moving to the left slightly.

"Two people shooting each other is better than a lot of people shooting each other," he says evenly.

"I'll take those terms," Sloan answers. Ryder backs away slightly as she and Reyes slowly circle each other.

It was awfully slow until the glint caught Ryder's eyes. SAM confirms it. "Sniper, his sights are set on Sloan," he quickly says. The sniper was one of Reyes's men, this fucker was playing dirty.

Ryder only has seconds to think. Save Sloan and get the outpost, but at one cost? Or let her die and let Reyes take over. She'd get more from him. But Sloan was being fair, Reyes was not. Ryder couldn't decide, her feet were glued to the ground.

It was too late, the bullet fired and lodged straight into Sloan's chest, puncturing her lungs. "Bang," Reyes mocks with finger guns. Ryder moves away, she couldn't look at Sloan. The woman gags for air as she slowly crumples to the ground, her eyes gradually closing.

Reyes' sniper jumps down, heading to grab Sloan's body. "Get her out of here, prepare the crew. Kadara Port is ours tonight," Reyes orders as he stalks off back towards the entrance. Ryder quietly follows him.

"Why? Reyes..." her words are mumbled and gibberish. Reyes stops ahead of her, sighing as he looks at the ground.

"Ryder. I am truly sorry this is the way you found out," Reyes begins as he turns around. "I never meant for it to go this far."

Ryder cried in anger, pushing him to the ground. "I fucking loved you, Reyes Vidal. I gave you my damn body, let you fuck the fucking Pathfinder. You always said you hate lying to me, but this is... too much." Reyes gets up, pulling Ryder into him.

"Please, Ryder, just let me explain," he begs.

"Listen to him, Pathfinder," SAM's voice rings through her omni-tool. Ryder looks at Reyes then her omni-tool, her brain putting two and two together.

"SAM, you knew?" The AI is silent. "Answer the fucking question," she orders.

"Yes, I promised Mr Vidal to keep it a secret. He did want to tell you," he defends. Ryder makes a digested laugh noise, pushing away from Reyes.

"You both lied to me. How could you? Dragging SAM into this as well. You make me sick," she cries. Reyes sees one of his men approach, he quickly waves him away.

"Ryder, I never did this to lie to you. I've been the Charlatan long before the Hyperion even made it to the Nexus. We have no Pathfinder, no hope. I knew I'd do better on my own, making something of myself." He tries to plead with her, but Sara barges past him.

"You're not the man I thought you were. I love you so much it hurts, but this... I'm the Pathfinder, I shouldn't be getting involved in shit like this." Reyes pulls her back, but she unleashes her biotics on him, he's thrown into the wall.

"Ryder," he grunts and he gets up. "Please, don't let it end like this." Ryder slowly backs away.

"It won't end any other way. Unless you force me to kill you, which I won't do. Leave me alone, Reyes. We are done," she says as she runs off. Reyes slowly pulls himself up, he'd definitely pulled his ankle with the landing he did.

He runs to the exit of the cliff, seeing the Nomad be aggressively driven through the badlands. "Want us to go after her, boss?" One of his men asks.

"No, leave her," he snarls as he walks away. His heart shattered. How could he even fix this?

"Kallo open the cargo bay doors," Sara orders over the comms.

"You're not on our senses as close enough yet, Ryder," he replies. Ryder punches the dashboard.

"Do as I fucking say, now!" she shouts. There wasn't any reply, but she sees ahead the doors are opening. She revs the rover and practically flies into the ship. She stops dead of nearly running Liam over, getting out, she slams the door shut.

"Ryder, you alright?" She doesn't answer, just storms off towards her room.

Cora walks past her in the hall. "The hell type of entrance was that?" she asks Ryder.

Sara almost growls, grabbing Cora by the throat and slamming her into the wall. "Speak to me like that one more time and I'll leave you in those fucking badlands. Am I understood?" Cora quickly nods, she's let go and left to rub her sore throat.

Ryder waits for her doors to shut and lock before screaming and throwing all her datapads and SAM's AI terminal on the floor.

"Pathfinder?" SAM slowly calls. Sara snaps her head towards the now broken terminal.

"Don't speak to me right now, SAM," she warns. She pulls her armour off, they had no other jobs for the time being so she wasn't going to leave Kadara anytime soon.

"Sara-" Ryder uses her pistol to shoot the AI terminal, even though it was already broken. She temporarily disconnects SAM's connection to the ship; he quickly fixes the issue.

"Don't speak to me. You were meant to be my friend, we are closer than anyone in existence and you lied to me. You chose Reyes over me," she cries. SAM didn't reply, he didn't even know what to say.

Ryder gets down to her bra and pants before climbing under the duvets. Crying for what felt like hours until she was too exhausted to stay awake. She'd wake up to a new Kadara.