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Chapter 19

After skinning the dead bear, Arthur placed the skin on the back of Silver Dollar, receiving a beaming smile of pride from Hosea.

"You gonna come with me back to camp?"

"Nah, I got some important things to do."

Arthur'd doubted Hosea would get into any trouble anyway.

Hosea nodded. After the older man rode off, it was just Arthur and Kieran. Treating the kid nicer and showing a softer sign around him gave Kieran some confidence.

"Arthur, may I say something?" Kieran asked. Arthur nodded with an exasperated sigh. "I'm glad I ain't with the O'Driscolls no more."

He smiled, patting him on his shoulder. "You'll never be with them again." He pushed against his shoulder. "You don't have to be in this gang, ya know. You can go off. Find a family. Do something else without getting dragged into this nonsense. I won't be hurt."

It would absolutely hurt Arthur. To know that he'd saved someone who was his biggest regret. At least, Sean and Lenny were remembered honorably by people like Tilly and even Jack. After Kieran's head was taken back, people'd debated if he was a rat 'till the very end, never wanting to give him a chance. Arthur realized he wasn't, that he'd found a new community and home.

"I already got a family," Kieran shook his head. "I'll be by your side no matter what comes."

Those words gave him reassurance. It was a bond that Arthur knew was genuine, slowly closing the gap in his heart after Beaver Hollow when Javier betrayed him and John. It was 'cause he knew Kieran's loyalty to him was built on friendship and brotherhood instead of loyalty to some gang.

Arthur felt a bubbling in his chest. "I bet you were scared when you'd seen me kill Colm. That was why you ran to that horse, huh?" he tried to add humor to the situation.

"Shocked more than scared," Kieran defended. "Saw this overweight big guy charging up and shooting the leader of the O'Driscoll gang."

"Coming from the pipsqueak?"

"I ain't the big gruff like a bear Arthur Morgan."

The two men stared at each other challengingly before chuckling and swinging on top of their horses. A thought occurred to him. It would not be a good idea to take Kieran with him with what was to come. The kid could shoot fine and have some good reflexes, but it may not be good enough when others are shooting at him.

Arthur'd wanted to go sooner. But he knew that Hosea wanted to get this trip out of the way, and with Lenny getting imprisoned, that had to be pushed back. Arthur decided he'd waited long enough.

"What's wrong?" Kieran inquired.

"I have somewhere to go. It's going to be dangerous."

Even with the threat of that alone, Kieran nodded. "I'm with you, Arthur."

"What is it?"

Sean. They had to get Sean freed.

This was earlier than last time. Dutch would probably disapprove of Arthur going off on a rescue mission without consultation. He'd personally believed that more effort should have been used in freeing Sean.

With the former lowest O'Driscoll of them all flanking right behind him, the two rode. He'd given him multiple chances to back out throughout the trip, expressing that he could leave if he wished.

Kieran, however, refused every opportunity, proclaiming that he'd wanted to be at Arthur's side.

Eventually, they crossed over the Great Plains, coming over the ford, and then ascending the plains themselves. They stopped just short of the hilltop overlooking Blackwater, only for his chest to tighten, eyes to widen, and heart to beat even faster.

Oh, damn, what the fuck happened? The camp appeared to have been tarnished, the ashes of fire, marks everywhere, but there were no signs of the two members.

"Damn, there appeared to be a fight," Kieran noted.

But that doesn't make sense. The last time they were able to go down effortlessly and rescue the boy. They'd just arrived a bit earlier. How could this be happening?!

Arthur grabbed his Schofield Revolver, searching the makeshift camp, eyes narrowed. Kieran did the same with his own revolver, prepared to shoot anything that came at them. It took much within Arthur to prevent from hyperventilating, as he got off of his horse and looked around the camp. His tracking skills improved drastically since the last time around. Not as good as Charles, but still acceptable for hunting standards. Hoof prints, he'd spotted. Shells of gunshots.

Damn it! He slammed his boot against the ground.

Goddamn this stress of everything!

He'd made one change, and everything got fucked up! Could anything have remained the fucking same?!

He took measured breaths and steadied himself. Even if Sean swung, losing his temper wouldn't do anything to fix this. It would just make everything worse.

"We've gotta look for 'em," Arthur declared.

The two men got onto their horses and kicked them into action. The sounds of footsteps vibrated in Arthur's ears, sounding suspiciously more and more like gunshots. Damn it! He should have come out here by himself to save Sean, even though he might have gotten himself killed doing so! It would have been worth it, because now that boy was probably dragged off to a federal prison, due to Arthur's mere presence.

Arthur's eyes narrowed when he saw a cloud moving. It wasn't going away, but coming closer and closer. He'd seen it was Taima, Charles's horse, but without the man on it. The horse was skittish more or less. Another cloud and Boaz were following behind.

"Charles and Javier's horses," Arthur voiced, eyes widen.

"What should we do now?"

"We'll have to leave 'em for now," he declared.

They took off in the direction of where the horses surfaced, hoping to keep out of sight, Arthur mumbled about good five curses to himself as his hearing picked up an all too familiar sound.

Eventually, the sound was much closer.

Gunshots rippled in the air nearby. The shouts of individuals.

Arthur pulled on his reins and Ryan rode off in the guided direction.

More gunshots rippled, each with the sounds that vibrated when a body fell. The smoking atmosphere didn't help. Arthur's breaths were tight, his mouth having to open at the last moment to allow air in.

The vibrations of the gunshots seemed to increase as they'd gotten closer.

At last, Arthur'd spotted them.

Between the rocks on a cliff, someone was shooting at them, the sniper shots coming closer and closer to the crouching figure behind the rocks. The familiar dark hair and mustache told him who it was: Javier.

When the sniper stopped to reload, Javier peaked out and fired multiple rounds, landing what bullets he could against the nearby shooting 'till he had to duck again at the fire from the others.

The part of Arthur that was the shell of the man left after Beaver Hollow wanted to see Javier die again. There was no question about that. For, while Arthur found redemption, he still was a man and couldn't always uphold his own code that revenge was a fool's game.

Yet, the former gunslinger had merged with the essence of the younger Arthur Morgan whose body he inhabited. That shadow still saw Javier as a friend and brother, the Mexican who sang his guitar and was a positive figure around the camp.

For a moment he stood still, wondering what to do. He acted.

With the secrecy on his side, Arthur leveled his revolver at the sniper, seeing Javier's face cringing in worry. He fired his revolver at the unsuspecting sniper, dropping the sniper behind the cover of rocks.

Javier looked in his direction and let out a notable sigh of relief. At his side, some meters away, Charles was also safely unharmed if shaken up a bit, crouching behind cover with some blood, blood that wasn't coming from him. At the very least, he could still shoot. Arthur and Kieran raced forward, firing their guns as their horses ran away into the path of safety.

The next moment, Arthur threw Kieran to the ground, not willing to allow him to get his head blown off, shot in the heart, or whatever else way that bringing the stubborn kid here would result in!

"What happened?" Kieran's question stole the words out of his mouth.

Charles leveled his shotgun at three remaining bounty hunters on the scene, blowing them away. Now that they had been lifted of the burden, the dark-skinned man turned to look at them.

"They caught onto Trelawny," Charles told him. "It must have been a trap or something because they were waiting for us."

"Where is..."

The dark-skinned man motioned to the nearby corner where blood was leaking, like a puddle due to an impending rainstorm. Fear slammed into him, and all didn't matter in that moment.

Lo and behold, Trelawny was also there, face tight in pain. The Rolling Block Rifle clutched tightly into his right hand. He seemed to have been in a rough condition, given his left hand was gripping a wound. Oh, goddamn it! He had to get the hell out of this!

"Luckily, I caught one of them about to pull out their gun!" Trelawny added on, painfully. "Didn't stop them from... shootin-" his hand went limp around his rifle, and he breathed.

Arthur couldn't deny the urge to move over to the wounded man, softly removing his hand from his bloodied injury. From this position, he just couldn't tell if Trelawny was going to survive or not. It had filled him with such fear 'bout what could happen 'cause he wasn't even directly involved and the man got hurt! It was like Lenny in Strawberry.

"We began looking for Sean! Couldn't find him!" Javier added.

Some of the bastards were riding on horses, causing them to crouch behind cover as bullets came bitingly close to them. Only peeking out of cover slightly behind a rock, Arthur targeted the closest ones, blasting eight of ten bastards off of their horses onto their asses. The remaining two were dealt with JAvier.

"Damn, we should have brought the whole gang!" Arthur snapped.

"Wait! I think I see him! Sean!" Javier shouted, pointing in his direction when cleaning the bastards in his way.

Stealing a corner out of his direction, Arthur saw the form of a man being led away on a nearby horse, hands and legs constrained. Some good things were going to happen after all.

Pushing through the first rows of enemies, they fired their guns. The few guards standing there turned around and shot at them, forcing them to duck again to avoid the gunshots continuing to rain hell upon them.

They forced Sean into the wagon and closed the doors, the two taking a moment to fire. As they boarded the wagons and began taking off, Arthur cursed the lost opportunity.

"Goddamn it! We're going to have to follow 'em!

They ran back in the direction of the horses. There must be some luck 'cause Taima and Boaz weren't far away from their horses. Even if they chose to retreat, there were still the faint sounds of gunfire. There was another problem.

"The bullet's still in?"

Trelawny shook his head. Sweat. Coming down. Arthur didn't hesitate. He took action. He gripped his satchel and gripped some whiskey.

He ain't going to let the man die. Trelawny simply couldn't die without a bloody fight with the devil! It wasn't meant to happen, not now, hopefully not in many years! He would save his life for the life of him.

He recalled the terrible agony, all of it, feeling like he had been pulverized, set aflame, impaled all at the same time, and now he was gonna do it to someone else. He spattered the whiskey over his knife, drenching the blade and clearing it as much as he could. He streamed the rest of the whiskey in the wound just in case. That had Trelawny spitting out a worrisome noise, an agonized, pained hiss pouring out of his gritted teeth, but he didn't make any other sound.

He rippled apart of Trelawny's three-piece suit, exposing the injury, and didn't hesitate as he stabbed the knife a second later, swiveling it slowly, carefully, searching for the bullet. Javier and Charles both held him as Trelawny stiffened. Now, his breathing was shallow, quick, hurt. Much, much too swift.

It felt like an eternity, but finally, the blade secured with the bullet and Arthur pulled it out. There was a new source of blood. Fortunately, the blood was controlled-as controlled as it could be with the situation, not dark, nor cold.

He gripped one of his own bullets, bit the shell, and placed the gunpowder over the wound. His breathing accelerated, a stammer now, jarring enough to grip his shoulder. He trembled and shrilled out before his breathing calmed. He still didn't talk, even as Arthur activated a match and connected the flame to the wound. There was the scent of gunpowder; bold, strong, and sharp as a bullet, as the flame spread and sealed the wound, sterilizing it. Trelawny yanked, finally fighting against Arthur, but it ended, painfully slow.

The handiwork almost made the time traveler gunslinger forget.

"Javier, get Trelawny back to camp! Me, Charles, and Kieran would handle this!" Arthur barked.

He gripped Tralawny's limp, faintly breathing body, and supported him onto Boaz, the man groaning and collapsing forward onto his neck. They led off in the direction they came from, undoubtedly going to safety.

They took off in a different direction, going around the small mountain down the tracks. The bastards would soon secure the area, and if Arthur could say one thing good 'bout much of those enemies involved with the government, they were a competent bunch of bastards. That included bounty hunters employed by them.

Eventually, they saw the form of the wagon, being led by the bounty hunters on the horses. The few agents that had been gathered up were following, keeping a close eye.

"They got away!" A man shouted. "We gotta make sure they don't get their boy back!"

"Oh, they won't," another one, clearly someone in power, said back, a sardonic grin across his lips.

That earned laughs from some of the other men.

"We are going to have to be careful about this," Charles murmured-barked at the two others. "They have Sean in there. We misfire, he will be meeting the angels sooner."

Arthur took a long glance at the corpses that formerly belonged to the decreasing bounty hunters. "I have an idea."

Author's note: I read this sadly unfinished Arthur time travel fic, The Way It Was, and I loved it. I took some inspiration from it when it came. I loved the ripple effects and I'm introducing more as we break from the timeline!

Do I mention how much I love Arthur and Kieran bonding? Not as much as Arthur and John, but gotta have some fun with Kieran sometimes. Lol