"Raven," Clove approached the girl who laid on the cot with a frown. "You okay?"
Clove had kept a careful eye on Echo for the last day. Echo had gone to Diyoza about something, which clearly made Raven upset, and then Shaw comes back beaten to a pulp a couple hours later.
Raven looked up at her and she sat up. "Yeah, I'm okay," Raven's eyes drifted towards Shaw and Clove followed her gaze.
"He'll be fine. They can't kill their pilot, right?" Clove assured her. Raven nodded in agreement but still frowned. "You sure you're alright? You seem down."
"Yeah. It's just..." Raven glanced at Echo, who was in the corner, and sighed. "Monty gave us this key logger to let him into Diyoza's system and Echo went behind my back and threw Shaw under the bus."
"Oh," Clove mimicked her frown as she thought of something to say. "So not cool." Raven sent her an astonished expression. "Sorry. I'm still not good with feelings."
"Guess you haven't changed completely," Raven smiled.
Clove laughed and shrugged. "Maybe not."
"You hear that?" Raven furrowed her eyebrows and stood up. She walked towards the window and Clove followed.
"Yeah, something must be happening out there," Clove responded blandly. "It isn't our problem though."
Raven ignored her and was desperately trying to see something out of the window but the shouting was clearly coming from in front of the church and all the windows were on the sides. "I can't see anything," Raven shook her head.
"Hey," Echo muttered as she approached them. "Keep your guards up. We don't know what these people are going to do."
They sat in the dim room on edge as the yelling continued outside. Finally, the doors to the church flung open, banging against the wall behind them. The prisoners led in two more people and tossed them to the ground like rag dolls before leaving and slamming the door behind them.
Clove choked on the air in her throat as she realized who the two newcomers were. Raven chuckled then Echo and her went to greet Emori and Murphy. Clove stood still as she tried to comprehend that she was seeing John Murphy for the first time in six years. In the bunker, she was often left alone with her thoughts and she always found herself wondering how she would react when she saw him again for the first time. Clove was convinced she would hug him and be glad to see him, but still be pissed for what he did to her. But seeing him standing there against all odds, Clove realized she didn't have it in her to me mad. She just loved him too much. She still stood there, racking her brain of what her first words should be, but her mind was blank.
"Hey, Murphy," Raven smirked and he glanced at her with a curious expression. "I found you something. Or should I say someone."
Raven then stepped to the side, no longer obscuring Clove from his view. Murphy's expression fell and he stared at the girl in awe, leaving them both to make intense eye contact from across the room. Emori sighed and pushed Murphy forward, causing him to stumble slightly. When he regained his balance, Clove and him both started walking towards each other. Clove wiped her sweaty palms against her pants and gulped just as she stopped in front of him. When they were finally face to face, she inspected him carefully and cleared her throat. "So," Her voice was meek. "You have facial hair now."
Murphy grinned and captured her in a tight embrace. Clove quickly returned the gesture and they both had their eyes closed as they hugged. "I love you," He mumbled to her. "I'm sorry for leaving."
They both backed out of the hug but remained only centimeters away from each other. "What, you mean when you left me before the world ended?" She questioned rhetorically before bringing her hand up to his face, the facial hair scratching Clove's palm. She smiled at him as she gently pulled Murphy's lips to her own and molded them together. When they separated and placed their foreheads against one another's, Clove whispered breathlessly, "It's already forgotten."
----------------------
The next morning, all five of them gathered between two cots in the corner of the room. Echo and Emori sat on one cot with Raven and Murphy sitting across from them. Clove sat on the ground between Murphy's legs with her back facing him and her head leaning on his thigh. On the other side of the room, one of the prisoners coughed violently and leaned against the table.
"I still can't believe you helped cure them," Echo muttered with a look of disdain.
"Take it easy," Murphy muttered. "That guy looked cured to you? Maybe it didn't work."
"It worked. She built it," Emori pointed out as she tilted her head towards Raven.
"Exactly. A war's coming, and yet she's passing up every opportunity we get to weaken the enemy," Echo said.
"What is your problem?" Raven snapped and finally turned to face Echo.
"Quiet," Murphy reminded them. Clove looked around the room and only noticed a couple pairs of inquiring eyes. He focused on Echo. "We're still on the same team, right? Right?"Clove peered at the three other girls as they seemed to hesitate, but they eventually nodded. "Good, then we're agreed. We kill the pilot. Then we pop off these collars then run like hell."
Raven scoffed and shook her head, garnering Echo's attention again. "Now what?"
"If we can slip the collars we don't have to kill him," Raven pointed out. "Besides, he's more valuable alive. As a spy you should know that."
"What I know is that a dead man can't fly a ship or fire missiles at the people we love," Echo retorted.
"Valuable how?" Emori asked.
Raven leaned in toward the others. "Intel. We need a distraction to escape, right?" Raven glanced at the others with raised eyebrows. "According to Shaw, this place is a civil war waiting to happen. McCreary's people hate following Diyoza, they only did it up in space to survive, but up until then, McCreary was the alpha dog."
Murphy took a moment to peer over his shoulder. "Shaw told you all this?"
"You want to weaken an enemy," Raven held a stone like expression as she made eye contact with Echo. "What's weaker than an enemy at war with itself?"
Clove flickered her eyes between the two girls who were nearly glaring at each other. "I have to say it Raven," Clove interrupted. "But Echo is right. We can do anything to create a distraction but we can't risk Shaw being able to fire another missile at Wonkru and the rest the space pals."
"Even if we didn't kill him, a civil war isn't that easy," Echo muttered. Murphy tapped Clove's shoulder blade and she scorched forward to let him up. He walked away from the others as Echo was talking and Clove watched him curiously. "War has a way of healing internal divisions."
"If they were soldiers, I'd agree, but look at them," Raven spoke.
It was then that Echo noticed Murphy. "What's he doing?"
"Something stupid, I'm sure," Clove joked, though only Emori snickered.
Murphy was in the corner with the prisoner that had been coughing a few minutes ago. "The tattoo," Emori pointed out. "He's with McCreary. Everyone else in here is with Diyoza."
Murphy then walked away and the prisoner walked towards one of Diyoza's men. "You son of a bitch!" The prisoner exclaimed and delivered a punch in the other man's face.
