A/N: So most of the AU changes I made here will be covered eventually, but the gist of this is: Scylla wasn't Spree, but she's a spy for Alder and she found out that a Spree was stationed in Fort Salem and had something to do with Raelle Collar, so Alder has Scylla watch Rae and things go from there.

Also, I have absolutely no idea what could happen in S2 after that freakin' finale. You'll notice that there's a deeper plot here that delves a bit into canon, but... I've never been very good at guesswork so you can just ignore that. :D I'm gonna be focusing on the relationshit and let's all just pretend that the politics and intrigue are still going on behind the scenes, instead. In line with that, I went with not-Spree Scylla because I have no fucking idea how the show's gonna bring Raylla back together at this point, at least not anytime soon (but I sure am excited to find out!) This route seemed the easiest to wove into a story where they meet up again after a few months and Raelle can reasonably, quickly forgive Scylla.

"Of everyone you could hook up with... Hope Mikaelson!" Abigail spits out as she paces her room, Tally and Raelle watching with fond amusement on their faces. Abigail turns back to them and scoffs at the smirk on the blonde's face. "Really, Raelle? We're supposed to be a unit."

"Oh, is this a 'you want to join' kind of situation? I think I can arrange that," Raelle quips just before a book is thrown at her from across the room, accompanied by Tally's laughter, loud in her ear.

"Shitbird," Abigail grumbles as she crawls onto the bed with them, perching herself tentatively at the foot of it before shrugging and squeezing herself between the two.

After a beat or two, Abigail sighs loudly and turns to look Raelle dead in the eye. Speaking in a low voice, she says, "I don't know if this is really what you want, but I know that you need this, after everything that's happened. I can only hope that this is good for you."

Raelle smiles at that and reaches out to place a hand over Abi's, squeezing. Tally beams and joins her hand with theirs.

A moment passes before Abigail speaks again, "And good for the unit." Abigail grins, knowing full well she just ruined the moment, but Raelle finds that she no longer minds, not when she knows that Abi really cares, despite what she says. "We need you in tip top shape if we're going to kick Mikaelson's unit down a rank or two. Put all that..." Abigail scrunches her nose and makes vague hand gestures, pointing at Raelle's legs, making Raelle gasp out a laugh, "... energy to good use."

They were past halfway through their first year of War College and, surprisingly, they were doing well.

In fact, they were doing really well, even Petra seemed impressed when she last came by.

Too well. Like sometimes, Raelle feels that the other shoe is about to drop on all of them.

She's maybe felt that way for months, almost a year now, since she found out that her Necro girlfriend wasn't even Necro at all and had been lying to her the entire time they'd been together.

"I couldn't tell you, Raelle," Scylla had said, begging Raelle to understand. "You don't defy direct orders, you know that, and mine had been not to tell anyone who didn't already know. Especially —"

"Porter knew," she'd retorted, and when Scylla's jaw snapped close, Raelle couldn't bear to look at the guilty expression on her face much longer and left.

Scylla was redeployed the next day, back to the rest of her secret assignment, part of which apparently involved the months of pretending to be a Necro trainee, months of getting close to her for intel she didn't have.

Tally's giggling brings Raelle back to reality. Teasing, Tally says, "You're really sticking by your type, huh?" She pokes at the blonde's side as she enumerates, "Dark hair. Trouble. Bad childhoods…" Tally's eyes are sparkling with mischief, and Raelle can only laugh, reaching over Abigail to shove the girl's hands back towards her. Abigail objects at the commotion but the smile on her face gives her away.

She's not sure how they got here. How, in the year of snide remarks and arguments, of pining for her girlfriend, of self-destructive behavior and thoughts of her dead mother, she found herself this unit. This family, willing to die for each other. To follow each other into unknown territory. To literally almost die linked together.

She lost her girl, but, for the first time in months, Raelle thinks it's going to be fine, as long as she has these two idiots with her.

/~/~/~/

And this.

This as in Hope furiously attacking her lips, her eyes blazing with vengeance and power. "You caught me off guard is all, Collar," she says against her lips. "Otherwise, I would have beat the shit out of your unit." She emphasizes this with a harder press against her lips, the fist clutched to her shirt unclenching to push Raelle into the wall. "Single-handedly."

"Sure, Mikaelson," Raelle manages to say between kisses, grinning. "Whatever you say."

She's not sure how this happened, either.

One night after a particularly rough training session that involved harmonizing and hot scourges and closed goddamn mouths, Raelle was walking back to her room from her party of one by the lake, drinking away her sorrows and thoughts of a dead bird making a delicious mushroom, and the next thing she knew, she had Hope pressed against her door, talks of this doesn't mean anything, it doesn't have to and we both need this, that's all briefly exchanged before they went all in.

"We should really stop doing this here," Raelle mumbles half-heartedly. "They're staying here tonight. We've traumatized Abi enough."

And it's Hope's turn to grin. "Why do you think I like doing this here?"

Of course.

Hope and Abi didn't hate each other, not really. The way they work together during scouts and drills, and the way they genuinely laugh at and with each other every few nights, when their batch had little get-togethers in some unfortunate cadet's room, proved that.

But with everything that happened — after Citydrop and Libba, after their impromptu albeit brief deployment, after the mycelium and everything else in between, after the Saltzman unit, dragged down by Alyssa Chang, didn't make it to war college — well, Raelle just figured that some habits were simply hard to break and these two needed new rivals to vent all their frustrations on. These two found that they fit, loved antagonizing each other when they'd barely acknowledged each other's existence the year before.

Whatever gets them off.

And whatever gets Hope off, Raelle thinks when she does a couple of times that night.

When Tally teases her, "Ooh, did your mark move to your neck, Rae?" because there is a very visible bruise on her neck she'd tried and failed to Fix that morning, she doesn't really mind. She doesn't think much of it when Hope's unit sits with them for breakfast — they've been doing that for a while now — and doesn't think much of it when Hope sidles up next to her, throwing an arm over her shoulder. Not until Abigail's eyes pop, catching sight of something behind them.

She doesn't know what to think anymore when she feels it, the way she always has, even before they were taught how to Know. She's always felt the change in the air when Scylla was around.

She tries not to look, but then the heads all around the table are already turning, and it would look odd if she didn't, right?

Wrong.

Wrong.

This is all wrong.

Because why is she here?

She was just starting to move on.

Sort of.

But really, why in the world is Scylla Ramshorn back?

Hope doesn't waver, doesn't put down the hand clutching her arm, and she finds she's thankful for it because she needs something to lean into when her eyes meet her ex-girlfriend's.

Maybe everything else has changed, but some things just don't, can't. Not yet.

She's so beautiful. Still so beautiful. And the sight of Scylla still makes Raelle's heart drop, makes her freeze in her spot, rendered speechless in a way not even Anacostia's glares could.

Scylla's staring at her.

She wonders how long Scylla has been standing there, staring. She watches as a frown settles on her face when her eyes move down to the hand wrapped around her, Hope's hand moving up and down her bicep. She knows it's meant to be a soothing gesture, but it just ups her anxiety a little bit more, reminding her that everything is different. This is Hope next to her, not Scylla; Hope's knee bumping into hers, not Scylla's.

It's Hope's voice whispering in her ear, asking, "Are you okay?"

No. Not Scylla.

Raelle forces herself to look away, turning back to her food, then to Hope, nodding absently. "Of course." Hope's responding tight smile reminds her that no, it's not okay, and everybody knows it.

/~/~/~/

"What is she even doing back here?" Abigail says as she takes off her uniform, her loop getting caught in her haste.

"I don't know," Raelle says.

"I mean I thought she was supposed to be done?"

"I don't know," Raelle repeats. She slumps down further, burying herself into the corner of Tally's bed.

They have their own rooms now, still next to each other's, being a unit, but they've taken to the occasional sleepover, if only to make sure that Tally wouldn't relapse and hook up with Gerit again, at first, until it became a regular thing — before Hope, at least.

Raelle thinks that, before, maybe she would have hidden in her room, but now, she doesn't think she can deal with being alone in that moment. Doesn't think she can risk Scylla seeking her out and getting her alone. She's weak and she's sure she would end up doing something she'll regret.

"Did you have any idea that she would be back at all —"

"No, Abigail, like I've been saying the past hour, no, I didn't know," she retorts, her voice catching. "I don't know."

Abigail doesn't even dignify her with a response, only stops in her tracks and gives her such a pitiful look and Raelle hates it, because this is Abigail, and if it's coming from her, well... she knows she's fucked.

Tally steps out of the bathroom then, picks up Raelle's shirt from the counter and throws it to her. "Get dressed. Training's in 10." Raelle glances up at her gratefully. They all know they can't let her wallow; that's the last thing she needs right now.

They're right, of course. What she needs is something to hit, or break, or a four-inch piece of metal to pierce and split into two.

Anacostia knows she's off, but she doesn't complain, too satisfied with the output. But still, she keeps giving her those knowing looks — she was in on it, Raelle thinks, watched for months while Scylla made a fool out of her and said nothing; but then Raelle would sometimes remember all the times Anacostia would block off Raelle from Scylla's line of sight, remembers hearing her warnings the night she first took Salva, and Raelle knows she's being wrongfully spiteful — and Raelle tries her best to avoid it, else she'd do something reckless like roll her eyes or confront her in the middle of training.

Her friends notice, too, so when they feel Raelle's temper breaking the surface, they pull her towards them, do what they can to distract her — because trying to calm her always has the opposite effect, and damn it, why does everyone seem to know her so well now?

The best distraction, they've found, comes in the form of Hope freakin' Mikaelson.

Five-foot-two beauty and fury all rolled into one, daughter of legend Hayley Marshall who'd married and dodged until eighteen years later when Hope, tired of hiding and running and the constant risk, answered the call. Hope, who, like Raelle, continued to surprise everyone and surpass expectations, continued fighting and proving herself despite the whispers about her methods, her use of unconventional charms and trinkets and worded spells that Raelle finds endearing.

Not to mention that seedless pitch that leveled half a forest at Citydrop.

She wonders how much different her life would be if she'd just met Hope first. If she fell in love with her instead of —

But that's a different story.

Now, her story has her right in front of Hope freakin' Mikaelson, but not seeing her, not beneath the blindfolds wrapped around their eyes.

"Concentrate," Branson, their trainer, calls out from somewhere above them. "Take deep breaths, don't charge at an unseen enemy. Sidestep, circle them. Take those strides slowly, feel for them, reach out with your minds until you—"

Raelle reacts by instinct, spinning out of the way when Hope attempts another strike with her scourge. She's panting heavily at this point — they'd been at this for a good ten minutes — but she swallows it down, focuses her energy on silencing her breaths, not wanting to give away her location any further, and on shielding herself from detection, the constant hum burning in her throat.

She turns on a swivel and whips her scourge to the right, swiping at air just as Hope slides down on the mat, a foot hitting her ankle until they're both on the ground. She hears Hope stand and she recovers quickly herself, just in time for the tail end of a scourge to hit the ground.

"Use your enemy's unawareness to your advantage. They won't necessarily be blind, but they don't have to be. You can make them not see you, not know where to expect you," Branson rattles on.

Grinning, Raelle steps away, her feet light against the mat, until she stops at least a good five feet away. Raelle hopes the sudden distance throws Hope off. She circles lightly to the other side of the room, dodging other bodies moving around her, blending in to throw her off further, and she grins when she senses Hope feeling for her, moving around tentatively but almost still in one spot.

She charges, scourge out and ready —

And she hits the mat, pinned down with a knee on her back and the tip of a scourge tracing a line up her neck, down her arms. "Not this time, Collar."

Raelle huffs out a breath, pushing hair out of her eyes. She reaches up to take her blindfold off but stays down, shifting to rest her cheek on the mat, and looks up at her assailant. Hope is grinning down at her, then she's lifting her knee and lying down next to her, arms stretched out on both sides as she catches her breath. Hope shifts and hooks her ankle under hers — just a simple, reassuring contact that Raelle finds she likes.

They look around the room, pairs either down like them or still up in arms. She spots Tally sitting up against a window, beaming proudly and waving when she sees Raelle looking. Her sparring partner's a few feet away getting a small gash on her face Fixed. She smiles, and she seeks out Abigail, finds her ruthlessly going after her partner.

She sits up, fighting off the wave of vertigo she gets at the sudden movement, and Hope follows shortly after, slower, smarter. Hope laughs and pats her on the back, and Raelle can't help but laugh, too.

She looks back at Hope. Her neck's glistening with sweat, inviting. Her eyes wander up to the girl's lips, then her nose, her eyes. Hope's eyes narrow slightly at the scrutiny, but she doesn't say anything, lets Raelle have her moment.

Hope is smiling at her, that smile that would have any girl swooning, blue eyes striking and just complementing everything about her.

But her smile reminds her of someone else's — how Hope's smile is slightly wider, even when she doesn't seem to mean it, a bit brighter than the small, teasing, occasionally sarcastic one she'd grown accustomed to, and her eyes are a shade darker than a certain someone's, her hair longer and lighter —

Hope cuts off her torturous inner monologue with a heated kiss, lasting only a few seconds but enough to snap Raelle back to reality. Hope stays close even as she pulls away. "Don't go down that road," she whispers, one hand gripping Raelle's, the other cupping her jaw, her thumb tracing the scar running down her chin.

"I know I'm not going to replace her, and that's okay. I'm not supposed to," Hope whispers in an oh so gentle voice. "But if you're not ready for her, then that's what I'm here for, remember?"

Raelle stares down at Hope, avoiding her eyes and keeping her sight trained on her lips instead. Raelle returns a smile and nods. "Yeah. Okay." Raelle leans in for a quick kiss before they're forced apart by the commotion around them, the fighting having dwindled down to just the few stragglers still senselessly moving around, reaching for their partners with their hands now, until Branson sighs and announces the end of the lesson.

She doesn't notice immediately, and she has to say that that might be a first.

She doesn't notice Scylla standing alongside older war collage cadets by the door, doesn't realize that she'd been there for the whole second half of the session, doesn't know that Scylla went as pale as the newly-painted wall behind her when she saw Hope move in for a kiss in the middle of the training room.

No, she only notices when she's right in front of her, mid-laugh at something Gloria was saying when her eyes find Scylla, standing to the side while Raelle makes her way out the door.

Scylla's breath hitches when Hope appears out of nowhere — but really, she'd been near the whole time, but Scylla isn't really seeing anyone else right now, not when Raelle was right there — and puts a towel over Raelle's shoulder, whispering in her ear. Scylla's heart stills when Raelle looks at her for a second too long, two seconds, three —

And she's looking away, wrapping an arm casually around Hope's waist, and Scylla's heart breaks just a little bit more.

/~/~/~/

"Mikaelson?" Raelle forces herself not to react when she hears it.

It's the first time she's heard that voice again in months, the first time anything's been said between them in the two weeks since her return, and the first word Scylla utters to her is another girl's name. Well.

"Really, Raelle?"

"Really, Scylla?" Raelle shoulders her bag before turning around to face her, schooling her features into what she hopes at least passes off as indifference. "You're judging my taste in women now? Oh, wait." Raelle pauses for effect, pinching her chin before pointing at her. "You have a point. That's fine."

Scylla looks to the side then, her chin tilted up in that silently proud, Scylla way. "Not really. I was going to say she's a bit like me, I think."

Raelle scoffs. "She's really not. Then again, apparently, I'm not a very good judge of character, so..."

When Scylla's eyes return to her, she's only able to hold her gaze for a few seconds before she shuts her eyes, taking a shuddering breath. "I never meant to hurt you, Raelle," she starts.

Raelle blinks, unsure of what to say in the moment. She had so many questions before, piled up into a monstrous, haunting thing that had her losing sleep for weeks. But after months of forcing thoughts of Scylla out of her head, she's almost speechless.

Almost, and she finds herself saying, "Well, I think regardless of your intentions, it still hurt, so..."

Tally walks out of the showers and into the changing room then, stopped in her tracks by the obvious tension in the room. "Raelle?"

Raelle barely looks at her when she says, "I'll catch up."

"Are you sure?" Raelle only gives a minute nod in response and Tally hesitantly takes her leave.

"I don't know why I asked her to leave," Raelle says, dropping her bag onto a bench. "I don't know why I'm staying."

"You're here for the answers I owe you," comes Scylla's simple answer. She takes a breath and a tentative step further into the room. "Not everything was a lie, Raelle. Not everything. Not with you."

"Don't," Raelle chokes out.

With a sigh, Scylla sits down on the bench across from Raelle, and she's suddenly very aware of Scylla, Scylla, her ever enthralling presence. "I am — was — Necro. I was in my second year when I was first pulled out."

Scylla obviously had more to say, but Raelle interrupts before she could get the chance. "What were the things you lied about?" She's had months to recover, to think all of it through, to perhaps allow her image of Scylla to redeem herself in her mind, but she'd repressed so much in those months, and now that she was being forced to confront these feelings, she's overwhelmed. She's not done being hurt.

"Raelle... should we really focus on that? Can't we — Raelle," Scylla's face seems to transform, her eyes solemn, her expression completely serious and genuine. "I love you. I still love you, I've never lied about that —"

"I said don't," Raelle gets up suddenly, silently threatening to leave.

"Okay! Okay..." Scylla puts her hands up in acquiescence and relaxes only when Raelle sits back down.

"I just want to know... which parts weren't real." Then Raelle uncontrollably continues, unable to stop herself from spewing out her next words, "I could maybe get not being able to tell me, Scyl. I just don't... why — It feels so — " Raelle pauses, gathering her thoughts and taking a shaky breath before she continues, "Everything feels fake, now, I... I was your mark, Scylla."

Scylla's shaking her head before she's even done, frustration and grief at how the conversation is going coming off her in waves. "Raelle, you were never just that."

"Just stop lying, Scylla!" Raelle's breathing feels heavy, practically panting with the effort to hold back tears. "That was all I was at first, right?"

Scylla hesitates for a moment before he continues, "I — It started like that, yeah, but then... you were you, and I fell for you." Scylla chokes back her tears. "I promise... I promise I'm telling you the truth. None of it was fake. It was real," she adds, no hint of doubt in her voice. "All of it."

Raelle blinks. "And Helen?"

"I didn't put her up to that, I swear. At least, not intentionally, I just mentioned—"

"You said you were just following orders, from Alder. Was all of this part of that?"

"Rae—"

"And all that talk about the burning times, of being forced into all this? Were you just going along with everything I was telling you, to get me to trust you? Those sentiments don't sound like something that would come from such a loyal foot soldier..."

"No, I meant that. I still do. But we do what we must, right?" Scylla says, chuckling awkwardly.

Raelle turns away from the brunette at that. She looks down at her hands, joined in front of her, deep in thought. Still not looking up, not ready to meet the eyes watching her expectantly, she sighs. "Why did you make me fall in love with you, Scyl?" she asks in such a low voice she's half-hoping Scylla doesn't hear.

A tear escapes her eye then and she sobs with it. "Raelle..." she starts with a small voice, hesitating once more because nothing is going well. But at least she was here, listening, giving her a chance to talk at all. "Believe me, I didn't plan that. I didn't plan to fall in love with you, either —"

Raelle chokes out a disbelieving snicker at that, though it comes out more as a breathless gasp, her throat tight with pain. "Yeah, you know what, I can't do this after all." Raelle grabs her bag and quickly makes her way to the door.

"Rae —"

"I gotta go."

"Raelle, come on," begs Scylla, exasperated and just tired and wanting.

"I have Vocal," and Raelle's gone, slamming the door shut behind her, leaving Scylla on the bench, looking forlorn and dejected, and absolutely wrecked.

/~/~/~/

Raelle feels guilty, of course.

Days after the confrontation and she's still mulling over the conversation in her head. It's worse at night when she's alone, everyone else around her asleep, and she thinks that maybe she should have stayed and listened to Scylla. Because now she has even more questions, and when she sees no sign of Scylla around the fort the next day and the next, and the next, she thinks she'd pushed her luck and finally scared Scylla off.

It's a week after when she sees Scylla again.

Raelle develops tunnel vision when she does, and it's the worst possible time because she's in the middle of a skirmish. The netted ball is in her hand and she's a few strides and just one easy toss away from scoring when she sees Scylla watching her from the benches, whispering and laughing with cadets Raelle briefly notes she's never seen before. Then she's slipping on the grass, and the ball is out of her hands, stolen in her moment of distraction.

Abigail was going to have her head.

"You know, when people say 'tripping over your own two feet', I don't think they mean it literally," a teasing voice startles her, causing her to spill some of the water she'd been gulping down.

Once she's wiped her chin dry, Raelle turns and the response comes naturally, "Well, I'm glad 'burning holes in the back of someone's head' isn't literal either, otherwise you might have blasted mine off by now."

Scylla smiles at the response before scrunching up her nose. "I make it a rule not to blast pretty girls' heads off."

"Mmm," Raelle hums while taking a nervous sip from her canteen, suddenly realizing that she was standing here, joking with her ex-girlfriend. "Same."

No one talks for a good minute after that, no one dares break this surprisingly nice moment of silence between them. Raelle is looking ahead, pointedly avoiding Abigail and Tally's stares, but she's conscious of the way Scylla is looking at her, as well; staring as if she's trying to map out her face, looking for any change the year apart may have brought on.

"I haven't had the chance to tell you..."

Raelle's brows furrow, wondering where Scylla is going with this, if she intends to bring up their previous argument again, and she slowly turns her head to look.

It's a mistake, Raelle thinks, because then she meets blue, solemn eyes filled with guilt and regret and sincerity, and she can't bring herself look away.

"I'm... I'm really glad you're okay. That you're here... alive," Scylla says, almost a whisper, and is the one to first break eye contact, frowning down at the ground instead. "That month thinking you were..." Raelle breaks off with a long sigh. "I couldn't... function, couldn't work, sleep. I couldn't accept it." Scylla's eyes are shut closed now and she's shaking her head when she continues, "Right up there with losing my parents, I can say that those weeks thinking you were dead were the worst of my life." Scylla releases an awkward chuckle afterwards, opening her eyes to glance at Raelle before immediately looking away. "That might have been why my C.O. was so agreeable about letting me come back here for a bit."

Raelle gapes at her, unsure of what to say but her mind is working overtime, because of course she'd heard. At this point, they're sure the whole witch community has heard. She's unsure of how to say I'm not okay or I'm glad I'm alive, too without opening a can of worms she's not quite ready to deal with; she knows she can't say I was thinking about you, too, all that time, and saying something along the lines of Good because that's how I felt when I found out that you were with me for eight months because of some assignment and I'm still not sure how much of it had been real to you.

Before she could put together a proper reply, they're interrupted by a body practically barreling into Raelle, and she's not sure if she's relieved or annoyed.

"Bellweather is more infuriating than usual," Hope grumbles as she fixes herself, glaring at the girl who was sauntering past, who'd pushed Hope towards her, with a smirk on her face. Hope turns back to Raelle, releasing a breathless laugh before she greets, "Hey."

"Hey yourself."

"That was a good game," teases Hope, taking another step back towards Raelle.

Raelle snorts. "We lost."

"Exactly, and we won. That's a good game in my book," Hope laughs, and the pair lean into one another in shared laughter, Hope's hands landing on Raelle's shoulders. Grinning, she tucks herself close against Raelle, sneaking her a mischievous glance before looking at Scylla eventually, a small smile replacing her usually bright one, eyes scanning the other girl. "Hi, Scylla."

Scylla, already tense, straightens further, head tilting up before she acknowledges her with a small nod. "Hope."

There's an awkward beat of silence, Hope's feet shuffling in place as she steps away from Raelle, though she keeps a hand on her shoulder. Then she asks, almost conversationally, "Are you really back? You're finishing war college?"

"Technically, I never really left," Scylla's eyes are steely and cold as she answers. "I still have a couple of years to go. But yeah, I'm back in the Fort for now..." Scylla eyes Raelle sadly then. "Just until the next assignment."

Raelle feels Hope's hand drop from her shoulder suddenly, and she turns to see Hope squinting at Scylla's uniform, particularly on the new patch on her chest. Hope's eyes bulge at what she sees. "You're Eye?"

Scylla's eyebrow goes up at the question. "How do you know about us?"

Hope goes tense next to her, and Raelle instinctively places a hand on her waist. (She pretends not to notice that Scylla flinches slightly at the sight of it, pretends not to file it away for later.)

"My mother and most of my aunts were Eye. I had an uncle who was one, too," Hope tells them, her voice shaky all of a sudden. The topic of her family had always been a touchy subject for Hope, and Raelle had never pressed her for details, not in the way she once pressed Scylla in her eagerness to know everything she can about her. She'd never thought to ask, because that was never the kind of relationship they had. She didn't ask Hope about her family, and Hope didn't ask about her mother. It was simple.

Scylla, on the other hand, deflates at the revelation for some reason, her eyes blinking fast as understanding takes over her features. "That's why your —"

"Hey, Ramshorn!" a voice calls out from one end of the open fields, beckoning for her to join them. "Col. Forbes wants us back in the barracks in 5."

Scylla springs into action at that. "I have to go," she says as she's jogging away, giving Raelle one last look before disappearing into the woods.

A shuddering breath from Hope nudges Raelle out of her reverie. "Did you know she was an Eye cadet?"

Raelle shakes her head. "I don't even know what that means."

Hope blinks, eyes unfocused. "You should probably ask her about it..." she says but, realizing what she was saying, seems to reel back and adds, "When you're ready to talk to her. It's something you should know, I think."

After a while, Hope pulls Raelle towards the others still loitering around the field. Chuckling, she says, "You seemed anxious. Abigail took it upon herself to let me rescue you. Now I'm wondering if you needed it."

Raelle isn't sure herself so she just smiles. She turns her attention over to her unit, ignoring their curious glances, and challenges the other units to a rematch, feeling the need to shake off the tension in her bones.

/~/~/~/

She's going to be late. Again.

"Shit." Raelle sits up abruptly, jostling Hope awake with the sudden movement. The girl grumbles next to her. Clambering off the bed to get dressed, she hisses at Hope now peering up at her from beneath a pillow. "You didn't wake me."

"I figured you needed the rest." Hope shrugs nonchalantly. "We had a long night," she says, her lips puckered teasingly.

Raelle can't help but laugh at that and it's still a little watery, she realizes. She pulls on her shoes, getting dressed faster than she ever has before, but she's still hoping to make it in time for the third bell so she leaves her shoes only half-laced up, pulling her jacket from the chair next to Hope's vanity desk. With one last sweep around the room in case she'd forgotten anything, Raelle leans down to press a kiss on Hope's waiting cheeks, causing the girl to laugh. "Good luck, Collar."

"Fuck," Raelle groans when she hears the telltale tune of the third bell. She's taken the stairs two at a time and is turning the corner when she hears it. A knock and a stern voice calling out, "Inspection!"

She's still dragging out the word "Shit" under her breath when she skids to a stop at the end of the hallway and is met with Anacostia's disapproving glare. She's flanked by two other seniors, and — of fucking course — Scylla. Tally and Abigail are both standing against their door frames, Abigail with her arms crossed and eyebrow raised as she stares at the back of Scylla's head.

Raelle wonders if any of them see it, but she's sure Scylla does: outside of how winded she looks from running, her cheeks are flushed, her hair is disheveled, combat boots not closed all the way, and her suit jacket only half on. She's sure because Scylla's stony face drops as her eyes scan Raelle from head to toe before she forces herself to look elsewhere, her eyes now looking more tired than they've probably been from guard duty all night.

Well, maybe Anacostia sees it, too, because she's looking at Scylla from the corner of her eye, before looking back towards Raelle. "You're late for third bell, Lt. Collar."

Raelle sighs as she approaches them, murmuring, "I know," as she unlocks her door.

They go through the motions of inspection and discussions of going on guard duty as punishment. Once they're done, Raelle goes to her dresser to sort through the things she would need today, to avoid watching Scylla leave, but she feels the girl hang back as the party leaves anyway.

They remain a couple of feet apart, standing in silence for a moment, with Scylla very obviously watching her and Raelle pointedly avoiding acknowledging her presence because it feels much too early to be dealing with her emotions.

She hears Scylla take the remaining steps to the door before she hesitates at the doorway.

"Does she make you happy?" she asks suddenly.

Raelle has half a mind to spit out Why do you care? but that's asking for trouble, because Raelle isn't stupid and of course she knows that Scylla cares.

Raelle moves to the mirror and fixes her lapel in front of it, eyeing Scylla as subtly as she can in the edge of the mirror. "She's good."

Scylla seems to consider this, eyes still glued on Raelle. Everywhere but her face in the mirror. "That's not what I asked."

Taking a deep breath, Raelle turns in place and looks at Scylla, waits for the girl to look up and meet her eyes before she speaks. "That's what matters right now."

Raelle stops herself from telling Scylla that she was only late for third bell, that Hope had let her sleep in, because they were up almost all night.

She gets the urge to tell her that this was because last night, for the first time in months, she had shed her first tears for Scylla. That Hope had cried herself out just as bad, clutching the chain around her neck as she did.

That they'd stayed up comforting each other, the way they should have all those months of fucking away the pain, tears shed for the loved ones they'd both lost.

She tells herself that Scylla doesn't need to know that, no matter how much she wants Scylla to know. Know that she and Hope hasn't hooked up in a little over a week now and she doesn't think she'll be able to anytime soon.

So, she doesn't say it, lets Scylla leave thinking that she's found solace in Hope in whatever way she might think, no matter how wrong it is.

/~/~/~/

Hope tells Raelle about the Eye without much prompting one evening, during their next night out with other units by the lake. They'd devolved to tearful confessions again once they were alone, and Hope's thoughts strayed from Josie to her family.

"The Eye is basically Alder's eyes and ears, all across the states," she explains dramatically, waving her hands around them.

"But Scylla's just a sophomore," Raelle wonders out loud, eyebrows scrunching in confusion. "Or at least she said she was."

"It's not unlikely. She's at least that or a junior if she's already being sent out. Eyes aren't really given much of choice. She could have had a different specialty at first. If they see Eye potential in you, they pull you out."

Hope takes another swig of her beer, eyes steely in concentration. "My mother used to be a Blaster. Davina, my uncle's wife, was a Fixer. My aunt Freya was a Knower, and so on. They were all from different specialties before they became Eye." Hope pauses and leans in to add, "Mikaelsons are versatile," she says with a smirk and a wink, and Raelle laughs at the silly segue.

"Jo and Lizzie's step-mom, she was recently made an Eye. That's why they barely see her anymore. Their grandmother, Colonel Forbes, was one too before she got injured on the field. Then General Alder moved her back here to train the Eyes instead." Raelle thinks back to the woman she's seen around campus on occasion, the gnarly, unfixable gash on her face and her shoulder, occasionally on display when she wears tank tops, making her unforgettable — that, and her intimidating presence altogether.

"Eyes don't have a home, not really. They keep moving around so not one identity is established for them. She was okay with that for a long time. Her family was gone. That's why foundlings are the most ideal candidates to become part of the Eye. She was on assignment when she met my dad, but by then it was too late to ask for a reassignment. So..."

When Hope trails off, Raelle fills it in with one of the few things she did know about Hope's past, "She dodged."

"Not at first... but when she found out she was pregnant with me... yeah," Hope says, trailing off with a drawn-out breath. Raelle has heard all of the whispers about Hope, of course, how they talk about Hope like she'd caused her families' downfall. She never understood it, not really, because why was it such a sin to choose family and safety over duty?

"Where are they now?" Raelle whispers, feeling as if she's being told a secret that can't be spoken of too loudly.

"My mom's been dishonorably discharged. She and my dad are living with the Mikaelson clan in New Orleans." Hope is playing with her shoelaces now, a nervous tic rarely seen on the formidable Hope Mikaelson. "The only reason they haven't been given a death sentence is because... well, she's Hayley freakin' Marshall and she'd done so much as Alder's sharpest Eye, and my dad's her husband and a Mikaelson. That, and I swore to Alder I'd serve her like a good little soldier for the rest of my life if she let them go... even if it means becoming her Eye someday."

Before Raelle could say something — and she would have because that's such a disturbing idea, to be stolen of a choice this young — Hope barrels on, eager to keep the topic off of her.

"Eyes don't get a choice, Rae. They can't choose which orders to follow, can't choose where they go and stay. They don't have the luxury of choosing a partner to be married to for five years because they won't even know where they'll be in a year." She pauses for a few moments longer, deep in thought and allowing Raelle some time to think the information through herself. Then — "The fact that Scylla's here at all is short of a miracle. Then again, the fact that you're here after whatever happened to your unit is maybe a miracle." Raelle looks up to find Hope looking at her with a look she can't quite comprehend. "Makes me think it's not just a coincidence."

Raelle's frowns, not fully able to connect the two, not fully comprehending what Hope was saying. Hope realizes this when Raelle doesn't respond to shut the idea down and laughs as she elaborates, "Against all odds, your girlfriend asked to be here when she found out you were alive, Raelle."

Raelle doesn't even correct Hope's girlfriend comment and, as Hope had expected, immediately shoots the idea down. In the middle of laughter, Raelle can't help but think back to another night when she'd walked these grounds a year ago, when Helen, one of the girls in the know of Alder and Scylla's plans with Raelle, had talked to her about Scylla, convincing her to drop her reservations about Scylla's secrecy.

Jokingly, Raelle narrows her eyes and says, "Tell me something only Hope would know." It had been a code they'd agreed on, brought on by Raelle's mistrust when it came to conversations about Scylla, a joke they'd agreed should incorporate the deceitful faces of the Spree.

Snorting, Hope retorts, "I'd say something about your very cute birthmark, but I'm sure Scylla knows about that, too." The smirk on her face causes Raelle to grumble, making Hope want to laugh even more. "Look," she says, chuckling, "I know you kind of have trust issues about this right now, but I really doubt your girl would pull anything like that again with you."

This time, Raelle corrects her, "She's not my girl." She pulls herself up off the ground, stretching and testing just how far she could go without stumbling in her current state.

"Says you, but with the way she looks at you... she's still definitely yours. And I'm pretty sure you're still hers, if the way you always sigh and go starry-eyed when you think of her is anything to go by," Hope teases as she stands to follow Raelle, a knowing smile painted on her face.

Raelle shoves at Hope's unsteady form in response, laughing when the girl almost falls over. "Shut up."

/~/~/~/

She's not sure if it's because she's on the lookout now, if it's her knowledge about the Eye, that makes her see them when she never has before.

She sees how the trainees are kept separate from the others, how they have their barracks — smaller than the rest, simpler and more discreet — by the outskirts of the Fort, kept as far away from the general population as possible. She notices how Eye trainees patrol almost regularly, how they watch the other witches with intent. Like assignments.

She sees them whenever they're around, the small patch attached to their uniforms symbolizing their specialty standing out to her now.

She's jogging with the other witches at dawn when she sees one of their instructors, Lexi Branson, leading a drill on the grounds with a small group of Eyes, blindfolds over their eyes. She spots Scylla almost immediately, of course. Distance and blindfold and all, she wonders if Scylla sees her, too, because Scylla's head tilts when they pass by, and her head steadily follows her movement, a small smile making its way to her lips.

She's walking back to their barracks later that night, ready to take a shower and turn in, when she hears a commotion.

"Get her to the infirmary!" a voice shouts above the murmurs.

"We can't move her. I'm going, I'll call a Fixer," replies another.

Curiosity and worry getting the best of her, she moves towards the crowd before Abigail can even think to stop her.

And when she sees Scylla on the ground, her wrist twisted in an unnatural angle, groaning, face contorted in pain, she runs. She runs faster and pushes past the small crowd, doesn't process her movements and soon enough, her hands are on Scylla. She shivers, realizing that this is the first time she's touched her months.

"Raelle..."Scylla whispers.

"Quiet. Don't move," she tells Scylla as she kneels down next to her. She's shaking now, panicking at the sight of the blood trickling down her forehead, and her chant comes out shaky, unsteady. She thinks of the last time she'd done this on these grounds, Scylla's ex-boyfriend had just been convinced to jump off the roof by the Spree who'd come to try and abduct her because he'd seen him change form. She remembers panicking and being unable to save him.

She shakes off the thought and instead focuses on the task at hand. "For every one that asketh receiveth..." Raelle's voice resonates all across the grounds, and she's vaguely aware of the cadets stepping away as she continues, "and he that seeketh findeth..."

Raelle, you were never just that.

Raelle shuts her eyes in frustration, trying to push away any other thoughts and memories from her head but can't bring herself to, not when she's here, doing this to the last person she's ever wanted to heal — the last person she'd ever want to see get hurt this much.

"And to him that knocketh, it shall be opened." For the first time in months, Raelle feels the faint pricks of pain she used to get whenever she would Fix someone. She shrugs the pain off, hoping it's temporary.

I love you. I still love you.

"For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory." It's not temporary, Raelle realizes, because she feels her consciousness slipping away before she's done. She pushes through the pain, forces herself to stay awake because she can't, won't, lose her, not like this. Not at all.

I can't lose you, she thinks as her vision goes dark and she feels her limp body fall to the ground, her hands still on Raelle as she does.

"Forever and ever."

/~/~/~/

Raelle knows where she is, what she's seeing, the second she becomes vaguely aware of her surroundings.

Things are flashing before her eyes a bit too fast, but her mind registers the elegantly potted flowers, the arches and high hedges decorating the garden, and the bony corsage pinned to her — to Scylla's — chest. She's seeing her own face looking back at her, surprise and glee making for a strange combination on her face, as Scylla raises her hand in a wave. She's vaguely aware of Abigail and Tally next to her, as if Scylla's memory of this didn't even include the sight of them.

Scylla was taking her back to the Bellweather wedding. The day it all fell apart.

She doesn't know how or why this was the memory her Link to Scylla was giving her, if this was due to this being a shared memory, or if this was what Scylla conjured up in her mind, if it was intentional or not, when she started Fixing her.

The scene shifts in a blur of lights and color, and the next, they're dancing and giggling, wrapped in each other's arms.

The next, Scylla's laying in her bed looking into her scry, watching as words appear on the surface of a mirror in the image it gives her. 6PM, the words read, but Scylla can't see much more beyond that and the head of the guy — Ryan, she suspects, with hair too light to be his — standing in front of the mirror. Scylla sits up suddenly, and she feels her anxiety coursing through her mind, her heart squeezed tight, her breathing ragged even as she tries to hold it in.

Another shift, and this time, the scene is new, not from a shared memory, but she's back at the wedding. She's speaking with Anacostia, the moment after Raelle let herself get pulled away by Tally. "I just have a bad feeling, okay? This isn't... I'm not —"

"This is cruel, Scylla. I've told you several times —"

"And I've told you that my intentions are clean. This isn't just because of... of the job," Scylla insists, her voice firm with the belief of it but strained somewhat in frustration. "And it's Alder who doesn't want Ryan to know we've made him yet, so fine, but in the meantime, I'll do all I goddamn can to protect Raelle."

Anacostia's eyes soften slightly at that, but before she could hear what she says in return, the scene is changing again, gone with the soft, fading "I care about her, Anacostia."

Then they're sitting next to the dance floor, Raelle telling Scylla about Abigail's mom. Scylla stares anxiously at the clock and tries to pull Raelle away — to the beach, to safety — but Raelle asks for a dance and Scylla easily caves. She feels Scylla's short-lived optimism, her hoping against hope that she can just chalk her fears up to paranoia, that she can just enjoy this moment with Raelle —

She sees the waiter with the red hair, anger written all over his face, and Scylla's at least glad that she had Raelle in her arms.

She couldn't have anticipated the balloons, didn't think the Spree would resort to such drastic measures. She'd thought it would be a quiet abduction attempt, like the many — Many? Just how many, exactly? Raelle's own mind reels — times before.

Then it's all over, and suddenly, they're back at the Fort. This memory, Raelle is more than familiar with.

The last day she saw Scylla before she left for her off-Fort training camp.

"Good job, Ramshorn," Alder says. "I'm officially relieving you of your assignments... all of them," Alder spares Raelle a glance at that. "Major Forbes is expecting your return to base in two days. Prepare accordingly."

And Raelle's world started crashing down in that moment, Scylla's explanations not making sense at the time, and the one she got out of Anacostia once Scylla was gone provided no reprieve from the betrayal she'd felt.

/~/~/~/

The world of Scylla's memories crumbled away then, too. Raelle slowly becomes conscious of her own body, healing, her mind quickly closing against the Link she'd established with Scylla.

Scylla, who's seated beside her on the edge of the bed, legs crossed beneath her. She looks paler than usual, bandages wrapped around her head and her wrist, though she's rotating her hand, supported in the other, as if testing its range of motion. Her head is bowed down, sad eyes on her hand and on her knee that's touching Raelle's, and she hasn't yet realized that Raelle's eyes have opened.

"You okay?" Raelle starts, her voice coming out dry and raspy, but it makes Scylla jump, nonetheless.

"Raelle! Oh god," and Scylla's practically falling into her. Scylla reaches out to touch Raelle's face before she hesitates at the last minute, hovering over her instead as she settles in closer. "Raelle... Am..." Scylla chuckles, tears already welling up in her eyes as she speaks, "Am I okay? Raelle, you're the one who absorbed... Goddess, Raelle, you..."

"Anyone would have done that," Raelle says simply as she looks over Scylla, her hands rising of their own accord, running her fingers over Scylla's cheek, nose, forehead, and she thinks She's okay, we're okay as she stills her hand and cups Scylla's jaw more steadily. Scylla leans into the touch, wanting to savor Raelle's willingness to be around her while she can.

"Not anyone. Just you," murmurs Scylla.

Raelle relishes in the moment for a while longer, allowing Scylla to whisper words of gratitude and love in her ears. She lets her run her hands over Raelle's shoulders, her arms, her face — everything she'd lost the right to hold the moment the truth that had driven their relationship came to light.

"I know you hate me," Scylla starts, "but I just want... I need you to know that I love you. I never meant to hurt you. I know I should have told you, or I should have distanced myself the minute I realized how deep we were getting but I... I couldn't."

Raelle tries to think her reply through, but she can't. She knows that whatever possibly irrational, anger-driven response she could even think of won't make it past her lips because she can't bear to see Scylla hurt, can't bear to be the cause of it much longer. "I don't hate you," she says instead. "I don't think I can ever hate you." Her voice comes out as a whisper, but Scylla's completely focused on Raelle, tuning out the other sounds humming around them in the infirmary.

"It was never my intention to... it was never a trick. I was meant to watch you, stay close to you, but you —"

"Stop, Scyl..."

"I swear, Raelle, everything that happened, it wasn't part of Alder's —"

"Scyl, please..." Raelle drops her hand onto the bed, breathing out a sigh. "I'm tired."

"I... I'm sorry, you're right," Scylla's face drops, as does her hands. She starts to move away, off the bed, but Raelle pulls her back in easily. Scylla doesn't put up much of a fight until Raelle's pushing herself up into a sitting position. "Raelle, don't push yourself," she objects lightly. But she also knows that Raelle's one of the most stubborn witches here.

They sit in silence, comfortable in spite of everything still left unsaid between them, for a long moment. Scylla's hands are clenched into fists, pressed against her knees to stop herself from invading Raelle's space. Raelle unconsciously reaches for her hands, opening them until she could lace their fingers together.

Scylla's voice is soft, so soft, when she speaks. "I don't know how much you've been told about us... about the Eye." Scylla instinctively looks around them then, eyeing the few witches loitering around the room who weren't paying any attention to them, before she continues, "But Raelle, you have to know... I'd given up on a normal life, maybe even before Caroline recruited me. I never thought I'd find anyone I could... anyone who would mean as much to me as you do. Then you came and suddenly I'm scared, of everything, of having this bleak future I'm signing myself up for. I'm scared of living this life without you in it, and I just can't..." Scylla looks down at their joined hands before shutting her eyes tight. "I don't want that."

Raelle is as confused as ever, her mind still reeling from the Link memories. She's torn between hurt and anger and curiosity and love and I loved you, I still love you. She finds herself unable to put any of her thoughts into words.

So instead of speaking, instead of thinking, she takes Scylla's chin with her free hand, gently nudging the brunette's head up. When Scylla's eyes open, she pulls her close, closer, even closer, and lets her lips crash into hers in a languid kiss, their delicate, initially hesitant lips speaking volumes despite no words being exchanged between the two.

She's not sure how long they stay that way, their heads touching even when they're catching their breaths, before Raelle pulls away slightly, though she keeps a palm resting on Scylla's neck to keep her close. She licks her lips, the taste of medicine she'd been fed before she woke up mixing with the distinct taste of Scylla she thinks she's never really forgotten.

"I don't know what this means yet, or how I want to do this... I don't think we can just put this all behind us," she says, taking a deep breath that she takes her time to let back out.

Scylla takes this time to talk. "I understand, and you don't have to, but just give me a chance to prove to you —"

Raelle puts her hand up to stop Scylla. She doesn't put the hand back down after, only lets it rest in the middle of Scylla's chest.

"We can't put it all behind us, not just yet. There's so much there to... We..." Raelle sighs. "What I do know is that I'm tired of not knowing, of being kept in the dark all the time. You have the answers I need. I know you can't tell me everything, but you can at least try to make me understand. Right?"

Scylla bites her lip but is nodding the next second.

"And most of all, Scylla... I'm tired of being angry at you; tired of pretending to hate you... of fighting this. Of trying to push you away and pretending I don't want to be with you all the time."

Scylla chokes back a sob upon hearing Raelle's words, unable to stop herself from smiling. Her laugh comes out shaky and almost tear-filled, and Raelle herself couldn't hold back her smile at the sound of it. The genuine happiness in it, not the sarcastic ones they'd been exchanging in the past weeks.

"But if we're going to do this, if we're going to be completely honest here —"

"Yes!" Scylla jumps in, straightening up as she says it with conviction. "No more lying where I can help it, I promise —"

"Don't make promises you can't keep, Scyl. You are still Eye..."

Scylla's expression incomprehensibly changes at that, her nose scrunching up, but there's what looks like a grin making its way onto her face. "Actually..."

"What?" Raelle asks skeptically, trying to not to get her hopes up for... she doesn't know what, exactly.

"I'm not anymore... Well, not yet officially. Caroline gave me time to think about it, and I'm supposed to get in contact with her about my decision in a couple of days." Scylla trails off for a bit, pulling her hand away slightly from beneath Raelle's, only to adjust their hands so she could play with Raelle's fingers. "I didn't know where we stood. I was going to say maybe I should go back. But..."

Raelle draws in a breath. "But?"

Scylla pointedly avoids her gaze, keeping her eyes focused on their joined hands. "But if you're saying there's a chance for this, for us, well... they still have a spot for me with Necro. I'd have to go back a year because I didn't get to finish my sophomore year after they pulled me out, and I missed a lot of even my fake one while on the assignment, but that's really not a big —"

The word deal gets swallowed down when Raelle interrupts her with a kiss, again unsure of how exactly to respond to the revelation that Scylla was willing to upend her life for a chance to be with her. Short of a miracle, Hope had said.

"No more lies, right?" Raelle says suddenly when she pulls back, needing to get it out.

"No more lies," Scylla affirms. She tries to move in for a kiss, but Raelle leans back, determined to keep some distance between them because there's still something she needs to get off of her chest, and she can't do it like this. Not when she's distracted by how happy Scylla is and how tempting her lips look.

"We need to trust each other... Can I trust you?"

"Of course, Rae," Scylla nods. "With anything. Always."

"No more lies..." Raelle says softly, more to herself than to anyone in particular. She looks back up at Scylla, considering her options, but decides to just get it over with. She shifts in place, turns her body to face Scylla and grips the sides of her face. Linking in the way she learned months ago, before their return to the Fort, she speaks to Scylla in her mind and says, "My mom's alive."

Scylla blinks and her eyes grow wider as seconds pass. "Rae..." Scylla squints when she realizes that she didn't speak out loud but knows that Raelle still heard her. "What... How?"

Raelle shakes her head. "I can't tell you that yet."

"No, Rae, I meant... how do you know?"

Raelle's brows furrow in confusion, shock, a hint of betrayal. "What?"

"We've known for a while. We found out after I left. And I've been dying to tell you, but by then, you'd been deployed, and I didn't know how to... Raelle, what is this?"

"Little trick I learned out on the field. The Tarim aren't the only ones with secret Work." Raelle grins proudly. "It's how no one can figure out where we've been."

Scylla returns her smile hesitantly, then her face twists and Raelle sees when she realizes the implications of the revelation that she knows about her mother; that she knows where her mother's been all that time she'd pretended to be dead, and why the Spree had wanted to take her from the Fort. "Raelle, are you..."

"No. No, I know what it looks like, but please believe me, I didn't —"

"I believe you," Scylla tells her, unfaltering in her desire to be there for her. "I do."

Raelle smiles, nodding. "Okay."

"How are you handling that?"

Raelle shakes her head. "Not at all. Not yet." Raelle sighs inwardly, but Scylla hears it all the same."I'm still trying to figure out what to do with it but... yeah."

Scylla inhales a sharp breath. "Okay. We'll figure it out."

"Okay..." She nods. Then she's leaning back in, kissing Scylla the way she's wanted to for months, for almost a year, despite everything. Every lie, every secret.

She thinks it's all worth it.

"So..." Raelle mumbles under her breath when she breaks away, having released the Link in the heat of the moment. She stays close to Scylla, clinging to her, their foreheads still touching. "This decision... How long before it's final?"

Scylla smiles, bright in a way they haven't been for a long time. "Soon."

"I love you," Raelle says suddenly. "I'm sorry I didn't say it sooner."

And Scylla goes stock-still for a moment, eyes unreadable, before she smiles, slowly, and laughs. "I never noticed," she tells her. "I knew you did, but I've never needed to hear it. Never thought I'd need to, until now." She dives in for a quick kiss, lingering on her lips even as she pulls away. "I love you."

/~/~/~/

Raelle is distracted.

She's supposed to be meditating, concentrating on focusing all her energy and channeling it onto Abigail; Abigail, who was currently struggling to keep herself upright on the small plank of wood she was standing on in the middle of the lake, the lake currently disturbed with turbulent waves summoned by the witches on the bank across from them.

Instead, her eyes have wandered over to the group of Necro trainees making their way across the field. It's not hard to spot Scylla. It's become second nature to Raelle to pick her out of a crowd at this point.

Raelle turns too look at her and shoots her a disarming grin, knowing full well the effect that would have on her.

"Raelle!" Abigail screams when she finally tips over and falls into the water. Beside her, Tally tries, and fails, to hold back her laughter.

The laughter quickly dies down and is replaced with a shout, when Abigail, having swum back to float along with her plank, sings a tune that has water splashing around them, wild and strong that it pulls both of them into the water.

"Bellweather unit down!" Hope announces with glee, and even her celebration is cut short when Raelle swims over and splashes her with a wave. Hope stands still, water dripping from head to toe, glaring when her unit and others around her laugh. "Collar, this was not how I thought you'd get me wet after all this time."

Raelle's nose scrunches up at the jab and she chucks more water at Hope, with her hand this time, before she pulls herself back up onto the shore. She wiggles in an attempt to get the water out of her ears, barely noting Anacostia lecturing them when she looks up at Hope. "How's Josie?"

The girl takes a deep breath, squeezing her soaked shirt absentmindedly. "Healing. Getting better by the minute." Hope looks her in the eye and smiles. "We have you to thank for that."

Raelle jumps to her feet and shrugs. "Anyone would have —"

"Shut up, Collar, that's all you," Hope cuts her off. Hope's gaze then moves to somewhere behind her and her eyebrow rises in that distinct Hope way. "Ramshorn," Hope greets the newcomer, making Raelle turn.

"Mikaelson," Scylla nods before turning to Raelle, her hand moving to the small of her back. "Hi."

"Hey," Raelle responds, breathless at the contact.

"So was the goal of this drill to have the most members of the unit wet..." Scylla pauses, and the three of them look around to take in their surroundings, witches soaked to the bone lying around the embankment or still scrambling to swim to the surface, before she continues, "Or did I completely miss the point of this?" Scylla teases, her face smug and pleased with herself. She knows Raelle could have kept Abigail on that board alone.

Hope laughs and starts to leave. "Depends on who you ask. My goal was just beating their unit," she says, nodding in Raelle's direction. As she moves away, she puts a hand on her shoulder and squeezes, a small smile on her face.

"She's not going to set my room on fire, is she?" Scylla asks Raelle, watching Hope walk away.

"Nah. That's more Josie's thing," Raelle chuckles at a distant memory of a burned barracks wing because of a freaking note. "And she likes you."

Scylla looks at her incredulously. "That's Hope Mikaelson liking me?"

Grinning, Raelle answers, "Yes, but it wouldn't matter regardless." She takes Scylla by the collar and pulls her closer, and Scylla's hands slide up and settle on her waist. "I like you."

The brunette grins at that. "Flattery gets you... everywhere apparently," she says, laughing. She ducks her head and starts to lean in for a kiss when their faces are sprayed with water.

The guilty party — Abigail and Tally, still lounging around at the edge of the water — weren't looking very guilty at all. "We can call you Necro unironically now?" says Abigail; it's not really phrased like a question, and her lips are up in a smirk, an eyebrow raised.

"Sure. I never stopped calling you High Atlantic unironically."

Abigail gets back up to the shore with a roll of her eyes, but with a small smile directed at Raelle. Tally winks at her before she swims over to Glory, the pair singsonging the words 'dark hair and trouble'. Scylla raises an eyebrow at that and Raelle just shakes her head. Instead, she asks, "Are you guys done for the day?"

"Mostly." She nods at Bonnie, one of the girls in Hope's unit, currently engaged in conversation with Anacostia, and adds, "Grandma Bennett wants my help setting up safety precautions for her next drill for the Eyes. I'm not sure it was a request..."

"Well, as long as you're back to handling dead animals or ex-boyfriends at the end of the day, it should be fine, right?"

"Ha ha. Someone's feeling funny today," Scylla scoffs.

Raelle laughs and presses her cheek against Scylla's, planting a chaste kiss next to her ear. Her head throbs slightly, suddenly thankful for her position because she thinks she would have stumbled otherwise. She squeezes her eyes shut, fighting off the wave of nausea, forcing away the constant reminder of the ticking time bomb that's been haunting her for months.

But Scylla pulls her back, nudges her with her chin and motions to the other end of the bank. They see Hope standing behind a witch, posed precariously at the edge of the water, hands on her waist as she shouts orders at a pair of witches. Hope smirks and pushes the blond into the water, laughing as the blond bobs up and curses after her.

Lizzie Saltzman and Hope Mikaelson were back at it again.

Abigail and Tally were somewhere close by, always within reach, always having her back.

And Scylla was here, holding her in her arms, laughing in her ear, no Eye patch in sight. No more lies.

For the first time in months, Raelle's heart feels full in the best way possible. She thinks that, for now, she could try and forget all her problems, focus instead on the good that's right in front of her.

She thinks, in a way she never thought she ever would again, that all is right in the world.