"How long?" Mort asked once Milo’s sobs had quietened down.

"Since I was nine, you?"

"Ten."

"Damnit..." He heard Milo moan as he broke the hug.

"I'm so so sorry." Milo apologised.

"Don’t be. It's not your fault, it's his. He told me he was only doing this for our benefit, but-" Mort started, only for Milo to finish his sentence.

"But you don’t believe that so much anymore?" Milo asked, gaining a nod from Mordred.

"Don’t get me wrong," started Mordred, "I still hate the Vizicans and support what the SDU stands for, but..."

"You just think there should be a new leader?" Milo said, finishing his sentence yet again. Mordred nodded, showing he agreed with the statement.

"Yeah, me too. Aiden doesn’t train us right at all and unless he changes that, I think there should be a new leader."

Mordred sighed, stating he agreed before he left his bed, walking towards the door before pausing.

"Do you think he has done this to Myra and Avery too?" He asked, turning back to look at Milo’s shocked expression.

"I don’t know. He has always wanted us all to be the strongest, so... it wouldn’t surprise me." As Milo was finishing, the sound of a door slamming open could be heard. Immediately, the two boys were up, running towards the noise in the hope that they would be able to see the face of Ryder.

The minute his eyes were set on the boy’s normal stoic face, Mordred embraced his brother in a hug.

"Woah hey buddy, what’s wrong?" Ryder questioned why she returned the hug. Mordred stopped before unwrapping himself from his elder brother.

"He knows, Ryder." Milo said from behind him.

Ryder’s eyes widened as he lightly pushed Mort out of the way as he walked up to Milo.

"What do you mean he knows?" This was meant to stay between us. " Ryder questioned

"Look... You know how Aiden promised that he wouldn’t train the others as brutally if we let him train us like he does? "

Ryder nodded, recalling the day that the deal was made.

"Well... He didn’t keep his promise. " Milo said, staring down at the ground.

Immediately, the old man turned around to Mordred as he scanned him up and down.

"What?" he questioned.

"He hurts me too, Ryder." And we are afraid he could be hurting the others too. " confirmed Mordred. Before anything else could be said, Myra entered the room.

"Hey guys, we have a new mission request." She said, placing a bunch of files on the table. Avery soon walked in behind her, looking at the group suspiciously, sensing something had happened.

"Ryder, how was it with Aiden?" questioned Avery, looking at the boy.

"Yeah it went... okay..." He actually already gave me the details for the mission while I was there. " He said confidently.

"Okay... So, we should probably start by

"Planning! Yeah, he has put me and Myra in charge of planning. " He said, swinging an arm around his little sister.

"Okay, so what is the mission?"

"Well, and this has to stay between us, but Aiden thinks the hooded person we saw earlier works for the SDU, and we have another traitor."

Mordred bit his lip, reminded of how everything went the last time they had a traitor. He looked next to him at Myra, who shivered in fear, her eyes widening as she began to fiddle with her ring.

‘I have to speak to her later.’ He noted to himself before turning his attention back to Ryder.

"And we must find out who it is." We have been tasked to infiltrate a masquerade ball that is being thrown by a bunch of rebels in some barn quite far from here and see if we can gain any information.

"So, a simple infiltration mission? How long have we got? " Myra questioned.

"A day to plan and we set off tomorrow." She nodded as she tugged on her brother’s arm.

"We better get a move on then." She stated as she pulled him to the couches surrounding the files as they began to talk.

"Oh yeah, while we are planning, Aiden said he wanted you three to go and check out a possible rebel base. It’s a pub called Night Wolves. Know it?" He gained a nod from Avery and Mort.

Out of the corner of his eye, Mordred spotted an emotion flicker across his sister’s face. What was it? Well, it was unidentifiable and well disguised for sure.

"Maybe we could all go there after the planning?" Myra questioned

"I'm sorry, Myra." It's what Aiden wants. Avery, you’re in charge. "

The girl smiled in response before nodding and leading the boys outside the room.

"So," Ryder started, "here’s the layout of the barn." He said, laying out a piece of paper. Myra nodded, seemingly occupied by something else. Ryder looked at the girl up and down, his brows furrowing. He sighed as he thought over what Mordred had stated earlier. Could it be possible that he was hurting Myra too? Before he was able to question his sister on the matter, she spoke.

"Ryder" I think we should go with them. I don’t have a good feeling about this. "

Ryder sighed in response. They were already too deep on Aiden's bad side, but then again, nothing bad would happen if he didn’t know.

"Fine, we can head out with them." He agreed as he rolled up the map and grabbed a spare piece of paper, writing something down on it.

‘This will have to do.’ He thought as he looked at the do not disturb sign before plastering it on the outside of their door.

"Right, let’s go." He said a lot of nice things to her before leading her out of the room.

"Hey guys!" Ryder yelled at the three people in the distance who were just about to walk into the pub.

"Ryder" questioned Avery, walking over to him.

"Me and Myra decided to come along. Myra said she would enter around the back. Ryder said as he grabbed some clothes from a bag he had grabbed on the way out of the SDU base.

"Put these on." He said, handing them out to the members. They nodded, placing them on their uniform, slipping weapons into various hidden pockets scattered around their outfit.

"Right, let’s go." announced Avery as she led them in. The bar was old and tattered, to say the least. Stains made themselves at home on the walls, as the dripping of a leak could be heard. Holes let the wind in on cold nights, while dust was everywhere.

"Hello there, I’m Grace. What would you like?" A woman asked. She looked cheerful and had blond hair and brown eyes.

"Hi, I would like an um..." Avery scanned the list of drinks, picking one at random.

"We are mainly here due to the cold and my little brother here needs the toilet." Ryder agreed, pushing Mordred forward.

"Well, we do have one out back." The girl mumbled. Ryder smiled, pushing past the girl, his brother following.

We will use that one! Thankyou." "He said before disappearing, leaving Avery and Milo to distract Grace." When the two were out of Grace’s sight, they began to search the rooms as much as they could.

"I'll go in here, you go there." Mort whispered.

"Wait, Mordred." Ryder said, grabbing the other's shoulder.

Is it true? What did you say earlier? " He questioned the younger boy. Mort nodded before pushing the hand away from his shoulder.

"We will discuss it later." He stated, walking into the room without waiting for a response. Ryder sighed, scratching his temple. As he was about to go after his little brother, he heard the creak of a door behind him.

"Myra?" He questioned, turning to look behind him, but he didn’t see Myra, he saw the person in the cloak. The possible traitor

"Shit..." He mumbled before getting punched in the face and pushed against a wall. Quickly pulling a knife from his pocket, he launched at the rebel, yelling for Mordred as he attacked. Soon enough, his brother entered the room, joining the fight.

"Mordred!" The brown-haired boy heard his brother cry as a loud thump followed. He ran out of the room to the sight of his brother pushing a familiar cloaked person up against a wall with a knife in hand.

"Shit... It's you again? " Mordred yelled in anger as the cloaked figure pushed Ryder away.

Mordred leapt at them, pushing them in the head before he got pushed to the ground. As he was about to get hit, Ryder intervened, punching the figure in the head, diverting their attention to him. The person retaliated, kicking the boy in the jaw before pushing him up against the wall, reaching into her pocket to reveal a needle with an unknown substance within. Ryder's eyes widened as he was struck with the needle, the unknown chemical flowing through his body as he winced.

"Ryder! How dare you? " Mort screamed, his anger coursing through him.He dived at the unknown person, pushing them to the ground and tying them up using some rope he had grabbed on the way out of the SDU base. He turned to his brother as Ryder sank into the ground.

"Ryder?" Mordred whispered, rushing over to his brother.

"Mordred..." His brother mumbled as his eyes began to shut and his breathing slowed down as he fell to sleep.

"Shit..." Mordred mumbled as he hauled up his brother, shaking him to no avail. A few seconds later, he felt a prick in his neck as a spark of pain shot through him. He turned around to see the hooded figure holding a needle, having broken out of the restraints.

His vision blurred as he tried to attack them, only to realise he was in a weak state.

"Damn you..." He said as his eyes began to fill with heaviness.

The next thing he saw was black.

"-dred, Mordred!" a voice yelled as he was shaken awake to Milo’s face.

"Milo?" He questioned this as memories began flooding into his mind. He sat up quickly as a wave of dizziness hit him and he was lowered back down by his friend.

"Easy there, the jab will take a while to wear off."

Mordred hummed in response before questioning what had happened.

"Me and Avery heard some commotion, so we came to see what had happened. We saw the rebel from the forest tying up you and Ryder. They knocked you guys out, bad man. You’ve been out for hours." Milo announced.

"Oh, I’m sorry." Mordred slurred.

"Why are you sorry?" questioned Mordred as he got down to the boy’s level.

"I lost and let them knock me out." He mumbled as his eyes began to fill with heaviness again.

"It's not your fault, that rebel was very strong and had the upper hand."

Again, Mordred hummed as tiredness hit him and his vision blurred.

"It's okay, Mort, go back to sleep." Milo said as the boy moaned.

"Don’t want to. Please don’t leave... " He complained in a slurred tone. Milo smiled as he grasped hold of his friend’s hand.

"I won’t leave, I promise." With the confirmation that he would be here when he awoke, Mordred saw darkness as he let sleep overtake him.

Mordred stood as he watched his younger self from an outsider’s perspective. He watched him run in a field of nothing but black, confused and scared. It wasn’t long before he got sucked into the body.

He wanted to stop the minute he saw red, but he continued running to her dead body in the distance. Tears dripped down his face as he continued moving towards the sight.

"Stop." He tried to mumble, but nothing came out. No matter how hard he tried, he kept on moving.

No.

The body closed in.

He didn’t want to witness it again. He didn’t want to see her bloodied body. He didn’t want to feel guilty.

If he was just a little bit faster, it could’ve been him, not her. He could’ve saved her if only he was faster.

The body faded away and was replaced by a perfectly alive and blood-free version of his mother.

She was alive.

Her arms were stretched open as he felt a smile appear on his younger self's face as he approached her.

He tried to jump into her arms, but instead he went through her. When he turned around again, her body was on the floor.

"Mum!" He yelled, now having control of his voice and body.

He crouched down next to her as he yelled for help. It was as if he was there again.

"Mum, wake up please!" He stuttered in between sobs. For some reason, he looked down at his hands.

His hands were full of blood, full of her blood. Desperately, he began trying to wipe it off, but to no avail. The more he tried to get rid of it, the more it grew.

"No..." He mumbled as he scrubbed his hands against his clothing.

"Nonononononono-"

Mordred shot up, his breathing erratic as someone began to shush him.

"It's okay Mordred, it was just a nightmare..." The voice soothed him as he was enveloped in warmth. Upon further inspection, he identified the voice as Myra.

"Your okay..." Milo’s voice said as his vision began to unblur, and he saw them both before him. He began to feel tired as he held onto Milo for comfort, his heartbeat and the warmth of his body sending him to sleep.