I was trying with Aden. I really was. On the streets, he was a hard ass. Didn't take shit from anybody and frankly, he hated my guts. I'm sure, deep down, he kind of still did, but he understood he would need us to get out as we were all he had at the moment. That same understanding might help him down the road when he realized that statement was truer than he would have ever believed. Here, though, he only had one thing on his mind: home. I could see it in the way he walked off to his dorm every night when we finished our days together. It was as though he were walking into some stranger's room. That room wasn't his. This house wasn't his. His home was past this inner wall, in a lovely sandcrete apartment complex lovingly dubbed "The Hive." This desire for a home changed him, somewhat for the better, but mostly for the worse.
He was enthusiastic about the chance to return home as though every day that went by was a day closer to home. It took him weeks to get over Meeko's death. They were long weeks. He was his older hostile self, but worse, angry at anything and everything. I was half expecting him to snap and find him hanging from his ceiling one of those days, but he managed to get past it, with plenty of difficulty. Enough difficulty with which I was convinced to postpone the truth until further notice. I knew it would break him and I knew that would be it. It we could just find a way to get out of this city, get past these walls and onto a battlefield without him knowing about the corpses he was leaving behind, this could be put in the past.
For a while, I considered making up a fake story on how I had just received word through the grapevine that the Hornets were killed or had left the city. In one scenario, I tell him it was either the Fire Nation or Rats who did it. If I tell him it's the Fire Nation, Aden kills whoever he can while he's here and probably gets himself killed before getting to his second victim. If I tell him it was the Rats, Aden will without a doubt find a way back into the slums and when he realized the Rats are already dead and we had lied to him, he'll undoubtedly find a way back into the Military District just to kill me, Luke, and whoever else he could get his hands on.
So, what if I tell him the Hornets left without us? One, he would never believe it. Two, well, there is no two, he just wouldn't believe it. Damnit!
Aden found his corner and motioned me over. He started talking before I could calm him down. "Okay, during recreation 2 days ago, I was outside and along the inner wall, I saw what looked like a small warehouse. We all remember that warehouse people talked about in the streets, the one with the backdoor that led into the military district? What if we get out that way? Try to get some chores working in there and leave all together. You can take that cute nurse with you, whatever her name is, if you want.
I decided to ignore his comment about Zaydi and I humored him. "Well, we'd have to find out about how to even get chores around here. I don't think there's somebody we just go up to and ask 'Hey. Can I get some chores in the warehouse over there?'"
"Okay. Then we don't ask anybody and just pose as people working on it."
"Because there's nothing about sending four people, one of them the only nurse in Citadel, to work in a warehouse that anybody would find suspicious, right?"
"Fine. Then we don't take her along, but we-"
I was tired of this. "No, Aden."
"Danev, look. We can find a"
"No!" I said in a whispered shout loud enough to snap him out of his fantasies. "This isn't the cell in the Hive, this isn't one of those local prisons the Fire Nation used to have in the slums, and this sure as fuck is not a Rat base. The people here, are soldiers. There's firebenders here, people armed to the teeth, people trained to kill earthbending brutes and they're not all bumbling idiots focused on nothing but their two feet. These are soldiers Aden, and we are inside a military stronghold. Can you not see that?! There's not simple escape from this. We either do as we're told, or we die."
"I never took you as a nationalist, Danev. So, tell me, what exactly are we supposed to die while Riu, Goni, and the rest of them are out, trying to survive without us? You're his second in command for spirits sake! I'm the head of security now that Meeko's gone and Luke. Don't get me started on him. He's a fucking firebender. We get him out there, put our colors back on him and we're unstoppable. I feel stupid for hating his guts when he first came along, but holy hell, he's exactly what we need."
As much as I wanted to end this all right here, to tell him the truth, and end his fantasies of fortune and prosperity for the Hornets, I couldn't do it. Not because I wanted to spare him the heartbreak, no. He would deal with that one way or another. There was no avoiding it, but I had to minimize collateral as best as I could. Me, Luke, and Zaydi because I told her, were the only ones in this district save the soldiers and Zar'un who knew what had happened to the Hornets. The soldiers spent their time on the walls and Zar'un never showed his face. If Aden did learn, he would go out of his way to punish those who had deceived him. That much I knew. So I decided to let him play his games and hope he wore himself out.
"Fine, Aden, but listen to me. You don't bring this up around Zaydi anymore. She has nothing to do with this. You talk about this with me only and you stay out of trouble. You do not go ahead with anything without asking me first, got it?"
"So you're pulling rank on me, are you, number two?"
Damn it. "Yes. I am."
Aden chuckled. He brought his hand up to his head in a mock salute before saying "Yes sir." And stalking out of the cafeteria. I worried about him, but I had chosen my side. If I couldn't save them all, I was sticking with Luke and Zaydi. Aden was a ticking bomb, and only a fool stays close to one.