one by one.

-eight-

The brunette wipes away the tears on her face and reaches into her jacket and pulls out the gun she hid there earlier. "It still has one bullet left."

Maya's heart drops. "You've had that this whole time?"

"Ever since I woke to find you passed out and Farkle dead," Riley replies, still sitting on the ground, and looking into the fire.

"Why? Why haven't you kill me? You could have ended this all and won. Why haven't you killed me yet?" Maya asks, tears now forming in her eyes as well.

Riley shakes her head and her voice becomes slightly elevated, "everything just happened so fast. First I thought I killed Farkle and then..."

"Then what?" Maya asks, furrowing her eyebrows together.

Riley stands up and faces the blonde. "Do you remember how we met?"

"Yes, why are you asking me that?"

"No, I need you to explain to me how you think we met," Riley demands.

"You were yelling, so I tackled you in the forest to make you stop."

Riley's lip quivers, as a smile forms on her face. Tears continue to flow down her face. "Peaches?"

"Yeah?"

"I'm really going to miss you."

[At 1b1 headquarters.]

[Flashback to shortly after Maya shot Lucas.]

"Where am I? Am I dead?" Lucas exclaims, as he jolts up from the bed he was laying on.

"Relax kid, you're fine."

Lucas looks around the gray room, to find it completely empty, besides the bed he was sleeping, a door and a speaker and screen on the wall. "This isn't what I thought heaven was going to look like," he comments.

"You're not dead," a voice echoes through the speaker.

"How am I not dead? Maya shot me," Lucas argues.

"Everything will be explained shortly."

"What does that mean?" Lucas questions, but gets no response. He stands up and heads towards the door, only to find, as expected, it was locked. "Hey, you can't just keep me locked up in here! Let me out!" Lucas rattles on the door handle. "I know you can hear me!"

Lucas starts pacing around the room, while he tries to think of a way he could break out, but doesn't end up with any extraordinary plan. With no other ideas in mind, he resorts to taking his shoe off and throwing it at the speaker in attempt to get the attention of whoever has him locked up.

"Put your shoe back on. He's on his way."

"Who's on his way?" Lucas asks, just as the door of the room opens.

"Hello, Mr. Friar. The name's Charles. It is a pleasure to finally meet you."

[Charles takes Lucas to a new room. The room is completely white with two chairs in the middle of it, facing each other.]

"Please, Lucas, take a seat," Charles offers, as he sits down himself.

Lucas sits in the chair facing Charles, still wary of what is happening. "Why am I here and why am I not dead?"

Charles smirks. "I'll tell you everything you want to know, but first I need you to answer a couple of my questions."

"Fine," Lucas agrees. "What are they?"

Charles hesitates, as he does something on his tablet, but then looks back up at Lucas. "What is the last thing you remember?"

"I realized that Maya had a gun, and then before I knew it everything went dark and I woke up in some random room," Lucas answers.

Charles types on his tablet, before asking his next question. "You were the first one killed. Why do you think that is."

Lucas sighs. "I don't know... I made Maya mad, and she probably didn't trust me, because she didn't know who I was... Wait why didn't any of us remember each other?"

"I'll answer that question in a minute, but first I need to ask you one more thing. What's the last thing you remember before waking up in the forest?"

"That day I was driven to some place for an experiment called 1b1, that Farkle signed the six of us up for. They asked me a lot of questions about everyone else. The last thing I remember was being asked to change and then I was given a shot and everything went black... Wait you're part of 1b1 aren't you?"

Charles laughs, and sarcastically comments, "you sure do catch on fast. Anyways now for your questions. The shot we gave you made you pass out and wiped all of the memories you had of your friends."

"How did I get my memory back?"

"The bullet Maya shot you with contains a compound that acts as an antidote to the shot, and it also makes you appear dead for about an hour. Your friends moved your body out into the woods and we were able to recover it and bring you back to our headquarters." Charles pause for a moment, "anymore questions."

After thinking for a few seconds Lucas has one last thought. "Actually yes. Why? What's the purpose of this whole thing?"

As Lucas finishes asking his question a worker bursts through the door and blurts out, "sir, Matthews just fell into the river."

"Are you serious?," Charles sighs, and shakes his head in disbelief. "Is there anyone else with her?"

"Yes, Hart and Minkus. Do you want us to rescue her?"

"No," Charles responds, "that will compromise the whole experiment."

"But sir, if she drowns she'll die," the other man argues.

"Let's just see how they handle it first."

"What the hell do you mean she'll die?" Lucas angrily shouts. "You mean like I did?"

"Get the boy out of here," Charles harshly declares.

"Yes, sir," the worker responds, as he fiddles with something on his watch, which results in two other, stronger men bolting into the room.

"No!" Lucas loudly retorts. "Answer my question! Is she going to be okay? Tell me that she's going to be okay!" He yells, as the guards try to grab him, but he manages to slip away. "I love her! I need to know that she's going to be okay!"

"Get him out of here, now!" Charles now demands, obviously close to losing his temper.

The guards finally manage to get a hold of Lucas and drag him back to his room.

[Back to the present with Riley and Maya.]

Riley's lip quivers, as a smile forms on her face. Tears continue to flow down her face. "Peaches?"

"Yeah?"

"I'm really going to miss you."

"W-what are you talking about?" The blonde stutters, as she stares at Riley.

Without saying a word, or breaking eye contact with her blue eyes, Riley begins to slowly walk towards Maya, holding the gun at her side.

Once she reaches Maya, Riley slowly begins to lift the gun up, but keeps the barrel pointed towards the ground.

"Riley, what are you doing?"

A single tear falls down the brunette's cheek. "Take the gun and shoot me, Maya."

Maya glances down at the gun briefly before looking back at Riley.