Terror was sleeping into the bedrock of Riverdale. A town hall meeting had been set by Mayor McCoy. People were afraid to walk the streets alone, especially as the dusk approached. Shops closed early. Locks were added to doors. Suspicions between the North and Southside deepened, fanned into flames by Alice Cooper. And everyone wandered what danger lurked in the dark, when we would hear from the Black Hood next and how far into darkness would Archie go on his quest to avenge his father? And how far would he take his sister with him?
Archie and Lexy were currently in a back field of Riverdale, practicing targets. Archie with his gun and Lexy with her knives. She had taken lessons when she was a kid and never stopped. She was now extremely talented when it came to hitting the target.
The two finished up for the day putting on their jackets and making their way home, being careful to conceal the weapons hidden underneath their clothes.
"So there's absolutely no way I can convince you to take that video down?" Lexy asked Archie.
She was referring to the video he had posted online of him and his 'red circle' challenging the Black Hood.
"Why are you so against this? I'm just trying to protect my friends. I'm trying to protect you." He said.
"I know that. And your heart is in the right place but your head isn't. Dad was shot and almost died. Same with Moose and Midge and Ms. Grundy. The town is scared. But threatening, practically challenging the Black Hood to come after us again? That's not helping, Arch. And you don't want to get a reputation for being reckless."
"I'm not being reckless."
Lexy glared at him but he shrugged it off. "And when dad sees it? He won't nearly be as understanding about it as me." She prepared him for the rath of their father.
She opened the back door into the kitchen, where Fred was seated, probably waiting for them. He didn't look at them right away, he seemed to be too engrossed in a video he was watching on his phone. The only video anyone was watching right now.
Once it was over he put down the phone and turned to look at his son. "What'd you think? That I wouldn't see it?"
Lexy gave her brother a "told you so" look.
***
"So I guess now is as good a time as any to decide, do we enlighten the people about my brother's psychotic breakdown which he is trying to pawn off as "fighting fire with fire" or do we protect the orange lollipop and try keep this whole situation hush hush... Wait, no. He decided to not keep this all hush hush when he posted that video on the internet for everyone to see. So there we have it. Enlighten the people! Meeting adjourned!" Lexy announced, walking into the blue and gold office and taking a seat in front of Betty who was sorting through the mail.
"And the sister of the year award goes too..." Betty joked as she pulled out a large envelope with her name written on it in large, block capitals.
"Ooooooh you got mail?" Lexy asked, snatching the envelope from Betty who quickly tried to get it back. "Wow, it's big!"
Lexy opened the envelope with Betty looking over her shoulder. She pulled out a letter followed by a page with weird symbols on it. The girls read the first sentence and quickly realized that this was not fan mail.
***
Betty asked Kevin and Lexy to help her figure out the cypher she received from the Black Hood that evening. Jughead said they could do it at his trailer. He also invited his friend from Southside High, Toni, which Lexy knew made Betty uncomfortable. But so far Toni hadn't done anything to rub Lexy the wrong way.
"These symbols look so familiar to me. It's like I've seen them before and it's driving me crazy, I can't figure out where." Betty stated, tapping her head with a pencil.
"Maybe if you loosened your ponytail." Toni remarked.
Everyone sent her dirty and surprised looks, especially Betty. Lexy knew she would never hear the end of it from Kevin if she laughed at Toni's joke, so she simply continued flipping through a book about symbols. Toni seemed to share her blunt sense of humor.
"Guys she was joking." Lexy mumbled.
Toni was surprised at how the Northsider was defending her. The entire night Lexy was the only one who treated her like a normal person. And Toni was well aware that she was the sister of Archie Andrews, the guy who realeased that Red Circle video, but she was still being nice? She had a feeling she was going to like Lexy.
"At this point I'm willing to try anything." Betty took out her hair tie.
The rest of the evening seemed to drag on, until Toni confronted Betty about her obvious disdain towards the Southside, which woke Lexy up. And she had to admit, she agreed with everything Toni said.
"Ok, well I have seen more than enough random symbols that I don't know the meaning of for one night so imma go. You coming Toni?" Lexy asked, knowing Toni was fed up of Betty and Kevin's passive aggressiveness.
"Sure." Toni mumbled, getting her stuff together.
The two left Jughead's trailer and Lexy could tell that Toni was irritated about the obvious suspicions of the Southside having something to do with the Black Hood. Betty definitely didn't help tonight.
Lexy let Toni have her space as they walked through the trailer park together, silently but not in an awkward way. More of a mutual understanding way.
Toni stopped at a small but neatly kept trailer. She gave Lexy some simple directions to follow to get out of the trailer park before opening the squeaky metal door.
"I'm sorry about Betty." Lexy blurted out just before the door was closed fully.
Toni, unsure of what she was apologizing for, cracked open the door a little to show she was listening.
Lexy continued. "If you ask me, I'd say she's a little jealous about Jughead's new female company. She's used to being the only girl in his life... well... besides me. But I don't count."
Toni nodded in understanding. "It's fine. I should be used to it by now."
"I really don't think it's anything to do with you personally though. You guys would probably be cool with each other if Jughead wasn't involved."
"And if I was a cheerleader living on Elm Street!" Toni said in an sarcastic perky voice.
"Okay, point taken." Lexy sighed. She then tried to lighten the mood. "If it makes you feel better, I'm not a cheerleader."
Toni smiled a little for just a second. "Whether she's insecure about losing Jughead or not, she'd still look at me the same. Like I'm lucky to even be near her. Because most Northsiders would've already called the cops before they let a Southsider within a three metre radius of them."
"Yeah. I get that. My brother's the one who made that Red Circle video. I think he just assumes it's someone from the Southside." She admitted.
Toni's eyebrows raised, and Lexy wasn't sure if she should've told her that. Maybe she'd think her and Archie were the same. Which they weren't.
"What do you think about it?" Toni stepped outside fully.
Lexy shrugged. "I don't really know what I think to be honest. I think it's not really about Northside and Southside, I just want this guy gone."
"Your dad was..." Toni started to ask, but she stopped herself thinking that it was insensitive.
"Yeah," Lexy confirmed with an awkward laugh, "my dad was shot."
"Sorry, I didn't mean to-"
"No, no, no, it's okay." Lexy assured her. "I better get going. Maybe I'll see you soon?"
After the evening of deafening silence and not-so-subtle side glances in Jughead's trailer, Toni hadn't expected to come out of it with a new... acquaintance?
And not only was she a Northsider, her dad was also a victim of the Black Hood. And from what she heard during that conversation, Lexy didn't seem to be pointing the finger at anyone, not even the Southside. That was new.
Toni didn't trust easily, especially not with Northsiders, but she decided to give this girl a chance.
"Yeah, I'll see you soon. Lexy, right?"
The brunette girl nodded and left the pink haired serpent with a smile and a shirt wave.
***
Lexy walked down the stairs from her bedroom after listening to Archie and Veronica fighting for the past few minutes.
"If I'm following you, I need to know where. I need to know the truth!" Veronica scolded Archie.
"I WANT HIM DEAD, VERONICA!" Archie yelled back, clearly taking Veronica by surprise. Lexy however, knew it was only a matter of time before he snapped. "I want the Black Hood dead and I want to be the one who does it. I want to be the last thing he sees."
"Spoken like a true vigilante." Veronica remarked snarkily.
Archie clearly hadn't seen Lexy watching the two from the stairs otherwise he wouldn't have said the next part.
"I made that video and I showed my face hoping the Black Hood would make me his next target. I went to the Southside hoping he'd come after me."
"When did he go to the Southside?" Lexy thought to herself.
"So you find the Black Hood and you shoot him and then what? You go to jail... or you miss him and he shoots you, Archie."
"It doesn't matter what happens to me." Archie shook his head.
"No, it doesn't." Lexy finally interjected.
Archie and Veronica's heads snapped in her direction as she entered the room. Archie huffed realizing she had heard everything.
"Because if the Black Hood does decide to get revenge on you, he won't kill you. He'll kill everyone around you. Your friends, your girlfriend, dad, me. And he'll make sure you're alive to see it. To see everyone you love disappear in front of your eyes. That's where you're going to end up if you keep going down this road." She said with a hard time to her voice.
Archie was holding back tears. She was being harsh but he needed to hear this. She wasn't going to baby him anymore.
Just then, there was a knock on the door. Veronica raced to get it with Archie on her heals. She opened the door and immediately the aroma of pizza wafted down the hallway.
"Can we come in?" Reggie's familiar voice asked from the porch.
Lexy ran to the door to see the entire football team standing on the steps.
"Pizza!" She exclaimed, grabbing one of the boxes off Reggie and inhaling deeply. "You the man, Reg!"
She ran back inside and Reggie laughed to himself. "Some sister, Andrews." He gushed, as he and the Bulldogs entered the house.
***
Lexy was currently eating pizza in the kitchen, not caring for the talk of the Red Circle. She was playing with her pizza table when all of a sudden she heard the sound of a loud engine... or engines.
She briskly walked down the hallway to the front door. As she passed the sitting room, Archie attempted to chaperone her as she opened the door but Lexy wasn't going to allow it.
"Archie, I swear to God if you try to be my watch dog every time I so much as answer the door, I will turn you into my sister!" She threatened.
Archie sat back down in defeat.
Lexy opened the front door, revealing a group of guys, probably around her age, standing on her front porch. She inspected them knowing she had never seen them before. They all wore black leather jackets and scowls on their faces. None of them said a word.
"Can I help you?" Lexy asked innocently.
A tall guy standing at the front of the group stepped forward. He had dark hair that fell over his forehead and a Serpent tattoo on his neck. He towered over her.
"We're here for Andrews." He said cooly.
Lexy smiled and opened the door wider. She was an Andrews, after all.
"Boy Andrews." The tall Serpent clarified.
Lexy rolled her eyes. This couldn't be good.
Some of the serpents wondered why she didn't seem to be at all intimidated. She couldn't have been used to this kind of thing, this girl had probably never even seen the Southside before judging from her brother's video.
Little did they know Lexy was nervous, she was just really good at hiding it. And her dad raised her right. He always told her that aggression goes two ways. Don't be aggressive towards the Southside and they won't be aggressive back.
"What did he do now?" Lexy asked them about Archie.
"He came onto our side, spray painted a Red Circle on a building and then waved a gun around like it was nobody's business." The boy said like it happened every day, although he seemed to be annoyed by the whole situation.
Lexy's jaw dropped.
"He-" She started but decided not to rant to the serpents about her brothers issues. "Archie!"
Archie came to join Lexy at the door but was caught off guard when he saw the group of serpents crowding the doorway. He was even more caught off guard when Lexy smacked him on the back of the head... hard.
"You're an idiot." She mumbled.
"Look, you can reprimand me for going to the Southside later-" Archie started.
"I don't care if you go to the Southside. I care that you vandalized property."
"I had a good reason."
"What good reaso-" Her eyes widened when she realized, "don't tell me you're talking about that stupid Red Circle."
"It's not stupid, it's for protection."
"Against the Southside?"
"Yeah!"
"I thought this was about the Black Hood, where does the Southside come into this?"
"Black Hood's only targeting Northsiders, who hates us more than serpents?" Archie asked rhetorically.
"Do you hear yourself? All you have is this stupid idea in your head that the Southside is responsible for everything wrong with Riverdale! For God's sake Archie, your best friend is from the Southside!"
Reggie and the Bulldogs came to the door after hearing the whole conversation. They began throwing threats back and forth with the Serpents. The conversation ended with the decision for the Bulldogs and Serpents to have a huge brawl.
Lexy scoffed as soon as she heard this idea. "Ok, that's it. I'm out of here." She said, walking out the door and through the Serpents.
"Where are you going?" Reggie called after her.
"I'm not gonna be associated with this!"
"Lexy, get back here! It's not safe!" Archie said in his most authoritative voice.
She raised an eyebrow and an evil grin grew on her face. She was just about done with Archie being her watch dog.
"Oh Mr. Black Hood! Young, vulnerable girl walking the streets of Riverdale alone at night. Oh and bonus points, she just so happens to be the daughter of Fred Andrews. You know, the man you tried to kill but failed? COME AND GET ME!" She yelled, knowing it would piss off Archie.
"Fine, Lexy. Do what you want!" He snapped back.