Octavia banged her head against the table until it ached. It was an impossible situation. They were trapped underground like rats on a dead planet, and they were running out of food. Was Abby right? Could they really go so far? She would take any other option. Literally anything. Abby was the expert. She had science and decades of leadership experience on her side. Octavia was just a scared little girl playing dress-up. Bloodreina had started to hate the sight of blood. A few weeks ago she had started using mud and red dye. No one had noticed. And that stupid catchphrase. 'You are Wonkru or you are the enemy of Wonkru.' It had lost all meaning to her after so much repetition, but it echoed in her head all day and night. Every time she said it she felt emptier. But Wonkru believed.They ate it all up like candy. She clawed at the desk with her hands, digging into the grooves she had made over the last two years, every time she had burst into this room in frustration. There had been many times, and the grooves were deep. They were doomed. They were all doomed. She couldn't breathe. She managed to suck in some air in sharp bursts, but her chest felt tight, and lights danced before her eyes. This had happened once before, and she had woken up on the floor. This time, as everything started to go dark, her hearing was heightened, and that's when she heard the tell-tale static of a radio. It snapped her out of her panic attack faster than she could blink, and then she was halfway across the room, clutching at the radio receiver that she knew absolutely nothing about. 'Bellamy,' she whispered. 'Please be Bellamy. I need you.' It wasn't Bellamy.

'Day 657. Hey Bellamy, looks like it's going to be a rainy day. Madi and I are holed up inside, praying that our waterproofing worked. Madi hates rainy days. She's always so restless. I tried to carve a rough flute, so we could try some music, because Madi's never heard any. But it just makes this awful high-pitched noise. I taught her one of the old nursery rhymes we learnt to sing back on the Ark instead, you know, the one that goes 'may we meet under the old oak tree…' The lyrics are less depressing on the ground. Madi has a lovely voice. I thought I might tell her the story of the dropship landing again tonight. She's heard it about a thousand times, but she loves to shout along when I get to Octavia's first words, 'We're back, bitches!' I know I should discourage swearing at her age, but it seems so silly after everything we've been through, and there's no one to hear her except me. Anyway, I hope you guys haven't driven each other crazy yet. I suppose every day up there is like a rainy day for you. Do you ever sing? I know it's lame, but it helps to keep our spirits up. I can just picture Murphy's face at that suggestion. That helped cheer me up too. I'd better go, I can hear Madi calling for me. Same time tomorrow?'

Bloodreina wept, for the first time since she had entered the bunker. She tried to pull herself together, but she couldn't stop. The tears just kept coming. How many times over the last two years had she asked herself, 'What would Clarke Griffin do?' It almost felt like a miracle, but she didn't believe in miracles. Still, she would keep this crazy coincidental timing to herself. Some members of Wonkru were naïve enough to believe in anything, and she didn't want them to start some kind of bizarre worship ritual to Goddess Clarke. But the tears, those she would show them. They all knew that Octavia Blake could bleed, let them see that she could also cry.

Octavia spent the whole day in the control room, listening to the backlog of radio communications that had come through in a wave, like a river bursting through a dam. They weren't an instruction manual. She still didn't know what Clarke would do. But they told her so many other things she didn't know before. They ran through her head like a mantra. Clarke was alive, she was up above them somewhere, and she would find a way to open the bunker. Clarke believed that Bellamy and her other friends were alive, even further up, with the stars. There was a beautiful green valley waiting for them to come home. And the crowning glory, there was an innocent little girl out there, and Octavia was her favourite. That one made her cry the hardest. Octavia thought that the radio static was the sweetest sound in the world. The radio logs gave her courage, and suddenly she knew what Octavia Blake would do. By the time she left, her eyes red and puffy but with her head held high, she had a plan to save her people.

Octavia walked into her office and made a beeline for the pen and paper, ignoring the Council she had called together. She scribbled down the outline of her plan, and slid it across to Miller. Abby, Kane and Indra would poke holes in her plan and then agree to consider it only if she changed 90% of it first. They were politicians, and they couldn't help themselves. Miller was a straight shooter. If Miller backed her he would back her, and then worry about the details later.

Octavia held her breath, but after a few minutes of reading, Miller slammed his fist into the table. 'Hell yeah! This is it. It will work.'

Octavia gave him a grateful look, and then passed the plan on to Indra, whose face was unreadable, as usual. As the plan was passed around the room, Octavia strode over to the head of the table and leaned against the wall next to her seat. She almost never used it. She had learnt about the theatrics of leadership from her brother. In her head she referred to this position as her Bellamy lean. It was aggressively casual, almost a dare. It gave her authority, but goaded the others to argue with her at the same time. Their arguing was useful and productive, as long as they recognised her leadership, her final vote.

'Bugs,' she shouted. 'We are going to eat bugs.'

She gave them a moment to absorb that before elaborating. 'We can make an opening small enough to attract bugs using light or scents or whatever the hell they're into. We seal off the room from the far end, like an airlock. We find a way to retrieve the bugs without exposing ourselves to significant radiation.'

She glanced at her head engineer as she said it, unclenching her hands in relief when he gave her a nod. Without that assurance she was all bluster and no substance. She had been bluffing her heart out. It was her specialty lately.

'It won't do much for our hunger, but it will give us a little more time. Time for our Agro team to get their asses into gear and fix our food shortage. I don't care if we have to eat snot-covered poo to stay alive, just make it happen! The only other option is death.'

This was the point where a year ago she would have jabbed a sword into the table for dramatic effect, but now all she had to do was lean forward slightly to make them twitch. She would save the sword for later, keep some motivating force in reserve. She had a feeling this would be a long and bloody battle.

There was a scoff from one of the Agro guys, clearly former Skaikru. 'Bugs? You want us to risk being burned from the inside out because you thought you heard the pitter-patter of little wings through the roof? There's nothing alive out there. It's a fool's errand.'

Indra made a hand gesture towards the man, asking if she wanted her to step in. Octavia declined the offer with a wave of her hand. She wanted to play the bad cop this time. She still had a lot of frustration to work off.

'Thank you Mr. Davies, for volunteering.' Octavia put her hand on the back of his head and leaned in, whispering loudly enough to echo through the silent room. 'You will find my bugs, or I will squash you like one.' She released him, scratching his cheek lightly as she stepped back, just enough to leave a raised red mark. She recognised him from the pit last week. She knew them all by name and face, winners and losers, living and dead. They all knew her intimately, staring up at her on her throne from down below. It was only fair that she knew them too, and Octavia was nothing if not fair.

'How do you know that these bugs exist?' Kane asked in a smooth tone that broke the tension in the room. Kane couldn't be intimidated by her games.

'They do,' Octavia said in a voice that brooked no argument, choosing not to reveal her source. The others started chattering away with their questions and their speculation, and Octavia listened silently for a few minutes to gather the gist of their reaction before raising her hand. The noise stopped immediately.

She looked to Abby, and saw her wiping away a tear. Only the two of them knew how close Wonkru had come to the edge, to the nuclear option. Abby gave her an imperceptible nod. They would take that knowledge to their graves. With any luck, they wouldn't need it any more, not in this lifetime.

'Now, Abby and I have some private matters to consult on. By the time we get back, you will all be gone, working yourselves to the bone for this mission. Nothing else matters. Got it?' She swept out of the room without a backwards glance. When she reached the doorway, she called out to the room at her back. 'Except for you, Niylah. Your mission is to assemble a choir. Some kids with passable voices. They'll sing for us tomorrow morning.'

She kept walking, heading for the control room, with Abby following her like a shadow. Abby would have a few more tears to shed tonight, when Octavia turned on the radio.

The plan worked. There were four casualties to radiation poisoning while they worked out the kinks, but eventually Octavia had her bugs. By that point rations had become little more than the air they breathed, so Wonkru scoffed them down with enthusiasm. It was perilously close, but the scientists from Agro managed to come up with some manufactured miracle plant that kept the alive for four more years, after some crazy experimentations with bugs and blood that Octavia didn't want to understand. They were always hungry, but they were alive.

When they were away from that cliff, Octavia could breathe again. She leaned away from the fighting pits, reserving them for harsher crimes. By the end of the third year, most of the people that entered the pits were volunteers, fighting for entertainment or to solve private disputes. They almost always came back out alive. Octavia led unopposed for six years. Wonkru was a strong united clan, and they knew where to place their gratitude and loyalty. There were always dissidents, but that only made Wonkru stronger, more human. As time passed, she even encouraged the dissent. It kept things interesting, and it helped dampen some of the cult-like adoration that really creeped her out.

She retired her catch phrase on the same day that Madi fired a gun for the first time. Clarke cried on the radio for an hour, begging Bellamy to tell her that she had made the right decision, praying that Madi would never have to point the gun at another human being. Bloodreina stood up before her people and declared that Wonkru had no enemies. They were all Wonkru now, whether they liked it or not.

Octavia listened to every single radio call.

Octavia had listened intently as Clarke tried to reach Madi over the radio, whispering about intruders and hiding spots, wondering what the hell was going on. She fiddled around with the radio until she picked up the Eligius channels, then tried really hard to make some sense out of it all. When she heard her brother's voice for the first time in six years, she almost had a heart attack. She put on her flashiest Bloodreina ensemble and went down to the pit to wait. Clarke and Bellamy were coming for her, as she knew they would.

They descended from above like angels. Octavia fought through her anxiety by imagining Bellamy with wings and a halo, so she was smiling when he saw her for the first time in six years. He smiled back, which actually made him seem more alien. She didn't remember much smiling before Praimfaya. It seemed that time had been kind to her brother. Her own experiences had been so heavy and consuming, both the good and the bad, that she couldn't even begin to unravel how time had changed her. She knew that to Bellamy's eyes she must look skinny, worn-down, all sharp edges. Bloody. But anyone from the bunker would say that Octavia was having a good day, that she had actually improved in the last few years, in spirit if not in physical form. She had even joined the children in their choir performance that morning. She ignored her sense of disconnect and hugged Bellamy tightly. 'Welcome back, big brother.'

They stayed locked together for a few moments, without words. Octavia was the one to pull away. She smiled again, more genuine this time, and tried to project some cheer.

'Don't worry about me,' she said. 'I'm good Bell.'

When he looked sceptical, she added, 'For someone that was stuck in this coffin for six years. I can't wait to feel the sun again.'

He still didn't seem to buy it, but he just hugged her again, kissing her hair. 'I missed you,' he said.

'Me too.'

When Miller came over for a warm reunion with Bellamy, Octavia finally turned to Clarke. She was surprised by how closely she resembled she image she'd dreamt up while listening to her voice on the radio. She looked fierce, but also looser, a bit like the less war-like of the Grounder clans before Praimfaya. Clarke looked good. Octavia hugged her, ignoring the slight judgement in Clarke's eyes as she took in the fighting pits. Clarke and Bellamy wouldn't approve of everything Bloodreina had done in her reign, but then Octavia hadn't always approved of their leadership either. They would understand eventually. She firmly believed that. Sometimes Octavia thought she knew Clarke now better than she knew herself. She would come around.

'It's so good to see you,' Octavia said with feeling.

Clarke looked a little surprised by her warmth, which was understandable as they hadn't parted on the best of terms.

'Where's Madi?' Octavia asked as she stepped back. 'I've been dying to meet her. We all have.'

Clarke was speechless. Octavia almost laughed at the look on her face.

'I know your calls weren't addressed to me, but I listened in anyway. It's my sisterly prerogative to eavesdrop after all.'

'You heard me?' Clarke whispered, almost shaking, wrapping her arms around her stomach. 'I can't believe it. I thought I was just shouting into the void.'

Or creating a diary. Octavia knew it would be a bit awkward, but she had no qualms about invading Clarke's privacy, under the circumstances. It wasn't like she could have asked for permission. 'Abby and I were the only ones to listen to the calls. I shared some stories with the others, but only the good ones. I heard you became something of a storyteller yourself.'

Clarke laughed. 'Madi loves stories.' There was a pause, before Clarke reached out for her hand. 'I'm glad you were listening Octavia.'

'Me too.' She was glad for Clarke's sake and her own. They had both been so lonely, but through that radio neither of them had ever really been alone. Before Praimfaya there had been a distance between them, one that began so far back she couldn't even pinpoint the cause of it. After hearing those radio calls, Octavia didn't think she could ever feel that distance again.

Clarke leaned in closer, lowering her voice. 'Madi is with the others that Bellamy left behind, hiding in the woods. I didn't want her anywhere near the Eligius crew. These people…'

Octavia brushed her sword discreetly. 'No one will touch a hair on Madi's head. I swear it.'

Clarke looked her up and down, and Octavia knew what she would see. Bloodreina. Someone who could make a bloody vow and keep it.

The two women watched as the Eligius crew crawled all opening like ants.

'Do you have a plan?' Octavia asked.

'No. I just know that I want us all to be safe. And these guys don't exactly look like peace-loving pacifists. We got off to a bad start.'

'So I heard,' Octavia said with a wink.

'Of course you did.'

'We'll find a way, diplomatic or otherwise,' Octavia said. 'I've heard so much about the valley. It sounds like it's worth a little bit of trouble.'

'It really is.'

Octavia jostled Clarke's shoulder. 'I know for you it's been a long time, but I feel like I've been having conversations with you for four years.'

'I know the feeling,' Clarke glanced in Bellamy's direction. Bellamy was watching them with a confused look, clearly reluctant to interrupt while they were acting so uncharacteristically friendly. He was called away by an Eligius goon from outside.

'He looks wholesome,' Octavia said. 'Almost civilised.'

'Almost,' Clarke agreed.

'The radio logs are secured,' Octavia promised. 'I won't destroy them, but I won't show them to anyone either. Unless you want me to.'

Octavia would fight Clarke if she tried to delete them.

'Thank you,' Clarke said.

'Octavia!' Bellamy shouted from across the room. 'Want to be the first one outside?'

The harness lifted her out of the hole and into sunlight so bright she had to shield her eyes. As she breathed in her first lungful of fresh air in six years, she whispered, 'We're back, bitches!'