He didn't remember where he was. Images of masked men and flashes of white hot pain filled his mind. Bellamy remembered his mother humming and then darkness. He wearily opened his eyes to see he'd returned to his prison. He tried to reposition himself, but pain surged through his body. He let out a gasp.
"Good to see you aren't dead skaikru."
Bellamy was almost happy to hear Echo. He turned his head to face her. He frowned when he saw her faces bruise and her lip busted.
"What happened to you?"
She lifted on unconscious hand to her lip.
"When they brought you back you were... unwell. They were rough. I do not think you remember but one of the guards dropped you and kicked your wounds. It was... unpleasant. When they got close enough, I bit his hand. He was angry."
Echo gestured to the bruises on her face as she said this, seemingly unconcerned about the wounds and cry blood that covered her skin. He couldn't help the surge of gratitude that came over him.
"I thought you hated skaikru?" he joked.
"You say we aren't in a war anymore. Might as well start getting used to you."
"You can call me Bellamy, you know. I think we've made it past that point. I mean you saved my life."
"You have also saved mine."
Bellamy thought back to his first week. The guards had been selecting grounds for the next bloodletting. One of the guards tried to take Echo, who was still weak from the day before. Bellamy got them to take him instead.
"How long was I out?"
"A few days perhaps. I cannot say for sure, time runs together in this room."
She was right. Seconds felt like hours and minutes felt like days. It drove him crazy. He missed seeing the sun and the stars. He missed Kane and Octavia. Missed home. He would have never guesses but Arkadia? It had become his home. He wanted to go back.
"I'm glad my favorite toy is okay. I was beginning to think you'd never wake up."
Bellamy shuddered. It was Cage.
"Would you really care if I hadn't?" Bellamy bit back.
"Oh come on now Bellamy. You know I love your window humor. Not to mention you make Dr. Tsing very happy. Wouldn't want to take that away from her would we?"
Bellamy rolled his eyes but didn't answer. Cage motioned for the guards to come forward and unlocks Bellamy's cage. He would have fought them but he found himself too weak and let them drag him out without complaint.
"Look how much easier that was."
"Where are you taking me?" Bellamy asked.
"You're little friends have been dying to see you so I thought we'd pay them a visit."
Bellamy was surprised by this. Cage was not known for kindness. The back of Bellamy's mind screamed that there was probably something unpleasant in store but he'd risk it if it meant seeing Jasper and Monty and Miller and the rest of the kids.
"Shall we?"
Cage gestured to the guards and they swing Bellamy's arms over their shoulders and began to drag him. He looked only at the floor too weak to lift his head.
He didn't know how it's been but suddenly they stopped outside a large metal door. Bellamy felt himself grow excited with the thought of seeing his people. Cage yanked Bellamy's head up by grabbing his hair.
"Try anything and I'll pick one of them for your next procedure. Understand?"
Bellamy felt himself go sick and and nodded. He would never forgive himself if something went wrong. Cage released Bellamy and pulled out a key. Bellamy could hear it twist inside the lock and watched as it slowly opened.
To say they were surprised was understatement. It had been a few days since Jasper and Miller had seen them drill into Bellamy but they hadn't heard anything about him since. They'd sat an uneasy silence as Tsing came and grabbed Carter, one of the younger members of the 47. He didn't put up a fight, none of them did. They'd become resigned of their fate when Cage had had a guard drag the half naked body of Fox into their room and left her there the whole night, cold and eyes wide.
Monty and Harper had been playing a game of tic-tac-toe with a few spare sheets of paper. Jasper had been reading a book Maya had managed to sneak him. Miller looked like he was trying to sleep. They heard the door open and fear gripped them tight. If they were back so soon then that meant something really bad had happened to Carter. Monty stood in front of Harper, who was trembling behind him. Jasper stepped to the front, waiting to who was entering. He was surprised to see Cage and not Tsing enter. He was smiling and Jasper had to hold back the urge to punch him in his perfect teeth.
"What do you want?" Jasper snarled.
"Oh come on Jasper, don't be that way. I even brought you a gift."
Cage made a hand motion behind him and Jasper prepared himself to see guards dragging in Carter's dead body. What he hadn't expected was seeing two guards supporting a very weak Bellamy between them.
"Bellamy?" Monty gasped.
Jasper would have said something but he was still in shock. The guards dropped Bellamy and followed cage out the door. Nobody moved until Bellamy let out rattling coughs. Miller rushed to him and dragged him to a bed. Bellamy winced and smiled at Miller. Man he looked terrible. Dried blood caked his bare torso and Jasper felt himself wince as he saw a bandage covering the incision area peaking out from the hem of his pants. His ould see injection spots trailing up his arm. His face was pale but also had a rosy tinge to it, convincing Jasper that Bellamy was feverish.
"What did they do to you?" Harper gasped.
Bellamy took in a shuddering breath.
"It's fine, I'm okay. Have you been able to come to contact with Clarke?"
Talking seemed to drain whatever energy he had left as he drooped into Miller.
"We have, she's worried about you. Lexa is trying to figure out another plan for the acid."
"That's good Monty, when I leave I need you to tell her I'm alive. She doesn't to worry about me."
Jasper turned and looked at Monty. The expression on Monty's face looked like he thought everyone should be worrying about Bellamy.
"Oh my God Bellamy your hand!' Someone shrieked.
Jasper had completely forgotten about Bellamy's hand until that moment. He understood what the scream was for once he saw it again. His fingers were swollen and purple and they bent in various angles that fingers shouldn't. Jasper felt sick as he watched Bellamy lift it and stared in morbid curiosity.
"Almost forgot about this," he said wistfully, turning it over.
Jasper was unsure how anyone could forget something that looked so painful.
"Cage doesn't like it when I talk back," Bellamy said as if it were some sort of answer for the violence that had been put on him.
"What are they doing to you?" Miller asked.
"All the fun stuff. Bloodletting, beating, drugging. Tsing said my blood is special so they want to do some experiments. I am assured the bone marrow extraction was the first."
Nobody responded. What would they even say? Jasper wished he knew.
Suddenly, the door opened back up and Cage had reappeared, guards trailing behind him. Jasper and Miller got up and stood defiantly as the guards dragged Bellamy away from them.
"Playtime is over," Jasper heard Cage say with a smirk.
"You can't keep experimenting on him, he'll die," Harper shouted bravely, her hand protectively covering the spot they had drilled into her.
Cage took notice of the gesture and responded by digging his finger into Bellamy's side. Bellamy gasped as the white hot pain coursed through his body. He felt as his stitches ripped and blood ran down his leg. He leaned heavily into the guard that was supporting him.
Monty had to choke back the rising bile as he watched Cage dig his fingers deeper into Bellamy's wounds. Surprisingly, Bellamy did not scream. Monty did not know if he would have been as strong as that.
Cage finally removed his fingers and pulled a small cloth to wipe off the blood. He smiled at the 47, relishing in their horror and her disgust.
"It is extremely interesting to me that you all think you get some kind of say in what happens here. You should know, Harper, that the only reason we haven't bled you dry is because of Bellamy. I'd be cautious of what you say."
Harper paled and looked at Bellamy, was grasping at his wound and breathing heavily.
"None of you get any sort of vote in this. You are tools in our survival, nothing less. You are all expendable," Cage demanded.
Suddenly, before anyone could blink, Cage was behind Bellamy, holding a knife to the weaker man's throat. Monty thought he'd puke.
"Now if you want Bellamy to keep his insides on the inside, back off."
They did as they were told and watched fearfully as their leader was dragged out, metal still centimeters from vulnerable skin. The room was quiet for a while, nobody sure what to do.
Finally Miller cleared his throat and said, "When all this is said and done and Clarke gets us, I'm gonna drill into him until he begs for death and I'll only stop he's drowning his own blood."