"Roan, I promise I'll do anything I can to help you go home. Us being in this mountain isn't going to be for nothing," she assures. "I've got your back."
"Thank you," the Grounder nods stiffly, but the look in his eyes in sincere.
"Of course. Now, let's get to work," she says with a grin, holding the key up in the dim light.
The first Grounder Selia releases on Bellamy's orders is Echo. They spoke when he was locked up beside her and turns out she's from the same clan as Roan. The pair explains the plan to the woman and she agrees to help. Selia knows the other Grounders will follow them more easily if someone who has been locked up with them is telling them to do it.
Selia is in the midst of unlocking a cage while Roan and Echo continue to explain everything to the imprisoned Grounders in their own language when Cage's voice comes on the PA.
"My fellow citizens, this is your president speaking. I have news to share with you that will change all our lives forever. For 97 years, Mount Weather has been our home. It's kept us alive, but it has also kept us captive."
"What's happening?" Roan questions as Selia's hand remains paused on the lock of the cage.
"Most of us have made peace with what we've had to do to survive. We've done these things for one reason, so that our people could one day return to the ground. That day is today," Cage continues.
"He's going public," she mutters.
"Before my friend, Lorelei Tsing, was murdered by the Outsiders still at large in this mountain, she found a cure. It was in their bone marrow."
Selia's fist tightens around the lock and she twists the key sharply, opening the cage.
"We need to work faster," the guard tells them, moving to the next cage as the other Grounder climbs out beside her.
"What's going on? What do you mean he's going public?" Echo presses.
"There are people in this mountain protecting my friends. He's trying to get his people to turn on each other and give them up." Selia unlocks another Grounder without pause. "They're going to find my friends. We need to get ready so we can help them."
"This has been a dream of our people since the bombs. But to reach it now, I need your help. The 44 criminals that eradiated level five, killing fifteen of our people, are now keeping us from that dream. Although we've repaired our home, we can never replace the lives that were so viciously taken from us."
Selia's fist connects with the cage she just unlocked in frustration. "Viciously taken," she spits.
"Yet, as hard as it is to believe, there are those among us who would help the people who did this. And I am speaking to you now," Cage's tone shifts. "If you truly want an end to the blood treatments once and for all, then the 44 murderers you're now hiding are the key to doing that. You have one hour to turn them in without punishment. After that, we'll be forced to consider you enemies of the state."
The young guard's anger intensifies with her fear. If the Mount Weather citizens they've allied with falter, all her friends will die. Everything they've been working towards will be for nothing.
"I'm asking you, please, do what's right for your people, our people. So that we can all take our rightful place on the ground. We're almost home."
"Moving speech," Selia grumbles while Roan and Echo watch her carefully. She glances over at them with a huff. "Let's get to work. We might need to make a change in the plan."
…
"Come on, get up," Selia says as she offers a hand to the Grounder she just released.
Before she moves onto the next cage, the door to the Harvest Chamber opens. Selia spins around, grabbing the rifle that's been slung on her back the whole time, and aiming it at the intruder. When she sees a familiar face, Maya's father, followed by some of her friends, she lowers her weapon.
"Vincent," she breathes a sigh of relief. Behind him, she sees the fear-stricken faces on the handful of her people he brought with him, but all that matters is they're alive.
"Sel, thank God," she hears Nate say before the boy has wrapped her in a hug.
"I was worried when I heard Cage on the PA," she tells them. "What happened?"
"We managed to move a lot as you can see, and get some back who were caught," Vincent explains. "Maya and Jasper went with Bellamy to find the last twelve."
"That's great…what about the people who were helping us?"
"They weren't as lucky," Nate answers.
Selia nods in understanding while guilt clouds her lungs. "It's almost over," she murmurs, glancing at Vincent.
"Bellamy will bring the rest here."
"Okay, we need to hurry and finish getting everyone out of here," she tells them.
Nate takes the key from her and moves to unlock the rest of the cages while she helps the Grounders out of their prisons with everyone else.
As they continue, Selia and Vincent work to lower the higher cages when they're startled from their work. Both Harvest Chamber doors are thrown open and yelling soldiers flood in from both sides. Selia quickly trains her rifle on them, putting herself on the front line, but there's too many guns for the few they have. Half their secret army is still locked up and it's obviously no longer a secret. The upper hand they had is gone.
Selia knows that the moment her eyes lock with Cage Wallace's.
"Stand down, Selia," he orders her.
Roan comes to stand beside her, saying something to the Grounders in their own language, his own order probably.
"You know I can't do that, Cage."
"No," he says with a vicious smile. "Good thing I'm not here to talk to you."
Selia shifts her rifle to point directly at the president while the soldiers beside him shift their focus to her.
"I'm here to talk to your newfound allies."
"You mean the people you've been murdering for years," she spits.
Cage ignores her as he turns his attention to Roan. "I currently have a man outside speaking to your Commander and making a deal. We don't want you and your people. We just want them," he gestures to Selia and her friends.
"The Commander is our ally," Selia says.
"Alliances can be broken, especially if it means saving all your people."
Selia shakes her head, looking to Roan for confirmation that their alliance can't be broken, but he's staring at Cage. His glare is full of distrust, but there's something in his eyes that fills the young guard with fear.
"All your people will be allowed to leave right now, your army would retreat on your Commander's orders, and we'll never bother you again."
"He's lying," Nate speaks up.
"We only want them, we only need them," Cage continues.
"You can't break our alliance, Cage. The fact that you're doing this means you've run out of options. Our people are right outside and there's nothing left for you to do."
"President Wallace," a familiar voice comes from the walkie in Cage's hand.
"Emerson?" Cage responds.
"She's agreed."
"It's a trick," Selia insists.
"Oh, it's not, Miss Kane. Your alliance is dead."
He holds the walkie out for everyone to hear as a woman's voice she's never heard crackles through.
"The battle is done. We retreat. Give them the others."
Echo says something to Roan while the other Grounders murmur to each other.
"That's the Commander," Roan says.
"They could be forcing her to say that," Selia argues, but before Roan says anything in return, she knows the truth.
"They couldn't, Lexa would never be forced to say anything."
"You're free to go, but you must go now," Cage orders.
"No," Selia spits. "That's not how this is going to work. You're not taking us."
Cage nods, not in response to the girl, but to his soldiers to grab her friends. Selia hears a scream from Fox and she sees red. Before she can make a conscious decision, she's shooting at the men trying to imprison her friends again. She hears Nate's stolen gun as well, but it's not enough.
Less lethal tactics are taken to restrain her friends. She hears Nate's groan of pain before she feels the stun of an electric baton.
"Hey!" Roan shouts as Selia falls, but a soldier points a gun at his chest.
"You're no longer part of this fight," Cage reminds him. "Your Commander has told you to retreat."
Selia struggles back to her feet, ready to just kill Cage, but then she sees the gun pressed to Vincent's temple.
"Put the gun down, Selia."
From the corner of her eye, she can see that they've grabbed Nate and several of the others.
"Put it down or he dies."
"Roan, please," Selia begs quietly without taking her eyes off Cage.
There's a long silence, or maybe only seconds pass, but Selia's heart leaps out of her chest.
"You heard the Commander," is his only response.
Selia is ashamed of her weakness, but Roan's betrayal makes her falter just long enough for someone to stun her again and knock the weapon from her grasp. Someone yanks her off the floor and she fights against their grasp.
"Roan!" She screams. "Echo, please!"
They've already begun to drag her people out of the Harvest Chamber, but they hold Selia in place while she thrashes around.
"It's over, Selia," Cage tells her.
And just to emphasize the fact, the soldier threatening Vincent pulls the trigger.
Selia screams in horror as they finally pull her towards the door.
"Roan, please! I trusted you!" She shouts. "I trusted you!"
…
The dorms on level five have been transformed into a horror house. Selia and her friends are handcuffed to the stone wall and forced to watch as one-by-one Mount Weather murders them.
Selia can't believe they were betrayed. They were hours away from freedom and safety. Hours away from the end of this war. And the Grounders betrayed them. Roan betrayed her.
She feels like an idiot for believing they were friends and for putting her trust in him. After all, he kidnapped her and was fully planning on using her to get what he wanted. He was going to take her to his Commander and allow her to be tortured for information. Their friendship was a sham. Without Selia, Roan would have been bled and killed. Pretending to be allies was just a means for survival. Selia wishes that fact was two-sided, but, unfortunately, she came to care for the Grounder after all the time they spent together in this mountain.
She was stupid.
Now, they've been left hopeless as they wait for death. Fox is their first victim. Selia begged for them to stop, she thrashed against her cuffs, but it was no use. The young girl is strapped to the table until she is completely incapacitated. Soon, her screams of pain and the sound of the drill going through flesh and bone is all Selia hears. It's enough to break the guard, but Fox's pain is reason to keep fighting.
Bellamy, Jasper, Monty, and Maya are still out there. Selia also knows that her father, Clarke, Raven, and the rest of her people aren't just going to give up on them.
"Move it!"
"I can't!"
"She can't walk! Leave her alone!"
Selia's heart leaps to her throat when she hears a familiar voice. The Mount Weather guards drag her in, she's not really fighting, but she's dead weight for the men. The younger girl is bloody all over, covered in sweat and grime, and her dark eyes are full of hatred and despair.
"Raven," Selia murmurs, her voice hoarse from screaming at their captors.
The guards shove her friend hard against the stone wall. "Stand up!" One growls.
When the mechanic refuses to make cuffing her easy, the guard lands a blow in her stomach, doubling her over in pain.
"Raven!" Selia cries louder this time.
As the guard successfully restrains her to the wall, Raven's pain-seared eyes find Selia's. If any relief can be felt by either party, it washes over them only briefly. They had both awaited their reunion with excitement, but now it's only a prelude to their deaths.
It should have only been a prelude to Selia's death.
"Sel?" Raven's voice is almost a whimper. She can hear the questions and pleading in it. What now? Is this it? Save us…
The Mount Weather guards pull another one of her people from the wall. The teenager kicks and screams and begs and sobs while the rest are stuck watching, waiting. Selia is exhausted, emotionally worn, and still reeling from Roan's betrayal. And if ever there seemed a time to give up, this would be it. Yet, Selia looks at her best friend's face, at her childhood friend Nate, at all the kids who grew up where she did and made it this far, and she knows that she can't.
If this is the end, if Mount Weather is going to win, she's not going to make it easy for them.
…
Selia was nearly emaciated when she arrived at Mount Weather. While they may have been treating her, keeping her hydrated, and feeding her as much as she could take, her body was still sickly thin. However, skin stretched over bone is exactly what she needs to have in order to escape. It's the only way for her to slip her hands out of her restraints.
She fights against the metal when the guards leave the drillers to their jobs. Her friends' screams are what push Selia through the pain. Even as blood begins to break through her skin, she perseveres. One hand is all but freed when the doors burst open by armed guards dragging in five new, hooded prisoners. They're forced to their knees in silence as Emerson moves to the front and gets on the walkie for Cage.
Emerson scans the room, his eyes staying on Selia for longer. Her heart jumps to her throat, but she's careful not to move. If he looks up and notices her hands, they will surely find a better prison for her. Cage comes in to distract him and she releases the breath she was holding as the guard turns toward his president.
They talk of losses and Emerson says Selia's people lost more than theirs. All she can hope is her father wasn't one of them. She takes solace in the fact that Emerson is the last soldier with the cure and that there are still kids missing. That means Bellamy is still out there. He's still fighting for them.
"Take off their hoods," Cage commands after insisting they will all be on the ground in forty-eight hours.
You won't be alive in forty-eight hours, Selia tells the president silently.
The first hood is pulled off to reveal Monroe. Selia's eyes widen, but her shock is short-lived as the next hood is removed to show Sergeant Miller.
"Dad?" Nate's voice rises above Selia's heartbeat.
Sergeant Miller rushes forward when he sees his son, but he's beaten back. As Nate shouts at them, the next hooded figure shows someone Selia was certain to be dead.
Her eyes blur with tears as she sees the trimmed, blond hair and hazel-eyes darting around wildly. There's a bruise swelling his cheekbone and a cut on his nose, but he's there. He's alive.
"Evan," his name slips off her lips in a child's voice.
Before she can react more, before she can get his attention, the man beside Evan Marks is revealed. Selia reacts exactly as Nate had, not even considering the consequences.
"Dad!" She cries, shooting forward only to be drawn back by the cuffs hanging perilously around her bruised hands.
Selia hasn't seen her father since he was a grainy image on a screen in Raven's tent. She hasn't breathed the same air as him since he went to see Nygel in the mess hall while she was with her Nana. She hasn't felt his embrace since…
He looks worse for wear. Disheveled chocolate hair, longer than normal. Scruff growing on his cheeks and chin, splotched with gray. Bruises and cuts littering the skin she could see. The eyes she shared were aged a hundred years and filled with anxiety. But it is Marcus Kane without a doubt.
"Selly?" His voice is hoarse like hers, a stronger cry, but a cry nonetheless. However, it wrapped around her like a hug and seemed to protect her from the house of horrors if only for a minute.
Cage looks between them with curiosity. There is no evil sneer, no sudden torturous idea, nothing to match the villain he has become. He seems surprised, sympathetic even, but another familiar voice interrupts whatever he's thinking.
"Where's my daughter?"
Selia hadn't noticed the last hooded figure revealed, but Abby is on her knees beside her father.
"She's talking about Clarke," Emerson informs, bewildering his president.
Cage turns to Abby then, almost sincere with his words. "I'm sorry it had to come to this."
It suddenly occurs to Selia that this is the worst possible thing that could ever happen. Everyone she loves is imprisoned in a death castle. Her father, the woman who has acted like her mother, her best friends, the girl she sees as a little sister, and the man she has always loved. They are outnumbered, overpowered, trapped, and doomed.
…
Selia was calculating exactly what could be done in the shop of horrors. Freeing her hands means nothing if she can't find a weapon to use. She thinks, as the current teenager's screams fade with his life, that the drill would be suitable. Dr. Tsing's lackies would be easy to take down one at a time, but it would take too long. They would shout for help and the guards would come in with actual weapons.
No, she needed a gun, but how the hell did she get one?
"Guards, we need another one," the drillers call.
Two men come in making everyone quiver with fear as they decide who dies next. Selia watches their movements closely, examines all the weapons they carry, judges their reaction times and ability. One of her hands is simply holding the cuff to appear restrained while the other is nearly freed. She'll have to wait until the next person is chosen. By then, she will be completely out and able to grab a gun.
One more of her people must be sacrificed before she can fight them. Despite the wave of nausea that rolls over her, Selia forces herself to accept this.
Until the guard chooses Raven.
"No, no, take me!" Wick, an engineer from the Ark, pleads.
Time slows down as Selia watches them fight to get Raven uncuffed. The mechanic battles with everything she has, but they strap her to the table regardless. As one of the drillers goes to secure the final strap, Raven leans up and bites him.
Selia yanks on her other hand, desperate to reach her friend. The metal of the cuff bruises and bites. There's shouting and chaos as they try to stop Raven from flailing against her restraints. If Selia could just get out of the cuffs, she could kill them. She could grab a gun from the guard's waist and put a bullet in everyone's heads. She could do it and she's nearly there before they pull out the shock baton.
Raven is subdued. Her restraints are tightened and one around her neck is added. The driller she bit takes great joy in taking the tool straight to her knee.
Tears burn Selia's eyes like smoke from a fire as Raven's screams reverberate in her bones.
"Stop!" She begs until her throat feels like it's bleeding. "Stop!"
"Selia," her father's voice reaches her through the panic. His eyes are on her wrists where blood has begun to drip from self-made wounds. His eyes plead with her to stop. Stop hurting herself, stop drawing attention.
She draws in deep, slow breaths as the stinging of her injuries breaks through the panic. Though it wasn't his goal, Marcus reminds her of the original escape plan. One hand is freed and it didn't get like that by doing this.
"Sel," Marcus can see her determination strengthen.
With a calmer focus, Selia frees her other hand just in time for the door to open again. Only it isn't guards who enter, but Cage Wallace with a look in his eyes Selia doesn't understand.
"Get her off the table," he commands.
"But we're not done," the driller argues.
"Now," he tells him with a cold glare before turning around. His bitter eyes land on Abby and Selia's heart nearly stops. "And put her on it."
"No!" Marcus is the one begging now. "No, you don't have to do this. There has to be another way!"
"There isn't," Cage replies.
"No one has to die for bone marrow. We can donate it!" Marcus grows increasingly frantic. "We can donate it!"
"That'll never happen."
Kane continues to argue, desperate to save Abby. His daughter waits in silence as they strap her mother's best friend to the table. She waits even as the driller begins harvesting. She waits with watery eyes until one of the guards is close enough to her.
She lets go of the cuffs, her bruised wrists and hands ready to fight. She flexes her fingers, ignores her thundering heart, and with an apologetic glance towards her father, a goodbye if she needs it to be, she dives for the gun at the man's waist.
It shocks him enough that he doesn't have time to turn with his rifle. He's dead on the ground in seconds. She hears the other guard behind and knows his gun is ready to fire, but she's quick.
"Stop her!" Cage orders of the others in the room as he backs away in fear.
The driller working on Abby continues, though his eyes are wild with anxiety. The others come at her, as do two other guards who come in the room. She shoots, but she's careful. There's too much going on, too many people at risk. If she misses with her blurry eyes, she could kill one of her people. She can't fire endlessly like she desperately wants.
"Selia!" Marcus shouts right before she's struck from behind.
She's hit so hard she feels her brain jostle and another hit has the gun falling from her hands. A guard barrels towards her and shocks her with the baton.
Selia falls to the ground as the baton remains connected to her body. Her body jerks against the electricity and her skin burns at the touch, but she fights through the pain. Having been shocked before and been trained to take it, she manages to roll over, whacking the weapon away. Selia's body tingles painfully while she thrusts her foot into the guard's knee.
The person who had struck earlier comes back to detain her. He grabs at her wrists while the guard punches her stomach. Her thin form nearly cracks under the pressure. She feels like her stomach has been pushed into her spine. She wheezes as her lungs painfully constrict and the guard appears satisfied that she's subdued.
He makes the mistake of yanking Selia to her feet, holding her bent form against his body, and preparing to dump her on a nearby metal table with her other attacker's assistance. However, she is face to face with his own gun. With shaky hands, she punches him weakly in the groin and steals his gun as he grunts with pain.
She shoots him in the foot so he releases her body. Selia forgets the other man as she chooses to shoot the driller still robbing Abby of her bone marrow. He drops with the syringe in his hand. Her other attacker, another driller she realizes, is the next to die. The guard wraps iron grips around her ankles, ready to pull her to the ground, but she shoots him again.
Finally, she aims the gun at Cage Wallace who has been watching the scene from the safety of the door. Sound returns to Selia's ears, she can hear her father and Evan shouting. She can hear other Mount Weather guards running towards the dorm, ready to kill her. And she can hear the ticking clock within finally reaching its end.
"Selia, don't," Cage mutters, a weak attempt as he can see she's clearly already made the decision.
Her finger pulls back on the trigger and the bullet leaves the chamber with a shuddering echo just as an alarm begins to wail.
Cage's body hits the ground with a thud as the Mount Weather citizens still alive in the room begin coughing and gasping for breath. More rifle-armed guards run in only to collapse on their knees as their skin begins to blister. There are screams as they burn alive from the poisoned air and it takes a minute for Selia to realize what has been done.
She isn't sure how, but Bellamy, probably Clarke, and whoever else is with them must have irradiated the mountain. Selia looks at the dead bodies of their captors and feels no remorse. However, she thinks of those who helped them, the children growing up here, Maya…
"Selly," Marcus calls. "Selly!"
Selia looks up at her father and doesn't realize until she sees how blurry he appears that tears stream down her face. As if someone else controls her body, she stumbles unfeeling towards him, yanking keys from the belt of a guard she killed. With numb, shaking fingers, she unlocks Marcus Kane's cuffs and he envelopes her in an embrace so tight she begins to sob.
"It's okay," he whispers into her auburn hair. "It's okay, Selly."
It was over.
I'm back again!
I am so, so sorry for going MIA again with this story. I'm not even going to give any excuses, but I appreciate you sticking with me. :)
So, I know Selia and Bellamy didn't have any time together in this chapter. I was planning on ending with her reuniting with everyone. Like a special moment with Evan, Raven, and Bellamy, but it was too much. I thought it was just better to stick with Marcus.
We're finally done with Season 2! Now, I want to know how you want the next chapter to be written. Do you want me to pick up immediately after leaving Mount Weather and do a chapter of things going on in the months leading up to the first episode of Season 3? Or do you want me to start just like the episode and do flashbacks explaining what's been going on with Selia and her friends? Let me know your preference because I can't decide which is better.
Please let me know what you thought of the chapter. I know it was a bit long and that Selia didn't change much, but there will be more differences in the next season. :)
Thank you for reading, favoriting, and following. Special thanks to my wonderful reviewers!
Hope to hear from you,
- V :)