NOW I CAN'T GO ON, I CAN'T EVEN START

I'VE GOT NOTHING LEFT, JUST AN EMPTY HEART

I'M A SOLDIER, WOUNDED SO I MUST GIVE UP THE FIGHT

THERE'S NOTHING MORE FOR ME, LEAD ME AWAY

OR LEAVE ME LYING HERE

"I'm so sorry, Sienna." The warrior whispered, aghast.

She shook her head. "Don't be. It was awful at the time but… you know, if it hadn't happened, I wouldn't have been locked up, wouldn't have been sent down…" she flicked her beautiful blue eyes up to meet his, "…And I wouldn't have met you…"

Even through the pain shooting up her leg, she kept her eyes locked on his as he seemed to freeze within himself. He was achingly close to her, the crystal water around them seeming to draw them together.

She felt her heart pounding within her chest as he opened his mouth.

"Sienna…" he breathed. She said nothing, even as the sound of her name sent shivers down her spine.

Time slowed. Her vision narrowed. "Aerrow-" her voice cracked.

She closed her eyes, waiting for him to move away, dreading the ending of the moment.

Suddenly though, she felt a warm pressure on her cheek and before she could do anything else, his lips were pressed against hers, sealing their destiny-

The image faded as Aerrow blinked himself awake.

For a moment he could do nothing as the residue of the memory held him in its grasp.

Eyes wide, he panted longingly. Of all of Sienna's memories that he had experienced, that had been by far the most torturous. When they had first gotten together.

The sensations ran fresh through his mind. The surge of endorphins, the warmth of his hand on her face, the pure adoration of how perfectly they needed each other. The fact that he was feeling things from her point of view meant nothing, it was virtually identical to what he himself had felt at the time.

His face twisted in agony as he slowly became aware that he was not in that magical moment, in that cave with the girl he had loved so deeply. No, he was in Arkadia, alone in a cold steel room, sharing a face with a dead person, and with his hands tied firmly behind his back, secured to a chair.

He clenched his fist and sighed at the familiar predicament. He regretted everything. Every crime, every murder, every fighting skill he had ever learnt, he would take it all back if it meant he wasn't tied up every five goddamn minutes!

Then his surroundings finally came into focus, and he froze.

He recognised this room…

Scuff marks at its centre where a piano once sat…

Tiny dents in the far wall, made by a newly-crafted bo-staff…

A simple, small intercom box mounted next to the exit…

Aerrow's blood ran cold.

He was in his family's old room.

Crushed by the realisation, he collapsed back into the chair. This was the first time he'd been in here since… since he got thrown in solitary confinement, nearly three years ago…

The noise in his head doubled as more memories assaulted him. Not Sienna's this time, but his own. His father teaching him how to play the piano, his mother watching on with pride as he tested his new weapons. A lifetime of happy memories compounded his agony of how much he had lost.

It was then that he saw the blood. A faint splatter, dark and faded, not far from the dents he had made with his staff. That was where his mother's workbench had been…

He had never noticed any blood there before, but then he realised, heartbreakingly, that must have been where she was when Dylan Joyce had kidnapped her, acting on orders from Oblivion. He saw a similar splatter near the scuff marks of the piano, no doubt belonging to his father.

Raw agony burned through him. His eyes squeezed shut in anguish as he let out a choked sob and bowed his head.

And there it was.

On the floor in front of him, placed very deliberately just out of reach, was a single photo, its edges yellow and curling with age, but there no was mistaking who was in it.

It was Arianna, his girlfriend from the Ark.

The photo was the same one he had so desperately tried to take with him to solitary, only for it to be yanked from his grasp. Without her face to keep him anchored to his humanity in that time, he had become cold, unhinged. A murderer with only one goal.

And where had it brought him?

Right back to where it had all started, back to his room on the Ark.

Things had finally come full circle.

It was too much for Aerrow to bear. Water built rapidly in his eyes and his chin quivered as fleeting sobs escaped him. The noise in his head was now throbbing, roaring with more memories.

Sienna being whipped… him being tortured… Sienna being starved… him being thrown in solitary… Sienna's parents trying to kill her… Seeing the headless bodies of the nightbloods.

Sienna falling… Lincoln falling.

"AAAARGH!" Aerrow screamed at the top of his lungs, his muscles clenching painfully and his chest heaving for air.

"What do you want from me?" he whispered to no one.

He whipped his head around the empty room.

"I SAID WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME!?"

Listening outside, ALIE turned to Jaha. After sedating the teenager with a reaper stick, the former chancellor, under her instructions, had very deliberately brought him to his old room. Getting him there proved to be no trouble, now that most of Arkadia's citizens were now under the influence of the chip.

On the ground beside them was the limp body of Raven, still unconscious.

The AI cocked her head at him and smiled.

"It is time."

Aerrow stilled when he heard the door in front of him crack open. Willing his tears to dry, he looked up and narrowed his eyes as Jaha walked in, Raven's body held in his arms.

"The question is not what I want." The man said as he placed Raven on the ground and shut the door behind him, "But rather, what you do?"

Aerrow didn't answer. His eyes were locked on Raven.

"Oh she's not dead." Jaha told him, "Whether she remains that way is up to you."

Aerrow glared hatefully at him and his lip curled in anger. "I should have killed you when I had the chance." He spat.

Jaha snuffed a laugh and crossed his arms. "Alexandria's genesis." He said cryptically.

Aerrow frowned, confused. "What?"

Jaha dropped his arms and began walking slowly towards him, an unnerving smile plastered across his face.

"It's a genetic mutation, traced back to Ancient Egypt." He explained, "The label was given by Alexander the Great himself. Legend tells of a flash of light in the night sky producing 'perfect humans', that travelled north and vanished from history. It's said that they were ageless, possessed bodies of perfect proportions, had immaculate fertility, fair skin, brown hair, and vivid purple eyes. Sound familiar?"

Aerrow felt a shiver run down his spine. He had never heard of any such mutation before, but what Jaha had just said near perfectly described him.

"It was thought to be a myth, a fairytale dreamed up by delusional Egyptian priests, and condemned by the modern world." Jaha continued, leaning down to look him in the eye, "But we knew better. We knew the genesis existed, and that it was not a mutation, rather, the lack of any: the result of perfect genetics. Over time, the human genome has simply been altered too much from its basal form, hence why the genesis was lost to history. Until we found a away to get it back."

Aerrow raised an eyebrow. "We?"

Jaha smirked. "Robert Van Dyke." He said slowly.

The words chilled Aerrow to the very core. He had not heard that name since…

His fist clenched and he trembled with rage. "You were one of them?" he hissed venomously.

Jaha was unperturbed. "Indeed I was." He said simply as he stood up straight again. "Every chancellor was. Oblivion couldn't take any chances of their plan failing. You were far too important-"

Aerrow snarled animalistically and strained against his bonds as burning anger raged inside him at the memories of that organisation and everything they had done to him. "You fucking bastard!" he roared, "You killed Arianna! You killed my parents!"

The rage was short lived however. Devoid of energy, his muscles simply gave up and he fell back in his chair, panting.

"It is not me you should be directing your anger at." Jaha said dismissively.

"Oh yeah? Why's that?"

Jaha leaned in close, examining the teenager's eyes. Feral with anger, and bloodshot from lack of sleep, his azure irises still burned with resolve. Jaha looked past those though, instead focussing on the corners. They were stained black from ruptured vessels, a sign of things to come.

"Hmm…" he mused as his brow knit into a frown, "Hans always was too ambitious for his own good… Too bad he forgot to give you the serum after splicing your genes."

Aerrow froze. What?

"You have a day to live at best, two if your lucky." Jaha finished.

Through the haze in his head, Aerrow barely registered the words. Still, he practically felt a little more of his dwindling energy bleed out of him, and his body went limp.

"So I'm going to die…" he croaked, before his mouth turned into a twisted smile. "Good to know…"

"It doesn't have to be this way." His captor told him, the bait now set and the trap awaiting to be sprung. "We can help you… ALIE can help you."

Aerrow flicked his eyes up to the man. "Any why would I want that?"

Suddenly, he found himself looking not at Jaha, but what was in his hand, suspended in front of his face.

Hexagonal in shape, the pale blue device was about the size of one of the old coins he'd seen floating around in the Polis marketplace. On its upwards facing side was a blue infinity symbol. Aerrow frowned. He'd seen that symbol somewhere before… where?

He realised this must be the chip Raven had described, the one you swallowed and then saw the AI, ALIE. It just sat innocently in Jaha's palm, glinting faintly in the pale overhead light, almost invitingly…

"You have suffered, Aerrow..." Jaha said with feigned compassion, "…So much pain, so much loss… ALIE can take all of it away… all you have to do is take the key."

Aerrow said nothing. He simply kept his eyes locked on the chip as Jaha moved it towards his mouth. He thought of all those people he'd seen, eyes blank and faces free of stress and worry… He thought of what Raven said, about the AI taking her memories of her loved ones…

He felt his mouth drop open slightly, and saw the small smirk cross Jaha's face as he brought the chip to his lips…

And the image of Lincoln falling flashed through his mind.

"No." he clamped his mouth firmly shut, halting Jaha's movement.

The man looked down at him quizzically. "The City Of Light can save your life, Aerrow." He intoned, "Your body may die but your mind will live forever, and you will be free. You will be able to live without the pain of what you have done, of what has been done to you. After all you've been through, you deserve-"

"I deserve nothing!" Aerrow hissed defiantly through clenched teeth. Seething, he glared up at the former chancellor, agonised fury flowing through him in sync with the memories Jaha was talking about stealing. "What I've done is unforgivable. If you think I'm going to take that so I can live happily ever after, then you're crazier than I thought."

Jaha frowned. "You want to die?"

"No." Aerrow shook his head, "I want to live, and suffer with what I've done, for the rest of my life, however short that may be."

Jaha had no response to that, and Aerrow had no more words for him. He simply bowed his head and closed his eyes.

Beside him, ALIE cocked her head. "I don't understand." She said to Jaha, "This does not correlate with anything my programming states about the human race. Even Raven submitted once she was given back her pain. It's as if he… wants it? How is he so different?"

Jaha stroked his beard in contemplation. "He has been different from the day he was born."

"We need him to take the key." ALIE urged, "Arkadia is as good as ours, but we will need him to convince the greater world."

"Everyone has their breaking point." Jaha told her. "His is just different. As such, we need to approach this differently too."

Aerrow was too dazed, too lost in his own head to hear anything Jaha had just said. He only brought his attention back when he felt the man's hand on his shoulder.

Glaring, he slowly raised his eyes to meet Jaha's once more.

"Tell me something Aerrow. If you could erase this life, would you? If you could go back, before you were sent to the ground, before Oblivion, before your family was killed, and start over, would you?"

Aerrow gave no answer, but he couldn't stop the image playing over in his head, the memories of life before solitary. Life with his parents, harmonious and loving. With Arianna, her joyous laugh and carefree smile. He couldn't deny how he yearned for that… for a life without any of the horrors he had endured since they had been taken from him.

Happiness…

Jaha watched as the teenager's face stilled, saw a spark of hope ignite in his eyes. "Because you can." He said. "In the City of Light, reality can be whatever you make it."

This was a lie of course. Once you were in the City of Light, there was no control, only ALIE, but Aerrow didn't know that, and Jaha intended to use that for his own benefit. From his position so close, he could see water beginning to build in his eyes, his chin beginning to tremble as his resistance cracked.

"You can see them again, all of them." He pressed, "Elena, Dimitri, Arianna…"

He paused to deliver the final blow.

"…Sienna."

Aerrow's eyes went wide at the name, and his focus narrowed. Fantastical visions of living with his family were erased from his mind in the blink of an eye. Replaced by very, very real one of a sword sticking through a heart, of fingers slipping through his. Of loss, and of death.

And there was no coming back from death. His parents were dead. Arianna was dead. No computer program, however realistic could replace what he had lost.

As the familiar rage coiled itself around him, Aerrow's nostrils flared like a raging horse, and his eyes narrowed into dark, hateful slits.

"You… killed… Sienna."

ALIE suddenly stilled. "Thelonius… we have found our weakness."

The grin that came over Jaha's face was frightening. "I killed Sienna?" he raised his eyebrows.

"You did more than just kill her!" Aerrow's voice was hoarse, deranged. Spit flew from his mouth as his chest heaved. "You raised her to die! You forced her parents to starve her, whip her. Her father tried to rape her under your orders! Then you killed her only friend, locked her up and sent her down to have a baby and be executed!"

He was wild, with white-hot anger coursing through him. He could feel black blood seeping from his wrists from him straining at the restraints, the pain of the incisions a mere fraction of the agony currently fuelling his tirade.

"I have killed… so many people… so many people are dead because of me… But Sienna…" he sniffed, "Sienna was the exception… She was good, she didn't deserve the life you forced her to live. She didn't deserve to die…"

He trailed of as his memories of the fierce young warrior entangled with her own, creating a blur of emotion. It was true, his parents, Arianna, Clarke's unborn child, Aden, Lincoln, those deaths were all on him. Sienna was the exception. He may have tortured himself for not being able to save her, but at least her death wasn't directly because of him.

"No one deserves to die." Jaha crossed his arms, "We all deserve to live, free of these painful bonds that tether us to the misery of loss, including you, and Sienna. Yes, she is dead, in this world, but why is that?"

"Because of you!" Aerrow flared, jerking his body towards him.

"No Aerrow, you're smarter than that." Jaha replied smoothly, "Who really killed her."

Aerrow paused, flashing back to that terrible night. "It… It was Tristan…" he stammered, "He- he stabbed her, through the heart and she-" he cut himself off as tears began to fall.

"Wrong again." Jaha said. "I might have sent her down there, he might have struck her, but why was she in that position to begin with? Who put her there to be killed?"

Aerrow gave no response, he didn't have any idea what Jaha was talking about.

Jaha leant down, bringing his mouth up against his ear.

"…It was you."

Aerrow felt his heart stop beating. He expected the anger to surge up once more, waited for its burning intensity, but it never came. Instead he was filled with a deep dense of dread, as if his chest was caving in.

"What? No- I… I helped her… I trained her. If it weren't for me she-"

"-Would never have been on the front line." Jaha cut him off. "It was you who put her in harm's way that night. It was you who trained her as a warrior, Oblivion had no part in that. If they had their way, you would both be dead, and it would have been your child in their service, not you."

"No." Aerrow denied.

"Keep going…" ALIE ordered, "He is breaking."

Jaha locked his eyes on the distraught teenager. "It was you who made her fight alongside you. The grounders weren't specifically after her. She was just in their way, because of you, so I ask you again, who killed her?"

"Tristan." Aerrow said weakly.

"Who killed her?"

"N-no, it was- the grounders, they-"

"Who killed her?"

"No, stop!" Aerrow squeezed his eyes shut and clenched his teeth, desperate to block the words out.

"Who killed her?"

"I DID!" Aerrow screamed suddenly.

Jaha was silent. He smiled victoriously as he stood back and watched Aerrow crumble before him.

Aerrow's mouth hung open in a silent scream, his face flooded by tears of despair, his breaths staggered and forced. Small whimpers tore themselves from the very bottom of his chest.

"I did…" he sobbed, "I trained her, forced her to fight with me that night… she died because of me."

He dropped his head pathetically as his body spasmed and his final mental walls were torn down.

"Yes, you did." Jaha spoke lowly, "Just like you kill everyone you love, everyone who comes into contact with you."

He turned his head to look at Raven.

"It's an inescapable fate. So many have already been lost… and time is running out for those who are left."

Slowly, purposefully, he moved to the side of the room and retrieved a scalpel from the bag he had brought with him.

Aerrow watched with blurred, tear filled eyes as he walked back over, the scalpel held aloft deliberately for him to see.

He shook his head faintly. "You can torture me all you want…" he rasped, "I don't care anymore."

He dipped his head towards the scalpel, waiting for the slicing to begin.

"Oh its not for you." Jaha sounded almost amused. Aerrow looked up, to find him pointing at Raven.

He gasped. "You won't…"

"You're right." Jaha said. "I won't, if you take the key."

"You won't anyway." Aerrow growled, a hidden strength awakened at the sight of the scalpel held to her neck. "You need her."

"I already have her. Her mind is in the City of Light."

"No it's not." Aerrow rebutted, "I disconnected her, and you wouldn't be so desperate to chip me if you didn't still need her."

Jaha's eyes narrowed to a glare. Without breaking eye contact, he moved the scalpel to rest over her heart, the same place Tristan had stabbed Sienna. "Are you so sure of yourself, that you will risk her life?"

"No." Aerrow shook his head, before dropping his voice to a low growl, "But if you want to lose your best mechanic, go ahead. Like you've said, I've already lost so much, what difference does one more make? You'd better try something else, because you have nothing to threaten me with, and I have nothing left to lose."

It was then that he saw it though. A flash of black and white scales crawling up behind Jaha, ready to pounce.

His eyes went wide. "Cleo, no!"

But it was too late. The Lace Monitor launched herself at Aerrow's captor, claws bared and hissing viciously.

But it was too late. Alerted by Aerrow's scream, Jaha whirled around and caught the reptile just as she slammed into him.

The momentum knocked him to the ground and they rolled on the floor in a violent wrestle. Cleo fought valiantly, but Jaha had all the leverage. He came to a stop with his back to the ground, holding the Lace Monitor at arm's length as she snapped relentlessly at him.

"No! Get out of here!" Aerrow yelled.

Cleo didn't listen however. She whipped one of Jaha's forearms, stunning him for long enough to wriggle free of his grasp and sink her teeth into his wrist.

She jumped clear, waiting for her venom to take effect, only for Jaha to lash out and grasp her throat, apparently unaffected by the venom as he choked the struggling Lace Monitor. Aerrow could only watch in dread as he got back to his feet.

Ignoring her clawing at his wrist, Jaha turned his attention back to Aerrow. "There is no pain in the City of Light." He said cruelly. Noticing the look of horror on his face, he realised instantly he'd found his weakness.

He knelt down and bashed the lizard against the hard metal floor. The sound it made was sickening, and Cleo screeched in agony.

"Jaha, no! Stop!" Aerrow begged as he slammed her head into the floor again, this time the Lace Monitor went limp, her tongue lolling lifelessly.

"STOP!"

Jaha ignored Aerrow's plaintive cries. Instead, he gathered the scalpel from where he'd dropped it after the lizard's initial attack and held it over her erratically breathing body.

"I'LL DO IT!"

Jaha halted the blade an inch above her head. His smile returned as he looked up at Aerrow. The teenager's eyes were wide and desperate, his face pale and sweaty with dread.

"I'll take the key…" Aerrow panted. "Just don't hurt her… please."

"Interesting…" ALIE commented, "He has no regard for human life… yet yields for the reptile…"

She turned towards Jaha. "Good work Thelonius. It's time to finish this."

Wordlessly, Jaha nodded at the empty air beside him and moved back towards Aerrow, leaving Cleo unconscious on the floor.

He fished the chip from his pocket and crouched in front of Aerrow. Fisting his hand in his captive's long blonde hair, he forcibly lifted his head and held the chip in front of his face.

Aerrow mustered every bit of fight left in him and sent it in a hateful glare towards Jaha. "May you burn in hell…" he whispered, before closing his eyes and opening his mouth.

Jaha said nothing as he slid the chip onto Aerrow's tongue. He sat back and watched as the boy swallowed, grinning from ear to ear knowing he had broken the Ark's most dangerous prisoner ever, and now his army had gained the most lethal fighting ability on Earth.

A final tear rolled down Aerrow's cheek as he felt a numb burrowing sensation at the back of his throat and prepared himself to farewell everything he had ever known.

He pictured his family, so loving and close, Arianna and her thousand-watt smile lighting up his life. Sienna, beautiful Sienna, the way her body moved so perfectly in combat, the electricity sparking in her eyes, eyes that he now shared. He thought of Cleo, his most loyal friend, how he was doing this for her.

And lastly, he thought of Octavia. Of the emerald green of her eyes, the ebony ripple of her hair. Her lean, sculpted curves and the feel of her lips against his in that fleeting moment so long ago. He would never get to feel that again, never see her wielding his swords again. Most importantly though, he would never get to tell her how sorry he was.

All he could do was sit, bound to the chair and wait for the AI to claim him.

'Goodbye.'

Bellamy jerked awake at the sound of footsteps outside the cave. Wearily, he got to his feet, the chains around his wrists rattling uncomfortably loudly. He'd lost track of how long he had been in the cave for, since being abandoned by Indra upon the ascension of the new Commander, since Octavia left to save Lincoln and the others.

His heart leapt to his mouth. He knew the defences his sister was going up against. He knew how ruthless Pike had become. She didn't stand a chance…

His breath caught then, when out of the darkness walked Kane, with Miller, Bryan, Monty, Harper and Sinclair in tow. Last of all came Octavia, and he exhaled in relief at the sight of his sister.

His joy was short lived however, when he noticed the haunted look on her face. He had never seen her look so distraught before. Her face was set in stone, eyes dark and lifeless. Her hair had been pulled from its combat braids, and now hung bitterly down the sides of her head.

She didn't even acknowledge him as she walked stiffly past him, her legs dragging almost automatically. It was then he realised only two of the three prisoners set for execution had returned. Something must have gone horribly wrong.

"Where's Lincoln?" the words escaped his mouth before he could stop them.

The others glanced furtively at each other, none willing to answer. He watched as Octavia went stiff as a board.

"Aerrow ran a sword through his chest."

Bellamy felt his heart break at the pain in his sister's voice. The words were cracked and broken, her tone miserable. He couldn't believe what he had just heard. Lincoln was dead and-

"Aerrow's alive?"

He was silenced when Octavia whirled around, and he took a reflexive step back at the wild look in her red-rimmed eyes. "And now Lincoln isn't! Thanks to you!" she cried as tears framed her face.

"O…" Bellamy started, moving towards her to comfort her, "O, I am so sorry"

He never got to finish the sentence, for he was cut off by an explosion of pain from his nose as Octavia slammed her fist into it.

"Stay away from me!" she shrieked as he fell, stars circling his vision. He stared up at her, wide eyed as he felt blood running down the front of his face. When his vision cleared, he saw something in her eyes that he never expected to see.

Hatred.

Pure, blazing hatred. For him.

"O…"

"Don't say a word!" she hissed through clenched teeth, "If it had been Pike, you would be joining him."

The venom of her words cut right through him, and Bellamy felt sick to his stomach at what had happened, the pain he'd caused his sister to feel. He had a million questions racing through his head. How was Aerrow still alive? What had happened to Pike? Why had Aerrow killed Lincoln?

He forced himself to hold his tongue though as Octavia walked back to the far end of the cave. There, she sank to her knees, raised her head and wailed to the heavens.

Seconds continued to tick by, and still there had been no reaction.

Jaha and ALIE stood over there captive, watching him intently, waiting for his mind to become theirs.

He had made no movement since swallowing the chip. they'd seen his eyes go blank and his head fall forward, but since then there had been nothing but the slow rise and fall of his back.

"What's going on? Should he have awakened by now?" Jaha asked

"I don't understand." ALIE furrowed her brow, "Everyone else has responded within a minute of taking the key."

"Is something wrong?"

"No." The AI said, holding up her hand, "I feel a presence… its just… weak. Detached almost. It is as if his mind is both in the City of Light and not."

"That shouldn't be possible."

"A statement which could be true for many things regarding him it appears."

"So what do we do?"

ALIE contemplated the torpid warrior for a long moment. "Release him. Even if he is not fully compliant like Raven, he is too weak to disconnect."

Jaha nodded and knelt down, slicing through the bonds tethering Aerrow's hands and feet. The ropes fell away and his arms dropped.

Jaha lifted Aerrow's head up with one hand and pried one of his eyes open with the other. The pupil was dull and dilated.

Jaha smirked. "You're ours now."

And then something happened that he never expected.

The pupil narrowed.

In the blink of an eye, Aerrow surged forward out of his seat, collecting Jaha with a vicious headbutt. He dropped like a stone, out cold, and Aerrow collapsed forward onto his hands and knees, bringing him face to face with the unconscious man.

"I've had my mind taken from me once…" he snarled, "Never again."

Not paying any further attention to Jaha, he whipped his head around, scouring the room for any sign of the woman in red, ALIE. She still hadn't appeared. Either something had gone wrong, or he was just galactically lucky. Either way, his mind was still his own.

Knowing that the AI would now be aware of his escape, he wasted no time looking for answers, he simply crawled over to Raven and shook her shoulders gently. "Wake up! Raven, wake up!"

At first he thought it was to no avail, and without her help he had no chance of escaping ALIE's clutches a second time on his own, but after a few moments her eyes fluttered open and she coughed groggily.

"What happened?" she groaned, dazed. Blindly, she felt the wristband still clasped around her wrist, then her eyes focussed on the man in front of her. "Aerrow?"

"Raven… thank god." Aerrow dropped his head into her shoulder.

"What happened?" she asked, "did it work? Ah-"

She winced as she tried to bend her left leg, only for it to protest instantly, while a familiar fiery pain shot up her spine.

Tears built in the corner of her eyes, from relief or agony she wasn't quite sure, and she slowly turned her eyes to Aerrow. Gratefully, she cupped his cheek. "You did it… thank you."

"There's time for thanks later." Aerrow coughed, groaning as he tried to push himself up, "We need to get out of here, can you walk?"

Raven hissed as she got to her feet. Thankfully, Aerrow had reattached her brace after dressing her so she could at least stand, though not without some discomfort. "Yeah…" she said through gritted teeth.

"Good…" Aerrow looked up to her nervously, "Because I can't."

Raven looked at him, stunned. "What happened? What did they do to you?"

"It doesn't matter!" Aerrow shook his head, "They're after us! Jasper's waiting at the Rover, we need to move now!"

He grunted as Raven pulled him to his feet and slung his arm over her shoulder. He glanced at Jaha's unmoving body. Briefly, he considered killing the man, but thought better of it. Neither he nor Raven were in any condition for such an action, and it would only waste what little time they had before ALIE's followers caught up to them.

So after stopping to retrieve Cleo and slinging her around his neck, he and Raven staggered out of the room. Aerrow looked back one last time at the room of his childhood, before slamming the door shut with a resounding thud.

It was a miracle of its own that they were able to make it to the garage without being found. All around them echoed footsteps of those hunting them. Raven bashed on the door and was greeted by a wide eyed Jasper.

"I thought they got you!" He exclaimed, "What took you so long?"

"I got a little tied up." Aerrow wheezed.

"Are you guys okay, did you disconnect her?"

"It's done." Aerrow put a weak hand against Jasper's chest, "But we're out of time, we've gotta get moving- argh!"

He hissed as his legs collapsed and a roaring pain shot through his head.

Jasper said no more as he grabbed Aerrow from Raven and dragged him over to the waiting Rover. He threw the back door open and hauled him inside, before dropping something on top of him. Aerrow looked down to see his two coandite swords on his chest.

"I grabbed those for you, figured you'll be needing them." He said as Raven climbed in the back too, before closing the door and racing around to the driver's seat. He jumped in and keyed the ignition. The electric motors whirred to life, just as the doors to the garage burst open and in flooded a horde of chipped Arkadians.

"Go!" Raven shouted as Jasper floored the throttle and the vehicle took off. Their pursuers sprinted after them, and Jasper kept his foot hard down on the accelerator pedal as he jammed down on the button to open the outer gate.

He didn't even wait for it to open fully, he simply drove straight through them, using the Rover's solid steel front bar to barge through the scrap metal doors.

"YES!" he cheered, watching the chasing crowd dropping away in the side mirror, only to look back forward and slam on the brakes.

Aerrow and Raven lurched forward as the Rover screeched to a halt. Jasper stared through the window, shocked, at what had made him stop.

"Clarke?" he breathed.

Indeed it was. Mounted on horseback, dressed in a heavy grounder coat, the blonde looked just as stunned as him. "Jasper?"

He jumped at the sound of the first bullets clanging off the Rover's armoured exterior while outside, Clarke's horse reared up, spooked, and threw her off its back before taking off into the night.

Clarke hit the grunt hard, but quickly picked herself up and raced over, taking cover behind the front of the Rover. "Jasper, what's going on?" she shouted over the gunshots.

"Get in!" Jasper kicked the passenger door open. Sensing a break in the fire, Clarke took her chance and went for it, diving into the seat just as a stray bullet nicked her arm.

She screamed, squeezing her bicep as sparks flew around them. "I need to see Lincoln!"

"No, you don't understand, Lincoln is dead, and we will be too if we don't leave now!" he shouted at her.

"Jasper we need to move!" Raven bashed the back of his seat.

"Why are they shooting?" Clarke demanded.

"I don't have time to explain, just shut up!"

"What do you mean Lincoln's dead? I need him to take me to Luna, he's the only one who knows the way-"

"I killed him." A weak voice spoke up from the darkness of the rear cabin.

Clarke froze at the comment. Her mouth dropped open at the sight of Aerrow as he pulled himself up in between the seats.

"Arkadia has fallen" he told her breathlessly. "I tried to stop it… I tried-"

It was then that one of the chasers caught up with them and pulled the back door open. Aerrow turned as the man grabbed Raven and started pulling her out.

Ignoring Clarke, Jasper jammed his foot back down and the Rover surged forward, just as Aerrow, with the last of his strength, threw himself back and jammed one of his swords through the eye of the man.

He screamed, and Raven kicked him clear before closing the door once more. "GO GO GO!"

"COME ON!" Jasper roared as the engine finally spooled up and they shot forward, away from Arkadia and off into the uncertain darkness of the forest.

ALIE watched the Rover receding into the distance, and her eyes narrowed inhumanly.

"What do we do now?" Jaha asked as he came up beside her, having awoken moments earlier.

"Follow their wheeltracks." ALIE said. "When we find them, we'll find the rest of their friends. Now that Arkadia had fallen, we move on to stage two."

For a long, long time, no one said a word. The only sound in the cabin of the Rover was the soft hum of electricity, and the vehicle drove on through the night. It was as if everyone was to afraid to give voice to the concerns running rampant through their heads, fearing that if they spoke, ALIE would somehow find them again.

"Jasper…" Clarke broke the silence. "What-"

"Don't talk to me!" he snarled, keeping his eyes on the rough path in front of him. On the steering wheel, his knuckles were bone white with tension.

"AI…" Aerrow groaned from the back, "It's an AI…"

Clarke turned I her seat to look at him, only for him to drop his gaze, unwilling to look her in the eye. "Aerrow…" she whispered, "How are you alive? I thought Ontari would have…"

"I wish she did." He rasped, finally bringing his eyes up to meet hers, and in them she saw the deepest, most regretful sorrow. "We'll have time to talk later, once we find the others."

"Others?"

"Yeah, Kane and a small group got out a few days ago, only you must have forgotten that we have no idea where they are and no idea how to contact them!" Jasper answered.

"We use the radio." Raven spoke up, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "There's no way they wouldn't have taken one."

"You do know that all of our radios run through the transmitter at Arkadia, which is now controlled by a murderous AI and her brainless whackjobs?" Jasper retorted. "The moment we try to make contact, they'll know where we are."

"Not since I did a Bellamy and trashed it." Raven said smugly, holding up a tangle of wires. "I did it before you two found me this morning. Figured I'd need to run after disconnecting. Now it's just the radios themselves. As long as we can get in range, we should be able to make contact."

"Good work Raven." Clarke said, "Get on it. The sooner we find them, the sooner we have a chance of finding Luna, and ending Ontari's reign…"

Aerrow zoned out of the conversation. He sat with his back propped up against the side wall, head back and staring gloomily up at the roof. His mind was only on one thing.

He was going to have to face Octavia again…

And for once, he dreaded it more than he wanted it.

A nauseating headache gripped him suddenly, and it felt as if his mind was being torn in half as the exertions of the day finally caught up with him. A choked gasp escaped his mouth before he fell on his side and passed out, the exclamations of concern around him falling on deaf ears.

In the central building of the City of Light, ALIE stood looking out the window, observing her kingdom, her fortress, deep in extrapolation.

There was no way Aerrow could have resisted the chip. No mind, no matter how strong, could escape the interaction. So how had he?

She had felt him, felt his mind… his consciousness. Memories of a young blonde girl, abusive parents, the crack of a whip. Yet externally, he seemed unaffected, his body acting on his own free will.

It both baffled her and confused her. It was a glitch, one that she would need to put right before the next part of her mission.

So distracted was she, that she never noticed a slight change in her data.

Somewhere, far, far away, in the darkest corner of the City, electric blue eyes snapped open.


Interesting…

I was originally going to end the chapter when Aerrow first took the chip, but I owe you guys more than another cliffhanger, so I decided to flesh it out in full.

No, Aerrow did not resist the chip simply because he is Aerrow. It is directly linked with the memory flashes he has been having, and the deterioration of his health, and is something I've been weaving in carefully since the start. All of these questions will be answered in the next two chapters.

Please let me know what you think, stay tuned for the next one