"Life is a fight…Live, breathe, suffer." — Thelonious Jaha, "Day Trip"

The teenager sat across from her, staring hard at the table. He looked as if he was about to step into the airlock on the Ark. Abby tried smiling at him, but he wasn't looking at all. She said, "You're not in trouble, John."

He looked up at her. "Then why am I here?"

"You've been with Medical for a few days," she began, glancing down at the patient files he had been responsible for since joining the Medical team. "I want to know how you're adjusting."

"I'm fine."

She waited for more but he remained silent. She pressed, "Are you enjoying your work?"

"It's better than cleaning up trash."

She smiled at him. "You're doing well here. I'd like to talk about your patients. You have Robert Hill under your care; how is he?"

Murphy was stone-faced as he said, "He's not going to make it."

"How do you mean?"

"He's in a coma, he's not showing any signs of improvement."

"It's been two days."

He shook his head. "You didn't see what happened to him in Buffalo — he was hit in the head with a club. Believe me, he won't wake up from that."

"We'll talk to Yui," she said, frowning as she made a note in the chart. "How about Jones Meikle?"

He sighed. "He'll be fine. His friends should be banned from visiting."

"Why's that?" Abby asked, a smile tugging at her lips.

"They're always here and they're so loud," Murphy said.

Abby nodded. "I'll talk to them. How about Aidan Helm?"

"He's awake and talking. That kid of his never shuts up or leaves," Murphy said with a scowl.

Abby nodded absently as she made another note. Parish was a very enthusiastic kid, she knew that. He was sometimes in her living room when she got home from work, playing with Benja, Cara, and Reese. Sometimes, she would have to ask them to leave so she could have some peace and quiet after a long shift. Marcus used to get them to quiet down before she got home. Lately, he hadn't been making the effort though.

"Can I go?" Murphy asked bluntly. His shift was over and she knew that he wanted to go see Emori who had started working in the distribution center. Abby nodded again and watched him head out the door. He didn't get very far before the doors of Medical opened and in walked Clarke, Kane, and Thelonious Jaha. Abby stood from her desk and ran out to embrace her daughter but Clarke shook her head slightly to stop her advances.

Murphy stopped in his tracks and said to Kane, "What the hell is he doing here?"

Kane raised his hands in defense and stepped between the teenager and the former Chancellor. "Listen, John—"

"I'm not listening to anything," Murphy said, scowling as he tried to push passed Kane.

"It is good to see you, John," Jaha said, a smile on his face. He glanced at the patients before looking at Murphy again. "You've done well since I last saw you. I assume some of these people are under your c—"

"Go float yourself!" Murphy snapped. "Where's Otan?"

"He's fine—"

"Bullshit!" Murphy yelled. "If he's still with you, he isn't fine."

Jaha raised his hands defensively. "He's with Emori."

"You let him be alone with her?" He spat as he shoved passed Kane to get out the door. "She's probably dead already!"

Jaha called after him, "Otan won't hurt her."

"Float you!"

The room fell silent as the doors slammed shut behind Murphy. Abby stepped closer to the group and asked, "What's going on?"

Kane walked to her and took her arm. Quietly, he said, "Thelonious came across Clarke and the others in the woods."

"We can talk openly about this, Marcus, I have nothing to hide." Thelonious said, much louder than necessary. Everyone looked at him, even the patients.

"In my office," Abby suggested, wary of the curious eyes surrounding them. The other three followed her in before she shut the door. She leaned against her desk as Marcus did the same. Clarke leaned against the wall near her mother, a small scowl on her face as she crossed her arms and watched Jaha. Abby asked, "What is this all about? Where have you been, Thelonious?"

"I've been in the City of Light," he answered simply. Abby glanced at Kane and saw him pinching the bridge of his nose; he had clearly heard this before.

She almost didn't want to ask, but she knew she had to. "What exactly is the City of Light?"

Jaha took a step closer to Abby as he said, "It's a place where all are welcomed, Abby. There is no pain in the City of Light."

"I can't listen to this again," Clarke muttered before leaving the office as she shook her head. Abby glanced at Kane before looking at Jaha again.

"Your daughter doesn't believe," Jaha said. "But, trust me, the City of Light is the answer to all of the trouble in this world. The wars, the future disasters, everything. The City of Light will save us."

"Future disasters?" Abby asked. "What do you mean by that?"

"This world isn't stable, Abby. We need to be saved."

"Some of us still believe in this world," she retorted.

Jaha smiled and started toward the door. "You'll come around. You all will."

As he disappeared from sight, Abby turned to Kane and asked, "What did he mean by 'future disaster?'"

Kane frowned as he replied, "He mentioned an apocalypse, but I can't take anything he says seriously."

"We should take everything he says seriously, Marcus," Abby rationalized.

He sighed but nodded. "I'll see what Raven can find out."

Kane sat at his desk the following afternoon, feeling so out of place in a space that was meant to be his sanctuary. The Chancellor's office hadn't been occupied since he had left for Niagara nearly a month ago. It felt unnatural to be there, but he had to work. He had been fully reinstated as the Chancellor at the emergency Council meeting that morning. Sinclair didn't want the responsibility of dealing with Jaha and Kane didn't blame him.

He stared at the tablet in his hands, the radioactivity report from Raven on the screen. The levels were high, much higher than they should be. He didn't know what to do. She told him not to worry just yet, she would poke around and find out what she could.

The door opened without ceremony and in walked Gina. She held a radio in her hand and it was a second before he realized that the radio was his. She said, "Sorry to interrupt, Chancellor, but you left this in the library this morning. Bellamy has been radioing for the past fifteen minutes. It's urgent."

He nodded and she handed him the radio before heading toward the door. He called, "Thank you, Gina."

"You're welcome, sir," she said without turning around. The door shut quietly behind her. He stared at it for a moment before pressing the talk button and saying, "Bellamy, are you there?"

His voice crackled through the radio, "Kane?"

"I'm here, son."

"We have a problem, sir," Bellamy began. "Ontari's army has split in half, some going to Niagara, the rest heading for Mount Weather."

Kane frowned to himself. "Don't go to Niagara."

"Why?"

"Trust me," Kane said. He couldn't really remember why — he had been half-conscious with a knife sticking out of his leg — but he knew that going to Niagara was a bad idea. "It's something that Emerson said while Clarke and I were hostages. Go to Mount Weather — we have to take it back. We'll meet you there."

"Are you sure you're up to it, sir?" Bellamy asked, his voice laced with concern.

"It's where I need to be, Bellamy." He said simply. "Get there as quickly as possible. We'll meet you by the end of the week."

"Yes, sir."

Kane squeezed the radio as he ran a hand through his hair. He thought, Back to the war…

"Am I interrupting?"

Kane's head snapped up and his eyes met Thelonious Jaha's — he hadn't heard the door open. Jaha stood just inside the office and was watching him curiously. "If you're wondering, I didn't hear much of the conversation."

"What can I do for you, Thelonious?" Kane asked, setting down his radio.

Jaha smiled and sat opposite him without invitation. "It's not the question of what you can do for me, but rather what I can do for you, Marcus."

Kane stared at him blankly.

Jaha's smile remained and he reached into his pocket, pulling out a small blue chip. Kane glanced at it before meeting Jaha's eyes again. He asked, "What is that?"

"This is the key to the City of Light," Jaha began. Kane could tell that he had given this pitch many times over from the way he spoke. "With this chip, you won't suffer, as there is no pain in the City of Light. I know the pain you feel, Marcus. Your leg will always hurt you, but with this chip, you won't feel any of it."

"Pain is what makes us human," Kane said simply.

Jaha's smile still hadn't faltered, it was becoming unnerving. "Life is about so much more than pain, Marcus. Life should be about overcoming pain. There's no reason to suffer. You live, you breathe, but you fight. You fight through the bad. That's what this chip offers you."

"It's not fighting if it does all of the work for you, Thelonious." Kane scoffed. "Have you seen yourself lately? You're not the same man who left the Ark. What happened to you out there?"

"I found the City of Light, it's as simple as that. If you want to know what happened to me, you'll have to discover it for yourself." He stood and placed the blue chip on the corner of Marcus' desk. Kane stared at it as Jaha walked slowly out of the room. The door shut behind him and Kane reached for the chip, turning it in his fingers.

A crowd surrounded Thelonius and the Grounder named Otan that night at dinner; there were more tonight than there had been the previous night. Abby watched him, listening to the words that drifted over to them as he preached about the City of Light to his would-be disciples. She rolled her eyes as she turned back to the group at her table. Jackson sat across from her, studying the small blue chip in his hand. Raven leaned over and pointed at something on the chip. She asked, "What's the infinity symbol for?"

Jackson shrugged. "Could just be the AI's insignia?"

Raven looked across the table at Abby and asked, "Has Clarke said any more about how they came across Jaha?"

Abby shook her head and said, "No. She seems to be hiding something."

"That sounds like Clarke," Raven muttered as she turned back to Jackson and the chip. "So, this thing alters brain function?"

"It seems to," Jackson began. "Other than that, I've only been able to gather that it's a silicon-based inhibitor."

"What kind of inhibitor?" Sinclair asked from Raven's other side.

"Pain," she said, not looking at him. She whispered something to Jackson — a joke, Abby thought — and he grinned.

"If it's just a pain inhibitor, what's so bad about it?" Gwen asked, absently picking at the boar on her plate. Bennett sat next to her in their impromptu dinner Council meeting; Kane was busy meeting with the guards. Jackson and Raven were their "experts" on the subject of the chip — they had been studying the thing for the past day together.

"It clearly does a lot more," Jackson said, setting the chip down only for it to be picked up by Raven. She turned it over in her hands. He watched her as he continued, "We know that it blocks pain, but it provides an alternate reality too. Jaha talks about the City of Light like it's an actual city, a real place. How safe can it be for your consciousness to be in two places at once? Is one more real than the other? If so, which one?"

"I assume the City of Light is more real to them," Raven said, her fist clenched around the chip as she looked across the room to where Jaha and Otan were. "Just look at them. They don't exactly seem 'present,' do they?"

"Thelonious was acting odd this morning," Bennett said, frowning. They all looked at him. "I asked him if he was going to move back into his and Wells' quarters in Alpha Station or take a new one in Gedanes. It was like he didn't remember Wells at all. He just looked at me blankly."

Jackson and Raven looked at each other before standing abruptly. Raven said, "We'll check it out."

They left quickly, talking quietly to each other. Abby sighed and looked back at Jaha. Behind her, Sinclair said, "We'll figure something out. First, we should ban those chips."

"That's a decision for the Chancellor," Gwen said quietly.

They all knew that getting Kane to decide on anything these days was fairly hard unless it was his idea. He had decided to go to Mount Weather on his own but they all knew that if any of them had suggested it, he would have ended their earlier meeting abruptly. Abby knew he was slowly getting better, but he could still be volatile one moment then extremely quiet the next. She found it very hard to read him these days.

"We'll broach the subject at the next Council meeting," Abby said.

Sinclair shook his head. "We can't wait that long. These things are dangerous."

"I second that," Bennett said, nodding.

Abby sighed. "Fine. We'll call an emergency meeting again tomorrow."

Sorry for the delay, my personal health put writing so far on the back-burner that it took me a while to find it again. I don't know when the next chapter will be.

Thanks for your patience,
Lauren