Disclaimer: The usual. I don't own anything.
A/N: This chapter onwards, the story will go in parallel on both sides. Climax is nearing and the situations are fluid. Enjoy the reading.
It was night time. TonDC has been evacuated and all the grounders have moved further into the forest, away from the reach of the missile strike. Lexa had sent a group led by Gustus to wait for the strike team from the mountain. They had orders to wait until the missile strikes before ambushing them.
Clarke was huddled close to Raven, waiting for the missile to arrive.
"Did Bellamy radio in?" Clarke asked, breaking the silence.
"No. I've had the radio on since we moved here. He hasn't contacted again." Raven informed her.
Clarke got worried. Bellamy should have reported back when he reached the acid fog storage area. It's been hours since he was supposed to call back.
"What do you think it means?" She asked, trying to find a reason that isn't the dread she's feeling.
"I don't know Clarke. Right now, we need to focus on this. We can worry about Bellamy after." Raven answered her.
Clarke turned her attention back to TonDC. With everyone evacuated, the village had only structures and fires there.
"Look." Someone from far said.
Clarke and Raven looked up into the sky. They saw a light further up the mountain and a trail of smoke following it. The light came closer and closer towards the village.
"This is it. Everybody, brace yourself." Clarke yelled out.
The missile got close and the ground started shaking from vibration. It struck the ground and let out a fiery explosion that threw rubble up in the air.
Grounders gasped and shrieked as they felt the aftershocks of the missile strike. Clarke held onto the rock she's hiding behind to face the brunt of the explosion.
There were more yelling as the aftershocks subsided. Some are from celebration at surviving the strike. Some are from fear that something like that happened.
Further away, Clarke heard gunshots. The grounders silenced quickly to focus on it. Lexa started running towards with her guards in toe towards the gun fire. Clarke followed closely behind.
They reached the cliff close to the crater that was previously TonDC. Lexa yelled out something in trigedasleng. Someone from further into the woods of the cliff yelled something back. Lexa quickly moved towards the voice.
They found the mountain men all tied up and weapons have been discarded. A few had died during the attack. Gustus stood above them, spitting blood on their suits. He had a wound on his shoulder from a gunshot. There were also a few grounders lying dead or injured, next to the mountain men.
"Is this all?" Lexa asked once she reached them.
"Yes. We ambushed them, but they were fast to use their weapons. First line of attack got injured." Gustus reported to her.
Lexa kneeled down next to the mountain man close to her.
"You came to kill us. Now you will face the same." She said in English to them. She signalled to the guards next to her who pulled up the mountain men up.
"Open their suits. Let them feel the ground." She ordered.
"Lexa, No." Clarke objected to her punishment. She didn't see the reason for the slow death.
"They deserve it for what they did to our village. This is command decision." Lexa told Clarke; her voice unwavering.
Raven took Clarke by her arm and dragged her out of there. They could hear the screams of the mountain men and pleading for a quick death as they died.
Clarke isolated herself with the radio in the forest. They had a makeshift camp going in the forest for the delinquents. Other clans had made their own shelter for the night.
Lexa ordered everyone to start moving towards the mountain, first thing in the morning. They plan to camp out right on the border where the other grounders were already camping. Even with their barricade surrounding the mountain, mountain soldiers managed to reach TonDC undetected. Lexa is intent on finding how they manage to do that.
While that kept the grounders busy, Clarke wanted to focus on the radio. She is desperate to know what happened to Bellamy and why he hasn't called back yet. Part of her was seeking comfort from him after the brutality she has seen that day. Bellamy would help make sense of it for her.
The change in static snapped her out of her thoughts.
"Raven. Are you there? Can you hear me?" Bellamy's voice came over the radio.
"Bellamy! You're late. You were supposed to call back hours ago. We didn't know what happened." Clarke rambled on. Her emotions from the day added to the worry and concern for his wellbeing had her talking.
Bellamy waited until she took a breath.
"Are you through?" He asked, intent on waiting for her to finish her rambling.
Clarke took a deep breath. She needed to be calm and collected.
"Did you find the storage area?" She asked instead.
"I'm near there. There was a situation here. The guards started searching for me a few hours ago. I hid myself in a narrow crawlspace in the vent and stayed there until everything settled down. I assume it had something to do with you vacating TonDC?" He informed her.
"Yeah. We were worried it may expose you." Clarke said.
"Did everyone make it out safe? Is Octavia good?" Bellamy asked, concern evident in his voice.
"Yeah. Thanks to you and Raven, we had enough time to vacate the village. Only property was destroyed. We also killed the person spying on us and the team that came to kill any survivors from the strike." She updated Bellamy. She choked up a bit in the last part.
"It had to be done Clarke. Letting them live would have been a big risk. You know it." Bellamy told her, understanding why it would trouble her.
"I know. I don't like it." She told him. Her instinct as a doctor makes it hard for her to watch people get executed.
"I am going to lay low until morning before I move. The guards are on high alert right now, checking everywhere. I think Cage became worried about me when his spotter and his assault team lost contact."
"We're moving too. We will join the army that's surrounding the mountain. Once the fog is down, we will attack immediately." She said, wanting to get this done as soon as possible.
"Good. I'll contact you back in the morning. Get some rest." Bellamy told her. He switched off his radio and Clarke decided to follow his advice and get some shut eye. She needed to be alert in the morning for things to go well.
- 100 -
Clarke was up at sunrise, having slept only a little. She couldn't get her mind to rest and even the exhaustion of the events from yesterday didn't put her to sleep.
"Did I hear you talking last night?" Raven asked her, letting out a big yawn.
Clarke smiled at her antics. "Yeah. Bellamy made contact." That snapped Raven from her sleepiness.
"Did he find the tanks?" Raven asked, worried that she wasn't up when he needed her.
"No. Seems the guards at the complex became alert of his presence when they lost communication with the team outside." Clarke told her.
Raven looked at her with concern. "Is he safe?" She asked, and then realized the ridiculousness of her question. He wouldn't have made contact if he wasn't safe.
"Yeah. He said he was going to lay low until morning and then be in contact." Clarke told her.
"We have a problem then." Raven said, worried. Clarke looked at her in confusion.
"If he's going to contact us, we need to be in a stationary position. We can't move with others as Lexa wants us to do." Raven pointed out.
Clarke nodded, understanding the issue. "I'll talk to Lexa. We'll stay back until Bellamy neutralizes the acid fog and then join the others." She told Raven.
"Good luck." Raven wished her, hoping Lexa will be in a better mood to agree.
- 100 -
Clarke found Lexa getting ready to move. The guards let her in, now that they are used to seeing Clarke come seeking their commander.
"Good morning, Clarke." Lexa greeted her.
"Bellamy made contact last night." Clarke said, getting right to the business.
Lexa looked at her, noticing her tone of voice.
"He was laying low because of higher security. Said he will be in contact with us today and continue to disabling the acid fog." Clarke told her.
"So, he's not found?" Lexa asked to confirm.
"No. But in order to assist him, we need to stay in one place. We can't maintain the signal on the radio if we are on the move." Clarke told her.
Lexa shook her head. "We can't stay here Clarke. We still don't know how the mountain soldiers came to TonDC. We can't keep this area secure from another missile attack. We need to join our forces near the barricade."
"Why the hurry?" Clarke asked, not understanding.
"Think about it. We have the mountain surrounded for days now. And they haven't launched a missile at them. They could have wiped out the entire army if they had. Only reason they didn't is because they couldn't." Lexa explained.
It made sense to Clarke now that Lexa explained it. It also explained why she's in a hurry to get there. Staying in the distance where they can attack with their missile is a risk.
"What if we stay behind? You can take the grounders and join the others. Raven and I can stay behind and talk to Bellamy. Once the acid fog is down, we can join the rest of you." Clarke suggested.
"It's not a good idea. You can't be safe if they send another team." Lexa pointed out.
"We need to do this. It's the only way to be sure that Bellamy can neutralize the acid fog. I'll have some of my people stay with me as guards. We can find a higher ground and protect ourselves there." Clarke said, convinced she can get it done.
Lexa remained unconvinced. But she knew that Clarke won't change her mind once she has decided.
"As you wish. I'll leave it to you to pick those you want to stay behind." Lexa said.
Clarke took her leave to go back to her people. She needed to do what she said to Lexa before Bellamy made contact.
- 100 -
Bellamy observed through the vents for anyone near him. He has been moving slowly from vent to vent in the morning when the coast was clear.
His body is wrecked after spending so much time in the narrow crawlspace. He couldn't wait to get out and move more freely. From memory, he knew that he was very close to the area where he is supposed to come out of.
He crossed a few vents before took a right turn and he is at the exit vent he needed to be. He waited until he was sure he's alone, before he opened the vent and come out of it. He dropped out and hid within the metal equipment surrounding the area.
He pulled out the radio and switched it on. He waited for the signal to transmit. Once the static noise faded away, he started speaking into the earpiece.
"Can anyone hear me?" Bellamy said, and waited for the response.
He didn't have to wait too long. The radio crackled and "We're here." Came over the earpiece. It was Clarke.
"I'm at the door to the storage area." Bellamy informed them. He used the key card he was given and waited patiently. It took a few seconds and then green light blinked. He heard the lock release and the door open.
"I'm in. I hope you have a plan." He informed them as he walked in.
"Still working on it. Give us something to go on. What do you see?" It was Raven speaking over the radio now.
Bellamy looked around to take measure of what he was seeing.
"A huge steel vat. Looks like a submarine. Some other tanks with chemical formulas and warning labels. Bunch of pipes running into the wall. Monitor." He listed the things visible to him.
"Ooh, go to the monitor." Jasper piped in on the radio. Bellamy chuckled.
"Hey Jasper. Nice to hear your voice again." Bellamy said, genuinely glad to hear him.
"Same here man. So glad to hear you're not pushing up daisies." Jasper replied with a goofy grin.
"Seems you made an impression on innocent Maya here." Bellamy chuckled. He has seen the way Maya blushed when she mentioned Jasper. And he can imagine the naturally goofy Jasper reacting the same way.
"Great. Pleasantries over. Listen, if that monitor is a control panel, we can use it to kill this thing. Look for a pH scale." Raven said, having pulled the microphone from reddened Jasper.
"Right. It has a scale, but the rest... uh. S-3, V-2-O-5, H-2-S-2-O-7. Look, can I just blow this thing?" Bellamy asked, exasperated at trying to find a technical solution for the problem than a practical one.
A chorus of "No" came through the radio.
"They'll know their defences are down. They'll send a tech to fix it or reroute it or pull out some other weapon we don't even know about." Raven explained further.
"Plus, you'd probably melt your face off." Jasper added his own opinion.
Bellamy sighed in frustration.
"Look, you know I like a good explosion, but we gotta think our way through this one." Raven said to pacify him. "We can do this. Just keep reading the options." She asked.
Bellamy looked at the monitor. "Okay, uh... level indicator." He read the options one by one.
Raven kept saying "No" for each one.
"Do you see an actuator anywhere?" Raven asked suddenly. "One must be controlling the valves." She commented.
"I have no idea what that is." Bellamy said, confused. "Let me check." He looked around.
He searched around the monitor. He found a panel where they stored the tools for maintenance. He opened it and looked through the contents. Fire Torch, he identified one of the items and took it. Worst case scenario, he can use it to blow up the tanks. He also found a wrench set and an adjustable plier. He picked up the plier in case he needed it.
"I can't find anything marked as actuator. But I found some tools that could come in handy." He commented over the radio.
"That's great. Come on, what else do you see in the monitor?" Raven asked.
"Internal pressure sensor." He read the next one.
"No." Raven said once again.
"Uh…" Bellamy looked closer. "Setpoint and alarm." He read it.
"Let's avoid that one." Jasper said quickly.
"Finally, maintenance and cleaning." Bellamy read the last one.
"N…" Raven started to say No, but paused. "Wait. Corrosion. The protective oxide film would have to be restored in tanks this old. They'd need to be cleaned and neutralized." She spoke out aloud.
"Bellamy, go to that subdirectory. See if there's anything there that says passivation." Raven instructed him.
"Okay, I'm on it." Bellamy replied, excited at the prospect of being on track of a solution. "Got it. Says, uh…" he paused to take a moment to read it properly. "Aqueous sodium hydroxide bath". He read it out loud, hoping he pronounced it right.
"That's it. That's a base. That'll neutralize the acid. Select that." Raven told him. She was sure it will work.
"Ok." Bellamy selected it in the monitor and waited. The tanks started to do something.
"You should be able to hear the pump." Raven commented. She could guess the process. Bellamy listened.
"I can hear them." He replied. He looked at the monitor again. "Needle's moving. pH is rising." He informed them.
"It's working." Jasper said, excited.
They waited until the process finishes its course.
"Passivation successful." Bellamy told them when he heard the machine beep.
"Yes!" Everyone exclaimed in celebration.
"You guys should be clear to reach the mountain now." Bellamy told them.
"Good job Bellamy." Clarke spoke over the radio. "Get yourself to safety. When we reach the base, you can try and release the prisoners. Until then, hide yourself." She told him, worried for his safety.
"I'll be fine Clarke. You guys get here safe. I'm going radio silent until then. Good luck." Bellamy assured her.
"You too." With that, they disconnected the signal.
Bellamy looked for an exit from the area. He didn't think it's safe for him to go back the way he came. He could see a vent on the far end of the area. Having seen the vent schematics, he was sure he could find a way through it if he got inside.
On his way to the vent, he saw a gauge hidden near the tanks. Something seemed off and he went to the gauge. It was covered in dirt and Bellamy wiped it off to see the gauge display.
It showed a different reading to the monitor. The pH level is at its lowest level. While the monitor is digital, the gauge is analogue. He knew it should be showing the accurate information. He quickly went back to the monitor and re-checked the pH levels. It still showed in neutral level. Bellamy knew something was wrong.
"Raven, we've got a problem. Dammit, where are you? I don't think the acid fog is down. You need to stop." Bellamy called out over the radio. He didn't hear anything but static.
He watched as the monitor gauge reset back to the lowest level.
"Bellamy!" He heard his name mentioned over the speaker in the area. "We know you are there. We realized you were still around when someone informed of our missile strike to your friends. We have been monitoring all radio communications since then." Bellamy recognized the voice of Cage as he spoke.
"We arrested the man who gave you his key card last night. We knew of your plan since then. This gave us the perfect opportunity to destroy the army and eliminate the threat. You should give up now. You're surrounded." As he said, the door to the area opened. Bellamy hid himself behind one of the tanks. He saw armed guards come into the storage area, taking each alley towards him.
"Show yourself, hands first." The lead guard yelled out as they walked towards Bellamy.
Realizing it was pointless to stay where he was, Bellamy took off on a run criss-crossing through the tanks. He heard bullets ricochet on the tanks near him.
"Cease fire! Don't hit the tanks." The lead guard yelled at his people.
Realizing there was nowhere to go but the vents, Bellamy ran towards it. When hiding behind one of the oxygen tanks, he had a thought. He pulled out the torch he had picked up before and lit it. He flicked the trigger to a locked position to keep the torch burning and placed it next to one of the oxygen tanks. If he cannot make it out, at least he will make sure the acid fog is down and the army and his people are safe.
When he felt confident that the torch will keep burning, he ran in the opposite direction towards the vent to distract the guards.
"Follow him." The lead guard ordered. Bellamy heard footsteps closing in on him.
He pulled out the vent cover and squeezed through it and started crawling as fast as he could. He knew the explosion will be big and he wanted to get away as far as he can.
He heard some more gunshots. He realized the guards were firing now that he was away from the tanks. He didn't look behind. He kept crawling.
Suddenly, he heard the explosion before he felt it. The shockwave shook the vent and he glanced behind to see the fire coming through the vent directly at him. He crawled as fast as he could. The fire was faster and the force of the explosion and the fire pushed him through the vent outside. Luckily the vent shaft was in a descending position that he slid through instead of burning up.
But the fire singed him. He could feel the smoke in his lungs as he started coughing. The fire burned some of his hair and his skin had first degree burns. His body was wrecked in pain from the fire and the fall. He decided to pass out for a short while, because he didn't think he could move.
- 100 -
The alarms were blaring in the corridor. Everyone was running back to their quarters. The Ark council is assembled in their room.
"My fellow citizens, this is your president speaking." President Dante's voice carried over the speakers.
"I have news to share with you that will change all of our lives forever. For 97 years, Mount Weather has been our home. It's kept us alive, but it has also held us captive." He kept speaking.
"Most of us have made peace with what we've had to do to survive. We've done these things for one reason…" He paused for effect. "So that our people could someday return to the ground."
"We trusted the sky people and welcomed them into our home. We gave them sanctuary from the outsiders. And most of them have been grateful for our hospitality. However, there are some who object to our way of life. They judge us for the way we chose to survive. One of them sabotaged our security and put us in jeopardy by opening outside vents. He was captured before he could do more damage." President informed.
"Another has done more damage than we could possibly fix. He has broken our outer defence that kept the outsiders at bay. His method exposed the level we used to house our security force. It has resulted in many casualties and severely diminished our guard force. Other than those on duty, our security force has been destroyed. And without the outer defence, we can see the outsiders marching onto our home as I speak. The only thing standing between them and us is the sealed door."
Chancellor Jaha looked around the table and saw the shock and fear in the faces of the council members.
"I want everyone to prepare for the imminent attack. Take whatever security measures you need to protect you and your family. The guards and I with my son will do our best to keep you all protected from the outsiders as long as we can." And with that, he finished his announcement.
"Who would do such a reckless thing?" One of the council men asked Jaha.
"I don't know. I will ask the President when we see him. As of right now, we are going to be seen as the enemy by the people in this complex. We need to change that somehow." Jaha pointed out.
"What can we do?" Another council woman asked.
"We can offer our skills and manpower. We have people trained in weapons who can join their defence. We can offer our medical expertise to help with their injured." Jaha suggested.
"That's a great idea." The council woman who raised the question agreed. Rest of them nodded in confirmation.
"Abby, why don't you go lend a hand and see if you can help with those injured. I'll go and talk to the President about our services." Jaha addressed Abby. Abby stood without saying anything to go to the medical lab.
She reached the medical lab without any issues. Most of the security are getting ready for outside force to worry about internal security.
Abby saw the bodies of the dead securities filling the beds in the medical lab. She looked at the reports attached to the bodies.
"Are they exposed to some kind of acidity?" She asked whom she saw in another area of the lab.
"Yes. We used an acid fog as defence to keep the outsiders away. Our intruder destroyed the storage tanks that exposed our people to the acid smoke." explained.
Abby looked at the body. "Do we know the intruder?" She asked.
Lorelei hesitated before answering. "I don't know. I'm not privy to that information." She answered vaguely.
Abby became more and more suspicious of . She decided not to show any sign of her doubts and walked away. She started helping those who had limited exposure to the acid.
After hours of working with the injured people, decided to take a break. Abby took this opportunity to login into the terminal had been using.
She pulled up the past history of 's reports. Since they both worked on same patients, she had access to them all.
Everything seemed normal. The recent reports were all related to the patients who came from the acid exposure.
However, further in the history showed of experiments on bone marrow that she didn't know about. And the results were successful. Abby looked at the reports and found that both President and his son has undergone the treatment and they have been successful.
Abby was confused. As far as she knew, her experiments have all been failures. She has been trying with to find a workable solution. The only successful source of bone marrow was supposedly died from the treatment. How managed to successfully perform the transplant is confusing.
She tried to find the source of the bone marrow in the reports. But she didn't have access to it. Only information she was able to find is that, it was a difference reference number to what she saw before. Her medical knowledge told her that this meant it was from a new source.
She waited until returned from her break. When Lorelei came in, she was shocked to see Abby standing in front of the terminal.
"What are you doing Abby?" Lorelei asked, worried.
"I found your reports on the bone marrow experiments. Where did you find the source for successful transplantation?" Abby demanded to know.
"I'm not at liberty to say." said evasively.
"I have been given full authority on this. I should have clearance to know this." Abby pointed out.
didn't know what to do. And with the current tense situation at hand, she didn't think she can go to Cage for advice on what to do.
"Ok. We didn't tell you the whole truth." confessed.
"What's the truth?" Abby asked.
"The bone marrow never worked on the outsiders because they didn't have enough radiation exposure." told her.
"Then how did you succeed?" Abby was confused.
"It was by accident. When we bled one of the outsiders, we found something different in the blood. Their blood cycled the radiation quicker than anyone else. We tested and found out that their blood was able to absorb radiation quicker than the outsiders. He was one of the people you sent to the ground."
"One of the original hundred?" Abby asked in disbelief.
"Yes. He was with the outsiders and we couldn't tell him separate. We waited to find out more about him when you came up with the discovery of using bone marrow. I applied your idea to him and found that it worked." She explained.
"So that's how Maya got cured? You used one of us to cure her?" Abby asked, still in shock.
"Yes." confirmed.
"Who was it?" Abby asked. She wanted to know who it was that they bled to save themselves.
"I recently found out his name. Bellamy. He has not been forthcoming with information about himself." Lorelei told her.
"Bellamy? Bellamy Blake?" Abby asked to be sure.
"Maybe. I don't know." said. She never found out his last name.
"He was presumed dead in the attack by the grounders." Abby said thoughtfully.
"He was injured when he was brought in. Looked like one of the outsiders." explained.
"Where is he now?" Abby asked. She wanted to find him and ask him more questions about her daughter and others.
"He's the one working with Kane. He caused all these deaths and put the entire complex in danger from the outsiders. He probably escaped during the chaos." said, upset by the escape of her patient. She had bigger plans for him.
Abby didn't ask anymore. She decided to wait until she spoke with chancellor Jaha and the President.
A/N: Personal comment. Not really happy with the timeline I set here. In the series, Acid Fog got delayed because of the delinquents. In here, I had Bellamy hiding in the vent for almost a day. I have to apologize for the lack of creativity in the timeline.