Chapter 8: Long Ago Far Away Things I Almost Remember

Bellamy's POV

The ascension ceremony was well underway. The people had been told of the development and Madi had chosen in private who she wanted in her council.

I can not quite expect why, but I felt nervous, even if it wasn't me who would be unconscious in order to have an AI installed in my head with retrievable data from "Commanders," for more than a hundred years now. I realized that I was nervous for Madi; I was nervous for the danger she'd be in always no matter if there was a council truly making the decisions or not.

She'd be the ideal target for anyone who didn't agree with a law or policy. She'd be excluded by other children her age because no matter how much of a "normal" childhood Clarke and I wanted to give her, she would never be truly "normal." What about when she fell in love or started a family of her own? Would she be fearful and believe love to be a weakness like Lexa had?

No, I couldn't let them go through with this ceremony.

She deserves peace and whatever she wishes to do with her life. Maybe she wants to follow in her mother and grandmother's footsteps and become a doctor, or maybe she is more like Raven into technology and stuff.

"Bellamy?" Madi asked beside me as my grip on her arm tightened subconsciously.

We were in what had been Octavia's room, preparing Madi for the ceremony.

"Madi looks so pretty!" Aurora said giddily from where she was kneeling on the bed.

I decided to discuss my thoughts with Madi and give her the option out, that I should have given her from the beginning.

I kneeled in front of her so I could be at her eye level, not that Madi was short or anything, in fact, she's almost Clarke's height, but still.

"Madi you can still opt-out, you know?" I said in a hushed whisper, "you don't have to do this if you don't want to sweetheart. I'll find another way to get Clarke and Octavia out, but you don't have to go through with this."

I was practically begging her to resign, "I know I don't have to Bellamy, but I want to." She smiled after that and turned around so the attendant who'd just come in could finish giving her the final preparations.

"They grow up so fast, don't they?"

I turned to look at Echo, who had just said that with a bizarre look. "How would either of us know? We've only known her for three days?"

She laughed, "I don't know it just felt like the comedic thing to say!" I began to laugh as well at her random comedic commentary.

Aurora joined in on the laughter, although I could see she didn't quite understand what Echo and I were laughing about.

"What has you guys laughing so much?" Monty asked walking with Harper and Emori.

"Oh nothing," Echo replied with a smirk. Harper looked between us and shook her head like a mother who'd just caught her child doing something silly.

"Well, I recommend you hurry those little bubble Blake buts of yours and get to the pit. According to Gaia, it has received the necessary cleansing routines or whatnot," Emori said.

Seeing Emori made me think to contact Raven and ask her when the Elysian people would be bringing her and Murphy down.

"Have any of you guys made contact with Murphy or Raven?" I asked out of curiosity.

Monty and Harper shook their heads, while Emori looked down as a wave of sadness overcame her face.

"I have tried but have not received a response although I'd chalk that up to John wanting to ignore me and make get worried."

"Aunty Harper is it true that babies are delivered by storks?" Aurora randomly asked making all of us look at her weirdly. She apparently took our faces as a negative trigger, because she soon had tears form in her eyes as she ran out of the room.

I sighed, having a five-year-old child was proving to be a bigger challenge than I'd thought. "I wonder how Clarke does it. Alright, you guys try to contact Raven and Murphy again, while I go chase my little scoundrel. Then I am going to drop Aurora off with you guys as I accompany Madi," I said speed walking away, "apparently there needs to silence in order for the ceremony to be served correctly.

Finally, after a few seconds, I began to run chasing the sound of crying until I found Aurora sitting in a corner dirtying her clothes as she looked down. I took a minute to assess the situation and thought about how much she reminded me of Octavia at that age when she would beg to go outside or when she would ask questions and I'd turn her down.

"Aurora come on, don't cry!" I said attempting to cheer her up. Instead of following my instructions, she turned her body so that I could only see her back. I kneeled down so I could be closer to her, "sweetheart come on, we didn't mean anything by our faces."

She continued to ignore me, so I decided to pick her up and carry her as I calmed her down. That was something I had done many times with Octavia, it always helped calm her down, maybe Aurora would too.

The moment she was in my arms Aurora hid her face between my neck and shoulder so I couldn't see her, but I could tell that she had stopped crying and was relaxing in my embrace. "All of us love you baby, and about your question, I think that you can ask again in a few years and your mom or I will probably share that secret with you."

I began to walk in the direction of the radio room, where Monty and Harper had headed.

Aurora's breathing evened out at some point during the walk, and I thought she'd fallen asleep until I heard her speak again, "daddy?"

I was startled, "yes sweetheart?"

Aurora pushed her head back so she could look at his face, "are you and mommy going to be together now?" She had an excited look on her face, and I couldn't help, but feel bad knowing that despite loving Clarke and wanting to raise our daughters together, I also owed Echo a lot. She'd been my rock when I was mourning, she'd nursed me back to mental stability.

No, I wouldn't do that to her.

"I am with Echo sweetie; I like her a lot. Plus, I am sure that you'll have a lot of fun with her."

Aurora's expression was crestfallen, "oh," she whispered.

"I'll always love your mom, though. Nothing will ever change that, but you know Clarke and I have been apart for a really long time and for us it is going to take some time to rediscover each other."

I hoped that was the right thing to say to the little girl, it was then that she nodded before leaning her head down to rest on my shoulder once more.

I sped walked to the radio room and before the minute passed, I was staring at the horrified faces of Monty, Harper, and Emori.

I held Aurora tighter against me. "What's wrong you guys?"

"They've been taken hostage," Harper commented taking Monty's hand into her own.

"What?" I asked in bewilderment. That couldn't be Diyoza had stricken that deal with us, she'd keep it… right?

"Diyoza's pilot, Shaw, replied via the comms when we were trying to reach Raven and Emori. He let us know that our friends are being held hostage, now that we have no leverage," Monty said staring intently at the floor.

I thought about what we'd gotten ourselves into and decided to wait until Madi's ascension, that way I could discuss the best course of action with Clarke. "Let's wait until after Madi's ceremony, once Clarke and Octavia are free, we can gather our team and discuss a solution."

My answer apparently didn't sit well with Emori, "Bellamy! They need our help right now! We don't know what they are doing to them up there. They might not have until after the ceremony."

I clenched my jaw before I spoke, "Emori, trust me they won't hurt them. They are probably forcing Abby and Jackson to help heal them using Raven and Murphy as leverage."

"They don't need to do that Bellamy!" she yelled, "all they need to do is threaten Clarke and Abby will cooperate. Abby could care less about either Murphy or Raven."

"Your wrong, Abby loves Raven like a daughter, and she will not allow anyone to move even a hair in her body."

"Then what about Murphy?" Emori asked crossing her arms beneath her breast as she breathed heavily. "Oh, I get it, he doesn't matter. Somehow he will survive right!"

"I never said that Emori, and please lower your voice, nobody else needs to be made aware of our current situation. As for Murphy…" I sighed, "Raven won't let them do anything to him, plus he's a cockroach, it'll take more than a change of plans to kill him."

I noticed then how defeated she was, she had left him behind on bad terms and would never get to reconcile if Diyoza and her people decided to hurt Murphy and Raven.

The horn announcing the commencement of the ascension ceremony rang, and I grit my teeth. "Aurora, I am going to leave you here with uncle Monty, aunt Harper, and aunt Emori, ok?"

She nodded with a small smile, "I am going to go help out Madi with this ceremony, and in the meantime how about you show your uncles a new game?"

"Ooooh Let me show you my favorite!" She exclaimed excitedly.

Harper came forward and lifted Aurora out of my arms and unto the floor, "what's it called?" I turned around with a slight chuckle when I heard her exclaim "I Spy!"

Finding Madi was not really difficult after all she was once again in Octavia's chamber practically biting her nails off at how nervous she was.

"You can still renounce, Madi."

"I want to do it," she repeated; however, she didn't stop her nervous pacing.

"Then what can I do to help you relax?" I asked sitting on the bed. She stopped moving and looked at me straight as if wondering if I was tricking her or not.

"Can you lay down on the bed with me and tell me a story…" She stopped herself from continuing and I smiled, "Clarke always said that Octavia always said how good of a storyteller you were."

I took my boots off and moved myself until my back hit the headboard, then I patted the space next to me and smiled, "It'll have to be a short story because I know Gaia is coming to get you soon."

She came and laid in the space I had just patted. She smiled at me in acknowledgment of my statement.

"All right close your eyes, and take a deep breath," I said in a calm and relaxed tone, "now imagine a time when the most revolutionary invention was ships." I could see her begin to relax and continued, "on one of these ships there was a family of adventurers. The mom was a beautiful lady with brown wavy hair, the dad wore his monocle always, and the little newborn baby boy had the brightest blue eyes."

That's how I began to tell her the story of Tarzan. A story I felt impacted her in a way no other she'd ever heard could.

I was pushing it when the story came to an end and in walked Gaia with her assistant demanding that Madi go with them.

"Nontu?" (father) Madi asked as she was taken away. I walked behind her, and she calmed.

"Ai laik hir Madi," (I am here, Madi) I responded in Tridgedasleng. We were approaching the pit fast and I noticed that the room looked very different than it had the last time he'd been in it. For one it was clean and there was a makeshift bed in the center.

"Heda ge ona!" (Heda get ton) Gaia said pointing to the bed. Madi nodded and got on. She then signaled for me to hold her hand and when I did, she whispered.

"ai hod yu in Nontu" (I love father).

"Ai hod yu in seintaim Madi," (I love you too, Madi).

"Let us begin!" Gaia said as she injected something into Madi. I tensed when my daughter's grip on my hand loosened, "it's a sedative, she will feel nothing, and once she comes to, she will be Heda Madi kom Wonkru."

I nodded and tightened my hold on Madi's hand. If all I could do for her now was hold her and pray that nothing went wrong, then that's what I am going to do.

Clarke's POV

Listening to the horn signaling the ascension of a new Heda, caused waves of apprehension to go through me. Had I done the right thing allowing Madi to go through with this despite the nagging feeling in me that argued that I should have kept her, and Aurora hidden?

"She will be alright Clarke," Octavia said weakly from where she'd been tied for the past day. "My brother might be annoying and obnoxious at times, but if anything, he is above all overprotective of those he holds dear. I am sure you remember that much."

I nodded despite the fact that Octavia couldn't see my nod. "How are you feeling?" I asked knowing that she'd been degraded and hit a couple of times since we'd been down here by guards who would come down.

"My body feels worn out and dirty. I think I have guard spit all over." She said laughing sarcastically, "but mostly fine."

I laughed at her raw, yet honest response.

"How long do you think it'll be before they come and let us out?"

"They'll probably wait until Madi names the genealogy, after all it is only then that she is truly recognized as Heda."

"I am sorry Octavia," I whispered, "I know you must think I am the most selfish person in the world, not only keeping Bellamy from the girls, but also willing to put your life at risk just so that my daughters would get to live."

"Shh Clarke, I don't hold anything against you. You did what you had to do. We may be friends, heck even family, but you are their mom, it is your duty to put them ahead of any other tie or bond. I respect that. Plus, I'd never forgiven myself if my nieces were hurt because of me."

"Thank you, for understanding," I said resting my head on the pole that I was tied to.

"Don't sweat it, Bellamy should have realized what he was insinuating before he did it. Of course, I know his option was the safest for us all, but as a father, he should have gone against his rationale and instead protected his family."

I lifted my head and turned to attempt and see her, she was hunched. "He was protecting his family Octavia. He was protecting you."

She nodded as tears began to drip onto the floor.

"Still he should never have put your daughters at risk just for me. I deserve all of these people's hatred, your girls don't. I deserve to pay for what I have done to these people; your girls are innocent, and I would like to keep them that way."

"Octavia, you don't deserve what they want to do to you. Nobody does. Yes, the last six years were tough, you had to make difficult decisions in order to secure the survival of the human race. That doesn't make you a bad person, it makes you a good leader. People just don't understand because they weren't in your shoes. They didn't have to make the tough calls. It's easy to point fingers and shift the blame when you get to live without having to carry the burden of being the leader who made the choice. Trust me nobody knows that better than me."

She shifted her head toward me with a sympathetic look, "what happened at Mount Weather was not your fault…"

"It was, and I have to live with it," I said in between heavy breaths, "however I did what I had to do in order to get my people out of there alive, and if I could go back I would do it again if it was the only way for us to get out safely. Despite that, it was my call that ended the lives of innocent bipartisan thousands, and it is my cross to bear."

"I am sorry," she whispered.

I sighed, "stop apologizing O… how about we change the topic?"

"Hey, do you remember that song that Jasper used to play in the rover every time he rode shotgun?"

I smiled, "how could I forget? What was it called again?" I asked thinking to myself.

"Wasn't it, Add it up, by violent something?" Octavia asked.

I laughed nodding, "that's right! He always said it reminded him of Maya!" I said not realizing that I'd subconsciously brought the conversation about Mount Weather up again.

"We're all seriously screwed up, aren't we?"

"Yeah… I guess we are."

We stayed silent for a few minutes, then we both gulped when we heard foreign footsteps outside of the chamber.

"Liberation has come at last!" they heard a crazed Jaha from what sounded like the room next to theirs.

"Shut up! Or I will convince the new Heda's council to keep you here to rot, old man," a grounder said with a heavy Tridgedasleng.

"Is that...?" I began but was interrupted by Octavia.

"Yes, it is, I had him incarcerated two years ago when he began a riot against me, for not opening the gate to the outside when he demanded that I did. He among many others lost their minds when things got tough here, hell I was on the verge of it too." She sounded so weighed down by this.

"You did the right thing O, you proved that he and those with power on the Ark were wrong, seeing as they didn't incarcerate, but instead floated. You were the bigger person in this situation." I smiled knowing Bellamy would be very proud of her too.

"That means a lot coming from you," she said laughing.

The same grounder who'd freed Jaha came over to us and began to untie me. "Heda say you free."

After he finished with me, he went over to where Octavia was. I helped her stand up when I noticed that the wounds that she had been inflicted with needed immediate care.

"Prepare the med bay for me," I told the grounder as I helped Octavia walk slowly.

"I am fine Clarke, go see the girls."

"O, if I don't clean your wounds soon and wrap them, they will get infested which can lead to amputations, which we don't have medicine for, or maybe lead to death, which we really can't afford either. Now stop trying to exterminate yourself and help me get you to the med bay."

"Great another babysitter!" Octavia groaned as she put some of her weight on her left leg which had an open gash that had clotted to stop the bleeding, but her pants and the grime on her had mixed in with her wound and it was looking yellowish.

"Why didn't you tell me or anyone else how bad your wounds were?"

"Because I didn't think it mattered!"

"O! Clarke!" Bellamy called from the stairs when he saw them. "I was coming to help you guys, what the hell happened to you?"

I sighed not really feeling like letting him know that the grounder's who'd put us in containment hadn't done so too happily. "We'll talk about it later, right now I need you to get her to the med bay as soon as possible," I said.

He nodded and instead of serving Octavia as a crutch like I was doing he picked her up bridal style and began running with her in the direction of the bunker's med bay.

Once I was there I took an immediate inventory of what my mom and Jackson had left that I could use on Octavia. It was then that I noticed an old looking vial of penicillin. "O have you ever had penicillin before?" I asked hoping she wasn't allergic.

"No, why? What is it?"

"It's a really strong anti-biotic, and I am honestly hoping you're not allergic because if you are we really don't have the medicine to help you with that and all I'll be able to do is hope your liver passes it with some fluids. "

Bellamy looked extremely nervous, and I realized that I had to calm him down if I wanted this to work. "Ok Bell, listen to me, I am going to clean her wounds and wrap them, then I will inject her the first doses after that take her to her room. I will be there in a couple of hours to examine her and give her the second if I don't see that she's had a negative reaction to it. Of course, sometimes anti-biotics take a while to show their reactions on our bodies…" I kept on rambling when I noticed Bellamy was no longer pacing but was instead smirking at me.

"What?" I asked stopping my rant.

"It's just I missed…" He passed a hand through his hair, "I missed you, Clarke."

I blushed at his sincerity and nodded turning around to go clean Octavia's wound.

"How are Madi and Aurora?" I asked trying to change the topic as I worked on the groaning Octavia who would only stop groaning to spit curses at me.

"Before the ceremony, Madi asked me to tell her a story, so I told her the story of Tarzan, then after she spoke the genealogies, she asked me to tell her and Aurora as they both laid still in bed. They ended up falling asleep early on, so I came to see if you guys had already been let out."

"You told them, Tarzan?" Octavia asked after another curse word left her lips.

"Well yeah," he said looking sheepishly at her.

"Watch out Clarke, you might find your daughters believing themselves as children raised by apes!" Octavia said laughing slightly before she groaned.

"Be careful when you laugh O, or you're going to reopen your wounds!" Bellamy told her coming beside her.

"Oh, great overprotective Bellamy and Mama Bear Clarke are back at it again. I feel like Tangled wondering When will my life begiiiiinnn," she screeched way off tune.

We all laughed.

Raven's POV

"Shaw," I whispered as he came into the darkroom where we were being kept. He acted at first like he couldn't hear us. "Please I know you're not a criminal like them."

"So what?" He muttered.

"Help us get out of here, help us contact our friends anything will be better than being here continuously just waiting for something to happen on its own."

I could see him clench his jaw slightly by his shadow. "I can't help you." He turned around to leave when I called out again.

"Please Shaw, these people murdered your crew, your family, at least let us know what they are planning to do to our friends?" I was practically begging at this point.

I heard him sigh as Murphy snored beside me, yes the idiot was sleeping at a time like this.

"Tomorrow I'll try to sneak a radio comm to you when I bring you food, as for Diyoza's plan… I don't know much. All I know is that she tricked your friends and wants to steal the Eden for herself and her crew. At least for now. By the way, I let your friends know you were safe and why you hadn't made contact today. I think they are preparing themselves to somehow save you guys. Although I have no idea how." He didn't wait for me to respond again before he walked out the door behind him closing and once again locking.

"Well at least tomorrow we'll have a radio," Murphy muttered.

Turns out he was only fake sleeping. The idiot.

"Yeah, in the meantime, how about you put your cockroach skills to some use and find a way to get rid of these binds."

He started laughing, "way ahead of you nerd," he then pulled his arms from behind him completely free.

"What? How? Since When?" I asked one after the other to which he just responding laughing harder. Damn you, Murphy."

"Oh I am so hurt, I guess since those are your thoughts on me then maybe I shouldn't help you get out of those binds." He asked pointing to my hands behind my back that were still tightly tied.

"Shouldn't you free your feet first?" I asked pointing down with a look.

"Nope, because I don't want to get caught. I'll untie those when we're leaving in the meantime," he took out a swiss army knife he had hidden inside his jacket's right arm, "let's free your hands."

A/N

Hey everybody, I know I updated yesterday so probably thought you weren't going to get this chapter for a while, but seeing as how today episode 13 of season 7 airs I decided to speed up the writing process to get this out before then.

I am a little sad that episode 13 comes out today you guys like it just means we're actually closer to the finale, and I don't want it to happen. But oh well we get to keep the characters alive via fanfiction so….

I hope everyone liked this chapter, I feel like it was a lot giddier and happier than the first few were, but hey our guys need some fun in their lives too.

As for those who are pleading that I end Echo and Bellamy's relationship in time, my friends, in time. There's a plan there trust me.

Thank you all who reviewed, followed, and favorited.

Stay safe and hope to hear from all of you what you thought of both the chapter and tonight's episode. Till next time!

Emily 1050