a/n Thank you to the lovely folks who reviewed that last chapter! I'm pleased you enjoyed the Bellarke fluff - I'm afraid this chapter has a bit less fluff and a bit more plot. Happy reading!

Miller finds his unquestioning loyalty being questioned rather often, as the days pass, and the simmering bitterness Wonkru are feeling towards Octavia threatens to boil over. He finds it more frustrating than anything, really. This was supposed to be their happy ending, and he was supposed to get on with living a long and loving life with Eric. And some people do seem to have got the memo about that happy ending, he concedes. Bellamy is on visibly better terms with his sister, these days, and even Clarke gives a grudging smile, sometimes, when Octavia is interacting with her nephew and niece.

But, clearly, someone has forgotten to tell Wonkru that they are happy. Nate saw that graffiti, the other week, of course, and brushed aside those who asked whether it was anything to do with him. And he found himself tasked with clearing up the broken glass from that brick that some idiot lobbed through his leader's window only yesterday, and ignored those who questioned whether, perhaps, he had as much reason to hate Bloodreina as anyone.

He rather wonders what will be asked of him today.

With that less than cheery thought, he sets out towards Octavia's house, ready for another endless day of standing guard over the young woman who is, apparently, the most hated tyrant on Earth.

He is stopped, rather abruptly, by a hand over his mouth and an arm around his waist, and before he has chance to kick his attacker's feet out from under them, he is in a dark corner of the village, surrounded by eight fearsome warriors.

"What's this?" He asks, wary, eyeing up the woman who has essentially kidnapped him. He was friends with Marya, he seems to remember, back in that bunker. They had fitness scheduled for the same time.

"We need to know whether you're with us." She mutters, eyes darting to something behind his head.

He resists, carefully, the temptation to turn and follow her gaze. "With you how?"

"Taking down the tyrant, of course. Installing that young natblida in her place. Fairer working conditions, better housing. No more fighting pit."

He resists the urge to point out that the fighting pit has been long since scrapped. He suspects, based on the mood they seem to be in, that they would find a reason to object to that, too, somehow.

"I'm a loyal soldier." He states carefully.

"It's time to be loyal to your people." Marya tells him, casually rotating a knife in her fingers. "It's time to stand up for what's right."

This is madness. It is complete and utter madness. These people are not standing up for what's right, they're just disgruntled and looking for a scapegoat. And have found, conveniently, a girl they think will be their saviour.

He remembers, all too well, when Octavia was the girl they thought would be their saviour.

Madness it may be, but madness wielding a knife seems like quite a dangerous concept. And it is clear, as Marya points the tip in the general direction of his throat, that the knife will be used, if it has to be.

"He's a nice guy, that doctor of yours." She gestures towards his home with the hilt of her knife. "Would be a shame if – I don't know – his face got messed up."

Yes, that's done it.

"I'm in." He lies smoothly, attempting to adopt an expression of revolutionary fervour. "I'll do whatever you need me to do, but you leave him out of it."

…...

Echo doesn't know Nathan Miller well, of course. They have spent precious little time in the same actual location. But she lived for five years with people who think the world of him, and who were only too keen to share stories of him at every opportunity. And in those stories, he was strong, and brave, with a pretty sound moral compass. Loyal, too, and well-respected.

In none of those stories was he crouching behind a trash heap pretending not to cry.

"Miller?" She supposes Raven would probably want her to help out her old friend.

"Echo." He bolts into a standing position, arranges his features into a slightly more soldierly orientation. "Hey. What can I help you with?"

"You can tell me what you're doing here."

"Nothing. Nothing much. Just – ah – thinking."

"Thinking about the fact that someone wants your leader dead?" She takes a guess. It seems likely that this problem might be on his mind, just now.

"Yeah." He looks at her consideringly. "Yeah, they do. And – and I think they just blackmailed me into helping them. They've got something big planned, any day now from what they were saying."

Well, now. That all makes rather a lot of sense. If only he'd just started with that, she muses, rather than wasting that time trying to throw her off.

"Right. Well, then. Get yourself to Bellamy and Clarke's. I take it that Jackson was the subject of the threats? Take him, too. I'll get Raven."

"What? What are we doing?" Has he lost his mind?

"Fixing this, of course."

Without bothering to check whether he's following her instructions – after all, following orders is something he has a good track record for - she marches off in the direction of the home she shares with Raven. It's still early, so she hopes she has not missed her, hopes she has not already set out to her appointed tasks for the day.

"Raven?" She calls out as she opens the door.

"Hey." She appears in the sitting room, smile bright. "Didn't expect to see you again so soon."

"No." That smile dies at her firm tone, and Echo slightly hates herself for ruining Raven's good mood. "Sorry, but we have to go to Clarke and Bellamy's. This rebellion – I think it's reaching tipping point."

"Sure. OK." Raven grabs her jacket without question. "Let's go. You can fill me in on the way."

She does so, and they stop to fetch the rest of Spacekru, too. There can never be too many folks on their side, she thinks, in a situation like this. They discuss the question of fetching Kane and Abby, too, but decide against it. Abby is still something of a liability, Raven feels, with her addiction, and Echo has enough experience of life in a tumultuous court to know that someone who was in the pits for crimes against Wonkru only weeks ago is not the best addition to their peacekeeping force.

They arrive at Bellamy and Clarke's, and find that Miller and Jackson are already there. Based on the look on Clarke's face, as she juggles holding Gus and running this emergency meeting, Echo is pretty sure that the situation has already been explained in some detail.

"Good decision, Echo." It is, she thinks, the first compliment Wanheda has ever paid her. "From what Miller has told us, the rebels are on the verge of acting."

"Never mind that." Monty speaks up. "We need to keep Jackson and Miller safe, before we worry about anything else."

"They can move in with us." Murphy offers.

There is, for a heartbeat, complete silence, despite the urgency of the situation. And then, of course, it is Raven who breaks it.

"With you?"

"Yeah." Murphy shrugs, and it is apparent that he is feeling painfully self-conscious at this unexpectedly kind gesture. "We have loads of space, and we're both pretty handy in a fight. Between the four of us, we'll be able to keep each other safe."

Another heartbeat of complete silence.

"Thank you." It is Jackson who speaks next. "That's very kind of you, and I think it would be best if we take you up on that."

Murphy nods, once, and Emori gives a warm smile.

"That's that dealt with." Clarke is, of course, keen to move the conversation on. "But what are we doing about the bigger picture? Bellamy, do you think Octavia knows how serious this has become?"

"Yes." He states simply. "She's not stupid. And the graffiti was hard to miss."

"OK. Do you think she should be here now, as well? Do you think we should -?"

She breaks off abruptly, presumably aware that no one is listening to her, Echo thinks. They are all a bit preoccupied with listening to the fight breaking out around the cottage next door.

…...

Madi cannot remember ever being happier than she is just now. She has loving parents and an adorable brother – although she's had those for a while, of course. Those space friends of her parents' are starting to warm up to her a little, and Raven even taught her how to solder, yesterday. And best of all, she has all these new Wonkru friends. There are so many of them that it all gets a bit overwhelming, recently. Old folks who come to her fishing classes, and tell her that she must make her parents very proud. The novitiates she trains with, who noticed pretty early on that she's damn good with a sword, and made it their business to befriend her and seek her opinion on everything, from a new fighting move to their choice of hairstyle.

She's never been popular, before, and she can see how it would be easy to let this go to her head.

She makes her joyful way to the space that has been adopted as a training ground, on the edge of the clearing, her home still just about in sight. She runs through her warm up, laughs a little at one of Ethan's bad jokes.

Then she stops laughing, when she hears the screams.

She spares a moment to look to her friend, and the terror in his eyes confirms her worst fears. She is not imagining things, and the calls of no Bloodreina no more really are coming from the direction of her family home.

She drops her precious training sword in the dust, and starts running, loosely aware of Ethan at her side.

She sighs in relief when she arrives at the village and realises that it is not her home that the crowd are converging on. No, they are converging on the cottage next door, and more particularly on a small, dark-haired figure who has made it scarcely five metres from her own front door.

Her aunt Octavia.

Madi screams a little and, of course, runs straight into the fray. She is a Griffin-Blake, after all. She can make out some familiar faces now, thank goodness, her parents trying to calm things down, Miller and Murphy trying to pull people away from Octavia. She fights her way closer still, reaching out towards her aunt, yelling at anyone who will listen to get out of her way.

She doesn't stop to notice that they do.

Finally, she is there, and Octavia is crouching at her feet, over the motionless body of a Wonkru warrior who might, she thinks, be called Tomas. And her parents are there, too, telling her to stop being so reckless, and Ethan is looking at her like she might be a bit of a hero.

And somehow, it seems, the crowd has thinned around them.

…...

Octavia doesn't mind admitting that she's scared. That wasn't just a few people who turned on her this morning – no, that was several hundred people, coordinated by goodness only knows whom, converging on her home to rip her to shreds. And so it is that, for the remainder of the day, she has sat curled in her living room while her dozen last remaining faithful guards stand and protect her from the world outside.

Thank goodness for her friends and family, who came to her rescue even though she knows they owe her precious little, these days. Thank goodness for Madi, commanding enough respect for her blood that, at her bidding, that crowd somehow scattered. Thank goodness for Miller, taking a knife to the shoulder in the cause of keeping her safe.

Thank goodness for Tomas, who ended up giving his life for her.

She can't let that happen again. She mustn't. Heaven knows, she's been growing tired of leadership for a while now, has been finding that this particular crown lies increasingly heavy. But today is the final straw.

She doesn't want to be in charge here, any more.

And with that, really, the solution becomes simple. It's a straightforward plan, this plan that has sprung into her mind, but she supposes it is in some ways a bold one. And it's not one her brother is going to like. Not at all.

And as for Clarke? Well. She will hate it.

a/n Thanks for reading!