The sleeping village would wake soon. The sky lightened from spotted black to the color of faded bruises and would soon resemble skin right after a hard slap. When the sky turned powder blue, Clarke would have to return to the life that chafed like ill-fitting shoes. The edges of the window were white with frost, while inside no chill touched her. Unable to look away from the stillness, she took inventory of her delightful wounds. The tingle of phantom touches ran through her like electricity, but she couldn't deny the tinge of sadness nagging its way to center stage. Anya. Fucking Murphy and Bellamy last night had been incredibly fun, but she loved, was in love with Anya. Being in love and involved with her was problematic for all concerned at best though. Clarke didn't know if...
"You need to give her up, Clarke." Murphy's voice speaking her internal angst. "And I'm not saying that because I'm jealous. I don't give a shit who you fall in love with or pound. But if Indra finds out, or anyone in the village… it'll undermine the entire chain of command. The best case scenario is you'd get banished and I don't think we have any idea what the worst could be."
Running her finger down the window and leaving a trail, Clarke sighed and then closed her eyes. "I don't want anyone to get hurt, but there's no way around that, is there?"
Murphy touched the most livid bite mark on her neck, a gentle caress. "No."
With an inhale, Clarke's eyes found Murphy's. "I have to get to work. Most of the dead are children. If I start now, I can save the parents from the worst."
"I'll help with that." He glanced at Bellamy, sprawled across the mat, snoring. "Let's leave him here. He's dealt with enough death lately."
"Oh yeah, he's been teaming up with Lincoln on the tunnel runs. I almost forgot."
"He won't admit it, but it's been rough on him."
They got dressed, careful to wear scarves and fingerless gloves to cover the worst of the evidence from last night.
"You do know your lips are swollen and bruised, right?" Murphy asked as he stepped out their door, her hand on the small of his back.
"So are yours. Which means everyone will know what happened last night whether we like it or not."
"How's your bunny going to take that?"
"I don't know."
Clarke and Murphy washed the bodies and bandaged the wounds. None of the dead had head wounds, a small boon leaving their faces intact.
The two of them worked together like they'd never had any falling out and managed to finish before the families came to wrap their dead loved ones for the pyre.
Murphy rubbed Clarke's back as they watched people cry and grieve over the six dead children and one mother who'd tried to shield her child. His mind wasn't there though. Instead he relived watching his father sucked out into space. He remember how it felt like space had been trying to suck him out too. And Murphy couldn't remember whether he cried then or not.
He assumed that Clarke was having similar issues, remembering her father getting floated. And he was sure she did cry.
Throughout all the funeral proceedings, it became obvious that the Sky Kids didn't exist anymore. The only people here were Trigedakru. Raven had been standing by herself until Moma wrapped her maternal arms around her, absorbing the former zero-g mechanic into the clan. Monty and Jasper mourned with the family who adopted them. Fox ran her fingers through the hair of the most devastated child, trying to comfort him. Harper and Tristan hugged each other, while Anya, Octavia and Lincoln were Indra's silent support for the loss of her baby sister. Bellamy stood next to Murphy, Clarke, Nyko, Tris, Echo, and Gustus as the flames faded into the overcast sky.
Long after the fire got smothered, Anya paced in the hall. If the fisa house had patients, then she'd meet Clarke here. Her head popped up when the door opened, eyes narrowing when Clarke closed the door. Before Clarke could say anything, Anya punched her across the existing deep bruises on Clarke's face.
"Go ahead and beat the hell out of me. I deserve it."
"I just want to know why." Anya's stern demand didn't hide her vulnerability from Clarke.
With tears and a cracked voice, Clarke replied, "I was happy. So happy with you. And Murphy was waiting for me. I needed to share that happiness before I had to give it up. We've known from the beginning that this couldn't last. And when I saw Murphy sitting on the stoop, I knew he knew, and if he figured it out then it wouldn't be long before others did too. And I knew it'd be easier for you to end things if you hated me."
Anya turned away and leaned against one of the tables. "I could never hate you, Clarke. Now get out. I can't see you."
When the door clicked shut, Anya let herself fall to the floor as she refused the tears demanding to form. To force them back, she punched the concrete floor until her knuckles bled.
Octavia and Bellamy marched side by side in front of their army, and no sooner had they stepped inside the Veil's range, yellow mist approached. Other than some murmurs through the ranks, it changed nothing. They marched forward, fading from view, but unharmed as they crunched across the icy terrain.
Octavia's bright laughter made Bell smile. "Looks like Monty and Fox came through for us."
"I'll say! The Mount's never gonna know what hit them." Anyone that hadn't watched her progress over the last few months would've thought Octavia an easy target. But Bellamy knew that she'd earned her place as Anya's second. While her free spirit hadn't been crushed, that spirit could just as easily turn an enemy to ash.
Lincoln even laughed deep and low at her gumption. "Your sister's out for blood."
"Jus drein jus daun, right?"
"I suppose so."
They spent the rest of the advance in silence. When the fog dissipated, it became obvious the enemy figured out it was a waste of resources. Less than five minutes later, the army arrived and they didn't have to wait long before the signal to attack. Several explosions from different directions left the Mount crippled, and radiation would soon seep into every crevice.
The door before them had a lot of rust issues but with blows to just the right spots, it buckled, allowing Octavia and her team entrance. Using maps made by Fox, they found the armory. Shots blanketed the hall, and the enemy shouted victory only to find they'd been overconfident when not a single grounder went down. Instead, their flashlights caught yellow reflections through the holes in the grounders' clothes. Hand-to-hand combat with the Mountain Men turned out to be laughable, and the few Ark Guards didn't stand a chance either.
Bellamy grabbed a flashlight to assess the damage. Not only were there thousands of guns and boxes of ammunition and grenades, but more barrels of gunpowder than he could count. Finally the light landed on his sister holding someone on their knees in front of her, her knife at his throat. Kane didn't bother fighting back.
"You floated my mother and locked me up. I owe you death." Octavia's seething hatred radiated until she sliced his neck so deep Bellamy saw the man's spine. Without missing a beat, O ordered her troops. "Next target!"
As they began to leave, Bellamy saw a surviving Guard pull the pin of a grenade. The grenade near this much gunpowder propelled Bellamy to throw himself on the device a split second before it exploded.
Indra led her company up to the third level, stepping over dead radiation victims, searching for their targets. They'd be heavily guarded, but Fox indicated that the guards would be easily overpowered. When she found the right door, she gave the signal for Murphy and Fox to attack.
Children screamed and in an attempt to calm them down, Fox removed her helmet. The relief on the faces of the children turned to horror as a bullet entered the back of Fox's skull and took her face off. Murphy grabbed the gunman responsible and stabbed him in the spine, leaving him alive but a quadriplegic. He bent down and hissed in the man's face. "That's for Skeet."
Twenty minutes later, the surviving children and grounders stared at each other. The oldest girl tried to look brave while trembling. "Fox said that if anything happened to her, we should find Clarke. Are any of you Clarke?"
Holding out a hand, Indra said, "No. But we can take you to her. She's waiting for you outside."
Walking down the hall toward the stairwell, the group halted when the floor shook. Murphy, who'd taken lead, disappeared when the ceiling collapsed.
The first wave of wounded had already been treated for wounds that found kinks in their armor when Clarke saw Anya pulling Abby down the hill by a length of rope. She met Anya's gaze and they smiled at each other, but then Anya screamed and fell forward. Abby stood over her, wrists bound but holding a knife dripping with blood. Not a second of hesitation before Clarke threw her spiked chakram, splitting Abby's face in half. Ignoring her dead mother, Clarke ran toward Anya gasping the hysteria back.