Nova's Point of View

We had been walking in the desert for nearly an entire day and night, wrestling between the blistering heat of the day and the near freezing temperatures at night. John had stuck by my side the entire journey through this desert, the last meal we had was the horse I had rode here on when the climate changes had caused its heart to fade.

"You'll never be allowed back with your people now." John said from beside me as I turned my attention to him, "That's fine. I had made an oath to you to keep you safe." I told him.

"Yea, I got that message when your lips where on mine and all." He said as I nudged him in the ribs causing him to cough out in a small amount of pain.

"It'd sure be nice to have some sign that we're not just marching to our own deaths." One of the few remaining people in the group had spoken; when I had first arrived there had been many of them. Few had turned around and went to walk back to their camp however there were six of them left not including myself.

"We're not." The leader had spoken, as he turned to look at me with a smirk.

He looked at me like I was some sort of gift to him; delivered to him as an offering of some sort and it only angered me, filled me with rage. I was done being a puppet for the 'bigger cause' no longer would my choices be determined by another.

"Thanks." John's voice softly said as I had noticed he was now closer to me.

"For what?" I asked him, "Giving me someone to talk to on this amazing journey to death." He grinned.

"I have never made this journey before but there is a reason they say no one has." I told him softly.

"What do you mean?" He asked, "Well they either die on the way there or, die on the return trip back to their clans."

John had opened his mouth to say something to me when one of the men in this group had cut him off, "Hey, tell me if you know this one… eh grounder?" The man remarked to me as I spat at him.

"Ignore him, we all do." John told me quietly. "He's telling a joke?" I asked.

"Apparently."

"So, a grounder and a reaper walk into a bar, the bartender looks to the grounder, he says, 'We don't serve your kind around here.' The reaper gets up and leaves." The man said as he began to laugh and howl at his own joke.

"I don't get it, what is a bar?" I asked John as he chuckled. "A place to drink alcohol, bartender serves it." He explained as I nodded. "I suppose that makes sense." I sighed.

"Get it? Reapers eat grounders." He added.

"And grounders kill Sky People… get it?" I mocked him as he rolled his eyes, "Spoil sport, you sure know how to pick 'em eh Murphy?" He called.

"I will take Jaha's staff and beat you to death with it, if you make another comment towards her." John threatened.

"Feisty." The man chuckled, "John." The leader warned.

"Or this one, it's good." The joker continued. "An Arker, a Grounder and a Mountain Man walk into a bar."

I couldn't understand where this man was getting his stories from, he didn't know any of my people personally, or Reapers for that matter. So how would he even know what they would do in these situations? I was positive any other clan besides mine, probably including mine would kill their people on sight for thinking they could stand among us as we drank.

"Arker says, 'I'll take some moonshine,' Grounder says 'I'll take some, too.' The mountain man, he says—" The man quickly was cut off by the a blast that had pushed us all down, John over top of me as he continued to shield me as he himself began to look around the area.

"What happened? Where did the funny man go?" I joked quietly.

"Apparently someone saw fit that his jokes where anything but funny."

"I want to know what the Mountain Man had to say…" I sighed as John shook his head smiling, "You are far too much." He smirked.

The smoke around us had finally begun to settle making the blood sprawled across his face much more visible to me. I knew what had supplied the blood almost instantly. The cause for the explosion even more so; it was one of the many things we had been warned about when it came to this place.

The elders and even survivors of the return had told us the ground would explode taking a life along with it. This is was exactly what they had for told us about, the exploding ground. "John we have to be careful…" I told him as he moved himself off of me looking around him for any sight of the rest of the small group.

Sitting myself up along side John I watched as a boot feel from the sky landing on the ground next to a thick cloud of white smoke. John looked over at me fear gripping his eyes as he pulled me closer to him incase of another attack. "Nova stay close." He ordered me.

I heard a woman's scream as both John and I averted our eyes over to where she was as we both saw her starting to back up before she too exploded into a cloud of smoke, which had flung me backwards into the dirt along with everyone else.

I had never felt so dizzy or groggy before, this was not something I was at all happy about going through. "John?" I questioned feeling around the dirt for him as I felt two arms wrap around my waist pulling me back towards him so I was sitting in his lap, his arms wrapped around me. The ringing in my ears nearly unbearable as I covered them with my hands, maybe Indra was right I was chasing a fools errand trying to protect and keep him safe. I could barely keep myself safe.

"No one move!" The leader shouted to everyone. "We're in the middle of a minefield." He continued to add.

"What's a minefield?" I asked John once the ringing in my ears had ceased. "Explosives, anyone else want a sign?" John called out to the remaining members of the group, pulling me even closer.

Once the sand storm had approached we had all bundled up with our heads down waiting for it to die down so that we could continue our journey towards the City of Light. "Nova are you ok?" I barely heard John's voice ask me.

"I'm fine." I shouted back to him as the sand continued to scratch at my skin whisking around me scraping up my skin. "It's clearing." Someone yelled over the wind as I slowly raised my head to look around me as the wind and sand soon began to die down.

Lifting my head up I noticed the sun had started to shine in the sky showing the body parts from the dead lightly covered in sand now. I noticed a hand was out stretched in my face causing me to look up to see that John had already stood up and was offering to help me up.

"Thanks." I said to him softly as he smiled back at me. "There." He then pointed out towards the light.

"We have the light and, oh, look. Footprints are gone. Sand, it blows." John said sarcastically allowing a soft smirk to linger on my lips.

"Do you see that?" The leader Jaha had asked us all looking forwards at the bright waving lights beyond the sand dune in front of us.

"The City of Light?" I questioned still unsure that the city would even be this close to the Clans considering the stories told this journey to be a long one full of trials and death.

"So Emori was telling the truth." John said, "Which would be a first for her." I added as he turned to me. "She was known to be a liar and a thief amongst other things…" I explained to him.

"We are so close. You wanted a sign? There it is." Jaha shouted over his shoulder. "We have to push forward."

"What about the mines?" John asked him as he pulled me closer to him.

"We were meant to be here, John. Like Nova was meant to follow us, these are all signs." He started. "These mines, They're just another test of our faith."

"Yea, well, I was always crap at tests, so… please after you, Chancellor." John told him with a smirk, as he squeezed me. "See you're a sign Nova." He told me as I shook my head.

"A sign of what?" I questioned.

"Of our faith being rewarded." Jaha answered me.

Bellamy's Point of View

I had been walking around the access rooms all over the place trying to get into the room that held the Acid Fog, the same Fog that had killed one of my closest friends. Atom. I hadn't forgotten any of them, Charlotte, Pascal, Trina, Mbege, Diggs, Roma, Drew, Myles, Sterling, Connor, Finn, even Wells. There where so many of them that had died, died because of this war.

Died because we landed on here and I wasn't about to let anymore of our people die because of this stupid Mountain and it's advanced warfare. If they hadn't been tormenting the grounders than maybe when we got here they wouldn't have been trying so hard to kill us the whole time. They had just seen us as Mountain Men pets, which reminded me of Nova. She had been their pet, for what reason or purpose was still beyond me.

Had they hoped that in 'taming' her that they could eventually tame all of them? Unlikely considering how vile and ruthless they where, did they really think once she was freed she would return to her people singing their praise? Had they really thought that once they where outside they would be safe? The grounders would just try even more to kill them. This war was going to be the end of everyone in this Mountain, I hated to admit it that even those children, Maya and her father. None of them would be safe the moment the grounders got inside this mountain.

After attempting the third door with the key card reading saying I had no access, I let out a heavy sigh in frustration. "Bellamy. Come in." I heard Raven's irritating voice peep through my ears. Not that she was irritating; I was just completely irritated and had an unreal amount of stress weighing on my shoulders. "Bellamy. Come in." She announced again.

"Yea," I snapped. "I'm a little busy here, Raven."

"Woah, You just missed check-in." She told me. "Yea and you still haven't told me if Rayne and Octavia are safe." I snapped again.

Since the missiles had been launched Raven had been very sparse with her information on what had happened there. All I was told was that many lives where lost almost three hundred Grounders and our own people, Marcus was injured and on his way back to the camp with Abby. That was it, I knew she knew more and was just refusing to tell me to keep me on track, she knew how important the two where too me withholding something like that was only pissing me off… not keeping me on track.

"Did you find the source of the Acid fog yet?" She asked avoiding the topic all together, letting out a deep breath of air I sighed. "I'm making my way there now. It's taking longer than I thought." I explained.

"I don't know enough to crack it on this end. You gotta give me something." She said. "Sure are asking for a lot without giving anything back." I told her.

"Bellamy, when I know something you will know." She told me.

"I'm working on it." I told her as I tried yet another door only to be met with the same exact error noise as I had been getting before, someone had deactivated the card. Which could only mean they noticed Lovejoy was gone, or the man didn't have access to this room.

"Something's wrong." I told her, "What do you mean?"

"My key card isn't working anymore."

"Well…shit that's not good." I heard her say softly.

"I'll need to find another way in. I'll radio back when I find it." I told her as she agreed with me.

I stood there for a moment trying to remember any of the air duct tunnels trying to think of which route best lead me to where I needed to go. It was so hard to process any thoughts with Rayne and Octavia's lives on my mind, where they alive, safe, where were they?

"Stay right there! Hands in the air!" A loud voice ripped me from my thoughts, slowly turning my head to look towards where the voices where coming from I noticed two guards standing outside the door I had just tried to get into. Which meant they where tracking Lovejoy's keycard's attempts. Great.

I quickly made a dash for the stairs next to me running up them paying no mind to the guards or their guns. They had radioed in that they where going after me, I guess in case anyone was near the direction where were running towards. "He's not Lovejoy, repeat, He's not Lovejoy." I had heard him say.

So they had realized the man was dead, probably because he stopped going home and showing up for work yet his keycard was in use. Which made sense I don't know why I would have thought they where stupid enough to not notice that.

I had continued to climb the stairs upwards as fast as I could to keep a good chunk of space between them and I, getting caught was probably one of the last things I had wanted to have happen. I get caught the army of grounders outside die, Rayne and Octavia would be captured and tested on like I only assumed all of our people would. These people needed to be exterminated like the bugs they were.

I continued to run till I had rounded a corner and began my decent down the many new flights of stairs I had come across hoping that the guards wouldn't follow me. I instantly began my search for cover, or a way out of this god-forsaken area hoping they would leave before I would be caught.

"Checking in. We're heading down to the base level." I hear one of the guards say into his mic. So much for catching my breath, I could have only hoped so much for such luck.

Looking up I watched as the guard was making his way down towards me with his gun drawn and aimed out front before him. I suppose that meant they weren't planning on taking me to their boss alive, and if they where clearly I was supposed to be intensely injured or near death. They wouldn't nearly be as lucky; I would let myself die before I would let them take me. Taking me only meant they would get to the others sooner, I wouldn't have it.

"You're surrounded! There's no way out!" He yelled down to me, which caused me to think he was alone; I only heard one set of footsteps and only saw the two guards when I was on my way here. There was no way they had me surrounded.

I ran as far from the steps as I could towards two new sets of stairs finally able to catch my breath when I heard another man talking. "Keep your eyes open." I couldn't help but roll my eyes at the luck I was being greeted with. This place was full of nothing but horrible luck, it baffled me none of the kids wanted to leave with Clarke when she tried to get out the first time.

"Garza, do you see him?" I heard a man call out, I began to look to my left and right trying to gauge where the voice was coming from. However beyond the whistling and alarms going off in here, their voices just bounced off the walls. They could literally be anywhere and I would have been none the wiser.

I listened for footsteps when I finally noticed they where coming closer to me, once I saw the barrel of the gun peak beyond the corner I grabbed it punching the man directly in the face. Over and over again till he had dropped the gun and stumbled backwards to where he had sat down on the stairs behind him. Giving him once last punch to the temple the man was out cold, quickly I began to search his pockets looking for his keycard to get me out of this death trap. I had to get back to Maya's father in hopes he had a better way to get out of here and into the acid fog's containment room.

Once I had found it I picked up his gun and ammo shoving it all into my own pockets before moving backwards looking around for a means of escape from here. "Garza, what's your status?" The other man had asked through the radio. "Garza?"

"Garza. Do you see him?" The man asked again as I looked back where both the man and I had ran from seeing if the other man was on his way here. Once I noticed the coast was clear I turned around heading towards the level 4 door which was behind me using Garza's keycard to help me get out.

Dodging all the cameras I could I had made my way back to Maya's home knocking on the door rapidly as I waited for someone to open the door. Once I saw her father's face as he opened the door looking at me, "Vincent, I need your help." I told him quietly as he ushered me into the room.

"It's all over the radio. They know about you. Did anyone see you come here?" He asked me.

"No, of course not. I've been keeping to the vents and unmonitored halls like you said." I explained to him.

"Vincent." I heard a mans voice call from behind me as I spun around to see who the voice belonged to, once I had seen that I was a guard I whipped out my gun aiming it at the man.

Vincent put his hand to my chest trying to usher me to put the gun down as the man was trying to convince me of the same thing. "It's ok." Vincent was trying to convince me. "Lee's one of us."

"Dante was like a father to me." Lee attempted to convince me. "Some of us don't agree with Cage's agenda."

"Where's Jasper, Monty, and Maya?" I asked.

"They're ok." Vincent told me. "Thanks to Lee, we moved them to a wing that's already been searched. "We had no choice. They've gone public with what happened on level 5. They're saying you killed 10 soldiers. I don't know how much longer we can keep this shell game going." He explained.

"Did you take out the Acid fog yet?" He asked me.

"No… no. That's why I'm here. I'm gonna need another route." He told me.

"Way ahead of you." Vincent told me as he walked towards a table "You can get there through the retrofit zones." He had pulled out a map putting it onto the table as we moved things aside for him. "They're off limits. No camera, no patrols. We used some to move the kids, and that's your other route. You're also gonna need this." He said handing me a small blowtorch.

"It's an acetylene torch." He explained. "Go to the northwest corridor." He has started to explain to me. I just hoped this was going to turn out the way that I had hoped it was going to turn out.