AN: Welcome to all my new followers, you guys are amazing! Glad that you all seemed to enjoy the last chapter, hope CH8 holds up to expectations! Feel free to leave comments and reviews, thank you to all that have in the past. Without further ado, enjoy! RJL

CHAPTER EIGHT

This is the sound of one voice
One spirit, one voice, the sound of one who makes a choice
This is the sound of voices two
The sound of me singing with you, helping each other to make it through
This is the sound of voices three
Singing together in harmony, surrendering to the mystery
This is the sound of all of us
Singing with love and the will to trust, leave the rest behind it will turn to dust

One Voice – The Wailin' Jennys

BEFORE

Nora stood in front of their front door, arms hanging lifelessly at her side. Her hair had come loose from its tight bun and her hip felt light without the weight of her badge and baton. She hung her head and rested it against the door for a moment, trying to gather herself before she went in. She wondered if her parents were asleep or if someone had already informed them about the arrest of Aurora Blake.

Finding an illegal second child was rare on the Ark, Nora couldn't remember the last one before Octavia. She knew that her father would be informed since his approval, along with the rest of the council's, would be required to approve Aurora's execution. There was little chance that the council would vote to spare her and in most cases the vote was approved within 24 hours. By the same time tomorrow evening, Aurora Blake would be dead.

A tremor shook through her body as Nora tried to steady herself and pushed away from the door, shaking her head. She needed a way to fix things and crying certainly wasn't the answer. She knew what needed to be done. Pulling out her ID, she swept it through the reader and let herself quietly into her family's quarters, wincing as the click of the door closing echoed through the small room.

Hearing only a resound silence behind her, she let out a sigh of relief and turned around. She stilled instantly when she saw her father sitting at the dining table, her data-pad laying in front of him. Her stomach dropped as she saw the files that he had been looking through and knew that hope was lost.

"How long have you known?" He asked, pushing the pad away from him with a furious glare. She fidgeted in front of the door, head tilting in shame towards the floor. "Answer me!"

"Three years," Nora replied quietly, refusing to meet her father's intense gaze.

She was overwhelmed with guilt as her cheeks flushed and she tried not to think of Aurora awaiting her death in a windowless cell. Octavia, locked away until her eighteenth birthday when she would almost surely join her mother in the afterlife. Bellamy, alone and abandoned, never able to deal with the loss of his family, would never forgive her or speak to her again. She had to do something, had to save them. She couldn't lose them.

"You stupid girl," her father muttered, shaking his head in sorrow as he let out a breath and leaned back in his chair. "Don't you understand what you've gotten yourself involved in? What you've involved me in?"

"I figured it out," she admitted, slowly moving to take a seat at the table, feeling herself become more defeated with each passing moment. She eyed the data-pad and frowned, shaking her head. "Too nosey for my own good, I guess."

"Damn right," Cole replied, anger etched clearly on his wrinkled face. "You should have come to me the minute you found out. I could have dealt with this."

"What, by floating Ms. Blake three years ago instead of tomorrow?" Nora asked, looking at her father with hatred as her self-loathing was replaced with anger. "You aren't going to try and say that you're going to oppose her execution, are you?"

"Of course not," he replied truthfully, making Nora glare at him. "She broke the law, she knew what the punishment would be when she chose to have a second child. But if you had informed me, we could have dealt with this quietly – internally," he said with a pointed stare. "I personally recommended him for the Guard, don't you think they won't question my involvement now?"

"You're just worried that your approval rating will drop," Nora muttered, shaking her head as she looked away in anger. "You don't even care that two people are going to die because one of them decided to give life to the other. I thought you wanted to help people, not let them be murdered because of archaic laws. You're supposed to be better!"

"Those 'archaic' laws you talk about are the only things keeping everyone alive," her father reminded her heatedly with a scoff. "What do you think would happen if people started having as many children as they wanted? Where would they live? How would we feed a thousand more mouths? How do we increase medical production in order to keep them all immunized and healthy? We can't, Nora, we've done the math. The Ark can't sustain that many people."

She knew that what her father said was true, she'd seen the documents herself, but it didn't help quell her anger with him. She knew that the math was sound, that the Ark couldn't realistically support over three thousand souls before the stress was too much on the oxygen regulators. She knew why families were only allowed one child, but it just wasn't fair. They didn't ask for this, to live their lives trapped in a metal cage orbiting their true home. Living on the Ark was a curse, one that their ancestors didn't know they were placing on their future children when they fled to the sky.

"I know that it isn't fair, but there can be no exceptions," her father said quietly, most of his anger dissipating as he saw the defeated hunch of his daughter's shoulders. "I know that you care for them, Peanut. But you can't do anything to fix this," he said gently. He picked up the data-pad and scrolled the file through once more before sliding it down the table to her. She looked at the file he'd been looking at and tried to keep herself from crying, knowing that he was right. "You need to delete it, Nora. They'll float you if you don't."

It had taken nearly a year to collect the file together, to piece together a plausible enough history that would prove that Octavia Blake was a legitimate child. Born Octavia Wood, her parents were Jackson and Stella Wood, both of whom were deceased. They were residents of Factory Station who fell ill during the Strep Epidemic of '35 and left their three year old daughter in the hands of family friend, Aurora Blake. A complete medical history, education transcripts, and other small details made up a real-enough life that someone would believe that Octavia was a legal Ark citizen.

Almost every person named in the file besides Octavia and Aurora were dead and anyone that wasn't was someone who wouldn't likely remember a small detail from sixteen years previous. Nora had searched the data-bases, forming a trail through all of them, making Octavia a part of each, trying to give life to a ghost. It wasn't complete yet and Nora had been hoping to have another couple years before imparting the file to Octavia on her eighteenth birthday. It was the only way to give her a chance at something more than living beneath the floor her whole life.

"I can't just let them die," Nora whispered, a tear falling to land on the data-pad's screen. She looked at her father desperately, pleading him for help. She couldn't give up. There had to be a way to save them. "I have to at least try!"

"Your plan may have stood a chance if Aurora Blake hadn't already confessed," Cole said quietly, pushing his chair back to stand up. He came around the table and put a hand on her shaking shoulder, brushing a comforting hand through her hair as she started to sob. "I got the memo ten minutes ago. I'm sorry, Peanut."

Her heart burst as she pictured Aurora's kind, loving face as it flew out of the air lock, a small look of surprise in her eyes as she was pulled away. She felt sick as she thought of Bellamy, broken and alone, and Octavia, finally free from her prison beneath the floor only to be locked in a cage. She would never enjoy Aurora's cooking again, never laugh with her, and never enjoy the comfort of her hug again. Bellamy would lose his family, lose the people most precious to him, and there was nothing she could do to stop it.

She was useless, worthless, and pathetic. It was her own mother all over again, able to do nothing as she watched the people she loved suffer and wither away. Slowly the world took everything from her and she did nothing to stop it, sitting idly by as she spoke of changing Ark for the better. What a joke, she couldn't help anyone, not even herself, who was she to think she could change anything. She was spineless, weak.

"What made you want to join the Guard?"

"The Ark is my home, and I want to be able to protect it and help it flourish, even if that means protecting it from itself."

Her hands clenched as her father continued to talk, telling her that everything would be all right. Justice would be served. This was for the greater good. Her sadness faded against the anger she could feel returning. She couldn't keep letting people die, couldn't let those she cared about be taken from her. The people needed to have their voices heard, needed to be protected, guided. Things had to change, the Ark needed to change.

She pushed her father away and ignored him, heading for the small bathroom. She closed the door behind her and stripped off her uniform, tossing it in the corner. Taking a deep breath, she turned on the water and stepped into the cold water. It washed over her, taking away her sweat and tears and soothing her aching muscles. Closing her eyes, she rested against the shower's wall and started planning. Crying wouldn't solve anything and it definitely wouldn't save anyone.

AFTER

"Dad!"

Nora yelled as she fumbled across the debris, pushing herself to search among the wreckage for her father. Around her people screamed, children cried out for their parents, and medical personnel worked to help the injured. She ignored them all as she pushed away pieces of the Ark, gasping when she found him crushed beneath a support beam. Her hands trembled as she pressed two fingers to his neck and held back a cry when she couldn't find a pulse. His eyes were closed, a small trickle of blood running down his forehead. She felt the world sway around her as she stood up and took a step back, shaking her head.

Not again.

"Bishop!"

She turned at the voice, not having the strength to salute Councilman Kane as he hurried towards her. He nodded to her, glancing to where she had been staring moments before. His face fell at the sight of her father and he patted a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"I'm sorry for your loss, Inspector," he said quietly, hand tightening on her shoulder for a moment before releasing his hold. He motioned over two guard members, motioning to the body of Cole Bishop. "See that he's cared for," he ordered. The two cadets nodded and saluted before moving around Kane and Nora, starting to remove the debris around her father. "Come with me, Bishop," he ordered, moving swiftly to another part of the lobby where a group of Guard members was forming.

She glanced once more at her father, watching as the two cadets worked carefully to free his body from beneath the beam. She remembered him picking her up as a child, sending her flying through the air only to catch her before she hit the ground. It would make her mother furious, thinking that Cole would drop their toddler, but Nora had loved it. She felt like she was flying, weightless and free, and she never doubted that her father would safely catch her. She trusted him to keep her safe. He had never dropped her.

Take care of mom, she thought, sending a prayer for her father's safe travels. May we meet again. Taking a deep breath, she set her shoulders and followed after her commanding officer, pushing her emotions aside. The explosion was no accident, she was sure of it, and something bigger was going on. She needed to focus on the task at hand, needed to remember that the Exodus ship would be leaving in less than sixty hours. Bellamy. Octavia. They were all that she had left now and they were all that mattered.

Major Bryne gave her a brief once over before clapping her on the back, surprising Nora. "You all right, Bishop?"

Letting out a small cough and winced as a shock ran through her sore chest and shoulder, she nodded. "Yes, ma'am."

She didn't feel 'all right' at all but knew that now was no time to become distracted. The explosion was most likely the beginning of a mutiny, a distraction to keep the Guard busy while whoever was responsible was able to move on with their coupe. She had no idea who was responsible, but she wasn't surprised that there was unrest among the Ark citizens. Their attack on the Unity Day festivities had killed the entire council save for Kane and Jaha, leaving the government vulnerable to a hostile take-over.

"Good," Bryne said with a nod, turning to face Kane as he began to divvy up assignments between the members. "I'm going to need you in top form, you understand?"

"I understand," Nora replied without hesitation, knowing that all hands would be needed on deck in the coming days. She felt herself becoming paranoid as she looked around her, wondering if any of them were involved in the explosion.

"Someone find Diana Sydney," Kane ordered, eyes searching through the remaining members to land on Major Bryne. She stood to attention and nodded, saluting to him before wordlessly before taking her leave. Nora didn't wait to follow her, falling into step with the taller blond as they exited the lobby, leaving behind the cries of the wounded.

The memory of Sydney excusing herself from the pageant only moments before the explosion didn't sit well with Nora. She never would have thought that Diana would capable of such a terrorist act, but in the past weeks she had been constantly surprised by the actions of people she thought she knew. She was tired of being left in the dark. She wanted answers.

"Mind if I join you, Major?"

"Not at all, Inspector. Let us find some answers, yes?"

"I'm sure everything's fine," Clarke said, surprising him as she came up behind him. He ignored her and smacked the monitor once more, twisting the antennas on top while looking at the sky, trying to determine where the Ark was flying overhead. Clarke let out a small laugh and pushed him away from the communications set up they had put together. "Monty is going to hurt you if you mess up our only radio. It's probably just a bad connection right now," she assured.

Bellamy let out a huff and took a step back from the monitor, glaring at it. "What if something happened up there?" he questioned, turning his angry glare to the sky.

"You're really worried for her, aren't you?" she asked, sounding almost surprised by his obvious concern.

She knew that he wasn't the monster he had tried to convince everyone he was but she was still growing used to the idea. She had seen him with Dax and grown to respect him after he saved her life. He had told her of his mother and how disappointed he thought she would be in him and Clarke didn't find herself agreeing. While he was callous and brutal on the outside and in front of the camp, she had seen him receive the news of Nora's shooting and knew he cared more than he let on.

"Whatever happens to her up there," he said quietly, refusing to meet her curious gaze. "It's on me. I left her up there, alone. I didn't even say goodbye."

"Nora has never struck me as weak," Clarke said, nudging his shoulder with a small smile, making him look at her in surprise. "I wouldn't worry so much about her. She can take care of herself, she's a big girl. Trust me, she's pretty much indestructible and I say that in a medical sense."

"She always was getting sent to Med Bay," he mumbled with a chuckle, finally meeting her eyes to nod his silent thanks.

"The Exodus ship will be here in three days," she reminded, also turning to look to the sky as she thought of the ship's passengers. Soon she would see her mother and that was a reunion she wished would be further away, she wasn't ready to face her. Shaking her head, she pushed thoughts of her mother away. "Soon you won't even have a reason to worry."

He returned the nod with a smile before turning to see Jasper busting through camp, holding up a container of moonshine. They watched as a crowd formed around him and he proudly started filling cups, taking gratuitous swigs from the container between fills. Bellamy shook his head and headed towards his tent, leaving Clarke with babysitting duty for the morning. He pushed back the flap to his tent and fell on to his make-shift bed, kicking off his boots in the process.

Outside he could hear the campers enjoying Monty and Jasper's brew, all joining in to celebrate Unity Day. He stared at the ceiling of his tent, remembering Unity Day the year before. Octavia had disappeared early in the morning, sneaking off to who knew where, and he wished that she hadn't abandoned him on the anniversary of her arrest. He knew that she needed space, probably just as overcome by memories of what happened the same as he was, but he wished she would turn to him for comfort like she did as a child.

So much had changed since then, he almost didn't recognize his sister in the young woman she was becoming. When he had discovered Atom's feelings for his little sister, he had been overcome with rage and the need to protect her from the heartbreak Atom was sure to inflict on her. He knew all too well how easy it was to hurt those you love and he never wanted Octavia to suffer the way that same fate as Nora, a fate he had subjected on her. Sure enough, when Atom had died, Octavia had been made to suffer anyway.

It tore him up inside, watching her mourn his death as she once more lost someone precious to her. All that his sister knew was loss, the feeling of someone being ripped away. He related too much to that feeling as Nora's face flashed through his mind. It was worse that she hadn't been taken away, that he had willingly left her behind. She was the only thing left in his life besides his sister that he cared for and he had abandoned her without a single thought.

Rolling onto his side, he closed his eyes and remembered what it was like to lay beside her, the way that her body had easily molded to fit against his. He shivered, remembering the feel of her hands running lightly over his skin and groaned in frustration, punching the bed as he rolled over. Three more days and she would be back in his arms, right where she belonged, and he would be able to rest easy once more. Three more days. He swore he wouldn't leave her again.

This is the sound of one voice
One people, one voice, a song for every one of us