What If (Season 5 AU)

Chapter 20

Everything had changed in that moment. Their lives and all of their friends would never be the same. Before such things could occur they agreed to speak with everyone first. Including Bellamy speaking with Echo. He knew he needed to for a long time, and now it needs to happen sooner rather than later. Clarke and Bellamy apart ways soon after, Clarke heading in the direction of her tent while Bellamy heads toward their friends. However he didn't let her go without a tight embrace and a soft lingering kiss atop her head. They could get through this, figure it all out, together. No matter the outcome.

It goes without saying Echo and Monty felt the change immediately after seeing Bellamy returned. Monty knew better than to ask, the wistful expression on his friends face giving it all away. He knew it would happen eventually and he was happy they would figure out everything between them. The only thing standing in their way was the brunette to their side. And by her face Bellamy knew she suspected something but made no comment. She knew a conversation between them was inevitable. But now was not the time. Not yet, but soon.

The eerie silence between the three stops when they arrive inside the office of the bunker. They are let in immediately upon arrival and let in without so much as a fuss-unlike before.

"So, what'd you have for me?" Octavia sits on her metal thrown, Cooper to her right and guards at the door. 

She looked a little to comfortable sitting there, and the words Clarke had spoken before plagued his mind. 'She'd use me to make a point in her power play'  He hated to admit it, but it was a possibility. There have been glimpses of the old Octavia shining though her hard exterior. But every time she catches herself she changes back in an instant. Bellamy an Clarke both knew she wouldn't her her niece and nephew because they were nightbloods. They weren't a threat to her directly. Rather they threatened the belief of Wonkru. And that was something Octavia would not allow. 

"I'm not turning them in." Echo speaks up. "There is no point when you plan on executing them anyway."

"A spy and murderer with a conscience. You're right, big brother. She has changed." Given her words Bellamy would have liked to believe them, but the  look Octavia gave Echo said otherwise. She was looking for a flaw, something to use against the former spy.

"There's something else," Bellamy redirects, cutting Cooper off as she presses for the names of the traitors. Monty looked thoroughly uncomfortable being here but he was the only one who could explain the situation at hand. Bellamy looks to him to give his friend the floor and he takes it.

"I tried using the radio and hacking into the mothership to gain access to the eye, but there's a firewall I can't get passed through here. I need direct access from the inside in order to break though the firewall and hack the eye."

"So we have nothing? You all didn't do what you needed to and now we're screwed." Octavia eyes each of the three with a scornful eye, but Bellamy could see the clambering fear and disappointment burring beneath the surface.

"Not exactly." Bellamy responds before gesturing to Monty to step forward. He pulls out the flash drive and explains its purpose.

Its the inside help they need in order to take down the eye. There's a program on it and that program will open the back door to their systems and give them control of the camera's on their mothership. As long as they can get through the firewall, although Monty's is sure they can.  Octavia takes all of this in, her expression changing from concentration to realization. The only way for them to insert the flash drive in their systems was to do it on sight, in Shallow Valley. To do that they would have to be defectors.

She refuses to let Bellamy be one of them, knowing Diyoza knows that he is Octavia's brother. She'd call the bluff and keep him detained or kill him on sight. Echo less so, but Monty? He wasn't built for espionage and there was no way he could do it on his own. Its suicide and Diyoza would never fall for it. Only two people could get to the Valley and pull it off, and Bellamy and Monty weren't them.

"Clarke isn't going to that Valley, O. Its either me and Echo or no one else and your people starve here when the farm stops producing." At this Octavia raises a brow. "Clarke told me about the offer you made her. Which is more of a suicide mission for her than me."

"I'll go." Every head turns to the person who spoke, leaving Bellamy to fight off an annoyed groan. Echo keeps her face straight as she keeps her eyes on Octavia. "I have the perfect cover, banishment. No personal connections to you, and Diyoza won't suspect a thing. The defectors already think I'm one of them and the flash drive is easy to use. All you have to do is let me go alone."

Cooper goes against the idea, willingly letting traitors leave will cause an up rise and rebellion in those who question Wonkru's stance. Echo replies while it is a political sacrifice its necessary for the survival of everyone.

In the midst of the debate Octavia stays silent, her mind racing for a solution. There was no full proof way of doing this without consequence. Someone  needed to go to Shallow Valley and be their inside person in order for everyone to survive. Whether it be Clarke, Bellamy, or Echo, someone had to go. Bellamy was never going to let Clarke go alone, he made that very clear, and Octavia wasn't going to let her brother leave Polis when there was a chance Diyoza would kill him. So the only person left was Echo. 

"Call off the patrols." she orders Cooper. After she does so she turns attention back to Echo, standing from her thrown to meet the woman face to face. "But once you're on that ship, you're on your own. If you're cover gets blown or you fail to take down the eye, no one is coming to save you. And your banishment will become permanent."

"Understood." 

The three take their leave from Octavia's office and back to Monty and Harper's tent. Monty hides the flash drive inside. He tells her to find Raven and give her the dive, she'll know what to do. 

"Just don't get killed, okay?" Monty pulls his pleading eyes and Echo smirks before pulling him in a quick embrace. 

"Don't worry, I can handle it I've faced much worse missions than this."

With that Echo leaves their tent for her own, her hand brushing against Bellamy's before clasping her hand around his wrist. He doesn't fight against her, instead he follows her outside and to the tent that she claimed as her own. He's never been inside, not really. Ever since they came to Polis Bellamy's slept on his own, keeping a wall and distance between his physical relationship with Echo. She's noticed but never mentioned it, instead giving him time and space to speak on his own. But tonight it seemed she was done waiting.

When they enter she lets go of his hand and stands in front of him. Rather than keeping any space at all she claps both of his hands n her own, her eyes looking down at them.

"Promise me you won't do anything stupid while I'm away." Her voice is soft but firm, yet a questioning tone lingers there. 

"Promise me you won't get yourself killed and we have a deal."

Instead of replying Echo looks up, her brown eyes meeting his own in silence. The air thickens around them as she steps closer, her gaze falling to his lips. He knew what was going to happen next and yet he was still surprised to feel her lips pressed against his own. He closed his eyes trying, hoping, to feel something- anything like it he use to- but he doesn't. He can't. Because every time he is near Echo, holding her hand, standing close to her side, feeling her lips against his own, a flash of blonde and bright blue eyes bursts though his mind. The one person's who's smile he was sure he would never see again. And yet he can. He has. He even felt her lips on his once more and now he couldn't imagine not feeling them again. Being with Echo, kissing her, it felt wrong in more ways than one. This wasn't right.

"I can't do this. I can't." Bellamy pulls back from the kiss immediately, ripping his hands from her own as he does. Echo continues to stand placid in her space as Bellamy pulls away, his hand brushing against his lips as he wipes away the kiss. When he turns he can see the glimmer of hurt in her eyes and he knows that she knows. But they can't talk right now. Its not the time. "Echo-"

"I know." He sighs underneath his breath and looks down at the ground, his eyes not wanting to meet hers again. She knew the moment they came down from space and met Madi that it would tear them apart, and she knew something had happened between Bellamy and Clarke when he stormed away, this all but confirmed her suspicion.

"Be careful when you get there. We'll meet you in the Valley when its done." He mutters, every word feeling like fire as he speaks. "Then we'll talk when its over."

And just like that Bellamy was gone.