FIRE AND GOLD ▸ JOHN MURPHY (editing)

forty-seven; ruler for the day

"That's right!" I shout. "Should we mercy for her's?"

"No!" They scream again.

"When we step foot in there, you'll forget everything and you'll kill everyone that gets in our way!" I shout and I can see Bellamy's face. "After everything we've done to survive in this place! After everyone we lost! Doesn't Wonkru deserve a break?" I tell them and they cheer me, Indra looking at me, scared about what will happen.

"Do you want me as your leader while Blodreina's ill?" I ask, hoping that the answer was what I expected. It was. "Good. I will not let you down!" I look at them.

"We'll do this for Blodreina!" I shout as hard as I can and they start chanting her name. "We'll take the Valley for her! We'll save Wonkru and then they will be no place for the enemies of Wonkru!" I finish my speech.

"We'll march towards Shallow Valley by sunlight. Gon Blodreina!" I scream and they repeat the last two words with me.

"Miller, Cosmos and Delphia. Come." I tell them as they follow me to the main office.

I put the blueprints of Shallow Valley on the table and we gather around it.

"Now that Cooper's dead, and I don't know trust Maddi, Cosmos, me and Delphia will be softening the battlefield, while Miller will lead the first battalion through the Southern tributary. Just like Blodreina ordered." I order looking at the papers in front of me. "Delphia, take Gaia's place and train the kids, I want your eyes on Madi twenty four seven." She only nods at my request and leaves the room. "Cosmos, I want your eyes on Bellamy and Clarke's friends, everything they do will be reported to me and me only." He nods, leaving. "Miller, I want your eyes on Indra and Gaia."

"You think they're traitors?" He asks me and I swallow hard.

"I don't know yet. Everything that looks even remotely out of the ordinary you tell me immediately and I'll have then all in the fighting pits." I tell the man and he nods walking out of the room.

I walk out behind him, towards Octavia's room.

"If you have love for your life I would advise you to give me some good news." I burst into the room, my jacket flying behind me.

"I do. Dialysis is working. Her pulse is stabilizing." He tells me as Indra gets into the room, making me look at her from up to down. "She's waking up."

I run towards the girl, putting my hand in her arm.

"Hey, Octavia, can you hear me? Octavia." Jackson calls and she turns her head to the side, humming. "Mm... Hey, Octavia, hey, Indra and Innana are here, too."

"Hmm?"

"You had us all so worried." Jackson tells her.

"Inanna? Indra?"

"We're right here." I look up at Indra.

"Inanna, my brother poisoned me." Octavia groans and I clench my jaw.

"I'll take care of her. You need to arrest Bellamy." Jackson tells us.

"I'm afraid I can't do that." Indra states and throws her knife at the guard.

I take my weapons and look at her.

"Traitor." I spit at her and she gets closer to me. "Stand down, Indra. I don't wanna fight you."

"No one's leaving this room." Indra tells me and I see Jackson trying to stick a tranquilizer in her neck but she's faster, sticking it into his.

"I am," I tell her, flipping the blades on my hands. "Bellamy's probably already arrested, so are his friends. You and Gaia are next. I hope you liked the fighting pits cause you'll see them from a different angle pretty soon."

"You'll have to kill me if you want to leave this room."

"Don't get me excited," I smirk at her, cutting the left side of her arm.

She takes her sword and stops me for doing more damage, the fight is interrupted by the horn sounding.

"The Ascension call." Octavia mutters and I kick Indra in the stomach. "Wonkru wouldn't follow you, so you're using Madi?"

"They are following. They're following me but she doesn't want that, do you?" I look at Indra. "You're late Indra. They already have orders to march in the morning."

"They'll answer to a real commander. She'll call off the war." Indra looks at me, as Octavia tries to get up.

"Clarke will never let her."

"Clarke's arrested."

"So was Kane, but you let him go didn't you?" I accuse her. "You let a traitor go and now we're at war because of him. Diyoza knows everything because you let him go."

Before she's able to respond, Clarke bursts into the room with Niylah.

"Clarke, what are you doing here? Get out." Indra tells the girl, who takes a weapon from her pocket, pointing it at me and Octavia from the door.

"She's here to kill us." Octavia states.

"I can't let anything happen to Madi." Clarke says.

"I am surprised. Clarke I knew would've thought this through. You kill us, our people kill you. Madi still ascends. They come after her. It's lose-lose..." She groans as she tries to move. "The three of us can win."

"What is this nonsense?" Indra asks annoyed and I look at her smirking.

"What are you talking about?"

"The only person who wants Madi to be Commander less than us is you," I state and wink at the blonde girl, never washing the smirk from my lips.

Clarke puts the gun down and I look back at Indra.

"Indra, you're arrested for treason," I tell the woman, opening the doors and calling one of the guards. "Take her," I order and they do as I say. "One more problem solved."

* * *

I walk with Miller where the ascendancy was happening, they point their weapons at Gaia, Cosmos and Bellamy. Clarke runs towards the sleeping girl as Octavia eventually catches up with us.

"Back away from the child right now." Miller orders and Clarke gets to Bellamy, slapping him in the face.

"What the hell are you doing here?" I ask Cosmos and he swallows hard looking at me.

"I had no choice. They're right. We can't go to war." He looks at Bellamy and Gaia.

"I need to get it out." Clarke states.

"Clarke, no. The Flame is bonding with her mind. If you take it out now before it's complete she may never wake up." Gaia tells the girl.

"Quiet, traitor. Do it, Clarke." Octavia orders.

"If you kill this child, you make her a martyr. You weaken yourselves even more." Gaia looks at us and I look up at her from up to down.

"I can't." Clarke looks at us.

"Take them to the Rover." I order and one of the other guards do as they're told.

Clarke walks away and Madi's taken by the man.

"No." Bellamy pleads and looks at his sister. "O..."

"Arrest the traitors." I order looking at Cosmos and they do as told, cuffing Gaia's, Cosmos's and Bellamy's hands behind their back and taking them to the bunker.

* * *

Gaia, Bellamy, and Indra were in the fighting pits, kneeled, and gagged. I and Octavia were walking down so that everyone could see us talk.

"The Nightblood child did not recite the lineage and is, therefore, not the true Commander. Instead, she ran, abandoning all of us like a coward." Octavia says as we walk in circles around the fighters. "She is not Wonkru. She is an enemy of Wonkru, and like all of our enemies... she will be dealt with."

"But first..." I say, stopping. "...first, we have a war to win."

"Gon Blodreina. Gon Dokwocha!" Wonkru cheers as we go back into the main office, the doors closing behind us.