OUT OF MIND² ━━ Bellamy Blake

𝐗𝐗𝐗: To Choose

     It takes Lyra a moment to recognize who he's pointing at ━━ Niylah. The Grounder woman's eyes have widened and are ample with fear as she tries to shrink back, but the crowd steps away from her as if she has the plague, and she is left out in the open.

     "I say we let her own people save her," a man just behind her sneers.

     "Everybody calm down!" Kane shouts as the chaos mounts. "We've come too far just to turn on each other now — "

     "You're just saying that because you know you're safe!"

     Nate pushes through the crowd, gripping his gun. "Let it go, Hardy."

      But Hardy does not seem to want to let it go. Lyra deduces this by the way he strikes Niylah in the stomach quick and hard, forcing her to double over. As soon as she does, someone else wrestles her into their grip and throws her into a headlock. Bucking wildly, Niylah let's out a furious grunt as she tries to fight back, but it's no use. There are too many of them and their anger is overwhelming.

     "Nate!" Lyra shrieks as the crowd converges around Niylah. "Nate, stop him!"

     "Let go off me!" Niylah screams. In a furious attempt to ward off her attacker, she twists beneath his arms and throws a punch, hitting him square in the jaw. Yet someone else charges out of the crowd, slamming his knee into her stomach. She crumples to the ground.

     And then comes Octavia.

     She bursts in through the corridor in a dark and menacing blur, moving through the crowds so swiftly that it takes Lyra a moment to even realize that it's her. Unsheathing her sword in one fluid motion, she turns on her heel and cuts the blade through the air in a swooping arc. She does not stop until it is hovering merely a centimeter away from the man's throat, so close that he can probably feel the icy metal. He looks on the verge of screaming for mercy as she looms above him; her eyes are blistering sapphire, vivid as the sky just before a storm breaks.

     A terrified quiet settles over the rotunda. Everyone waits for Octavia's verdict.

     "Niylah!" Octavia does not lift her eyes from the man, she simply jerks her head. "You're with me."

      Eyes wide with surprise, Niylah peels herself off from the floor and stumbles towards Octavia and her guard, which is led by Indra. It is so quiet that her pants echo in the chamber.

     "She's safe." Octavia's voice is cutting, just as lethal as her sword. "You now have one less spot to fill."

     Without warning, she lifts the sword from the man's shoulder and slams the hilt into his forehead. He crumples the same way Niylah had, his face white and chalky. He does not get back up.

     "Octavia, please," Jaha's voice is low as he approaches her. "You've got to stop this. You're Skaikru. You're one of us."

     Octavia's eyes are ice. "I'm one of you?"

      Noah swears under his breath. "Fuck. He's fucked everything up."

      She stalks towards Jaha, her eyes dark and filled with rage. "You made me hide under the floor. You floated my mother — I'm not hiding now."