somewhere | b.blake ✔️

2x13✔️

"Thought we had the time, had our lives
Now you'll never get older, older
Didn't say goodbye, now I'm frozen in time
Getting colder, colder
One last word
One last moment
To ask you why
You left me here behind
You said you'd grow old with me"

-You said you'd grow old with me, Micheal Schulte

*****

Internal darkness, Ash realizes, is like space.

It's endless, unflinching, and all consuming in any given amount of time.

All around Ash, everyone is fighting against the dark force that's beginning to fill her. They push against rocks, scream when the fire hits them, and plead to any of the gods out there that their loved ones will be cared for.

Lincoln and Octavia try to push Ash to help save those who can be saved, but in the darkness that surrounds her, there is no audio besides the sounds of Smith yelling in agony in his last moments.

After the third attempt filled with pleading for any note of sound out of the girl, they leave her be as she stands still in the chaos surrounding her, staring blankly at the fire surrounding the man who taught her how to use the sword strapped against her back.

She floats through the hours filled with relentless efforts to save others, thoughts of the man with eyes the color of trees all she's capable of thinking.

She's unsure how many sit ups and pushups can fix this one.

All at once, her hearing returns when a thundering sound followed by a scream erupts just three meters away from where she stands.

Her body on auto-pilot, Ash crouches behind a rock and finally allows herself to look into the eyes of the two people who saved her from the very fire that claimed Smith's life.

Lincoln has a wounded Indra in his arms and Octavia crouches next to them, her hair and face covered in debris.

Ash wonders briefly if they think she's just in shock from the missile, not mourning.

Lincoln doesn't seem to care as he shouts for she and Octavia to run somewhere else with bullets breaking through their rocks before running himself.

Ash finds herself a rock to shield herself, one directly across from a still raging fire.

Smith's fire.

Before she can help it, the food eaten earlier with Smith and Armani comes up and out of her mouth, only adding to the putrid smell of fire and burning flesh.

A living body had been where that fire rages. A living, breathing, body.

If she looks hard enough through the darkness she can see a small pile of debris.

Abby's voice thankfully pulls Ash out of her quickly darkening thoughts. "Someone's alive down there."

Ash nods—most likely slower than usual with everything slowed down—and leans down against the rock, just barely hearing people yelling for help through all the chaos.

Abby moves around, rapidly moving metal and pieces of rock to look for ways down. She'd even get shot if not for Ash pulling her out of the way.

"I have to get down there."

As Ash and Abby look for ways down, Lincoln runs by with Indra, gunshots following them as he shouts, "Ash, Octavia, come on!"

Ash nods quickly at Abby for reassurance before pushing herself up and jogging after Lincoln with the promise of bullets following her.