As soon as Layla frees all of you and Nelson returns with the remaining Children of Gabriel, Gabriel finishes the device that he intends to deploy in the pond. He explains the plan to everyone, making sure you all understand what's going on. Nelson arms all of you, giving Bellamy and Gabriel a rifle, you a pistol, and Octavia a sword. You also make a new thigh holster for your knife, and Bellamy rigs one up for his small skull knife that you gifted him, and all of you change into some of the Children of Gabriel clothes so you'll blend in better. Within a couple of hours, you are all ready to go and begin your ambush on Sanctum.
You trek through the woods towards Sanctum mostly in silence, with you, Bellamy, and Octavia in the lead. Something about the trip reminds you of searching for Clarke after the Battle of the Dropship, before Finn lost his mind. You hope that this moment is different though, and doesn't end with the slaughter of innocent people in a village, though you guess that only time will tell.
Before you know it, you can hear the quiet hum of the radiation shield up ahead, all of you disappointed to see that the shield is still up and running. You come to a stop right at the edge of the woods, staring at the shield, and behind you, Layla asks, "What do we do now?"
You turn and face her, but your gaze looks over all of them. "Now we wait. Clarke will get it down."
They all nod, and you turn and stare back at the shield, thinking about how easy it would be for you to walk right through, find your twin, and keep her safe. You step away from the others, into the light bouncing off the planet that Sanctum orbits, listening to the buzz of the shield that quietly taunts you. You hear Gabriel tell everyone to get down and stay out of sight, but you stand frozen in place, the muscles in your legs twitching with the desire to follow your impulse and run into Sanctum. You almost jump out of your skin when you feel a hand clamp down on your shoulder, and you glance over to see Bellamy looking at you, worry etched into his face. "I should be in there helping her."
On your other side, a hand slides into your own, and you turn to see Octavia looking at you, her hand squeezing yours in comfort. "They know what you look like, and you being there would just give Clarke away."
Bellamy grabs your other hand, the two Blake siblings keeping you anchored, bringing you back to the side of reason. "Besides, that's not the plan."
Your voice is quiet, so low that the siblings both lean closer to hear you over the sound of the shield. "We left them."
"And that's why they're still alive."
You turn to Octavia, shaking your head. "You don't know that. You heard Murphy, they're all in trouble."
"They'll be okay."
Beside you, Bellamy speaks up, sounding just as haunted by the thought that everyone you love is on the other side of that shield and in harm's way. "Everybody always thinks that. The truth is, you're fine until you're not."
"Murphy said he'd help."
You and Bellamy both turn to Octavia, giving her matching skeptical looks, both of you thinking of all the ways Murphy has 'helped', but only made things worse. "Real comforting."
"Have some faith." She smiles and gives your hand a squeeze before dropping it and stepping back, slinking into the bushes to join the others. You look at Bellamy, his eyes already on you, and he smiles, "That look is gone from your face."
"What look?"
"The 'I'm about to take off running and do something really stupid' look."
You roll your eyes, "It's gone. For now."
He smiles at your vague threat before he backs away, towards the bushes, pulling you back with him. You follow, the two of you sinking into the brush with the other Children of Gabriel, hiding out and waiting for the shield to go down.
-
It turns out that the idea you all seem to have about the shield going down in a couple of hours was wrong.
Instead, you all watch the suns rise in the sky and hang overhead, beating down on all of you as you hide in the bushes. You watch at least two guard changes, dozing slightly between them, nothing new happening for a while. It's only in late afternoon when something changes.
You all sit up a little straighter when you hear the sound of an approaching motorcycle, signaling a third guard change, and you watch closely as the guard hops off the bike and tugs off his helmet to speak to the other guard. "Sector D is all clear. You're free to head back to Sanctum with the Primes."
"I thought I was gonna miss the namings."
Tension washes over all of you in the group, and you're almost surprised the guards can't feel the shift in the air, given your close proximity to them. You glance at Bellamy, both of you silently repeating the most alarming part of that sentence in your head. Namings. The guard passes another piece of information to the other before he hops on his own bike and drives off, and Nelson's voice is horrified when he whispers, "Naming Day?"
Layla bites back, "They said 'namings'. Plural."
Before any of you can get in another word, Gabriel stands from his place behind Octavia, stepping out of the bushes, ignoring her concerned whisper of his name. "Gabriel?"
Gabriel heads straight for the shield and passes through it, crying out in pain and dropping to the ground twitching, pretending that the shield is actually causing him damage. The guard mutters something under his breath that you can't hear, and then he walks closer to Gabriel, gun slightly raised. As soon as he's close enough, Gabriel swings a leg out and knocks the man on his back, and you and the Blake siblings all rise, looking at him in shock. "Gabriel, what the hell are you doing?"
You can see the guard's eyes go wide with shock as he looks up at the feared man. "Gabriel?"
But Gabriel ignores him and glares at him, "You said 'namings'. How many? Who's coming back?"
"I don't know. All of them, I think."
Gabriel kicks the man in the face, breaking his nose and knocking him out, and you all run to the edge of the shield, yelling out to him, "Gabriel!"
He starts to pull off his jacket, tossing it to the side as he gives all of you a slightly apologetic look. "I can't have Russell murder more innocent people."
"I know it's hard but we have to stick to the plan!" Bellamy's voice rises the longer Gabriel ignores him, trying to get through to him. "Clarke will get the shield down and we use the toxin as a distraction to save our people."
"Yeah, well, I have a new plan: use our distraction to stop Naming Day." He tugs the guard's jacket off and pulls it on, looking at all of you. "Look, I'm sorry, but unlike you, I can't sacrifice the few to save the many."
He turns and starts to walk towards the bike tucked in between the crops, and this time you don't hesitate to run through the shield, heading straight for him. Unfortunately, you don't make it to him in time, and he jumps on the bike and leaves you standing in a cloud of dust, looking at his retreating figure as you yell, "Gabriel! Gabriel, come back!"
You stand frozen and watch until he disappears from sight, and then you still stand unmoving, trying to figure out how Gabriel's change of plans affects the rest of you, how it affects Clarke. You hear Bellamy start to call out to you after a few minutes, but you still don't turn around, trying to decide if you should just take off running towards Sanctum. Bellamy must sense your impulse to run again, because his voice gets increasingly more worried the longer you ignore him. "La lune, get back on this side of the shield! Please come back over here. We'll figure this out, okay? Clarke will still get the shield down, and we'll come in then, just come back."
You shift a little, the muscles in your legs twitching again, and Bellamy yells, "Natshana! If you leave, I'm coming after you! I'm not a Nightblood, and you saw what happened to Shaw."
You freeze, the movement in your legs stopping, your desire to keep Bellamy safe stronger than your desire to run. You turn slowly and walk back towards Bellamy and the others, your fiance's face overcome with relief. He is standing as close to the shield as he can without getting harmed, and as soon as you pass through it, he pulls you into his arms, holding you tight, clearly worried you were about to go where he couldn't follow. You feel a rush of guilt and you hug him back, whispering, "I'm sorry. I just don't want to lose Clarke again."
He pulls away and nods at you, smoothing back your hair and whispering, "You won't. But we have no way to contact Clarke and tell her that things have changed. So for now, we do things the way we planned, and hope it all works out in the end."
You nod and all of you sink back down into the bushes again, despite the fact that the guard you were hiding from is now knocked out, courtesy of Gabriel. Still, you wait, the hours passing slowly, the suns getting lower in the sky and the darkness spreading across Sanctum. You get antsier with each passing hour, and you make a silent plan in your head that once the planet in the sky reaches a certain position, you're running and leaving the others behind.
Miraculously though, as your deadline rapidly approaches, the hum of the shields stops, and you see all of the towers of the shield dim from their light blue color before going completely dark, the shield now down and ready to be crossed. You turn to Bellamy with a smile and he smiles back. "Told you she'd get it down."
"Pretty sure I was the one that told you."
The Children of Gabriel all stare at the downed shield in shock, and then Nelson abruptly stands and lifts his weapon into the air before yelling, "Death to Primes!"
Everyone stands and lifts their weapons too, repeating, "Death to Primes!"
They take off running, and you, Bellamy, and Octavia all share a look before you jump up and follow, blending in with the crowd as you run towards Sanctum. As you grow closer, the chanting stops, everyone aware that stealth is the way to go, and you creep up the hill as quickly as you can, bent low in the hopes that no one will see you coming. As you round the last corner and the stairs come into view, you see a group of people standing there, Clarke at the front, alive and still in one piece.
You jog over and the two of you share a hug, and when you pull away, your gaze shifts to the people beside her. On one side, Gaia and Miller stand, smiles on their faces, and Miller nods in greeting. You nod back before turning to Clarke's other side, eyes landing on Echo, grinning at you, clearly happy to see you alive and well. The two of you exchange a hug, pulling away so she can hug Bellamy too, and as they separate, Clarke looks all of you over. "Look, I hate to cut the moment short, but Russell told the people that it was a false alarm. They're not evacuating, we have no distraction."
Echo adds, "The rest of our friends are still in trouble, and we don't have the people to fight our way through."
"We're not here to fight. We're here to liberate."
Layla chimes in from beside you, "Bellamy's right, and the only weapon we need for that is truth."
"They won't believe us just because we tell them the truth."
You look to Echo, evident from the expression on her face that a plan is forming. "What are you thinking?"
"I'm thinking Ryker helped us start this, his mother will finish it."
She motions to the hooded figure between Clarke and Gaia, the one that you're just now noticing. Clarke reaches into her pocket and pulls out a mind drive, holding it out to you. "They think I'm Josephine, so it can't be me. Everyone is gathered just outside of the palace."
"This is Ryker?" Clarke nods her head in confirmation, and you take the drive from her before turning to the others. "I'll take Priya into the crowd and tell them the truth. She backs it up, and we go from there. The rest of you will sneak up into Sanctum and stay hidden until we see how this is going to go."
Everyone nods, understanding their place, and Bellamy grabs your hand. "I'm going with you."
You smile at him, hoping he was going to say that, not sure that you want to handle Priya on your own. "Okay, everyone move into position."
They all break apart and head into Sanctum, Clarke giving you a lingering look as she goes, and you give her a reassuring smile in return. Once you and Bellamy are the only two left with Priya, you pull the hood off her head. "Did you get all that?"
She hesitates, and you hold up the mind drive for her to see. "You tell the people the truth, or Ryker dies forever. Do you understand?"
"Yes."
"Good, let's go."
You and Bellamy each grab one of her arms, guiding her up the stairs of Sanctum as she tries to fight against the two of you, and once you reach the top of the stairs, you're quickly noticed. One of the guards near the base of the stairs yells, "We've got movement on the far stairs!"
You see her lift her gun to peer through the scope, and the second she sees a Prime held between you and Bellamy she yells, "Priya Prime! Don't shoot!"
The crowd turns towards you, and you and Bellamy each lift the hand not held onto Priya in surrender as you shout to the gathered crowd, "The power is out, the shield is down, but we are not here to fight. We have something to tell you that will be hard to hear, but it's the truth. The Primes told you that we're your enemy, but they lied!"
The crowd starts to murmur and your turn to look at Bellamy, aware that he is always the best with speeches. He adds, "They lied about everything! They're not gods, they don't become one with their hosts. They kill them. They steal your bodies so they can live forever."
The murmuring grows louder, the truth of the gods they worship shocking everyone. You nudge Priya, flashing the mind drive in your hand, "Tell them."
She hesitates for a second, her eyes locked on the drive, and then she takes a breath to steady herself before backing you up. "It's true! We're not divine. We survive because we have technology, but we need your bodies to do it. Delilah's not one with me. She's dead, killed so that I could return. It's all a lie."
The crowd's murmurs turn to yelling as their anger starts to grow, but you ignore it and hand Priya the mind drive, her part now done. Before the crowd can get unruly though, Russell walks out of the palace and up to the microphone, a small contraption in his hand. "I am disappointed in you, Priya. I'm disappointed in all of you. According to our adjustment protocol..."
As soon as you hear the words, you remember Gabriel's story to you and Clarke, and you look at Bellamy with panic, your voice quiet. "Believers killing non believers."
"What?"
You don't get to answer him, because Russell's voice rises to be heard above everything, "Non believers must be purified!"
He twists the device and throws it into the crowd, and you and Bellamy instantly duck as it goes off with a flash, a cloud of green toxin quickly shooting out into the middle of the crowd. The people erupt into screams of pain and paranoia, and you turn to Bellamy and say, "Red sun toxin, we need to get to the others."
He nods and you form a human chain with him and Priya, Bellamy in the lead, you in the middle, and Priya in the back. Bellamy guides you and tugs you through the crowd that is already resorting to chaos, and in the midst of the scuffle, Priya's grip is pulled from your own. You look back in alarm, catching only one glimpse of her before the crowd surrounds her, and there's nothing you can do but watch her disappear. The crowd is already growing violent, and you and Bellamy are both still susceptible to the toxin until you get your dose of the antitoxin. Going back into the crowd while you're undosed is not an ideal plan.
You finally reach the others and Layla tosses you each an antitoxin, which you inhale quickly, thankful that you're safe for now. All of you stand watching the growing chaos, the people already fighting and resorting to violence, and Layla turns to you with a concerned look. "Where the hell is Priya?"
"The crowd got between us." You start to walk back towards it, ready to search for her now, but at least three sets of arms grab you and pull you back. "No, you can't."
"But-"
"No." Clarke's voice is firm, letting you know this is not negotiable, and you nod, letting her know you understand. Bellamy, Clarke, and Layla all drop their arms, satisfied that you're staying put, and as you turn back to watch the crowd, you hear Miller shout, "Jax?"
You turn to him, his eyes locked on something in the distance. "Jax!"
You follow his gaze, watching as guards file Madi, Raven, and Jackson into the palace and out of sight. Clarke watches on in horror, her eyes welling up with tears, and Miller tries to run towards his boyfriend, prepared to risk his own life to save his boyfriend's life. But Octavia stops him, holding him back, voice desperate. "You can't!"
He rips himself from her grip, looking at her with disgust. "I do not take orders from you anymore!"
Octavia looks at her brother for help, and he immediately jumps in, blocking Miller's path. "Miller, she's right. You'll never make it past the guards."
Clarke deadpans, "No, but I can."
You turn to look at her, her gaze already locked on you, waiting for your approval, and this is something you know you have to give her. Madi's life is at stake, and Clarke is the only person that can get in that room, no questions asked. You nod, letting her know you agree, and Gaia steps up beside her. "I'm going with you."
"Gaia-" She cuts Clarke's protest off, "They'll think I'm Josephine's guard. It's Madi, I'm going."
Clarke nods, before turning to Miller. "Miller, stay here and protect the others."
He looks at her, hesitant, clearly wanting to tag along with them, and your twin senses his turmoil and reassures him, "We'll get Jackson back, trust me."
He nods, and Clarke is about to ask all of you what you're going to do, when Octavia's shaky voice floats over to you. "Uh, guys? We've got a problem."
When you turn to face her, you see that part of the crowd has now shifted, their gazes turning on you. They stalk over to you slowly, the glint of murder in their eyes, and you turn to your twin in alarm, pushing her away from you slightly, "Go!"
"Murderers! Kill the invaders!"
You try to ignore the approaching group and their bone chilling chants as Clarke grabs your hand, "What will you do?"
You shake your head, "Still working on that part, but there's not enough time! Just go!"
She hesitates for another half second before she turns and runs off, Gaia with her, and Miller lifts his gun and points it at the approaching crowd that is closing in on all of you quickly. Bellamy pushes down the barrel of his gun, getting him to lower it. "Miller, weapons down. We don't want to kill them, okay?"
Miller lowers his gun, as you all draw closer together, facing in different directions so you can watch each other from all sides. As the angry crowd seems to grow even angrier, Layla watches them in alarm, "Well, they want to kill us."
You turn to Bellamy, glancing at him quickly so you can also keep an eye on the crowd. "If we start fighting, it will turn into a bloodbath!"
"We need to take cover and wait it out."
Over his shoulder, Echo seems to get an idea, and she calls out, "Follow me!"
None of you hesitate to follow her when she runs off, aware that you don't have many options at this point. She leads you to a building that looks like a shipping container, one that locks from the inside, and you all file inside and pull the doors closed behind you, swinging the bar down to lock it. You back away from the door as the crowd starts to bang on it, trying to shrink away from the source of the chaos, but the banging starts up on all sides, sending a chill down your spine. Your entire group huddles in the center of the room, standing as close as you can, watching the door shake and move with the force of the people outside. But there's nothing any of you can do, no way you can stop it, your only option now to sit back and hope for the best. Hope that you aren't just a bleeding fish in a circle of angry sharks or a rabbit caught in a trap, stalked by a hungry bear.
You just have to hope that all of you aren't about to become martyrs in someone else's religion.
-