I awoke the next morning with heavy eyes and an equally heavy heart. For a few moments when my eyes first opened, I had a brief taste of bliss. It was quickly shattered when I remember what had occurred the night before.
Clarke was dead.
In the past week we had learned of Monty and Harper's deaths, Octavia had been banished and Clarke had been murdered.
I almost didn't want to get out of bed. What was the point anymore? Live each day just to watch another person I care about die? That didn't sound like something I wanted to do.
It was in that moment that I realized an absence in the bed, rather absences. Greer, who had been cuddled up on my left was no longer there, nor was Bellamy who had been on my right.
Panic flooded into me for a moment as I sat up, searching for any sign of them. Immediately thinking the worst, I felt like I was going to throw up.
That was until I heard quiet voices from the bathroom. My heart rate slowly began to lower as I pulled myself from the bed, making my way toward the noise.
Silently, I peaked inside to see a scene that made my heart melt, washing away all the pain I had awoken with.
Greer sat up on the counter, babbling away as Bellamy attempted to do her hair. He was failing miserably, but it was the thought that count.
"Why don't you let me do it?" I offered, giving him a warm smile as I leaned against the door way.
Bellamy jumped slightly, looking over to me with a sheepish look. "I used to do Octavia's hair when we were kids." he admitted. "Guess I've lost my touch."
I let out a small laugh, wrapping my arm around his torso as I lightly took the brush. "Let the master show you how it's done."
"Avery!" Greer cheered excitedly. "Bellamy said he's going to walk with us to school today!"
I rose my brows as I gave her smile. "Did he?" I wondered, looking to Bellamy with affection. "He's awesome like that."
She nodded, looking at us through the mirror. "I'm going to draw another picture for you today." she announced, as if she had just made that decision. "What colour do you want?"
Bellamy grinned as he leaned closer to her, lowering his voice slightly. "What about pink?"
Her eyes lit up as she clapped her hands together, clearly excited that he had chosen that colour. Despite all the pain I was feeling, I couldn't help but beam at the two of them.
Bellamy would be a perfect father. I had always known it, but now I was closer to actually being ready to start a family. Once we were out of Sanctum, and somewhere safe, I knew children were in our near future.
"Okay, Bug." I sighed, finishing with Greer's hair. "Go get your shoes on. Bellamy's going to take you downstairs and get you some breakfast while I get dressed, yeah?"
She nodded, smiling as Bellamy lifted her off of the counter. "Can we have waffles?"
Bellamy grinned. "Anything for you."
As Greer ran out of the bathroom, I turned to Bellamy with a teasing smile. "You've known her for two days and she already has you wrapped around her little finger. What are you going to do when we have a child of our own?"
Her grinned, pulling me in for a kiss. "Spoil that child to death."
"God help us all."
---
Twenty minutes later I was ready and had made my way into the tavern. Emori and Murphy sat at one of the tables, but I refused to look in that direction. I could barely stand to look at Murphy right now. I'm sure he had his reasons, I just didn't understand them.
"Ready?" Bellamy asked as I joined he and Greer. The littler of the two had syrup smeared across her face.
I gave Bellamy an amused look as I picked up a napkin, wiping Greer's face. "Now we are."
Greer insisted on holding both of our hands, and so she dawdled along in between us, a content smile on her face. I admired her innocence, and truthfully I was jealous of it.
As we said goodbye to her at the schoolhouse, my heart ached slightly. This morning with Greer had been a good distraction, but now it was time to face the music.
"I don't want to give her up." I admitted to Bellamy once she was out of our earshot. "Whoever these Children of Gabriel are, how do we know we can trust them?"
Bellamy nodded as he pressed a comforting kiss to my temple, pulling me close. "We don't have to give her up." he promised. "We'll do whatever is best for her."
Sighing, I gave a small nod, crossing my arms over my chest as I watched Greer playing with the other kids in front of the school. "I know I haven't known her long, but I feel like she's my own."
"She's a pretty special little girl."
Tearing my eyes away from Greer, I looked toward Bellamy. "What's the plan for today?" I wondered, wanting to get a head start on getting our asses out of this place.
Bellamy nodded toward the palace. "Miller and I are going to meet with Russell. You should come too. I'd like your input."
Biting down on the inside of my lip, I weighed my options. Did I really want to have any contact with Russell, the murderer of one of my friends, a member of our family.
"Okay." I finally agreed, knowing that some sacrifices needed to be made to get us out of here.
Giving me a small smile, Bellamy took my hand. "Let's go. Miller is going to meet us there."
I felt exceedingly on edge as we made our way toward the palace. No one was paying us anymore mind than they had the day before, or the day before, but it felt like everyone was watching us.
Once we reached the palace, we were led inside. It was a different route than I was led on when I came to see David. Instead of being led downstairs, we were led through the main part of the palace, right toward the throne room.
Miller was waiting there when we arrived. His eyes were locked on Russell, disgust present within.
"Bellamy. Avery." Russell greeted, giving us a a small smile as we entered. It was evident that he was uneasy with our presence. Good.
Bellamy pulled out a notepad and pen, nodding down at the map that was laid out on the table in front of us. "Okay." he muttered. "Let's get started."
Russell looked between the three of us. "I'm truly sorry for what happened to your friend."
"Are you?" I challenged, earning a stern glare from Bellamy. "Couldn't be that sorry or you wouldn't have done it."
Bellamy cleared his throat, cutting me off. "In exchange for ignoring that you murdered Clarke...you build us a compound." he proposed, all of us turning slightly as someone entered the room.
Clarke-Josephine- stood before us, causing Miller, Bellamy and I to wince slightly. It was painful seeing your murdered friend, knowing that it wasn't actually her.
Russell touched at his neck briefly which appeared to be bruised. "What about the mother and child? Will they agree?"
"I'll handle our people." Bellamy assured. His eyes shifted to Miller and I for a moment, as if he was asking for our help in the matter. The two of us gave him a small nod, prompting him to continue. "How long will it take to build?"
Josephine cleared her throat from where she stood, her arms crossed against her chest impatiently.
"Just a moment sweetheart." Russell replied, causing me to cringe.
As Russell turned back to the map, I kept my eyes locked on Josephine. I watched her through a brow furrowed in anger, noting the expression on her face, how she stood. It wasn't Clarke, but it looked like her and that's what hurt the most.
In my study of Josephine, something caught my eye. With her arms still crossed firmly, one of her fingers tapped against the other arm. To someone else it might have just looked like an impatient tick, but I recognized the pattern.
As Russell drawled onto Bellamy about how long it would take, and what we needed to get done to get the process started, I silently reached out and grabbed the notepad from Bellamy. He gave me a confused look, but I quickly dismissed him with a single look.
Refocusing on Josephine, I jotted down the code she was currently tapping on her arm. My hand flew at an accelerated rate, being sure to copy down each part of the pattern.
Josephine quirked a brow at me, evidently unaware of the movement of her finger. She had no idea that she was tapping out morse code against her arm.
Once I had the code copied down, I worked quickly to decipher it, the gears in my brain slowly turning as I attempted to remember what I had learned as a teenager.
One by one, I deciphered the letters
A-L-I-V-E.
Alive. Clarke was alive.
I stifled the gasp that wanted to fly from my lips, as instead lowered the notepad slightly, returning my attention to Russell.
"Bellamy, are we agreed?" He wondered, his eyes on Bellamy, none the wiser that I had made such a revelation moments earlier.
Bellamy nodded. "Yeah. We're good for now."
"Good." Russell acknowledged. "I'll order construction to begin."
That seemed to be our cue to leave, and so I turned and gave Bellamy a light nudge, trying to get us out of there so I could tell the boys what I had discovered.
"One more thing." Russell announced, causing me to fall still. "Avery, it's about the child currently in your care."
I felt my blood run cold as I looked over to him. "What about her?" I demanded, already on the defense.
"Greer Lyall is a child of Sanctum, and as such, she will be placed into our care." Russell explained, a certain challenging tone to his voice.
"No." I argued harshly. "Her father left her to me. She's staying with me."
Bellamy placed a calming hand on the small of my back as I felt myself getting worked up. I was not letting them take Greer.
"Do you think we are concerned with what that traitor wanted?" Russell challenged. "He lost the right to make decisions for his child when he acted against Sanctum."
"You're not taking her." Bellamy stepped in, his face tight in anger. "She's safe with us and it's going to stay that way."
"Oh, come on, daddy." Josephine sighed, drawing all of our attention toward her. "Just let them keep the girl. It's no loss for us."
Russell set his jaw, looking back toward me with dark eyes. "You step one foot out of line and you'll lose her, understand?"
I rose my brows. "You take her from me and I'll tell everyone about how you murdered my friend, understand?"
"Okay." Bellamy interceded, pulling me from the room as Russell's face dropped in shock. "We're done here."
Miller followed closely behind us, all of us jumping slightly as the doors to the throne room were slammed behind us.
Pulling away from Bellamy, I looked to the two boys. Ignoring their amused looks at my threat to Russell, I held up the notepad. "Clarke's alive."
Each of their faces fell as Miller looked at my writing on the page. "What?"
I held out so they could read the code I had deciphered. "Finn taught me morse code when we were thirteen. Josephine was tapping this out on her arm when Russell was speaking, only she had no idea she was doing it."
Bellamy looked completely shocked as he took the notepad from my hands, reading over the letters. "It was Clarke." he concluded.
I nodded, "Clarke's alive and we're going to get her back."
---
Our news of Clarke being alive was quickly relayed to the rest of our group. And less than an hour of us meeting with Russell, we were all sat around a table in the tavern to try and figure out what our next move was.
Bellamy and I had devised a rough plan. We get Josephine out of Sanctum and onto the transport ship. From there, we take her back to the mothership where Abby, Jackson, Raven and I could work at removing Josephine from her head.
It was a plan in which all parts were dependent on the one before, but it could work if we managed to pull it off.
"The question is, how do we get Josephine out?" Bellamy questioned to the group of us. That was the one part of the plan we were unsure of.
"We need Raven." Echo declared. "She'll know what to do."
I nodded, absentmindedly picking at the rough skin around my nails. "I'm assuming it would be something like we did in removing ALIE. But I'm afraid Clarke and Josephine's minds are too intertwined. I wouldn't know how to separate them." Letting out a small sigh I looked to Echo. "So yeah, we need Raven."
"Raven's not here." Madi muttered, tapping at the table in the process of though.
Bellamy looked down at her, giving her a reassuring look. "Hey, we're going to get her back." Turning back to the group, he went over the plan again. "When the transport ship lands, we're going to be waiting in the field with Josephine. Once we're all back on the mothership, Abby, Raven, Jackson and Avery will go to work."
Miller rose the obvious concern. "What if they don't raise the shield to let us out?"
"If they don't, then Josephine dies." Echo answered.
Bellamy nodded. "That's why they will."
"What about Delilah?" Jordan wondered. "If Clarke's still alive, then maybe she is too."
As quickly as we all looked at him, we all looked away. Most of us looked down at our hands, some of us looked at each other. No one wanted to be the one to have to break the news to him.
Jordan was as smart as he looked, and quickly caught onto the group feeling. "You only care about Clarke." he concluded.
"No." I responded, finally looking at him. "But right now, Clarke is the only one we can worry about. The minute we start asking questions, the Primes figure out--"
It was Madi who cut me off, her face set with determination. "They can't figure it out if they're dead.
All of our eyes now shifted to the youngest of the group. With wavering, Madi glanced up at me. "Once we kill the primes, we take over Sanctum. We save Clarke in the lab that was built for it."
"Is that your idea or Sheidheda's?" Bellamy challenged, referencing the Dark Commander that had been battling for control of Madi's mind.
She looked annoyed that he would even question it. "Who cares if it works?"
"Uh, our morality." I challenged. As furious as I was with what they did to Clarke, this was supposed to be our chance to do better, not to go on a murdering spree.
Madi gave me a sidelong glare before speaking again. "I've been surveilling the one called Miranda. We kill her and let them find the body. They'll think it's the Children of Gabriel and panic, locking themselves inside the palace, probably the Great Hall and that's where we'll be waiting to take out the rest."
"We're not killing Delilah." Jordan instantly argued.
Madi barely have him a second glance. "Delilah's already dead."
"We don't know that for sure."
"You're right. But what we do know is that I'm the Commander."
As Jordan gave Madi a slightly confused look, the younger of the two turned back toward the group. "Echo thinks it's a good plan, don't you spy?"
Echo looked taken off guard as she let out a small laugh of awkwardness. "A little aggressive for the situation, but it could work if we were willing to kill all of their people along with them when they come after us for killing their gods."
Madi seemed to falter for a moment before she decided on her response. "We are."
"No, We're not." Bellamy ordered sternly. "Gaia would tell you the same thing if she were here. We have until the ship lands to come up with a quiet way to get Clarke on it."
"What about Murphy and Emori?" Jackson wondered.
Bellamy and I shared a quick look. "For now, we tell them nothing." I answered.
"Emori, too?" Echo demanded.
Bellamy nodded. "We have to assume that she's with him. But don't worry, when it's time to go, we're taking them with us, even if we have to do it by force."
When everyone shared a small look of understanding, I let out a shaky sigh. "Okay." I announced, looking around at my friends. "Let's save Clarke."
-an-
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