"You're a lazy shot." Raven supplies, shrugging her tired shoulders.
Clarke's eyes light up, "Bellamy, don't you see what this means?" She rests a hand against his arm, searching for his eyes. "You're not a murderer. You always did what you had to do to protect your sister. That's who you are."
Ethan misses the puppy-dog look on Bellamy's face when he grabs Clarke's wrist. "That doesn't matter right now, I'll take you." He starts tugging, desperate to get the radio back.
"It's too late!" Bellamy yells, watching them leave.
Clarke tugs her arm back, stopping them both in their path. At first, Ethan thinks she's giving up, but instead she sighs and says, "We'll need some help. I'll take Bellamy, get some volunteers."
Ethan nods, not wasting time. He heads back the way he ran, seeing frantic marks in the dirt.
"Hey, wait up."
He jerks to a stop, turning around to see Raven rushing to catch up. Finn isn't far behind. They flank beside him simultaneously, to which he raises a brow. "What's up?"
"Looks like you got two extra." Finn shoves his hands into his pockets, flashing him a similar smile.
"Awesome." He holds out his hand and sends the girl a toothy smile, "I'm Ethan."
She smirks, "Raven." And with the same energy, grabs his hand and whips it up and down. "You know where you're going?"
When she turns to look ahead, her gaze drifts, looking around in awe, stumbling over sticks and the uneven ground below her feet, too amazed by the trees, sky, and air.
Ethan scratches at the back of his head, slowing down until they stop. "Kind of? I was running from Bellamy, but it was mostly in one straight line."
He points forward. "This way is my best guess." He continues walking.
Finn chuckles, but his eyes are drawn to Raven, staring at her smile.
"Oh," Ethan does a little skip-hop in excitement, then turns, one half of him paying attention to Raven and the other watching where he's stepping. "I bet you're feeling crazy right now with all this freedom. Like Finn on his first day, man, he was climbing on anything he could get his hands on."
Raven whips her head over to an embarrassed Finn and laughs.
"Yeah." Ethan smiles, "Should'a seen him."
He holds up his hands, making the appropriate gesture of a tall structure and Finn atop it. "Jumps down from the drop-ship like some kind of superhero, to stop -" Murphy's unfinished name hangs emptily in the air, "- stop these two kids from starting an all out brawl."
"Oh yeah?" Raven glances at Finn again, reaching over to clutch at his arm. "My hero."
"Down here, you have the freedom to go anywhere." There's a sudden challenge in his eyes, "Last one to the lake is a rotten egg."
Ethan takes off with a loud cackle.
He knows Finn will stay at a pace comfortable for Raven, so she can fully enjoy the journey, but she doesn't humour him and runs without hesitance, taking on the challenge quickly.
She laughs loudly into the breeze, holding her arms out wide to feel it across her skin.
Coming to earth for the first time is euphoric. He remembers those first few hours.
He stops at the edge of the lake and turns back to see the two side by side, a tie when they stop beside him.
"Okay." Ethan starts, pointing to where he stood. He mimicks Bellamy by holding an arm up, ready to throw. "Bellamy's pretty strong so I'm assuming it went far."
He thinks back to what he saw, then throws the imaginary item in his hand. "He threw it that-a-way."
Finn stops him before they venture out, pointing a hand towards his face. "Got a little. . ."
Ethan rubs at his forehead and the dirt clinging to his eyebrow. "Thanks."
The three of them spread out a healthy distance away from each other, moving around the direction he pointed. It was a boring task, but a much-needed one.
He wasn't ashamed to say the water felt nice against his sore feet, and he was smart enough to take his shoes and socks off before he went in.
"Hey, Raven. Mind if I ask you a question?"
"Shoot!" She yells, balancing on the rocks she jumps between.
Ethan nudges a plant with his toe, deemed it unworthy and keeps searching. "You stumble upon my mum by any chance while you were up there?" He points at the sky, keeping his eyes downcast.
"What was her name?"
"Lorelai. She's got like. . . long, brown hair? About this tall-?"
Raven looks at him so quickly he thought she'd get whiplash. "You're her son? Ethan Beckett?"
It's said with such hesitance that he looks up, "Yeah."
He sees her stutter in her search, almost like she wants to move further away but glues herself to the spot instead. Her jaw clenches, she avoids his eyes.
In response to her strange reaction, he immediately jumps to assume it has something to do with his mother and panics.
"My mum okay?"
His heart is racing.
A shiver racks his body and it isn't from the cold water.
Raven snaps out of her weird haze. "Yeah, she's fine."
Ethan releases a breath that cracks halfway through. He'd thought the worst. Another question now remained, what was Raven thinking about?
Stomping through another bit of tricky terrain, Raven continues talking, though she sounds different now. More reserved, less excited. "She's got a good set of eyes and ears. Threatened to dob on me and Abby if we didn't tell her what was going on."
Like she's remembered something, Raven pauses again. "Actually, I uh -" She starts, voice noticeably lower.
Ethan drops the hand from his face.
"I don't know what happened to them after I dropped. There wasn't enough time, the council. . . They were onto us, I was forced to go alone. Your mum - I don't think they knew about her, but Abby. . ."
Ethan swallows harshly, "They might get floated?"
Raven hardens her stare, face settling into something stern. "Not if we can find that radio."
Finn, who had been silently listening for the past five minutes, nods. He slips his hand into hers and squeezes, giving her the support she needed.
Just in time were the volunteers, making it much easier to scour the entire area. Surprising himself, Ethan nudges something shiny under the water with his toe. It lifts a bit in the water, gaining him a clearer view before it sinks again. He releases an excited breath and dives to scoop it out of the shallow water.
"Hey!" He holds it up for Raven to see, who splashes right over to his side.
She tips it back and forth as the others come to join them, draining water and pulling seaweed out from its innards. He was beginning to notice the tensing over her jaw, the shake of her head and the narrow of her eyes. It's a bad sign.
"Can you fix it?" Clarke asks the question he was too scared to.
"Maybe," She sighs, "It'll take half a day just for it to dry out the components to see what's broken."
"Like I said. It's too late."
Ethan swivels his glare towards Bellamy like a laser, "Shut up."
Meeting his glare with a lazy tilt of the head, Bellamy doesn't blink. Ethan can't tell if he's acting this way in defence or if this is just him in general.
He heaves a breath and jabs a finger at him. "This isn't just about us, Bellamy. Our parents, innocent people, can die if this doesn't work out."
Almost kicking up the dust in her haste, Clarke circles Ethan to get to Bellamy. "Do you even care?"
"You asked me to help." He says, "I helped."
"Three hundred people are gonna die today because of you!"
Ethan takes a dizzying step back, balancing himself enough to sit on the nearest boulder.
"Hold up," Raven starts, lowering the radio with something else in mind, "We don't have to talk to the Ark. We just have to let them know we're down here."
Ethan lifts his head to follow her, "How?"
Raven grins, showing off her rows of pearly white teeth. She meets his eyes. "Ever heard of fireworks?"