┍━━━━ ⋆｡˚☽˚｡⋆ ━━━━┑
CRIME,
CRIME,
CRIME!
┕━━━━ ⋆｡˚☽˚｡⋆ ━━━━┙
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IT'S EIGHT IN the morning and Lyra is starting to think she actually might have a coffee problem.
She hasn't slept at all; instead she's drunk two thermos's of the scalding liquid. Coffee keeps you constantly vigilant. Which is good. Lyra needs to be constantly vigilant now. Whatever operation Chancellor Pike is running is getting closer and closer to getting them all killed ━━ if she's constantly awake and alert, no more surprises. She'll be hyperaware of everything that's going on in this camp.
Sinclair had been with her in engineering until around eleven. Then it had just been her for hours that felt like days, tinkering around with various scrap metal. He'd come back at around seven in the morning and said;
"Wow, early morning?"
"Yes!" She'd exclaimed, a little too enthusiastically.
He looked at her. "You didn't go to sleep last night."
"Nope!"
And then Sinclair promptly proceeded to kick her out of engineering ━━ which was rude, by the way, and Lyra's taken it very personally ━━ and Lyra didn't know what to do with herself, which has brought here here, to the med-bay. Which, in hindsight, is probably where she needs to be. Her burns haven't fully healed yet. But whatever.
Swinging her legs back and forth, she's on top of one of the flat-top treatment tables. It's a fairly cluttered but surprisingly vast chamber, overflowing with rusted cabinets and refrigerated storing units for medicines, all charred and half-crumbling due to Alpha Station's violent re-entry through the atmosphere. The med-bay ceiling hangs over her head, lights flickering dimly overhead. She wonders if she can add more power to the circuit board and somehow make them brighter.
Then she almost screams.
The absolute worst thing that could ever happen to her happens.
Her coffee spills.
She stares at the growing coffee puddle on the ground as thermos clatters against the floor. Her eyelids flutter shut and she grips the table tighter, telling herself that it is absolutely not appropriate to go into the med-bay and become hysterical about spilled coffee. Abby might just end up throwing Lyra in lockup, too.
"I'll get it!" Jackson calls, coming over with a fresh set of bandages. "You know, you were supposed to come to medical yesterday. These burns need antibiotics."
Letting out a quiet hiss as he unwraps the gauze from her wrists, Lyra quickly looks away. She isn't particularly interested in seeing her own charred flesh at eight in the morning.
"Well, I'm a little busy. Pike is trying really, really hard to get us all killed. Which is kind of, like, an issue."
Jackson looks like he has something to say, then gives a defeated shrug of his shoulders. It's not as if Lyra's wrong. Trying to focus on anything other than the stinging pain as Jackson rubs the icy ointment into her raw skin, Lyra starts to look around the med-bay. There's only one other patient aside from her, Raven. The mechanic is on a flat-top treatment table about a dozen feet away with Abby crouched so that she is level with Raven's bad leg, examining it thoroughly.
"How about now? Anything?"
"Nope. All good," says Raven. "Pain's gone."
Lyra's eyes widen. Raven sounds happy.
Abby's brow furrows. "Your leg — "
"Still doesn't work. I know," says Raven easily as Abby rises to her feet. She seems entirely unconcerned, almost carefree. "I just don't hurt anymore."
She goes for her brace, but Abby stops her with a hand to her chin. "Hey, hold on." Abby raises a small light, shining it in Raven's unblinking eyes as the mechanic complied without complaint. "Pupils aren't dilated."
"Jaha gave me the key to the City of Light, Abby, not drugs."
"Wait!" Lyra blurts, jumping from the treatment table to the ground without meaning too and Jackson makes a small noise of annoyance. She ignores him, crossing the med-bay in a few quick strides. "You took the chip?"
Raven gives her a vivid smile. "Sure did. Why wouldn't I?"
"Well. . . it's a little weird, isn't it?" Lyra asks with a little frown, unsure of herself now as Raven just keeps smiling. "Jaha leaves for three months, the twelve people he went with are missing, and John Murphy is gone, too. And then he just promises to fix all of us by inhibiting certain neural pathways from firing. That's, like, definitely weird. . . right?"
"What's so weird about wanting to save people?" Raven asks, looking almost amused. "You of all people should understand that. Aren't you happy for me?"
"I am," says Lyra quickly, flushing. "I just. . . I dunno."
"It's just unusual for pain to subside this quickly," Abby fills in for her as she strides back over, paperwork in hand. "I'm more concerned with what the blood tests will say."
"So," Raven is still grinning as she slides off the table. "Am I all clear?"
"Apparently," says Abby reluctantly. "Let Sinclair know that I said it was OK for you to go back to work, but you're benched again if I find anything abnormal in those tests."
Lyra finds herself hoping that Abby doesn't find anything abnormal at all.
"You won't," promises Raven with a sweet smile. "Thanks, doc."
Then, much to Lyra's shock, Raven leaves the med-bay. Well. That's not exactly the shocking part. The shocking part is this ━━ Raven's limp is gone. Before she can stop herself, Lyra is scrambling after her, ignoring Jackson's shouts about how her wounds need to be redressed and that engineers are the most difficult people he's ever had to work with.
"Raven, wait!"
Raven turns at once, giving Lyra a broad grin. "What's up, Spacewalker?"
"I, uh, just wanted to ask," begins Lyra anxiously, not exactly what she wants to say. She fiddles with her thumbs nervously, but Raven only gives her an encouraging smile. "This City of Light thing, you're really happy, right? So it was, uh. . . it was worth it?"
"Of course it is. I — " begins Raven enthusiastically. She looks like she has something else to say, then tilts her head with a frown. "You used to go by Jupiter-Franko, didn't you?"
"Not officially," says Lyra. "But now it's just Jupiter for my dad. Why?"
It takes a moment for Raven to respond. Her brow is creased, and then she shakes her head, even though Lyra hasn't said anything. "I get it. Key to everything. But Franko doesn't necessarily mean — "
"Lyra! We've been looking for you everywhere!"
Whirling around, Lyra finds herself face-to-face with Nate and Kane. Kane, the one who'd shouted her name, is frowning at her.
"Where the hell have you been? Pike's detail is getting bolder. Octavia caught them collecting soil and water samples just an hour ago. We aren't sure what they're up too, but they were willing to kill a Grounder kid to keep it quiet."
Horrified, Lyra's eyes widen. "I'm sorry, sir. I was in engineering, and then the med-bay — "
"Never mind all that," he says quickly, haphazardly scanning the hall for any eavesdroppers. "Pike's out of office right now and that means we need to move while we still have time. Did you build the bug?"
"Yeah. Spent all night on it."
Digging around in the pocket of her bomber jacket, it takes Lyra a moment to produce the bug she'd worked on last night. It's a flattened spherical shape, patched together from spare radio and walkie-talkie pieces she's hoping won't be missed. Since Pike's Chancellor now, he'll have full authority to bench her if finds even the smallest reason too.
Kane takes it, then frowns. "What's that?"
"Oh, uh, nothing," says Lyra quickly. She'd accidentally taken the chip out too. Before him or Nate can ask her anything, she shoves it back into her pocket. "OK. Let's go."
They start down the corridor. Before they round the corner, Lyra looks at Raven again.
The mechanic's brows are knit in confusion. For the first time all morning, she doesn't look happy, but instead some sort of confused. She looks like she might be talking to someone, but Lyra doesn't see anyone else there.
"This is just like that time we broke into Dante's office," she whispers to Nate, starting to grin a little.
"You're a bad influence on me," he retorts, but she can him trying not to grin back.
A guard passes by, someone else Lyra doesn't know by name, and Kane's features darken slightly. "You both need to step aside if someone answers."
"I told you," Nate mutters from the corner of his mouth as the corridor ceases and they find themselves standing at a thick metal slab that is the door, a keypad gleaming an electric blue just beside it. "No one's home."
Regardless, Kane knocks. Nate starts to laugh under his breath.
"What?" Kane asks.
"Bet you didn't think we'd all be committing crime together when you arrested us on the Ark, huh?"
A scowl crawls across Kane's face and he grabs Nate by the collar, hoisting him forwards. "This is not a game, Nate. If we don't find out what Pike's up to, more people will die."
"Then let's not get caught," Nate says evenly.
Kane gives a curt nod, starting to press the code into the keypad.
While he does that, Lyra tries very, very hard not to look at Nate. But she can't stop herself and when she does, she can't help but make a face and mouth, This is not a game, Nate.
He has to turn around, knuckles pressed over his mouth to stop from laughing. His shoulders are shaking.
Then, from further down the corridor, a disembodied male voice gruffly announces, "Chancellor Pike. Good to see you."
Footsteps thud down the opposite end of the corridor. The Chancellor's office is tucked around a small corner and so no one's seen them yet, but they're all properly fucked if anyone trails any further down the passageway. There's not exactly any reason for Lyra, Kane, and Nate to be loitering by the Chancellor's office and Pike'll have them all thrown in lockup faster then Lexa can say Jus drein jus daun. It doesn't help that Pike has been demanding an interrogation with Lyra since yesterday, either. Noah's the only thing that's stopped him so far, but Lyra isn't even sure how long that'll last.
The door slides open. Lyra strains to hear what Pike is saying, and then her face falls. Though she can't quite make out what he's saying, she'd know the sound of his voice anywhere. Bellamy is with Pike.
"Put this somewhere smart, out of sight," Kane is whispering, thrusting the bug into Nate's hands. "I'll buy you two some time."
Nate slips into the Chancellor's office. But Lyra ignores Kane's instructions, instead taking off down the corridor before he can stop her. He curses under his breath, then takes off after her.
Skidding to a halt just before she smacks into them, Lyra takes some satisfaction in the way Bellamy's eyes widen in alarm. Mainly because this is the first time they've seen each other since yesterday when he, y'know, tried to fucking arrest her.
"There you are," calls Kane, just behind her. "We need to talk about these things Jaha's distributing."
Catching on quickly, Lyra nods vehemently and pulls out the chip. "He say these inhibit certain neural pathways from firing. I think that's cause for some concern — "
"I don't," says Pike curtly, looking like he doesn't want to be involved in this narrative at all. "That's Abby's department. I have much more immediate concerns."
Him and Bellamy try to step around them, but Kane starts speaking again. "Like the imprisoned Grounders?"
"Interned," Pike corrects him impatiently. "For their safety as well as ours."
Lyra stares. "Safety? They're sick."
"They came here for our help," Kane agrees, just as Pike is turning to walk away from them again. "If we're not going to give it to them, we should at least send them home."
"They're a liability," says Bellamy gruffly. "Let them go, they'll tell their people what they know about us — our defenses and capabilities."
Lyra starts to frown. "Lincoln is in lockup."
"No, the enemy is in lockup," retorts Pike.
"Not all Grounders are the enemy," says Kane lowly.
"Kane, we've been through this, alright?" Pike looks incredibly frustrated by now, pivoting to face Kane head on. "The election decided it."
Nate turns the corner briskly, head ducked low as he strides past Bellamy. But he gives Lyra a discreet jerk of his head and she feels some semblance of relief. At least something is going right.
Kane catches it too, and he also seems more at ease. "Public opinion is a funny thing, Charles."
Pike scoffs lowly, turning his back on them. "My job is to keep us safe, not to be liked."
"Then keep up the good work!" Kane calls after him.
Lyra stifles a laugh ━━ Kane's been spending way too much time with her dad.
At the last moment, Bellamy stops following Pike and instead turns to face her. His expression is pained as he takes a hesitant step forwards. "Lyra — "
Before he can say anything else, she turns her back on him and hurries down the corridor. She has nothing to say to him.
Well. Nothing good, anyways.
͙*̩̩͙˚̩̥̩̥*̩̩̥͙ ✩ *̩̩̥͙˚̩̥̩̥*̩̩͙‧͙ .·͙*̩̩͙˚̩̥̩̥*̩̩̥͙ ✩ *̩̩̥͙˚̩̥̩̥*̩̩͙‧͙
HALF AN HOUR later, Lyra sits at a table across from Nate and Kane, all three of them wearing identical perturbed expressions. Lyra's palms and forearms ache terribly, and she'd ended up going back to medical to get them re-bandaged. Jackson had scolded her for what felt like ages before she at last distracted him by going Ooh, look at that. He'd looked and she'd ran for it. Of course, she feels considerably better now that the ointment is fully applied, so maybe the trip to the med-bay wasn't actually that bad after all.
Kane's mouth is pressed together in a firm line as Pike's voice crackles through the radio. He's having some sort of war-meeting in his office.
"OK, let's get this meeting started. Welcome Farm Station's own Monty Green and factory girl, Zoe Monroe, as we begin our next crucial phase: expansion and salvation. And this will lead the way."
Lyra's jaw drops and she and Nate exchange stunned looks. Pike has Monroe and Monty on his side?
It sounds as if he's holding something up and Lyra wishes she was smart enough to figure out how to get cameras in there.
It's Monroe that speaks next: "Dirt?"
"Soil," answers Pike. "Fertile, arable soil. Vastly more rich than anything we've found since landing. We'll clear the trees and plants within the month."
"We start with soybeans and corn. They grow the fastest."
That voice is undeniably Hannah, Monty's mom. Lyra wonders if she might've had something to do with getting Monty on Pike's side. Then she starts to wonder how Hannah and Monty could even be related at all. They're just so different.
"What's wrong, Monty? Don't like corn?" Bryan, Nate's boyfriend, asks. Nate's face falls when he hears him.
"I've never had corn, actually," Monty responds coolly, and it sounds as if he's moving to point at something. "Is this where we're going?"
Pike answers. "That's right."
"There's a village here," says Monty. "What about the people who live here?"
"Sector 4. We talked about this. The people there are not a threat."
At the sound of Bellamy's voice, Lyra stiffens.
"We need that land," Pike argues. "With the loss of Mount Weather's resources, Arkadia will be starving in less than a year."
The double meaning in his words is painfully obvious; Pike is going to destroy that village. Kane's jaw slackens, Nate shakes his head in numb disbelief. Slumping back into her chair, Lyra cannot stop the nausea from gnawing at the pits of her stomach. So a peacekeeping army hadn't been enough for Pike after all ━━ he wants to kill men, women, children. Innocents.
From Bellamy's tone, she can tell he's come to the same conclusion. The only difference is that he doesn't seem to want to admit it to himself.
"With all due respect, sir, you still haven't answered Monty's question."
"You know the answer," comes Pike's toneless response. "Every field must be cleared of stones before it's tilled."
Stomach twisting itself into impossible knots, Lyra scowls fiercely at the radio, as if somehow Pike will feel her anger radiating through it. But she knows that any minute now, Bellamy is going to say something. Even he won't let Pike go this far.
"We were spotted by a child, so they'll be expecting us," says Hannah sharply. "Thanks to Noah, we didn't end up catching him."
"I already told you," comes Noah's apologetic voice. "I didn't mean to fall on top of you, I tripped!"
Lyra feels a flash of satisfaction; at least her dad had somehow managed to wheedle his way into Pike's group without raising suspicion. And, in his apology, she can hear his amusement. The sarcasm is suppressed, but it's there all the same and, judging from the way Kane's mouth twitches upwards, Kane has noticed it too.
"Enough," says Bellamy. "I trust Noah. He's on our side."
At that, Lyra tries not to grimace.
"Well, as I said, they'll be expecting us," comes Hannah's barely-controlled retort. "But they lost their fighters when we took out the army. We don't expect resistance."
"They're Grounders," says Monty lowly. "They'll resist."
"Even if they don't, the Commander's message was clear," begins Bellamy, his voice rising in urgency. "Blood must not have blood. That doesn't mean we can start taking — "
Finally, Lyra thinks. Finally Bellamy is realizing what complete bullshit Pike is up to.
But Pike interrupts him. "What would you prefer, die fighting for your home or starve to death? Will you do what needs to be done for your people to survive or not?"
There's a long pause.
Say it, Lyra thinks, eyes narrowing at the radio. Come on, Bell, say it!
And at long last, he says, quietly;
"I'll do what needs to be done."
Lyra's stomach drops.
͙*̩̩͙˚̩̥̩̥*̩̩̥͙ ✩ *̩̩̥͙˚̩̥̩̥*̩̩͙‧͙ .·͙*̩̩͙˚̩̥̩̥*̩̩̥͙ ✩ *̩̩̥͙˚̩̥̩̥*̩̩͙‧͙
"YOU KNOW, YOU missed a lot of good Bellamy moments while you spent three months playing Grounder."
Lyra glances over at Nate as they pick their way through the rain-drenched emerald undergrowth of the forest. "Yeah?"
"Oh, yeah," he gives her an almost scary smirk. "Every morning he was training with Lincoln. Both of them would get shirtless and then they would just fight. It was pretty hot. The room, I mean. Lotta sweat."
She laughs. "I'm telling Bryan you said that."
"C'mon, LJ! Don't pretend that doesn't turn you on!"
Deciding not to comment on that, Lyra starts to jog towards the black mouth of the cave a few dozen feet up ahead. There's the sound of something like steel being cut against steel and a moment later, as she enters the doom and gloom, she finds Octavia sharpening her silver sword. Upon catching sight of them, Octavia jumps to her feet.
"Finally! Where's my horse?"
"Outside," Nate grumbles. "Nice to see you, too."
Ignoring him, Octavia starts to jog back into the sunlight.
"Yeah, yeah, keep running!" Lyra gasps out, hands on her knees as she draws a ragged breath. "It's fine. It's not like I ran as fast as I could to get here."
"Octavia, wait a second!" Nate calls after her, just as Octavia's briefly turning around. "You actually think that a bunch of Grounders are gonna give up their home because you asked them too?"
"If it's that or be wiped out, maybe!" She rounds on Lyra. "How's Lincoln?"
"Alive," says Lyra. "But Pike's trying to cut off my access to the prisoners. I think he found out I gave Denae medicine."
"OK, then what if they don't leave?" Nate demands, going back to the topic of the Grounders village. "Then we're leading our people into an ambush. Maybe if you just talked to your brother — "
"My brother is on the wrong side," Octavia snaps.
"So what, then we don't even try?"
"Um, I did try," Lyra points out. "He tried to arrest me!"
"What do you think happens when Lexa finds out that Skaikru massacred another Grounder village?" Octavia asks Nate lowly.
"War," he says in quiet defeat. "More dead friends."
Octavia nods. "Stop the attack. Stop a war."
With that, she takes off.
"Great," mumbles Lyra. "Now that we're inspired."
"We better get back to Arkadia," says Nate, his face ashen. Gone is any amusement; now he only looks anxious. "Pike's keeping a close eye on your ass. He'll notice if you're gone for too long. And I want to see them before they head out."
"See Bryan, you mean?" She guesses, and he nods. "They'll be all right. Octavia will convince the Grounders to leave. We won't be leading them into an ambush."
But as she says this out loud, she realizes she isn't sure who she's trying to convince more; Nate or herself.
͙*̩̩͙˚̩̥̩̥*̩̩̥͙ ✩ *̩̩̥͙˚̩̥̩̥*̩̩͙‧͙ .·͙*̩̩͙˚̩̥̩̥*̩̩̥͙ ✩ *̩̩̥͙˚̩̥̩̥*̩̩͙‧͙
IT'S LATE AT night when Bellamy finally finds her.
Lyra, as per usual, is hidden away in engineering. Toying with various scrap metals as she tries to keep herself out of her own head. She's suspended in the soft silver lamplight as pale shadows twist all around her, almost ghostly in her silence. The skies outside gleam a violet so deep that it is nearly an inky black, the outside world distorted and blurred by darkness. A few stars pockmark the skies like tiny shimmering soldiers, defending the dark abyss.
Footsteps echo further down the hall and she straightens in alarm, scrambling for an excuse to give Sinclair. But it's not Sinclair looming in the shadowy threshold; it's Bellamy.
A heartbeat passes as they regard each other. Lyra's expression is frozen, an emotionless mask. But Bellamy's breath is ragged, his eyes narrowed with wild desperation.
"Tell me it wasn't you."
She isn't sure what he's talking about, so she tilts her head as if to say, Go on. He does.
"Tell me it wasn't you," he repeats roughly, stalking as close as he dares to her. "The Grounders knew we were coming. We went right into an ambush. Someone told them about the plan."
A heartbeat. And then ━━
"It wasn't me."
"You're a terrible liar" Bellamy breathes, recoiling as if she's burnt him. He looks infuriated. "How could you?"
"Because this is crazy!" Lyra exclaims hotly. "Massacring an army is one thing but going after an innocent village? They didn't do anything! What was I supposed to do — let you kill them, too?"
"Monroe is dead," he snaps, his face thunderous. "We headed right into a trap. They killed her, thanks to you."
Her jaw drops. For a moment it feels as if she cannot breathe as she grows paler and paler; if she gets much whiter, she'll look like the moon. Desperately she searches Bellamy's face for any faint flicker of deception. Maybe this is him trying to guilt her. Maybe Pike wants him to manipulate her.
But there is nothing.
She slumps back in defeat, a shockwave rolling through her body. "I. . . I. . . "
He halts in his tracks; he'd just been pacing back and forth like a wild animal. Facing her with eyes hard as steel, his jaw clenches irately, his mask dark as he stares her down furiously.
"You might not be the enemy, but you need to stop acting like you're the good guy," Bellamy snaps. "Because when you try to be the hero, people die."
With that, he whirls around and marches back into the corridors of Alpha Station, leaving Lyra alone to duel with demons she has spent three months trying to conquer on her own.
When you try to be the hero, people die.
Excuses are stuck in her throat, gluey on her tongue. Suddenly it hurts to even think. Her hands begin to tremble as she chokes back a sob. A small piece of her heart begins to wither and then the organ itself is shriveling, blackening, breaking. She isn't sure what she'd rather do. Curl in on herself and weep, or maybe even run again. It's raining now, she can hear the bitter howl of the winds and the incessant assault of droplets against the hull of Alpha Station; maybe she can drown in something other than her own thoughts.
Unconsciously, she shivers, then shoves her hands into her pockets.
Something solid grazes her fingertips. Slowly, stiffly, her fingers grasp the chip. The hexagonal object sits flat in her palm and she brings it closer and closer until it is all that she can see.
The key to the City of Light is at her fingertips. . .
͙*̩̩͙˚̩̥̩̥*̩̩̥͙ ✩ *̩̩̥͙˚̩̥̩̥*̩̩͙‧͙ .·͙*̩̩͙˚̩̥̩̥*̩̩̥͙ ✩ *̩̩̥͙˚̩̥̩̥*̩̩͙‧͙
Lyra's Kill Count: 439
(Even tho she didn't kill Monroe, both her and Bellamy are blaming her for it.)
not worried at all because i already know if lyra takes the chip or not... y'all sleep well tho 😌😌
anyway,,, 4.1k words