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RETURN OF THE REAPER
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THEY ARE SENTENCED to death by a monster playing man.
A thunderstorm is clawing at Lyra's throat as she is chained to the metal stool in the gloomy chamber. Her hands are still twisted behind her back as the sickly light flickers overhead, casting everything in that nauseous yellow half-sickle moon glow. Silhouetted in raw black shadows is Pike as he stands before her and Kane, who is chained just beside her; she cannot bring herself to look at him. They are being arrested and it is all her fault.
"As you know, the terms of martial law and of the Exodus Charter give me both latitude and ultimate authority in determining your punishment," drawls Pike, his voice fatal with derision as he stares them down. "Do either of you have anything to say for yourselves?"
To hide the pain puddling in her eyes, Lyra dips her eyes to the steel table dividing them. She can feel Bellamy's gaze pressing in on her, but she cannot bear to see the look on his face right now.
"I admire your adherence to the law," begins Kane softly. "I really do. But there are times when we have to look beyond the rules. To realise they were established to serve a rule of the past. Not of the future. I beg you one last time to see the world as it is. Not as it was. Or as you want it to be."
Pike shakes his head scornfully. "And I hope you believe that if I thought for one minute that turning myself over to the enemy would secure the safety of our people, I would do it. But only a deluded man would believe that."
It has worked before, Lyra thinks. She has not forgotten what Clarke did to the boy she loved.
"And only a guilty man would try and tell him so," finishes Pike before he rises, a cruel triumph glittering inside his beady eyes. "Marcus Kane! For the crimes of treason, kidnapping, and attempted murder, I hereby sentence you to death."
Lyra's stomach plummets.
"Take him," orders Pike and Noah emerges from the darkest corner, his face unreadable.
"As for you, Lyra Jupiter. . . "
For the first time, Noah speaks up, his tone flat and dead. Lyra knows he is struggling to play the part, to act like he's still with Pike even now. "Sir, to arrest Marcus is one thing. But he manipulated Lyra. She's just a kid."
"They haven't been kids since the day we sent them down here to die," retorts Pike coldly.
"She's seventeen!" Bellamy blurts loudly from where he stands. There is a wild, almost crazed look in his glassy eyes as he rounds on Pike. "She's seventeen, on the Ark she would've been sent to the Skybox for review at eighteen, they wouldn't float her — "
" — but this is not the Ark."
Any contempt Pike might have held now darkens into malice. He faces her with such a fiery hatred that she almost winces. And when he speaks, his words are harsh and unforgiving, echoing off the colourless walls that cage her in;
"Lyra Jupiter! For the crimes of treason, kidnapping, and attempted murder, I hereby sentence you to death."
͙*̩̩͙˚̩̥̩̥*̩̩̥͙ ✩ *̩̩̥͙˚̩̥̩̥*̩̩͙‧͙ .·͙*̩̩͙˚̩̥̩̥*̩̩̥͙ ✩ *̩̩̥͙˚̩̥̩̥*̩̩͙‧͙
LYRA WILL NOT let herself become hopeless.
As she sits there in the gloomy cell, she clings to that hope with all the power that she has left. Clutching in the deepest part of her where not even Pike can snuff it out as if it is a candle. Hope had seen her through the terrible, terrible night that had stretched onwards for what felt like eons. Hope will see her through this cruel day and it will help them all survive.
Because, as she never is, she is not alone even in her most malevolent hour. Lincoln, Sinclair, and Kane had been by her side all night. But now the sun has risen, the warm morning rays oozing through the gaps in the ceilings and walls, streaking the cell in dust gold. And yet beyond all that honeyed warmth is only depthless darkness; she tries her best to push through it.
"Nyko doceri yu chek."
Nyko taught you well.
Lifting her head from her hands, Lyra curls her knees into her chest to look out across the cell. The Trikru woman, Denae, is wrapping one of the other Grounder's legs in gauze. Lincoln had been the one who'd spoken to her, standing overhead with his arms braided across his chest.
Denae doesn't glance up. "Nyko de mra disse she kashi."
Nyko got out just in time.
Crouching down to be eye-level with his people, Lincoln grasps their shoulders bracingly. "Ste yuj."
Stay strong.
"You inspire them," remarks Kane lowly as Lincoln crosses the cell, shuffling towards where Kane is sat across a small bench, his shoulders slumped in defeat. Lyra is just a few feet away, curled against the wall.
Lincoln exhales slowly, coming to sit beside Kane. "I'm not gonna let you give up, either."
"Not much left to fight for," admits Kane and his hand, quivering, scarred, and faintly warm curls around Lyra's shoulder. She does not brush him away. "Pike's still at large. He's going to fight a war to get us all killed. And I've gotten a child sentenced to death."
"S'OK," says Lyra and she gives him a humorless smile. "It's not my first time."
He flinches. "I owe you an apology, Lyra. For everything that happened to you on the Ark. If I hadn't arrested you for your mother. . . everything would've been different. I'm truly sorry."
And he does sound truly apologetic. He seems exhausted when he lifts his head to look her in the eyes, his wrinkles more prominent than ever.
"Don't be," she says quietly. "Not all of it was bad. Some of it was. . . good. I wouldn't change any of it."
That seems to offer some relief to Kane, and though his shoulders sag further, it's not from the weight of what he's done. Her lips curl upwards.
"Besides, it's nice not to be alone this time."
"Chancellor on deck!"
Head snapping upwards, Lyra hardly has a moment to brace herself before Chancellor Pike is striding into view. A squadron of guards stream behind him, and then there, at his left side, is Bellamy. A conglomerate of emotions brew within his dark eyes as he gazes at Lyra, and she does not even try to put a name to any of them. She isn't quite sure she wants to know what he is feeling.
"Stay down," Kane whispers to Lyra. "My death might be enough for him. Charles is many things, but he is not an executioner."
Wearily, Kane rises to his feet, walking forwards.
"I'm not here for you," Pike informs him, his beady eyes sweeping across the cage. "Each of you is guilty of the same crimes as Kane and Jupiter, and as such, you will share the same fate. . . death."
Lyra feels as if she has been struck. Executing her is one thing, but all of them?
Denae shoots to her feet. "Chit ste em asto?"
What is he saying?
"Nolite ergo," Lincoln says quietly, jerking an arm out to keep her from confronting Pike. He ambles towards the front of the cell, eyes sullen. "My people are innocent. They know nothing. Don't let them suffer for my crimes. Please."
Bellamy, whose gaze has been downcast and deeply troubled up to this point, now turns to Pike. "Sir, Lincoln's right. All the others did was run through an open door, same thing we would do if we were in there."
"I believe that's true," says Pike after a heavy beat. "Kane, Lyra, Lincoln, Sinclair. As the leaders of this coup, you will pay for your crimes with your lives. Execution is set for dawn."
Something inside Lyra withers and she sinks into silence as Pike starts to walk off. His step is easy, as if he has not just handed four people, one of them a child, death sentences.
"Wait!" Lyra calls after him before she can stop herself. Pike fixes her with a cold look and she fights the urge to shiver. Her voice comes out all scratchy even though she doesn't want it to be. "My dad. . . where is he?"
He looks mildly surprised by the question. Maybe he'd expected her to plead for her own life. But she doesn't have it in her to beg.
"Nobody has seen your father since last night," he informs her coolly. "We believe he left camp out to find Octavia Blake and enlist help from her Grounder allies."
With that, he and his entourage leave them.
Only Bellamy lingers behind.
Walking slowly and excruciatingly towards the bars that divide them, he flattens his hands against the iron as if meaning to tear them into two. He looks like he might say something, but the guards drifting in and out of lockup prevent him from opening his bloodless lips. She feels unresponsive as she stares hollowly back at him.
Then, with a stormy intensity in his eyes, he lifts his fingers and raps something against the iron bars.
Morse code.
I won't let them kill you. I promise.
Lyra's breath catches for a moment. She takes in his face, so sincere and intentional, his stormy eyes that always act on nothing but instinct. She wants nothing more than to believe him and, for one foolish moment, she does let herself believe him.
Then she remembers everything that has happened and suddenly, she isn't so sure anymore.
But there is no time to question him. Pike is shouting his name from further down the corridor. "Bellamy!"
"Coming, sir!"
And then Bellamy is trotting after Pike, ever his faithful little lapdog.
͙*̩̩͙˚̩̥̩̥*̩̩̥͙ ✩ *̩̩̥͙˚̩̥̩̥*̩̩͙‧͙ .·͙*̩̩͙˚̩̥̩̥*̩̩̥͙ ✩ *̩̩̥͙˚̩̥̩̥*̩̩͙‧͙
HOURS DRAG ON endlessly without another word from Bellamy Blake, and Lyra can feel her heart starting to break.
Shadows grow as darkness steals away over the world outside of her cell. The chamber is infested with black. In spite of the misery swelling within her ribcage, Lyra struggles to hold onto her persona, to stay the star girl crafted from moonbeams with supernovae in her blood. But as Kane is released briefly to speak with Abby by Pike's good graces and Bellamy does not once come for her, Lyra can feel herself beginning to spiral endlessly, descending into that suffocating hopelessness.
Huddled in an almost fetal position in the corner, she fights to keep herself together. Beside her, face swarthy with shadows, Kane has pushed up his sleeve to trace the coalition mark branded into his pale skin.
"Could've worked," says Lincoln, watching.
Kane looks up, briefly surprised, then speaks tiredly. "Death can be an act of unity, too. We don't break. We don't show fear. The people will remember."
"Chancellor on deck!"
Pike walks stiffly through the corridors amidst his entourage. "It's time."
Sinclair helps Lyra to her feet. Her bones groan in disgruntlement, back stiff, shoulders throbbing. A part of her is aching with misery, as if her heart is pumping despair through her veins rather than blood, and she can feel a frigid ice seeping through her bones. If she hadn't been so tormented by shame at the fact that she's the one who got them all caught, she might have started to cry out of fear. Because there is no part of her that is ready to die. Not yet.
Her eyes are glassy as she looks to Sinclair. "I'm sorry, boss. I think. . . I think I might've really screwed things up for us this time."
But he shakes his head vehemently. "C'mon, kid. The Lyra Jupiter I know doesn't give up so easy."
Across the chamber, Denae bolts to her feet.
"Emo're hir kom teik mr away," Lincoln informs her coarsely, casting an edgy glance at Pike as his people face him fearfully. "Yu souda nou resist."
Theyre here to take me away. You must not resist.
"Ai laz't vijazerat em without yu!" Denae blurts, droplets shaking from her eyes.
"Listen tat anna," orders Lincoln lowly as guards mass at the entrance to the cell, typing the passcode into the keypad. "Yu laik a gona. Ste yuj."
Listen to me. You are a warrior. Stay strong.
"Ge smak daun, gyon op nodotaim," chants Lyra under her breath, fists clenching. Some part of her becomes defiant again as Lincoln casts her an almost grateful look. "Ge smak daun, gyon op nodotaim."
Get knocked down, stand back up.
"Back up. Against the wall — now!"
Lyra obeys Pike without question. Costa grabs her by her shoulders and roughly yanks her away from Sinclair, so fast that she nearly face plants. Her arms are twisted behind her back so painfully that it feels as if they are being removed from their sockets, and she can feel thick steel shackles banding them together.
She thinks of the day she was arrested on the Ark. The the last day Costa cuffed her ━━ launch day. But Bellamy had been the one to free her from her cell.
But he is not here now.
Costa presses a gun up against the back of her head and she is marched into the hallway. Lincoln, Kane, and Sinclair are somewhere behind her. Unable to even twist her head to look at them, she continues to stumble ahead roughly as the entourage of guards surround them. Pike marches ahead, completely rigid.
"Make way!" He calls sharply.
"Yes, sir, Mr. Chancellor!" Someone says and Lyra's eyes widen as Harper flattens herself against the wall to let them pass.
Then, so fast that Lyra almost thinks she imagined it, Harper gives a jerky nod of her head.
Hope flickers deep within her.
Not even a heartbeat later, Pike's walkie beeps loudly. He raises it to his ear as something cackles amidst the static, but it's too far off for Lyra to hear. Whirling around, he tilts the barrel of his rifle towards them as his features darken.
"On their knees!"
A gun is pressed to the back of her head as if she is a criminal and Lyra falls to her knees at once. She supposes that's what she is. A criminal. Jaha had promised that their crimes would be forgiven if they'd survived the ground, but nothing has ever really changed. She has always been a criminal.
"We're going to get you out of here," Kane hisses from the corner of his mouth. "We will. I swear."
"Can you confirm a location?" Pike growls into the walkie, beginning to stalk back and forth across the small corridor.
There's a beat. Then, Hannah's voice: "Negative, sir."
"Sir, we can assume her friends have already told her where we're taking them," Bryan calls out, stepping forward from where he'd previously been guarding Sinclair. "We shouldn't go any further until we know the route's secure."
Relief rushes through Lyra. Octavia. It must be.
And if Octavia's here, that must mean that she is working with Bellamy.
"Put them in there!" Pike barks after having considered Bryan's words, jerking his rifle at a nearby dormitory. "Let's go, move!"
"Come on, let's go!" Costa commands, roughly pulling her to her feet and shoving her inside.
Similar orders are barked at Lincoln, Sinclair, and Kane as the three older men are pushed behind her. Hands still bound with thick steel shackles, Lyra glances around the small dormitory that has several steel bed frames with blood red sheets. It doesn't look like anyone is hiding in here to help them. Somewhere on the outside, Pike demands that two guards be posted on the door, and then the steel slab is slammed shut, leaving the four sentenced to death to wait in the gloom.
"So," begins Lyra, never one to like silence. "Bet you never thought we'd get arrested together, huh? Not after you arrested me on the Ark."
Kane frowns at her, also restrained. "Sometimes I think you're too much like your father."
She grins. "You say that like it's a bad thing."
There's a scuffling noise from the hall. Lyra feels herself being pushed back as all three men edge closer towards the door in alarm, and she feels a flash of irritation. But it quickly vanishes as the door is flung open and their savior is revealed to be a familiar dark-haired girl with sharp blue eyes.
"Hey, Via," says Lyra with a grin, pushing between Kane and Sinclair, raising her shackled hands. "A little help here?"
Pulling keys she must've stolen from one of the guards, Octavia sheathes her sword and starts to unlock the cuffs. "We have got to stop meeting like this."
"Pike is gonna be back soon," Kane mutters, peaking into the corridor. "We need to go, now."
"We'll never make it in time," argues Octavia. Then her lips start to pull into a lilting smirk as she faces Lyra. "Besides, I've got a better idea. How do you feel about becoming the girl under the floor?"
Rubbing her aching wrists, Lyra shrugs. "Sure beats being the murderer sentenced for death."
And five minutes later, the four renegades plus Octavia are crammed beneath the floorboards. Enshrouded in the shadows, Lyra thinks they all look more like dead men than living people. She has to bite down on her lip so hard that she tastes blood to keep from splintering the silence because, as she's started to find out, the urge to say something stupid gets stronger whenever the situations get worse.
The PA is relaying a message overhead as the door to the dormitory bursts open. Lyra's fingers wring together as footsteps thunder over their heads.
Something crashes overhead. Then Pike curses loudly. "Damn it!"
"The guards are alive, sir," announces a distinctly male voice, though his words are muffled by the floorboards. "They must have drugged them."
"We did what they wanted us to do," Pike growls. "That won't happen again."
There's a tense beat as their footsteps fade, then Octavia begins to shift the floorboard covering them. Faint light streams down as Lyra takes in great gulps of air ━━ even though her claustrophobia has gotten better, she'd still felt as if she was suffocating down there.
Octavia peaks her head out first, then clambers out and gestures for them to follow. "All clear."
"Where's Bellamy?" Lyra demands, brushing a stray strand of sweaty hair from her eyes.
"He's not coming," answers Octavia briskly.
"What — ?"
Kane clambers out awkwardly, nearly stumbling, sweat dribbling down his weathered face in rivulets. He's still restrained and Octavia crosses over to help him before Lyra can finish asking what the hell happened to Bellamy.
"It's a little bit tight in there," grunts Kane as Octavia frees him.
"Try doing it for sixteen years," she retorts before crossing over to Lincoln to help with his shackles. "We'll come back for Denae and the others. I promise."
As Sinclair starts to drag the slab of metal back over the hatch they'd hidden in, Lyra falls back onto her haunches in shock. Bellamy isn't coming. She can't even begin to grasp what that means ━━ is he still on Pike's side? Had he really been willing to send her to her death? And that would mean that he'd lied to her. . . Bellamy had lied to her. . .
Abby and Nate hastily enter the dormitory, with Abby making a beeline for Kane almost immediately. Meanwhile, Nate pulls Lyra into a brief hug, rubbing her arms before stepping back.
"You all right?"
"Yeah, yeah," she says, but she doesn't feel all right.
He gives her a look as if somehow he knows she's lying, but there's no time for questions. Octavia hands him a rifle that must've been taken from one of the guards she'd knocked out. At that same moment, Harper's voice crackles through Octavia's radio;
"OK, S, come in."
"What is it?" Lincoln asks.
"This wasn't the plan. We used their frequencies so they could hear us," Octavia tells him tersely. She grabs the walkie and brings it to her mouth. "Go ahead!"
"Stay where you are. Repeat. Stay where you are. The exit is not clear."
"How many guards?" Octavia asks.
"Too many. I said stay put."
And yet that same moment, a voice Lyra hadn't been expecting to hear starts to shout through the same channel: "Calling all guards. The prisoners are headed for the main gate. The prisoners are headed for the main gate. Over!"
Lyra's eyes widen. "Monty?"
"Guess he's with us after all," Nate says.
"Pike will find out," Kane points out.
"We don't know that," Abby counters swiftly. "What we do know is that we have to move."
It takes a beat, but then Lyra nods jerkily in agreement. As much as she doesn't want to leave Monty behind, she isn't sure how much she can trust him at the moment. Besides, he'd made his decision. If it backfires on him, she hopes at least his mom will make the right choice to help him out. And if Bellamy is still on Pike's side, then he won't let anything happen to Monty. At least, she hopes he won't.
As the rest of the group streams into the corridor, Lyra lingers behind briefly. Nate gestures for her to follow and then at last she does, with him at her side as he warily scans the hallway, rifle at the ready.
They move swiftly through the deserted corridors, Sinclair taking the head of the pack with Bryan. Brushing past the overhang of red plastic strips, Lyra and Nate are the last two to traipse into the corridor overrun by rusted filing cabinets and crates. Sinclair is already pulling back the slab of metal paneling to reveal the crawl space, starting to usher Bryan in. Squeezing Lyra around the shoulder, Nate is the next to enter, having to be the first to emerge on the other side just in case they're met with a patrol.
The PA rings overhead. "Attention all citizens. Emergency lockdown is in effect. Return to your quarters immediately."
"OK, Abby," says Kane lowly, striding towards the crawl space. "C'mon, you're next."
But Abby takes a small step back, shaking her head. "I'm not going. They need someone to show them the way out of the dark. Besides, I — "
She's cut off as Kane pulls her into a deep kiss.
Flushing, Lyra quickly turns away from the intimate moment. There's something so weird about watching Kane and Abby kiss ━━ adults aren't supposed to have feelings, especially not Kane and Abby. That's weird.
"May we meet again," Kane says throatily and Lyra tries not to gag.
"We will."
Finger tracing the edge of Kane's jawline briefly, Abby pulls away from him and marches back into Arkadia. Octavia jogs forward with Lincoln at her side; the four of them are the last ones left. They huddle around the crawl space and Lyra is about to go when suddenly, Octavia's radio crackles to life.
"I have a message for the traitors in this camp," drawls Pike coldly amidst the static. "There will be an execution today. Either turn yourselves in, or the other Grounder prisoners will die in your place."
Lyra's chest constricts tightly. Panic swells deep within her as she jerks her head up to glance at a horrified Kane, and then a stony and silent Lincoln.
"Let's go," breathes Octavia, shoving Lincoln forwards. But he shoulders past her, starting to move forwards. Desperation crawls across her features as she grabs him by the arm, forcing him to face her. "No, wait."
"I can't let them die because of me," he says softly.
"Lincoln, please," Octavia's almost begging now, grasping at him desperately. "We're almost out."
"I know what you're feeling, but they're searching the station," Kane tells him darkly, eyes sullen. "We need to go, now."
"You should."
"Fine," Octavia says, as if that's that. "I'm going with you. Osir gonplei teina."
We fight together.
Lincoln brushes back a strand of Octavia's hair, gazing down upon her with nothing but adoration. The movement is so soft, so tender, so full of love, that Lyra can hardly bear to be near them.
"I love you," he whispers.
He kisses her then, hands roaming her hips. Octavia kisses back, tilting her head so that it deepens. Only just then, something goes wrong. A gasp escapes her as she staggers back abruptly, all her features going completely slack. Before she can collapse to the ground, Lincoln sweeps her off from her feet, cradling Octavia in his arms.
Horrified, Lyra's voice is a whisper. "What're you doing?"
"The same thing you'd do for your people," Lincoln tells her, his eyes swimming with pain and sorrow as he gazes down at Octavia's face one last time. "Just get her out of here."
Footsteps crash down at the end of the hall. Before any of them can make a move, the PA chimes overhead, but it is not the familiar robotic voice that echoes overhead. It's Pike.
"This is for Lyra: I have your father. I think you know how the rest of this goes."
Heart thrashing in her ribcage, Lyra almost staggers in shock. She doesn't dare look at Kane, instead tilting her head back, fighting the urge to squeeze her eyes shut as she waits for the rest of Pike's message. She can hardly breathe.
"And I guess that leaves me with one last message — Do you not have the heart for this, Miss. Jupiter?"
For a moment, for one terrible, terrible moment, Lyra stands there, rooted to the Earth. Unable to move, unable to even think.
In her peripheral, she sees Kane's eyes bulge, head shaking frantically. His hand scrabbling against her shoulder as he grabs her. "Lyra, don't do this — "
She hardly hears him.
"Get the fuck off me, Kane," she spits, wrestling out of his grasp. "He has my dad — he has my dad!"
"NO!" Kane says loudly. He throws himself in front of Lyra, fury rippling across his face. Lyra's never heard him so enraged. "He'll kill you, Lyra! If you want to get to him, you go through me!"
He stares her down. She glares back up at him.
There is a tense beat. She makes no sudden movements.
At last he seems to think he has won, his erratically heaving chest starts to slow, his grit teeth and clenched fists start to ease up.
And then, reckless with fear and determination, Lyra punches him in the face.
She watches in shock as Kane doubles over from the sheer force of her hit. An apology on the tip of her tongue, Lyra suddenly remembers what's at stake. She casts one last anxious glance at Kane and then she takes off.
She skids into the corridor where at once, guards seem to emerge straight out of thin air all around her, blocking her way left and right, a dozen rifles pointing directly at her heart. In her peripheral, she sees Lincoln move beside her, his arms held up in the air in surrender.
"Where's my dad?" Lyra asks.
Several of the guards laugh. A harsh, female voice that could only belong to Hannah crows triumphantly; "I told you it'd work, Charles!"
"You said you had him," says Lyra, ignoring the rising panic in her chest, the rising dread. "You said you had him. Let him go, Mr. Pike. Please."
His dark, beady eyes glint with some sort of regret. "He isn't here, Lyra. I lied."
The knot in her chest tightens and it feels as if she cannot breathe properly. If Pike had lied, if her dad really hadn't been caught, then she'd just given herself up to die for no reason at all. . .
She shakes her head, trying to clear it. But it is already too late. Costa is storming towards her, yanking her away from Lincoln, and beginning to escort her roughly through the corridors. A second and third guard move for Lincoln, shoving him forwards, but the Trikru warrior is entirely unresponsive.
They are manhandled through the corridors of Alpha Station and then they are thrust into the insipid afternoon.
Silhouetted in the weak apricot sunlight that trickles through the ashen clouds, Lyra can hardly feel the raindrops that drizzle from the sky. It's as if her skin has been entirely anesthetized. She cannot feel the guards hauling her through the mud, she cannot feel the bitter winds that howl, she cannot feel the gun pressing against the back of her head. Every part of her is screaming with pain.
Sentenced to death by a jury of monsters playing men, Lincoln is dragged into the center of the muddy field first.
"I can't free your people," Pike tells him lowly and, for the first time, Lyra thinks she hears something like sorrow in his words. "But I can promise they'll be cared for."
Not a word escapes Lincoln. But Lyra thinks she might see him give Pike a nod.
Pike begins to move back. Lincoln falls to his knees.
"Lincoln of Trikru, you have been sentenced to death in accordance with the Exodus Charter," declares Pike in a stiff, emotionless baritone. "Any last words?"
Lincoln's words are flat, as if he is already dead. "Not for you."
Pike circles Lincoln's collapsed form like a blood-thirsty wolf as he reaches for his gun slowly, agonizingly. The gun rises higher, flashing in the dead afternoon sun as Pike takes another step forwards. Lincoln tilts his head skywards, eyelids rolling back in defeat.
"Mebi oso na hit choda op nodotaim."
May we meet again.
And Lyra can only watch in mute horror as Pike shoots Lincoln in the head.
Frozen. Helpless. Unmoving. Blind and without thought as she sees Lincoln lurches and the crumples into the mud and dirty water as if he is nothing but paper skin, crimson oozing from the wound in his skull, staining the rainwater a hideous red.
Lincoln drops dead against the earth.
A scream wells up deep within Lyra, but it never escapes her mouth. Incarcerated within her chest, razing her innards to shreds as she is kicked to her knees. She splashes into the bloody water, trembling all over.
"Lyra Jupiter, you have been sentenced to death in accordance with the Exodus Charter. Any last words?"
Against her will, Lyra raises her chin and looks into Pike's seething eyes. Some piece of her is flung back in time and then, for a heartbeat, she is back in the classroom.
She remembers what he told her then. That no one would come for her. That her life was in her own hands.
And then, just one day ago, she'd told him that he was wrong. That someone would always be there to take her hand.
But now she is alone.
Do you not have the heart for this, Miss. Jupiter?
Boiling saltwater stabs at her eyes. Her chest has constricted so tightly that she cannot breathe anymore. A part of her refuses to believe that this is it, that this really is the end. . . but Lincoln's dead body is just inches away from her and there is a gun pointed at her head. This is how she is going to die. Alone.
Well. She isn't much of a saint, not anymore. But if they kill her quick enough, maybe she could be a martyr.
So even though her lip is trembling and silver droplets are shaking from her eyes, she raises her head stubbornly and curls back her lip.
"Do you not have the heart for this, Mr. Pike?"
And then, for the briefest of moments, she thinks she sees something like regret in his eyes.
A gunshot rips through the air. Shreds the silence into ribbons like a steel blade, crashing through the visceral silence, and cracking straight through Lyra's skull. She almost screams in fright.
But it hadn't been Pike who'd taken the shot.
"GET AWAY FROM MY DAUGHTER, YOU SLIMY CUNT!"
Frozen, mouth gaping, Lyra is rooted to the ground as she watches three more gunshots whiz past Pike. None of them hit him and she is rooted there beside Lincoln's dead body until she feels a hand shoving her in the back, hauling her upwards, shouting roaring in her ears.
"Lyra, run! Run, now!"
It's Noah, gun clutched in his hands, his blue eyes blistering with murderous rage. He flings himself upon Pike before any of the guard can do anything, driving his hand around Pike's neck and clutching the spluttering executioner to his chest. Noah's fingers curl against the trigger as he lifts the barrel to Pike's head. The guards watch in horror, hovering there, unsure of what to do.
"Go!" Noah barks at her again. "They're waiting for you at the place you spoke to Octavia last!"
It takes Lyra a moment, her brain moving sluggishly, but then it clicks. The cave where she and Nate had brought Helios to Octavia just before she'd warned the village. Just before Monroe had died.
"I can't!" Lyra splutters, her entire body quaking. "I can't — I can't leave you — !"
"I'll be OK! Now go!"
"No, you won't, they'll kill you!" Lyra exclaims. She can feel herself starting to crumble. Her dad can't die like Lincoln. He just can't.
"There's nothing you can do!" Noah shouts. "Just know that I love you!"
An idea strikes her suddenly. Lyra knows that there is something more that she can do ━━ there is always another way. She fishes around in her pocket desperately, searching for the only thing that could possibly save her dad now.
The key to the City of Light.
She thrusts it into his hand not holding the gun. "Take this," she whispers breathlessly. "It'll protect you. Raven's taken it and it works. They won't be able to hurt you."
"OK, fine!" Noah exclaims tensely. "Now go!"
His eyes flicker wildly between the guards surrounding him and he presses the gun further against Pike's temple. The former Earth Skills teacher grunts in fury, but there's nothing he can do now. All that's keeping him alive now is Noah's mercy.
Not knowing what else to do, Lyra obeys him.
Arkadia is molten through her tears, a great insipid blur. Nauseating sunlight contorts through the thick pellets of rain that fall like bullets from the heavens as she bolts, tripping over her own feet in her desperation. This almost feels as if she's existing in a nightmare; her Earth Skills teacher had just held a gun to her head. He'd shot Lincoln. He'd shot Lincoln. And now her dad is holding a gun to his head all so that Lyra can escape and find Octavia.
Oh, god, Octavia. . .
"What am I gonna tell her?" Lyra's words come out as a sob as she staggers into the forest writhing with shadows. "Oh, god, oh god — what am I going to tell her?"
Heart stampeding, she lurches through the thicket. Thorns snag at her, tearing through her skin, and yet she stumbles forward. She doesn't think she could stop even if she wanted to. There's nowhere else to go but forwards.
But she doesn't know how she will face Octavia now.
͙*̩̩͙˚̩̥̩̥*̩̩̥͙ ✩ *̩̩̥͙˚̩̥̩̥*̩̩͙‧͙ .·͙*̩̩͙˚̩̥̩̥*̩̩̥͙ ✩ *̩̩̥͙˚̩̥̩̥*̩̩͙‧͙
DONT THINK I'VE FORGOTTEN THE CHIP PLOT — it's gonna come back and better than ever, besties 😈😈
anyways,,, i cried while writing this. so...
5.5k words