Avery left the Dropship, having snatched Monty's blanket from beside his feet so he had a reason to see her later. She traipsed across the camp, sleep threatening her drooping eyelids.
And then something above her head made her very, very awake.
A bright light resembling a shooting star was soaring across the sky, flickering as it shot past clouds. Then it seemed to come closer into view. It looked to be a small Pod, emblazed in flames and heading straight for Earth.
Avery wrapped herself tighter in her blanket as she watched a parachute eject from the Pod and the spacecraft slowly drift downwards to the ground. It had to be from the Ark; it couldn't possibly be from anywhere else.
"They've come down to help us!"
"Please tell me they've brought down shampoo."
Avery chuckled softly at the comment, strolling over towards Octavia, Bellamy and the group of people gathered by the fire. The thing she noticed first was the look of fear lighting Bellamy's face in the dark.
Why doesn't he want The Ark to come down?
Before Avery could even consider asking him, he had disappeared off with a few boys into a nearby tent, and the girl was left in front of his sister. Octavia was staring after him with a frown; more thoughts than Avery could understand were on her mind.
"What do you reckon?"
Octavia eyed her up, the look of suspicion still not washed from her features and her expression saying it all. The girls were instantly on the same wavelength; not needing to say a single word of clarification to one another in order to understand what they both suspected and needed to figure out.
"Alright, we should all get ready to move out!" Octavia yelled out, her voice loud enough to wake even the deepest of sleepers.
"O's right, we gotta find this thing before the Grounders do!"
The chatter had begun to bubble up in the camp. The excitement and prospect of help coming from the Ark was too glorious of an opportunity but Avery - ever the optimist (not) - was too anxious to let it go to her head.
The Pod that fell from the sky was small. It couldn't possibly house more than two people inside and a limited amount of supplies with it.
Avery was just hoping they brought down some food, water, and much needed medical supplies for future injuries. She presumed the adults of the Ark would be smart enough to send those things down to help them.
But it's not like they sent those things with the Dropship.
Cause they thought we would die on the way down, or upon arrival.
A warm hand grabbed hers then, and Avery let Octavia drag her into the red tent Bellamy had earlier entered, Monty's blanket forgotten on a log near the fire. The younger girl expectantly watched her brother as Avery stumbled into the tent behind her, narrowly avoiding bumping into her back.
"We should get going, everyone's ready."
Avery nodded to back up the girl, pointedly avoiding the stares of the other boys with Bellamy. Whatever reassurance Bellamy had given Avery before when Murphy was banished had gone.
"No one's going anywhere, not whilst it's dark. It's not safe. We'll head out at first light." Bellamy gestured to the boys with him. "Pass the word."
Avery scoffed as the first boy pushed past her shoulder, forcing her to step back to avoid her left shoulder getting bruised from the purposeful pushes by the entitled boys. Bellamy attempted to leave after them, but Octavia blocked his way, staring up at him intimidatingly.
"Everyone for a hundred miles saw this thing come down. What if the Grounders get there first? Bell, we should go now."
Bellamy's face had set in stone, listening to his sister's words as if she was a stranger, not his responsibility, not the most important person in his life. Avery hadn't known him long, but she didn't recognise the boy in front of him as he dismissed Octavia, brushing past her to leave once and for all.
"I said we wait until sunrise."
Octavia and Avery stared at one another in disbelief and even further suspicion than what had first plagued them. It was obvious to the both of them that waiting was a bad idea, and that neither of them were planning on following it.
"Do we go look for it ourselves?"
"No." Avery said suddenly, her brain beginning to form a realisation. "Bellamy doesn't want anyone going after it because he wants to get there first."
Octavia nodded slowly, her fists clenching at her sides in frustration. What Avery had concluded wasn't a surprise, but disappointing nonetheless.
"I say we follow him."
Bellamy announced his decision to the rest of the camp to a number of protests. Once they were reassured that they could take a look in the morning, everyone calmed down and went back to theorising about what the pod may have contained. Some of the most popular theories included Ark Guards, guns, and Chancellor Jaha himself.
The last one was Avery's favourite. Mainly because she'd kill to see how all of the Delinquents would react to meeting the man who put them in jail and pretty much sent them to their deaths.
Avery and Octavia lingered around the edge of camp, near where they believed Bellamy would be leaving later on. Sure enough, as people became more and more distracted with one another and sharing their beliefs of what the pod could withhold, Bellamy had his opportunity to slip out of camp.
Tailing him through the forest was weird, Avery couldn't help but think. She didn't regret it - of course not, she needed to know what was going on with him - but being let in on his plans was definitely a strange thing for her to experience.
"I'm sick of this." Octavia said to the girl, between gritted teeth. "I'm confronting him."
"O, wait-"
She wanted to convince Octavia to wait a few more minutes, let him draw them further into his plans without realising it, before making it clear to him that they were there. Octavia was too hot headed for this, and so Avery was just forced to roll with it.
"Bellamy!" She yelled, painfully loud to ensure Bellamy heard it. "What are you doing?"
The boy stopped dead in his tracks, clearly feeling caught in the act by the way his shoulders tensed up and his chest rose and fell in a deep breath. He spun around, his eyes flickering over Octavia and falling onto Avery with heightened confusion.
"Both of you, go back to camp, it isn't safe."
Obviously this wasn't going to happen.
"You lied to everyone! You lied to me." Octavia pressed, her words rubbing salt in the wound that was really more her own rather than Bellamy's. "You just want whatever's in that Pod-"
Bellamy's hands found his sister's shoulders, shoving her back roughly. "Just go home!" He roared at her and Avery lunged forwards, pushing him back: a warning.
"Watch it!"
"You always wanna play the big brother, huh?" Octavia jumped right back in, not giving Bellamy a chance to breathe. "Well guess what? Jokes on me, you're just a selfish dick."
"I did this for you. To protect you. The Ark finds out we're alive, they'll come down and when they do, I'm dead."
"What did you do?"
Avery felt as though she had faded into the background, and it was not a bad position to be in at that moment. She stared between the siblings, torn with either stepping back to avoid Octavia's fury if she decides to lash out on Bellamy or staying exactly where she was because she found herself too captivated in discovering what he did.
"I shot him." Bellamy's words came out in a hurried breath, in disbelief with himself that he was really saying it. "I shot Jaha."
Avery was unable to hold back her surprise with a laugh and a hushed reaction of, "Holy shit". And just like that, she was no longer in the background.
Bellamy was studying Avery with wide eyes, as if he just realised that he admitted that to her as well as Octavia. A million thoughts were flying through his mind but his sister was still there, still confused, still concerned, and so he couldn't allow his focus to divert from her.
"What?"
"I found out they were sending you to Earth. I couldn't let you go alone." "Someone came to me with a deal. Do this, kill him, and they'd get me on the Dropship. And I did it."
Avery let out a low whistle, unable to withhold her surprise, and Bellamy clenched his fists impatiently. He was already wondering what he'd have to threaten her with to keep her quiet, but she wasn't even thinking about telling anyone.
"You killed the Chancellor?"
"He floated our mother! He locked you up! He deserved it."
"I didn't ask you to do that."
There was a heavy pause as they all sat in the weight of Octavia's tired sigh. It was Bellamy's move, Bellamy's mess to clean up, Bellamy's actions to take accountability for.
"You're right. I made that choice. This is on me. Whatever they sent down I'll take care of it."
'I'll take care of it.' Does that mean killing more people if they sent others down?
"I didn't ask for any of this."
As Octavia backed away in the direction of camp, Avery and Bellamy were left staring at each other for a few awkward moments. And then the girl sent him a glance that said 'you fucked up', before jogging after the other girl.
Glancing back, Avery was certain she could speak her thoughts aloud, as Bellamy had already disappeared into the trees without a second thought. She had to act quickly before any trace of him had vanished.
"Are you okay?" She called out cautiously to the girl.
"I'm fine." Octavia claimed, although Avery knew the reality was far different.
And as much as she would've wanted to make her feel better, she knew what she had to do in that moment.
"I think I should keep following him."
To her surprise, Octavia didn't voice her disagreement - or really any opinion at all - and instead, a thick layer had appeared in her usual fiery voice that told Avery she was upset. Really upset.
"He's an idiot. And if he's got his mind set on something, he'll only hurt you if you get in his way." She warned.
Avery only smirked in return, shrugging off Octavia's concern. "Good thing I don't care if I have to hurt him in return."
A ghost of a smile passed Octavia's lips quickly but Avery noticed it, and then she nodded. Avery took it as permission to leave - not that she needed it, but she did want it - and then she backtracked in the direction they initially took in following Bellamy.
Hopefully she hadn't lost him.
To her delight, it took less than a few minutes to spot where the Blake boy was traipsing through the forest in search of the Ark Pod. She followed him at a distance she considered to be safe; far enough that he wouldn't notice her but close enough to avoid losing sight.
Eventually, as the sky had begun to lighten and Avery was able to walk without fear of stumbling over shadowed tree roots, Bellamy had come to a clearing in the forest. Sure enough, there was the Pod from the Ark: crash-landed in all its glory.
Now that the girl had trapped him in his plan, she could confront him before he caused any damage. And who would've guessed that she'd be using her sneakiness for good? Avery wouldn't have, that's for sure.
"Hey!" She yelled harshly, hiding a smirk at the way it made him startle. "You're an asshole, you know that right?"
"I'm aware." He said stiffly in reply, his eyes shifting to the door of the Pod that he was only a few feet from.
"It doesn't matter what you tell yourself Bellamy, that bullshit that you did all this for Octavia, that's not true. You only want to protect yourself. You don't care who you hurt or who you have to screw over, cause you'd do it no matter what, wouldn't you?"
Avery knew she was being harsh, but at that point, she didn't care. She saw how Bellamy hurt Octavia, carelessly and selfishly, and she was not going to let her friend be treated like shit. Especially not by Bellamy Blake.
Bellamy was right by the Pod now. He did look distraught by the words she had hurled at him like weapons; each one piercing him and making him more conflicted about what he would do to prevent his potential punishment. But ultimately, no matter what she said, he was still so focused on saving himself.
Swinging open the door, he glanced back to the girl with a half shrug and a frown. The glint of something bright in his hand caught her eye, and then she realised the knife that sat in his grasp.
"You're right, Avery. I would."
And then he had ducked his head into the Pod to look inside, with his knife gripped tightly in his hand. Despite his weapon - and her lack there of - Avery took off in a run towards him. Helplessly, she cried out his name, and then yanked back his figure with a grip on his shirt.
All she could do was hope that Bellamy still had some humanity left in him that prevented him from killing an innocent person. But it wasn't like it stopped him from kicking the crate from under Murphy's feet.
If he didn't have any humanity left, she had to have gotten to him fast enough to stop him from killing whoever sat in the Pod. From the distance she was to him, she knew it wasn't likely to stop him. And although it wasn't her plunging a knife into anyone, she would put the blame on herself anyway. And she would hold that guilt until she died.
Luckily, Bellamy wasn't planning anything of the sort.
When Avery dragged him out of the Pod, his hand grasped a radio that he had severed from the system. Her heart dropped to her stomach, knowing instantly he had just destroyed a guaranteed way of contacting the Ark.
One simple action of cutting a wire changed the course of their lives. It summed up their whole existence really: the smallest things like stealing medicine or knowing secrets could end up with you locked up or dead. And if any more of the hundred died on the ground, Avery knew who she was blaming for it.
"What have you done, Bellamy?"
"What I had to do."
Avery opened her mouth to respond, to snap back and berate the boy who might have just condemned them to their deaths. But she looked inside the Pod and saw a girl sat there. A girl who looked very familiar to her.
And so Bellamy had the chance to disappear.
At that moment, Avery couldn't care less. He had already taken the radio, already done the irreversible damage. Right in front of the girl was someone she had met before on the Ark, someone who could tell her what had been happening since they all left.
Raven Reyes.
And if she didn't know that already, she would've figured it out from the raven painted on the side of her spacesuit helmet. The girl's face - still as beautiful as ever - was slightly run down and bloodied, and her eyes were fluttered closed as if she was knocked out cold upon impact with the ground.
She didn't look too injured for someone who had just come from space in a two person spacecraft.
Avery leaned over the girl, gently yet awkwardly tapping her finger against the glass of her helmet to see if it would wake her. There was a large splatter of blood on the helmet glass; the only thing not making Avery worry about it was the fact it was larger than the bloodstain on the girl's face.
A groan emitted from Raven's lips then, and Avery leaned back to let the girl wake without her looming over her. As she pulled back, her eyes caught sight of where Bellamy had severed the radio from the Pod's system, rendering it practically useless.
"Avery?"
Raven's weak and confused voice croaked out, and for a moment Avery was caught off guard by the fact Raven could remember her. Sure, they met on the Ark, but it was once and it was brief and Avery didn't expect it to be memorable to the girl. All Raven did was draw her a map of Ark Station Medical, pointing out where the majority of supplies were kept.
"Raven, hey." She grinned back at the mechanic, her smile only fading slightly when the girl winced from her injuries. "You made it."
Raven's eyes lit up then, as if she had only just realised the fact. After a life spent on the Ark, Raven was having the same moment of euphoria they all had when they stepped on the ground for the first time.
After helping Raven out from the Pod, Avery just stood back and watched as the girl took it all in. She couldn't help but smile as the girl appreciated every single thing in sight of her, spinning in a circle and stretching out her arms as if it would all disappear if she didn't take up as much room as she could.
"I dreamed it would smell like this."
"Oh my god."
Avery startled at the sound of another voice, her head craning to see Clarke appearing through the clearing in awe of the unfamiliar girl taking in her new surroundings. Clarke didn't need to be filled in on anything by the girls - it was pretty obvious Raven came down in the Pod - so she joined Avery in amusedly watching the mechanic enjoy being on the ground.
"Is it raining?" Raven asked in delight, her laughter sounding like music to their ears.
"Welcome home."
Maybe the rain was foreshadowing the events that followed when Finn arrived, because it definitely wasn't a sunny moment. Avery watched in pure horror as Raven embraced the boy in a tight hug, whispered a few words, and then met him in a passionate kiss.
Avery didn't have to be a genius to have noticed Clarke and Finn's feelings for one another. Hell, she barely spoke to either of them, yet she had seen the glances and the lingering touches and the way they were always silently in-sync with one another.
And Avery didn't have to be a friend of Clarke's to feel bad for her.
"Clarke," She murmured softly, eyes flickering to the girl's with a strange feeling of guilt, despite not having done anything wrong. "I'm sorry about Finn."
Clarke couldn't take her focus away from Raven and Finn; like she was watching a horror movie unfold before her very eyes. She simply pressed her lips into a tight smile, trying her best to convince Avery that she was okay, even though her true feelings were entirely transparent.
"How did you get here?"
"You know that big scrap hold, the one on K deck?"
Avery listened as Raven explained how she rebuilt the spacecraft to Finn, humbly claiming she only needed a few parts and some love. It was when the girl staggered on her footing, her legs giving way, that Avery rushed forwards to interject.
"Come on, sit down."
She helped Finn coax Raven into sitting, and crouched beside the girl. Finn took off his jacket, wrapping it around her shoulders, and then walking off towards Clarke.
"Has the Ark been boring without us all?" Avery wondered aloud, teasing Raven slightly.
The older girl managed a smile, wincing slightly and touching a finger to the cut on her head. "Definitely. I miss drawing rough maps of Medical for random teen girls."
Avery shook her head with a bittersweet smile. It was still hard to think about their meeting for her. After all, it led to her being locked up in the Sky Box, never seeing her dad again. But on the other hand - in which Avery forced herself to find positives from the bad experience - she got Raven's friendship out of it.
And Raven was pretty damn cool.
Finn brought back a cloth for the girl's wound, with Raven pressing it against her head with a grimace. The boy lifted his hand in Avery's direction, waving it at her and then at Raven.
"Raven, this is Avery. Avery, this is-"
"-Raven, I know. We've met."
The boy looked between them, his eyebrows furrowed in confusion. Somehow it was entirely beyond him that two people he knew were familiar with one another.
"How?"
Raven rolled her eyes fondly, her hand lingering on Finn's arm, making Clarke cringe as she settled behind Avery. Avery pretended not to notice, cursing internally and wondering how she wound up stuck between a love triangle.
"I meet people, Finn." Raven teased, and Avery stifled a laugh at his baffled expression. "Whatever. Who's this?"
She motioned to Clarke, and the blonde girl startled, as if forgetting she was even there. Clarke's focus awkwardly shifted to Finn, who looked like he didn't want to be there.
"This is Clarke. She was on the Dropship too."
Duh.
"Clarke?" Raven asked confusedly, her eyes lighting with some sort of realisation. "This was all because of your mom."
"My mom?"
"Her mom?"
Clarke and Avery's voices tripped over one another, with the former's tone filled with more disgust than the latter was prepared for. Again, Avery was reminded of the fact Clarke was pissed with her mom, but still she didn't know why.
"This was all her plan. We were trying to come down here together. If we waited..." Raven trailed off, concentrating hard on remembering whatever information had been knocked from her brain upon impact with the ground. "Oh my god."
Fear was an emotion Avery never expected to see in Raven Reyes.
"We couldn't wait because the Council was voting on whether to kill three hundred people to save air."
And just like that, Raven had pretty much summed up what had happened on the Ark since they had been gone.
Mass genocide.
"When?"
"Today."
"Raven, we have to tell them you're alive." Finn said hurriedly, his eyes flickering towards the Pod and his body shifting as though he was about to get to his feet.
The radio.
Raven had hauled herself up from her sitting position before anyone else - and before anyone could argue - stumbling over to the Pod and stopping short at the sight of the missing radio. Avery could feel her heart in her throat. It was becoming increasingly more difficult to remind herself that she hadn't done anything wrong; she was just too late to stop Bellamy from stealing the radio.
"The radio's gone. It must've gotten loose during re-entry. I should've strapped it to the A-strut. Stupid!"
"No."
Avery's voice interjected before she even realised she was speaking. Everyone's eyes fell on her, already frustrated with her one word answer. It took her a moment to swallow the lump in her throat.
"Bellamy." She continued, her voice thick with devastation and guilt. "I wasn't quick enough to stop him."
Avery dragged her hand over her face, cursing under her breath. Finn and Clarke shared a pained expression, neither one placing blame in the girl, but wishing that she could've been able to prevent him from doing it.
"It's not your fault, it's Bellamy's." Finn reassured the girl, and even though she smiled at him gratefully, she couldn't believe him.
"We gotta find him. You wanna talk to the Ark? We need that radio."
And Avery knew that although she had zero reason to contact the Ark herself, she'd go to the ends of the Earth to do it for Monty Green.