𝒸𝒽𝒶𝓅𝓉𝑒𝓇 𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓇𝓉𝓎 𝓃𝒾𝓃𝑒 ➼ 𝑔𝑜𝒹 𝒸𝑜𝓂𝓅𝓁𝑒𝓍
ANGELINA COULDN'T EXPLAIN IT, BUT ALL the girl felt when she looked into the chamber was a sense of dread. Like her magic was begging her to flee, to take Roan, find Octavia and run to the ends of the world just the three of them. Not even the pair's soulmate connection could seem to calm her mind.
"Vital signs are strong," Abby announces from the monitor.
Angelina tears her eyes from the ground to find Emori's eyes locked onto hers. The girl on the other side of the radiation chamber quickly turns away and tucks herself into John.
"Jackson," Abby calls, grabbing her assistant with a soft voice. "Seal the chamber."
"He's ready," Jackson announces, sending chills down Angelina's spine.
The girl glances around the room, finding each of her friends stiff but none looking as worried as the girl felt. Angelina felt like she was crawling out of her own skin as she tries to calm herself by holding onto Roan.
"Yeah, but are we?" Raven voices her concern as she stands on the other side of the chamber. The woman's eyes scanning the equipment strapped onto Baylis over and over again, looking for a flaw.
"The guy's a monster," Emori speaks up, reminding the group standing before her as she stands beside John.
"We've been over this," Clarke says, standing closest to the chamber. "None of us want to do this, but the death wave will be here in ten days. Luna's stem cells from the marrow grafted successfully. Baylis is making night blood on his own. This really is our only hope."
John sighs as he asks, "are we really still talking about this? The black rain is already here. Eighteen people died in it yesterday at Arkadia, so if night blood can let us walk around in it, I for one want to know about that."
Roan nods, placing his chin on top of Angelina's head as the girl stands close to Luna. The only thing that brought either of the natblidas any comfort was sticking close together, knowing that they were both on the same page.
Jackson nods at Abby. He turns to the chamber as he speaks, "initiating."
Angelina hears the chamber fire up as Jackson slowly turns the dial, allowing the radiation to fill. The magical girl stares at the man, looking for any chance as Jackson announces, "500 REM."
Angelina's heart races in her chest as Clarke inches closer to the man, the brunette slowly moving herself and Roan closer. Luna skeptically follows.
"850 REM," Jackson tells the group, "this is where we would see symptoms in a non-night blood."
Clarke moves to stand inches away from the chamber as Abby announces, "BP is 100/50, body temperature is 98.7. He's resting comfortably."
"No visible effects," Clarke announces as her eyes bore into the chamber.
Angelina feels the tightness in her chest fade, the girl leaning into Roan as he wraps his arms around the girl's chest.
"2,000 REM," Jackson's voice carries. "We're at the level of the black rain."
"Still nothing, it's working," Clarke gasps, a smile forming on her lips.
Roan sighs in relief, holding the girl to him tighter as Jackson continues pumping radiation into Baylis. Angelina jumps as the REM reaches 2,500 and Abby yells out, "wait!"
Jackson pauses as the monitors alarm. Angelina steps foreword, her eyes widening as the man's heart rate jumps.
"Turn it off!" Clarke yells, pressing her hand to the chamber's glass.
As fast as Angelina can blink, red sores break open on Baylis's skin. The man screams out as he wakes. Angelina stumbles back into Roan, the man easily catching her as black blood explodes from Baylis's mouth, staining his teeth as he screams.
"Get him out!" Abby yells, reaching for the chamber.
Jackson rips the doctor backwards as he warns her, "it's not safe yet."
Angelina watches as black blood pours from the man's eyes. Baylis chokes on it as he screams out, begging them to help him. She knew that he was gone before he fell silent, though the girl still gasps, holding back tears as she backs away from the scene before her. The flatlining alarm blaring in her ears as she sinks to her knees.
➼
After attempting to calm herself down, Angelina sits quietly behind one of the control desks beside Raven. The two hadn't really spent much time together since before the attack on Mount Weather, but Angelina found the girl's presence calming. The two stare at a screen that pulled imaging from a camera outside of the lab. Angelina can't seem to tear her eyes away from the golden-orange sky as she watches dark clouds roll across the tree line.
"How's the weather, Reyes?" John asks as he comes to stand beside the two girls. "Forecast still calling for death?"
Angelina turns away from the screen, having seen enough while Clarke and Luna clean the blood from the opened chamber. Jackson and Nathan Miller had disposed of Baylis's body.
"Abby, take a look at this," Jackson calls out as he studies a sample of Baylis's blood under a microscope.
"Of course," the doctor gasps. "Sodium polyethanol sulfonate. It's an additive used to prevent clotting. It looks like the radiation broke it down and caused a chain reaction," she explains.
"What happens if we remove it?" Clarke asks, growing intrigued.
"We could save everyone," Abby gasps.
"You could?" John asks, skeptical. "So you're saying this can still work?"
Abby sighs as she tells him, "not without testing."
"The last guy just died, screaming in agony and you want to try it again?" Raven asks. Angelina moves to place a hand on Raven's shoulder in attempts to calm the girl as she glares at the doctor.
"Give us a better idea, Raven," Clarke shakes her head, her eyes pleading.
John scoffs as he speaks up, "so what? We just go out there and hunt for someone else?"
"No one's going anywhere in this storm," Miller speaks up from beside Roan, who watches his soulmate with sharp eyes.
"Then we wait for it to pass," John snaps back, a protective grip on Emori.
"When it does there won't be anyone left to hunt for," Miller responds, earning a scoff from Luna.
"Hunting for someone else to kill," the girl speaks up, mockingly. "What's the matter with you people? Even Baylis honored the dead. He wore the stones of his rock line ancestors." Luna holds up a bracelet found in the chamber for all to see as she asks, "who will honor him?"
Angelina tilts her head, staring at the jewelry in Luna's hand as she voices, "wait. Baylis was Sangedakru."
"He was," Emori confirms the girl's thoughts. "He was also a thief. He probably stole those stones."
"A thief who didn't bear the mark of Sangedakru?" Roan asks, understanding Angelina's concerns.
Angelina locks eyes with Clarke, the blonde's eyes widening as Angelina looks to Emori and snarls, "that wasn't Baylis, was it?"
The lab falls silent, only the sound of heavy breathing fills the room as John looks to the girl, "come on, Ang. That's crazy."
"Who the hell did she make us kill?" Angelina screams, struggling to maintain the dark magic bubbling inside of her. Clarke rests a hand on the girl's arm, only for her to rip her hand away a moment later as the girl's magic had burned her skin.
Emori looks around in fear before pulling a knife and rushing towards Angelina.
Angelina narrows her eyes at the girl, unleashing her magic as she uses her magic to snap the girl's wrist. Emori screams out, dropping the knife as Angelina shoves her backwards into Roan's hold as the man holds a blade to her throat. "John! Take out the machine!" Emori yells, struggling behind Roan's grasp as her wrist burns in pain.
Miller reacts quickly as Angelina hesitates to use her magic against the man, holding a gun to his head as Miller tells him, "don't do anything stupid, Murphy."
Roan looks to Angelina, sighing in relief as the girl nods, letting her magic die down before he says, "looks like we know who's next."
➼
"Now you're gonna lock us up?" John screams out as Clarke finished tying restraints around both he and Emori after securing their wrists to the ladder of Becca's rocket. Angelina watches with a glare as her emotions swirl around her head. The girl was fuming that Emori tried to kill her, even worse that John let it happen. But somewhere deep inside of her, Angelina knew that John would go through hell if Emori dies. Angelina didn't want that for her friend.
"She was just trying to save her own life!" He continues yelling, locking eyes with Angelina. "She wouldn't have hurt Ang!"
Roan stands beside his soulmate, crossing his arms as he glares at the boy, "she tried to."
"Well, we're not gonna try to touch your stupid machine, alright?" John screams out as Emori sits by his side.
Angelina turns, walking away as Abby starts closing the glass doors that hid the ship.
"Please, Clarke! Angelina, please!" John's cries are silenced as the doors seal closed. Angelina letting out a shaky breath as everyone in the room watches the girl with caution.
"Please tell me you're not actually considering putting Emori in that chamber," Raven pleads, looking to Abby and Clarke. The Griffin girls both look to Raven with remorse in their eyes, making Raven's eyes widen. Clarke turns to her mother as she gasps, "I don't know what else to do."
"There is nothing else to do," Roan's voice fills the space. "And we all know it."
Raven shakes her head, tears forming in her eyes as she turns to the doctor. "Abby, there must be something that we can do that won't make us murderers."
"Jackson and I have examined every possibility. The only thing that we know for sure is that if we do nothing, we die," Abby tells Raven.
Angelina slowly raises her eyes to meet Clarke's as the blonde slowly nods to her mother. Angelina glances to Roan, slowly resting her head on his shoulder as her soulmate runs his fingers through the girl's hair.
Angelina's eyes become hard as Abby tells her assistant, "prep Luna for the next extraction."
Angelina turns, her eyes locking on Luna who sits in the corner. Luna meets Angelina's eyes as she says, "no, you've taken enough."
One look from Luna and Angelina understands the girl's predicament. Anger pumping through her veins as Abby tries to calm the girl, "Luna it's okay, we'll sedate you."
"She said no," Angelina's sharp tone shocks the group as the brunette shifts to stand before the girl. Luna struggles to stand, attempting to keep her weight off her hip as she says, "I won't let my blood kill anymore innocent people."
"Luna, please," Clarke pleads with the girl. "Night blood is the only thing that can save us."
"My blood is a curse." Luna moves around Clarke, heading for the stairs as she says, "it will, however, keep you from following me out into the storm."
"Luna, you can't. Not with that hip," Abby says, referencing to the hip she used to extract bone marrow. Angelina watches, slowly moving foreword as Luna limps towards the stairs. The girl stops as Roan blocks her way.
"Ro," Angelina's stern voice calls out.
Roan ignores the girl as he tells Luna, "we can't let you leave."
"Is there no line that you won't cross in order to survive?" Luna asks, glancing at Clarke over her shoulder.
"Survival requires sacrifice," Roan tells the natblida. "If the freikdreina dies." Roan is cut off by Raven's voice, cracking as she yells, "don't call her that."
"If she dies saving the world, that's a good death," Roan ignores Raven's comment as he turns to Luna, "you're wounded, and I don't want to fight you."
Luna's eyes darken, a smirk forming on her lips. "You have no choice, remember?"
Luna turns on her heel, propelling her foot into Roan's chest. The Azgeda man falling backwards as Luna cries out from using her bad leg. Luna struggles to stand as Roan jumps back up. Roan moves over to Luna, kicking her in the back. The girl cries out as she falls to the ground, Roan swiftly picking her back up as he holds the girl in a choke hold.
Angelina's heart races in her chest as her mind tries to stop the words falling from her mouth. But it's too late as she cries out, "use me!"
Roan pauses, loosening his grip on Luna as he turns to Angelina, his eyes widening as he watches the girl.
"Use me," Angelina nods to Abby, her voice cracking as she says, "but if it works, my blood goes to Roan and Octavia first. If they survive, it goes out to Azgeda, Trikru, Polis and Arkadia next, and in that order." Tears form in the girl's eyes as she says, "those are my conditions."
"They're not using you," Roan snarls out, his grip on Luna's neck becoming tight.
Angelina shakes her head, a tear falling as she tells him, "Ro, it's okay. Luna doesn't want this and I won't force her."
"It's not okay," Roan yells, his deep voice cracking as he cries out. Roan turns his eyes from Angelina to Luna, as the girl passes out in his arms. Roan lifts Luna onto the table as he turns to Abby, "you'll use her."
Raven turns to Abby, her face contorted as she asks her, "you're going to strap her down and take her bone marrow?" When no one responds, Raven glances to Clarke and Angelina as she says, "welcome to Mount Weather."
➼
Angelina and Roan stand across the room as they closed themselves off in one of the exam rooms. Both soulmates stand with their arms crossed as Roan's eyes never leave Angelina. The brunette looks up, their eyes meeting as she says, "this is all too familiar."
Roan's eyes soften as he lets the girl talk.
"Raven is right. What we're doing here, how we're trying to survive, we're the mountain men," Angelina shakes her head, a small, strangled laugh leaving her lips, "I killed them all, wiped out their entire civilization for doing that same thing that we're doing. I still dream about it." Angelina runs a hand over her forehead, her voice sinister as she says, "I used to have nightmares about the dead that filled the mountain. But now? Now I dream about pulling that leaver and how good it felt to watch them gasp for simple breath."
"I'm a monster," Angelina trembles. Roan shakes his head, moving to meet the girl as she continues, "my magic is turning dark, Roan. And I'm afraid of what will happen when it finally breaks me."
"I couldn't let them hurt you, Ang." Roan shakes his head, holding onto the girl's shoulders.
"Maybe I deserve it," Angelina lifts her head to meet Roan's gaze.
Roan shakes his head, saying, "you don't, Angelina. I still see light inside of you. You're not a monster, you're doing what you can to save everyone, not just your friends."
"Lexa would have known how to handle this," Angelina sighs. "I feel like I hear her sometimes."
"That's because she lives on in you," Roan holds the girl, pressing a soft kiss to the girl's temple.
Angelina found comfort in Roan's words, after hearing them the girl truly believed that Lexa was with her. Angelina tried to live up to the legacy that Lexa created, the girl honestly wasn't sure how she did it. No one could live up to Lexa kom Trikru, and with Angelina's dark magic growing stronger she was scared of what may happen when it finally emerges. Angelina felt some relief that she told Roan, but the girl felt like it would be any day now.
A knock on the door snaps Angelina out of her thoughts as Clarke peers in. "Are you okay?" Clarke's eyes fall onto the pair of soulmates as she closes the door behind her.
"Are you?" Roan asks. "Night bloods, they're all stubborn. You would have thought I'd have learned my lesson after Lexa."
Angelina smiles slightly, resting her head on Roan's chest. Clarke watches the girl as she moves to the large window that looks over the lab, finding her mother extracting Luna's bone marrow from her right hip.
"We're doing the right thing," Roan tells her.
"You sure about that?" Clarke turns to Roan as Angelina detangles herself from the man.
Roan scoffs as he says, "certainty's a luxury that leaders can't afford."
"I'm no king," Clarke sighs, turning away from the window.
"Maybe not, but you were born for this," Roan tells the girl, softly voicing, "Lexa knew it and so do I. You don't back down when things get hard."
Clarke crosses her arms, leaning against the table as she tells the man, "it's always hard."
"Yet, here you are," Roan shrugs a shoulder before saying, "here you both are." Angelina and Clarke glance at each other, Clarke shuddering at the idea of experimenting on the girl she grew so close to. "I know you don't see it now," Roan speaks up, drawing their attention. "But one day they will thank you for what you're doing here."
"Murphy won't," Clarke shakes her head. "Emori won't."
"If it works, they will," Angelina speaks up. "And if it doesn't, then we die knowing that we did everything that we could to save all of our people."
Clarke nods, tears forming in her eyes as she speaks, "it's time."
Angelina nods, following the blonde to the rocket with Roan right behind her. Angelina and Roan stand back as Clarke moves to get Emori. Angelina hides her head in Roan's shoulder as she hears John yelling. Nathan emerges with an unconscious Emori over his shoulder.
"Who do you think you are!" John yells as Clarke softly tells him, "I'm trying to save us."
John scoffs as he snarls, "alright, Wanheda, savior of us all! I thought that the role of savior was already taken, but maybe you're forgetting that the last time you saved us, I was saving you two!"
"I'm not forgetting," Clarke tells him.
"You're not forgetting? Then don't do this!" John pleads as Angelina removes herself from Roan. The girl moves towards Clarke, grabbing her arms. "You know, it's too bad you weren't a real night blood, because then you could have been commander. Imagine how many people you could have killed then!"
Angelina pulls Clarke backwards, ignoring John as he yells, "I'm surprised you didn't force Angelina to become commander and make her your little bitch!" Clarke stops, glancing to Angelina with tearful eyes as the man continues yelling, "tell me something. After you kill her am I next? I love her! Please don't do this!"
"Emori will be fine," Clarke calls over her shoulder as she lets Angelina pull her away.
No one dares to speak as the doors close. Clarke and Angelina slowly make their way over to Emori and Jackson starts preparing her. Angelina glances to Roan as he stands across the table. The girl takes a deep breath as Abby approaches with Luna's bone marrow.
Abby watches the girl's face as she hesitates, looking to her daughter as Clarke takes hold of the syringe. Angelina moves away, towards Roan as she watches.
"We have to do this," Clarke voices. Angelina wasn't sure if she was trying to convince the group or herself.
The brunette looks around the room, noticing no one watching Emori. It was clear that no one agreed, but this was their only hope.
Angelina looks to Clarke as the blonde whispers, "I bear it so they don't have to."
"Clarke!" Angelina yells out as the blonde turns the needle on herself and injects Luna's marrow into her own vein.
Clarke glances up, dropping the empty vial as she says, "we're testing me."
➼