"Who's next?"
☾
The door opens and we enter the dining hall. Most of the people inside, getting up.
"Jos emo hedsweden!" Octavia orders the guards as we burst into the room. (Only the guilty)
"Osir gaf emo in kiken." I say looking at the woman behind all of this. Kara, the one Jaha had taken to us.
She turns on her heel and runs away. I left O's side and go after her as she walks towards the farm. I take both the blade from my back and open the farm door, seeing her with a gun to her head. I do what I did for three months in the bunker with john and throw the double-blade sword at her, sticking it through her hand causing her to drop the weapon and moan in pain.
"It won't be that easy," I tell her as I walk towards Abby and Kane who were tied to the pipe at the end of the room.
I cut their restraints and they look at me, taken back by the amount of blood on me.
I walk towards Kara who steps back from me but I grab her, taking my weapon from her hand, making her let out a loud scream.
"Jaha's dying. He needs you." I look at Abby as I walk out of the room. "Hon daun em," I tell the grounder walking towards us, pointing at the woman in the middle of the room. (Take her)
I walk with them towards Octavia who takes them to Jaha while I go look for Jackson.
I see the young doctor walking around without knowing what to do.
"He's with me." I tell the guard walking by him and Jackson comes to me. "Jaha's dying." I take him towards the others.
"Thelonious..." Abby mutters before lifting his shirt to see the wound. "It's not just blood. It's bile. I think he perforated his liver." She states and then looks at Jackson. "I need something sharp. I need to get in there now."
"Abby... You can't fix me this time." Jaha mutters.
"Thelonious... Thelonious, fight." Kane tells his friend.
"I think his fight is over." Octavia places her hand on Kane's shoulder.
" Octavia... Promise me that you'll take care of Ethan." Jaha groans.
"You have my word. I'll take care of the boy." She assures the dying man.
"Just take me home, Marcus." Jaha struggles to say. "Take me to my wife. Take me to Wells."
"In peace, may you leave the shore. In love, may you reach the next. Safe passage on your travels... until our final journey to the ground." Marcus tells him as Jaha takes a breath, probably his last one. "May we meet again."
"May we meet again." Abby mutters as tears run free down her face.
"May we meet again." Octavia mutters and I swallow hard, stepping out of the room as Abby lets her head fall into Kane's shoulder.
I walk away as fast as I can. I missed John and I probably would never see him again, we were locked in here, and I didn't even know if they made it to space. I stop in my tracks and take a deep breath, calming myself down, closing my eyes, and throwing my head back.
I suddenly feel someone approaching me and I immediately turn around, sword in hand ready to fight.
"Calm down." Delphia takes a step back and I breathe out, putting the weapon away.
"Sorry."
"How are you doing?" She asks me and I look away.
"Just saw the man that ruined my life die in front of me." I look up at her who looks at the room I just left.
"Good for him." Delphia says cruelly and I give her a little small as I take a breath. "How do you feel? Powerful, I hope."
"In five years, we are getting out of here even if I have to cut down the door."
"That's my girl." Delphia praises and I take another deep breath, putting myself together as I walking behind Octavia to the main office.
She doesn't say a word as I get in the office, closing the door behind me. She sits on the chair and lays her head in her arms.
"What are we gonna do with the guilty?" I ask her.
"You tell me." She says, her voice muffled by her arms.
"Hey, look at me." I get closer to her. "We can do this."
She doesn't reply and I swallow hard.
"What was that roman story you told me Bellamy used to read to you?" I ask her.
"Ovid." She replies and looks at me waiting for a point.
"We let them fight," I tell her. "The survivor gets to live."
"Like in Rome."
"Like in Rome." I repeat and Octavia looks away for a second. "We fix the too many people problem and we punish the guilty."
Before she's able to say anything, Indra and Gaia get in.
"Your people await justice," Indra tells us. "Come. Let's clean you up before-"
"No." Gaia stops her mother.
"Gaia... If you dare say the spirits of the Commanders object, then I must remind you that those spirits have abandoned us." Indra argues.
"I don't believe they have." She replies. "My mother is correct. Our faith dictates that only a true Commander can unite the clans, that without a Natblida, we would be lost." She tells us. "Then you won the Conclave. You delivered us from Praimfaya." She looks at Octavia and then at me. "Today you delivered us from starvation. I now believe that you will deliver us back to the ground."
"Come. You'll need clean armor." Indra tells us.
"Leave it. Let them see them like this." Gaia tells her as she walks towards us and them to the mirror, forcing us to look at our reflection. Two girls covered in dry blood. "The blood of our enemies is their armor."
* * *
We were doing what I had suggested. Let them fight. The guilty were on their knees in the middle of the room.
The four of us walk outside.
"There are too many people in this bunker... And if we don't do something about this, none of us will survive to see the sun, the sky, the ground, and we won't let that happen." Octavia starts saying and walking up to the top floor.
"Each of you have committed crimes against Wonkru, and the punishment for this... is death." I tell them steadily when we stop walking, looking down at them.
"This is nonsense! Delphi doesn't deserve to be down there for stealing blankets. Skaikru stole food!" Someone yells from the crowd.
"There is no Skaikru. There is only Wonkru and the enemies of Wonkru. Would you like to join them?" I tell the man.
"But this isn't the Ark, and this isn't the ground, either. There is no blood must have blood. In Rome, the gladiators had the opportunity to fight for their freedom..." Octavia says and we raise our arms a bit, signaling the guards to put the fighters to their feet.
"..and so will you." She finishes and takes her sword, letting it fall in the middle of the circle of fighters.
"Conclave rules. Win the fight, save your life." I explain, as soon as I say this, Kara grabs the sword.
She slays the other contestants and when I notice, she's the last one standing. Winning.
* * *
Two years later
The man in front of me hits me in the face as strong as he can, making me fall on my back. I look up at him, spitting the blood on my mouth and getting back up again, hearing the people around cheering the fight.
I support myself at the wire blocking the fight ring from the others around it and reach to the top, sticky my fingers through the openings. I swing the best I can and when the man gets to me, I quick him in the chest. He's thrown against the wire behind him and I let my feet reach the floor again, punching him in the face with all the strength I had left.
Since we built this place in one of the empty dorms, I hadn't lost once. I had broken some bones but I never lost.
The man doesn't get up from the ground, motioning defeat and I smirk, the taste of blood still on my mouth.
I give him my hand for him to grab, which he does, getting up and walking out of the fighting ring.
With the number of people dying in the fighting pits, it was easy to create this. As soon as a room got empty of people, I took the bunkers out and built this. The dorms were big enough to take twenty bunker beds. So we had enough space.
Octavia wasn't radiant with the project. She thought I was finding a way not to focus on the important things, which was true. I missed the ground. Even The Ark was better than the bunker. I had my fair share of close spaces with no windows. I also missed John. A lot.
When fighting, I would forget everything, the only thing on my mind was winning and the feelings that crossed my body after doing so. The adrenaline.
"Who's next?" I ask the grounders looking at me and grunting.
"Me," Cosmos speaks up and I chuckle, getting off the ring. "Out!" I order the grounders, who immediately do as I say.
Cosmos had grown a beard since we got here. He had learned how to fight with a sword and now was Miller's right arm when leading the security group.
"Up for a fight?" He gets closer, taking off his jacket, leaving him with a grey shirt he was wearing underneath.
"Up to get your ass kicked?" I ask back smiling at him and getting back on the ring. "Right hand of the chief of security, hun?" I tease.
"I earned it."
"You did," I tell him before going to punch him and failing, receiving a punch in the stomach.
I laugh it off as I get back to my fighting position, kicking him in the face and kicking his knee.
He falls on the ground and I get closer to him, which makes him put his leg between mine and making me fall down as well.
He gets up and I groan before doing the same. He punches my nose and I feel the blood starting to fall down. I punch his stomach and them his chin with my other hand. His knee hits the same place his fist did earlier.
I punch his face twice and then kick him in the stomach, causing him to go back against the wire and to come back towards me. Hitting me. I fall on my back and laugh, getting up and rolling my shoulders.
"I thought you well." I say grunting as I walk out of the ring, cleaning the sweat on my face with a towel.
"You said you would be happy when I won." He smiles at me making me look back at him, who's exciting as well.
"I did, didn't I?" I drink a bit of water as I walk out of the room with him.