Ethan's running, running after the messy tracks of the Rover's wheels, past bodies that blur in his peripheral, ignoring how much this is gonna kill for his ankle when the adrenaline is gone.
He sees the Rover, but he also sees Bellamy, standing defensively in front of the gate with his gun held high. Ethan thinks about pushing forward, taking Bellamy down for Kane to get through. But he won't make it, and that niggling feeling in the back of his head still cares enough about Bellamy to call out,
"Bellamy, get the fuck out of the way!"
But he remains firmly planted in the dirt, expression unchanging.
Kane, fortunately, does not run Bellamy over. The Rover halts harshly when he slams on the breaks, hitting his hands against the wheel in defeat.
Ethan has to physically dig his boots into the dirt to stop himself from actually skidding into Bellamy, instead bumping into his side, chest rising and falling harshly.
Meeting Kane's eyes, blank and devoid of hope, he knows they've lost.
The plan was good. It should've worked. But it was his own people that ruined it. He shoves Bellamy a step to the side, "Fuck you!" and again, "Whatever happens next is your fucking fault!"
Bellamy takes it with a lack of eye contact, lips flattened in a thin line.
The guards come through, hands trying to detain him and Ethan fights back, hoping to catch a few knees with his boots. He tosses his elbow into a set of ribs along the way until the guards force his arms behind his back.
When he hears the clatter of stiff metal, Ethan tosses his head over his shoulder and laughs flatly, "Hey, I used those same cuffs on your mum last night."
"Shut up." Barks a familiar voice.
He'd hoped Michael had died, but obviously that wasn't the case.
"Oh, it's you." Ethan digs his feet into the ground, and abruptly, shoves himself backwards.
Success was so close, the both of them almost slamming into the dirt if it wasn't for the other guards. They steady them both and Ethan groans.
His knees hit the ground first, then his chest. When the cold metal bites into his wrists, it's much tighter than it should be.
Ethan focuses on an empty space in the air, dejected, and refuses to look up from the boots that stop in front of his face.
Shit.
Shit.
He drags his weight when they haul him inside the ark, satisfied by the struggling grunts every time they adjust their grip.
Lock-up is guarded by twice the amount of people, he notices, when they turn the corner.
The grounders, pale, eyes barely squinted open, sit on the floor looking defeated. Harley, Lincoln and Sinclair huddle together in silence.
He has nothing to say when they look up and see him. The disappointment is a heavy weight he's never known how to handle.
The door opens, and Ethan waits, expecting his hands to be let free.
This means he isn't prepared for a sudden rough shove into lock-up, and he stumbles into the room without confidence, knocking the breath out of him when his shoulder hits the wall. "Bitch." He wheezes out.
Michael scoffs, slamming the door shut, missing his usual snarky reply. Ethan sneers at the guards until they disperse, and eventually pushes away from the wall to collapse on the bench.
Lincoln silently joins him.
Breathing more erratically than he should be, Ethan tries to remember their last conversation as a distraction. Before all this. Something about needing Lincoln to come back safe and sound.
And then it was Ethan that went ahead and did everything he asked Lincoln not do to.
"Moba gon gonout." He apologises, quietly, for his disappearing act.
Lincoln turns his head. "Yu ge bos." He praises him, the words choppy, but understandable. "Where'd you learn?"
"New friend." Ethan supplies. "Emori." He pauses, brows furrowing, "We befriended her on the roads. There were others, too, where Indra found me. Seria and Alessia."
Recognition flashes in Lincoln's eyes, "Trikru?"
"Seria is, yeah. I'm not-" He presses his boot firmly into his other ankle until it hurts enough to continue. "I'm not sure about Alessia. She didn't make it."
Ethan further ducks his head so he doesn't have to meet Lincoln's eyes, "Pike got most of the information he has now through us." He admits, chewing on the inside of his cheek.
"Nou yu sich," Lincoln says without blinking.
Ethan squints at the floor, piecing the words together. Sich meaning problem - no, sich meaning fault?
Not your fault.
He looks up. The weight of guilt doesn't dissipate, but he smiles at Lincoln.
"I know we didn't talk much but I missed you, you know?" Ethan blows out a lengthy breath, "I missed a lot of people."
Lincoln looks away, hands clasped together on his lap, ". . .what happened?"
Ethan shrugs, jostling his arms, irritated by the pins and needles in his fingers. "Jaha was convinced he needed to find the City of Light. Who knew more about the ground than the adults he brought along? The hundred he sent to die. Thought it reasonable to blackmail me and Murphy into joining him."
His lips curl inwards at the hard part, "We lost a lot of people. Jaha ran off. Then it was just us, locked in a bunker. It got lonely."
He's told the story so many times now that it's gotten easier to cut it short.
Lincoln nods, steely eyes glancing down at him. "Murphy?"
Ethan chews on the inside of his cheek, "Pike's people. . . took me away from him." He looks at the ground, "Don't know where he is. If he's even alive, at this point."
He clears his throat, trying not to let it get to him. It's not easy now that the thought is there. Just one thing to add to the pile of things pissing him off - the noise, the sand in his boots, the eyes he can feel watching him.
Shifting in his seat, he attempts to distract himself. Fails when his hands rub at the wall the wrong way, tipping over that frail pile of things. Ethan curses, sitting forward -
Lincoln clamps a hand on his shoulder.
Ethan forces himself to take a breather. Not only does Lincoln calm him down, but he tugs, and pulls him closer. Lifts a hand to direct Ethan's head to his sturdy shoulder.
Confused, and slightly embarrassed, Ethan frowns.
The recent change in position leaves a gap between his cuffed hands and the wall and oh. Lincoln's too good for Arkadia.
"Mochof." He breathes out, thanking him.
Lincoln grunts, leaning his head back against the wall.
When the guards lead Kane out of the interrogation room and into lock-up, they're faced with a much more serious problem.
Kane's been charged with treason, and sentenced to death.
Where were Clarke and Octavia when he needed them?
With Lincoln down by the grounders to reassure them, and Sinclair stretched out on the bench in the middle, Ethan stays where he's always been, back to the wall.
He rockets his knee up and down, half-enjoying the visceral pain that his ankle is starting to endure.
He stares at the far wall but looks at nothing, feeling strangely. . . calm. Maybe it was the waiting game. Not knowing what was going to happen. Being with people he knew this time around.
Or, idiotically, that stupid false sense of hope that Bellamy was going to do something about this.
"Chancellor on deck!"
Ethan jolts, jumping off the wall to turn towards the gate.
"Thought I had more time," Kane whispers, wiping his sweaty hands along his thighs.
Ethan grits his teeth, his gut churning with dread, "They can't do this."
But when Kane stands to confront Pike, he's turned down.
"I'm not here for you."
Kane frowns, and Ethan stands from the bench to circle around him, seeing Bellamy settled behind Pike like a faithful dog.
He remembers Pike. From the Ark.
Vividly remembers him tossing Murphy around like he was nothing, what was once a lesson in Earth 101 turning into something physical.
Ethan realises now, why that lesson had been so different from the rest. Pike had known they were being sent to the ground.
But that didn't excuse the way he slammed his fist into Murphy's face, the way he threw Jasper away for trying to help and verbally assaulted Ethan for doing the same.
"Fancy seeing you here." He mocks, walking along the entrance like a predator taking in its prey. "One face that I never wanted to see again."
"Hm. I almost didn't recognise yours." Pike crosses his arms, looking down on Ethan, "You used to be all bark and no bite. Things have changed."
Ethan steps forward, venomous words on his tongue -
But Bellamy intercepts. "Is that really necessary?" He gestures towards Ethan's bound arms.
"Oh, yeah." The blond scoffs, twisting a little to show him. "Special treatment."
"He attacked every guard he came in contact with." Pike jabs a finger at him, and grunts, "Think of it as a precaution."
"Precaution my ass." Ethan shakes his head as he saunters back around the other side of Kane.
Pike takes a breath, puffs his chest out and looks among everyone in lock-up before declaring, "Each of you is guilty of the same crimes as Kane, and as such, you will share the same fate. . . death."
Ethan snaps his head up, "what?"
Pushing himself closer to the gate, Lincoln leans against it and glances pointedly at the other grounders, "My people are innocent, they know nothing. Don't let them suffer for my crimes. Please."
Still disoriented, the death sentence placed upon his head, Ethan can't process his words. He barely feels Harley come up beside him.
"Sir. Lincoln's right. All the others did was run through an open door, same thing we would do if we were in there." Bellamy defends, shocking them all.
Stepping forward, Pike's crazy eyes are set on Lincoln. "I believe that's true. . ." He glances around at the faces filling the forefront of the room. Ethan being one of them. "Kane, Lincoln, Sinclair. . . Ethan and Harley. As the leaders of this coup, you will pay for your crimes with your lives. Execution is set for dawn."
Ethan parts his lips, but nothing comes out.
Pike leaves, his guards following. All except Bellamy, staring into the room with something akin to guilt.
Static fills the air.
Or maybe it's just Ethan, the white noise buzzing in his ears, fogging his head. He finds it funny that it reminds him of the Ark's engine hum. How fitting.
Ethan staggers a step forward, "Bellamy." His voice shakes, involuntarily, and he thumps his head against the metal bars. "Please."
Dropping his eyes, Bellamy walks away.
Ethan widens his eyes, on the verge of something panicked, lungs straining with every inhale. "Don't do this!"
But Bellamy keeps walking. Leaving him for dead.
Kicking at the gate, "Don't walk away from me!" Hot pressure pricks behind his eyes, "Bellamy!"
Someone tugs him away from the door, forces him in close, too close, and Ethan fights against the hands, kicking his feet against the ground. "Get off of me! Get off-!"
The hand only buries itself in his hair, gentle, and tucks his head against a shoulder.
With his hands behind his back, Ethan can't get very far.
"It's alright. You're alright." Harley's voice rumbles deep in his chest, low but comforting. Surprising for such a stoic man.
Ethan fucking hates it but he accepts the offer and cries silently against Harley's shoulder.
He was going to die anyway.
How're the new chapters going folks?
- Timothy