Nevermore (11,1)
They returned to the cave with grave news about how Arkaida had fallen, but not to an enemy the three warriors in the cave were used to. According to what Jasper had relayed to Sinclair, this new enemy hid inside their friend's minds.
How exactly was Tyra supposed to fight an enemy she couldn't touch?
"No understand." Loukas' mind had been spinning as much as Tyra's had around the situation. Only while Tyra was trying to think of a solution to rid them of the threat, Loukas was more focused on first understanding what it was.
"I don't understand it, either. It's something about those chips." Monty answered while he sat around the fire with Loukas, throwing sticks in to keep the flames alive.
"We'll know soon enough. Be ready." The sound of some shuffling around caught their attention, Tyra and Loukas immediately going for their swords thinking it was yet another threat, only to discover it was Octavia packing.
Frankly, Tyra was shocked she had stayed as long as she had. Knowing the bond she and Lincoln had, if it had been Tyra in her position, she would've already ditched their group to give the man she loved a proper burial.
"O, wait. You can't just leave." Bellamy didn't appear to share Tyra's views on the matter, him wanting to keep Octavia close just to protect her.
Loukas could relate to his feelings, after all, him and his brothers had felt the same way the first few months of Tyra's life, but eventually, they all had to let go so she'd be able to learn about the world and who she was on her own. They couldn't shelter someone from the world forever.
"Watch me."
"You heard what Jasper said on the radio. Arkadia is not safe." Octavia scoffed, tying the finishing details to her pack as she readied to leave.
"What Jasper said sounds insane. Pike's gone. I can handle myself. Grounders burn their dead."
"I know that, and then what? Where you gonna go?"
"You don't get to ask me that." Bellamy sighed exasperated, his growing frustration clear in every sense of way.
"What more do I have to do to prove that I am on your side?"
"Bring Lincoln back," Bellamy fell silent at Octavia's words. He couldn't even imagine being in her position, nor did he wish to do so. But he was thinking with his mind that was hardwired to protect her.
"Turning Pike in does not make you one of the good guys, Bellamy. You did that to save Tyra and me, not because what you thought Pike was doing to the Grounders was wrong."
"The Grounders were starving us out."
"Because you massacred an army that was sent to protect us."
"That army could've attacked us at any time, and you know it."
Tyra would've been lying if she said that the argument spoken by Bellamy didn't sting. She had begun to think that maybe, just maybe, the Bellamy she loved was still buried between the wraps of Pike's henchman. But the more she looked for him, the less Tyra found of the man she fell in love with.
"But they didn't attack. You did that. You were hurting, and you lashed out because that's what you do. There are consequences, Bell. People get hurt. People die, your people. Monroe's dead. Lincoln is dead."
With that final blow to Bellamy, Octavia turned on her heel to leave the cave behind to bury the man she loved. But with one look at each other, Tyra and Loukas had decided she would not go alone.
"Octavia. Wait." She stopped.
Bellamy didn't know how to feel about his sister listening to his ex-girlfriend more than she listened to him. He understood their shared status as warriors, they were sisters in arms, and he was glad they got along so well. But he also wished Octavia would give him his status as the older brother back.
"We're coming with you." Bellamy pinched at the bridge of his nose before smoothening out the forming wrinkles between his eyebrows.
"Tyra, not you too." She ignored him as she slipped right past him before Bellamy could come up with any way of stopping her from her goals. Leaving Loukas as the last option for the two female warriors to listen to his warnings.
But if Bellamy was solely basing himself off the glare that he was receiving from the redheaded man, he'd say he would not find help in Loukas.
"Where she go, I go." Together, the three warriors marched out of the cave together, Octavia paving the way for the other two while they brushed past Miller, Harper, and Bryan.
Tyra had already missed enough funerals, and even if it stung to see the body of someone else she cared about being set aflame. She would not allow Octavia to grow through that pain alone, she'd continue Lexa's legacy in her by helping Octavia through her pain like Tyra's sister had done all those years ago.
"They're here." Tyra covered her face with her hand, the bright lights she had come to recognize as the rover's shining straight into her face.
"Need your help! We have to get her inside before she wakes up." From her position at the bottom of the ridge, Tyra spotted two figures shining against the bright lights. One of them being Jasper, if she was simply judging by voices.
"Were you followed?" As the lights were turned off, Tyra got a clearer view of what was happening below.
Jasper was carrying Raven's unconscious body, a Raven who was not the Raven they all knew according to his message that he had sent in beforehand. But he was not alone, Clarke was also stood by the rover, staring straight at Tyra for the longest of seconds before looking back towards Jasper and Raven.
"Maybe. I... I don't know."
"Give her here." Bellamy took Raven from Jasper's grasp, immediately heading back toward the cave, while the rest of Skaikru followed in behind him.
"Get to the Ridge. Radio if you spot anyone following. Harper, we'll stay here on watch."
"Octavia, Tyra, Loukas, come on. We need all of you," The three warriors shared a look, Tyra knowing perfectly well why Clarke needed them all.
Octavia as protection, as one of Skaikru's fiercest, she had the ability to fight whatever Raven had in her. Loukas as a healer, he was possibly the most skilled healer Clarke had met since Nyko, with what he had learned from reading countless of his mother's books and accompanying her in multiple situations, he knew what he was doing. And Tyra was an added combination of both, a slightly skilled healer with the capabilities of a warrior.
In the end, all three of them returned inside the cave to watch over the following events altogether.
"Clear some space." Gently, Bellamy set Raven against the wall of the cave, resting her unconscious body in the most comfortable position he could.
"What the hell happened to her?"
"I told you on the radio. Raven is not Raven anymore. None of them are. Jaha has been chipping everyone."
"Jasper's right. I've seen it with my own eyes."
"I don't need your help, all right?" Jasper clearly still held a grudge against Clarke for how she had gained her title as Commander of death. But before he could think of anything harmful in any way, Bellamy stepped between the two.
"Just take it easy and explain."
"Jaha is using the chips to control everyone. You swallow it, and it changes you. You forget who you are, and then you see this thing ALIE, only she's not really there. She made Raven slit her own wrists. She was trying to get it out of her head. I was trying to help her, but..."
"Okay, so let's help her now. Did she say how?"
"She was working on building something. She needed one of our old wristbands, but Jaha destroyed all of them." Tyra saw Clarke's eyes widen just as she saw Raven's eyes blink open, the former scrounging in her pockets to find whatever had sparked her mind.
"Wait a second. Does it look like this?" Out from her pocket, Clarke pulled a box Tyra recognized perfectly, the skull image in the front ingrained into her mind. And her suspicions as to what it was being confirmed when Clarke pulled out the small square object to hold on to the light.
"The sacred symbol." Tyra gulped and nodded in confirmation to her brother's words, biting back tears as the small object brought her back to one of the worst days of her life.
"The flame." Tyra wanted to know how exactly Clarke had come to carry such an important object to her people. She knew Titus would die before he willingly gave the flame away, much more if one of Lexa's noviciates were expectantly waiting to be crowned Heda by placing the flame in their neck.
Tyra didn't like where her mind was spiralling at the sight at all.
"Not exactly." Suddenly, the newly awakened Raven jumped to her feet, sending a punch to Jasper's face before running outside the cave.
"Don't let her get away!" Together, everyone inside the cave ran outside, Tyra and Loukas being two of the first to arrive to the sight of Miller and Harper holding Raven as she struggled in their grasps.
"Let me go!"
"If Raven finds out where we are, so will ALIE. She'll come for her," Jasper ran in just as Raven freed herself from Miller's and Harper's grasp, only to end up in Loukas' significantly stronger one.
Jasper took out some injection stick from his pocket and jabbed it into Raven's neck, her immediately falling unconscious. "Reaper stick, last dose."
"We have to go." Clarke suddenly declared, the flame gone, which Tyra hoped meant it was safely stowed once more.
"Why? ALIE doesn't know where we are."
"Because I know where we can get a wristband."
~•~
Much to both Tyra's and Loukas' dismays, they were forced to jam themselves inside the rover for faster transport, although they did try to argue that their presence wouldn't be required, only for Clarke and Octavia to drag them inside anyway.
Not even two minutes in and Loukas had gone back to his burping tendencies, both siblings turning a shade lighter as the rest of the people in the rover covered their noses with their shirts in an attempt at blocking out the foul smell of Loukas' burps.
"Stop." Tyra spoke through a strained voice, fighting back the vile that threatened to crawl up her throat.
"Why? What's wrong?" Bellamy began to roll to a stop, not waiting for Tyra to answer either of his questions. He had learned that when Tyra ordered you to do something, you should do it.
As soon as the rover stopped, Tyra pushed everyone away from the door to escape the rover, her feet carrying her all the way to the side of the road before she finally let out what she had been holding in.
Tyra gagged while she felt her hair being pulled behind her shoulders, her back being rubbed before she let out her digested breakfast off the side of the road. Until finally, once her stomach had emptied, Tyra stopped heaving.
"Feeling better?" Tyra recognized Bellamy's voice perfectly, which only led her to believe he had been the one to hold her hair back and comfort her as she vomited.
"Yes. We can go."
Tyra didn't even look at Bellamy as she strolled past him because she knew she'd only get the smallest shine of hope that he was still him if she so much as offered him a glance before she sat back between Loukas and Octavia. Wiping at the edge of her lip with her sleeve.
The rover moved once more, and not even a second later did Loukas let out yet another loud belch, causing all of them inside the rover to groan.
"Loukas, I will gag you if you burp again."
In response, he burped.