JINNY CRIED OUT in excitement as she finally reconstructed the completed cipher on her self-made laptop. The chip she inherited from her mother was socketed to the main computer terminal of the Ark, establishing a connection to her cryptogram. It had been a long five years but she knew it would all be worth it. They had known all along that the information from the data core would be their saving grace. The Ark was completely blind to conditions on the Ground, but if they could build an Artificial Intelligence to keep track of the radiation levels for them then surely, they would be able to stop guessing.
She entered the key code into the terminal and laughed out loud when the last firewall was successfully hacked. A cascade of information poured out of the data nodule, running through the scans she had placed and automatically transferring them to her laptop in zipped files. She had done it, and now all she had to do was to analyse them. There was too much data for her to take in but she had caught a few words such as "The Lazarus Project", schematics and plans for a voyage to the next galaxy in Andromeda. She thought that was a feasible backup plan if Earth could never fully recover the devastation it endured.
One particular file caught her attention, and it was the blueprint she had been looking for. She glanced through the software programs that she would need to write up, the algorithms and the hardware required. They could probably pool their resources to do this, she could segment a portion of the Ark's mainframe to store it.
The door suddenly opened and she jumped in her seat from fright, turning sharply to see who it was. Bellamy breathed heavily by the threshold, stepping inside before quickly closing the door shut behind him. Jinny looked at him in confusion.
"What are you doing?" she hissed angrily. "Nobody is supposed to know where I am!"
"Jaha found out, he's on his way here right now," he told her.
"What?!" she exclaimed, prompting a flurry of activity from the girl as she attempted to close all the files on the terminal.
"You need to leave," Bellamy took her arm but she shook him off. "They're going to arrest you!"
"I can't!" she shouted. "I finally did it, I need to salvage the information before they take me away!"
She glanced at him briefly. "Give me your necklace."
"Huh?" he looked at her in bewilderment.
"Just give it to me!" she demanded in frustration. Bellamy quickly tore the necklace from his collar and handed it to her. She inserted the backup flashdrive into the socket of the mainframe and quickly transferred the blueprints into it. Then she gave it back to him. "Keep it secret. Keep it safe."
"Jin, what are you-"
She ignored him and turned back to the terminal, typing furiously across the keyboard.
>> ENTER COMMAND
>> NOS SUNT INFINITAE
>> INITIATING FAILSAFE PROTOCOLS
>> HYDRA ACTIVATED
>> TOTAL SYSTEM FAILURE
>> SHUT DOWN IMMINENT
There was a sudden blackout as the electricity surged for a brief moment, then the screen shone a bright red as the emergency alarms rang throughout the station. Jinny gasped out loud in surprise, her mind and heart racing as she stared at the black printed letters on the terminal.
"Shit. Fuck, no," she continued to curse under her breath as she tried to get the firewalls back up. "This can't be happening."
"What's happening?" Bellamy grabbed hold of her arm again, his eyes wide with fear as more flashing red lights erupted down the hallway outside.
"The virus... it... this wasn't supposed to happen," she stared numbly at her hands. "What have I done?"
"They're here." Bellamy started as there was a loud bang against the door. They could hear Jaha's voice behind it shouting orders that were barely audible over the blaring alarm. Jinny looked back to Bellamy like a lost child. "Can you fix it?" he asked.
"Y-yes," she nodded. "But it's too late, the entire Ark has shut down."
"But can you get rid of the virus?" he went on.
"I think so, I'm the only one with the passcode," she said.
"Don't fix it," he said and she blinked in surprise. "They'll float you if they have no use for you."
The door finally gave way and the Guards swarmed into the room with their shock batons held at the ready. Jaha stayed by the door, looking in on them with a sombre expression.
"Good work, cadet," he said. "Thanks to you, we apprehended the criminal."
Jinny turned to Bellamy in disbelief, her voice coming out in an unsteady whisper. "You told them?"
"I-I..." he started to shake his head but it was obvious from the guilt filling his eyes that he had leaked her whereabouts. The guards cuffed her and roughly pulled her out of the room after the Chancellor. Bellamy would always remember the look on her face as they took her away.
That he betrayed her trust.
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Clarke stood up from her seat slowly, the disappointment she wore slowly melting into something else. Jinny stood opposite her and fidgeted awkwardly under their scrutiny. When she met the blonde's eyes again, she could see the blazing wild fire within them.
"It was you!" Clarke cried. "This is all because of you!"
In the next moment, Jinny found herself tackled to the hard ground as Clarke lashed out at her while screaming in fury. She held her arms above her head instinctively despite the cold feeling in her gut that told her that she deserved every hit. Bellamy rushed forwards to grab the girl and pull her off Jinny. She struggled in his tight grip, her shrill voice completely filling the air.
"I should kill you!" Clarke shrieked. "It's all your fault! I can't believe I trusted you!!"
"Clarke..." Jinny started but found herself at a lost for words. "I... I'm sorry."
"Sorry won't bring my father back!" the blonde spat back venomously.
"Hey," Bellamy raised his voice. "Jin wasn't the one who decided to float your father. That was the Council's decision."
"If it wasn't because of her, my father would never have found the flaw in the first place!" Clarke yelled, finally breaking free from his grasp and standing away from the both of them. "After everything I said to defend you, when you knew the entire time."
"I know." Jinny finally picked herself off the ground. She felt her lip stung as she spoke; Clarke must have gotten a good punch in to split it. "I'm a coward. I used the virus as leverage to keep myself alive even after that. I'm sorry, Clarke, I didn't mean for any of this to happen."
The blonde shook her head. "You disgust me."
With that, she stormed out of the tent. They could see the rest of the camp looking in on them as Clarke pushed the flap out of her way. Jinny dropped back to the ground again and buried her head between her arms. She felt Bellamy rubbing her back soothingly a second later.
"You're not a coward," he said. "I don't think you are."
"No..." She looked up at him. "I'm just scum."
"You're not. I'll try to talk to her," he offered. "She's just in shock. Anything concerning her father is a sore spot for her."
She sighed. "Now that that's done... the others are going to want an explanation too."
"We don't have to tell them anything."
"I guess not." She looked away. "Telling the truth sucks. I hate it."
"You get used to it." He quirked a smile. "C'mon."
He pulled her up to a stand and they stepped out into the camp. Octavia and Miller immediately went up to greet them. Everyone within their near vicinity turned to look curiously, expecting to hear some kind of statement.
"We heard yelling," the younger girl said. "What happened?"
"You guys were talking to Jaha, weren't you? Did something go wrong?" Miller asked.
"It's just a minor misunderstanding," Bellamy told them. "Everyone get back to work. We have shooting practice, Miller, come on."
"Oh, yeah!" The boy perked up and rubbed his hands together gleefully. "I am so ready for this!"
Jinny broke out into a smirk at him. "Oh, really?"
"Uh, yes, ma'am, Commander ma'am," he stood straight at attention, which only made her laugh, but the sound still felt hollow to her own ears. Life ultimately went on despite whatever happened around them.
"Let's go, Miller." She motioned with a hand and they followed Bellamy towards the western side of the walls. The man had already picked out an ensemble of gunners that would have to be their first choice of defence against the Grounders.
"Look sharp!" Bellamy bellowed and the kids hurriedly arranged themselves into an orderly line. Miller went to join them after grabbing a gun.
The two ex-Guards equipped themselves and stood in front of their ragtag military band. She thought that it was still better than nothing. There were about two dozen kids who had been picked to hold guns and Jinny sighed at how inexperienced they were. She exchanged a glance with Bellamy after having finished their inspection of the recruits.
"This is going to be a long day," she said before turning to the group. "Listen up and listen well because if you shoot your own foot off, I'm going to leave you as bait for the Grounders. Is that understood?"
"Yes, ma'am!" they chorused loudly.
"Cadet training at its finest," Bellamy commented offhandedly.
"I wish Minho was here," she muttered with a sigh. "He'll make a man out of 'em."
"In which case, you'd just make them into chopped liver, right?"
"Did I ever make you into chopped liver?" She looked at him with narrowed eyes. "You look completely fine to me."
"I got better," he replied drily.
The delinquents looked at each other awkwardly as their instructors continued to bicker with each other at length. Finally, they turned their attention back to the group and Jinny sighed when she laid eyes on them again.
"Okay, first thing first is to know what you're doing." She held out her gun to demonstrate the different parts. "Safety, barrel, trigger, charging handle, magazine clip. Sterling, don't look down the barrel with your finger on the trigger unless you want to blow your damn face off!"
The boy started in surprise and quickly locked his safety. Bellamy looked at her, the corner of his lips twitching as he tried not to laugh at how helpless they were. She shot him a small glare before going back to her lecture, showing them how to hold the rifle and where to aim. Then they moved out of the walls towards a clearing that they had set up for shooting practice. Crudely constructed targets were pinned to the trees, made up of different fabrics.
"Remember," she said, standing in the middle to take aim. "Butt to your shoulder muscle, support the stock with your hand and fire on an exhale."
She shot a few rounds into the middle of a red target before stepping back for the kids to have their turns. An endless barrage of ammunition was fired into the tree line before Bellamy yelled at them to stop. Great, now they had trigger happy delinquents under their care. Jinny smacked her hand into her face and groaned in exasperation. In the end, only Miller and Monroe had managed to hit a target.
"This is going to be a very long day," Bellamy said beside her.
She punched him. "I hate you."
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ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © KAYE CEE
DO NOT STEAL, COPY OR TAKE ANY PART OF THIS WORK.
[ author's note ]
please leave a vote, it helps out a lot! thank you for reading as always! ❤
+ any kdrama fans out there? because iu as jinny reminds me of scarlet heart ryeo and imma cry every time.