Maya leaves you and Bellamy in the art storage room to pour over plans and schematics for the mountain, looking for the source of the acid fog.
You have only been looking them over for an hour or so when she bursts back into the room in a panic. "They're taking them again!"
You and Bellamy scramble to your feet and simultaneously ask, "What?"
"They're taking your friends again."
"Where?"
She shakes her head. "I don't know."
You look between her and Bellamy. "We have to find them. We have to go back."
Bellamy nods his agreement and so does Maya, so she leads you out of the art room and back to the dorm on level five. You all watch and wait quietly, and after a while, the elevator dings and the doors slide open. You all duck out of view and peer around the corner to watch as six guards and a woman in a lab coat file out of the elevator and head into the dorm.
They're only in there a few minutes before they drag one of the delinquents back out, kicking and screaming. As they step back into the elevator, you realize the doctor is the same one that did the intake for you and the Grounders. The same source of evil. A chill runs up your spine before Maya grabs you and Bellamy and pulls you over to the elevator.
You all watch the number above the elevator move from 5 to 4. You and Bellamy turn to Maya with expectant looks, but she shakes her head. You let out a frustrated huff before you both silently follow her back to the art room, where you finally feel safe enough to talk to each other. Bellamy turns towards your guide. "Where did they take them?"
"I don't know, that level is classified."
"We need to figure out how to get to them, Maya." She looks at you, heeding your words, before offering, "I think my boss has schematics for the vent system, we could start there."
When you both nod your agreement, she gestures to the door. "I'll be right back."
After she leaves, you and Bellamy look at each other, both silent, thinking. You feel your heart drop. "What are we going to do, Bellamy?"
He sighs, "I don't know, but we'll figure it out. We always do."
He reaches out for you and pulls you into a hug, and you revel in his comforting grasp before he whispers into your hair, "We should probably check in with Camp Jaha."
You pull away from him. "You're probably right."
He takes the radio from its hiding spot and starts to call into Camp Jaha. "Do you read me? Anybody there?"
There's a minute of silence before your twin's voice crackles through. "You're late. Every three hours means every three hours."
He turns to you with an annoyed look and you roll your eyes as he asks, "Are you through?"
You hear Maya come back in, a giant roll of paper in her hand. She comes to a stop beside you and you both roll out the schematics to take a look at the vent system. Clarke asks, "Have you found the source of the acid fog?"
"No. That's gonna have to wait."
Despite being miles apart, you can picture her annoyance already. Head shaking back and forth, face pulled into a scowl. "What? Nothing is more important than that."
"Our friends are. They've started taking them from the dorm one at a time every few hours."
Raven cuts in, "Taking them where?"
"We don't know. We tried to follow them, but they went to a classified level. Maya borrowed the schematics of the vent system from her boss, and we're trying to find a way in." He turns to look at Maya. "Anything?"
"I think I found a path, but it's gonna be tight." She reaches into her pocket and pulls out a radio and two headpieces, "Oh, here. Now you can both be mobile and still have contact."
You each take an earbud and Bellamy hooks the radio to his belt. Clarke's voice comes through the radio again, this time more insistent. "You have to find them. If you don't, all of this is for nothing."
Then the radio goes silent until Raven adds, "When you're ready, radio in and we'll keep up with you from here."
"Copy that. Mount Weather out."
"Camp Jaha out."
After he puts the radio back in its place, hidden behind the painting, he comes to stand beside you and Maya. "Okay, show us what you've got."
Her finger traces a vent path, and she elaborates, "I think if you take this path it'll have access to the classified level. It might be a tight squeeze, but it looks like the only way in. You'll follow the main path until you reach an air filtration system, then you take the middle vent and follow it until it leads you to your friends."
Bellamy looks at you, and you nod in agreement to the plan. He looks back at Maya. "Take us there."
She rolls up the schematics and stashes them before leading you out the room and down the hall to a vent in the wall. She looks around quickly before prying the vent open and motioning for you to get inside. Bellamy crawls in first and you follow, and Maya closes the vent behind you. She whispers, "I'll be listening in on the radio so I know when you're ready to exit. Good luck."
Bellamy turns and looks at you the best he can in the small space and whispers, "I'm going to contact Raven, put your earpiece in."
"Okay."
You slide the earpiece into your ear and turn it on while Bellamy finds the right frequency and whispers, "Work station, this is Mount Weather Mobile."
"We hear you loud and clear, Bellamy."
He starts to crawl through the vent system and you follow as he explains, "We're in the vents now. Heading towards the air filtration system."
"Copy."
It doesn't take long to reach it. There are grates above your head and below your feet, and you can hear talking from the grates above. You and Bellamy scramble past it quickly, paranoid, and follow the middle vent for a while before Raven asks, "Okay. So tell us where you're at now."
"We're at an intersection. Which way?"
Clarke is the one to answer. "We think you're close, the lab should be up ahead."
Bellamy shifts and you can see five different vents in front of you, none of them looking like "up ahead". You ask, "Any chance you could be more specific?"
Before they can answer, the loud whir of a drill gets your attention and makes your stomach drop. You and Bellamy exchange a look before he turns towards the direction of the drilling and you whisper, "Nevermind. We got this."
You follow the vent until it opens up, giving you and Bellamy enough room to stand and walk beside each other to the vent cover at the end of the path. You watch as the doctor from the intake drills into someone's thigh, their body so weak they barely make a sound. You feel nausea wash over you when you recognize the boy they took from the dorm earlier, and you feel your hand reaching for Bellamy's, seeking out his strength.
He holds your hand tight, tension radiating off him in waves as you listen in to the conversation in the room. "Let's get back to this secret army that she claims to have. She tell you anything that might help us find it?"
A man with radiation burns on his face answers, "No, sir. Nothing about the army. She did say she was coming for you and that if we let her people go, she'll let our people live." He hesitates then adds, "I'm sorry I failed, President Wallace."
"No, it's okay, Emerson. We'll finish the job tonight." A man in a suit, the president of the mountain, turns slightly, letting you get a good look at his face. "Whitman just radioed in. Apparently, there's a war council meeting happening tonight in one of their villages, and all the leaders are gonna be there."
Emerson looks towards the man, confused. "Sir, Whitman's good, but he can't take out that many targets alone."
You see the man in the suit smile. "Which is why we're gonna use a missile. This time, we're not gonna miss."
You and Bellamy exchange a horrified look, before he tugs you away from the opening and back into the vent system. He drops your hand and leads the way once the vents grow smaller, quickly taking you away from the room to talk more openly. Bellamy whispers, "Please tell me you heard all that."
"We heard it."
"If I leave now, I can make it there in time."
"In time to be blown up, you mean."
"When I get back, I want to know our friends are safe and the acid fog is down. Can you handle that?"
"Yeah, we can handle it. Go."
You and Bellamy listen to Raven and Clarke as they quickly go back and forth. Once Bellamy realizes that Clarke is leaving he stops her. "Clarke, wait. Octavia was in Tondc when I left. Is she..."
He trails off, but Clarke understands. "She's here. She's safe."
"Clarke?"
She answers you quietly, "Yeah?"
"Be careful. Please." You don't say anything more, embarrassed that so many people are listening in, but she understands what you're trying to say. I love you. You're my other half. Don't do anything stupid.
"I will. Camp Jaha out."
Bellamy whispers, "Maya, if you're listening, we're ready."
And then he leads you through the last part of the vent system, where you both wait in silence for Maya to come and free you. Once she arrives and lets you out, you all make a beeline towards the art room. As soon as you're inside, Maya turns to you, face covered in shock. "That wasn't President Wallace speaking."
You shake your head. "What?"
"I mean, it was a Wallace, but not the right one! That was Cage, President Wallace's, I mean Dante's, son."
Bellamy catches onto her line of thinking, "The alarms, the sudden change in everything."
"It was a coup." You study Maya. "Do you think he'd help us?"
"He might."
You turn to Bellamy and give him a serious look. "This might be crazy, but I want to talk to Dante."
"This might be crazy, but I want to talk to Jasper," he counters.
"Explain."
"We need to arm them, help them fight back. You saw Jason in there. They drilled into him until they killed him. If they fight back, maybe less of them will die."
You nod. "I agree and I think Dante might help us. When Clarke explained her interactions with him, he seemed reasonable."
He agrees, "I think it's worth a shot."
And then you both turn to Maya with questioning looks, "Is it doable?"
"Yes." She sighs, "But it won't be easy. Bellamy, we'll have to sneak you into the next guard group, and then sneak you back out again without anyone noticing."
She turns to you, "And we have to find Dante before you can talk to him. Let me sort a few things out and then I'll come get you."
You both nod and she slips away quietly, leaving you and Bellamy alone again. He gives you a small smile, "You should get some rest. We don't know when we'll have downtime again."
"Last time you said that you left me to sneak into this mountain."
He smiles, "I'm not going anywhere this time."
"Good."
You look around for something soft to sleep against but find nothing other than wooden crates and hard picture frames. You sigh and start to lay down on the hard floor, the concrete rough against your bones. Bellamy notices and slides to the floor, back against the wall, motioning you over. You come and stand beside him awkwardly, not sure what he's thinking, when he laughs, "My legs might be a more comfortable pillow."
He motions for you to lay down beside him and rest your head on his thighs, and after a moment of hesitation, you do. You're tense at first, the intimacy of something this simple making you nervous, but after a few minutes you start to relax. Your eyes close and you start to drift off, and when you're halfway between the dream world and real life, you feel a hand lift and start to stroke your hair, over and over again, lulling you to sleep.
-
The drill whirs loudly in your ears, and you clap your hands over them to drown out the sound, but it's no use. And when you think that it can't get any worse, his cries of pain punctuate the air, reminding you that you're locked in a cage, helpless and watching, and he's across the room, strapped down and being harvested.
He calls out your name and lets out a heart wrenching cry of pain, and the sound breaks you, a sob ripping from your chest and tears falling over your cheeks, dropping to the bottom of the cage. You cry and rattle the door of the cage, screaming his name, and begging for the Mountain Men to stop. "Bellamy! I'm sorry, I should have saved you!"
A strong hand shakes you awake.
Your eyes fly open and you sit up quickly, looking around in panic, searching for the drill, the doctor, the cages, but finding none of it. Bellamy turns you to face him, wiping tears from your face, shushing you quietly, and you realize that you've been whimpering his name over and over. He whispers, "It's okay, I'm here. You're safe, we're safe."
Your bottom lip quivers and you lurch forward and wrap your arms around him, pulling him into a tight hug. The ferocity of it surprises him at first and he freezes for a second before wrapping his arms around your waist. You bury your head into his neck as the dream spins around and around in your head, torturing you. The tears start to fall and you let out a choked whisper, "I thought I was losing you."
"You weren't. You won't."
He pulls you away so he can look at you, and his hands find a place on your cheeks, forcing you to hold his gaze. His thumbs brush the tears away as they fall down your face, and you have to resist the urge to shrink away from the adoration in his eyes and on his face. "I-"
He is cut off by the sound of the door swinging open, and you both slide apart quickly, just as Maya comes around the corner, breathless. "I figured it out."
-
She explains Bellamy's plan first, because your plan hinges on his. Maya found a way to sneak Bellamy into the shift of guards that's meant to retrieve one of the 47 (less, now) for extraction. Once he is in place and in action, you will be sent to deliver Dante's food to him. The guards monitoring the cameras will be so focused on watching the extraction that they will barely pay attention to Dante and his cameras.
Once she's explained the plans and gotten your approval, she steps away and looks over the maps one last time, giving you and Bellamy enough time to exchange a quick, but heated kiss. The danger of your individual missions is not lost on either of you, and you convey that in the kiss, each of you hoping it covers everything left unsaid.
Bellamy pulls away when he hears Maya shift awkwardly behind you, and he whispers, "We'll meet back here. We've got this."
You nod and watch as he follows Maya from the room, taking him to the meet up point for the guards. There is nothing for you to do but wait, and hope that everything goes smoothly.
-
It's not long before Maya bursts back into the art room and motions for you to follow her. "Quickly!"
You do as she says and follow her down the hall and to the elevators as she leads you through the mountain at a brisk pace. Once you reach the fifth floor, she stops outside of the mess hall and whispers, "Stay here and keep your head down."
You avoid eye contact with the people of Mount Weather as they file into the mess hall for dinner, feeling tight with tension as you wait for Maya to return. Finally, she steps out into the hall with a tray in her hand, and nods for you to follow her again. She leads you back to the elevator, presses the button for two different floors, and passes you the tray of food. "I can't go with you once the elevator stops, because it'll look suspicious to anyone that might be watching. The cameras are down the right side of the hall, so keep your head turned away. There's one camera inside Dante's room, and it's on the right side as you come inside, the left when you leave again. I stole an extra keycard and put it on the tray, and that'll get you inside the room and onto the elevator. Come straight back to the art room when you're done."
You nod, taking in the overload of information. You hear the doors slide open behind you and she whispers, "Good luck."
You step off the elevator and keep your head turned to the left, ducked away from the cameras. You walk until you reach room 302, and then you take a deep breath and scan the keycard. The door beeps in approval so you slide the keycard into your pocket before pushing the door open and stepping inside the room. As soon as you look up from the floor, President Wallace is turning towards you, staring. You see surprise cross his face followed by something else as you mutter, "Your evening meal, President Wallace."
He says nothing, just stares at you intensely, and you start to wonder whether you made a mistake. He starts to walk towards you and you tense, planning the best way to get out and get to safety but he stops at the record player beside you and turns up the volume. You use the moment to walk past him and start setting his food out on the table near the bed. His voice is gruff when he asks, "Who are you?"
You turn slightly, careful to keep yourself hidden from the cameras, and answer with your name, and you hesitate before you add, "You've met my twin, Cl-"
"Clarke," He finishes for you, coming to stand beside you. "I can see the similarities."
You don't reply to that, instead you inform him, "We need your help. Your son is killing my people. My friends."
"I'm a prisoner, same as them."
You finish laying out his food, and he helps you to gather his other dishes and load them up onto the tray. You retort, "A prisoner who knows every inch of this mountain, every security measure."
"After Clarke escaped, I had all exits fortified and put under extra surveillance. My son has no doubt changed all access and entrance codes by now. Your friends will never even make it off of level five."
You feel your anger flare, twisting with a sense of helplessness and desperation. "I won't let them die here."
"I'm sorry. I can't help them escape." He hesitates and you start to turn away, keeping your head down, and he adds, "But I may be able to buy them some time."
You turn back towards him and he scribbles something onto a piece of paper before ripping it off and sliding it towards you in his discarded napkin. You pick up the napkin to put it on the tray, sliding out the paper and balling it into your fist as you do. "If you can reverse the filtration system, you can keep anyone that hasn't already been cured off the level, at least for a while."
"Thank you."
He nods, and takes a sip of his tea. "Good luck."
You turn and leave the room quickly, making a beeline for the elevator. Once inside, you hit the button for the seventh floor and wait impatiently as you sink deeper into the mountain, back towards safety. As soon as the elevator doors slide open, you maneuver through the halls quickly, remembering the path Maya laid out for you earlier. You let out a sigh of relief when you see the door, slipping inside quietly and sneaking through the shelves until you come around a corner and face to face with Maya and Bellamy.
He pulls you into a hug, relief radiating off him in waves, before pulling away to let you speak. "Tell me everything."
-
As soon as you and Bellamy tell Maya and each other what you saw and what you learned, you radio Raven and tell her the news from Dante. You read the coordinates off to her and she inputs them, before mapping out a path from your current location to the destination given to you by the former president. "There are emergency ladders that run from the top of the mountain to the bottom. If you can get to one of those, you can easily access the air filtration room."
Maya runs across the room and grabs one of the maps of the mountain, and you all pour over it until you find access nearby. "There. Level five, past the Mess Hall. We can take that up until we reach the first level."
"Raven, we found something. Give us a few minutes to get there, and we'll update again."
"Copy."
Maya turns to look at you both. "I can't take you this time, people are starting to get suspicious that I haven't been around the last couple of days."
You give her a reassuring smile, "Go, we got this."
"I'll come check on you guys later, and I'll keep my ears open."
You both nod and she starts to turn away, but Bellamy stops her. "Stay away from the 5th floor. It won't be safe."
"I will."
She leaves, and you wait a few minutes for her to get some distance before you sneak out of the warehouse and take the elevator up to the fifth floor. Once you make it there, you and Bellamy move down the hall as quickly as you can without raising any suspicions, going past the locked dorms, the kitchen, and the mess hall, following the hall until it dead ends near a small access hole. Bellamy turns on the radio and calls out for Raven. "Raven, we found the access point. Going in."
"Copy."
Bellamy pulls the door open and then peers inside, looking up, then down, and back to you. "There's a large space between the door and ladder. I'll go first, and then I'll help you make sure you can make it."
You nod and watch as he disappears inside the hole, grunting with the effort, before he quietly whispers, "Okay, your turn!"
You peek inside and see he's taken a few steps down the ladder so that he can catch you if you slip up. You maneuver yourself into the hole, swinging the door closed behind you, before reaching out as far as your legs will stretch and touching the ladder. You avoid looking down as you carefully shimmy to the edge of the access hole the best you can, and then use all of your upper body strength to push yourself towards the ladder.
Your hands make contact and you let out a shaky breath of air as you situate yourself on the ladder, feeling stable. Bellamy asks, "Ready?"
"Yes." You start to climb the ladder rung by rung, trying to move quickly for your friends sake, but trying to stay stable on the old metal ladder. Raven's voice crackles in your ear, "Talk to me. What do you see?"
"Close your eyes. Imagine a bottomless pit." You shudder and try to ignore the darkness pressing in from beneath you as Bellamy adds, "Did they evacuate Tondc?"
"Don't know yet, but it's Clarke. She'll get it done. Just concentrate on squeezing your asses through that vent and stop worrying about your sister."
Bellamy freezes beneath you and you stop and look down at him. He's shaking slightly, breath coming out uneven, and his voice is full of panic when he asks, "Octavia's in Tondc?"
Raven doesn't answer for a long minute, and when she does you can hear the regret in her voice. "She's gonna be okay. Clarke's gonna get there on time."
"How could you keep this from me?"
"Clarke was trying to protect you." You hear him let out a frustrated huff and you resist the urge to do the same. "Listen. You still have a job to do. I know you're-"
The radio cuts out in your ear, and you look down and realize he turned it off, not interested in what she has to say. Your heart softens and your voice comes out soft when you ask, "Bellamy?"
His head lifts and his eyes meet yours, worry etched in the lines of his face. Your mind cycles through what to say: sorry my sister lied, I guess that's her new thing. I'm sure she'll make it in time and save everyone, plus Octavia. Octavia is strong, she'll be okay.
You shake your head because none of it sounds right to you. The only thing that does is, "I left my necklace with Octavia. It helped me get through everything I've been through."
You don't know what you're trying to say, but Bellamy must get it because he starts to calm down. He takes in a deep breath, letting it out as he turns the radio back on. "Let's just get this done."
You and Bellamy continue up the ladder, climbing higher and higher until you reach the first level and a different access door. You climb higher so Bellamy can get it open, and he climbs through before reaching back and helping you through. You step into a warehouse, and Raven directs you to a control box nearby. "You've got to pull the outside air in to reverse the air filtration system."
Bellamy stares down at the wires and plugs in confusion, following Raven's additional instructions as she explains it to the two of you slowly. Bellamy pulls one last plug and switches it with another, letting out a frustrated sigh. "Just tell me how we know if it's even working."
As if on cue, an alarm sounds around you, the warning lights on the wall casting an eerie yellow hue over everything. "Warning: Containment breach."
Raven must hear the alarm through your headsets because she replies, "I'd say it's working."
You and Bellamy exchange a smile and you whisper, "Thank you, Mr. President."
-