R A R I T Y | E P I L O G U E
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Surrounded by four white walls, Nova feels there is nothing else to do but stare at them. To look at the paint that has started to chip off as time has passed, or gouged by people that have previously called this room their home — anything to pass time, slowly going mad, theorising absurd meanings from the wall's blank stare.
The only thing to pull her out of her own thoughts is the piercing sound of multiple gunshots being randomly fired across the hallway. The metal door is bolt locked most of the time, at Nova's own choice, but this is too serious not to investigate.
Curiosity engulfs her mind. She presses her ear to the door in attempt to find out what the commotion is about.
Through the closed door come raised voices, each to and fro of the verbal fight getting more shrill, more severe. Nova withdraws her hand from the handle and creeps backwards. She takes a deep breath in and, without thinking about what she is doing too much, pulls the door open with such a force it creates a draft.
Her eyes scan the hallway, but muffled voices can be heard from one room she knows all too well: Lexa's.
As Nova approaches her friends room, breathing deep from running, she is forced to stop dead in her tracks as she sees a scene she never wanted to imagine. The rare black blood oozes out of Lexa's chest, shock stricken on her face as she processes her sudden fate. Titus stands before her, gun in hand but strewn by his side, with Clarke screaming out of emotional turmoil. Her head shakes as her mind attempts to deny the inevitable outcome. But it's who is standing in the corner that surprises Nova the most.
John Murphy. The boy who she never thought she would see again, let alone be in the same room with.
Nova's whole body freezes at the sight of him, like time is passing by her but her mind refuses to catch up. Her eyes interlock with his for a brief moment, but their reunion is not the most important thing right now. Lexa is close to death, and that means no good for both Nova and the sky people.
Forcefully tearing her eyes away from Murphy, Nova rushes to her friend's side, with Clarke the opposite end, tears evident in her eyes. Up until this moment, Clarke hadn't noticed her presence. It's only when Nova is opposite her does she realise the girl who she thought was dead is, in fact, alive. Though, Clarke's wide eyes are only momentary, before her concern returns to Lexa.
In front of her, Lexa heaves for breath, as if every gulp of air is a struggle for her. It's hard not to notice Clarke's hope, willing her to survive, her need to fix the gaping bullet-hole in Lexa's chest greater than any chance of Clarke facing the grim reality.
Almost as if her heart is willing her, Nova takes a glance back at Murphy, her eyes laced with despair. He returns a similar expression, although his face still emulates the over-whelming feeling of seeing Nova again, despite the situation they find themselves in.
With a heavy heart, she witnesses Lexa and Clarke share their final moments together. As much as Nova hasn't seen Clarke in a long while, Lexa would talk about her in such a way that Nova could only hope to have a love like theirs, and her thoughts would often go back to what she could have had with Murphy.
Nova's eyes glimmer with watery tears as Lexa takes her last breath. She's seen so much death in her nineteen years of life, but Lexa's passing brings everything home and adds even more complication to Nova's current circumstance. Lexa has been the only person to understand her situation and allow her a place to call home, and she can't imagine the chaos that is to follow when people realise the Commander is dead.
Beside her, Clarke is in pieces. She can't seem to comprehend the fact that the person she cares for the most is gone. Knowing the pain she is feeling, Nova shuffles to Clarke's side, wrapping her arms around her as an act of kindness, allowing her to have a shoulder to cry on.
"Come on. We should go, okay?" Murphy ushers Clarke, but she doesn't want to hear it.
"Yu gonplei ste odon, Leksa kom Trikru. The heda's gonplei goes ona," Titus speaks quietly, before moving Lexa's body to her side, revealing an infinity symbol that confuses both Murphy and Clarke, but Nova knows it all too well.
As Titus brings a scalpel to the back of Lexa's neck, Clarke lunges forward slightly as she whispers, "What are you doing?"
"Hey, let him do this. It's what Lexa would have wanted." Nova places her hand on top of her shoulder, gently preventing Clarke from getting in the way of the process of removing the flame. With Murphy on the other side of Clarke, Nova notices his prolonged glances at her, but she knows if she looks at him for too long, she will simply want to break down. She has lost too much already, and Murphy is just another reminder of that.
The flame is pulled from Lexa's body, only adding to the sky people's confusion over what it actually is. It's only when Murphy mentions it's an A.I. that Titus corrects him, stating that it's rather the spirit of the Commanders. Murphy furrows his brows slightly at this, but Nova doesn't expect them to understand the concept straight away. It took her years to come to terms with Grounder culture, so she can't blame them for their doubt.
Delicately, Titus takes ahold of Lexa's body in his arms, declaring her death to the guards outside. Unexpectedly, though, the door slams shut after he exits the room, leaving the three of them locked in there until someone from the outside opens it.
Murphy runs over to the door, banging on it profusely, which only makes Nova do the same. "Titus, no! Teik osir out!" (Titus, no! Let us out!).
But her cries, even when said in Trigedasleng, are of no use. Nobody is coming to let them out. Now, with the chaos a little less chaotic, Nova allows herself to slide down the glass door and onto the floor, her hands run through her hair, eyes closed with her knees up to her chest. As much as Lexa's death is heartbreaking, she also can't help but question what her own life will look like now, without Lexa's protection and the threat of a new Commander.
For a small moment, she forgets about who she is in the room with, until his voice breaks through the silence they have allowed themselves to slip into.
"Hey, you. Remember me?"
She cracks a smile at Murphy's question, rendering it somewhat stupid considering their history as she lifts her head up to meet his eyeline. "How could I not?"
"I just have that effect on people," he coos. His words are intended to be sarcastic, but his tone of voice says otherwise. The gravity of what they have just witnessed still weighs heavily on their minds as he slides down the wall to sit next to her.
"Sure. Whatever you like to tell yourself, Murphy."
As the atmosphere in the room returns to silence, Nova sighs, resting her chin on her arm that cradles her knees. "I never imagined us meeting again like this. I thought..."
"That maybe that was the end?" He finishes her sentence for her, knowing exactly what she was thinking. After a pause, she nods. Despite Nova mentioning meeting him again in her letter, neither of them truly believed their paths would cross again, certainly not in the way that they have.
"What's brought you here then? Not to offend you, but I never put you down as the 'royal' type."
"What can I say? It's growing on me." He shrugs his shoulders, nonchalantly, evidently enjoying the luxuries that come with staying in the capital.
"Could say the same for you. How come you've ended up here, in Lexa's room?" Murphy asks out of curiosity. A while after Nova's banishment, there was no word on her condition, so he assumed the worst. The sight of her sitting next to him is still baffling.
"My room was just down the corridor. I heard the gunshot and I couldn't resist rushing in here."
Murphy scoffs, looking at her with wide eyes and a tilted head. "Come on, there's more to it than that."
"It's a long story."
"I don't know if you've noticed, but we've got all the time in the world." His signature smirk plays on his face as he looks at Nova with pleading eyes. Ever since he met her, he has had a fascination with her story and, although they no longer have the same relationship as they did, Murphy's fascination hasn't died out.
Nova glances over at Clarke, who has resided to the seat at the window, her eyes wandering the ground below them. It's evident she just needs space for the time being, so Nova decides to start her story.
She begins by explaining what happened in the days after she left, mentioning the first night she sat down to rest was actually beside her father's grave. Even though she never intended to end up there, it was a form of comfort in the unknown. In the days following, Nova was forced to make her first animal kill, which, despite having killed before, it felt different that time. After, blood stained every inch of her body, but that was the only way to survive.
A month after fending for herself, she found herself lost — and not just lost anywhere, but in Azgeda territory. After avoiding anyone for the first few days, Nova was scavenging for wild berries when her attention was taken away from worrying about people around her for a few minutes. Only, those few minutes cost her everything. She was taken by Azgeda warriors back to their base and tortured just for the fun of it, with Queen Nia ordering every hit. Eventually, the days blended into each other. No light ever entered the cave she was held in, so time ceased to exist. It was during this that Nova's thoughts wouldn't stray too far from Murphy and how she had ended up in such a similar situation to him, only without someone there to ease the pain.
Days turned into weeks, and weeks turned into months. She remembered thinking her feeble body would struggle to endure much more pain, both mental and physical. Her thoughts sometimes became dark, thinking that if she ended it herself, Azgeda wouldn't get the satisfaction of killing her themselves. But someone somehow managed to change her mind. In a strange turn of events, a boy around her age stumbled, by accident, upon the cave where she was being held captive. He didn't even know his people had someone locked up, so it came as a surprise to see a girl chained to the walls by shackles and her body slumped against the rocks with little to no energy left in her. She was extremely frail, her body so thin that it could have snapped in a single second.
At first glance, he appeared horrified at the actions of his people. He knew just how ruthless they were — after all, Azgeda has always been known as the clan that are merciless for no reason other than for their own amusement and benefit. It's just who they are, who they have been taught to be. Up until that point, Nova wasn't convinced in the slightest that they had one nice person in their clan, that they were all just born evil, but the boy — who she would later come to know as Ares — proved her wrong.
Nova pauses her story-telling for a slight moment, unsure of whether to proceed with it because she doesn't know where Murphy stands. She highly doubts it, but he could still have feelings for her, even though she has tried with everything in her to move on. Harbouring feelings for someone you no longer see never works out too well, it only hurts you in the end. Especially with the nature of their world.
"Come on, you can tell me what happened. I don't bite," he attempts to make a joke out of the situation, which seems to ease Nova's anxious thoughts.
She decides to tell him. It's been six months, after all. And she told him not to wait for her in the letter, so she can only hope he's moved on too. Nova continues, telling Murphy about the boy who helped save her in the end. After a month of constant visits from Ares during the night, they grew closer, naturally. Still, she struggles to process how ironic her situation was. It was not long ago she was the one taking care of Murphy while he was captured by her people, and then she found herself in his position, where she was the one captured and being cared for by someone who was sacrificing their own safety for that of hers. It was even easier to understand Murphy's pain when she betrayed him, because she couldn't fathom being betrayed by Ares.
Her eyes move from the ground next to her feet to meet Murphy's, hesitant to see his reaction. But, the worry building up soon dissipates as the corners of his lips curve upwards a little, a sign that he is happy for her.
Nova goes on to explain how the two formulated a plan to help her escape from Azegeda. It wasn't easy, and it took weeks of planning every single move to make it go smoothly, but they managed it. Ares was putting his life on the line to help a girl he had only known for a little over two months, which was something so admirable to her. The only thing she could alike it to was Lincoln, and how he dropped everything to bring Nova up, despite the wrath he received for it. The sole difference being that Ares was helping her in secret, and that they both were developing uncontrollable feelings towards each other.
After endless months of horrendous torture, the escape was a success and Nova was finally freed. But her hope of a better life was soon shattered. Azgeda had found out about Ares' involvement and had ordered for his capture and death for committing treason. Thankfully, his friend secretly let him know about his clan's new vendetta against him, which made him one step ahead. He needed to get as far away from Azgeda territory as possible, but Nova was tired of running. She couldn't do it anymore.
For Nova, that meant saying goodbye to a loved one...again. Her life had seen so many goodbyes that she was beginning to wonder what a happy ending actually looked like.
But she had no other choice than to survive by herself, like she had been doing before Azgeda took her. Though, this time was different. She was exhausted of constantly looking over her shoulder, of not having a place to call home or a bed to sleep in. In the back of her head, she always knew she had one option left: go to Polis and ask Lexa for her help. Nova knew it was risky clinging on to the hope that Lexa would keep her promise from years ago, but she had to try.
It took days of trudging through the forest to reach Polis. And, although she had reached the capital, she knew the real risk laid right in front of her. She needed to speak to Lexa without bringing attention to herself, which appeared near enough impossible with the amount of protection the Commander had.
She had never been to Polis before, so navigating its winding hallways and numerous rooms was a challenge, but she managed to find an abandoned room on the top floor. Her plan was to hide and wait for either the sound of Lexa's voice to appear in the corridor, or for someone to mention where the Commander was. Luck was on her side that day when she was alerted by a figure moving swiftly passed her door.
It was Lexa, it had to be. So, Nova took the chance while it was there and while Lexa was alone. She quietly crept her head out of the door she was hiding behind, whispering 'Lexa' over and over to get her attention. The girl stopped dead in her tracks, fearful of whose voice that could have been. But, when she turned around, she was met with a face that looked so battered and bruised she could not turn away. At first glance, Lexa didn't recognise who it was. It was only when she walked closer to the girl that she realised it was, in fact, Nova.
"So, that's how I ended up here. Lexa kept her promise she made to me when we were kids. She couldn't lift my banishment, though, which I understood. Anya's dead, but the people like Rento and Lander, who hated my guts, are still alive, so she feared retaliation from them. Only a few people know about me being here."
"And now you've got nowhere to go?" Murphy questions, eyebrows raised.
"Looks like it, but that's my problem for another time. I want to hear about what you've been up to, Mr. Survivor." She teases.
"Ah. You don't want to hear about me," he brushes off her comment, mainly because her story seems so insane and he just views his as pathetic and not worth her time.
"Since when does John Murphy ever give up an opportunity to speak about himself?"
"Fine. Fine." He breathes a laugh, lifting his arms in the air as a sign of defeat. Murphy tells Nova all about his venture into the desert to find the 'City of Light' and how he ended up trapped in an underground bunker for over two months completely by himself, isolated from the whole world with no connection to anyone else. He doesn't think twice to blame Jaha for getting him into that situation, which makes Nova chuckle.
For a moment, though, he hesitates, questioning whether he should mention the girl he met during this time. But, seeing as Nova let him know about Ares, Murphy decides to talk about Emori and how he met her. It's easy for Nova to notice how his eyes light up when he talks about Emori, and she finds it beautiful to see him care so deeply for another person.
"You really care about her, don't you?" Her eyes soften when she looks at the boy, a feeling of warmth appearing inside her as he nods in response. He is happy, genuinely happy, and that is all she ever wanted for him. Nova's mind wanders to her promise to him, that one day she would take him to the hidden lake that she's got so many stories about. But, her promise was made under different circumstances and, as much as she would like to take him there, it wouldn't be right.
She nudges his arm with hers, with a tender smile upon her face. "We didn't do too bad, huh?"
"If by 'too bad', you mean not dying? Sure." He nods, grinning, knowing that she actually meant finding a home in someone else, rather than facing this hostile world all alone.
"Where will you go after we get out of here?" Murphy mumbles, fiddling with his thumbs.
As her arm moves slightly, Nova feels a piece of paper rustle in her jacket pocket, a reminder of the boy she left in Azgeda territory not too long ago. Despite the sadness of their current situation, Nova's face beams at the thought of seeing the boy she loves again, and he notices that she has the kind of smile that makes you feel happy to be alive and just that little bit more human.
"I'll be okay. I've got someone waiting for me."
Her reassurance settles Murphy's growing concern for her. She tells him about a letter written by Ares that she received the day before, detailing how he will be waiting for her in an area near the capital when she is ready to live freely again.
Although he has found someone else and they are both happy with other people, Murphy will always care for Nova, and her with him. After all, she was the first person to see his worth, and he was the first to understand her feeling of loneliness. They were there in each other's time of need, and that is something that is hard to forget.
Nova and Murphy were good for each other in the moment, but not every moment was destined to last forever. And, even if they have gone down different paths, they are content with the way their story has ended.
The world may be crumbling around them, but that doesn't matter when they're with the right people.
A U T H O R ' S N O T E
so i have now finished writing rarity! this is crazy to me because i have never written a book that i have enjoyed enough to the point of completion. thank you to anyone who has read this story and voted/commented, it means so much that people have enjoyed my story and the characters i've created.
to anyone who is confused as to who ares is, i have added his faceclaim in the introduction chapter so you're able to visualise him better. i'm so happy with how this story has ended, and i hope you are too, even if murphy and nova haven't ended up together.
thank you for the support along the way,
leah 🤍