— CHAPTER TWO,
the lost and the found.
RUBY'S SPECKLED EYES SCAN THE FOREST. They search for any type of movement. Her ears pick up on any sound, picking up on small noises that normal human ears don't pick up on.
She's hunting someone.
Clarke Griffin.
That's who she's looking for.
It's amazing to be out in the forest again. She's not confined to the bunker anymore or the area around it. She's not in hell anymore.
She's free.
Luca trudges through the forest in front of her, keeping his eye out for any Azgeda warriors or any type of enemy that they may stumble across. Ice Nation.
Suddenly, movement catches his attention. He narrows his eyes as he stops moving. He lowers himself to a crouch, Ruby follows.
"What is it?" Ruby whispers to him.
Then he sees the four Grounders. Their faces are painted with white war paint.
"Azgeda." He whispers back. "There's four of them. Take cover, we'll do this together." Ice Nation.
Ruby and Luca are swift to places themselves behind two trees directly across from each other. Ruby's heart pounds in her chest. Their eyes lock across the way. She watched as Luca barely peeks around the tree to see if the scouts are closer. When he looks back at her, his fingers barely twitch.
Now.
Without a moment of hesitation, Ruby lunges out from behind the large tree with a loud battle cry. Luca is silent is he jumps out from behind his tree.
The four scouts are taken off guard by the two warriors.
One scout is kicked directly in his knee by the young woman. He cries out and hits the ground. The other scout is fast to swing his sword at Ruby. She swiftly dodges it by bending backwards. She feels the wind of the swing pass over her face. She just barely dodged it. When he retracts his sword, Ruby straightens her back and swings her sword at the scout. He is fast to dodge it.
The other Grounder stands back up. It's now two against one.
Ruby likes her odds.
She glares hatefully at the two men. They glare right back at her.
"Komba raun, nomajokas," She snarls. Come on, motherfuckers.
They sprint towards her. They're both taken off guard as drops to the ground and rolls between them. Before either of them can turn to face her, she thrusts her blade through the spine of one of the scouts. His green eyes widen as his sword falls to the ground. When she pulls her blade from his back, he falls face first on the ground.
For a moment, Ruby and the other Grounder just stare at each other. Then, he screams in fury. He runs at her recklessly. Ruby wastes no time in stabbing her sword directly through his heart. When she pulls her blade from his body, she steps back as to not get crushed by his corpse.
She turns to face Luca and the two men he fights. She places one hand on her hip.
Luca bends to dodge one of their sword. When he straightens, he swings his sword carelessly. He successfully chops one of the Grounder's arms off. He drops to his knees, screaming and clutching his arm that gushes blood.
The other scout runs at him with his sword held over his head, yelling wildly. But is a much better fighter and much more agile. Luca drops to her ground and rolls away just as Ruby has during her fight. He kicks himself off of the ground, swinging his sword out again. He slice a deep cut into the leg of the man. As the Azgeda scout hits the ground, Luca swings his sword. It detaches the scouts head clean from his body. Ice Nation.
Luca turns back to the other Grounder. He still sweeps on the ground like newborn, cradling his arm. Luca grunts as he swings his sword.
When all four scouts are dead, Ruby scoffs and sheathes her sword. Luca turns to her with a blank expression. "You couldn't have helped me?"
"You had it," she smirks at him as she wipes blood off of her face. It doesn't work. It just smudges her war paint and the Grounder's blood. "You okay though?"
"Yeah. You?" He asks.
She nods. Suddenly, a new noise hits her ears. Her shoulders tense. "Do you hear that, Luca?" She listens more closely. A loud beating sound bounces into her ears. "Is that— war drums?"
Luca listens for a moment. Since his time as a Reaper, his senses have also heightened but not nearly as much as Ruby's. She considers it a sun and a blessing.
"Yes," he says. "Come on."
The duo takes off running through the forest. They race through the woods, not stopping until the sound of the drums are within a few hundreds yards.
A field grows in Ruby's line is sight. But as she resides herself to step out into the open, Luca's hand snatches her jacket and pulls her back into the forest.
She turns to look at him with wide eyes.
"We don't go into the open. We stick to the trees. We are shadows. We don't become opportunities." Luca tells her. "Look." He then points out into the field. An army of Azgeda marches through it. Ice Nation. "They crossed the border."
"They broke the truce." Ruby shakes her head. "They're marching against Lexa. What the hell do we do? We can't just warn Lexa, we can't stop an entire army."
"No but we can go after them." Luca says, pointing past the army. Ruby's eyes follow his finger. Her heart slows in her chest. Two people rush in direction away from the army. One is a man she's never seen in her life. But she could recognize that blonde hair anywhere.
"Clarke." Ruby whispers. "Let's go," she walks Luca's arm.
And so, the two take off through the forest again.
Always stuck to being shadows.
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A person stumbles through the forest, obviously injured. Ruby eyeballs the person before she taps Luca's arm. He looks over at her, she nods in the direction of the person. They have their back turned to the two.
But when they turn at an angle, Ruby catches sight of the familiar curly hair, she stops dead in her tracks. For a moment she's paralyzed with shock and fear. She doesn't have to his face to know exactly who stands so close to her.
He's dressed in full Grounder attire. Ruby's head rolls to the side, watching him closely. It's so odd to see him dressed in the clothes she's most comfortable in now.
"Get down." Luca hisses from where he kneels on the ground. He grabs her sleeve and yanks her down beside him. They crouch behind a small bluff that overlooks the forest.
She looks at him with wide eyes, "it's—"
"Bellamy! He's hurt!" Calls a familiar voice. It rocks Ruby's world. A small gasp slips past her lips. Luca looks over at her worriedly.
She looks over the bluff slightly so she can see what's going on. The voice matches the face.
Monty Green stands below her.
"We told you wait until the army had passed!" Another voice snaps harshly, it's another one she recognizes.
"Oh, my God," Ruby whispers. Tears well in her eyes as she takes in the voice. She gave herself to Cage Wallace to save him.
"I almost had her," Bellamy Blake speaks up, clutching his bleeding thigh.
"Pike, find their trail." Marcus Kane orders.
"Pike?" Ruby mumbles to herself as she regains her composure. "Charles Pike?"
"It's useless. He knows he's being followed now." Pike shakes his head.
Bellamy starts to walk away but Marcus quickly grabs him and slams his back into a tree.
Bellamy reacts quickly by shoving Marcus away from him. He starts to walk again but he doesn't get very far. Pain shoots through his body, he winces, clutching a nearby tree stump. Monty quickly rushes over to him. He says something to his friend for his ears only.
"We can't lose Clarke!" Bellamy shouts suddenly. "Not like we lost. . ."
Bellamy can't even say her name anymore. Ruby's heart shatters in her chest. Before Luca can react, she's standing to her full height.
"Like you lost me?"
All eyes fly in her direction.
For a moment, they all just stare at her. Monty, Bellamy, and Marcus all allow their jaws to drop slightly. They thought she was dead.
"Ruby?" Marcus breathes out at the sight of his goddaughter. "Is that you?"
"Ruby Carson?" Pike questions, lowering his weapon. "She's different."
Hannah Green, Monty's mother, nods in agreement as she looks upon the girl who is no longer the sweet little girl who would come to Farm Station every Saturday to get a rose for her mother.
But a warrior with now sixteen kills.
Ruby's lower lips quivers violently as she stares at Bellamy. And suddenly, a smile creeps on her face. A small, breathy laugh leaves her lips.
Bellamy just stares at her. She's no longer a Sky Person. If he didn't know who is, he would assume she's a Grounder. The tattoos that cover her body are those of a Trikru warrior. The black war paint and blood that is smudged across her face tells him that she's been in a fight. Her clothes are no longer a pair of dark blue jeans and brown t-shirt. She known wears a leather shirt and black jeans. One sleeve of her shirt reaches her wrist, the other stops at her shoulder. Her hands are wrapped in leather, fingerless gloves.
She's so different.
As Luca stands from beside Ruby, Bellamy's eyes dart over to him. For a moment, the two men just stare at one another as if attempting to assert dominance. Bellamy's jaw hardens and his eyes turn blank.
Ruby's world comes crashing down on her as Bellamy turns away. Beside him, Monty continues to stare at the girl. That is until Bellamy reaches for him for support.
Tears spring in Ruby's speckled eyes as she witness the love of her life turns his back on her.
"Bellamy?" Her broken fills the tense silence. "What— what're you doing?"
For months Bellamy had searched for her. He walked these woods for hours upon hours looking for Ruby Carson. He twisted his ankle, her dislocated his shoulder, and he even fractured his wrist.
And now she stands before him with another man by her side.
Two months he had looked to her.
Until he gave up.
This isn't how Ruby imagined her reunion with Bellamy. She thought there would be tears of joy. They would hold onto each other and promise to never, ever let go again.
But instead, he can't even look at her.
"Ruby?" Luca's eyes look over at her worriedly. "Ruby—"
He cuts himself off when he sees the rapid way her chest rises and falls. She's hyperventilating. Luca places his hands on Ruby's shoulders. "Ruby. Ruby, look at me."
She can't. Her eyes go unfocused as tears pool in them. A sob breaks through her lips.
Marcus is fast to rush to them. He quickly climbs up the bluff to look between his goddaughter and the man he's never met.
"Calm her down!" Marcus exclaims, eyes wide with concern and fear.
"I can't. She's going into an episode." Luca shakes his head.
"An episode? What the hell—"
Luca cuts the older man off. He quickly turns his head to look at him with wide eyes. "She's not your Ruby, anymore! Okay? You don't me, but Lincoln does. Now I need you to get that sword away from her before she hurts herself or one of us."
From below, Hannah and Pike witness the scene unfold before them. And from a father distance, Monty and Bellamy watch in shock as Ruby completely and utterly loses her mind.
As Marcus makes a move to remove the sword from her back, she swings her fist out with a battle cry. Her hand strikes him directly in the cheek. The sheer force of the blow sends him tumbling down the small bluff. When he regain his composure, he thinks to himself, why the hell is she so strong?
Ruby turns her furious eyes. They're glazed over in pure rage. For the moment, she doesn't even recognize Luca.
She lunges at him, swiftly taking him to her ground. She grunts as she throws her legs over his waist to straddle him. She brings her hands down on his neck and starts to squeeze.
Luca gasps for air as he desperately reaches his arm out in search of something he can use to knock her off of him. His hand finds a rock.
Before Ruby can do anything, Luca sends the rock crashing into the side of her head. With one, hard blow, Ruby falls off of him. Unconscious.
Luca coughs harshly as her hands release his neck. He pushes himself onto his elbows and rubs his throbbing neck. He then looks over at Ruby. A small trail of blood trickles down the side of her head where Luca hit her.
Ruby swiftly reaches over and wipes the blood off of her face. It doesn't bleed much more. But Luca can't risk people knowing.
He sighs to himself as pulls himself up. He then hoists the unconscious girl into his arms. He walks down the bluff where Marcus is now standing. Hannah and Pike eye Luca carefully.
"I'm Luca." Luca says as he stops in front of Marcus.
"I'm Marcus Kane." Marcus introduces himself without taking his eyes off of Ruby. "What the hell happened to her?"
"I'll tell you on the way back to your camp because right now Ruby needs Lincoln." Luca says. His eye then flicker past Marcus to Bellamy. The man still clings to Monty.
He doesn't even look over his shoulder as he walks away.
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word count: 2,325
episode: wanheda: part II
okay, wow!!! what a chapter.
ruby is officially back with the sky people and some baddddd shit is about to go down. we all know what happens in season three. so everyone, prepare yourselves for some serious heartbreak because there's so much loss in this act and this book all together.
so, what about bellamy completely blowing ruby off?? he saw luca and was like 🤬🤬. like dude, you're the one who gave up on ruby after two months and then got with gina like immediately after (of course he got with her to get ruby out of his mind). but still, i love bellamy but he SUCKS in the first act of this book.
luca, my love. i love him so much. he and ruby are truly one of my favorite duos in this entire trilogy. luca helped save her after she became a reaper. they're family, through and through. she, luca, and lincoln are like their own little reaper family. ruby shares trauma with a lot of people but the trauma that these three share is insane. they know the pain of being a reaper.
anyway, guys, i've also been working on new chapters for the sky brings death, which won't be published until after i finish rewriting this book and the eleven chapters that are published of the third and final book. but hopefully by the time i finish rewriting this book, i'll be done it close to being done with the sky brings death!!