❝you're only a fool if you give up.❞

-aladdin

♛

CLARKE IS LESS THAN pleased when we contact her on the radio an hour later than we're supposed to.

"You're late," she chastises. "Every three hours means every three hours."

"Are you through?" Bellamy questions jokingly.

I kick him in the foot, hoping it hurts more with the fact the front of my shoe is a bit pointy. He turns his head to give me an unimpressed look. I sharpen my glare.

"Have you found the source of the acid fog?" Clarke asks, drawing our attention back to the radio.

"No," I respond with a sigh. "Not yet. But we can't waste time searching for it anymore."

"What? No!" she exclaims, tone filled with disbelief. "Nothing is more important than that."

"Clarke, I understand, but it's harder than you'd think," I tell her in a voice tinged with exasperation. I had forgotten how pushy she can be sometimes, and I'm not in the mood to deal with it. "Plus, they've started taking our friends from their dorm."

"One at a time, every few hours," Bellamy adds quietly. His voice wavers, face appearing paler by the second. I feel guilty for kicking him.

"Taking them where?" Raven questions
apprehensively.

"We don't know," Bellamy responds. "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 still trying to find a way in." He glances up at Maya. "Anything?"

"I think I found a path, but it's gonna be tight," she informs us, glancing down at a large paper she had set on a nearby table. "Here's the radios Raven asked for, and the earbuds." She hands one each to both of us.

"Bellamy, Fallon, you have to find them," Clarke chips in.

"Clarke, I know," I respond with annoyance lacing my tone. I run a hand over my face tiredly. "I know. We both know. We're trying to do everything we can without getting caught."

"If you don't, all of this is for nothing."

I inhale sharply and bite my lip to keep myself from blurting out anything I might regret. Instead of dropping the radio to the floor and possibly breaking it, I walk away and stand next to Maya with my head in my hands. Had Clarke listened to anything I just said?

While she's safe in Camp Jaha, we've been busting our asses off to find the source of the stupid acid fog. Don't get me wrong — I want that thing shut down more than anybody — but it's not the only thing we have to worry about. There are bigger obstacles: getting caught, running into Victoria, someone wondering why two guards are following a teenage girl all over the place, and so much more. My feet ache like no other. I'm both mentally and physically exhausted. I can feel my body cramping up from stress, causing knots in my back and shoulders that will take ages to knead out.

I squeeze my eyes shut in frustration. Maya places a comforting hand on my shoulder, tapping her fingers in a small pat. She's been a great friend, and I can never thank her enough for all she's done to help us so far.

Bellamy eyes me sympathetically as he replies with a short, "Yeah."

So much for not holding a grudge against Clarke.

--

Maya had been right- the passage through the vents is very tight.

I crawl on my hands and knees in front of Bellamy, trying to ignore the fact that my butt is probably in his face. The tunnel is dark and cramped, lit only by the vents to the rooms we pass by. A terrible sense of fear is locked inside of me.

"Okay, tell us where you're at now," Raven's voice commands from my earbud. Hearing her voice is like a blessing— she's much more patient than Clarke.

"An intersection," I respond, looking at the five choices I have. My voice echoes back to me when I speak. "Which way do we go?"

There's a second of painful silence that makes my fear intensify. I wet my lips and try to ignore the cramping in my back from being hunched over for so long.

"We think you're close," Clarke responds after a second longer. "The lab should be up ahead."

"There's at least five directions we could go in," I whisper. Directly after the words leave my mouth, I hear the distant sound of a drill coming from my right. "Hang on, I think I found the right way."

After a few more moments of crawling, the vent opens just enough for me to sit up. I place my hands on the floor before heaving myself to my knees and sighing in relief. Bellamy manages to slide in beside me, where we both peek in through the slots in the vent.

I cringe at the sight of a drill being dug through someone's side, blood clotting around the wound. I can practically feel it, a hand flying to that spot on my body. Without drugs, that must hurt like a bitch.

"Oh, God," I mutter quietly. "Bone marrow extraction. That's why they've been taking them."

"Holy shit," Bellamy breathes out.

I clamp a hand over my mouth upon realizing that a boy named Max's body is completely white, skin zapped of its pigment completely. His body is so close to the vent that I can smell it. One of our friends— one of the original hundred. Gone.

Tsing starts to walk away from us, but I can still hear her voice clear as day. "You ready for the last treatment you'll ever need, Lieutenant?"

"You have no idea," a man's voice replies. After moving my head up, I can barely make out the image of a man sitting in a chair a fair distance away from Max's body. "I've waited my whole life to breathe fresh air."

"That's Emerson," Clarke's voice informs us in my ear. I have no idea who the hell Emerson is, but she obviously seems to. And she doesn't sound happy about it.

"Let's get back to this secret army that she claims to have," a different, slightly younger male voice says. "She tell you anything that might help us fight it?"

The sound of a drill cuts him off, and I shift again to see a nurse drilling through Max's calf.

"Stop drilling, please!" the younger man commands shrilly. When he steps into view, I notice he's wearing an expensive-looking silver suit with his dark hair gelled back. His skin is so pale he seems to blend in with the shockingly white walls.

"The window for extraction after death is incredibly short," Tsing informs him urgently.

My stomach drops until I feel like I might be sick. I close my eyes and swallow down a painful lump in my throat, realizing that my mouth tastes like cotton.

"I only need a minute," he counters.

"No, sir," Emerson replies. "Nothing about the army. She did say she was coming for you. And if we let her people go, she'll let our people live."

They're talking about someone from the Ark.

"Well, it's a little late for that," Suit Guy sighs.

"I'm sorry I failed, sir."

"No, it's okay. We'll finish the job tonight. Whitman just radioed in. Apparently there's a War Council meeting happening tonight in one of their villages. All the leaders are gonna be there."

"Sir, I feel good. Let me take a team out, support Whitman."

"No," Suit Guy dismisses, "he has less chance of being spotted if he's alone."

"Sir, Whitman's good, but he can't take out that many targets alone," Emerson argues.

"Which is why we're gonna use a missile. This time, we're not gonna miss."

I place a hand on my forehead and sit back, trying to calm the emotions rushing inside of me all at once like a tornado. My mouth is open in a small gape at this information. A missile. They're going to blow up Tondc.

"Fal," Bellamy urges quietly, nudging me gently. "Baby, we have to go."

Still in a state of shock, I nod before ducking back into the tunnel. I barely have to slide a few feet before my feet land in a small space separating the different vents. It's large, meaning I have more than enough space to stand and move around in. I stretch my arms over my head and cringe upon hearing my joints crack.

"Please tell me you heard all that," Bellamy mutters into his com system.

"We heard it," Clarke confirms wearily.

"Oh, God, everything just got twelve times worse," I whisper, running my hands down my face. "Scratch that— a billion times worse."

"Maybe there's a way to warn the others," Bellamy tells me quietly. "There will be a way to fix this."

"We have to warn them," Raven's voice says, basically repeating Bellamy's words.

"Did Kane take a radio?" Clarke asks her.

"Kane?" I mutter in confusion. Why would Kane be going to a War Council meeting?

"No," Raven replies. "This is the only unjammed frequency. We have to keep it open for Fallon and Bellamy."

I look up upon hearing a sound from above our heads. A person is standing on the level above us, their body visible through the bars. It's a guard— I can tell by their uniform.

My heart starts to beat even faster. What if they catch us?

"If I leave now, I can make it there in time," Clarke says.

"No way," I shut the idea down immediately.

"In time to get blown up, you mean," Raven corrects incredulously.

"When I get back, I wanna know our friends are safe and the acid fog is down," Clarke tells us, her voice suggesting she's not taking no for an answer. "Can you handle that?"

"Yeah, we can handle it," Raven responds quietly. "Go."

"Clarke, wait," Bellamy says. "Octavia was in Tondc when we left. Is she...um..."

"She's here," Clarke answers. "She's safe."

"Okay, good," he says, shoulders visibly slumping in relief. "You be safe, too."

"I will."

I resist the urge to kick a vent and instead sink to the ground. No. No, no, no, no, no. Clarke can't go— she's going to die there. Kane's going to die there. And our friends are going to die in here and so are Bellamy and I—

"Hey," Bellamy whispers, bending down so his face is level with mine. He places a hand in mine and squeezes tightly. "Hey, everything's going to work out."

I shake my head with tears blurring my eyes. "You don't know that."

--

The dorm room opens with a loud buzz, and I follow the two guards in front with my chest full of anticipation. At the sound, my friends back away from the approaching guards until they're crowded near the back wall.

"Back! I said, get back!"

Jasper's voice says something, but I can't hear him clearly. However, through my goggles, I can see my fellow delinquents starting to link arms with one another. The small action of defiance makes my heart swell; I have to fight a small smile that threatens to pull my mouth up.

Tsing walks through us and studies the mass of teenagers with a blank expression of impassiveness. She points to a blonde girl named Jessica. "This one."

"Alright, let's go," one of the guards instructs in a gruff tone. "Everybody, now!"

Different cries of, "No!" rise up from the delinquents. One of them elbows Monty in the gut, making me clench my fists at my sides. Not being able to do anything when my friends are being harmed is the worst feeling in the world.

Among the chaos in the room, I grab an unsuspecting Miller by the collar of his pink button-down. He's too surprised to react quickly enough and therefore allows me to slam him against the wall to our right, where I pin him into it. The scruff on his face tickles my hand.

"Hey, it's me," I whisper into his ear. "Please don't overpower me."

Miller's tense body goes a bit slacker as his eyes widen in disbelief. "Fallon?"

"Shut up!" I command louder than necessary, pushing him harder into the wall until his cheek is pressed firmly against it. Then, quietly again, I say, "Sorry. But yeah, it's me. Listen: Bellamy's here, too, and he's explaining everything to Jasper. You guys have to do exactly what he says in order for this to work."

"For what to work?" Miller questions under his breath.

"You'll find out," I reply, then press my arm against his neck, wincing at his cry of pain. "Sorry again. But I've heard my doppelganger is ruthless."

Miller chuckles, which turns into a shout of agony as I twist his arm behind his back at an awkward angle. I cringe at the sound, bending it just enough to cause pain but definitely not so it breaks.

"Victoria, you got him?" Bellamy's voice calls to me. I turn to see him holding Jasper and nod. I manage to lift my lips in a small smile for Jas before I release Miller's arm and push him to the ground. He must be letting me beat him up- he's definitely stronger than I am and can easily take me down.

Once they have Jessica in hand, I march out alongside Bellamy, hoping and praying our plan will work.

--

"This game of truth or dare sucks."

"I'm sorry, but I can't do much while sitting in a vent and trying not to die," I hiss into my radio.

I can practically hear Raven roll her eyes. "Okay, so, what else can we do while we wait? Hmm. How about you tell me about a certain curly-haired boy by the name of—"

"Raven, I am not talking to you about Bellamy," I sigh with a shake of my head.

"Oh, come on!" she exclaims with a laugh. "I want to know."

"That's creepy."

"It's not creepy. It's..."

I smirk when she can't come up with an answer. "See? Creepy."

I'm curled up in a circular part of the vent with lights shining directly across from me, each about a foot apart from one another. Bellamy chose to go speak to Dante Wallace alone to prevent suspicion. Since Maya's at work, I have to hide somewhere to prevent anyone from finding me. My entire body hurts from being holed up. My joints ache, my back screams in protest when I so much as shift.

At least Raven makes good company.

"Have you done the thing yet?" she questions nonchalantly. My eyes widen.

"Depends on what you mean by 'the thing,'" I respond cautiously, slightly fearing her response.

"You know, the, 'Bellamy!'"

"You are so lucky he took out his earbud," I hiss with my cheeks flaming in embarrassment. "And, for the record, I have not."

"Why the hell did Raven moan my name again?" Bellamy's voice speaks up from the radio. He sounds both unfazed and slightly weirded out. I bury my face in my hands and feel my face burn, especially when I hear Raven's laughter.

Why does he always have to hear the worst things?

"No reason," I quickly lie. "Just get your ass down here."

"You through?" he asks jokingly, making me roll my eyes.

"Yeah, yeah, bicker like a married couple later," Raven says. "Bellamy, do as Fallon says and get your ass down there."

A few seconds later, I hear a clambering sound and shake my head. Bellamy sounds like a buffalo coming down the vent. He eventually drops down to the level I'm on and crouches down, the hat no longer on his head and curls straying everywhere around his face.

"Hey," he greets casually.

"What did Dante say?" I question without greeting him back.

"He said he can't get them out, but he can buy them time."

"How?"

"Containment breach."

A smile stretches across my face.

After Bellamy recounts what Dante had told him, we wait for Raven to write it all down. It's a slightly awkward couple of minutes consisting of us sitting there in the vent and me trying to pretend like Raven hadn't asked me if I did 'the thing' yet.

"This is good," Raven eventually informs us. "Time is good. But what matters is how much of it, and right now, we don't have a lot. Get your butts in gear and move forward."

I huff and start crawling through the vent again. It's a seemingly endless pathway that I keep dropping further and further down. We must go three more levels, my legs aching with every drop.

"Talk to me," Raven commands. "What do you see?"

"Close your eyes, imagine a bottomless pit," Bellamy responds tiredly, which pretty much sums it up.

"Just stick with it. According to Dante's coordinates, you're almost there."

I sure hope so. We've reached the end of the endless pathway, now face-to-face with a rusty ladder. The metal scrapes my hands as I begin to climb.

"What's happening on your end?" Bellamy asks. "Did they evacuate Tondc?"

"Don't know yet," Raven replies. "But it's Clarke. She'll get it done. Just concentrate on squeezing your ass through the vents. Stop worrying about Octavia."

I freeze. It's a good thing Bellamy does, too, or else he would have bumped into me. Clarke had said Octavia was at camp, but if Bellamy should be worrying...

"She's not with you?" I ask, feeling an invisible hand squeezing my throat. When there's no response, I harden my voice. "Raven."

"She's gonna be okay," she convinces us. Just by the tone of her voice, I can tell she hadn't meant to let the information slip. "Clarke fired out of here. She's gonna get there on time."

"How could you keep this from me?" Bellamy asks quietly, his voice full of hurt. I release the ladder with one hand and move my foot to see his face below me. It's just as I pictured it —eyes damp, sweat dotting his skin, and nostrils flaring.

"Clarke was trying to protect you."

At this, Bellamy tilts his head up toward me and shakes his head in exasperation.

"Listen, you two still have a job to do. I know you're worried about Octavia, but you have to focus."

I bite my lip worriedly, still looking down at him. There are red rings under his eyes from lack of sleep, the bruise on his left one barely visible anymore. It causes a clench of concern in my stomach.

"Let's just get this done."

With Raven in our ears the entire time, getting to the destination is no problem at all. It just takes another half an hour of crawling and climbing until we finally reach the outside vent- aka the one shutting out all of the outside air.

The room is huge, full of tubes, machines, and countless buttons. It's much cooler than the rest of the vents, making me sigh in relief at the air hitting my skin. I wipe my forehead to rid it of the sweat.

"Found one!" I exclaim, racing toward a tiny control panel located near one of the fans' systems. A series of blue machines surrounds it in a gigantic block.

"Good," Raven praises. "What do you see?"

"Buttons," I reply as my eyes sweep across the panel. "Switches. Lots of them."

"That doesn't help at all, Fallon."

"Dante said there are three plugs on the right-hand side," Bellamy says. "Disconnect them all to stop the filters."

I quickly locate the circular plugs and yank one out. A shower of sparks sprays at me, making me wince and shake my hand at the zapping sensation. Once I finish with all three, I wait for something spontaneous to happen. Nothing does.

"Got another one!" Bellamy calls from the other side of the room. "Two down, two to go."

I turn away from that fan and jog toward one to my right, pushed up against the far wall. I reach out and pull out all three plugs at once. This time, no sparks fly at me, which is great.

"You gotta pull the outside air in to reverse the air-filtration system," Raven informs us.

"Just tell me how we know if it's even working," Bellamy's voice says through the earbud due to the fact he isn't close enough for me to actually hear him.

Just then, an alarm wails and a woman's voice sounds over the Mountain's intercom, "Containment breach."

"I think it worked," I mutter with a relieved sigh.

"Thank you, Mister Pres-i-dent," Bellamy says, making me chuckle.

"Did you get them all?" Raven asks.

Bellamy grunts as he pulls another plug. "Yeah, that's the last one."

"Go us," I cheer in a blank tone, lifting my arms over my head. I'm glad we managed to succeed, but it all comes down to whether or not we actually made a difference. Did we manage to buy our friends some time? Did one of them get taken?

"Hell yeah, go us," Bellamy agrees, voice no longer coming from the intercom but rather from right beside me. I turn toward him just in time for him to lean down and press his lips to mine. My hands automatically cup his face while his go to my waist, fingers latching to my hips. His mouth works slowly against mine in a way that fills me with butterflies.

"Gross, guys. Hey, next time you do that, could you maybe turn the microphones off?"

------

this episode was so stressful wtF omg i didn't know what was going on half the time

the next few updates will be coming soon because i have about three more chapters in my drafts!!

-kristyn