CHAPTER ONE: REPERCUSSION

 ( FEBRUARY 24th, 2150 — POLIS )

IT HAD BEEN THEIR rightful home before they had all arrived. What once was a great city that sheltered everyone was now the city bathing in blood, colored crimson running through the cracks of stone and staining them red with the memory of what these newcomers had done to their city.

 Her face was washed bare with several specks of blood from another warrior, while only tears that she wept stained her pale face. Various intricate braids decorated her hair which was colored a beautiful white, glowing silver in the scorching sun. Asteria blinked back at the sight of a dead boy growing limp, slowly moving onto his back as the direful atmosphere had finally sunk in around them. The haziness that flooded her mind was now clear once again, and the sinking feeling of guilt and sorrow flooded onto her features when she realized exactly what she had done.

  She had scurried backwards at first, horror written in her eyes as she stumbled away but then, she reached out the grab the boy by his shoulders, recognizing that the person she held in her arms was no more than fifteen. "what have they done?" she spoke out in complete horror as the boy stared back at her, the light in his eyes were beginning to dim as his whole life-force was sucked dry.

  "the...sky.." the boy spoke out, his voice was coming out so strained from the weeks without drinking water, the weeks where he felt no pain and now he wanted to go back to the city. The city where dreams came true, where no man and women would have to feel pain anymore, where they felt like they belonged. 

 Asteria's eyes widened as she looked down, panick began to flood her features as his arms were going limp while his eyes stirred. "What about the sky?" She whispered back, but when she got no reply; she began to shake him violently. "No, please.."

 "Skaikru" his eyes opened for just a moment as the words left his lips barely above a whisper. 

 Asteria blinked back with disbelief, and the image that someone so young had just died in her arms and she couldn't do a damn thing. The chaos and devastation had begun to sweep over the crowded streets of the beloved Grounder capital as everyone awoken from their unknown slumber, and Asteria's memories began to flood back into her mind.

 She sat there frozen in complete numbness as the life of the boy in her arms had faded away, when she felt his body relax in her arms, Asteria quickly looked down. Her mouth went dry with regret but a panicked low breath escaped from behind her cracked lips as she leaned forward, checking the pulse of the now dead man underneath her. 

 He was dead. 

 Asteria blinked back more tears as she rose from the cobble stone road, her blue eyes looking up at the tower, seeing a man fall from twenty feet and splat onto the ground. Her scream got caught within her throat as her eyes widened from the horror she had just witnessed. She couldn't even comprehend how all this happened to quickly, it was like her mind got wiped clean as soon as she awoken and all that remanded was the reminder of the pain she tried to get rid off, and the memory of the white chip she consumed. 

   She didn't understand the current massacre, and she had not witnessed this in such brutality before. It suddenly all began to flood back into her own soul, the pain and suffering that she felt inside had ignited before and the numbness that she had once felt- suddenly went away.  

  Thousands of bodies littered the floor, left and discarded like dirty rags. Their blood ran through the streets, returning to the ground to stain the earth with their memories before their minds were wiped clean. There were people of all clans strung up on wooden crosses in the shape of an X like crucified traitors. 

 The few people that were alive looked around them in shock, complete horror coming onto their faces as if they had just awoke from a deep slumber. Screams and cries of agony and heartbreak began to fill the air while blue eyes frantically looked around. Women and Men were hunched over bodies that laid limp on the stone, their faces laid in the hair of their loved ones as they sobbed promises of revenge. 

  The girl clutched at her stomach, where she was stabbed with a knife - Asteria began to move forward. "Indra!" She shouted as she began to walk down the streets, her mind going dizzy with the sight of death. The farther she got from the square, the more stronger the stench of death became. 

 "Beja," A hand reached out in plead to grab at her pants, tugging it to grab the young woman's attention. "Beja, sis osir au" the woman pleaded for her son's life as Asteria looked down at the voice laced sorrow. 

 Asteria looked back towards the narrow walkway as the clans began to get people off of the crosses. "Beja," 

 Her face scrunched up, and her blue eyes rested against the hues of dark brown. "Okay, I'll help." she replied before bending down to help the boy who's life was in danger. Quickly, her hands worked with ease like she had done this a million times. She quickly cut away his armor revealing a nasty looking stab wound on his stomach. 

 She blinked back at the sight of the revolting wound on the child's stomach, almost forgetting what she was doing in that moment. He didn't deserve what was happening to him and he didn't deserve to know such pain existed at such a young age, Asteria thought solemnly. 

 Her tongue darted out to wet her chapped lips as she reminded herself what Phoenix taught her 'clean away the dry blood and disinfect the area as best as you can, then pack it.' The older woman's words were graved in her mind as she took hold of the knife. It wasn't so deep that it would cause trouble if she took it out, but it would cause bleeding. 

 The much older woman looked on as the girl took care of her grandson. Her pools of chocolate brown studied the damage and then flickered to her face. Her features hardened as she noticed the features of who was helping her. "You're one of them.." she spat out her words slightly, feeling distaste for someone who wasn't her own kind. "you're the girl from the mountain."

 Asteria paused for a moment when she successfully took the knife out from the boy's stomach and then applied pressure to it as soon as the blood started to flow freely from the wound. A frown appeared on her face "I think you've mistaken me for someone else." she told her firmly and cut a strip of cloth from her armor, shoving it carefully into the wound to collect the blood.

 She clearly didn't need a scene of conflict when she was just trying to help the boy who was dying slowly in front of her. When the woman didn't call on her further, she knew she silenced her- and began to work quickly to save the boy's life in front of her.

 There wasn't much materials she could use to patch up the wound, but what she did have would have to do until they took the injured to get further treatment. Her blue eyes cast upon the little boy, studying the way his golden blonde hair shined in the cloudy weather and how his mouth was half open, almost like he was gasping for air. 

 Asteria leaned down to listen to his chest, there was a heartbeat but it was very weak. "Do you have water?" She questioned, her eyes looking towards the elder who shrugged and began to look around. As soon as she saw a bottle, she opened it and passed it to her. 

 Asteria picked up the boy gently, putting him to rest on her legs while she opened the top of the bottle and let some of the cool water touch his lips. "Come on.." she whispered as she put some of his wound, letting whatever was in there - flush out. 

 As soon as the boy started to cough up the water, Asteria gently pushed him to his side to allow his body to spit it out. A sigh of relief escaped from beneath her lips as she heard the cries of solace erupt from beside her. The much older woman took his face into her hands as Asteria pressed her hand further into his contracting stomach, making sure he didn't bleed out. "Thank you for saving my boy," the woman grabbed hold of her bicep as the blonde woman moved to the side. 

 Asteria began to nod her head back at her with a grateful smile on her face. This was what she was meant to do, help someone because she knew how.

 Asteria gave the woman what was left of the dry cloth from her own clothing and made sure that she was okay before getting back up from the ground. She still had to find Indra and figure out what Trikru was going to do now that Polis was in complete Chaos.

 Her blue eyes flickered from face to face, person to person while her eyes rested on those who had not woken up. She couldn't help them anymore, the reminded herself. She started to feel completely helpless surrounded by people who needed her help but she couldn't tend to all of them.  

As her head turned, a particular figure had caught her eye as the young girl was pushing people out of the way. The blonde started walking forwards her, watching as she crouched down beside one of the wounded who had just been removed off of one of the crosses. 

 "I waited until it was done." she heard the girl whisper down at the other woman who Asteria couldn't quite see. Asteria swallowed hard when Indra and her own blue eyes met and she ran towards them, maneuvering around the crowd. "Indra!" she yelled out to the older woman, and when she stood in-front of her, she dropped to her knees.

 The brunette that was next to her, begun to study her face with her green eyes until the realization dawned on her that she knew who this was. "Hey, you're the girl from the mountain."

 Asteria's eyebrows rose on her face as she too, studied the girl. "Octavia?" she breathed, while looking at her. She took in the girl's rough appearance, her messy brown hair was sticking to her pale face. "What happened here?" she asked, clearly distraught of the chaos happening around her.

 Octavia moved out of the girl's way while she studied Indra's wounds, she began to inform the girl how they stopped Allie's attempt to overthrow humanity's freewill and how Clarke entered The City of Light and stopped A.LI.E. Her eyes went to the  blood-stained cobble underneath her. Everything was starting to make sense to her now, she had forgotten briefly but now that her mind was becoming more un-fuzzy by the minutes- it was clear as day- she took the chip. 

 "Did you see her?" Indra gasped out as she was moved forward to lean against Octavia, the older wiser woman was already staring at her and Asteria knew who she was referring to. "I haven't seen her since Mount Weather- and I don't think I've seen her in The City of Light." Asteria informed her with a hint of sorrow to her tone. 

  Everybody within the Woods Clan had been looking for their Maunripa, the one woman who was brave enough to survive the attack from the mountain and live long enough to tell the tale. She had been gone since Asteria had learned Trigedasleng, before their Commander had fallen due to her own Fleimkepa. 

  Indra knew how much Phoenix's disappearance had impacted the young girl. The chief herself didn't have much love for the girl from Mount Weather when she first arrived- and even threatened to kill her where she stood- but Phoenix changed her opinion on her once she knew that Asteria was living in the cage next to hers.

 When Indra found out exactly why they were capturing them, she declared her an allie- and took it upon herself to protect the inspiring lamb when her Seda disappeared. 

 Indra coughed and Asteria was quick to respond, flipping her over to her side. "She will turn up," the older woman spoke with her usual authoritative tone that she often used. 

 Asteria wanted to believe that she would, but she was quickly loosing hope every-time she saw the moon in the sky. Asteria wanted nothing more than to see the same woman who believed in her when no one else did, to return home. 

  Asteria didn't want to believe it, but since she didn't see her in the City of Light- she was either still alive or already dead. 

 The blonde girl nodded but her emotion filled eyes gave her true thoughts away. "I hope you're right." She replied and then turned her head to look at the Sky girl. "We have to gather our own injured to the Woods clan sector of Polis, I trust you know where that is?" Asteria's own blue eyes twinkled but what caught Octavia's attention was the tinge of purple hidden within her iris'. 

 Octavia's eyes blinked back after she took a long look at the girl's features. She had seen her in Mount Weather- coming out with the rest of the Grounders before they were betrayed- but she never seen her up-close.

 The girl was remarkably different than anyone else she had seen, and since she arrived on Earth, she had seen quite a lot. Her long silver hair gave her away and she wondered how this girl manages to camouflage with the Earthly tones of the forest. "I haven't been in Polis that long, but I think I'll find it." she nodded with her head and gestured towards more warriors to help carry Indra. 

 Asteria nodded back at her and turned towards her chief. "I'll be back with more of our injured, but we're not safe here while Azgeda still lingers." her head went to the side as she voiced her own fear for the ruthless Azgeda warriors who were in Polis due to Ontari claiming the throne.

  "That's why you should be careful, put your hood up and hide your hair." Indra nodded back at her but she cringed out of pain due to getting lifted. 

 Octavia and Asteria nodded at each-other and then parted their ways. The silver-haired girl pulled up her brown hood to hide the one thing that would surely give her away- and she knew that a girl from the Mountain was not allowed in Polis. Alie's compulsion might've helped her get in here but now that she was shut down- she was vulnerable.

 Asteria was walking through the walk-ways of the capital, when she could hear shouting and crying from others. Another had fallen off of the tower when his arms grew tired of holding on. It was when she saw the blonde girl walk forward with her eyebrows creased together- and then looked back at an older man who's hair was curly. 

   "Wanheda!" the woman that was holding the fallen boy, sneered out in hatred as she fought back the tears. "you did this!" people started to murmur to themselves while a crowd of grounders had gathered around her.

 Asteria watched with widened eyes as Wanheda turned around, a line appearing between her eyebrows as her blue eyes went wide. Asteria watched the couple with narrowing eyes, their actions had furthered things out of control for her people, and Alie's decisions will have grave repercussions for the entire human race. 

( FEBRUARY 15th, 2150 — BLUE CLIFF BORDER )

 THE THICK OVERGROWN forest was oddly quiet making the scene feel more eerie as the young warrior carefully walked through the trees. Her long brown hair was pulled back on one side, and assortment of braids wrapped in a bright blue cloth decorated her skull as the rest was hanging loose in soft waves down her back. 

 The forest - her home - started to feel more different with the new technology that Phoenix herself had discovered not that long ago. Everywhere she looked, she felt someone's eyes on her. She let out a shaky breath as she maneuvered through the trees and towards her own cave that she had often returned too.

 Phoenix had never truly known true happiness since the capture, and both of her parents had fallen to the hands of the Mountain Men. She had proven herself worthy when she promised to rid the Earth of their kind- but now she didn't know where she stood within her clan since she disappeared.

 Phoenix dropped her pack at the wooden table that decorated the middle of her hidden cave and took out her map- looking where her cave was written on the map- and where she returned from. The south had been cleared of every body- and the forest was quiet there. She even visited the village of Woodstock to find it completely empty- almost like people just picked up and left.  She sighed and crossed her arms, pulling out the blue chip of temptation from her pocket. 

 A woman in red appeared next to her, but Phoenix was clueless to her presence. The woman in red smirked down at her. "She's too strong to take down," her voice rung into a another's ear, one who wasn't too far back. "shove it down her throat."

  The woman pixelated into thin air as she vanished from the scene without knowledge to the young warrior that she was even there, invading her space when she was not welcome. Phoenix looked down at the blue chip, her lips coming up to form a thin line as she looked over at the sector she cleared. She wondered if the chip had anything to do with the lack of people in the forest, she had seen it work before- the people would swallow it and become someone completely different- almost trapped within their own body while something else controlled them. 

  A dark shadow ran across her eyes as the light flickered from in-front of her, and Phoenix carefully lifted her eyes. She looked at her assortment of objects hung from the ceiling of the cave that looked like a mirror and saw a shadow of someone taller than her, standing behind her.

 Phoenix swallowed while her hand reached out to grasp her wooden pencil, pretending to write something down. She grabbed a vial from the table and slipped it in her mouth, crushing the glass between her teeth. As soon as she saw the reflection of the man hidden away behind her- she quickly turned around and stabbed the man in the shoulder, surprised that he managed to move so quickly.

 Storm clouds rolled into her eyes, darkening the brown dues that usually shone with golden twinkles. The older man grabbed hold of her shoulders, throwing her across the cave with ease, almost like she didn't weight a thing. Phoenix gasped out as she hit the cave wall, the stone digging into her back and scraping against her skin. Her eyes widened with realization that her hit didn't even faze him. She couldn't believe it. 

  She watched as the warrior came closer, and Phoenix turned quickly to her stomach. Her boots tangled with his, and her sharp kick had him tumbling to the floor. Phoenix's brown eyes skimmed the dark area of the cave, looking for the shine of her silver dagger but someone grabbed her boot, stopping her from reaching it. 

 "You will take the chip! Our master is waiting for you." the man yelled out as he got on-top of her, his knees digging into her legs as he pinned her to the ground while holding the blue chip towards her lips.

 "I'll die first!" She said and spat out the crimson liquid, letting it splatter onto his face and splash into his eyes. Her own mouth was on fire and growing more raw by the minute- so she could only imagine what his eye was feeling like. 

 The warrior jumped back and grabbed hold of his head as a blood-curling scream escaped from his mouth. Phoenix quickly grabbed her dagger from the floor and walked towards the warrior, sitting on-top of him. Her nostrils flared while her lips shut tightly when she looked down at him- tearing his hand away to reveal his blood-filled eye. She grabbed his helmet and took it off to reveal Azgeda scars along his cheekbones and her eyes narrowed. 

 "Send Roan my regards." She spat out and proceeded to sink the dagger into his throat. The sound of gargles filled her ears as the warrior's mouth filled with blood- spitting onto her face. 

  Once his body went limp beneath her, she stood up from her position and walked towards the wooden table sat in the middle- looking for a blue bottle among her things. Once she found it, she downed the frothy liquid, feeling it cool her screaming throat as it went down.

 She looked down at the Azgeda warrior one last time before reaching for her map behind her. She had one more place to check before she returned to Polis- and right now- her cave wasn't the safest place to be. 

 If he found her, whatever is controlling him has found her too and will be looking for their fallen warrior. She began to pack her things into her pack- along with her poison filled vials. She took one look at her map, the village of Nadal in her iris', was known to be the closest Trishanakru village to her cave. 

   She looked towards the entrance of her cave and then her eyes flickered back towards the body- where she proceeded to check for his belongings before she left towards the hidden pass way in the back of her cave.

 "Steltrona." Phoenix smiled over towards her brown colored horse, dressed in black and red cloth, along with armor protecting it's front legs and sides of her body. "Let's go girl, one more stop and then we return to our Heda." She mounted on-top of the girl who neighed back happily. 

 She hid the secret back entrance again with her foot- spreading the thick foliage against the small opening. She clicked her tongue and her steed went forwards, working towards a steady gallop towards the tree line to the east.

  It wasn't hard to tell if you weren't in Trishanakru's land from the amounts of colorful flowers and bioluminescence butterflies. Phoenix would always visit her when she was a little girl, loving the way the butterflies would shine an aqua blue water and she loved the amounts of poisonous plants she could take here too.

  When she could hear the faint noises of livestock, she knew she was getting close to the village- but what she couldn't ignore was the panicked sounds of them. Phoenix dug her boots into the soft belly of her horse, which made him erupt into his new found speed towards the tree-line that ended. She was about to allow her horse through the trees and into the open valley, when she heard the painful moans coming from the village. 

 Her eyes widened at the soft cries and she turned her horse to the side to walk down so she could see the inside of the village. Her eyes caught onto a tall figure standing over a fence in the distance, Phoenix's brows drew together as she looked at the scene. 

  By the sounds of things that were happening here, she knew that whoever was held up here- where not friends. 

 Phoenix took out her wooden bow from her back, and then grabbed an arrow from it's holder while her eyes never left the figure of the man standing. She watched as he stood behind another figure, but this one was kneeling down on his knees, his chin was high in the air as he looked peaceful even though he had a knife under his chin. 

 "Stop!" she heard the pleads from someone who she could not see, and it made her position her bow onto the man with curly brown hair, ending at his shoulders.

 From beside the warrior, stood a woman dressed in red- looking on with an emotionless expression. She turned her head after looking at the mother who was tied up to the fence post. "do it, she'll break." came her emotionless tone after, and the warrior lead his knife across the neck of his brother. 

 Phoenix's eyes went wide with horror as her bow lowered and the screams of cries came from a female voice. Her eyes hardened while she stared at the man, and she propped her bow up to aim at him, but just at last minute- she saw someone come through the trees and she switched her aim and let the arrow loose.

 He fell to his stomach beside the barn and she looked out towards him to see her arrow lodged into his neck- coming out through the other side. "Sisen!" a male scream erupted from the village, and Phoenix's cold eyes snapped back to the frame of the male warrior. 

 He was leaning against the fence, his eyes frantically searching around him and glancing upon the spilled blood around him- his families blood. "ai gaf sisen in!" he screamed for help, hoping that someone would come running but he had killed everyone here.

 Phoenix put her wooden bow on her back and pushed her horse forwards towards the village. Her brown eyes caught on the man's frame as she grew closer, his scream echoing throughout the forest sent chills down her spine. 

 He didn't understand what happened as his mind was cloudy with things he didn't understand. He looked up at the sky, a tear falling from his eye as he looked down at his mother falling limp in his arms. 

  It was when he heard galloping in his ears, and his eyes shot upward while his hand closed into a fist around the key. "stay away!" he yelled out, his voice stained with pain and guilt as a girl came into view.

 She sat on-top of her horse while she glanced down at him with curious eyes that had a bit of pain held in them. "I heard your screaming," she said while dismounting from her horse. 

 The male warrior grasped at the older woman's body, and Phoenix could only assume that he was holding his dead mother in his arms. He looked at her like she was an evil being with wicked intentions- and maybe she was one of them- she didn't know herself. "you have wounds--let me help."

 The male warrior's eyes flickered over towards her frame which was slowly walking forward, but he couldn't ignore the way her hands lingered on-top of her knife as she approached. "How do I know you're not one of them, a woman sent from the devil?" he spat out harshly while shuffling away from her.

 Phoenix let a smile slip onto her face as she let out a breathy scoff at his assumption. "If I was the devil, you wouldn't be standing here." she pointed over towards the body that laid flat against the grass next to the small barn. "i'm offering my help- if you don't want it- then I'll be on my way. Your life doesn't matter to me." she spoke again when her eyes rested upon the young man, who looked at her with distaste. 

  In a split second, the man rose from his place and looked her in the eye, his tears were dry and he looked more pissed than anything. "If you haven't forgotten; you're in Trishanakru's   territory-"

"does your attitude come on a silver platter?" she spat back and set her belongings on the ground, starting to look through it-looking for her pack of vials. When her gaze caught onto the milky liquid, she grabbed the vial and threw it over. "for the wounds." 

The young man looked down at the vial that was filled with a liquid- that he assumed he had to swallow to rid the pain from his body. His eyes flickered back up to look at the woman getting on her brown horse with ease. "Hey, where are you going?"

  Phoenix looked up after she gathered her reins to push her horse forward. "Back to Polis, returning to the commander." she rose her head while she stared back at him, watching him as he eyed the vial curiously. "It's not poison." she said confidently and his eyes flickered upwards. 

 He watched her as she turned her horse back around, and he yelled out. "Wait, what's your name?"

 Phoenix stopped her horse and she turned her head to stare back at him, hesitant whether or not she should tell him. "It's Phoenix." she hollered back and looked back at his parents, one in particular had caught her eye- the much older man who's face was stained with his blood- black blood.

 Phoenix blinked a couple times and turned her head towards the man behind her- who was looking down at his mother with a sorrow filled expression. "Phoenix, do you think you could help me?" the man turned back around to look over at the brunette who was already looking at him. She looked down at the ground for a moment before getting off her horse, pulling Steltrona behind her.