❝so comes snow after fire, and even dragons have their endings.❞

-j.r.r tolkein, author

♛

ONE OF THE THINGS that makes Earth so magnificent is the fresh air. Even after being on the ground for five months, I'm still not fully used to the way that the clean oxygen feels. It proves just how artificial the Ark really was.

I inhale deeply after climbing out of the Rover. The air is still slightly chilled from winter having just passed, but it's still nice enough for Gina to wear a short-sleeved shirt. I feel more comfortable having my jacket with me at all times. I've re-stocked it with medical supplies just in case something is to happen.

Bellamy appears troubled as he gazes out into the field, and I know that he's wishing he could be out with the Summit Delegation in Polis. However, because of our injuries, we've been placed with the mechanics and Octavia.

Gina steps up to confront him about the frown plastered on his face. Since she's so charismatic, I trust that she'll be able to coax him into feeling a little bit better about this mission.

I find myself glancing at where Caleb is opening the driver's side door for Raven. She waves off his offer to help her down and eases onto the soft grass slowly but surely. The expression of concern on Caleb's face is apparent; I can see it in his eyes how much he cares for her.

One thing is for sure: Caleb is not the same person I dated years ago. That boy would not have the plain look of adoration on his face that he does now. He's definitely changed, and maybe that's why I find it so easy to talk to him. The ridge of awkwardness is still wedged between us, but it's definitely not as bad as it could be.

"Hey Fallon, quit your daydreaming and help us out, would you?" Raven teases. I had been so preoccupied with my thoughts that I haven't noticed that they've moved to the trunk.

"Yeah, sorry," I apologize, shaking my head to clear it. Bellamy sends me a playful grin for which I softly punch him in the biceps for on my way toward the trunk. Raven hands me a large, canvas backpack that's extremely heavy. I shoulder it with some difficulty.

"Did I ever tell you guys how I saved Sinclair's ass on the Ark?" she asks.

Octavia shakes her head as she also straps a bag on. "Please don't."

"You mean the time you went rogue on a spacewalk?" Gina wonders with amusement in her voice. My eyebrows pinch together in confusion. Spacewalk? Hadn't that been Finn?

But Raven doesn't give me time to question it. "That depends on your definition of 'going rogue'."

Caleb, noticing my questioning look, subtly shakes his head. He doesn't want me to ask. Which, I suppose, is fair considering it's none of my business.

I catch up with the Blakes at the front of the pack while Caleb lumbers behind to marvel at the inside of Mount Weather. A couple times, he forgets that he doesn't know where he's going and has to run to catch up.

Although my time undercover here had long passed, this place still manages to dig under my skin. The cold, still air somehow chills me to the bone even through my jacket. The others don't seem bothered by it at all. Bellamy is the only one who can read my expression of unease. He slips his fingers through mine, offering a squeeze of encouragement.

"Caleb!" Gina calls, her voice echoing through the turns we had just gone around. The five of us pause and turn to find that he's not there. Footsteps sound from the hallway, increasing in volume the closer he gets. Eventually, he emerges from the last turn with an expression of slight worry on his face.

"Should anyone be worried about that pipe that's blowing steam back there?" Caleb questions, pointing behind him.

Raven shakes her head. "It's nothing to worry about."

Bellamy rolls his eyes and continues walking, causing me to have to move with him due to our entwined hands. As we get closer to the Mess Hall, the sound of chatter meets my ears as well as upbeat music. Our group pauses in the doorway. For a second, all I see are the lifeless bodies of the Mountain Men we had killed. That image is still fresh in my mind- the awful, red sores covering their bodies, bloated heads resting on the tablecloths. Twenty steps away is Maya--

But then I blink and that's not the case. The people at the tables are very much alive, no sign of terrible welts on their bodies. I suck in a breath of surprise. Bellamy's hand gets tighter.

Pike stands from his place at one of the tables. "Welcome! Come, join us."

"Someone's made themselves at home," Raven mutters distastefully, her eyes drifting along the room.

"There must be thirty of them in here," Octavia observes.

"Thirty-six, but the more the merrier," Pike corrects, now standing in front of us. Bellamy releases my hand as he steps forward to shake his.

"Thirty-six?" Octavia marvels sarcastically. "Wow, the Grounders are gonna think we moved in."

She gives a cold grin, shifting the mood of the encounter entirely. Bellamy turns and eyes his sister as if to silently scold her.

"Well, there was no room at the inn," Pike responds calmly. I notice his Biblical reference almost instantly, making me wonder why he made it.

Octavia isn't having his reasoning. "And this is your option?"

"O," Bellamy warns somewhat sharply.

She nods once, now knowing where he stands in this. "I'm outta here."

Octavia turns and hands her bags to Caleb, who takes them and watches her go with an unreadable expression on his face. Pike and Bellamy share a few more words that are too quiet for me to make out. They then head deeper into the Mess Hall.

"Reyes, Jones, you're three hours late," Sinclair calls as he walks quickly toward us. "We've got no power to medical, fluctuations on levels two and three, and blown fuses all over the place."

"I knew it," Caleb mutters under his breath.

Sinclair, having noticed that, inclines his head at him. "Get on it. Welcome to Earth, Caleb."

--

As expected, not even fifteen minutes later, there's already something wrong. But to my surprise, our warning comes to us in the form of Echo.

She hasn't changed much in the last three months. Her dirty-blond hair is still matted together in a tangled mess of braids and messy locks. The naturally sinister expression on her face looks even more haunting with the dried blood around her eyes. It had previously run down her cheeks, ending at her jaw. Her already pale pallor appears almost lifeless due to the white paint on her face.

Bellamy had been the one to lead her inside. She sits at a small table separate from the others at the center of the hall, facing both Pike and Bellamy as they listen to her story. I was not ordered to listen. However, I still linger around to hear what she says, pretending to be busy putting rifles away.

According to Echo, the summit is a trap. She claims that an assassin is somewhere there and plans to kill every Sky Person there. It's a threat that chills me to the bone.

"I was with the queen's army heading toward Polis," she recounts. "The war chief talks too loud."

"You're one of them," Pike says. "Why are you telling us this?"

"We abandoned Skaikru in the battle for the mountain," she responds somewhat impatiently. "It was wrong."

"And won't they miss you?"

"Maybe." There is definitely annoyance in her tone now. "That's why we need to hurry."

"Pike," Bellamy intervenes, "she saved mine and Fallon's lives. We can trust her." After a reluctant nod from him, he continues, "Listen up!"

I stand straight, grateful that I don't have to do pointless work in pretending to sift through guns anymore. Raven, Sinclair, Gina, and Caleb also join me in heading toward him.

"Okay, if we want to get to Polis before the attack, we have to move."

"Attack?" Sinclair questions. His eyebrows draw together in perplexion. "Do we have confirmation of that?"

"We radioed, but no answer," Bellamy replies.

"They may already be dead for all we know," Pike adds in. That causes my stomach to churn uncomfortably in fear. Losing more people is the last thing I need to happen. "And if they are, we need to be ready to respond."

"Don't make this about the missiles," Sinclair mumbles to him.

"This is about survival," Pike corrects sharply. Octavia and I share an exasperated look. "We don't have the numbers, but the missiles in this mountain even the playing field, and you know I'm right."

"Even if I did agree with you, we still don't have the launch codes."

"No," Raven cuts in, causing both of them to turn to her. "But we have me."

"And me," Caleb offers a bit less confidently.

Raven nods. "And him. He's pretty great, too."

Caleb fights off a grin, his mouth twitching as he attempts to hide it.

Pike grabs Echo's arm and forces her to her feet. "Let's go."

As they walk out, I turn to Bellamy. "Ready to kick some ass and save some lives?"

"Aren't I always?" he counters with a playful smile. I roll my eyes as he takes my hand and pulls me closer to him, kissing me softly.

"Disgusting!" Raven calls from across the room. Bellamy groans; I pull away with a laugh.

"She ruined it," he complains with a pout.

"I think that was the plan," I reply, using his hand to pull him along. "Come on- we can't be late."

--

Within everybody, there's that little signal that flares up every time it speculates that there is something wrong. That signal starts blaring like crazy the second the Rover stops and I hop out of it. It's buzzing, igniting annoyingly in my brain.

I slam the driver's door shut, sharing a look with Bellamy as I cross around to the other side of the Rover. Pike and Octavia hop out of the back next; they both wear similar expressions of confusion. There should be Scouts here, or at least someone to patrol, but there's nobody to be seen. Only a few dilapidated signs decorate the otherwise empty chunk of trees we've arrived at.

"Where are the guards?" Bellamy asks. Octavia and I nod at each other before quickly and briefly looking around to check if anyone is around. "Protocol would be to leave someone behind."

My nose twitches as I near the front of a stationary truck. It's clean, meaning it hadn't been abandoned here years ago, but something still isn't right. I place my hand on the gun in the waistband of my jeans and swallow thickly. Then, with one last quick step, I come face-to-face with the front windows.

"Holy shit," I mutter, taking a step back in surprise. Two guards are slumped in the seats, throats slashed and blood running down into their uniforms in thick rivers. Or, at least, it had been. I discover that the wounds are almost dry upon closer inspection, the now stronger scent of blood invading my senses.

Octavia automatically unsheaths her sword with a sharp shink. Bellamy clutches his rifle tighter, aiming it at the open space where the signs are positioned.

"This was your people," Pike accuses sharply, stepping closer to Echo.

"Jok yu," she spits in reply.

"Hey, she warned us," Octavia defends in a slightly more calm manner. "This proves she was telling the truth."

After tearing my eyes away from the blood splattered on the windshield, I head back to the Rover and retrieve my own rifle from the back. Their deaths linger like weights in my stomach. Octavia is right- Echo had warned us, but I had been clinging onto the hope that we'd make it in time.

"Guys, two people are already dead and there will be more if we keep huddling around here," I say, mostly toward Pike and Echo. Bellamy catches my eye and nods toward a sign depicting a crossed-out sword and gun, words beneath it reading NO WEAPONS BEYOND THIS POINT. I stop short. "You're kidding."

"I'm not leaving my blade here," Octavia argues.

"None of us are," Echo responds. "We go in through the tunnels. The entrance is this way."

And with that, she steps around Pike and begins heading toward the signs I had seen before. I don't take a backward glance before turning and following her. I can't let my friends end up like those two guards had. I can't handle any more death.

The tunnels that Echo leads us to are dark and dingy, the scent of mildew creeping up my nostrils. It only gets worse the further we go. The walls become damp, the occasional puddle making soft splashes by the others. My feet evade them without me having to think twice about it.

Eventually, a loud grating sound causes Bellamy to stick his arm out and stop me. He presses himself against the corner to discreetly check around it.

"Two guards," he reports quietly after turning back around.

"They raise the lift," Echo informs us, her voice barely a whisper. "The elevator shaft is our only way in. We have to climb."

Pike slowly pokes his head around the corner. I see his eyes move quickly, glossy in the lack of light, before settling. "I got left."

He bolts from his spot. Before I can stop him, Bellamy follows, chasing after Pike to take over the one on the right. Octavia takes her brother's previous position on the wall and peeks around it.

My heart feels a bit icy when it only takes a mere ten seconds for the fighting to go quiet again. I step into the open to see both of the bodies on the ground, still.

"What is wrong with you?" Octavia demands in a slightly sharp tone as she walks toward them. "You didn't have to kill them."

Bellamy glances at Pike, then back at O. "Yeah, I did."

Yeah, he did? What does he mean by that?

He pulls open the doors to the elevator before I can ask. After looking up, he faces Echo again. "How many floors?"

"All of them," she answers. Bellamy's face crumbles as if he'd been hoping she wouldn't say that.

And so we climb. Up, and up, and up, the elevator shaft until my hands are raw and leg muscles screaming. The ladder seems to continue endlessly. I keep thinking that we must be there, but to my dismay, I can't see the top.

Minutes pass. My stomach begins to churn. What if we're too late? What if, after all of this, everyone is already dead?

"We made it," Bellamy announces to my immense relief. After he tugs open the doors again, he disappears onto the floor. His hand appears moments later to help pull me up. I roll onto the wood and automatically bend into a crouch to aim my gun around, but there don't seem to be any guards just yet.

"Veidas!"

Spoke too soon.

I turn to see a Grounder running from around a corner. Without a second thought, I am and let a bullet fly into their leg. They cry out and crash to the ground. My thighs tighten as I dash to him and hit him over the head with my rifle to knock him out. I barely have time to process the sound of a battle cry before it stops, replaced by a grunt. I whirl around in surprise. Bellamy holds the man in a choke hold, a gun to his temple.

"Here," Pike announces, pointing to a wide set of wooden double doors. Octavia kicks them open with a cry and we crash inside. An instant uproar arises from within the room -- the throne room, it seems -- as people back out of our way.

"Fallon?" A familiar voice calls. But no, it can't be. "Bellamy?"

The last time I heard her say our names, she had been tied up and gagged in a cave. I search the swarm of people to discover Clarke among the sea of faces. But it doesn't look like Clarke.

I stop short. She's wearing Grounder clothes, extravagant almost to the point where she looks like royalty. Thick lines of black are smeared around her eyes as well. Her hair is braided back intricately, making me go cross-eyed if I try to follow the golden strands.

It doesn't look like Clarke at all.

"What is the meaning of this?" an unfamiliar man demands.

"The summit's a trap," Bellamy announces, releasing the captive and shoving him aside. He glances at Clarke. "We need to get you out of here."

"What the hell is going on?" Clarke asks Lexa harshly as she steps in front of her.

Lexa. She stands at the center, higher up than everyone else, with her eye makeup almost identical to Clarke's. Her dress is also unlike anything else I've seen her wear before.

"I don't know," she replies emotionlessly.

Lexa.

"It's the Ice Nation," Bellamy elaborates.

"These allegations are an outrage," a man speaks up. "The Ice Nation never stormed this summit with weapons, breaking our laws, that was Skaikru!"

"We're right about this," Pike asserts firmly. "The two guards you left behind are dead already. We need to go now!"

"How did you come by this information?" Lexa asks, her authoritative voice breaking clearly through the room.

I turn to my left and scan our small circle, only to notice one significant detail.

"Where the hell is Echo?" Octavia questions quietly.

It sinks in slowly like ice burying itself in my chest. I face forward slowly, my eyes unfocused and mouth slightly agape. Humiliation starts to flood my senses- which is probably what Echo wanted. She made us look like fools.

"She was..." I trail off, mumbling. "She was with us when we climbed up, wasn't she?"

"I don't know," Bellamy replies at the same volume.

And that feeling that was so familiar three months ago comes rearing its ugly head again: betrayal.

"What's going on?" Bellamy asks after a pause, alarm lacing his tone. "Where the hell is she?"

"Bell, maybe we were wrong about this," Octavia says through clenched teeth.

I can feel the coldness turning into rage, churning my stomach violently. Echo had been someone I trusted, someone that both Bellamy and I risked our lives to save. Apparently I was wrong to have followed her so blindly.

Bellamy does not want to accept it. He looks around one more time, confusion in his eyes. "I don't understand."

Kane steps forward and takes his rifle. "Stand down."

Still shocked, Bellamy removes the strap from around his neck and allows him to carry the weapon away. There is a somewhat awkward silence in the room for about two seconds before a voice breaks it.

"Bellamy. Bellamy, come in." It's Raven. Her voice comes from the radio at his hip, sounding desperate. "The Grounders attacked Mount Weather."

I freeze.

Bellamy unclips the walkie from his belt and raises it slowly to his mouth. "What are you talking about?"

"It's gone," she replies in a whisper. "It's gone. They're all gone. Sinclair and I are the only ones left."

The icy feeling seeps into the rest of my body, flowing into my fingers and toes. It clenches around my heart.

"I'm so sorry."

I choke back a sob.

"I'm so sorry."

It hurts like hell.

All of the innocent lives who were lost today, all of those faces I saw in the Mess Hall now nothing but ash on the ground. Gina. She had been so loving and supportive throughout everything, and now she's gone. I will never hear her kind voice ever again.

It hits me fast. Caleb.

I squeeze my eyes shut, a tear streaming down my face. A terrible ache blossoms in my throat from the sobs that refuse to come out. My chin trembles; I feel like I can never get enough oxygen into my congested lungs.

"You should've never moved your people back into Mount Weather," the same man from before spits. His voice raises with his next few terrifying words. "The Ice Nation did what Lexa was too weak to do."

Lexa's lip curls into a snarl. "This is an act of war. Sentries, arrest the Ice Nation delegation, including the prince!"

Her guards grab the bald man and Clarke's captor, beginning to haul them out of the room. I see things through a haze. Nothing seems real except the pain pounding my heart mercilessly. I don't hear what Abby, Kane, or Lexa say next. I don't hear Bellamy beg for Clarke to follow, only for her to refuse.

The only things I can process are Raven's words echoing over and over and over again in my mind.

"They're all gone."

------

rip gina you were one of my faves and i cri everyteim ):

i love how i said i'd get this chapter up asap but it's been almost a month!!! i'm so sorry- life's getting hectic again ):

also HAVE Y'ALL SEEN THE S4 TRAILER??? THOUGHTS???

-kristyn