𝒅𝒆𝒎𝒐𝒏𝒔; ❛ 𝑺𝑻𝑨𝒀 𝑯𝑰𝑮𝑯 ❜
↷ 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒉𝒖𝒏𝒅𝒓𝒆𝒅
❝ 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒍𝒆𝒇𝒕 𝒇𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒎𝒐𝒏𝒕𝒉𝒔 𝒂𝒈𝒐 ❞

"Becca's journal is amazing. At twenty-six, she found a pathway to access a human mind." Raven gushed from the backseat of the rover. Gabriella felt a small smile crawl onto her face when she looked at the rearview mirror and saw the big grin the mechanic was sporting. Raven turned to another page and her face turned more serious as she added, "That same year, she had to lock up ALIE because her answer for what was wrong with the world was too many people. She was twenty-seven when it launched the bombs."

"Things would have been so much easier if we lived back in the twentieth century when technology wasn't this involved." Gabriella sighed, turning her eyes back to the road, "Sure there would be war and shit and we wouldn't have a lot of rights but at least we wouldn't by dying because of a robot who we can only see if we swallow a pill."

Bellamy huffed in agreement from the passenger seat, leaning his head back, "You can say that again."

The two looked at each other, sharing a small smile. Gabriella never saw herself as one of those girls whose world would stop spinning because of a guy but when she looked at the boy next to her, she realized that even through another war, the only thing making her feel centered was the fact that he was still alive.

"What did she write about the flame?" Clarke asked, looking at Raven with curiosity.

"ALIE 2.0." she started, "She saw it as a way to atone for her sins. She designed it to not just access a human mind, but to merge with one. It could never wipe us out because it would be one of us. She would put it in herself first, alter her genes so her body wouldn't reject the implant."

"Like black blood?" Gabriella asked with furrowed eyebrows, her eyes connecting with Raven's through the rearview mirror, remembering reading something about it from Lincoln's notebook she snatched from him a few months prior, before it all went to shit.

"Yeah." Clarke was the one to respond, making everyone turn to her, "Bekka Pramheda, the first Commander. The gene therapy was probably the thing that made her blood black, didn't it?"

Gabriella squinted at the road, muttering under her breath, "Yeah, that's what I said."

"How did you know that?" Octavia demanded, narrowing her eyes at the Griffin, who didn't get a chance to answer because Alina did it for her, speaking up for the first time since they got into the rover.

"Lexa was a Natblida." she explained, "And let's just say she and Clarke had a personal relationship."

Wells, being the oblivious guy he was, raised his eyebrows in surprise, looking away from Alina to Clarke as realization hit him.

Clearing her throat with a faint smirk, Alina continued, "It basically became hereditary. I only know one person other than a manipulative bitch in Polis that still has it."

"Luna." Clarke chimed in, looking for any chance to avoid eye contact with Wells and turning to Gabriella, "That's why we have to find her. If she can access ALIE Two we should ── "

"She can tell us how to stop ALIE One." the youngest Blake filled in.

"Bekka Pramheda gets her second shot at atonement." Sinclair commented, glancing at Monty, who was holding the flame between his thumb and index finger.

"Get back to the mind pathway." Monty stated, taking his eyes away from the flame and looking at Raven, "If ALIE uses it to upload our minds to the City of Light, then there's a chance my mom's still alive."

𝘕𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘴𝘯'𝘵. Gabriella sighed inwardly. If she was already physically dead, there was no way they could bring her back to life days later by just trying to get in touch with her subconscious. It wasn't humanly possible. But she wasn't just going to crash the only hope her friend had.

Raven however, didn't seem as generous, "That depends on your definition of 'alive'."

"We're almost home." Gabriella called over her shoulder, trying to make the tension fade away, "Get your weapons out and look out for anything that isn't supposed to be there."

Bellamy nodded at her words and picked up the walkie laying between them, putting it to his mouth, "Miller, come in." when all he received was static he spoke again, "Philip, Harper, you there? Ride's two minutes out."

He put the walkie back down and Gabriella huffed, making the hair that was previously in front of her eyes, move to the side. She shared a nervous look with Bellamy when they heard Jasper's bitter mutter in the background.

"Good start."

-

When they reached the gates of Arkadia, Alina, Bellamy, Clarke and Octavia got out of the rover with their weapons out in case someone was waiting for them.

"We left two days ago." Clarke said in confusion, eying the broken gate, "Why haven't they fixed the gate?"

"No, Clarke." Gabriella rolled her eyes, leaning her elbow against the open window and slowly driving inside, "𝘠𝘰𝘶 left four months ago. Gods, keep count."

She could hear Jasper snort in agreement from his place in the opening at the top of the rover and the weight in her chest felt just a tiny bit lighter at the knowledge they at least agreed on one thing and he wasn't mad at her enough to admit it.

"It's like a ghost town." Raven frowned as they slowly entered Arkadia.

Wells narrowed his eyes, looking around the camp from his place in the passenger seat, having jumped to the chance to finally sit there as soon as Bellamy got out, "Yeah, you can say that again."

Gabriella sighed, nodding in agreement and then grabbing the walkie next to her again. She put it to her lips and tried reaching her friends again, "Miller, Philip, Harper, Bryan come on. Where the hell are you guys?"

"I don't like this." Wells said when the only answer they got was static again.

"Maybe they got chipped." Jasper said blankly, his pessimism becoming his most visible trait since the first massacre of Mount Weather. It was a trait Gabriella never thought she would associate with him but here they were.

"If they got chipped they'd be waiting for us at the cave." Bellamy retorted, walking on Gabriella's side of the rover so the blonde could see him shaking his head in concern while also having the rifle in his hand raised, "Maybe they saw the open gate, went in for Lincoln's book."

"Maybe you should stop saying 'maybe'." Octavia snapped from behind her brother.

"If they are chipped, ALIE already knows we're coming." Clarke stated and Alina was quick to roll her eyes, her hold on her bow tightening.

"Thank you for stating the obvious Wanheda."

Gabriella drowned out their voices, her face turned blank and she froze, stopping the rover. Unknowingly, everyone else around her stopped too, all of them staring straight at Lincoln's lifeless body laying on the ground a few feet in front of the rover, a bullet hole in his head visible and a pile of blood next to his head.

"Fucking Pike." she cursed under her breath in disbelief. What kind of monster leaves the dead body of an innocent man in the middle of camp for everyone to see? If this was his way to "leave a message" it was insanely sick and twisted.

"Let's get his book and get the hell out of here." Octavia exclaimed shakily, breaking the tense silence.

Jasper fully got into the rover, "That's a plan I can support."

Gabriella clenched her jaw and continued her way to the garage, driving around Lincoln's body while doing so. Once she turned off the rover engine she looked at everyone in the back and ordered, "Come on. Someone put away his body while Octavia finds the book. We're not leaving it here."

-

"It's like they just got up and walked away." Clarke commented as they walked through the public rooms in Arkadia, examining the cards laid out on the table.

"We're in and out." Bellamy reminded everyone that hasn't gone back to put away Lincoln's body ( Alina and Wells being the ones to volunteer ), "Pack as much gear as you can into the rover."

"I'll get the map." Octavia said, instantly rushing away from the group.

Jasper stared at her retreating figure before saying, "I'll, uh, go with her. No one should be alone."

"Someone doesn't want to help loading gear." Gabriella raised an amused eyebrow, making Jasper halt in his movements and turn around.

To her surprise, he gave her a small smile and admitted, "Not even a little."

Sober Jasper was her favorite Jasper. He wasn't too mean and didn't cause unnecessary fights. Sober Jasper might not appear often but when he did, he looked even closer to forgiving Gabriella than he was while drunk.

"What's the rush?" Raven asked, looking between the three former leaders, "They won't be coming back."

Clarke looked unimpressed, "How do you know?"

"ALIE's mission is to chip everyone." Raven explained, "It wouldn't make sense to return to a place she already took."

"Might make sense if there were someone in that place," he looked at Raven with a raised eyebrow, "I.E you, who could tell us stuff like that."

Gabriella gave Raven a knowing look and the mechanic sighed in defeat, "Good point. Let's load gear."

-

While Clarke and Bellamy separated to check out the other rooms, the latter going to get more bullets and a few extra guns, Sinclair decided to grab some stuff from the storage room and Monty went back to his quarters, Gabriella stayed in the garage with Raven.

A huge part of her felt huge guilt for not checking up on her and being "too busy" with Pike to even talk to her. She didn't want to leave her alone again in case something like that might happen again. She hated to be the person to walk around eggshells around Raven after the shit she had gone through but she couldn't help it. The fear of losing someone this close to her was stronger than anything else.

"I'm sorry." the words were out of her mouth before she could realize she was saying them.

Raven's brown eyes snapped away from the book in her lap and towards the blonde sitting opposite of her. Her eyebrows furrowed in genuine confusion and she tilted her head to the side, "For what?"

"For not checking in on you even though I knew how much you were struggling." she shook her head, looking at the floor and avoiding Raven's gaze, "I was a shitty friend for actually listening to you when you said you were fine. I was supposed to know better than that. Especially when Jaha told me about the City of Light and I was so caught up in my own stupid decisions that I haven't even stopped to think twice about what was going on with you. And when I actually stopped to think about going over to the garage to check up on how you were dealing with work I thought you would be busy which we both know usually never really bothers me ── "

"Ella, Ella." Raven cut her rambling off and Gabriella finally allowed herself to look at her, now realizing she got to her feet and walked toward her. Her words were as soft and confident as they usually were as she assured her, "You had your own stuff going on too and I never expected you to be there every time I'm stressed out or in pain. If I did I'd be glued to your side 24/7 and we all know how awkward that would get." they both huffed out a chuckle at the same time and she continued, "You're not my best friend because you're the person I talk to every moment of every day. You're my best friend because when we do talk, you're the only person that actually listens to me and doesn't see me as a disability. So, me taking the chip is anything 𝘣𝘶𝘵 your fault."

Gabriella's lips tugged into a smile at each word the brunette spoke and soon enough, she was fully grinning, "I'm your best friend."

Raven rolled her eyes half-heartedly, a small laugh escaping her, "Of course that's the only thing you pick up on."

"𝘌𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘴𝘩 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶'𝘳𝘦 𝘥𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘨. 𝘔𝘦𝘦𝘵 𝘮𝘦 𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘢𝘳𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘺."

"Cock block." Gabriella joked at the sound of Bellamy's voice coming through the walkie hopping down the table she was sitting on and picking up the walkie, "What's going on?"

"𝘠𝘰𝘶'𝘭𝘭 𝘴𝘦𝘦 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦. 𝘞𝘦 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘨𝘰𝘵 𝘭𝘶𝘤𝘬𝘺."

"Well that's a first." Gabriella said, sparing Raven a look, who looked too busy staring at her book, and adding, "We're on our way."

She moved to leave the garage but Raven's voice stopped her.

"Wait. Where did Clarke leave ALIE Two?"

"Why?"

"I think I know how to activate it." Raven told her with an excited glint in her eyes.

"Don't we need nightblood to do that?" Gabriella questioned but still made her way to Clarke's bag and pulled out the flame.

"This section here codes for activation using a spoken phrase." Raven stated, showing her what was in the notebook. It was filled with a bunch of notes and Gabriella only understood some stuff but sue her for forgetting most of Latin when she got locked up.

"Right . . . " she trailed off, squinting her eyes, "You can read that? How? Half of this stuff is Latin and as far as I know, you took French."

"I don't know." the mechanic said, looking a bit confused herself.

Gabriella cleared her throat and picked up the walkie, "Clarke, Alina get over here. Raven needs to talk to you about something." she put the walkie back down and turned to Raven, "I don't know much more about the flame than you do but they do so I'm gonna go meet up with Bellamy and they're gonna help. And Sinclair doesn't have a radio so he'll probably be back here soon enough and he knows more Latin than I do."

Raven raised a teasing eyebrow, "Running along to your boyfriend?"

"At least I have one." Gabriella shot back without missing a beat, ignoring the way Raven's eyes widened and the way her smile widened and spun on her heel to exit the room, the voice of her best friend calling after her ringing in her ears as she made her way down the hall.

-

Despite Bellamy telling everyone to immediately get to the armory, Gabriella couldn't keep herself from taking a quick stop at her ( well, Bellamy's ) quarters.

She looked around the room, catching sight of her blue denim jacket thrown over one of the chairs and she quickly pulled off her guard jacket and replaced it with that one. It was a lot warmer and a safer choice judging by the fact that she had no idea how long they wouldn't be coming back here.

After that, she changed her pants and grabbed her old knife, putting it into her right shoe. She didn't get a chance to try and take anything else into her bag because Bellamy's worried voice coming from the walkie on top of her Iliad took her attention away from everything else.

"𝘎𝘢𝘣𝘪, 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘳 𝘮𝘦? 𝘊𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘪𝘯."

The blonde furrowed her eyebrows but picked it up and answered, "What is it?"

She heard him sight in relief and then say, "𝘠𝘰𝘶 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘢𝘴 𝘧𝘢𝘴𝘵 𝘢𝘴 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘤𝘢𝘯."

"Why? What's going ── "

Her words were interrupted by a hand clamping over her mouth and she felt a sharp blade against her throat that made her eyes widen.

"If you move I'm going to slit your throat." a male voice she didn't recognize hissed into her ear and in response, she stayed completely still.

"Good." the same voice said and then she felt something knock into the back of her head, making her fall unconscious.

-

When Gabriella's eyes opened, it didn't take long for her to realize she was in the airlock. The place that was practically filled with death. The place that haunted her nightmares. The place her uncle floated her mother.

The next thing she noticed were her bound legs and wrists and the fact that she was gagged. She looked around, seeing Harper, Bryan, Monty, Miller and Philip tied on the opposite side of her while Raven and Jasper were tied up next to her and Octavia was on her feet in the same state as them.

"I held up my part of the deal." she heard Clarke's voice on the outside, "Your turn. Let my friends go."

In the middle of the room was a man Gabriella found unfamiliar and at first she thought he was an angry grounder or one of the chipped people from Arkadia. But when he walked up to Octavia and spoke up, the voice brought back terrible memories of Mount Weather.

"Tell your little friends to show themselves first."

Emerson. Also known as one of the Mountain Man that was there when they killed Fox.

"I don't know what you're talk ── " Clarke's words were interrupted when Emerson landed a harsh punch to Octavia's stomach and the brunette realised a groan of pain through her gag.

The sound of his sister in pain was enough for Bellamy to reveal himself, the sound of his voice making Gabriella's eyes squeeze shut.

"No!"

To anger him further, Emerson placed his knife to Octavia's throat, much like he did to Gabriella when he captured her. She heard more movements from the outside and she realized Wells, Alina and Sinclair probably showed themselves as well.

"Good." Emerson seemed satisfied, "Now take out your clips and throw them and the arrows down the hall. Put them on the ground and get inside."

"Please." Clarke pleaded, "You wanted me. I'll get inside once you let them go."

"I was talking to them." Emerson said with a creepy smile, putting his knife closer to Octavia's throat, making her flinch back.

"Okay, okay!" Bellamy yelled in panic, "Just ─ just stop."

Gabriella flinched when she heard the sound of weapons dropping to the floor and she almost felt tears gathering in her eyes when Bellamy stepped into the airlock with Wells and Alina following behind him.

Emerson nodded towards the pair of handcuffs next to Raven and then to two next to Jasper, "Those are yours."

The trio hesitantly pulled their handcuffs on and once they did, Emerson pointed a gun to Clarke, "Get on your knees, Clarke. Put your hands behind your head." he stepped out of the airlock with his gun still raised and then made everyone's worst fears come true and closed the airlock.

𝘚𝘩𝘪𝘵.

She didn't hear Clarke's pleading voice from the outside or see her terrified face watching them. She was only able to focus on the panic filling her chest that only increased when red lights filled the room and she felt air get knocked out of her lungs.

"𝘈𝘪𝘳𝘭𝘰𝘤𝘬 𝘍𝘪𝘷𝘦, 𝘰𝘹𝘺𝘨𝘦𝘯 𝘷𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨. 𝘈𝘪𝘳𝘭𝘰𝘤𝘬 𝘍𝘪𝘷𝘦, 𝘰𝘹𝘺𝘨𝘦𝘯 𝘷𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨."

𝘍𝘶𝘤𝘬. 𝘍𝘶𝘤𝘬. 𝘍𝘶𝘤𝘬. She cursed in her head and squeezed her eyes shut, slowly starting to struggle to catch her breath. She wasn't sure if she was having another panic attack or if it was the fact that she was going to die just like her mother did. Or both.

She just always thought Kane was gonna be the one that killed her here.

She didn't hear Bellamy weakly calling her name as her eyes fell shut and only allowed herself to give in to death.

What caught her and her lungs off guard was the feeling of oxygen filling up the room and going into her nose.

Gabriella opened her eyes and almost immediately, they met Bellamy over Jasper's head. They were okay.

-

They held Lincoln a small funeral afterwards. It was similar to Finn's but they all actually cried during it.

Okay, jokes aside, Gabriella hasn't spoken a word to anyone since they got out. She was a little shaken by everything that happened and what only made her feel worse was Raven announcing Sinclair was dead.

That absolutely crushed both girls. Sinclair wasn't just a mentor to Gabriella, he was the only stable father figure she had in her entire life and even though they haven't really talked after she got arrested besides the one time he was allowed to visit her. They didn't really have that much time to talk outside of engineering and that was mostly Gabriella's fault for being too caught up in her own stuff to even go out of her way to visit him more than once a week.

So at Lincoln's funeral, she cried for Sinclair too.

After it was over, they continued packing up the rover like they were supposed to this morning.

Gabriella sighed in relief once she set down the final box and her attention was immediately drawn to Raven limping towards them with Monty by her side, helping her walk faster.

"Hey, we're leaving." Bellamy told them with furrowed eyebrows, "Why aren't you ready?"

"We're not going with you." Raven said and when Gabriella saw Philip, Miller, Harper and Bryan standing behind them, she realized she meant all of them.

"Raven ── "

"I can barely walk, and my shoulder is killing me." Raven gave Wells a deadpan look, "My brain is all kinds of awesome though."

"She remembered that ALIE downloaded herself into The Ark mainframe." Monty informed them, "If the code is still there, we might be able to find a back door."

"I'm guessing that once you connect ALIE Two to Luna, we'll need to access ALIE One to take her down." Raven added.

"What about you?" Gabriella asked with narrowed eyes, looking at everyone behind them. If anyone took note of the gruff sound of her voice, they decided not to comment on it.

"We'll keep them safe." Miller shrugged with a not so confident look on his face that made Gabriella snort despite her mood.

"I'll keep 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮 safe." Harper said and Gabriella gave her a small smile that made her feel slightly better.

"That's more like it."

"How about you?" Bellamy turned to Jasper, "It's gonna be dangerous."

The buzz cut boy grinned, "You know me well. I'm in."

"I'm not." Alina said, making everyone turn to her curiously so she added, "You'll drop me off on the Trikru border and I'll head to Polis from there. Someone needs to stop Ontari from turning the coalition into a shit show."

Wells frowned at her words but nodded along with everyone nonetheless.

Gabriella hugged Raven first. The mechanic was wearing a frown when they pulled away, "Are you sure you don't want to stay? We could use your help here."

"You want me to leave those four to suffer through a life threatening road trip with the Commander of Death?" the blonde raised an amused eyebrow, "Someone has to keep them from blowing themselves up."

Raven sighed and looked over Gabriella's shoulder, before looking back after her a moment later, "Just don't get yourself blown up in the process too."

"No promises." Gabriella said, giving her another short hug and then moving to hug Monty too.

They all shared their goodbyes and then got into the rover. Leaving Arkadia for a life threatening mission stopped fazing Gabriella by this point.

It was all a part of surviving on Earth and it was all her fault for even becoming the leader of a hundred wild teenage criminals. But when Jasper gave her that familiar dopey grin, Bellamy looked at her with soft eyes that were a huge contrast to the cocky look he wore back when they landed, Octavia sat next to her with a look of determination, and Wells still looked at Clarke the same way he always did, she realized she wouldn't change a thing. Because while some relationships of hers grew stronger and some fell apart either because of death or her own mistakes, some things will never really change.

a/n: a little shameless self promo where I tell you to follow my tik tok which I use to post fan fic edit , it's @ murphscare

expect more random updates next week until I finish act 3

the way I was glaring at murphy making out with emori in this episode was hilarious because I legitimately forgot gabi isn't a real part of the show

gabi got like 4 head injuries in the past two weeks so there's that

words: 4k