"Here." I muttered, handing Bellamy a couple of bags. He gave me a small nod of acknowledgment before turning to throw them into the Rover. 

He and Clarke had finally convinced Roan to help us, and thus our next destination was Polis. Here was where we wound find Ontari, implant the Flame in her head and then shut down ALIE...well that was the goal. Nerves coursed through my body at the prospect of entering the Grounder capital, which was no doubt crawling with chipped people, but I knew it needed to be done.

"Knock out gas. Mount Weather's finest." Miller announced, joining Bellamy and I at the back of the Rover as he loaded several gas masks and canisters. "As soon as they bring Ontari out, we put 'em to sleep."

A slow smile spread across my face as Bellamy slapped Miller on the chest. "Nice work."

"Because she's chipped," Raven began, limping toward us with a large item in her hand. "You'll have to EMP her like you did me before you give her the Flame." she explained, passing the EMP device to Bellamy.

"I thought Jaha destroyed all the wristbands?" Jasper questioned, speaking for the firs time since we had returned home.

 "So did he. But then I came home." Raven answered, a smug smile on her face. "There's only enough usable parts to rebuild one so use it wisely. Made a few improvements too."

Clarke, being ever the optimist, took a step toward Raven. "None of which is going to matter if you can't get us access to ALIE's code."

Raven's face dropped the smile as she gave Clarke a serious look. "You worry about the Nightblood. I'll worry about ALIE."

Jasper, who seemed to be full of questions tonight, took a few steps toward the group of us. "How can you access a code that's not even here anymore?"

Monty arrived at Raven's side with a hopeful smile. "We've got a plan."

"What are we waiting for!?" Octavia called, entering the room with an armed Roan by her side. 

Bellamy glanced toward Roan, his face hinting in hesitation. "Let's move out." he called. 

Hugs were given left, right and centre, reminding me too much of the last time we had left Arkadia. I was nervous then, nervous that I wouldn't see my friends again, but this time those nervous were multiplied by one hundred. We were quite literally heading into the centre of this battle.

---

"You ever been to Polis?"

I pulled my attention away from where it had been focused on the road in front of us, instead focusing on Roan who sat beside me, watching me with a curious smile.

I shook my head, forcing down the lump in my throat. "No." I answered, my voice sounding weak. 

He gave a small nod, "You're scared." he observed, noting the shakiness in my voice. 

I pursed my lips, letting out a deep breath. "I'm not scared." I lied, hoping he would buy it. 

Roan smirked ever so slightly. "That's why you're shaking, right?"

I narrowed my eyes at him, shoving my hands into the jacket of my pocket to hide the fact that they were indeed trembling. "I always shake like that." I muttered, causing Bryan and Miller to share quick smiles with each other, amused by my lying. 

"What's going on back there?" Bellamy called from the front, briefly looking over his shoulder at us. 

I rolled my eyes, "Nothing, Bellamy. Just focus on the road." I ordered, noting how he pursed his lips in frustration. 

Roan leaned closer to me, his voice directly in my ear. "Boyfriend?"

My eyes flickered between him and Bellamy. "Yes." I answered without thinking, "Kind of." I added. Upon Roan's skeptic stares I shook my head. "It's complicated, okay?"

He nodded, moving away from me ever so slightly. "Isn't it always?"

"There it is." Clarke announced, causing me to look back toward the front. "We stop here."

The Rover came to a screeching halt, all of us wasting little time in hopping out and grabbing the supplies we would need. 

As I joined Roan, Bellamy and Clarke at the edge of the cliff, I felt my heart rate increase at the sight of Polis. A large tower stood in my line of vision, daunting over all else. That was exactly where we were headed. 

"All right, this is where we split up" Roan pointed out. "The entrance to the tunnel's right over there." 

"Yeah, we know where it is." Bellamy shot back, which elicited in me sending him a warning glare. 

Roan ignored his comment, looking over to Clarke. "I'm gonna need the Flame." When Clarke gave him a rejecting look, he continued. "Look, this only works if they send Ontari out to get it. If they don't see it, they won't do that. Not much of a trap without the bait."

Clarke briefly looked to Bellamy and I before pulling the Flame from her pocket and placing it in Roan's hands. However, before she let go, she spoke. "Fine. But I'm coming with you."

Bellamy and I shared confused looks at her proclamation. That had never been part of the plan, and quite frankly it sounded like a horrible idea. 

Roan let out a humourless laugh. "If one of you is coming with me, can't it be the trembler? She's not scared, after all." he questioned, shooting me a quick wink. 

I scoffed as Bellamy stepped in front of me. "That's not happening." he snapped, glaring at Roan before looking over to Clarke. "Clarke, this isn't part of the plan."

Clarke finally released her grip on the Flame. "It is now. I'm not letting that out of my sight..." she explained, her eyes locked on Bellamy. She then focused on Roan. "And I'm the only one who knows the passphrase, so you can tell them that without me, Ontari can't ascend."

Roan stared her down for a moment before nodding. "You'll need to look like my prisoner."

Clarke didn't even hesitate. "Okay."

"Hold on," Bellamy snapped, stepping in between the two. "Give us a minute." he ordered Roan, his eyes wild in worry. 

Roan rose his brows slightly before turning and making his way toward where the rest of the group stood. I let out a sigh before following after him, deciding I did not need to be in the middle of the Clarke and Bellamy debacle that was about to go down. 

"You sure you don't wanna come with us?" Roan questioned, looking down at me with a smug smile. 

I let out a small laugh as I shook my head. "Absolutely positive."

---

Ten minutes later and we had split off from Roan and Clarke, the rest of us now making our way through the dark tunnels. 

A flashlight was held in one of my hands, and it shook slightly with my nerves. The quiet sounds of our feet hitting the stone below and the dripping of the damp tunnel was all that could be heard as we made our way further into Polis. 

"Move, move, move!" Bellamy whispered, ushering us forward, "Come on, let's go."

After a few more moments, we emerged into sunlight, meaning we had reached the end of the tunnel. We were inside. 

"This is it." Bellamy announced, leading us toward the windows. 

We all dropped our bags, beginning to unpack all of our supplies needed to set up watch. I approached one of the windows, looking out into the city.

I felt chills run down my spine. It looked like a graveyard out there. Crosses coated in blood hung at almost every corner, meanwhile bloodied puddles littered the streets. Perhaps what was the most unsettling was the number of people, or rather lack there of. Less than a dozen people were visible, each of them on their knees, unmoving. 

I shook the dark thoughts from my head, taking one of the guns out of Miller's outstretched hand. 

A shaky sigh escaped my lips as I positioned myself next to Bellamy, knowing I needed the comfort of being close to him at this moment. 

"Are we ever going to be done fighting?" Bryan wondered, asking the very questioned I'm sure we all thought about constantly. 

Miller let out a small laugh. "Hell yeah." he promised. "Then we're going to build a house on the lake..."

As he and Bryan went on about their plans for the future, I felt something tug in my heart. I found myself looking toward Bellamy, and once again he was already looking at me. 

I gave him a sad smile before forcing myself to look away from him. This wasn't the time. 

As I looked back down to the centre square, movement caught my eye. "There." I announced, looking through my scope at Clarke and Roan who were slowly approaching.

"11 o'clock." Bellamy called to the others. "Roan will signal when he sees Ontari. We wait until she's standing in front of them, and then we launch the gas."

"They're going to be holding their breath." Bryan explained, tossing each of us a gas mask. "So we have to move fast."

"Anyone who gets in our way, we use non-lethal force." Bellamy ordered. "These people are not the enemy. They're being controlled. The only thing we're here to kill is ALIE."

When we all gave nods of understanding, Bellamy turned back toward the centre, sending Roan and Clarke the signal to let them know we were in place. 

I tightened my grip on the gun in my hand, trying to will myself to relax. My nerves only increased as Roan spoke, his voice carrying throughout the empty streets.

"I am Roan, King of Azgeda, and I have what the Commander seeks!" he held up the tiny chip that was the Flame. His words seemed to have awoken the few people who littered the street as all of their eyes shot open. Each of them slowly rose to their feet and began to approach the pair. 

My heart was hammering against my ribcage as more and more people came to surround Roan and Clarke.

But one figure in particular stood out amongst the rest. "Is that-"

"--Jaha." Bellamy finished my sentence, his tone just as confused as mine.

"What the hell is he doing here?" Octavia questioned, looking over to her older brother. 

Miller looked toward us as well, his voice on edge. "You see Ontari?"

"No. Hold." Bellamy instructed, trying to calm all of us down. But his words did very little to calm any of us down, as it was clear things were going south, and fast.

When Roan took a step away from Jaha and closed his fist around the Flame as if to protected it, there was no hiding the fact that something was not right.

"Something's not right." Bellamy announced, his eyes locked in on Clarke and Roan. It was when Roan pulled Clarke close and pressed a blade to her throat that we needed to jump into action. "Do it now!" Bellamy yelled. 

But Bryan' didn't have the chance. None of us had the chance to do anything else.

"On your knees! Drop your weapon!" 

I surprised gasp flew from my lips as someone's grabbed onto the back of me, forcefully wrestling the gun out of my hands. "Collins, against the wall!"

I spun to see one of the Arkadia guards, his eyes blank as he shoved me into the wall. Four other guards did the same to the rest of my friends, rendering us all weaponless.

This wasn't good.