─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

BEING THE LAST OF HER PEOPLE CAME AT A BIGGER COST THAN WHAT RILEY HAD THOUGHT. She was hopeful that after helping Abby and Jackson save Nyko would be the end, and she would be allowed back to Arkadia. It wasn't likely that they'd force her to stay, but when she was asked to so she could help Raven, Gina, and Sinclair as she knew more about the mountain than anyone, she felt like she couldn't say no. Arkadia's people accepted her, and made Riley one of their own, and she wasn't sure how to repay them.

After helping unload the rover, Riley's bag thumped against her back as she slowly wandered inside. She looked around, realizing that it looked like it used to be. The sky people had set up there, sitting in the dining area where everyone she knew died. She winced at the sight, but stiffened into a polite stand when Charles Pike approached the group. He was a survivor found by Bellamy and Monty on their run, "Welcome, come join us," he greeted, shaking Bellamy's hand.

"Someone made themselves at home," Riley muttered, slightly bitter, under her breath but Pike hadn't heard her.

Octavia, however, did. "There must be thirty of them here," she spoke, her own bitter tone louder enough for Pike to hear.

"Thirty-six," Pike corrected, not catching on to how disrespectful it was to move in. "But the more, the merrier. There was no room at the inn." Even if there wasn't much room at Arkadia, moving into Mount Weather shouldn't have been their first option.

"No thanks. Lived here once, didn't go well," Riley snapped, unable to think of anything else but her people dying in the same room that Pike had his own people laughing in. It was downright uncivil to dine here and choose to move in, with it being the place many people died and the fact that their truce with the Grounders was already thin.

Bellamy turned around, giving both Riley and Octavia a certain warning look. Riley didn't back down, despite the tense silence, and glared back. "I'm out of here," Octavia finally decided, whirling around and storming off.

Quiet, Pike watched Octavia leave. "Spirited," he commented on her attitude. Bellamy shrugged, but nodded in agreement before following him.

Sinclair stood from where he sat at one of the tables when noticing Raven and the other two girls. "Reyes, you're three hours late," he scolded. "We've got no power to medical, fluctuations on levels two and three, and blows fuses all over the place. Get on it," he ordered.

The mechanic nodded quickly, complying. "You can do no wrong, huh?" Gina teased. Raven grinned, even laughing, before walking off. Seeing that Riley was hesitant in following, she turned to her and gave her the sympathy look Riley had grown used to. "You can come whenever you're ready," she spoke, her voice gentle and kind.

Shrugging, Riley adjusted the bag she was carrying on her shoulder. She supposed there wasn't ever going to be a time she was ready to be in Mount Weather, but when Arkadia took them in as one of their own, she felt like she owed them. "I'll be fine," Riley assured her.

Giving her a comforting smile, Gina threw her arm over Riley's shoulder and directed her down the hall and into Raven's route. "We're here for you," she promised as they walked. "Don't push yourself to do something you don't want."

Because Riley's adopted father was an engineer, she knew the maps of Mount Weather and was able to point Raven in the right direction. However, she knew nothing of how to fix the problems as she was a medical student, and was impotent. That changed when an alarm went off hours later, a sign of an emergency. The three girls rushed out of the power room, and upon seeing Sinclair, pushed their way past people hurrying out of the way.

"Why the hell are they calling us off?" Raven demanded. "I've got tripped circuits all over the grid!"

"Oh, whatever it is supersedes fixing the power problem," Sinclair responded, stalking forward back towards the way they came.

When seeing some Grounder Riley hadn't recognized being interrogated, her head tilted and she stopped suddenly. Whatever was wrong, it had to be something with her. Bellamy looked up when seeing the three join him and made his demands. "Listen up," he ordered. "If we want to get to Polis before an attack, we have to move."

"An attack?" Riley repeated. The sky people had been at Polis, making their coalition to be apart of the clans, but it was sacred, meaning it was important to the Grounders. Who could possibly be attacking them?

"Do we have confirmation of that?" Sinclair asked, worried.

Shaking his head, Bellamy answered. "We radioed, but there was no response."

"They may already be dead, for all we know," Pike pointed out. "And if they are, we need to be ready to respond. This is about survival. We don't have the numbers, but the missiles in this mountain even the playing field and you know I'm right."

Surprised, Riley scowled angrily at him at the mention of Mount Weather's missiles. "Are you insane? Those missiles were made by the first president in the case of a war, and you don't even know if anybody there has even been attacked yet!" She exclaimed. "We can't just - "

"I'm sorry, when do we take suggestions from the last standing mountain men?" Pike cut her off, returning the harsh expression.

Furious at Pike's words and absolute disrespect for her deceased people as well as her, Riley didn't hesitate in shooting her hand up and flicking him the middle finger. Gina immediately stepped forward, grabbing Riley's wrist and pulling it down, giving the fierce girl a warning glance. She hadn't liked him since he greeted the group with no shame in moving these people in. Before Pika could retaliate, Bellamy quickly cut in. "We don't have time for this," he said. "Knowing the launch codes are important."

"We still don't have them though," Sinclair remarked.

Smiling, prideful, Raven spoke up. "No, but we have me."

As Bellamy said his good-bye to Gina and Pike dragged the Grounder girl out of her seat, Riley followed Raven. Every instinct she had told her otherwise, that following the plan to figure out the code was wrong, but she followed through anyways, joining Raven, Sinclair, and Gina in the control room. Even though she was no engineer or mechanic, her knowledge of Mount Weather could be useful.

With what little Riley knew of Mount Weather combined with Raven and Sinclair's mechanic and engineer knowledge, they were hardly making progress. Raven was quickly growing frustrated, flipping through the textbook Riley provided her. "Damn it," she hissed under her breath.

From where Sinclair sat in front of her screen, he hadn't taken his eyes off the monitor and replied in a monotone voice. "What happened to the Raven Reyes confidence?" He questioned with a well point.

"It's a twelve digit code, there are a trillion combinations, it's gonna take me a minute," Raven snapped back, irritated. "Gina, what do you got?"

"Don't look at me," Gina replied, holding her hands up in defense. "I'm just a grunt." Her gaze flickered to Riley. "What about you, Pascal? Is there a chance you know anything about it?"

Snorting, Riley shook her head. "Yeah, right," she responded, leaning against a top. "I was a doctor's assistant, nowhere near high enough to know the code for a missile used in war."

Sighing, Sinclair was next to be annoyed. "Oh, come on guys," he groaned. "It's gonna be dark soon. We're working analog. We're working digital. What are we missing?"

"Want to bet he wrote it down somewhere?" Gina asked, suggesting.

"That's like setting the launch codes to all zeros," Raven indicated.

"Yet, it's better than anything we've come up with," Sinclair argued.

"What about President Dante's office?" Riley suggested, thinking. "If he wrote them down, it could be in one of his files. It's just about two halls down from here," she indicated, jutting her thumb behind her.

Sinclair nodded in agreement. "You two, check it out," he instructed, pointing to Gina and Riley before picking up a radio and tossing it to Gina. "We'll keep working the tech angle." Riley nodded, motioning for Gina to follow her out of the room and to where the president's office was.

Once the pair entered, Gina tossed her bag on top of the table and flipped open a drawer, pulling out a stack of folders. "I wonder how long this'll take," she commented, giving Riley a thin smile.

Riley smiled back, taking a seat from across of her and grabbing the first folder on top of the stack. "Awhile, I guess," she replied, flipping it open and studying the first few papers.

After a bit of silence, Gina paused her flipping through the heap of papers to stare down at Riley. "Can I ask something?" She questioned. Riley stopped too, looking up and shrugging before giving her a curt nod. She didn't see why not. "What was it like here?" She asked, leaning forward on her arm, but treaded carefully around the words. "Before.. Everything."

Taken back by the question, Riley shut the folder she was finished with and slid off her seat. "Nice," she finally answered. "It was great here." She turned around, setting the folder on the mountain they had been putting them on after looking through it. "I miss it," she admitted before turning back around. She could hear Raven radio in, asking if they had anything, and as Gina answered her, Riley tried to shut the Mount Weather thoughts out again.

All of a sudden, a hooded figure made their way into the room. Riley's eyes widened when seeing the silver glimmer of his knife. "Gina, move - !" Before the shout could finish, she could only watch in horror as the stranger covered Gina's mouth and stabbed her repeatedly in the chest.

"Gina!" Riley shrieked in terror before the stranger looked at her threateningly after looking at the keypad on the table. Riley knew she was next. She reached behind her for the first weapon her hand touched as he made his way towards her, holding the knife forward. What Riley's fingers gripped onto happened to be a lamp, and she tugged it harshly to pull it out before swinging it forward. The man shouted in surprise as sparks flew and connected with the side of his face.

Seeing as he was blinded, Riley dropped the lamp and raced towards the exit with her heart pounding in her chest. Before she was out, she only saw Gina laying on the table, dead, but she couldn't mourn. She grabbed the radio Gina clutched in her hand and ran out, her sneakers slapping against the pavement as she brought the radio to her mouth and held the button.

"Raven, Sinclair!" Riley shouted, panting. "Come in! Do you copy?!" She heard Raven's muffled voice on the other end, asking what's wrong. "A grounder attacked! He - he - we have to get him!" Riley came to a stop as she saw Sinclair and Raven exit their control room.

Behind Riley, the assassin raced out of the hall, must have heard her and ran the other way. Sinclair broke out into a run after him, Raven limping behind. Riley wanted to help her, but catching the grounder that attacked them was more. He had to have done something, he wouldn't have killed Gina and attempted to kill Riley for nothing. She ran forward too, following them outside and trying to keep up.

Just as Riley caught up in the opening of Mount Weather, she was there just in time to see the stranger pointing a knife to Sinclair's chest, pinning him down and ready to kill him. She pulled the gun she wished she thought of earlier out of her holster and pointed it forward, focusing, and shooting the grounder. Satisfied with the one time she took a right shot, Riley watched as the bullet shot through his chest and he fell to the side, dead.

Raven finally caught him, breathing a sigh of relief when seeing Sinclair was fine. Riley raced forward towards the grounder, quickly studying him, but noticing something on his bare arm. She leaned down, studying the scribble of numbers before her eyes widened. "Sinclair, it's a code," she spoke. "That's why he went into the office. He's going to blow up Mount Weather."

Riley turned around, looking to Mount Weather. Any second, her old home was going to blow up, with everyone inside. Unable to stop herself, she raced forward back to the direction of the opening, but Raven caught her before she could, protests ringing in her ears. "No, we can't just let them die!" She shouted, unable to watch another group of people die in Mount Weather. "We have to - "

Before Riley could finish her sentence, there was a suddenly huge explosion. Before Riley could process what had happened, the pressure of the eruption blasted the three backwards. Riley gasped as her back hit the ground and her head bounced back, knocking her out.

There was a buzzing in Riley's ears a few seconds later. She hurt all over, but she knew she was awake. Raven was gently shaking her shoulder, shouting her name. Remembering the people inside Mount Weather, Riley slowly sat up and her eyes widened when seeing smoke pouring out of what was left of the bunker. Her eyes filled with tears and she clutched her aching chest with a broken heart inside, listening as Raven radioed in Bellamy.

"It's gone," Raven cried into the radio when he answered. "It's gone. They're all gone. Sinclair, Riley and I are the only ones left." Riley sobbed, her head falling forward. "I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry."

Tears streamed down Riley's cheeks as she looked at what was once her home. More people have died inside, and once again, she could only blame herself. But that wasn't what she could focus on. She could only say good-bye, and carry the weight of mourning once again.