"Space didn't sound too boring after all."

5.

Getting people out of the bunker took all day and lasted well into the night. Even for not having as many people as they went in with, there was still many people left. I spent most of the day helping them up the rope as well as answering questions everyone seemed to have. The most frequent ones being, "where are we going to sleep?" and "who are those people?" To say the day was draining was an understatement and my headache that formed earlier was getting worse as I watched Octavia occasionally. How she walked, how she talked, how she was definitely not the same girl who went into that bunker six years ago. But who could be? Six years is a long time and heavy is the head that wears the crown. The way people were both terrified of her and in awe of her was alarming and off putting. Hundreds of people died in that bunker and she seemed to be the cause of it but hundreds more were still alive and she seemed to be the reason for that as well.

I wanted to know more about what happened in those six years, I knew I could go to Liza or Alex, or Jack but they had just gotten out. I didn't need to hound them with questions while they felt the sun and wind again for the first time in years. They were also busy helping people out and getting people situated in certain buildings. There wasn't much left but it would have to do until we could figure out what to do with the remaining piece of living land as well as what to do with Diyoza and her people. There was still a lot to be done and a lot to worry about but we needed to take it one step at a time.

"Octavia had Abby and Kane locked up. Apparently we got here just in time, Kane was fighting in the pits." Bellamy says as we walk back toward the main square of what was left of Polis having just finished helping people into different buildings for shelter for the night.

"...I just don't get it." I shake my head. I didn't get the reason for the pits or why Clarke's parents were locked up or why any of this was happening down there for years. My head was banging and I wanted answers but I knew I had to be patient and worry about the bigger problem we had.

"I don't either. I think... I don't think any of them want to talk about what has been happening. They all seem so...changed." I knew what he meant, not changed as in growth, but changed as in whatever the hell happened down there, it has scarred them. They did all seem weary, the looks they'd give Octavia and the looks they had given me and Bellamy today when we would talk to her like she was just a friend and not Bloodreina. Hell, even our friends seemed to be rattled regardless of their smiling faces today when we saw each other again. Although they did seem to hold more hostility towards Octavia, they didn't seem to tremble at her feet. I could just tell they were angry and I didn't know exactly why.

"Whatever happened they will tell us in time. Right now we have bigger fish to fry, what the hell are we going to do with Diyoza?" I start to put my hair up in a pony tail, the heat having made me sweaty. I was now in jeans and a black tank top, my jacket tied around my hips.

"I'm not sure. Right now we have the upperhand but we can't dangle her men in front of her forever. We have to sort out some agreement." Even saying it, we both knew an agreement would be extremely hard to draw up. Diyoza was not the type to compromise or share and we also had to think of Octavia because neither was she.

"But we also can't...risk...we can't afford the rest of her men coming down here. There's way too many of them and we'd have a war on our hands and it's not like all of our people are fighters. We'd be outnumbered." There was no way she was going to let up not having her people down here but it seemed like a no brainer that it was a very bad idea for them to come down.

"I know, I know. We need to just settle in for the night and make a plan tomorrow, we'll be more clear headed and hopefully we'll have more heads put together on this. Then whatever we come up with we bring it to Diyoza. If she doesn't agree... well let's just pray she does." His words were reassuring but I still couldn't see this ending with us living peacefully together and both of us getting what we want. I sigh and before I can speak again a loud blast sounds throughout the area. Bellamy and I share a look and take off running to get to the center of Polis. We stop in our tracks right away at the sight. Diyoza stands front and center with some of her men around her, all holding what seemed to be huge blasters.

"See that? That's nothing compared to what these things can really do." She says as she points to the fountain or at least what's left of the fountain as it is now rubble. I swallow hard and look around making sure on one was hurt and making sure no one tries to be a hero.

"Not so tough now are you." One of the guys sneers at Octavia. She doesn't falter, she holds her stare.

"What the hell are you doing? One call from me and your people die." I speak up. She turns to face me as does her men with their guns. Just like Octavia, I don't falter.

"Go ahead. Make your call." She says. She looks too confident, too calm. Something was wrong and my mind was moving a mile a minute trying to figure out what the hell was going on. Did she not care about those men up there anymore? Did she just see them as casualties because it wasn't worth us having leverage over her?

I don't care about why though, I can't. I unclip the radio from my jeans.

"Raven, come in. Do you read me?" I ask into it. Silence. I swear my heart skips a beat as seconds go by and still nothing. Diyoza smiles.

"The deal's off but nobody has to get hurt." She says. I swallow hard but before I can say anything, Clarke comes running.

"Where's your mother?" Diyoza asks her. I was about to ask why when I realized they probably know she's a doctor. My heart drops to my stomach when I also realize that they might know that my dad is one too. Hell, that me and Clarke are.

"You can't have her. She's our doctor." Octavia steps in.

"She asked you a question." One of the men steps forward with his gun.

No one says anything until we all hear Abby.

"I'm right here." She cuts through the crowd with Kane, both of them looking worse for wear.

"I'll go with you." She says.

"I bet you will. Traitor." Octavia's words are harsh and cold. They were locked up before we got here, what did they do that lead Octavia to keep them locked up?

"I'll go with you but he comes with me. Those are my terms." She motions to Kane. I didn't know what the hell she was doing but I couldn't imagine that it was far off from wanting to keep the peace for now and possibly get out from under Octavia's wrath. Was she so bad that being Diyoza's prisoner was better? I look to Octavia and notice her glare, maybe I could understand where Abby was coming from.

"Like mother like daughter." Diyoza says and then sighs, "fine, take 'em both." Her men go to grab them and Abby and Clarke exchange a few words. My blood boils at the scene before me. Our leverage was gone and now so was one of our doctors.

"Okay. Here are my terms, the valley is ours. Any attempt to get there will be met by overwhelming force. As long as you stay here, we won't have a problem. Is that a problem?" Her words have me gritting my teeth and clenching my fists. That valley that we've been overlooking for months, that little piece of green that we've been looking to for hope, for a future, was now being ripped from our grasp.

"What about Raven and Murphy?" Bellamy asks.

"For now, insurance." She then tells her people to head out to their ship.

One of the men won't stand down though as he eyes Octavia. He was about to turn around when Octavia still didn't flinch, still didn't show signs of fear, I don't think he liked that because he yelled out and pointed the blaster at her. My eyes widen and before I could process what was happening a man jumped in front of her, taking the blast and exploding into pink mist. The force still sent Octavia back and everyone was panicking, now instead of fear, everyone was angry.

Diyoza yelled at her man to hurry up and get to the ship, with good reason too because no one was letting that slide, big guns or not. Once they were all on board their ship I sprang into action with Bellamy making sure people in the vicinity of the blast were alright. Once we saw the few people who took some of the blast were fine just disorientated, we turned to Octavia who was being helped by Indra. She hobbled over to us with Indra's help.

"I trusted you. This is your fault." Venom laces her voice as she speaks to Bellamy.

"No, it's not." Is all I say to her, as much anger in my voice as she had in hers. She didn't get to blame this on Bellamy, we had the upper hand and somehow something went wrong with Raven and Murphy. She glares at me but she doesn't scare me and she didn't get to push us around or talk to us however she wanted like we were one of her subjects.

"Bloodreina, what do we do now?" Miller asks as he helps a guy walk. I try to ignore the fact that he calls her that.

"Now, we go to war." She looks at both of us and then her and Indra walk away.

"What the fuck just happened?" I whisper under my breath.

"What just happened is we lost the first round." Bellamy runs his hand through his hair.

No one seemed to question us or Octavia, it was like everyone knew this was a problem for tomorrow. Right now we all needed rest.

Me and Bellamy found a space near our friends in one of the buildings away from the center. There wasn't much comfort, Liza gave us two blankets that she brought up from the bunker having made a few trips back down with others to retrieve stuff. We laid them both on the floor seeing as it was still kind of warm to need one for a cover. It wasn't much padding but it was better than nothing. Liza and Noah slept snug together in one corner and Mikel slept on the opposite side of the room by Alex and Jack. They all seemed to have stuck together over the years, Mikel, Noah, and Liza had never met Jack and Alex before the bunker so I can only assume they found each other down there. Clarke was closer to Bellamy and I and she didn't look like she'd be falling asleep anytime soon.

When Bellamy and I laid down, he pulled me into his side and I clung to him.

"You think Monty and them are okay?" I whisper to Bellamy.

"They'll be fine. We'll be fine."

I wasn't too sure about that.

"Hey, baby. We need to get up." I hear Bellamy whisper after a few rubs on my back. My eyes open and I notice he was sitting up. I look to see our friends in the corner of the room talking amongst themselves. Guess I was the last one to get up.

I sit up and stretch and work my hair back into a ponytail seeing as it got loose throughout the night.

"How long has everyone been up?" I ask him as I slip back on my shoes.

"Not too long, I didn't want to wake you right away." He explains as he stays seated next to me as I tie my laces on my boots.

"Thanks, baby." I say after I finish tying my boots. He leans in for a kiss that only lasted a few seconds but we get called out regardless.

"Ugh. It's too early for all that shit." Alex groans and the group laughs as me and Bellamy roll our eyes. And just to keep the atmosphere light and fun, I pull Bellamy in for a longer kiss but not before making eye contact with Alex and then focusing back on Bellamy. He laughs half way through the kiss and I smile.

The group is a mix of laughter and groans.

"Keep your mouth shut next time." I say and stand up with Bellamy.

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever." He dismisses me. It felt just like old times, like nothing changed, like it hadn't been six years since we last saw each other and hoping and praying the other one was okay.

We all walk out, some of us going in different directions. Me and Bellamy head to the center where there seems to be commotion. Clarke is running after Miller and another man who are headed towards the outskirts of Polis. It is then when I look around and notice all of Octavia's men armed.

"Where the hell are you going?" Bellamy asks.

"Wish I could tell you, Bellamy." Is all Miller says.

"Octavia told you not to?" He sounds hurt and my heart restricts.

"You're going to Shallow Valley." Clarke blurts out seeming to realize what exactly was happening. Clarke then starts walking away with Miller hot on her tail, Bellamy and I share a look and we take off after them. She starts to talk about how they won't make it past the sand storm in the valley and they won't make it to the valley without her help. We enter in a small building and Octavia and her right hand woman and man look up, along with Indra. They were crowding a table with a map.

"Miller, your orders were to-" The woman starts to speak but Miller wasn't having it.

"I know my orders. I think we should listen to what Clarke has to say." He says.

"The route you're taking is too risky." She explains.

"Risky how? We won't be able to cross?" Indra questions her.

"Maybe but-"

"Maybe's good enough. Let's go." Octavia says and starts to head out the door when I step in front of her and Bellamy does too. Always in sync. Her two people immediately aim their guns at us and I refrain from scoffing.

"Just hear her out." Bellamy says. I cross my arms.

"Fine, show me." Octavia says and turns back to Clarke by the map. Clarke starts to point at different areas.

"You chose this route, it's the shortest route so it makes sense but this area is under near constant sandstorms." She says.

"We have tents, sand won't be a problem." Octavia has a solution for everything so it would seem. But I trust Clarke more, especially with this new terrain. She's the one who lived down here for six years by herself with Maddi, no one knows this new earth like she does.

"It's not just sand, some of it crystalized in primfaya. I'm talking shards of glass that cut like razor blades. Your tents will be ripped to shreds and so will you."

"Bloodreina is right, this route will only take six days, the next shortest path will take seven and that's if we're lucky." The woman speaks up. I didn't understand what part about razor sharp objects flying in the air they weren't getting so I decide to step in.

"Are you not listening? Clarke knows this place better than anyone, I think it would be wise to follow her lead on this one." The woman doesn't look pleased at my stepping in but I could care less.

"Enough. We're doing this." She speaks as if it's the final say and I can't help but think that she's trying to be the leader even though we're not in the bunker anymore. Though it seems it doesn't matter, yesterday I thought there was fear in people's eyes when they saw her and that might be true but they somehow still loved her, a man sacrificed himself to save her. Whatever bad things went on down there they were still grateful she kept them alive, that much was obvious.

"Now we fight." She says before exiting the room with her people following her out.

"I'm glad you're here for her, Bellamy. She needs you." Indra says as she's the last one left.

"There's packs by the doors, we move out now if you're coming." She adds and then leaves.

"Murphy and Raven are in trouble." I say and he knows what I mean.

"We're going." He confirms and nods his head.

"All of us." Clarke adds and I squeeze her shoulder.

"Sorry she wouldn't listen." I sigh as we grab the packs by the door and put them on and walk outside.

"I'm sorry too." Clarke says.

"For?" Bellamy questions her.

"For what you're about to go through when we get caught in that sandstorm."

Razor sharp glass. Space didn't sound too boring after all.

A/N:

Happy New Year!!!!

I had to post a chapter before the year ended!! I honestly can't explain how sorry I am that I haven't updated in months, I got caught up with work and school and there's just been so much stress surrounding what I'm going to do after college and although I have a plan set out, my self doubt has been taking a toll on everything I do which sadly included writing. My creativity for this book also has been low as I've expressed before, I wasn't a huge fan of season five and felt it was more of a filler season. But I'm trying!!

I'm so sorry that I had to make ya'll wait this long for a chapter, I hate doing that because I know how that shit feels to have to wait so long for an update. But here's this chapter and I hope you enjoyed it.

I hope you guys have had a good year and if it wasn't your best year then I hope 2020 is good to you!! Thank you all so much from the bottom of my heart for sticking around with me and reading still after all these years and all these books. It really means a lot, you'll never know just how much. So thank you!!

Much love, xoxo