WARM WELCOME TO PLANET ALPHA.

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LOST IN FIRE (book three).
°• CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO •°

" YOU KNOW ME.
PAIN IS PAIN. "

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        Harley hates watching everyone say good-bye as she sees Abby embrace Jackson and instruct him and Miller to take care of each other. She's still openly bitter that Bellamy won't let any of them wake Octavia up. It's not fair. She feels like the odd one out carrying her sword in a sheath along with a knife on her belt that Echo loaned her for easy access. She doesn't take a gun, not at first, mostly because she's too stubborn to want one, but Miller is insistent. Everyone has to be armed with something other than a few blades, so Harley reluctantly accepted one, for now. Her head turned when Bellamy comes down the long hall with a large bag stuffed with supplies after speaking to Miller, calling out to the few behind him like Raven and Shaw who were embracing one another. "Alright, let's load up!"

"Right behind you," Clarke promised before speaking good-bye to her mother while the group waited patiently in the airlock chamber.

Murphy is fidgeting with his own bag before he nudges his sister. "How's your leg?"

Truthfully, Harley hasn't looked at her leg since she woke up. It still hurt every time she put too much weight on it, but after algae and getting her bandages changed, it becomes a dull ache and easier to ignore. "Peachy," she responded honestly before eyeing the other. He was hurt worse than herself. "What about yours?"

Harley's brother flashed her a grin before he shrugged. "Eh, you know me. Pain is pain." And once the pair outside is finally done and Clarke joined them, her eyes still connect with Abby's as Bellamy hits the red button and the doors shut. "Feels familiar, huh?" Murphy voiced.

Clarke quirks a small smile back as they enter the ship as a group. It's large, spacious, with many seats and control panels. Harley does feel a sense of familiarity as she thinks back to a memory that happened hundreds of years ago, some of which she wasn't awake for. It's not as if the ship was built anything like the dropship she entered when she was freshly seventeen and surrounded by other delinquents.

She had her brother to thank for that. Now, Harley has Monty to thank, she thinks as she lowered herself into a seat and strapped the two yellow seatbelts over her chest, clicking them into their buckles. The thought of Monty alone made her smile too as she turned her head to see Murphy a few feet to her left. "Must be," Shaw commented from where he had sat at the pilot's leather seat. "Hundreds of years later and we're making the same choices."

"You weren't in the dropship," Harley reminded with a sharper tone. They weren't making a choice on their own - this was for Monty. "We're discovering if a new planet is survivable, and this time, we're not making the same choices," she stated with her icy blue eyes gazing at the window before them. None of them will ever be the same criminals or grounder warriors they were on Earth.

What Harley doesn't expect is for Shaw to look over his shoulder at her as the station starts to shake, signaling the ship breaking apart. When she snaps back a "what?" in demand, the corner of his lips only twitched into a grin. "Nothing - just, Harley, right?" He questioned. Harley didn't answer at first. Her fingers curled into the yellow straps at the loss of gravity before she gave him a subtle nod. "You only remind me of a bike I had back in Detroit." He shrugged before turning back around. "You're spirited."

Was that supposed to be a compliment? Harley wondered. She shifted in her seat. She spent years in lockup, but before that, she spent years studying what Earth was like before the nuclear bombs. She's seen dozens of pictures of bikes, motorcycles, other uses of transportation and didn't understand how they had anything to do with her but she doesn't question it, mostly because Raven's voice fills the radio system a few seconds after. "How are those instruments, Shaw?" Her voice is like static and difficult to make out the further they depart from the station.

Shaw pressed a button on his headset with one hand, using the other to guide the stick's handle, and spoke into the speaker. "Instruments are for amateurs," he informed her smoothly.

It clear to them, but as they fly further into space, the radio takes a turn for the worse. Raven's voice is only heard for a second, but Shaw cursed under his breath on their journey through the atmosphere worsening. It's almost like the dropship trip, Harley thinks, other than the fact she hardly remembers that drop and that she can see every gray cloud they're soaring past to get closer to the planet so at least they would be able to catch a glimpse before their possible deaths.

"We're below the ionosphere and I still don't have any instruments," Shaw announced over the noise. "There must be something else. Hang on."

"Is there anything I can do?" Emori offered hopefully.

Shaw nodded. "Yeah. Pray."

Harley doesn't. It seemed pointless even if she wanted to because it would all be useless faith and take up what little strength she had left. Instead, she doesn't squeeze her eyes shut and kept them peeled open, prepared to die for her loyalty to Monty Green because she placed all of her trust into him without a single doubt he'd steer them wrong. Even if Harley and everyone on this ship dies, it'd be under Monty's honor, and she wouldn't be able to regret that.

She's so focused on bracing herself that Harley almost missed when the violent shaking of their ship suddenly stopped. The clouds evaporate and separate around them glass, revealing a beautiful range of mountains with a bright orange glow from the rising sun over the peaks that illuminates their skin. They're almost there. Harley feels tears start to rise but she blinks them away. She can't cry yet. This is barely the beginning of the start of their new lives and she doesn't know if they'll make it after they land.

"Boys and girls, meet Planet Alpha," Shaw introduced proudly.

He swerves them between the tip of mountains and lowers them closer to the ground. Harley can feel gravity return, the heaviness in her limbs as Shaw brings the ship in a slight twirl through the air as it made its final landing. It's hard to find words once Shaw gives them the okay to take their seatbelts off and group towards the door. Harley knows they're all desperately hoping in the silence amongst them that they aren't about to die after their first breath of fresh air after hundreds of years. And as Clarke takes the lead by lowering the door's lever, she suddenly is too.

Harley's weapons and the bag feels heavier than the mountains she saw so she grabs her brother's hand to share some of the weight. She wished Octavia was here too as she was when they first landed on Earth. As the ramp slowly lowered, an ominous light shone through the cracks, and Harley held her breath. She doesn't know if any of them are prepared for this, but when Murphy squeezed her hand and laced their fingers together, she inhales the smallest breath through her nostrils.

And it's fresh. Jackson looks in amazement as he notes after muttering the same phrase over and over in a panic, "Breathable air - check."

They've landed in a forest of trees with different colors of leaves - they aren't just green. They're orange, red, yellow, and the mix somehow glows under the burning sun. When Harley tilted her head back, she sees above the tallest tree that looks like a shadow that it was the sun beaming a deep red that caused the orange glow. The tears Harley had fought back earlier start to reappear but she wipes at her eyes with the sleeve of her free hand. She's so grateful that she feels she may burst with emotion.

"Radiation levels good, too," Emori added after taking a quick look at her tablet. "Eligius III didn't need to send nightbloods after all."

"How about that beacon, Shaw?" Bellamy asked their pilot.

"Eight clicks due East. I think it's on high ground," Shaw observed from his gadget. "There's a water source about halfway."

Harley slowly released Murphy's hand. "Good," she breathed out. She's only been this eager and full of endless joy once in her life - the day she landed on Earth. And she can't wait to let her boots sink in fresh soil for the first time again. "Then let's get going."

Their leader nodded before she looks at Bellamy. "You should go first this time," Clarke suggested.

"No," Bellamy dismissed. "We go together." His dark eyes glazed over the rest of them. "All of us." The relationship between him and Harley have been rocky since waking up in cryo, but she shared a faint smile with him. Spacekru was her family, and despite how they weren't all here and they had newer members, it felt right to do it all at once.

They take cautious steps across the open ramp that creaks under their weight as Miller spoke. "Anyone got anything better than we're back, bitches?" He wondered out loud, quoting Octavia's very first words on Earth after the dropship door opened.

No one replied at first because they had just taken their first steps on Planet Alpha together as if they were one. Harley's boots dig into the dirt as she hops off and leaves start to brush against her knees tenderly. It takes a minute to get used to the new environment without gravity, but soon the familiar feeling floods her limbs once more, stabling them. "Monty would know what to say," her brother states from behind her with a tone of sorrow. "He should be here."

"He is," Bellamy declares afterward while Miller warns them Shaw is shutting the door again.

"He already said it. Do better there," Clarke quoted boldly before shrugging her shoulders. "So, let's do better."

The moment of bliss fades when Shaw's head snaps towards Clarke and he scowls. "That's easy to say, but talk is cheap," he fired at her coldly. Harley knows he's thinking about nearly losing a leg to protect Raven after Clarke gave them up to be tortured, and Clarke must be thinking the same, as she winces with a raise of her eyebrows, but Harley doesn't stick around to listen. She has much more to do than stick around with Clarke Griffin and her impossible choices.

Harley's eyes flicker to the orange sky surrounded by thin clouds as she takes the side of Murphy and whispered a quiet, "I promise", as if maybe Monty was there and could hear for himself that there's nothing more than Harley wants is to change into a better version of the person she had become.

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The guard Harley didn't have the first time, leading to Jasper being speared, was up as they spend hours wandering through the forest. She's bracing herself with her fingers smoothing across the handle of her sword every few seconds in the case the tree branches as so much rustled. Murphy can see his twin sister is afraid, but she doesn't notice the way his nose scrunched in worry towards her as if Harley is prepared to fling the sword or a knife towards the bundle of trees and kill something innocent. But he knows she won't admit it if he asked - all Murphy wanted there was for Harley to take a break and breathe. But she'd block him out if he tried to confront her. It was like Harley suddenly became him. Maybe that's what scared him.

The dirt beneath them started to mix with sand as they come near an opening in the trees. Every time Harley breathes in, she can tell the fresh oxygen has turned into a salty smell. Logs are lined up and she nearly trips over one clumsily when they leave the forest behind them. Jackson was right. There was water close by. The group had entered what looked like a beach, waves that belong to sparkling clear water lapping gently against the golden sand.

"Whoa," Bellamy gasped out as he leads them around a tall red bush. "Now that's a view."

Harley thinks he means the water but sees what he's talking about when she follows. The view of a clear planet with a ring circling it is in the sky that had turned blue above the water. It looks like Saturn if she remembered correctly, but she's never seen such a clear glimpse of it. It was like a picture. But it's still beautiful, and Harley presses the tips of her fingers to her lips at the sight. She didn't exactly miss space after so many years, but she's still a girl born from the stars. Space will always be her home.

"We camp here!" Bellamy decided.

Clarke's hand is a shadow over her eyes. "It looks like the suns are eclipsing," she said with a twinge of concern.

With a roll of her eyes, Harley shrugged off her bag and gave the strap of the gun to Echo. "Who cares?" She said carelessly and ripped off her jacket with the intention to take a chance by stripping and diving into one of the waves.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Murphy stopped her with a hand to her wrist. "You're not going to be the first to take a swim, especially with your leg."

The demand made Harley stare back incredulously. "Seriously? I never got the chance to swim on Earth - a water snake nearly drowned Octavia!"

Her eagerness to swim in the cool water only gives Murphy the shove he needs to take the risk himself. He chucked off his gear, weapons, and peeled off his jacket as he stormed through the sand with the rest following him in protests. "Murphy, wait. We haven't tested it," Jackson warned him.

A hand waved towards him dismissively. "Yeah," Murphy ignored, lifting his shirt over his head and throwing it aside.

"Your wounds haven't healed yet!" Jackson continued to insist. "Which is why neither you or Harley should be - "

"Yeah, yeah, yeah!" Murphy interrupted his rant in a bored voice before he wades into the water and takes a leap, projecting his arms in front of him in a swan-dive. Harley stopped stripping in sudden shock as he disappears into the water. She can't even see him through the surface. Each second as Harley waits to see him reappear matches her heartbeat. They don't know what's beneath that water but that doesn't stop her when the others realize something must be wrong. If there's another snake-like creature waiting there, taking her brother, then it'll take her too.

"Wait, Harley," Clarke attempted to stop her as the brave girl kicked off her boots and stomped to the water, her bare feet sinking into the wet sand as she approached the water. But she was the last person Harley was going to be taking orders from. As the water laps to her waist, she's about to dip in the same fashion Murphy had, until a cry of excitement breaks through the surface.

Harley almost falls back in surprise. Murphy had burst above the ripples, letting out a cheer and flicking his wet hair out of his eyes. "Come on in! The water's fine!" He encouraged. He threw the stunned girl watching him a grin. "Harley knows."

"You asshole!" Harley caught her footing to lunge and give her laughing brother and considered drowning him as they both topple into the water. "Wait! My sword - " But it's too late. It rushes over her, soaking her clothing and hair, causing it to stick to her skin. Murphy, who will gloat until the day he dies, gained the upper hand in their wrestling game under the water and had her shoved under in seconds. He backed up with another cheer of victory as Harley jumped up, letting out a series of spluttered coughs and more threats to drown him.

Emori had been watching the siblings grapple in amusement. "Oh, who knew cockroaches could swim?" She playfully jabbed.

"What, you want me to teach you?" Murphy treaded towards her. "Ask Harley, I'm a great teacher."

"You could have drowned me," Harley muttered as she ran her fingers through the wet hair brushing against her shoulders to move it out of her face.

"Oh, you're breathing!" Murphy joked back as Emori took a step away from him. "Now for you, you're coming with me." He grabbed Emori's arm, who, despite laughing, kept attempting to insist she was serious and order to be released. She shrieks when Murphy grabs ahold of her waist and throws her under.

Their relationship was different in the ring, Harley recalled, as she watched her twin and his girlfriend splash around happily with shared laughter. Something must have changed between them in the time she was marching with Wonkru to Eden. A mutual understanding looked like it rose between them and their love had started to resurface. Harley held a grudge towards Emori then, but she wonders if it was only because she knew how badly Murphy was hurt after she left him to the point he isolated himself.

As Emori clung to Murphy's chest, shouting he was in big trouble, Harley laughed so loud her lungs pinched in her chest with how real it was. She then surged over, throwing her arms around Murphy's back to spring herself on his back so the two girls were dragging him down. "If I drown, so do you!" Harley exclaimed through another loud fit of laughter.

She isn't aware, being too caught up in the playful scuffle with her and Emori teaming up to dunk Murphy, that the others were watching the three with faint smiles on their faces. No one had seemed serious happiness like this in so long and none of them have the heart to break them apart. But with none of them having experience in swimming, as Harley and Murphy were raised in space while Emori spent her life in the desert, they mutually decide at one point that they don't really want to drown each other and leave the water to set up camp.

It's difficult to move around in wet clothing with dampened skin but Harley does what she can to pitch in for setting up camp, mostly because Jackson takes off, dragging Miller behind him, to explore for any living creatures. She just about jumps out of her skin when the doctor comes back later, excited, with a jar and a bug with many legs, antennas, a tail like a scorpion, wings that flapped rapidly, and big eyes that make it look like an alien. "If that thing touches me, I'll roast it alive like a marshmallow," Harley had promised as Bellamy laughed under his breath from where he was setting a fire.

The threat was enough to make Jackson back off and sit a distance away from them with Miller. Harley still felt itchy as if the bug she had seen was crawling all over her and struggled to fight the urge to claw at her skin. She thinks Jackson and his boyfriend are talking about aliens, which only creeps her out more, so she turns back to the bonfire where Shaw had been trying to contact the mothership and Raven since night had fallen.

Bellamy was leaning against Echo, her hands gently raking through his hair and whispering small words between them Harley couldn't hear from her distance next to Murphy. She had her arm linked through his, head falling to rest on his shoulder, while his other arm was draped over Emori's shoulder to keep her closer. Harley was tired, warming in her jacket and thanks to the knitted hat Clarke rightfully returned to her pulled over her head. Shaw sat on one log alone across from them, having taken that option when he saw the only other available seat was next to Clarke. "One more time, Eligius IV, this is expedition one. Raven, do you read?" He urged into the speaker, losing his patience.

Clarke makes the mistake to supply him with comforting words. "Raven will get the radio fixed." Shaw doesn't even glance her way as he lowered the radio and she takes it personally as she heaved a sigh. "I'm sorry I turned you in, Shaw," Clarke apologized.

But it's too weak for Shaw to consider it sincere. Maybe he was madder that Raven was tortured alongside him as well. "You really want to do this now?" He mumbled angrily.

"Maybe you two should speak in private," Murphy suggested flatly.

"No," Clarke quickly denied. "I want you all to hear this."

Harley scoffed and picked her head up to see Clarke past Murphy's head who rolled his eyes and muttered. "Great."

"If I could, I'd go back and do things differently, but I can't," Clarke admitted. Some of them shifted uneasily. "None of us can. For some reason, Monty thought we deserved a second chance."

"Not for nothing, but this is like your fifth chance," Murphy reminded her.

Suddenly, Clarke's head whipped in his direction and she snapped back. "Yours too, Murphy."

The heart in Harley's chest begins to hammer as the anger in her simmers. Murphy is clearly offended by it as he weakly smirked. "Very good." He drew his arms away to push himself up. "I got watch."

"This is some poor apology," Harley spat towards Clarke. She sat up on the log once Murphy was gone. "John saved your life even after you egged on a crowd that nearly hung him or left him to die in Polis."

"Well, you're both right," Shaw suddenly cut in before Harley's rage can be released. He looked to Clarke and spoke to her directly whose face saddened with every word. "Your friend Monty gave you a second chance, but now what? Salvation comes from faith and good works. What you do, not what you say." Disgust washed over Shaw's features before he accused, "You haven't done anything yet."

A bit of satisfaction filled Harley when she sees Clarke's head lower in shame, but she can't fight off the hint of guilt that creeps its way into her gut no matter how bad she struggles with the emotion. She's angry with Clarke, furious that she left them all to die before selling them out in a war, and was a second too late when she switched sides. But Clarke had her reasoning. Harley didn't know what she'd do had she been in her place - except, maybe she did. Because she helped poison the warrior she loved because she thought it'd save her brother, her family.

"Hey, listen," Bellamy spoke as he sat up. "You hear that?"

Harley crossed her arms over her chest and leaned back again. "Hear what?" She muttered.

"Exactly."

The single word Bellamy uttered made Harley pay a little more attention and let her rage burn out. He's right. For hours, they heard birds tweeting, trees rustling, insects chirping. Now, the area they were in was completely silent. It was almost deadly. Harley's guard was on almost immediately. She reached for her sword and found comfort in the blade's weight. "What happened to all the bugs?" Clarke wondered in confusion.

"You guys gotta see this!" Jackson called out.

The rest start to huddle together with him, but when Harley sees the jar in the palm of his hands again, she cringes. "Jackson, I told you - "

"Hang on, hear me out," Jackson pleaded with her. Harley's jaw clenched and her lips pressed into a thin line, but she complied and fell as quiet as the region. "Five minutes ago, this thing ate a leaf out of my hand. Now, it wants to eat me." Harley watched in rising horror as the bug tried to fly around the glass in a blur, hissing furiously as it tried to find a way out. "Not only that, but its entire physiology has changed from - "

He's cut off when Murphy's hand flung to his neck and slapped it. He grimaced and shook the guts of a dead bug off his palm. The one inside the jar hissed louder and spun in rapid circles. "Oh, look at that. Your pet's pissed I killed its brother," Murphy said with a faint smile. He's hiding the worry but Harley can see through him.

Then Harley hears it. There's a low hum coming from the trees, but as it nears closer, she recognizes it more as a buzz growing louder the closer it got. "What the hell is that?" Emori asked.

One by one, their heads turned to the trees. Despite the black of the night, Harley can see small glimmers of thousands of bugs as they soar across the sky. There are so many, she thinks it looks like they fill the sky. "Swarm," she hears Clarke gasp in fear.

"It's coming from the direction of the ship," Echo realized in defeat as the pests fly practically covers Saturn. "We'll never make it back."

The wind seemed to pick up because Harley can feel it brush across her skin and start to blow the free wisps of her hair back. "Everyone, cover up!" Bellamy commanded over the buzzing as it became almost piercing with the volume. "We're heading to the beacon, now!"

They rush to grab various clothing and cover themselves. Harley pulls her hat more firmly over her head. She silently thanked Clover for once being here before she zips her jacket shut and pulled a handkerchief from her bag to cover the rest of her face, only allowing her eyes to peek out before she throws the straps over her shoulders. "What if there's nothing there?!" Emori exclaimed in a panic as she seized her own supplies.

"Then we're bug food!" Murphy shouted back.

The cloud of insects just starts to drape over them when Bellamy screams; "Everyone, move, move, now! Cover your faces!" Harley feels the first sting when she is dashing like mad across the sand. It burns as the point punctured the bridge of her nose and she cries out, her hand flying up to slap at it until it's squashed without stumbling. If she fell and lost her way, it was all over. She really would be bug food and feared to be devoured in seconds.

The trees are less beautiful and menacing this time with the bugs swirling like a tornado around them in every step they took deeper into the woods. Harley can't see anything. With the night and shadow of insects, she's blindly trying to follow the group's shouts of fear mixed with pain and it's proven to be useless, even when she seizes the first arm she feels without knowing who it is. It grabs Harley back as they dodge logs of trees but with the way they're bolting at such a fast pace, one of their boots gets caught under a root. She doesn't know who it is. She just knows they're both falling and her denim pants rip as her knees skid the ground.

Harley knows the bugs are just above her like a cloud and as pain shoots up her bandaged leg, she curls into a ball and screams the first name she thinks of. "John!"

Her whole body is trembling and shuddering at the thought of being surrounded by so many bugs. Harley faintly hears her brother holler her name back in a strain before she feels the pressure of another body draped over her like a shield. It's Emori, she realizes, when the girl urges Murphy to follow her voice. "Over here! John, be careful, run!"

The buzzing grows quieter the closer the group comes to them. Harley discovers why when Emori lifts herself off of her and reveals they had gathered flares, the fires flickering so the light keeps the bugs away from them. Harley doesn't have time to thank Emori for her first instinct to be to protect her boyfriend's sister because Bellamy has a hold of her arm in seconds and is yanking to her feet while Murphy grabs Emori.

"We stay together! Flares at three corners!" Echo ordered once everyone is on their feet. She holds her flare above her head and guides them, the other two holding their own forming a protective shield with the lit torches so the insects stay away as they run towards the beacon, sticking together, with Shaw leading them.

A beeping noise comes from the gadget that Shaw has a death grip on in his gloved hand. "Here!" He announced as they come to an open clearing between the trees. A circle of lights surrounds a tower. "It's here!"

And the lights grow brighter as he's the first to dive into the circle and shots of electricity like spinal legs courses through him.

Harley can hear Shaw's endless screams of pain that will never leave her mind as she comes to a pit stop, Murphy throwing his arm over her chest before she can fall into the pit disguised as a trap too. She watches in silent horror as his body curls like a shell, withering at the volts that surge through him. "It's killing him! Get him out!" Echo cries.

No one moves. No one knows what to do. Harley knows one step into the death trap and it's over for them. But Clarke straightened, her eyes wide in terror and wonder. "It's radiation," she suddenly realized. "It won't affect me." Then the nightblood is gone too, throwing herself into the hazard even when Bellamy shouts her name to try and drag her back to them. Harley fully expects her to be gone, having thrown her life away to save another, but the electricity doesn't even brush her. Clarke was right, and she wasn't even sure. She only took a chance and put her life on the line.

She drags Shaw away from the currents and to the other side of the tower until the shots of electricity stop following him. The flare Murphy is holding dies out and he hisses in anger. "Get back. I've got three more flares," he warns. Emori desperately helps him search his bag for another one. Harley wants to help, but her watering eyes are gazing across the battlefield as her stomach churns. She can't move. She's paralyzed as if the volts hit her too.

"Clarke!" Bellamy called out to her helplessly. "We're running out of time!"

Clarke is flailing back and forth like she doesn't know what to do and is racing through her thoughts to come up with something. Finally, she looks at Shaw who must whisper something as she takes off to the tower bravely. Harley can finally move and swing her arms as the bugs that followed them start to enclose them into a small space. The hum is like a torturous song that bothers her eardrums to the point that they hurt, but not any worse than the attempts to sting her through her clothing. Harley's skin itches and burns and she knows any second now they'll have a choice - to be eaten alive by bugs, or be burned alive by electrical radiation.

"It's down!" Clarke bellowed so she could be heard over the murderous insects. "Run, now!"

They don't leave each other behind as they run across the field, aware it's as if there are mines buried beneath the dirt, except in the case, the volts could follow them. But Harley doesn't double over from any currents. She only feels the stings as she runs across the soil breathlessly but they die down when Clarke flips the switch and all the bugs that follow them are zapped in the air. Harley yanks the cloth down her neck once she's in the safe zone and inhaled as much air as she could after feeling like she was being smothered.

She knows Shaw is a goner even before Clarke rolls his body over and reveals his wounds to the group that crowds over him. Harley has seen burns like this, in The Ark, in Mount Weather, during Praimfaya... The radiation blisters cover his dark skin until he's unrecognizable. He's suffering with every pained breath that falls from his trembling lips. Jackson works to pull some medicine out of his bag as Shaw gasps out to Clarke. "Earn this."

Earn what you deserve, Harley's own words echo in her head. Her eyes burn with tears and she covers her mouth with her wrist, biting on the sleeve to keep from crying out. Shaw didn't deserve this. He doesn't even care about himself as his head lolled to the side so he can stop Jackson before he can plunge the needle into his arm. "No, no. Don't waste it." He gives a few chokes of pain before pleading with all of them. "Tell Raven she deserves happiness. She doesn't think she does, but..." Shaw's body starts to jerk as he struggles to breathe and finish. "She does."

The gagging Shaw is making ceases slowly before stopping completely. So does the rapid rising of his chest. Everyone knows he's gone but no one knew what to say. It was as if Shaw was here for one second then he was gone, his last words begging them to tell Raven she deserved to be happy even without him.

And Harley cries for the first time since landing on Planet Alpha.

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author's note:

is anyone seeing little hints of the old harley? plus, she was so afraid she cried for her brother 🥺 ah.

anyway, i've been spamming my message board so best believe i'll be spamming my stories too, but i took a week of silence from updating for the blackout to give black creators a chance to be heard and so people's focuses were more on justice and change. if you have not already, PLEASE look at the links on my message boards where you can see how to safely protest, donate, or sign petitions. it takes two seconds. there's no excuse not to.

while i'm at it, happy pride month as well, don't forget our rights were given to us thanks to a trans black woman named marsha p johnson who was brave enough to start a riot when throwing the first brick ❤️

- koda