whatever the hell we want || j. jordan

~ chapter 3.11 ~

"Any one of them could be chipped and we'd never know," Bellamy said while looking across at the room full of Luna's people.

"If they are, they'll make their move before we put the Flame in Luna," Clarke reminded him. "Stay sharp."

"You changed your mind?" Jasper asked.

"Quiet," Clarke muttered.

Luna and another woman approached us to let us know that the ceremony would begin soon. Luna raised her fist, facing her people. They all stood. "As we prepare to give our brothers and sister to the sea, we honor their lives." In Trigedasleng, she spoke what I assumed to be a prayer. Everyone else repeated it. We drank.

"If we are gonna do this, we have to hurry it," Clarke said when Luna turned back to us. "Alie will send reinforcements. And we have to find someplace private to perform the ascension."

"You believe that to defeat an enemy who will stop at nothing, you must stop at nothing." Luna said quietly. "How is that different than Blood must have blood?"

"Wait a second," I started. "You can't just..." I didn't finish my sentence before I collapsed to the ground.

We awoke back at the rock structure, as if we had never left. It looked to be early morning, but the sky was too cloudy to see the sun.

"Now what?" Bellamy asked. No one had an answer.

•

We went back to the rover, which had hardly charged while we were on the rig, and waited.

"We need to pack up. We'll be home soon," Bellamy said.

"Then what?" Clarke asked. "Run away?"

"We're not running away, Clarke. We need to regroup with the others and find another way to defeat—"

Clarke interrupted Bellamy's words. "There is no other way. We need to find a Nightblood. We need to unlock the Flame. It's the only way to stop Alie."

Jasper rolled his eyes. "What do you expect us to do, Clarke? Walk into random villages asking for their Nightbloods?"

To my surprise, Clarke nodded. "If that's what it takes."

"No, Clarke," Octavia jumped off the hood of the rover. "If Alie can find us on Luna's rig, she can find us anywhere. I won't help you destroy another innocent Grounder village."

"If we don't find a Nightblood, there won't be any Grounder villages," She looked back to Bellamy. "Or a home for us to go back to."

"That's all the more reason we go there and make sure our friends are okay."

Clarke just looked at us all before nodding slightly and walking away from the rover.

"She'll be fine," I said quietly. "Let her cool off and think for a bit. What we need to do is pack, just like Bellamy said. Let's get the stuff into the rover."

I grabbed the few belongings I'd brought and tossed them in the trunk. I kept one of the guns on my hip and joined Jasper on the hood.

"Doing okay?" I nudged his shoulder.

"I'm doing... better. I think."

"I know you miss her. I'm sorry for all I've said about you and her and everything. I don't have the right to take anything out on you." I took his hand and leaned on his shoulder.

"Nor do I, I was a real ass about it all. I'm glad you're here."

Bellamy returned with Clarke, but they were followed by a Grounder. I pulled out the gun and raised it. "Stop right there."

"Relax, he's with us." Bellamy grumbled. "We think."

Clarke ushered the man forward and into the back of the rover. I had to sit between him and Clarke, rather than in shotgun like Bellamy had promised me. Instead, Jasper got the front seat and I got the guy that smelled kind of like fish. And I had to bandage a bullet wound from Bellamy.

When we made it back to the Ark, Miller opened the door for us to pull into. I hopped out of the car as quickly as possible to get a reunion in before the real work started. Monty and Jasper seemed to have made up — at least a little bit.

"We were getting worried." Raven limped over to us, smiling. The smile dropped when it was only us. "Where's Luna?"

"Luna said no." Octavia said.

The Grounder, Roan, stepped out of the rover.

"Who the hell is this?" Harper asked.

"He's Ice Nation," Bryan growled.

"King of the Ice Nation, actually," Clarke corrected. "And he's our way into Polis."

"This way, Your Highness." Bellamy teased. "You two," He gestured to Miller and Bryan. "Follow me. I'll take him to lockup."

We watched them leave. Raven turned to Clarke. "You wanna use him to get to Ontari?"

"Yes."

"What happened to his arm?" Harper asked.

"Bellamy shot him," I muttered.

"Good luck getting him to cooperate." Monty said.

Clarke left us to go visit the King. A few excruciating minutes later, Clarke and Bellamy returned with good news. Roan had agreed to help us. Unfortunately this meant that there was little time to catch up and we had to begin packing immediately. Miller and Bryan were picking up knockout gas and gas masks while Monty and I focused on the food.

Raven handed Bellamy a pile of wires. "Because Ontari is chipped, you'll need to EMP her like you did me." He nodded and took the machine from her.

"I thought Jaha destroyed the wristbands." I said.

"So did Jaha. Then I came home," She grinned. "There's only enough usable parts to rebuild one, so use it wisely. Made a few improvements, too." She winked.

"None of which is gonna matter if you can't get us access to Alie's code." Clarke said.

"You worry about the Nightblood, I'll worry about Alie."

"How can you access code that doesn't exist anymore?" Jasper stood up.

"We've got a plan," Monty looked over at Raven. We went for more goodbye hugs and packed up the last couple supplies, then loaded ourselves into the rover.

"Jasper, are you not coming?" I asked him when he didn't move to get into the rover.

"I'm gonna stay back for this one."

I looked at Monty and exchanged a silent agreement to keep him out of trouble. And out of the alcohol.

•

i'm back from overnight camp, so i'll be posting regularly again