Cobwebs and Flies

Ch 14• Glorious Sun

Jaha had been going through the camp to persuade people to follow him on a dangerous journey to what he claimed was The City of Light. He managed to convince a few terrified survivors of the grounders and wanted any excuse to run away from them. He made this so-called place sound like heaven, a place for second chances, a place to start over. Murphy would be lying if he said he wasn't intrigued. After all, he was treated like a raunchy criminal, someone who didn't belong. But he couldn't bring himself to leave Bellamy behind.

"Everyone is welcomed in the City of Light, John." Jaha wasn't going to give up that easily.

"I think I'll take my chances, chancellor."

But then Murphy began to think, really think about his options. Bellamy was out there, fighting for a better life, and Murphy was condemned to these four walls of the ark as some lowlife janitor. That was supposedly the good life, but Murphy wanted to give Bellamy something better. He wanted Bellamy to feel high above the ground and roam like a king, the way he deserved to be treated. Not being able to give him that made Murphy feel hopeless and useless.

"Wait." Jaha turned around at his name and fixated on Murphy. "Tell me more about this so-called City of Lights."

"Well, John, it's a place for everyone. Faults don't exist in the City of Lights; everyone is equal. Your past doesn't matter, and it doesn't define who you are. Come with me, John, and you'll see for yourself."

Murphy thought about it, which was the only way he could give Bellamy the sort of life he deserved. He had to try for them. "Fine, I'm in."

Jaha smiled, "I would like to see my son first. Please, will you take me to him?"

Murphy nodded, and they headed out for the dropship where Wells was buried.

Meanwhile, Bellamy was marching alongside Echo towards Polis to meet the commander, Lexa. Clarke had already met her and spent some time in the Capitol city commonly known as Polis, for a while now trying to work out some peace treaty. But Lexa surprised her with a better idea to become the 13th clan and join her coalition.

When the rest of the ark landed yesterday, Kane and Abby had emerged as the new chancellors. But that wouldn't last, for Clarke was the only one respected by the grounders as she knew them better. Bellamy had been with Echo when the ark landed, witnessing an explosion of fire and rust. Everything was happening so fast it was hard to keep up.

But there were a few things that they knew for sure; the mountain men must fall, for they were the common enemy. They bled grounders, tortured skykru, and robbed them of their bone marrow so that they could live in radiation. Not only that, but the mountain men created reapers by destroying grounders and forcing them to become addicted to red poison. Lincoln only knew because he had been there. He had been turned into a reaper by them. Clarke was the only one who had ever brought back the soul of a reaper, and for that, the commander trusted her to work with Nyko to get their people back.

Today, Queen Nia of the Ice Nation presented Bellamy as her prisoner to the commander in hopes that she would be pardoned for her act of war. She was responsible for the first attack on skykru that triggered a war with Anya, the leader of trikru. Echo's arrow was the one that killed Finn, the peacemaker. But when they got there, to her surprise, Bellamy's imprisonment only aggravated the commander, and Lexa ordered he be released back to his people immediately. Echo was resistant, but she cut him loose and pushed him into Clarke's arms, who noticed the wound on his abdomen right away.

"What is this? What did they do to you?"

"It's fine, Clarke."

Lexa had furry in her eyes, enough that the queen herself knew to take a step back. Lexa had a plan, and now came time to execute it. She gripped a spear in between her palms and threw it across the arena, hitting Nia directly in her heart. "The queen is dead. Long live the king!"

Prince Roan of Azgeda was now king, a plan the two allies have been brewing for a while now. The crowd began to cheer for everyone dispised Nia, especially her own son, Roan.

Lexa looked around, "Skykru is the 13th clan; any crime against them is an act of war against the commander."

Clarke looked at Bellamy, then to her mom, who smiled, nodding in approvement. Kane and Abby had done miracles managing the ark survivors while Clarke and Bellamy kept the 100 alive. She did what she could, but the truth was that sometimes there aren't any good guys. She wanted to do better, but violence was the key to survival, and she learned that the hard way. She watched lives be stripped from her arms; having seen Finn smiling one second and dead the next had sent Clarke in a trance of hopelessness. But now that Lexa had made them a part of the coalition, that meant a new beginning for them.

"We just have to figure out a way to make the mountain men fall."

Lexa smiled back at Clarke, who was on the verge of another good idea, "I think I know a few ways."

Both girls went back to Lexa's room in Polis, where they began discussing how to get their friends back and Lexa's people free. "We have an entire army inside those walls; all we need is an inside man. Bellamy can do this; I know he can."

"I think it's best if we kill them all," Lexa exclaimed, with no remorse in her cold heart.

"What? Why? We can't just annihilate an entire group of people."

"Clarke, think about this. They've been torturing my people for a century; they are murdering your friends for bone marrow extractions. They don't deserve to live."

The point that Lexa was making wasn't so insane after all. The mountain would fall, and this was the only way to do it. So, the two leaders headed for the mountain with an army of armed and motivated savages that deserved justice. Every single one of them had been betrayed and wronged by the mountain. It was only a matter of time before such a war would occur.

They continued to march, taking a break after several hours since it was getting dark. Jasper was trapped inside, but with Monty's help, he communicated with Raven without letting Mount Weather know. She and Kyle Wick were working together on eliminating the source of the acid fog so that the grounders could safely approach. Jasper sneaked into the back room with Maya's help and disabled the fog successfully.

Luckily, when there was a breach in the dorm room, and Maya had fallen victim to an extreme radiation exposure, the doctor in charge wanted to test the bone marrow of the kids from the ark, so she had used Murphy's, which was so painfully extracted from him and inserted into Maya. Treatment showed that within 48 hours, Maya was now permanently immune to radiation like the rest of them.

When they finally reached the mountain, Octavia was in the tunnels with Lincoln and Bellamy where Jasper had told them to meet him. He opened the door and greeted them; the cages full of grounders made Octavia feel sick. Regardless, they were on a mission. While Octavia cleared the halls, Bellamy made his way to the command center, where he and Monty took control. Their goal was simple: wipe out the mountain men by any means necessary. So, he did what he knew would kill them by reversing the fans so that the radiation soaked air from outside the walls of Mount Weather seep inside the lungs of the people that thought their lives mattered more than the ones of the outsiders. Everyone was killed, except for Cage and Maya.

Clarke and Bellamy had chosen to slaughter the mountain for what they did, and no matter the cost, they didn't regret it. Luckily for Jasper, Maya was alive and well. But Cage didn't stand a chance, and as soon as Miller was free, he went directly for Cage, the group following him to avenge their torture. Harper was barely recovering, but Monty carried her and stayed by her side, their love blooming as brightly as it ever did.

"You did good here, Clarke." Lexa was trying to reassure her new ally. "You made this choice with your mind and not your heart."

"But at what cost? After everything we've done, do we even deserve to survive?"