Winwolfa (A Roan x Female OC Fanfic)

Chapter 79

Bellamy and Octavia left that morning. Meanwhile, Gabriel frantically worked on the bomb in his decrepit cave. Roan eventually succumbed to his exhaustion, using Astrid's lap as a pillow. Which also barred her from sneaking off to the Anomaly, like she planned. Not like she could with Clarke across from her, who was drawing up plans against Russell as she stared at the tent ceiling.

The top three contenders on Sanctum's 'Most Wanted' were trapped in that tent like sitting ducks.

"Hey." Clarke called Astrid's attention quietly, afraid to disturb the rare peace around them. If they could call it that with the rest of Gabriel's troops outside the door. "Is it true... What happened at the Anomaly?"

She nodded, "Yeah... I-uh- It's all kind of a blur." Her chest felt tight as she looked to the slumbering man in her lap before continuing, "Did Bellamy ever explain what happened on the Ring, just before they sent me back to Earth? It was.. Kind of like that. Except this time, I was fully aware of everything I was doing. I could see it all, feel it all, but I had no control. Not even my own thoughts and memories could be controlled. Just a nightmare on repeat."

"God... I can't even imagine..." It had been several years since she had seen Clarke as an empathetic friend, not Wanheda. "Do you think-"

"I don't know." She didn't need to finish the question. Astrid already knew what she was going to ask, just like the rest of her group, "I don't know if it's relevant or not. I want to believe it is. But every time I believe I'm getting close..."

"You're just two steps back in a much grander scheme." Astrid chuckled in agreement, "Yeah, you never get used to that feeling."

"Yeah, six years of this shit, and sometimes I'm left just as distraught as the day this all started." Astrid brushed Roan's cropped locks back softly, keeping him in his dream state, "You know, your mom told him the truth before she told me. That day, in Becca's lab, that's when he knew. He had the chance to run from this all and he didn't. He stayed with me through the worst parts of my life."

Glassy gold eyes, lined with silver, met Clarke's worried stare, "How do you ever thank somebody for something like that?"

Clarke opened her mouth to speak, but the words fell short. In the eyes of some, they were heinous monsters. But to the people that loved them, they were so much more. Those people were the reason they accepted making those harsh decisions. She did not answer, because she had not found the answer either.

Even the mechanical tinker fell silent at Gabriel's fault.

"You can't." Gabriel's whisper screamed volumes in the tent, "All you can do is show them that their faith was never misplaced in the end."

"Yeah, well when you find the answers to that, maybe you can tell the rest of us sob-story saviors." Astrid scoffed, a little too abruptly, and forced Roan awake. Panicked at first, but after scanning the room and finding no apparent danger, his face was lined with annoyance. Her nose crinkled as she cringed; a silent and rather poor apology.

He grumbled something about stretching his legs, nearly tripping over his feet from being half asleep. Astrid, whose thighs were still a bit numb, decided to take a much shorter stroll towards Gabriel's table.

Bored out of her mind, she poked and prodded at some of his research. Her fingers traced an old notebook atop his desk, thumbing through the pages lazily. Most of it made zero sense without context. Sketches of plants. Analysis on the native species of this world. Dozens upon dozens of hypothetical ideas, some with dark ink strikes through them. But she continued to flip through the pages carelessly as she invaded Gabriel's personal work. Stopping only when she noticed the similar runic language that was etched in throughout her own book.