CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR:

"AND YOU ARE NO LONGER MY WARRIOR."

The reaper tunnels were dark, only the occasional torches giving light to the people inside as they hung from the wall, the torches no doubt being put there by the reapers that lived in the tunnels. It was echoing all around as the sound of water drops could be heard sometimes from the walls, creating a puddle on the dirty ground below their feet. The occasional sound of chains could be heard from the reapers that they used to catch their prey to either take to Mount Weather or keep for themselves.

None of the reapers seemed to notice the small group of grounders and sky people quietly and sneakily venturing through their tunnels since they were one of the groups to lead the prisoners from Mount Weather out and back outside. Y/n held a map in her gloved covered hand as she and Octavia, who looked over her friend's shoulder, stared down at the map that Lincoln had made for them.

At least two guards from the Ark were with them after some sky people had came to their campsite, helping them to free their people out of the mountain where their enemies laid inside. As they turned the corner, they stopped as they looked back down at the map that continued to lay in Y/n's hand.

"According to Lincoln's map, we're getting close." Y/n states as they look at the tunnels ahead of them. "It's a maze."

Octavia sighs, looking at the woman beside her. "Lincoln should be here to show us the way."

"He wasn't ready. Even he knew that." Indra denies. "He'll do well fighting with the commander."

"It meant a lot that you forgave him." Octavia tells her.

"He earned that." Indra replies as they begin to walk forward. "I've known Lincoln since he was a boy. He always questioned our ways, but if he ever chooses sides against the clan again, not even his bravery can save him."

Just then, a clatter behind them caught the groups attention as they spun around, one of the guards from the Ark raising his gun and pulling the trigger, Octavia, Y/n and Indra's shouts of protests seeming to go through one ear and out the other. Claiming the reapers weren't the enemy, all of them knowing who really was the enemy, Indra rushed forward as she shoved the guard to the side, causing him to lower his gun as he looked to her before looking back at the tunnel they had just came from.

Y/n steps forward, glancing around the group. "We don't kill them unless we--"

However, the Griffin girl is suddenly cut off by a loud and deep cry, followed by many more as reapers run out from the tunnels, revealing that they had been followed by them. One of the sky people, who Y/n remembered to be Eric Jackson, a fellow medical officer back on the Ark who worked with her mother, raised his hand up with a device, turning it on. A loud, high-pitched sound echoed throughout the tunnel they were in, making the reapers stop as they clutched their ears, bending down in pain.

Quickly, the group was moving around as they used the tranquilizers, stabbing them into the reapers necks, knocking them out cold before they were tying their hands and feet together as they now laid unconscious on the ground beneath them. As Y/n finished tying off a reaper's feet together, she took notice of how Indra stared down at one of the unconscious reapers with a saddened look.

"You know him?" Y/n questions and the silence gave her the answer. "He'll be okay now. My mom will help him."

Looking away from the reaper below her and gulping down her saddened look, wanting to look tough in front of her people and the sky people, Indra stands up while unsheathing her sword, walking past the group and through the tunnel with the others behind her, claiming they needed to find the door. As they continued walking and time passed every few seconds, turning into minutes, the lights on the walls suddenly went out, the only lights now being seen from their flashlights.

Shining their flashlights at each other, Y/n and Octavia share a look, knowing Raven had just shut the power off for the group at the door. They continued using their flashlights as they ventured through the tunnels, relief filling them that they didn't run into anymore reapers when they found themselves just feet away from the door they were looking for the entire time. Throughout the way, both Octavia and Y/n had been at the front as they looked at the map Lincoln gave them, using the ways that was on the dirty paper.

"We found it." Octavia breathes out.

Indra shakes her head, glancing between both of them. "You two found it. It appears we didn't need Lincoln after all."

Y/n gulps, glancing down at her feet. "Thank you."

"Yes, thank you." Octavia agrees with a nod.

"You've both done well, Octavia and Y/n... of the Tree People." Indra tells them, using the last little bit in grounder language.

"What does that mean?" Octavia asks.

Indra raises a brow. "What do you think it means?"

"I think we both wanna hear you say it." Y/n admits, looking up at the woman.

"You're both one of us now." Indra reveals, meeting Y/n's eyes. "Yes, especially you."

As she walked forward and towards the door, the two sky girls, now grounders, looked at one another, a slight smile etching on Octavia's lips. Y/n looked down at her feet, thinking how far she had came from being trapped in the Sky Box, to landing on earth and falling in love with the boy she saved from torture after they murdered innocent people from Tondc. It still surprised her how she got here with Indra and the other grounders, but she would become stronger and stronger in the future and become the warrior Indra let her become and promise to protect her people and friend and family for the rest of her life.

She couldn't save half of the one hundred and she couldn't save Finn Collins from death, but she was determined to never do anything like that again. As time went by, the group found themselves waiting, the Griffin girl and the Blake girl near the door as they stared through the window just when a distant horn caught their attention.

"We're retreating." Indra realizes.

Octavia shakes her head. "That can't be right."

"We have to go now." Indra calls out to the group.

Y/n rushes in front of her. "Indra, wait! They're still in there."

"And our commander's out there, under attack for all we know."

"I don't trust her, not after Tondc, and neither should you." Y/n admits with a gulp.

Octavia comes up beside her friend. "Neither do I."

"I gave you two a direct order." Indra reminds.

"Please. This was the plan." Octavia tells her. "If we're not here with the tone generators when they come out, reapers will kill--"

"Plans change." Indra interrupts.

"Octavia, Y/n, let's go." Caris calls to them.

"I'm not going anywhere without my brother." Octavia declares.

Y/n clenches her jaw when Indra looked at her. "I'm not going anywhere without my people."

The group behind them watch as the grounder woman glances between the two girls she had been teaching to become good warriors for the past week or so, her jaw clenching in anger as she reaches into her pocket, bringing out two knives and placing them against their necks, causing Octavia to tense.

Y/n let out a breathy exhale through her nostrils as she held her head up, remembering the time she had been tortured and Indra created the slight scar she had on her face now. After that happened and the grounder had started teaching them to become good warriors, Indra had claimed it would be a reminder of her mistakes and how far she had came from where she was now.

"You are no longer my second." Indra sneers, staring at Octavia before looking to the other girl. "And you are no longer my warrior."

As she glared at them both, she swiped both knives and created small cuts that had a bit of blood dripping from their skin from the blade. Octavia gasped at the feeling, clearly not expecting that while Y/n let in a sharp inhale as Indra pushed past them. The grounders of the group followed behind the woman, but the guards of the Ark stayed as Jackson stepped towards the girls, watching as Y/n narrowed her eyes on the door, determined to do something to get her people out of there while Octavia got over her shock.

"Y/n, Octavia, please. Come home with us." Jackson pleas.

Octavia shakes her head, feeling her hand go into Y/n's. "I have no home."

Knowing that they won't leave with them, the man shakes his head as he places his pack on the ground behind them with the stuff they'd need before turning around and walking off with the guards right behind him after they left the girls for a hesitant moment. Octavia felt her grip tighten on Y/n's hand as they stared at the door ahead of them, determination coursing through them.