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chapter eighteen, You're my brother

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THE ROVER WAS MAKING ITS WAY TO ARKADIA. In the back, Raven was mesmerized by Becca's journal and never took her eyes off of it. "Becca's journal is amazing. At 26, she found a pathway to access a human mind. That same year, she had to lock up A.L.I.E. because her answer for what was wrong with the world was 'too many people'. She was 27 when it launched the bombs" Raven explains and Nova nods her head slowly, listening all at the same time.

"Did she write anything about the flame?" Nova asks and Clarke turns her head to face Raven in the back to hear what she has to say.

"A.L.I.E. 2.0. She saw it as a way to atone for her sins. She designed it to not just access a human mind, but to merge with one. It could never wipe us out because it would be one of us. She would put it in herself first. Altered her genes so her body wouldn't reject the implant" Raven answers and Nova lifts her eyebrows in shock.

"Bekka Pramheda, the first Commander" Fio states and Nova clears her throat not meeting Fio's eyes.

"Hm- The gene therapy made her blood black, didn't it?" Nova asks and Raven flips through the book and nods her head yes.

"Night blood. That's where it came from. Somehow it became hereditary. Luna has it. That's why we have to find her. If she can access A.L.I.E. 2" Clarke says and Fio furrows his eyebrows.

"Luna?" Fio mumbles questionably but no one catches it except Nova.

"Luna can tell us how to stop the ALIE 1" Clarke states and Fio clears his throat. "Okay, wait-Get back to the mind pathway. If A.L.I.E. uses it to upload our minds to the City of Light, then there's a chance my mom's still alive" Monty states and Raven sighs and sets the journal down.

"That depends on your definition of "alive"" Raven says widening her eyes.

"Eyes sharp. Weapons hot. We're almost home. Miller, come in" Bellamy says stopping the conversation and everyone listens in for Millers response but never get one.

"Harper, you there? Your ride is two minutes out" Bellamy asks as he waits for another response but never gets one.

"Okay, let's just start" Jasper says as they exit the rover and enter a now deserted Arkadia.

"We left two days ago. Why haven't they fixed the gate?" Clarke asks as she looks around at the silence around her. "I'm going to guess there's no one here to fix it" Nova says as she looks around at an empty Arkadia that has went downhill.

"It's like a ghost town" Raven responds.

Bellamy continues to try and get ahold of Miller or Harper but still don't get any response from either end. Octavia notices a blood spot on the ground and identifies it immediately as the spot where Lincoln died.

Nova looks to Bellamy whose face drops into a sad one as he looks to his upset sister.

"Lincoln" Bellamy whispers and Nova swallows a lump in her throat and looks back at Octavia but doesn't bother as she looks like she needs space.

"Let's get his book and get the hell out of here" Octavia says as she walks past everyone and makes her way inside Arkadia drop ship with Jasper following her. Everyone else walks into the hanger bay.

"Did your people just get up and- walk away?" Fio asks looking around as Nova sighs.

"Who knows" Nova says looking around.

"I'll go find some gear" Nova says as she starts to walk away. "Me too" Fio says following behind Nova and she groans in annoyance as she walks into a room with clothes and a bunch of guns and extra swords.

"Jackpot" Nova says as she looks around. She lifts up a sword and looks at the handle and turns to Fio. "Is this yours?" Nova asks and Fio turns around with a patched jacket in his hand.

"Yes, they took it when they locked me up" Fio says gently taking it from Nova. Fio looks around the room and slowly finds his weapons belt and 2 knives. Fio grabs his patched jacket he found he put it on and grabbed hand gloves that covered his knuckles and placed them on his hands.

"Look like the old you" Nova jokes as she pats his broad shoulders.

Nova then turns around and grabs extra knives and puts one in her boot, and one in her belt before proceeding to grab an extra duffel bag and puts all the guns and bullets she can fit inside then hands it to Fio.

"Nova, are you actually not going to talk to me?" Fio asked, slinging the bag over his shoulder.

"I'm talking to you now," Nova replied curtly, not meeting his eyes as she inspected the gun clips.

"Nova! I didn't know. I'm sorry," Fio called out, his tone apologetic. Nova threw the gun into the pile.

"That's right! You didn't know, so you had no right to call me out when you had no idea," Nova retorted, tightening her weapons belt and pushing her hair behind her ear.

"We should get back to the group," Nova suggested, eager to leave the conversation behind. As she walked toward the doorway, she noticed someone standing in front of her. Instinctively, she reached for her sword but was swiftly struck on the head with a hard object, knocking her out cold.

"Nova! Hey!" Fio shouted, dropping the duffel bag and lunging at the assailant. The attacker ducked and delivered a blow to Fio's head. Despite the hit, Fio managed to stay on his feet and threw a punch, but the dizziness set in, causing him to stagger.

The mysterious attacker loomed over him, delivering a powerful punch that sent Fio sprawling to the ground. Fio's vision blurred as he fought to stay conscious, but the last thing he saw was the attacker standing over him, raising their fist for another strike.

Desperation fueled Fio's next move. With a surge of adrenaline, he kicked out, knocking the assailant off balance. He scrambled to his feet, only to be met with a flurry of blows. Fio blocked as many as he could, his body aching with each impact.

With one final, desperate effort, he swung wildly, connecting with the attacker's jaw. The force of the punch sent the attacker reeling, but Fio's strength was waning. The attacker recovered quickly, delivering a brutal punch to Fio's temple, finally knocking him out.

As darkness closed in, Fio's last thought was of Nova, hoping she would recover, and they could finish this fight together.

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NOVA SLOWLY WAKES UP AND FEELS BLOOD trickle down her head. "Nova!" Fio shouted as he stomped his feet on the ground since he couldn't move his hands. Nova tried to move her arms, but she realized her arms were tied to the back of her while she was sitting down.

"Hey... Nova" Nova hears as she slowly opens her eyes and sees Octavia next to her with her hands tied above her. "Mm... What?" Nova mumbles as she looks around her vision slowly coming back. She sees Jasper, Octavia, Raven and Fio locked up in the air lock with her.

"What? What is going on?" Nova questioned as she tried to untie her hands.

"Emerson happened" Octavia states as she also tries to break free.

"Emerson? What..." Nova mumbles confused.

She sees a buff man who she guesses is Emerson wearing grounder attire standing outside the airlock then sees Clarke walking down the hallway with her hands up while Bellamy has his gun, but he hides a few feet away so Emerson can't see him.

"I held out my part of the deal. Your turn. Let my friends go" Clarke states as Emerson lets out a humorless chuckle.

"Tell Bellamy to show himself first" Emerson knows and Clarke clears her throat in defeat.

"I don't know what you're talking about" Clarke lies as Emerson opens the airlock and walks in grabbing Nova by her collar and standing her up to face Clarke. "Let her go!" Fio shouts as Emerson back hands him and puts his knife to Nova's neck.

Nova feels dizzy and her head limps to the side as she groans in pain from the excruciating pain in her head.

Clarke's eyes widen as does Octavia's. "Bellamy just come out!" Octavia shouts as Clarke looks behind her.

"Okay! Okay" Bellamy warns as he shows himself. Emerson nods his head pushes Nova back into her seat harshly. "Ah!" Nova groans in pain as she situates herself in the seat.

"Ok, now. Take out the clip and throw it down the hall. Put the gun on the ground and get inside" Emerson orders and Nova looks towards Clarke and Bellamy. "Please you wanted me. I'll get inside once you let them go" Clarke suggests and Emerson shakes his head.

"I want Bellamy" Emerson states as he walks over to Octavia slices her neck a little making Bellamy jump.

"Alright! Stop!" Bellamy shouts as he puts his guns down and walks towards the airlock and sits down near Octavia. Emerson leaves the airlock, shutting it behind him leaving the rest of the people to watch everything unfold and not be able to do anything about it.

Emerson forces Clarke to her knees and hands on her head and she obeys each command. "You can do anything you want with me. Just let them go!" Clarke shouts as Emerson continues to point his gun at her from a distance.

"You murdered 381 people. You took the lives of my children, my brother, my friends. Did you really think that I would be happy with just one life in return, hmm?" Emerson questions as he has a smirk on his face while he hits a button that turns off the oxygen in the airlock.

"Air lock 5. Oxygen Venting" A voice says over the loudspeaker and everyone's eyes in the airlock widen at the words echoing through the speakers. Clarke and Nova lock eyes immediately and tears flood Clarke's eyes.

"No! Please!" Clarke screams, pleading and staying on her knees as Emerson stands behind her with a gun to her head.

"I want you to feel what I felt like. Beg me to stop it! I told you to beg!" Emerson shouts as Clarke sobs and Emerson wraps a hand around her neck.

"I beg you" Clarke pleads and Emerson scoffs, not accepting her tone.

"Louder!" Emerson screams. "Please!" Clarke sobs as Nova slowly feels the oxygen leave the airlock. Nova looks to Fio and nods to him, letting him know she forgives him for all he's said to hurt her and Fio returns the nod back.

"Nova! Nova!" Clarke screams as Nova looks to Clarke as she slowly lays her head back.

Clarke breaks free from Emerson. She reaches for the button, but Emerson knocks her down. He begins strangling her. Once she has less energy and he lifts her up.

Nova watches everything unfold slowly becoming weaker every second she just hopes Clarke knows she loves her before she dies right in front of her.

"First you watch them die. Do you have any last words for your friends?" Emerson says as he gets ahold of Clarke again.

"Yeah. Ascende superius" Clarke says as she sticks the flame in Emerson's neck, and he falls over as he bleeds out. Clarke hits the button the open the airlock and watches all her friends open their eyes and breath. She turns back to Emerson who is now dead on the floor.

Nova then opens her eyes immediately and lets out a few coughs as she sees Fio untying the rope around her wrist. Nova stands up and sees Clarke and quickly hugs her while Clarke hugs back tightly. They pull away from the hug and Clarke inspects Nova's bloody head.

"Are you okay?" Clarke asks as Nova wipes away her tears and nods her head slowly taking in each breath. "Yeah... Amazing" Nova smiles slightly and wraps her arms around Clarke once more.

Outside, Bellamy is carrying Lincoln's body towards Octavia. He places it down and Octavia kneels before it, crying. She kisses his forehead. The bodies of both Lincoln and Sinclair are placed on pyre. Nova looks to both of bodies and clears her throat.

Fio and Octavia look to each other as they both light the pyre together for Fio's best-friend Lincoln, Octavia's lover Lincoln, and Ravens strength and guide, Sinclair.

"Yu gonplei ste odon. (Your fight is over.)" Fio says and everyone repeats after him as the bodies slowly burn. Nova walks over to Fio and places a hand on his shoulder.

"Do you actually forgive me? You weren't doing that because we were dying?" Fio asks and Nova smiles at him as she pulls him into a bear hug.

"You're my brother Fio.. I'll always forgive you" Nova says as Fio tightens the hug.