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chapter twenty-six, Theo Carter

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Nova sits at one of the table and keeps her head down while Clarke left for a minute. Jordan stayed looking out the window until Clarke finally returned. "Clarke, I have to get out of here" Jordan begs and Nova groans in annoyance. "Not gonna happen, Jordan" Clarke states and Jordan sighs. "You were literally locked in ship for 26 years. You can last a day in here" Nova says as she sits up straight.

"Ah! Uh! Ugh!" Murphy screams as she jumps up from his long rest scaring everyone around him. "Hey, hey, You're okay" Emori reassures. ur considering the events from earlier John quickly leaps off the table onto the ground. "John, John, the toxin's gone. It's gone. Everyone's okay. Clarke, tell him" Emori begs as she stays a few feet away from Murphy while he gets his thoughts together.

"Nova tried to kill you! I seen it!" Murphy shouts looking to Clarke and Nova jumps up from her seat in confusion. "Murphy, We all made it, thanks to you" Clarke reassures as Murphy holds his wounds in pain and shakes his head at Clarke's statement. "No, I didn't. I died, didn't I?" Murphy asks looking to Clarke for answers and Abby steps up.

"Your heart did stop, but the people here revived you" Abby reassures and Murphy breathes heavily looking down at the ground in slight disappointment. "Murphy, why do you look like you've seen a ghost?" Nova asks as she walks towards Murphy. "I saw something else. I- I I'm pretty sure I'm going to hell" Murphy answers and it's clear Emori feels bad so she embraces John while the others give them space.

"I gotta get out of here" Nova breathes out as she walks out the back door. "Nova you can't- leave" Clarke says right after was Nova right out the door. She was seen by a few people but they didn't seem to care so she walked around a bit while they held some kind of ceremony outside. Nova walked down a slight hill and seen some guy doing archery over by a tree. Nova hid her eyes from the sun and tried to get a better look at him but she barley could. The only thing she got out of looking at him was he was bad at archery. Nova walked down there and slowly approached him while he continued to shoot at his target and miss repeatedly. "Shit!" The guy yells before running over and grabbing his arrows off the ground. He turns around and sees Nova standing there watching. He looks her up and down and notices they have different types of clothing.

"Are you supposed to be outside?" The boy asks and Nova looks around before shaking her head no. "No, but I got bored inside that bar area and came out here. Your not gonna tell are you?" Nova asks and the boy chuckles and shakes his head. "No, I don't care" The boy jokes and Nova clears her throat at the awkward silence. "Um- you know your really bad at archery" Nova states and the boy's jaw drops and he lets out a really laugh.

"Come on, I'm decent" He says and Nova scoffs. "Let me see" Nova says putting her hand out for the bow in which he hands to her. She pulls back the arrow and squints one eye while looking at the target. She lets go of the string and the arrow goes flying, hitting the bullseyes. "You can't be scared of it. You just have to breath and focus on the bow instead of the target. It helps you hit the target more often" Nova gives advice as she hands the boy his arrow back. "I like using a sword but archery's cool too" Nova says as she shrugs her shoulder and moves her hair out of her face. The boy then puts his hand out and looks to Nova, "Theo. Theo Carter" He introduces and Nova looks down at his hand and awkwardly shakes it before releasing her hand from his. "I'm Nova" Nova introduces and she doesn't know why she gave him her name that quick but it was something about that made him trustworthy and able to talk to.

"I should get back. My people are probably looking for me" Nova says as she begins to back away. "See you around" Theo says before he gets in position to shoot the arrow. Nova sighs and notices he's holding it wrong and walks back over to him and switches his stance. He looks down at Nova and smiles and Nova locks eyes with him before tilting her head. "You did that on purpose so I would stay" Nova realizes and Theo lets out a few chuckles before shrugging his shoulders.

"You seem cool. I like the outfit and I could really use a trainer" Theo says as and Nova scoffs. "I'm not a training, I just got down here and thanks I happen to like my outfit too" Nova sasses as she looks to Theo who furrows his eyebrows at her. "You don't trust people easily I'm guessing" Theo says, "You guessed right. I really should go now" Nova says as she pats Theo's back and begins walking away from him.

"You'll learn to like me Nova!" Theo shouts and Nova turns around and looks to Theo from afar. "Not likely!" Nova shouts back and sees Theo shake his head and turn his back towards her before she walks back inside and sees Clarke walk down the stairs in a beautiful reddish pink dress. Nova stops and stares and can't stop staring. "Nova, she's just going out to dinner. Not cheating on you" Murphy taunts and Nova rolls her eyes and looks to Murphy who downs his shot in one go.

"What? It's just a dress" Clarke sighs and Delilah smiles at how ravishing she looks. "Your escort's outside" Delilah says before she pours Murphy another shot. Nova looks to Clarke and notices she looks quite nervous to go and have dinner. Nova walks over to Clarke and looks her up and down respectfully. "You look... amazing" Nova breathes out as she locks eyes with Clarke. Clarke looks away nervously before looking to Nova. "Hey, What's wrong?" Nova asks looking to Clarke with a concerned expression on her face.

"If I don't convince them to let us stay, we die on a moon we know nothing about" Clarke rants and Nova places both hands on Clarke's shoulders. "You can convince them. You will. I mean, in that dress you've already convinced me of.. a lot of things" Nova says looking Clarke up and down again before Clarke places a hand under her chin and lifts her head to where her eyes meet her. "Eyes up here. This is serious" Clarke says and Nova looks to Clarke, "I know and your gonna convince them. Just be yourself and don't tell them more than you have to- Oh! and don't lie" Nova says as she sends Clarke a reassuring smile.

"Hm, unless they ask about the end of the world. In that case, maybe don't tell them you fired the first shot" Murphy interrupts and Nova sighs rolling her eyes at his comment as she removes her hands from Clarke's shoulders. Clarke turns to Murphy with a fake tight lipped smile on her face, "Don't worry, Murphy. Hell's big enough for both of us" Clarke says and Nova chuckles at Clarke's words before Clarke pulls Nova in for a hug and places a kiss on her cheek on her way out.

As the night goes on Clarke was still not back yet and Nova sat a table alone fidgeting with the items in the middle of it until Abby walked up and decided to take a seat across from her. Nova locked eyes with Abby and let out a sigh before looking away.

"How are you?" Abby asks and Nova scoffs which sounds more like a fake laugh. "How am I? I'm great. Just fine being locked in this place with you... a traitor, a druggie and a cannibal" Nova argues as she slumps back in her seat. "We all did things in that bunker. I'm not going to argue about those things in here. Right now. And how would Clarke feel if she knew you talked to me like this?" Abby asks and Nova leans forward looking to Abby aggressively.

"How would Clarke feel knowing her mother is a drug addict? How would Clarke feel knowing her mother forced me to kill people for food? How would Clarke feel knowing her mother is and was a coward who was too scared to do the hard decisions but made everyone else do them!" Nova shouts as she slams her hand on the table in front of her and Abby. "I'm gonna go out on a whim and say she wouldn't be happy. At all!" Nova shouts as she walks away from the table and over to the bar and asks the bartender for a shot before Clarke burst down the stairs back in her regular clothes.

Nova sets down her shot glass and walks over to Clarke who looks angry. "Everything okay?" Nova asks and Clarke sighs, "Jordan told them everything. Where is he?" Clarke asks and Nova points up at the roof. "He's been on the roof this whole time with Delilah I think" Nova answers as Clarke turns around and begins walking up the steps so Nova follows behind her along with two of the Sanctum guards.

"Jordan..." Clarke calls out as her and Nova reach the stop of the roof. "Woah. Jordan" Nova calls out as she sees Jordan unconscious on the seating area on the roof. Nova and Clarke begin to shake him awake and he looks just as confused as they are. "Jordan, hey. What happened?" Clarke asks but before she can get an answer one of the guards pulls Jordan up by his collar. "Who did this? Where's Delilah!" The man shouts and Nova tries to pull the man away from Jordan. "Leave the damn kid alone!" Nova shouts. "No. Wait. There. Delilah" Jordan says and Clarke, the two guards and Nova look in his direction and see something or someone being wheeled out on a wheel barrow.

"You. Get back here" One of the guards yell and lets go of Jordan so Clarke embraces him so he's safe. "children of Gabriel are in the compound. They'll use the night harvest to try to get her out. Follow me, please" The guard asks as Clarke looks to Nova and Nova quickly grabs ahold of Jordan. "I got him, go!" Nova shouts as she gently lays Jordan down on the bed and checks his pulse while Clarke runs away with the guard. "Jordan! You okay?" Nova asks and Jordan manages to nod his head and Nova let's out a sigh of relief.

After awhile Jordan was fine and was able to stand and walk on his own. So, when Clarke got back the group gathered together and began talking. Clarke stares at a picture of the founders of Elligus 3 before turning back to her people, "We know their founders on Eligius III were all nightbloods" Clarke states while holding the bandage covering her wound. "And we know, hereditarily, It's incredibly rare" Abby adds and Murphy sighs setting his shot glass down. "Princess Clarke. Perfect" Murphy taunts and Nova flicks the back of his head making him swing his head back and Nova act like she did nothing.

"Not perfect if it makes her a target" Miller adds before turning around to look at Clarke who sighs. "It does. Which is why we can't tell them about Madi...unless you already did" Clarke says as she looks to Jordan immediately and walking towards him. "Think. You told her everything else" Clarke orders to Jordan and Jordan shakes his head quickly. "I didn't tell her that. I was just being friendly. I'm--I'm the reason they're throwing us out" Jordan realizes as his eyes begin tear up and Nova puts her head down starting to feel bad for Jordan.

The door opens making everyone turn their heads to see Bellamy, Echo, Raven and Madi rush through the door and obviously Madi rushes straight to Clarke and Clarke lets out a breath of fresh air as she watches her child run towards her. "Clarke!" Madi shouts as she meets up with Clarke and they both wrap there arms around each other. "Oh, I'm so glad to see you. You okay?" Clarke asks as she checks Madi face. Nova walks up next to Clarke and looks down at Madi who walks over and hugs Nova. Nova who is shocked doesn't hug back immediately but slowly and surely she does and it feels like some sort of wake up call.

Nova looks up and sees more people walk in like Gaia and Diyoza. Nova and Gaia lock eyes and slowly walk towards each other not knowing what to do. Gaia randomly hugs Nova and Nova is caught off guard but she likes the feeling knowing Gaia isn't upset with her or is holding a grudge. "Oh.. Gaia" Nova breathes out as she tightens the hug between her and Gaia but is quickly interrupted by Russel and his wife Simone walking into the building like such royalty. "It's been a long day, so I'll keep this short. Sanctum was created to be a sanctuary for the human race. After seeing you save Delilah, we've decided that you deserve that, too" Russel explains and Clarke looks around at her people before looking back to Russel with excitement.

"You changed your mind? We can stay?" Clarke asks frantically and Russel nods his head, "For now, but no more of you. You will follow our rules and respect our traditions, and we will teach you how to survive here" Simone interrupts and Nova smiles looking over to Clarke. "What my wife is trying to say is, welcome to Sanctum" Russel says and everyone hugs again at the excitement of having a new home and slowly calms down before Simone notices Diyoza's belly bump.

"You're with child. How far along?" Simone asks, "6 months, give or take" Diyoza answers. "If you'd like, we can have one of our prenatal physicians examine you in the morning" Simone offers and Diyoza smiles and nods. "You should have seen Diyoza and Octavia fighting terrorists" Madi rants and Nova looks around. "Yeah, where is Octavia by the way?" Nova asks looking to Bellamy who doesn't answer.

"Charmaine Diyoza?" Russel asks which grabs everyone's attention. Diyoza clears her throat but nods at his question and Russel doesn't look pleased with the answer. "Escort this woman past the shield right now" Russel orders and his guards quickly grabs Diyoza up by her arms. "Hey, what the hell" Nova rants taking a step forward trying to defend Diyoza, surprisingly. "Seems my reputation precedes me" Diyoza says as she looks to Russel who scoffs, "You could say that. Your face is in our history books next to Hitler and Bin Laden" Russel answers and Nova widens her eyes.

"Hitler?" Nova questions and Diyoza shrugs. "Please, what about the baby?" Abby begs and Russel sighs rolling his eyes slightly. "Fine, If any of you would care to join her, be my guest" Russel taunts and nobody moves but Madi which Clarke quickly stops her. "It's okay, kid. Stay frosty" Diyoza says looking to Madi before the guards escort her out. "One way or another, the devil gets his due" Murphy says and Nova turns around and looks at Murphy downing his millionth shot.

"Oh shut it Murphy!" Nova says before rolling her eyes.