Octavia Blake (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
okteiviakom) wrote2020-06-01 10:27 pm
okteiviakom) wrote2020-06-01 10:27 pm
The Bunker, Monday FT
Octavia was exhausted.
She was sitting outside the bunker door with Indra. The closed bunker door, the locked bunker door. Skaikru had betrayed them all. Led by Clarke and Jaha, they'd locked themselves in the bunker while the conclave was still going on.
Bellamy was down there with them. She'd spoken to him over the walkies, told him she'd won, that she'd announced they'd share the bunker. He hadn't gone down there willingly: they'd grabbed him off the street and dragged him down. And now he and Abby were their best hope at getting the damn door open again. The black rain was keeping the clans in their safe zones around Polis for now, while Kane and Gaia and the Flamekeeper scouts were stalling everyone who'd been in the tower during the conclave.
It was right as the clans were coming in, right as Octavia was sure they'd have to face the music, that the door finally opened.
She hadn't hugged Bellamy as tightly since before they'd left Fandom.
(But when he said, "I love you so much," she still said nothing.)
-----
The next twenty four hours were a blur. All the other clans had already chosen their survivors, but Skaikru had been too busy trying to steal their salvation to have done it yet. Octavia told Jaha and the others they'd get a hundred beds, the same as everyone else, and that Bellamy was getting one of them. She washed her hands of the rest.
Bellamy and Clarke left to get Raven, who was still stuck out on ALIE's island where she'd been doing experiments when they'd still been looking for other options.
Everyone else from Skaikru had all been herded into the rotunda. (The one who'd come here in the first place, anyway. Some had refused to leave Arkadia, Jasper included. Maybe that was why he'd seemed so light, last time. He'd already made up his mind.) Octavia came into the room to check on their progress right as men were trying to haul Niylah out. She was thrashing between them to get out of their grip, then landed a flaily punch on one of them while others yelled at how they should let her own people take care of her. Niylah, who'd worked in the med bay in their camp, tending to their wounded.
Octavia intervened. Put her sword to the throat of the last man to put his hands on Niylah, and congratulated them all for having one less spot to hold a lottery for, because Niylah was with her.
"Octavia, please." Jaha. "You can stop this. You're Skaikru, you're one of us."
"I'm one of you?" She sheathed her sword and stalked closer to him. "You made me hide under the floor." She had never been their people. "You floated my mother." She had never been his people. "I'm not hiding now."
She ignored him calling after her as she moved past him and stepped up to where she could adress the crowd. (As if they hadn't already been listening, the packed room eerily silent as they'd talked.) She reminded them all the other clans had already chosen their people, and gave them until midnight.
"Choose," she said. "Or you all die."
-----
She was shaking when Indra caught up with her. Indra reminded her the tense situation in the bunker would only get worse if Skaikru didn't make up their minds. Reminded her how it would have to end. And when Octavia said she wasn't sure she could do this, Indra reminded her she was the champion, and that people looked to her now.
"I'm not a champion," Octavia insisted. "I hid. Ilian helped me, Roan helped me. I didn't do this on my own." She'd followed Indra as a Second, and now she was hoping she would -- She wasn't even sure what. Take her place?
But Indra just looked at her, and said, "No leader ever does."
-----
Skaikru took their time without announcing they'd come to a decision. And so Octavia steeled herself once more. She gave the order to pass the guns they'd found in Skaikru's secret armory to the grounder warriors, and she led them to the doors to the rotunda. Every step felt heavy, her long coat fit for a commander an odd weight around her.
At the door, sensing Octavia's hesitation, Indra offered to do this for her.
But Octavia told her, "My people, my responsibility."
And she didn't mean Skaikru.
What they found inside the room was a surprise to them all: everyone laying on the floor, motionless, slumped over on top of each other. Everyone, except two men in gas masks. Kane, and Jaha.
Skaikru had an existing list of a hundred people, one Clarke had made when they'd tried to make Arkadia into a shelter, knowing that was the maximum capacity it would hold, and that the people on the list would keep things like the hydrofarm working. That list was what they used now. Octavia watched as the grounder warriors - her warriors? - carried out the unconscious people who hadn't made the list.
Skaikru had chosen their hundred, same as the other old clans. It was time to close the door.
And Bellamy still wasn't here.
-----
He radioed her not much later. They weren't coming back. They were going up to space - him, Clarke, Raven, Murphy and his girlfriend. And Monty and Harper, who Octavia had assumed had fallen with Arkadia.
It all felt absurd. But at least Bellamy wasn't alone. "Five years," she said. "Can you really survive up there?"
Her brother's voice crackled in through the speaker. "Raven says we can. As soon as it's safe, we'll find a way back down." He paused. "We will meet again." Another pause. "Just like we did in Fandom."
The first time she'd been sure she'd lost him for good.
"I'll be waiting..." She couldn't help the rasp in her voice. Emotion, exhaustion. "Under the floor." She was trying very hard not to think about it, how this was just a bigger hole in the floor. Underneath a city, this time, instead of a room.
"You're not that little girl anymore." She was quiet for too long. "What is it, O?"
"I'm not sure I'm up for this, Bell," she admitted. Dropped her voice, held the radio closer to her mouth. "They look at me like I know what I'm doing, just because I won a fight."
"They look at you like that because you saved them," he argued. "But it won't last. Now you have to lead."
"How? I'm not a leader. It should be someone else, like --"
"O, stop," he said. All big brother in just two words. "None of us could've done what you did, and it wasn't just winning a fight. You gave people hope when there was none. You're -- you're Prometheus, stealing fire from the gods and giving it back to the human race."
"Prometheus got chained to a rock," Octavia drawled, "so that eagles could eat his liver."
She knew the face he was making before she heard in his voice. Fond, but thoroughly exasperated. "Thanks for ruining my metaphor, O."
She hesitated.
Then went with it. "I love you, big brother," she said, her voice just a little tight. "Guess it takes the end of the world for me to say it." The radio signal fuzzed out. "Bell?"
Nothing. She tried a few more times, calling his name, increasingly desperate in asking if he could hear her.
But the radio was dead. "May we meet again," she murmured to herself.
-----
Octavia was still staring at the radio screen in her office - she had an office now, because that was what winning a conclave got you at the end of the world - when Indra came in. "It's time," she said. "I know you're tired, but we have to focus on the chosen now. Twelve hundred people are awaiting your orders. When to eat, where to sleep. How to live. The unrest will turn to violence, I've seen it before. You need to lead them."
"That's what my brother said," Octavia muttered as she got up from behind the desk. "Indra... I'm not a commander.
Indra stepped closer to her, until they were face to face. "The time of the commanders is past," she said. "The time of the Flame is past. This is your time." And as Octavia's gaze bagn to slide towards the floor (she couldn't do this, she wasn't strong enough, she wasn't a leader), Indra held out her hand, palm up, and said, "Let me help you."
On her hand was a little metal circle with jagged edges, like a tiny gear. Octavia had seen Lexa wear it on her forehead. It belonged to the commanders.
And now Indra gave it to her.
And Indra led her into the rotunda. Everyone was waiting for her, their expectant gazes trained on her as soon as she stepped through the door. She didn't know what to say to them.
Except she did.
"This is it," she said, leaning her hands against the railing she was standing behind. "We are all that remains of the human race. I won't lie to you. The next five years won't be easy. There will be days when we wish we were out there right now, but I promise you, if we stand together, if we are one clan, if we are Wonkru, then... Kom folau, oso na gyon op.."
From the ashes, they would rise.
They heard a noise like thunder from above them. The deathwave had reached Polis.
This was it, the apocalypse.
[ooc: NFB, NFI, thus concludes The 100 S4, with this post taken from episodes 11-13. Next up, THE REAL FUN BEGINS.]
She was sitting outside the bunker door with Indra. The closed bunker door, the locked bunker door. Skaikru had betrayed them all. Led by Clarke and Jaha, they'd locked themselves in the bunker while the conclave was still going on.
Bellamy was down there with them. She'd spoken to him over the walkies, told him she'd won, that she'd announced they'd share the bunker. He hadn't gone down there willingly: they'd grabbed him off the street and dragged him down. And now he and Abby were their best hope at getting the damn door open again. The black rain was keeping the clans in their safe zones around Polis for now, while Kane and Gaia and the Flamekeeper scouts were stalling everyone who'd been in the tower during the conclave.
It was right as the clans were coming in, right as Octavia was sure they'd have to face the music, that the door finally opened.
She hadn't hugged Bellamy as tightly since before they'd left Fandom.
(But when he said, "I love you so much," she still said nothing.)
The next twenty four hours were a blur. All the other clans had already chosen their survivors, but Skaikru had been too busy trying to steal their salvation to have done it yet. Octavia told Jaha and the others they'd get a hundred beds, the same as everyone else, and that Bellamy was getting one of them. She washed her hands of the rest.
Bellamy and Clarke left to get Raven, who was still stuck out on ALIE's island where she'd been doing experiments when they'd still been looking for other options.
Everyone else from Skaikru had all been herded into the rotunda. (The one who'd come here in the first place, anyway. Some had refused to leave Arkadia, Jasper included. Maybe that was why he'd seemed so light, last time. He'd already made up his mind.) Octavia came into the room to check on their progress right as men were trying to haul Niylah out. She was thrashing between them to get out of their grip, then landed a flaily punch on one of them while others yelled at how they should let her own people take care of her. Niylah, who'd worked in the med bay in their camp, tending to their wounded.
Octavia intervened. Put her sword to the throat of the last man to put his hands on Niylah, and congratulated them all for having one less spot to hold a lottery for, because Niylah was with her.
"Octavia, please." Jaha. "You can stop this. You're Skaikru, you're one of us."
"I'm one of you?" She sheathed her sword and stalked closer to him. "You made me hide under the floor." She had never been their people. "You floated my mother." She had never been his people. "I'm not hiding now."
She ignored him calling after her as she moved past him and stepped up to where she could adress the crowd. (As if they hadn't already been listening, the packed room eerily silent as they'd talked.) She reminded them all the other clans had already chosen their people, and gave them until midnight.
"Choose," she said. "Or you all die."
She was shaking when Indra caught up with her. Indra reminded her the tense situation in the bunker would only get worse if Skaikru didn't make up their minds. Reminded her how it would have to end. And when Octavia said she wasn't sure she could do this, Indra reminded her she was the champion, and that people looked to her now.
"I'm not a champion," Octavia insisted. "I hid. Ilian helped me, Roan helped me. I didn't do this on my own." She'd followed Indra as a Second, and now she was hoping she would -- She wasn't even sure what. Take her place?
But Indra just looked at her, and said, "No leader ever does."
Skaikru took their time without announcing they'd come to a decision. And so Octavia steeled herself once more. She gave the order to pass the guns they'd found in Skaikru's secret armory to the grounder warriors, and she led them to the doors to the rotunda. Every step felt heavy, her long coat fit for a commander an odd weight around her.
At the door, sensing Octavia's hesitation, Indra offered to do this for her.
But Octavia told her, "My people, my responsibility."
And she didn't mean Skaikru.
What they found inside the room was a surprise to them all: everyone laying on the floor, motionless, slumped over on top of each other. Everyone, except two men in gas masks. Kane, and Jaha.
Skaikru had an existing list of a hundred people, one Clarke had made when they'd tried to make Arkadia into a shelter, knowing that was the maximum capacity it would hold, and that the people on the list would keep things like the hydrofarm working. That list was what they used now. Octavia watched as the grounder warriors - her warriors? - carried out the unconscious people who hadn't made the list.
Skaikru had chosen their hundred, same as the other old clans. It was time to close the door.
And Bellamy still wasn't here.
He radioed her not much later. They weren't coming back. They were going up to space - him, Clarke, Raven, Murphy and his girlfriend. And Monty and Harper, who Octavia had assumed had fallen with Arkadia.
It all felt absurd. But at least Bellamy wasn't alone. "Five years," she said. "Can you really survive up there?"
Her brother's voice crackled in through the speaker. "Raven says we can. As soon as it's safe, we'll find a way back down." He paused. "We will meet again." Another pause. "Just like we did in Fandom."
The first time she'd been sure she'd lost him for good.
"I'll be waiting..." She couldn't help the rasp in her voice. Emotion, exhaustion. "Under the floor." She was trying very hard not to think about it, how this was just a bigger hole in the floor. Underneath a city, this time, instead of a room.
"You're not that little girl anymore." She was quiet for too long. "What is it, O?"
"I'm not sure I'm up for this, Bell," she admitted. Dropped her voice, held the radio closer to her mouth. "They look at me like I know what I'm doing, just because I won a fight."
"They look at you like that because you saved them," he argued. "But it won't last. Now you have to lead."
"How? I'm not a leader. It should be someone else, like --"
"O, stop," he said. All big brother in just two words. "None of us could've done what you did, and it wasn't just winning a fight. You gave people hope when there was none. You're -- you're Prometheus, stealing fire from the gods and giving it back to the human race."
"Prometheus got chained to a rock," Octavia drawled, "so that eagles could eat his liver."
She knew the face he was making before she heard in his voice. Fond, but thoroughly exasperated. "Thanks for ruining my metaphor, O."
She hesitated.
Then went with it. "I love you, big brother," she said, her voice just a little tight. "Guess it takes the end of the world for me to say it." The radio signal fuzzed out. "Bell?"
Nothing. She tried a few more times, calling his name, increasingly desperate in asking if he could hear her.
But the radio was dead. "May we meet again," she murmured to herself.
Octavia was still staring at the radio screen in her office - she had an office now, because that was what winning a conclave got you at the end of the world - when Indra came in. "It's time," she said. "I know you're tired, but we have to focus on the chosen now. Twelve hundred people are awaiting your orders. When to eat, where to sleep. How to live. The unrest will turn to violence, I've seen it before. You need to lead them."
"That's what my brother said," Octavia muttered as she got up from behind the desk. "Indra... I'm not a commander.
Indra stepped closer to her, until they were face to face. "The time of the commanders is past," she said. "The time of the Flame is past. This is your time." And as Octavia's gaze bagn to slide towards the floor (she couldn't do this, she wasn't strong enough, she wasn't a leader), Indra held out her hand, palm up, and said, "Let me help you."
On her hand was a little metal circle with jagged edges, like a tiny gear. Octavia had seen Lexa wear it on her forehead. It belonged to the commanders.
And now Indra gave it to her.
And Indra led her into the rotunda. Everyone was waiting for her, their expectant gazes trained on her as soon as she stepped through the door. She didn't know what to say to them.
Except she did.
"This is it," she said, leaning her hands against the railing she was standing behind. "We are all that remains of the human race. I won't lie to you. The next five years won't be easy. There will be days when we wish we were out there right now, but I promise you, if we stand together, if we are one clan, if we are Wonkru, then... Kom folau, oso na gyon op.."
From the ashes, they would rise.
They heard a noise like thunder from above them. The deathwave had reached Polis.
This was it, the apocalypse.
[ooc: NFB, NFI, thus concludes The 100 S4, with this post taken from episodes 11-13. Next up, THE REAL FUN BEGINS.]