first one who touches the ground loses

At first light the next morning, they marched. Every last one of them.

It was going to be a six-day journey.

On the second day, Bellamy and Indra approached Octavia at the front of the army. They told her Echo had radioed in. The enemy knew they were coming, so all three entry points into the valley were likely to be heavily guarded. Echo was scouting for the best way in.

Octavia said nothing.

( Bellamy came to her again that evening, when they'd made camp for the night. )

[ooc: NFB, NFI. Taken from The 100 S5 episodes 11-13. Post 1 of 2 for today! Content warning for violence and NPC deaths.]

Only a fool wouldn't try to take advantage of something that fell right into their lap.

Not all the worms had perished when they'd burned down the tent in the wasteland.

( And Octavia had given Cooper the go-ahead. )

[ooc: NFB, NFI. Taken from The 100 S5 episodes 7-8 (yes we are so close to the end of this plot I can practically feel it in my bones omfg). Content warning for off-screen NPC death, and some gore.]

They'd been down in the bunker for six years. They'd made it past the dark year, and although it had left many wounds that had never properly healed, they had survived it. The ground was supposed to be survivable again, by now. They hadn't found a way out of the bunker yet, but Wonkru was alive.

And that was enough.

There had been no more Osleya for many years, by this time. They called her Blodreina now. Because that was who she was now. The red queen. Octavia had pushed all her personal wants (dreams, hopes) aside and focused on keeping Wonkru going, making them strong, making sure they'd be ready if -- when they made it back to the ground.

Her focus was laser-sharp, and unyielding.

(Because it was all she had.)

Niylah's locket was still around her neck, but her bracelet lay abandoned in one of the drawers of her desk. Nou finrona nowe, jos Blodreina. She had armor that had been made especially for her. Parts of it had been dyed red, to recall the blood of Wonkru's enemies.

( The bunker had no commander. It had her. )

[ooc: NFB, NFI. Taken from The 100 S5 episode 4. Content warning for violence and gore. Listen to the Wonkru anthem here.]

The days in the bunker threatened to all blur together. After the first week, Octavia had taken to keeping count of them on a little pad in her office. One short line, one day.

People had been calling her Osleya since day one.

'The champion'.

But Octavia wanted to do anything but lead them. She'd won the conclave and put them all here, wasn't that enough? Indra kept dressing her up in commander garb, the coat, the forehead emblem, but it felt wrong, it wasn't her. Her blood was red and it always would be. The clothes weren't fooling anyone, no matter how many times Indra led her to meetings with the delegates from the old clans. Especially when Gaia wouldn't throw her support behind her.

And all Octavia really wanted to do was spar with Miller, spend time with Niylah, try and make this her new normal. Try and accept this would be where they'd be for the next five years, the same as everyone else.

( Her phone had been badly damaged during the conclave. )

[ooc: NFB, NFI, taken from The 100 S5 episode 2.]

Octavia was trying.

They'd been at Ilian's farm for about a week, and she was trying. Trying to learn, trying to help. Trying not to think about how her natural urge to address the sheep as strikon kept making her think of her Fandom habit of always speaking Trig to animals. Trying to not be the person she'd been just a week ago.

Trying to fit in.

Even if it was just with one person, this time.

Ilian was good to her. Kind, patient. During the daytime, they worked on the land and cared for the animals, and he taught her about both, and she did her best to listen attentively, to do things as he said, as he did. To be the kind of person he needed to have around on his farm. And when they slept, he wrapped her up in his arms, her back pressed snugly against his chest. She tried to tell herself it was for his own benefit, that he needed the comfort because he'd just lost his family. But she knew that wasn't it.

Things on the farm were peaceful.

But Octavia wasn't. She was trying, but all she was getting was frustrated.

"Are you tilling the soil or stabbing it?" Ilian asked from where he was sowing seeds into the rows that were ready. It was getting to be late in the day, and they'd been working on this patch of land for what felt like most of it.

Octavia stuck the hoe back in the dirt - with a little more force than was necessary, yes. "You know this is dumb, right?" she asked, with enough of a complaint in her tone to elicit a quiet huff from him. "We'll all be dead before anything grows."

"The earth survived Praimfaya once," Ilian replied. "It will again." He sounded so sure of it. "We do this for those who come after us." Another huff. Was he trying not to laugh at her technique? Probably, since he was coming over now. "Let me show you."

( But right then, someone called out his name. They hadn't had any visitors in the time Octavia had been here. )

[ooc: NFB, NFI. Taken from The 100 S4 episode 9. Content warning for graphic violence.]

In the end, the key to coming up with a new plan was that they ran into Roan, the king of Azgeda, on their way to Arkadia. Or, really, it turned out he'd been tracking Clarke for a while in the hopes of securing the Flame for his people.

They dragged him back to Arkadia with them. Convinced him to help, because now that Polis had fallen to ALIE, they needed him to get into the city and capture the false commander, Ontari, from the middle of thousands of people whose minds were linked.

They left Jasper, Harper, Raven and Monty behind to do the kind of computer stuff Octavia wouldn't even pretend to understand. The rest of them went to Polis, and split up: Roan took Clarke in through the main gate, pretending he'd taken her as his prisoner, while the rest of them snuck in to one of the buildings overlooking the square in the middle of Polis, right by the tower where the commanders lived.

( The whole city was creepy. )

[ooc: NFB, NFI, etc. Taken from The 100 S3 episodes 15 and 16, plus a little bit at the end from S4 episode 1! Content warning for violence and cold-blooded murder of an NPC.]

Indra wasn't there in the cave anymore when they reached the hideout, and Octavia barely noticed. She certainly wasn't surprised - everything was falling apart. Why wouldn't Indra leave, too?

( But Bellamy was still there. )

[ooc: NFB, NFI, OOC all good. Taken with much summarizing from The 100 episodes 10-12. Content warning for violence.]

The journey to Polis wasn't a comfortable one. Not when you spent it bound and gagged and tossed over the back of a horse, like Octavia had. But she was learning to welcome the discomfort, almost crave it. She hurt all over, every step the horse took on uneven ground making the side of her head throb, and her ribs ache when the phone in the inside pocket of her jacket (yes, it was dead, but she couldn't, wouldn't let it go) pressed into them.

And all she could think was, Good.

( In the end, Semet didn't get what he wanted. He presented her to Lexa as a war criminal, brought there to bear witness to the crimes of her people. )

[ooc: NFB, NFI, etc. Taken from The 100 S3 episode 7.]