Kane rose to his feet slowly and he ignored the protests of his aching body. His gun and radio were miraculously intact though he knew the gun was useless.
Kane began to wander the hallways of the Ark in search of Abby. He knew that Abby and him must have been watched by Diana and her cohorts and they must have waited for the opportune moment to separate the two of them knowing that Kane would probably be suitably distracted after witnessing his mother's death.
The second meeting hall was nearby and Kane steeled himself for anything which is why he was surprised to find it in far better condition than the previous station. There were wails of pain from various wounded, but they were already being helped by the many citizens of the Ark that were well versed in first aid and medicine.
Two down, eight to go.
It was almost as if the first meeting hall had been hit harder on purpose due to its' proximity to the control centre and this idea was further cemented in Kane's head as he proceeded through all the meeting halls.
There was next to no sound as Kane began to approach the priority centres such as Medical, the Keep, the Weapons Cache and the Hydroponic Farm. They were all clustered together in case of a riot as there were able to be shut off from the control centre which in itself was probably one of the most secure places on the Ark.
Gunfire.
Kane went through an automatic door and he nearly tripped over the body of a dead Guard. It was Scanlan. A trustworthy guard , but that was neither here nor there.
Scanlan's rifle was still on the floor and Kane picked it up. Luckily, the clip was full and Kane began to proceed towards the gunfire with his rifle at the ready. He rounded the corner and prepared to shoot, but he held his fire as he locked onto the form of Major Byrnes.
"Sir,"said Major Byrnes in greeting before speaking,"The rebels are not seeking to gain control of any of the priority areas thus far. We've got them in full retreat."
Kane's brow furrowed as questions popped into his mind and he voiced the first one,"How do we know who they are?"
"They all have a blue handkerchief tied around their shoulder,"said Byrnes as she and Kane began to get close enough to the gunfire that they could hear bullets ricochet off the metal surfaces of the Ark.
That settled Kane for a while and indeed once he reached one of the hotspots of contact, he snipped and shot down all those with the blue cloths on their sleeves.
Eventually, the halls surrounding the Hydroponic farm, Weapons Cache and The Keep were all clear. In fact, the last remaining areas were all low-priority such as–
"The Exodus ship,"breathed Kane asthe guards surrounding him looked to him in astonishment, "They weren't retreating. They were occupying us long enough to prep the Exodus ship! "
Kane began to run down the halls to the Exodus ship where he knew where Diana and Abby were bound to be. He only hoped he made it there fast enough.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
"Are you synched up yet, Michael?"said Diana as she and roughly 100 other people sat in the massive Exodus ship.
"Almost,"said Shumway with clear strain in his voice. If one were to look closely his eyes had turned black with bars of green flickering on and off intermittently.
Diana sighed heavily as she knew it wouldn't take long for the Guard to wise up and stop her. Originally, Diana had planned to vacate the Ark with over 400 of her people, but the unexpected actions of Jaha and then Clarke radioing in forced her to enact her Plan B.
It had been going good so far. She had organised for some supplies and weapons to be moved onto the Exodus during Jaha's speech. The plan also needed a massive distraction hence the many bombs littered across the meeting halls.
The first meeting hall had been hit the hardest if only because it had been where Diana had though Thelonious to make his speeches as he had done in similar situations in the past.
In the end, Jaha had through sheer luck ended up using the control centre and was probably nice and safe in there right now.
Diana had hoped that there would have been more casualties amongst the Guard using the bombs. They had been disguised in bags, trolleys and whatever else her men could have scrounged together once they had heard about the mass assembly.
She did not have as strong a foothold amongst the Guard as she would have liked and she'd hoped enough of her men would have survived against Kane's side to pose a threat against whoever awaited them on the ground.
The 100 were likely aware of her status as a rebel if Abby had indeed spoken to Raven. Diana wasn't sure how many of the delinquents had powers, but she was not going to pull any punched if push came to shove. Especially when it came to Clarke.
The girl probably had no idea just how much power she had at her fingertips and truthfully it was pathetic. Diana had felt pure anger course through her when she'd learnt Clarke had been given the Novus injection. It was her blood right and it had been taken from her.
Diana turned to Abby and said,"If it's any consolation for you when I kill Clarke it'll be quick."
Abby growled around the rag in her mouth and if her wrists hadn't been bound she would have probably tried to strangle Diana.
"I mean first, I'd need to cut her open and see how the Novus changed her body and if it's effects are duplicable or if some form of the serum can be extracted. I imagine it would take some weeks of cutting her open and bleeding her dry before we'd get it right. "
Abby lunged forward in a headbutt, but she began to panic as she felt a strong grip around her neck. Diana lifted her easily with one hand and above the other hand Abby was horrified to see a sharp shard of water form that rapidly froze into ice.
The makeshift knife dropped into Diana's hand and she pressed it into the crook of Abby's thigh,"Tell me doc. How long exactly would it take to bleed out from a stab to the femoral artery? Maybe thirty or forty seconds?"
Abby began to shiver from both the cold knife pressed to her leg and the cold gaze from Diana. Despite herself, Abby sagged in relief when Diana let her drop to the floor.
"You know Abby,"began Diana idly as if she hadn't tried to kill Abby multiple times already, "It didn't have to be like this. I really wanted you to be on my side. It would have made it a lot easier to control Clarke that way. Unfortunately, you sided with Marcus and Jaha of all people. I must say I didn't think you had forgiven Thelonious for killing Jake and essentially forcing you to inject your daughter with some barbaric invention all before shunting her down to Earth."
Abby fought to look away from Diana's mocking gaze and tried to ignore the teasing lilt in her voice to no avail.
"I've never had a child of my own, but even I would have never done that. I know you had read some of the notes on them. You knew there was a good chance of Clarke's body shutting down and rejecting the serum and yet you gave it to her anyways. I'm sure Jake would have loved to hear that."
Diana removed the gag stuck in Abby's mouth gently and undid the bindings on Abby's wrists and said,"You know it's not too late. We could both go down and you'd get to see your daughter again and I'd keep her safe so long as she follows my every order. If she does that then I doubt I'd even need to cut her open. It's the pragmatic approach after all. Why should I dirty my hands when I could get someone else to do my dirty work for me?"
Abby paused for a few seconds before saying softly, "Clarke is strong. If there's anyone in this universe who could have survived that serum it's her and there's no one else I'd trust more to have it. I don't know if Jake and Clarke hate me for all that I've done, but as long as Clarke lives then I can bear that burden."
Abby turned to Diana and this time Diana flinched from the sheer determination in Abby's eyes,"What I can't do however is to align with someone as cruel and evil as you no matter what you may offer me. So can we get this over with."
To Diana's surprise, Abby lifted her head exposing her neck and said,"The carotid works just as well the femoral artery by the way in case you were wondering. "
Diana paused and scanned the eyes of the various people in the dropship. Shumway still appeared to be busy trying to sync with the Ark and the rest of her people were watching the interaction closely.
Diana ruled her people with the right amounts of charisma and fear. She knew that any signs of weakness would plant a seed of doubt in their minds and that would come to bite her in the ass be it now or months from now.
That was unacceptable.
Diana wasn't actually afraid of them. She still hadn't given anyone else other than Shumway and Abby a Duos injection. She still had them in Darah's suitcase and she was only going to inject them once on Earth. Regardless, she needed to show them how ruthless she was to prevent them from even thinking of rebelling.
Diana tightened her grip on the ice knife she had made and stepped up to Abby,"If this is how you want to go out then so be it."
She raised the knife to Abby's neck directly over the carotid, but to her consternation she was interrupted by Shumway,"Ma'am, we have incoming. Marcus and a few squadrons of the Guard. They'll be here within a minute. The preparations aren't ready yet. I need five more minutes to safely decouple from the Ark."
Diana sighed before she said,"You'll get your five minutes. "
She looked to one of the Guards loyal to her and said,"Trent, let's go you'll trail with Abby. Gag and bind her. "
The man in question nodded before Diana spoke again,"Listen here. In five minutes we'll be going down to Earth. It's been a long road, but we're nearly done. We have enough supplies to last us months and enough weapons that no one would even think of attacking us. We have some of the best engineers, doctors and farmers with us as well and like I promised you before we will finally live a life worth living."
The 30 people in the room cheered and Diana smiled as while she walked everyone –even the 4 council members including ex-councillor Fuji– in the room bowed towards her while raising their right arm aloft. The golden bandannas tied around their wrists fluttered slowly.
"Chancellor Sydney, "said Trent,"On behalf of everyone I pledge our loyalty to you. We are yours to command from now and forever."
Diana's smiled stretched across her face and she said,"Thank you, Trent. I think it's time I do something however. You've all done enough."