Raven was covered in sweat and panting underneath me. Although I had a number of relationship issues throughout a lot of my old life, I still had enough experience with a woman's body that I left her breathless. I was satisfied with her reaction, but she gathered herself rather quickly and climbed out of bed then started getting dressed.
"I better not have to track you down in a few days after this," I warned.
"What? You expected this would be more than a one-time thing?" Raven said without looking at me.
I climbed out of bed and stood in front of her, naked, then grabbed her by the jaw and turned her head to look at me. "You wanna fuck someone else, or go brood on your own, that fine... but I'm your friend, and whatever else you want to be... but that doesn't mean that I'm not going to sit aside while you beat yourself up over something that wasn't your fault."
Raven was not sure how she felt if her face was anything to go off of, but I understood how challenging a first love could be. I was not looking to be in a serious relationship with her since I knew that Lincoln would return at some point, but I also could not deny that I had a soft spot for this brash mechanic that would insult me before she complimented me. There was just something about a strong, stubborn woman that always applied to my tastes.
In the end, she could not stand my gaze and left my tent. I sighed then got dressed myself and laid back in bed. Although I was not in the mood to sleep, I practiced my Stone Cover since it was getting easy at this point. I had thought my night was over, but Raven reappeared in my tent less than an hour later.
"Hey... I need a favor. Clarke, Finn, and the other kid they left with haven't come back. Can you come and help us look for them?" Raven asked.
"Yeah, of course," I said, climbing out of bed without any hesitation.
"Thanks," she said with a nod then ducked out of my tent.
I drank some water before I followed her out and then we headed over to Bellamy. He gave Raven and me a questioning look, but since Monty was the only other person that walked up, he had no choice but to hand me a rifle. We had a general direction of which way they had gone, but we all split up with Bellamy going more north while Monty went more south, and Raven and I went down the center. The radios helped, but it was still pitch black around us.
"Where are they?" Raven complained.
"We'll find them," I assured her.
"I thought you said you were heading west," Monty said over the radio. "Where are you?"
"Just keep the moon on your left, and you'll find us," Bellamy replied.
"This morning, all I could think about was how much easier this would all be if Finn was just... gone," Raven said as we walked through the dark forest.
"You didn't wish this in to being, Raven," I said. "Stop torturing yourself."
"Is anyone else hearing this signal?" Monty asked.
"Just keep your eyes open," Raven replied through the walkie-talkie.
"I think it's the same thing we heard in the black box," Monty said.
"Damn it, Monty, pay attention," Bellamy snapped. "Do you see anything? Report."
There was a strange screech that came from the radio, so it made me worry, especially with the static that followed. Unfortunately, there was something that stirred in the bushes in front of us, so I raised my gun while Raven held the radio to her mouth.
"There's someone in the bushes," she said quietly.
She raised her gun after giving the warning and we both crept forward while watching the shrubs that had moved. I could feel my heart beating like a drum, but I ignored it as I gritted my teeth and tightened my grip on my rifle. Instead of finding Clarke, Finn, or a Grounder behind the bushes, it was a young man with a couple of arrows still sticking out of him.
"Myles? Myles, what happened?" I asked since he was one of the few that had made a point of getting to know me.
"Where are they? Clarke and Finn, where are they?" Raven asked.
"Grounders took them," Myles groaned.
"Take it easy," Bellamy said as he appeared from the brush. "We have to him back to camp."
"What about Clarke and Finn?" I asked.
He did not answer, which I knew was his answer. They had not made it back, so they would be cut loose, but I could not accept that so easily... and neither could Raven. She gave an angry huff and stood up before turning away.
"Raven, I'm sorry," Bellamy said.
Raven looked like she was ready to punch Bellamy in the face, but instead, she said a moment later, "We need to make a stretcher."
"Monty, we're heading home. You copy?" Bellamy asked through the radio, but there was no reply. "Monty, can you hear me? Monty! Monty, where the hell are you? Report!"
"God damnit," I growled as I stood up.
"Where do you think you are going?" Bellamy demanded as he grabbed my shoulder.
"To find Monty," I snapped while shoving his hand off me.
"Like hell you are! I'm not losing you too!"
"You already have, just like you lost your sense of decency," I snapped before storming off in the direction that Monty had gone.
I spread out my Earth Domain which could now extend in all directions about six feet thanks to all of my practice with my Earth spells, but it could have been more if I focused on that spell alone instead. It helped me navigate the darkness, but I did not find Monty. Instead, I found his radio that had been dropped on the ground and then even I had to accept that it was too late for him. I could only grip the radio tightly as I looked around, but in the end, I had to go back to camp.
Bellamy and Raven were already back when I returned, but I could shake my head when Raven looked at me questioningly. Despite the later hour, everyone was working, digging foxholes, setting out spikes, and laying landmines under Raven's watchful eye. Although I was tired, I just put Monty's radio in the dropship and got some water before I also started working. Bellamy was clearly overstressed as he kept snapping and barking orders, but no one complained since we all knew that the Grounders were coming.
"Come on. These foxholes aren't gonna build themselves. Better hope those landmines work. With all the gunpower we're wasting, we could be making more grenades," Bellamy barked.
"You want to come over here and test one?" Raven shot back which made me chuckle at his expense.
"Cute," Bellamy replied coldly. "I need this entire section mined by morning. Then you finish the south field."
"Hey!" Raven said, standing up and walking over to him. "I told you, we're going after Finn, Clarke, and Monty in the morning."
"And I told you, nobody leaves this camp," he said, turning away.
"I'm talking to you! We can't just abandon our people. You want to lead them; show them you give a damn."
Before Bellamy could reply, a gunshot went off. Thankfully, no one was hurt, but the kid who had accidentally fired his gun was clearly exhausted as he scrambled to sit up straight. Bellamy, though, was furious as he charged at him.
"Hey! What the hell is the matter with you?!?" Bellamy yelled.
"I'm sorry, man. I fell asleep. I've been on watch all day," the kid stammered.
That was not good enough for Bellamy as he grabbed the kid by his jacket and snarled, "We've all been on watch all day! That bullet was one less dead Grounder!"
"Bellamy, you're scaring people," I said, trying to reason with him.
"They should be scared! The bomb on the bridge bought us some time to prepare, but that time is up!" he said, addressing everyone. "The Grounders are out there right now, waiting for us to leave and picking us off one by one when we do! Clarke, Finn, and Monty are gone, probably dead, and if you want to be next, I can't stop you, but no guns are leaving this camp! This camp is the only thing keeping up alive!... Get Back to work!"
Everyone looked around at each other for a moment before they did just that. In the end, it was only those of us like Raven and Jasper, who had strong ties to those who were missing, that were visibly upset. I could not say much, or even fault anyone, as it was human nature to want to protect yourself first, and we had no proof that any of them were alive. Unless I was going to go after them alone, I had no choice but to get back to work as well and hope that Clarke, Finn, and Monty were alright just like in the original plotline.
The night gave away to the day and no Grounders had appeared so far. People were starting to fall asleep here and there, but I just let them rest while I kept working. Like Bellamy said, these foxholes weren't going to build themselves and we needed whatever advantage that we could get. Unfortunately, even with my powers, I was not immune to exhaustion, and it had been over a day since I had slept at this point. I was just starting to settle down against the tree where the others had taken a nap, but then I overheard one of the guys calling our guard over.
"Hey, we need you over at the dropship. Murphy is holding Jasper hostage," he said.
My eyes widened with alarm and whatever exhaustion I had been feeling vanished. While I had limited knowledge of the various minor plotlines, there was one that I did know, and this was the perfect setup for it, when Murphy shoots Raven. I pulled myself to my feet and took off running back to camp. When I made it back, there were a few people standing around while Bellamy was standing right past where the dropship door usually laid out, except that it was up at the moment.
"I heard Murphy has Jasper held hostage," I said.
"Yeah... South foxhole done?" he replied.
"What? Bellamy, my friend's in there with a killer!"
"O, look around. No one's working. If the Grounders attack us right now, we're all dead."
"So, you are just going to let him kill Jasper? Because its inconvenient for you?!?" I snapped.
"Octavia, I got this."
"Really? Because it doesn't look like you're doing anything about it... like other things!"
"Bellamy, you were right," Raven called out as she walked up then said quietly, "There's a loose panel on the back. If I can pop it, we can get in through the floor."
"Good, do it," Bellamy agreed with a nod.
"I'm sorry," I said, realizing that I was wrong.
He gave me a grim smile and then motioned his head in the direction that Raven had gone. While I walked off, Bellamy talked into the radio, "Murphy, I know you can hear me. All of our ammo and food is in the middle level. You know that. You're leaving us vulnerable to an attack. I can't let that happen..."
I resisted the sigh as I listened to Bellamy's weak attempt at saving Jasper's life and just hurried after Raven. I knew that Jasper would only die much later, and by his own choices, so I was not too worried about him, but Raven was another matter. From what I remembered, most of the seasons, Raven was in pain and crippled from the gunshot wound that she received at Murphy's hands, although it had been indirect. Now, here she was, crawling under Murphy's feet, and I could not let her be hurt in this life if I could stop it.
"What do you think you're doing?" Raven asked as I walked up.
"Helping your ungrateful ass," I taunted then I became more serious. "Jasper risked his life for me once, so I owe him the same."
"Then help me get this panel off," she said, not arguing for a change.
I pulled my knife out and wedged it in the crack between the panel and the ship.
"You are just gonna break that thing," Raven warned.
"Wanna bet?" I asked while infusing my mana into the knife. I did not even wait for her to reply and twisted the knife, popping off the panel. "You can sleep in my tent tonight after all of this end's happily."
"I don't remember agreeing," she retorted as we both worked to pull the panel off completely.
"Don't act like... you didn't like it," I groaned as we ripped off the piece.
"Is cockiness something that runs in your family, or something?"
If things were not as stressful as they were, I probably would have made her regret those words, but there was something more important for us to focus on. I tossed the panel to the side and helped Raven crawl inside. While I knew this could lead to the injury that she would carry for the rest of the show, I also knew that this was our best chance of saving Jasper. We crawled into the bowels of the dropship as she turned on her flashlight. It was cramped with metal piping and struts, but we had enough room to move around at least.
"Very cool," Raven said, looking around.
"When this is all handled, maybe you can give me a guided tour. I never got the chance to really learn about any of this kinda stuff," I suggested.
"Sure... for now, help me find the door circuit. It will look like a bundle of wires attached to a circuit board."
"Yeah... that's not like trying to find a needle in a haystack," I said sarcastically.
"What?"
"It's an old Earth expression, forget it," I replied, shaking my head.
"Forget what?" a voice asked from outside the hole we had slipped in through.
"Jasper?!? You're out... then who is...?" I started to ask but then I recognized the other muffled voice and whispered, "Bellamy."
Raven put her hand on my shoulder and said softly, "I'm sorry."
"Let's just get this door open then we can deal with the cockroach," I replied through gritted teeth.
"I've got a better idea. Just help me figure out where Murphy is and I'll shoot through the floor," Jasper said as he crawled in with his gun.
"Bad idea," Raven said then shined her flashlight on a large tank which was marked with a warning that read, 'Hydrazine - Highly Flammable'. The liquid sloshed as she knocked on it lightly and she gasped, "Holy crap. There's tons of it."
"The engines fired late on the way down. We can make more bombs," Jasper replied.
"Yeah... Put that on our to-do list, but from now on, no shooting. You got me?"
Jasper nodded, but then there was a gunshot from above. My head snapped up, but there was nothing that I could do while we were down here. I gripped the knife in hand with anger because, despite these crazy powers that I had, there was still so little that I could do. I did not even register that my hand was bleeding from where I held the knife too hard, but the other two did. Instead, I placed my other hand on the floor above us and tried to infuse my mana into it, much like I did for my Earth Domain. Metal was just a purified and refined form of Earth, so it was possible in the story that my power originated from, but it would just require a lot more mana control to achieve.
"Get that door open," Jasper growled.
It seemed that, just Diego, stress was the quickest way to bring out the full potential of my powers as I could sense my mana slowly infusing into the metal plate. I could feel the vibrations of something being dragged across the floor and the heavy steps of the person. There was someone else who was not moving, so my guess was that it was Murphy, but I could not be sure.
"Stand on it," Murphy's voice was practically transmitted straight into my brain because of the amount of focus that this was taking. "Put it over your head."
"This is insane. The Grounders could--" Bellamy started but was silenced with another bullet that was shot into the wall.
"We need to do this now," Jasper whispered franticly.
"I'm working as fast as I can. The wires for the door are mixed in with the ignition system. Sparking the wrong one would be bad," Raven warned.
"Put it over your head," Murphy instructed.
"Happy now?" Bellamy snapped.
"You're so brave, aren't you? I mean, you came in here thinking you're just gonna turn this whole thing around, that you were stronger than me, and maybe one of your friends would come and help you. Well, what are you thinking now, Bellamy?"
Bellamy did not answer, but I could hear soft choking sounds. I was helpless down here and I could feel my anger quickly reaching the boiling point. Thankfully, neither of them was looking at me, or they might have seen the air start to waver as I unconsciously tapped into my fire magic. If I had spent any real time training it, there was a good chance that I would have caused an actual fire to be created, but for now, I could only warm up my surroundings with my uncontrolled magic.
"You know, I gotta hand it to you, Bellamy, you got 'em all fooled. They actually look up to you, almost as much as they look up to Clarke. Yeah, well, we know the truth, don't we? You're a coward. I learned that the day you kicked out the crate from beneath me," Murphy said with disgust.
"I think I found it," Raven said. "Get outside. Be ready when it opens."
Suddenly, I felt a hand on my shoulder, and I lost all of my focus on what was happening above. The pain in my hand returned to my mind with a vengeance and I could not help but hiss as I carefully opened my hand.
"Come on, Raven is going to open the door," Jasper whispered.
"You go, I'll be behind you in a minute or two," I replied, putting my knife aside with my other hand.
He nodded then climbed out of the ship quickly. Raven could only afford me a quick glance of concern while she stripped the casing off one of the wires. While she worked, I ripped a piece of cloth from the bottom of my shirt and wrapped it around my hand to hopefully stop the bleeding. She was in such a rush though that she accidentally shocked herself when she put the wire in the wrong spot, and she let out a yelp of pain.
Instantly, I realized what was about to happen as she had been far too loud. Before either of us could react, Murphy unloaded six bullets into the floor, and I saw Raven get hit in the stomach. I got nicked in the arm, but it was nothing compared to her. Still, she put the wire in the right spot, and I could hear the door start to open with a loud hiss.
"Come on, I need to get you out of here," I said, crawling over to her.
"That sounds like a good idea," she groaned, trying to cover the gunshot wound with her hands.
"Octavia, Raven, he's fine," Jasper shouted from above us a few moments later.
Although I was happy that Bellamy was safe, I was far more worried about Raven. I did not prevent the injury, but maybe I could get lucky and heal her. It did not matter anymore if the whole camp learned about my abilities; I would not let her end up like she did in the show. It was not easy to move her through the crawlspace and she helped when she could, but before we had even gotten out, there was a loud explosion from above us.
"What was that?" Raven asked.
"I don't know, but on this shitty planet, it can't be good," I replied.
She smirked, but I could still see the pain in her eyes. "Go find out, I'll get out fine."
"Look here, you stubborn ass woman, I'm not leaving you, so get that through your thick skull," I growled.
"Thanks," she said quietly after a few moments.
"How about you thank me after we get this bullet out of you, alright?"
"Because that will be simple," she scoffed.
I did not explain to her that I actually had a plan to do just that but focused on trying to get her out without causing any more damage to her. My Stone Cover spell would be a great way to take it out, but I did not doubt for a second that it would be painful, and I would still need to save some of my energy to heal the wound. There was no chance that I could heal the whole thing at once, but with some luck, I could heal enough so that she would not die from bleeding out. I just wished Clarke was here because she knew more about the human body than I did, and she could tell me where I needed to focus.