XX

[PREVIOUSLY: Indra makes Octavia an appealing offer. Later, Octavia must say goodbye to her brother with the hopes of seeing him alive again. Then, as she wanders the halls of the Royal Tower, Octavia comes face-to-face with a confronting secret].

"I'm Gaia...Indra's daughter."

It was difficult to mask the jolt of surprise that seared through me at these words.

"Wha...?"

"Please. Tell me. What is the name of that beautiful poem you were praying?"

I furrowed my brow. "You're religious?"

Gaia nodded her dark head. "Of course. My religion is of upmost importance to me. I consider the Trikru throne before which you bow to be the sacred chair of the monarchy. Whoever sits upon it must prove himself worthy."

Curious, I probed, "And how exactly do you prove yourself worthy?"

"By receiving the Flame."

My eyebrows flew upwards. "Y-you're a Flame Keeper?"

Gaia's eyes brightened. "Yes. However, I am not like the other Flame Keepers. I advocate peace and harmony and the dissension of the sword. They, meanwhile, have lost their way. They are intent on war. They discriminate the sacred oath they swore to keep which is a vital part of their duties if they are to retain the line of Nightbloods on the throne."

"Nightbloods?" I shook my head, confused. "What is that?"

Gaia stepped closer towards me, gazing at me with a deep intensity. "They are the royals, the monarchs, the commanders who will, one after the other, succeed to the throne. They are referred too as such because their blood does not run red ... but black."

I stared at her in shock. "B-Black? Lexa's blood is black?"

Gaia inclined her head to one side in affirmation.

"Oh my god," I scrambled up to my feet as I tried to take this all in. "As you can tell, I have a lot to learn about the tribe of Trikru and its' ways."

Gaia offered me a small smile. "You will learn. You are our ally. And I can already see it."

"See what?"

"The bravery, the courage, the iron that runs through your veins. You will be a great Peace Keeper, Octavia of the Sky People."

Before I could reply, however, the door leading into the throne room burst open and Indra stalked in.

"Mother!" Gaia called out. "What are you doing here?"

"I think the better question is: what are you doing here?" she snapped, giving her daughter a deadly glare.

Gaia squared her shoulders and set her jaw as she returned defiantly, "I was offering up a pray to the gods of nature. I was asking them to look out for our people amongst the war that is about to take place. And what were you doing? Intimidating people with the fact that you are the General of our armies? A General that cares so little for her own flesh-and-blood?"

Slowly, I began to back away from the two. Obviously, this was some family feud and I didn't want to get into the middle of it.

"You know that is not true, Gaia. Just because you turned your back on your duty to protect our people it does not mean, for a second, that I care less about you than before. But how would you know? You're never around," Indra scoffed. "And, in light of your accusations, I was doing nothing of the sort. I was claiming a second."

"Another one?" Gaia snorted. "How many of them have survived your brutal mentoring, Mother?"

"None," she ground out between gritted teeth. "However, Octavia of the Sky People will."

Gaia, her eyes wide with disbelief, turned to look at me. "You?" she whispered. "You are to be an apprentice to my mother?"

I swallowed. "I - I didn't mean..."

"You too make a mockery of my faith!" she seethed before turning on Indra, "Our faith!" Brushing roughly past the tall, regal figure of the General, Gaia stormed out of the room and disappeared down a series of hallways.

For a moment, Indra didn't say anything. Then, she glanced over at me. "Are you ready?"

"Ready?"

"To began your training?"

I smirked. "Definitely."

As I trailed after Indra's tall stature I came to the realisation that my title of Peace Keeper was becoming more and more distant.

Perhaps the title of Warrior would be better suited.

~~~~

I trained with Indra for hours.

At first, I didn't overly exert myself. All my mentor wanted to see was the rate of progression I was at with my thrusts, blocks and strikes. I tried my best, I really did, but I don't think Indra was very impressed.

She kept circling around me as I moved my blade around the frayed stump of a prickly palm, frowning and not uttering a word. Then, she held up a hand, stopping me mid-movement.

"Attack me," she stated plainly.

I stared at her in shock. "Wha...?"

"I gave you an order," she snapped. "Attack me!"

Swallowing hard, I readied my sword and fell back into a fighting stance. As I gazed up at her, I started to get worried when I realised that she hadn't yet withdrawn her weapon.

"Well, what are you waiting for?" she demanded sharply.

With a half-strangled yelp, that sounded way too pathetic for someone my age, I charged at her, my sword held high. Within a split second, Indra had snatched her sharpened blade from her sheath and met my blow with so much force that I was thrown backwards.

Gasping in shock, I tried to recover but I was not quick enough to stop the flurry of blows that Indra rained down on me. Twisting and turning, she delved deep into the fight, narrowly missing my skin as she took advantage of my clumsy blocks.

Eventually, she stopped and stepped back, surveying me with a superior air. "I expected worse," she raised her eyebrows as she flicked her sword between her fingers and motioned for me to draw closer. "Again."

And so the circle repeated itself until I was so battered and worn-down I could barely stand.

"I shall meet you here again tomorrow around the same time," she told me as she returned her sword to its sheath. "Get some rest."

I sent her a half-hearted nod before dragging myself away from the selected clearing that we had chosen. It was situated on the outskirts of the capitol and usually made use of by trainees and their mentors.

My body ached all over and my muscles were screaming with pain. My face felt puffy and bruised and my limbs felt weighty and swollen.

As I was trudging back towards the Skikru quarters that had been erected for our visit, a loud shout caught my attention.

I turned around to see Kane jogging up the cobble-stone path behind me. I paused, waiting for him to catch up.

As he skidded to a halt in front of me and doubled-over to catch his breath, I narrowed my eyes at him. "What do you want?"

"B-Bellamy," he wheezed. "He's on the radio."

I did nothing to acknowledge his statement. Instead, I brushed roughly past him and stalked back into the Royal Tower.

I ran into Bryce in the hall. "Where's the radio?" I asked as I fell into step beside him.

"Over there," he motioned to an open doorway. From without, I could see a cluster of grounder-clad persons huddled around a small, rickety table; Clarke and Lexa among them.

Hastily, I entered the room. "Is Bellamy okay?" I demanded as I scooted into an empty chair next to Clarke.

The blonde nodded importantly as she moved the radio closer to me. "Octavia's here, Bell," she spoke into the mouth-piece before giving it to me.

"O. Little sis. I've missed you. How's it going?"

I smiled. "I've missed you too, big brother. You holding up alright?"

"Yes. Right now, I'm in a dark basement sticking my poor head into a tiny crack in the wall. That's where the radio is. No one knows about it except for a few who are helping us escape. Monty and Jasper helped to locate the circuit. They sent out a help signal to the Ark before I arrived but I told them that we didn't get it."

"Whose helping you?"

"Mony, Jasper, Harper, Dustin and a girl who lives here. Her name's Maya and, before you say anything, O, she's risked her life to help us over and over again. She knows everything about this place and is a great help to us. We can trust her."

"You better be right," I grunted. "How've you been getting around?"

"I - er - well, I already told Clarke but..."

"Bellamy," I reproved.

"Fine. I was caught just outside the doors and locked up with some other prisoners. I escaped though by choking a guard to death and now I'm strutting around in his cameo uniform pretending to be a bloody-skilled guns-man It's gone well, so far, considering that President Wallace still thinks I'm stuck in my cage."

"Cage?"

"Yeah. It was a pretty tight fit."

I snickered. "Wow. Have you been working out while you're in there as well?"

"Shut-up. No. I have not. But I have figured out the lay of the place and know where all the exits are. Clarke was right. There's no way you guys are getting in here without my help."

"So, what's the plan?"

"In two days' time, most of the Trikru and Skikru armies are to descend upon Mount Weather and gather around the front entrance. They are to divert the attention of the President and his men while a smaller group sneaks around to the back through the Reaper Tunnels. I'll let the group in and from there, we can gain access to the control room and open up the front doors. Once they've been deactivated, there's no way Mount Weather will have a chance against our combined armies."

I nodded. "Sounds like a plan."

"And Anya?" Lexa requested eagerly. "Have you seen her? Is she well?"

Bellamy paused. "Uh...no. I haven't. But there were a lot of prisoners in there, Lexa, I'm sure she's fine...for now."

"For now," Lexa shook her head and sighed. "If she dies..."

"She'll be okay, Lexa!" I quickly butted in. "She's the commander. What can't she do?"

At this, Clarke bit down on her lip and exchanged an awkward side glance with me.

We knew the truth.

But they didn't.

And it had to stay that way.

Just then, a faint beeping sound occurred from the radio machine. "Uh, Bellamy, can you hang on one sec? We have an incoming call," Clarke said as she leaned forward to press a button lining the side of the device. "Hello?"

"Hi. This is Raven Reyes calling from Camp Jaha. Who am I speaking with?"

"Raven! It's Clarke. How are you? Are you feeling better?"

"Yeah. I'm fine. But I didn't call to discuss my leg, okay? Something's happened. Something bad."

"What is it, Raven? What's wrong?" Clarke queried, her tone laced with worry.

"I've just figured out something about the Exodus Ship," she returned from the other end of the line. "You know, the one that crashed a few weeks ago?"

"Yeah? What about it?" Clarke pressed.

"It didn't malfunction as we originally thought," Raven spoke gravely and sadly. "It wasn't an accident. It was tampered with."

"Who on earth would do something like that?" Clarke shook her head in confusion.

"Mount Weather," she stated. "Mount Weather knew that we were here and they took down our Exodus Ship."

Gif: Gaia and Octavia.

XX