Chapter Text
The cold seeps through her skin, chilling her to her bones. Her jaw is clenched tight, teeth grinding against one another in a slow roughness, in a way that will leave a dull ache in her gums once she stops. A shiver runs her through her then, involuntary, her body trying to recover the warmth it is so quickly losing.
She brings her arms up from their crossed position, rubbing her hands over goosebump prickled skin, just until the skin turns smooth, before returning them to their previous position. Though they would soon return. The Ark had a certain chill to it that never fades, mechanic as in its design, and despite it being the only home she has ever known, Raven Reyes never quite got used to it.
The cold only seems to amplify off the sterile metal walls of the Ark, and by the vast quiet emptiness of the hallway where she currently stood. Mostly empty anyway. A small group stood stoic at the other end of the long corridor, backs facing her. She however, stood alone.
They were the exception though, it was far too early for the rest of the populace to be up roaming the chilled halls. Raven couldn't help but think that was the intention. Raven, like most of everyone else, should still be warm under synthesized fabric blankets, unknowing of the gathering currently presented in front of her, but she wasn't. She should be though.
Her gaze wandered from the stiff forms of the group in front of her, save for an older woman whose body trembles in seemingly silent sobs, to the large circular hatch door they gather in front of. Another shiver wracks through her body, but not because of the chill this time. An unnatural sense of foreboding lurched over her, as she views the hatch door that will be the entrance to one's execution this morning.
Her view wanders back to the group, unchanged in their posture and in their silence. She narrows in on a young dark haired man, stood in the center of the group, the same young man who will be walking through the hatch doors. Bile rises to her throat.
She wants to look away, but she can't seem to tear her gaze away from the man's back. She shouldn't be here. It was a thought that passed through her head again, and again, and again, yet she can't find it in herself to leave. It couldn't be attachment, she didn't know him long enough for that. She certainly doesn't owe the man anything.
Raven supposes he no longer did either, but then again she can't see how he really returned the favor by saving her from a mess he himself created. He was supposed to pay her back, a favor for a favor. She supposes it no longer matters anymore.
She should turn around now, return to her Quarters, go back to sleep, and pretend nothing happened. To heed the man's last advice to her, and lay low. Her mind screamed for her to leave, to turn around, but she couldn't. Raven was never so good at following orders after all. So, Raven stood shivering in the quiet hall, with only a man, a woman, a small collection of guards, and the one and only Bellamy Blake to keep her company.
Suddenly, a sharp sob broke the heavy silence, the sound only felt more booming in comparison to the quiet it replaced. Within the group, the woman fell to her knees, practically collapsing into the older man beside her. Raven watched as she gripped the man's pantleg and loudly sobbed into it.
Raven didn't know whether she admired the woman's calmness she was able to maintain for so long, or was disturbed by it. The woman had long dark hair, and darker eyes to match. Olive skin, and Raven assumed, if much closer, she would be able to make out a light dusting of freckles scattered amongst it. After all, she was unmistakably Bellamy's mother. Though her likeness to the younger Blake sibling, Octavia, that Raven had briefly met and heard so much about, was crystal.
Aside from her physical appearance and relation to Bellamy and Octavia, Raven knew nothing of the woman. Not even her name. Bellamy only ever shared what he felt she needed to know, his mother, Raven supposes, wasn't something she needed to know. It was only fair, Bellamy in turn doesn't know a thing about Raven's own mother. In fact, Bellamy doesn't know anything about Raven. Aside from the fact that she was a talented enough engineer to help him.
Bellamy's mother's knuckles turn a pale color from her grip that Raven, even from a distance, could see. The man she clung to notably didn't share any features with the Blake siblings. Raven would have guessed him to be a partner to the woman, but there is nothing familial or affectionate between them, only a desperateness from the woman alone. Perhaps Bellamy and Raven share something in common despite Raven's previous beliefs, at least regarding their mothers and their... relations.
The woman's pleas were loud enough to hear, but the chocking sobs made any words unintelligible. The man, in turn, only looked ahead impassively, in a stance not unlike the guards a few feet ahead of them. It made sense, Raven in fact knew he was one. He had once delivered her mother back to their Quarters after she had passed out drunk in the corridor. She had thanked him, but he only grumbled a few harsh words of warning, and walked away.
He isn't on duty it would seem, still wearing loungewear in the way one would be if they were sick, resting in their Quarters all day. Raven could only guess he wasn't sick though, just inconvenienced in his morning. That after the execution he will return to the Quarters and be able to go back to sleep. Raven feels herself being angry on Bellamy's behalf.
Bellamy stood like all the others, with his back facing her, though distinctively far closer to the hatch. His stature is rigid, seemingly tighter ever since his mother's sobs first began. His wrists were bound tightly behind him in thick metal cuffs, and a guard stood on either side, each having a hand wrapped roughly around his bicep. The guards were alert, as if at any moment, Bellamy would snap and make a run for it.
Raven knew he wouldn't though. There would be no point. There was only so far you can run when you're trapped on a hulking piece of metal floating through fucking space. Eventually they will catch you. They always do. The thought tightens something in her chest, Raven has never felt so trapped as she now did. Now, Raven had something to run from.
She wondered when the councilman assigned to play out the execution will arrive. Everybody here knew what was happening, it was cruel to prolong it as they have. Part of Raven also wondered if there was something behind this wait, Raven hasn't attended a floating before, but she knows and has spoken to enough others that have, to know this wait is unusual.
As if her mind was read, suddenly the dull footsteps of boots hitting the metal flooring filled the air. As the footsteps became louder behind her, she didn't think to hide, instead continuing to stand impassively off to the side of the hall.
It wasn't simply because there isn't any place to hide with the long expanse of plain metal walling, but she knew they wouldn't kick her out. As per the law, any citizen is free to lay witness to an execution, and shall not be prevented in doing so in any way. Likely why they chose to have this execution before anyone would normally wake.
She can hear as much as she can feel it when the a small group of people walk just feet behind her now. The dull rhymical pattern of their steps causing vibrations in the metal that tremor up through her body. A man suddenly walks past her, giving her only a stern passing glance before focusing ahead once again.
Raven didn't know who he was, but given his neatly combed back hair, freshly shaven beard, clothes that haven't seen three generations of use, and the stern, almost arrogant face, Raven knew him to be a councilor. Raven couldn't tell which one, she never had much of an interest in politics after all.
However, the next man to pass by her was unmistakable, the Chancellor himself. He, unlike the man before him, didn't look at her at all, his face impassive. He was quickly followed by two Ark Guards as escorts, as is the case whenever the Chancellor goes anywhere.
The guards did eye her suspiciously. Likely noting her position: too far away from the execution group to be anyone close to Bellamy, yet somebody who cared enough to attend at all. Perhaps she. at some chance, could pass as somebody who coincidently walked by, and stayed to watch, but it was unlikely. After doing a quick scan of her, their attention turned forward once again, leaving as suddenly as it came.
The guards break off from the approaching group, and stand, backs to the wall, on either side of the hatch door. The Chancellor and Councilman continued their approach to the waiting group, positioning themselves between Bellamy and the hatch.
The speech will be a shortened version of the speech given to the convicted in their cell. Raven wishes she were there to had heard what was told to Bellamy, but that was limited to the guilty themselves and any cell block neighbor who happens to overhear. The speech they will give here is nothing more than a formality, a way to make a statement.
With the execution now beginning, the guards on either side of Bellamy tell Bellamy's mother and the man to back up. The man has to practically drag the inconsolable woman the few steps back. The woman only seemed to grow louder, and more desperate. She begged for mercy on her son, but didn't actually do anything to help him. She knew it would only lead her to being the next one in that airlock.
As the man looks to the woman, Raven can see emotion finally showing through. Not grief, or even sympathy as you might expect. Annoyance. Raven has never felt more of an urge to push someone in an airlock and press the button herself as she did in that moment looking at that man.
The Chancellor clears his throat, and after a quick scan of the crowd, he begins his routine speech. "Bellamy Blake, you're actions have cost the Ark months' worth of oxygen, and with it, life. That spacewalk, Mr. Blake, was a crime against humanity." That last line made Raven freeze. A spacewalk?
Raven looks up to an unreadable look on the Chancellor's face. She only notices the look of shock on her face when she thinks to fit it back into a neutral stance at the Councilor's wandering gaze. His eyes searching for reactions. Holy fucking shit. They are trying to cover it up.
The Chancellor's words only worsened the woman's cries. She had to of known it was a lie. Raven suddenly feels a strong pang of sympathy for the woman who woke to find her two children missing, and guards banging on her door. His mother must know it wasn't simply an illegal spacewalk, and why she isn't in her own cell awaiting her own execution.
It is then that Raven realizes Bellamy never had a chance to explain to his mother what had happened. She doubted that he told her before he did it, no way she would of allowed it. She grimly took in the fact that she would have to be the one to inform his mother on what had happened. Where her daughter has gone. She deserved that at least. Raven could trust her not to talk.
"You have put yourself above the collective survival of mankind. I do hope you understand the gravity of what you have done." The Chancellor pauses, as if waiting for a reply. An atonement from Bellamy of his actions, a confession, or a pleading of life perhaps, but he received nothing. Once the Chancellor realized that he let out a small, near silent, sigh, and continued. "Bellamy Blake, you will hereby be executed for your crimes again man, under the decree of the Chancellor of the Ark."
There it was. The speech lasted just over a minute. A single damned minute. Yet the Chancellor deemed in sufficient enough in justifying the death of one Bellamy Blake. Someone who Raven guessed, could only be a few years older than herself. A young man who has barely just grown into his features. A young man who had just become a guard cadet. In just a minute they believe they have thoroughly explained why this execution will be a betterment for mankind. They couldn't even tell the truth as they did so.
Raven's hand clenched tight, blunt nails digging into her skin. All this talk and justification of man's survival, yet Raven was starting to believe that they were a species no longer deserving of it. Self-preservation was a greedy thing, an all-consuming entity. Nothing, nobody, holds a candle to the face of the preservation of the group. Even if the individual was innocent inherently, they were the enemy to survival.
The Chancellor grimly nods towards one the guards standing against the wall, before he and the councilman move out of the way. The guard types a few things in on the control panel, and the hatch opens with a loud hiss. Bellamy is uncuffed, and the guards remain stationary as Bellamy slowly walks into the airlock after only a moment of hesitation. The door closes behind him.
With the speech over Raven is left with the woman's loud, ragged, cries that fall onto deaf ears, and that never ending mechanical hum. Bellamy turns in the airlock, now facing the large window looking out to the corridor. Raven once again feels that bile rise. Some things have remained the same from the two weeks she has known him. The largely unkempt hair, scruffy beard only just growing in, dark circles under his eyes, and clothes that look as though they haven't been washed in weeks.
There are a few differences though: the dried blood on his shirt, causing it to stick unnaturally to his frame; the large gash that just brushes his hairline on his right temple and stretches down to his cheekbone. Nobody bothered cleaning his wounds, and they didn't think to make him look presentable as it was meant to be a very small, and private execution. After all, why waste the supplies on a dead man.
It wasn't just the psychical changes that Raven noticed. His eyes were previously filled with a strong hopeful determination, albeit tired, but now they were dull with resignation. Bellamy Blake has completed what he set out to do, and is content with the consequences. He almost seemed... at peace. Raven wondered if this was always part of his plan, something that he had accepted for a while now. That he never planned on paying her back. His expression made her think it was.
The thought brings angry tears to her eyes, nails drawing the slightest of blood from her palms. Not because he never planned on returning the favor, Raven came to understand that. Had he not been caught, the two still would have had to lay low, no chance of completing what Raven wanted to ask of him. No, it was that he was far too young to be content on what his life has been. That wasn't fair.
Bellamy caught her eye, and a tear slowly streamed down her face. She wipes it away quickly, but when she focuses back on him, his attention is elsewhere. Raven understood. It was bad enough she was here at all, there was no need to draw any more attention to that fact. She can see him slowly scan the attending audience, take in who had come to bear witness to his execution. He didn't seem surprised that there was only three.
Raven watches as tears gather in his eyes after they take in his mother's hunched over form, convulsing with painful sobs. He closes his eyes. Raven blinks. Then he is gone. She couldn't help the sob that rips from her throat, something drowned out by the anguished scream of a grieving mother.
Wait. She wasn't ready. She hadn't even seen the button be pressed. Wait wait wait. The door had opened, and it was hard to make out Bellamy tumbling form in the darkness of space. Her legs shake, and she feels a hand press against her mouth, muffling the now uncontrollable sobs. It's a moment before she realizes the hand is her own.
The woman rushes to the hatch, sobbing against the glass. As she pounds her fist against it, the guards make no move to stop her. The woman watches helplessly as her beloved son is ripped away from her into the endless vacuum of space. One child missing, now the other dead.
The procession begins their leave, boots once again dully hitting the metal floor. The Chancellor has the decency to give a sympathetic look towards the grieving mother, after all, he was a father, Raven knew that much. The Councilman didn't spare so much as a glance.
It's not long before it's only Raven and the mother left in the corridor. The man had left not long after the execution soon growing exhausted at the woman's stubbornness to leave. Raven herself has stood trembling in the same spot. It wasn't long before she couldn't take it anymore and stormed off in the opposite direction of the airlock, refusing to look back.
No matter how far Raven got it seemed, she couldn't outrun the cries of the Mother echoing off the walls. The grieving shouts, with the dull clang off her boots hitting the metal with every step, with the ever-present mechanical whir of the Ark all formed a sadistic melody that Raven couldn't escape.
Bellamy Blake, the young man she had met only two weeks prior, was dead. Dead for the crime of saving his sister. Dead for the crime of giving her the freedom she deserved. He was dead, and Raven had helped him reach that point. Raven helped lead him to his death.
Before she could stop it, she was hunched over with her last meal spilling from her lips onto the previously pristine metal floor. She coughed and spluttered, trying to rid her mouth of the taste. The tears fell uncontrollably. Her sickness causing already trembling legs to further sway off balance. Her head pounded, and her chest was so tight, she wondered if she could still breathe.
The cold air chilling the hot tears that streamed down her face, goosebumps still littered her body. Her body felt too hot from pain and anger to feel it though. Raven stumbles away towards her quarters, leaving the mess for whoever had the misfortune of coming across it later. Raven really couldn't be damned.
Bellamy Blake died for the crime of being a good big brother.