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ACROSS THE STARS
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LYRA'S LUNGS BURN as they hurtle through the dark forest.
Blinding flames flash maniacally behind them, blurred in the chaos, a tremendous, unearthly tremor quaking straight through the ground. The force is sickening; Lyra can feel her heart in her stomach, thudding into her intestines over and over. Further and further they shoot through the darkness. It feels as if they're diving through the bleakest, blackest part of the cosmos, diving through the deepest depths of interstellar. And yet that's not so horrifying of a thought to Lyra, to drift forever among the stars.
Because fuck. She's never felt so. . . so alive.
Wind whips loose frizzes of chestnut across her face and she lets out a whoop, then another. Adrenaline cackles through her veins like a million bolts of electricity jolting straight through the Ark's live-wires. Clean, cold air chews away at the noxious fumes of war lingering in her lungs. A half-crazed giggle escapes her mouth and she can feel another and another bursting through her chest until she can't contain it anymore and she skids to a stop and she starts to laugh.
"That was crazy!" She can't contain her energy, drenched with adrenaline. "Oh my god - there were so many of them, and then we were running, and we won, oh my god - !"
Though he'd looked at her in disbelief at first, Bellamy's countenance softens into gentle amusement. "I know, but Lyra, we have to keep moving - "
His words fall upon deaf ears. Something pretty floats through the darkness. Glistening an enchanting cerulean, like a single star dancing through the shadows. It's strange to look at after all the carnage and Lyra tilts her head back in wonder as the word flutters to her lips a beat too late: Butterfly.
Before Bellamy can stop her, she's chasing after it.
Laughter like liquid starlight bounces through the shadows and reverberates through the night, almost luminescent as the silvery cosmos up above. Bounding through the darkness with unfettered joy, she keeps going, trailing after the butterfly as it flutters high above her head, just out of reach. Delight erupts within her.
And yet suddenly the butterfly stops forging forwards and instead drifts upwards. Coming to a messy halt, Lyra doesn't even have time to feel disappointment. Surrounding her is a galaxy of molten luminescence.
"Curiouser and curiouser... " she whispers in wonder.
Her heart a wild staccato, Lyra she is determined to drink in the liquid light, admiring the cosmic beauty surrounding her here in earth. She is enthralled, in awe, of the globe fabricated from magic surrounding her. Dozens of glimmering butterflies drift back and forth over her head, thousands more latching against the tall oaks that soar into the skies. Here the foliage is much clearer and the star-girl is haloed by silvery moonlight that shines across her cheeks, glistens in her hair, pooling within her starry eyes.
"Lyra?"
"Bellamy!"
The boy halts in front of Lyra. He's closer than she prepared herself for and she could almost shiver. And yet compelled by the way he glows azure from the cerulean gleaming all around them, she ambles closer still, until they are sharing the same breath. The bold and brash and impudent girl feels as if she is walking the fine line between reality and dreams as she gazes up at him beneath her lashes.
"Bellamy," she whispers giddily. Vaguely she wonders if he can hear her heart racing in her chest.
He ducks his head, a single finger grazing across her cheek shyly. Her skin shivers unconsciously beneath his touch. When she whispers his name again, he lets out a small groan, dipping his eyes further from hers as if he suddenly doesn't quite believe in himself enough to be brave now.
Elation surges through Lyra's veins. She feels as if she is there again, in space. Floating, floating, floating. . . stars surging beneath her, uplifting the girl. Before she realizes what she is doing, she is throwing her arms around Bellamy. He joins in her enchanting laughter as he staggers backwards and then wraps his own arms around her. Her skin is burning and freezing and everything in between all at once beneath his touch.
And then he is lifting her up and spinning her through the air, through the stars. The colors of the cosmos bleed together all around, swirling before her eyes as her heart leaps. And yet it's too much to take in all at once. She can't look at the stars any longer. Everything blurs with the darkness, as if the world has fallen into a dreamy sleep. All that's left is Bellamy and his broad grin, the one that lights up his eyes, his eyes twinkling in the molten sapphire like the stars she loves so, so, so much.
Galaxies could have fallen beneath her feet and she would not have looked away. And when Bellamy's lips finally press against her own, she feels as if she is soaring across the stars.
He tastes like sunlight. Like liquid gold, something rare, like running beneath a honey-deluged sky with the wind at your back and the grass beneath your feet, running so fast you are nearly flying. She is melting into him, melting into his embrace, melting into the sun as he holds her there in the air, suspending her in the silvery gleam of the universe.
Vaguely she can feel her feet softly reaching the ground again, yet his hold only tightens as he gently sets her down on the ground and she tugs away for breath for a blistering moment.
Fingers twined in his sleeves, her knees feel molten as she takes in a deep breath and then another, hardly noticing how out of breath she is. Her mouth fizzles like stardust. She is ensnared in his eyes. They're so pretty.
"Hey," he says softly, dipping close, his cold brow grazing her warm one, fingers boldly grazing her waist. "We have all the time in the world."
She has no words. She is beaming, radiating pure happiness. Without waiting, she lifts her hands to cup his cheeks and brings his face closer to hers as she loses herself in his arms and kisses Bellamy again.
Kissing Bellamy is ten-thousand stars away from kissing Raven. There's no hot crush of their lips with hard haste that leaves her crumbling beneath him, and yet somehow it leaves her even more delirious. All her senses slipping away from her. She curls into him, recklessly deepening their kiss, her entire body humming with light as she pushes into him further. It feels like finding her way home.
They cling together in their tiny corner of the universe, in their fleeting forever.
And yet at long last he pulls away.
A euphoric grin splits his cheeks into two as he takes her hands in his with a shaky laugh. "We should probably keep moving."
"OK," says Lyra in a breathless, dreamy whisper. His hand holds hers tightly. "Tell me a story, then."
He gives her a tiny glance, a smirk tugging at the edges of his lips as they set off again. "A story?"
"You're the Greek mythology expert," she says, her mouth still burning like fire from their kiss. "You should have something."
"All right, let me think... " he says playfully, leading her into the forest again. Yet it doesn't quite feel so dark anymore; now everything seems to buzz with light. "There's the one about Icarus, the boy who loved the sun too close, too much."
She hums. "What happened to him?"
"Well, he died," says Bellamy, and when she makes a dismayed sound in the back of her throat, he squeezes her hand again and hastens to continue. "See, he was flying with wax wings above the ocean. But he flew too close to the sun and they melted, sending him plummeting to the waves. Most people see it as a story about arrogance."
"What do you see it as?"
"A tragic love story," he answers softly, his voice raw and vulnerable as if it's some deep secret. Maybe it is. You can tell a lot from a person based on how they view things. "I think Icarus was in love with Apollo, the sun god. And I think he knew what he was doing. He would do anything to be with his lover, to feel his burning kisses, but it's difficult for a god and a mortal. Apollo showed him what it was like to burn."
A miserable irony lies in that story and it seems to come alive as he retells it to her.
But before she can response, something moves behind Lyra in the trees. They've both had experience with the sorts of things that go bump in the night, but Bellamy instinctively grabs her arm and pulls her around.
"What is it?" Lyra whispers.
"I don't know." His face hardens in the shadows. "Could be survivors, not everyone got onto the dropship. People from the Ark. Or Grounders."
There's the sound of someone sprinting from black trunk to black trunk in the far, far off distance.
His jaw clenches. "Stay here. I'll check it out."
"No way - I'll come with you."
"If it's a Grounder, it won't do either of us any good if we're both captured," he states very firmly. "Stay here. If I don't come back in five minutes, go back to camp and tell Clarke. She'll know what to do."
It's admittedly a well-thought out plan, so, begrudgingly, Lyra says, "Fine."
"I'll be right back."
He disappears into the darkness.
A long moment passes. The wind blows, sending leaves scuttling by, and Lyra pulls her jacket tighter around her. She hadn't realized how chilly it had become. Another long moment goes by. Darkness presses in all around her. Invisible eyes seem to watch, glaring from nothingness.
At last, she can't wait anymore.
"Bellamy?" She whispers loudly.
No one answers.
She starts to hesitantly walk across the forest floor. Then, suddenly, something rustles behind her.
Freezing, she slowly, excruciatingly, turns her head. Her heart is pounding inside of her chest. She thinks she might see something dark streak through the trees like a phantom, but it's so far away that she cannot be sure.
"Bellamy?" She whispers again, quieter this time. Then, very afraid, "... Murphy?"
Something explodes from the tree line. A dark silhouette charging towards her. A Grounder bursts into view, panting furiously, carrying a crossbow.
Lyra goes to scream but, before she can, he grabs her very violently by the shoulders.
"You need to run, the Mountain Men, they'll kill both of us - !"
The sound of thunderous footfalls roar across the earth behind them. The Grounders goes very rigid, his entire countenance maimed with terror as he stares unseeingly into the darkness. Everything is utterly still for a painful, agonizing heartbeat and then something small and silvery and cylindrical rolls across the forest floor, coming to a gawky halt at their feet.
There was a split second, perhaps, where Lyra might have considered running for it, but she's injured and exhausted and her legs shake under her as she stands there. She stares at the little silver cylinder. There's a twinkling red light blinking rapidly by the head of it. A beeping. Suddenly the twinkling red flashes green and a small slit just beneath it dilates.
Her brow furrows. What the - ?
A hiss fills the air as a rusty red mist billows from the canister. Clouding the night, swirling in the air all around her. When Lyra tries to breathe, she nearly chokes on it.
Voices echo, reverberating inside her bones. A blink. Swaying on her feet. Her thoughts feel scattered, lost. Since when had the trees been upside down? The ground is so close and she can't see the stars anymore.
"Mr. President? This is Emerson - I have Franko."
She thinks she feels someone grasp her arm again, feels the flash of frozen fire against her skin, but then the real world falls all around her, moonlight drowned by the void.
Galaxies drain into her eyes. She staggers. Collapses.
And, beyond this, beyond everything, somewhere beyond time and space, beyond all worlds known, across one hundred thousand galaxies, two stars begin to fall.
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END OF PART ONE.
mebi oso na hit choda op nodotaim.
͙*̩̩͙˚̩̥̩̥*̩̩̥͙ ✩ *̩̩̥͙˚̩̥̩̥*̩̩͙‧͙ .·͙*̩̩͙˚̩̥̩̥*̩̩̥͙ ✩ *̩̩̥͙˚̩̥̩̥*̩̩͙‧͙
• highly recommend listening to Across the Stars while reading this chapter, it was on repeat as I wrote this
and that is a wrap for part one of this book! I don't know if I'm 100% happy with this chapter, but oh well. I've never been spectacular at endings. So take ur Lyramy (Bellyra?) moment and run with it.
ALSO I KNOW WE ALL HATE OC'S IN MOUNT WEATHER - I do too. But I have a unique (i think?) subplot for Lyra and Miller in there, and I also don't plan on keeping Lyra in there the entire season (spoiler)
IMPORTANT, PLEASE READ - this story is going start getting much darker from this point. Lyra is going to go through real development and stop being the innocent little girl she spent all of season 1 being. While it's obviously not going to be immediate and will stretch between seasons 2-4 until she gets to her darkest point (season 5), it will start in season 2. If you do not want to read that sort of thing, then I just recommend pretending her and Bellamy got her happy ending and stop reading here. I enjoy pushing characters to the brink and that is what I intend to do here.
(Also, if u genuinely hate season 5 Octavia and can't understand why she did what she did, then leave. Because I think Octavia did what she had to do and I will die on that hill.)