It was sheer dumb luck that allowed her to reach Maya's father's quarters without anyone seeing her. When she passed by people she kept her head down low. She had already torn off the name on her uniform because anyone who knew the golden haired Aspen Melpomene would have known instantly that Skye with her Asian features and black hair was not her.
She knocked a few times on the door and waited, hunched into herself.
The door opened only a crack and Skye was sure her eyes were wide and her voice shook, "Please. I need your help."
Without hesitation the man ushered her inside and she could breathe again.
"Skye?"
She whipped around at the familiar voice and nearly collapsed in relief seeing Bellamy appear from one of the rooms. He took three strides and then crushed her in a hug, burying his face into her neck and hair. She clung to him, "You're here."
He pulled away and then kissed her quickly, "Are you okay? What happened?"
"Yeah, I'm fine," she answered, breaking their embrace to study him and search for any sign he was hurt, "I knocked the guard out and came right back. Are you hurt anywhere?"
"No," he let out a breath of air and then wrapped one arm around her waist to lead her to a map that was spread over the table, unwilling to let her go, "Do you know how scared I was?"
She squeezed him once but said, "Bell I love you, but we really don't have time. We need to neutralize that acid fog."
"We're way ahead of you," Maya's father said, "You can get there through the-"
That's when Skye realized there was a guard in the corner of the room. She scrambled backward, pulling out her gun and aiming. Bellamy threw himself in front of her, "Skye no! He's with us!"
"How do you know?" She snarled, body tense.
"Trust me Skye," he said, hand still outstretched for her.
The guard relaxed when she reluctantly lowered her gun. Then he looked her up and down, "Who's uniform is that?"
She didn't back down from his gaze, hand still clutching the gun. She wouldn't kill to protect herself but all bets were off if she needed to save Bellamy, "Aspen Melpomene."
The guard clenched his jaw, but didn't say anything more. Bellamy was the one who rasped out, "Melpomene? That was her name? Are you sure?"
Skye nodded hesitantly, "What about it?"
"Melpomene is the-" he cut himself off, swallowing, "never mind."
He just looked sad.
Maya's dad cleared his throat to break away the thick tension, "Like I was saying. You can get to the acid fog through the retrofit zones. They're off limits: no cameras and no patrols. We used some to move the kids."
He broke away from the table displaying the map to grab something off of the shelf next to him, "You're going to need this. An acetylene torch."
He handed it to Skye who looked at the strange contraption for a few seconds and then passed it to Bellamy. Maya's dad continued detailing the directions.
They made to leave, but Maya's dad pulled Skye back by the sleeve. She turned around to see a seriousness on his face that was so fatherly it nearly stole the breath from her, "Don't forget your promise."
She pulled her arm away from him, "I won't."
~*~*~*~
It was both easier and harder to navigate through the retrofit zones, but by some miracle they made it to the acid fog room.
They emerged through a vent at the end of a huge building with ginormous metal vats stretching haphazardly across the length that seemed to stumble over the pipes jutting out of everywhere. She couldn't count the number of signs she saw with bright bold letters and danger pictographs.
The couple drew their guns and stalked across the room, watching for any personnel.
"Call Raven, I'm going to lock this place down," Bellamy said, eyeing a hatchet behind safety glass.
Immediately Skye pressed her radio as he rushed around her, "Come in, Raven. We made it. Please tell me you have a plan."
Raven picked up, "Still working on it. Give us something to go on. What do you see?"
Skye looked around her, "Giant steel vats. Cylindrical," she walked around, inspecting the room, "Some other tanks with chemical formulas. Lots of warning signs and a bunch of pipes going into the wall. A monitor-"
"Oh! Go to the monitor!" A new voice- male- ordered.
Skye stopped in her tracks, "Who the hell are you?"
"Name's Wick," he replied smoothly, "Who the hell are you?"
She heard Raven muttering lowly over the radio and Skye's mouth twisted, "I'm Scythe."
"Ooh badass."
"Right."
"Hey Scythe? How's my boy Monty doing?" Wick asked.
"He's good, but I don't know for how much longer. I'm coming up to the monitor now."
She almost heard Wick nodding, "Great. Pleasantries over. Listen, if that monitor is a control panel we can use it to kill this thing."
Skye swore, looking at all of the complicated words on the screen, "I need to get Bellamy. Hang on."
"No time," Raven cut in, "Listen, look for a-"
"I said give me a second," Skye whispered, frustration and embarrassment coloring her cheeks red. She called out for Bellamy.
Raven groaned, "Scythe what is your problem? Just tell me if you see-"
She started rattling off things that Skye wasn't familiar with and she skimmed the letters, trying to decipher anything that could help.
"It's a yes or no question, come on!"
"I can't read, Raven!" Skye exploded, pressing her fingers into her temples to try to cool down.
There was silence on the line while Bellamy finally jammed the door closed and started to double back to the monitor. Wick cursed.
"What do you mean you can't read?" Raven's voice was pinched.
"When exactly did I have time to learn?" She refused to let her voice waiver.
She knew the alphabet and could puzzle out some basic words, but all of the words on the monitor were at least ten letters long.
Wick awkwardly tried to break the tension, starting a sentence, when Raven cut him off, "Then get Bellamy over here if you aren't going to help."
"Careful, Raven," Bellamy growled coldly, slowing his pace when he reached Skye to press a supportive kiss to her temple, "I'm here. What do you need?"
Wick directed him to look for a pH scale, whatever that was, and Bellamy started prattling off a series of numbers and letters before getting annoyed, "Can I just blow this thing?"
"No they'll know their defenses are down. They'll send a tech to fix it, reroute it, or pull out a weapon we don't even know about."
Raven snatched the mic, "Plus, you'd probably melt your face off."
Skye and Bellamy both winced.
"Look, you know I like a good explosion but we have to think our way through this one. Here we go. Read me everything you see."
Bellamy shook his head, beginning to rattle off everything on the screen. Skye kept a vigilant eye on their surroundings while Raven and Wick shot down everything on the monitor.
"Set point and alarm?"
"Let's avoid that one," Wick drawled and Skye's lips quirked up.
Bellamy scowled at her, whispering, "Like you know what half this stuff means."
She pressed her mouth closed to avoid a laugh escaping and Wick hurried them along, "Come on, what else?"
"Maintenance and cleaning."
There was a pause, and then Wick was excitedly prattling off more instructions. Bellamy clicked a few more times and then there was a whirring noise behind them and the vats began to vibrate slightly, "It's doing something."
"You should be able to hear the pump."
"I can hear them," Bellamy said and he turned back towards the screen, hope kindling, "needle's moving. The pH is rising."
"It's working," Wick confirmed.
More words popped up on screen and Bellamy smiled widely at Skye, "Passivation complete. It worked. Send the flare."
Skye and Bellamy excitedly hugged, laughing. The grounder army that Clarke was raising was now protected. There was no other defense left.
They had a shot at saving their people.
"C'mon we have to get everyone."
The two of them started to leave, but Bellamy's gaze snagged on something on one of the vats. He stalked closer and Skye watched him approach on of the dials, wiping off a layer of grime, "What the hell?"
"What?" Skye's heart plummeted.
His face was panicked, and he pressed his comm, "Raven, we got a problem."
She watched him run back to the monitor, checking that pH scale again, "Damn it! Where are you? I don't think the acid fog is down. Get word to Clarke, we have to stop the army!"
Skye looked at the needle on that vat. It wasn't pointing at 7. It was still on 0. It was still acidic.
A lot of people were going to die.
"Raven?" Skye urged, "Raven pick up! What's going on?"
Alarms started to blare and Bellamy reached for Skye, his face slack with horror. So much horror. The door he had barricaded was rattling and everywhere they could just feel their plans crashing at their feet.
"Get to the vent," he said, looking down at the torch in his hand. When she didn't move right away he pushed her into motion.
She dove aside right at the guards blasted through the door and began to run towards them.
Scrambling through the vent, she put as much distance between herself and the guards as she could. A few moments later, Bellamy dove into it behind her, yelling, "Drop your gun! Keep moving!"
She obeyed, sliding her gun to him so he had two while she crawled as fast as humanly possible. She heard him shoot out of the vent, but didn't dare look behind.
The horrible sound of a gun empty of bullets invaded her ears and she just made it to the end of the vent, dropping into the space below and reaching her hands for him.
Skye couldn't see anything but Bellamy scrambling towards her but she heard the vats of acid fog whirring again and she felt sick. No. They were going to lose.
"Get down!" Bellamy yelled.
She didn't, she kept her arms outstretched for the one who meant more to life. It was precisely the reason that she was able to grab his hand and yank him through the exit and cover his body with hers as the room exploded.
He cried out as he struck the ground below and the fire blasted across the top of them. Loud and raging. She clung tightly to him and held her breath as the scream of the dying explosion stole all other sound.
Once she was sure it was safe she lifted herself off of him, touching his face, holding him as coughs racked his body.
He started to laugh deliriously, "It worked."
"What did you do?"
He sat up and then winced, clutching his forearm, "I lit the oxygen tank on fire."
Skye grabbed his wrist and inspected the pink burn searing across his forearm, "That was the most idiotic thing you've ever done."
His smile was bright, "But it was a lot of fun."
She wasn't amused, but deemed his burn to be non life-threatening, "How bad does it feel?"
Standing up he rolled his shoulders back, "How bad does what feel?"
She gave him a look but he just rolled his eyes and then narrowed them at her, "I told you not to put yourself in between me and danger again."
"We're not having this conversation."
"Someday I'm going to figure out how to add some self-preservation to your personality," he brushed ash off his uniform, "Come on, we need to get back to the harvesting room."
The harvesting room.
Great.
~*~*~*~
As soon as they tumbled through the vent leading to the harvesting room, Skye was hurtling towards Echo. Bellamy tossed her the keys and she hastily unlocked her cage.
Skye half-lifted the Grounder girl out of her cage and when she was settled on the ground, Echo threw her arms around her, squeezing tight, "You came back."
"Of course I did," Skye pulled away, "Now come on, our people are marching on Mount Weather right now."
Echo nodded, looking around at all of the cages of people who were now realizing what was happening.
"Can you get everyone unlocked?" Bellamy asked Echo, "Keep everyone here and stay quiet until we get back."
Taking the keys from him, Echo nodded with determination, starting to shout something in her language.
"How do we do this?" She asked once everyone had quieted.
"There's an army outside going for the main door," he explained, "when they get it open all hell will break loose. That's the signal for my friends to come here and then-"
A voice over the intercom interrupted what he was saying:
"My fellow citizens, this is your president speaking," Skye seethed at the voice of Cage penetrating the air, "I have news to share with you that will change all of our lives forever."
Skye's mouth dropped open, "He's going public."
"Not good," Bellamy muttered in response.
Cage continued on to talk about the treatment one of his doctors had discovered that would allow the people of Mount Weather to become immune to the radiation.
And then Bellamy and Skye were again running out of the room, desperate to get to their friends.
They both knew what Cage was going to say next.
Echo stopped Skye, "Where are you going?"
Bellamy kept running and Skye called over her shoulder, "He's getting people to turn on each other. We'll send you our people in groups."
"Wait," she called and Skye looked back once more to see the girl standing straight up, "Thank you."
"Thank me when we're all outside."
And then Skye was gone.