I Am Become Death

Elara and Nova searched the Exodus ship crash site near one another. Though Elara's attention was more focused on her friend than the search. "Stay sharp. Grounder retaliation for what happened on the bridge is coming, just a matter of when." Bellamy calls out to the group.

Feeling Elara's eyes on her Nova sighs, "What?"

"Nothing." Elara quickly replies.

Nova rolls her eyes, "Lara, just tell me."

"Are you alright? Should you be out here right now?"

"What because my father just died in a fiery explosion? I'm fine. It's not like we were on the best of terms anyway."

Before Elara gets the chance to reply they hear Raven yell, "Fire in the hole!" She then throws a rock which causes an explosion. The two girls watch as she says something to Bellamy.

"We move in formation, no straggling, weapons hot. We gotta get back before dark." Bellamy calls for the group to head out.

Once in formation Elara begins talking to Nova once more. "You may not have been on speaking terms but he's still your dad. And honestly not being on speaking terms might even be worse. Now you don't have the chance to make up with him."

Nova spares a glance at her slightly taller friend, "I promise I'm fine. I'm more concerned about the fact that we are now officially at war with the Grounders. But I'll make sure to come to you if I'm not okay."

Elara nods, happy with her friend's answer. The two girls stay quiet for the rest of the trip back to camp.

*_*_*_*_*_*

Once they made it back to camp, Miller informed Bellamy, Clarke and Nova that Murphy was back. In an instant all three plus Finn were rushing towards the dropship where said delinquent was being kept.

"Where is he?" Bellamy yells. The minute his eyes fall on a bloodied and bruised Murphy he speaks once more, "Everyone but Connor and Derek out. Now."

Everyone but Nova, Clarke, and Finn listen to him, though Bellamy doesn't try to argue, knowing they won't listen. "We caught him trying to sneak back into camp." Connor says.

"He claims he was with the Grounders." Derek adds.

"I wasn't sneaking. I was running from the Grounders." Murphy speaks up.

"Anyone see Grounders?" Bellamy asks.

Connor and Derek both shake their heads. "Well, in that case-" Bellamy raises his gun.

"Hey, what the hell is wrong with you?" Finn snaps, stepping in front of the gun.

"We were clear what would happen if he came back."

"All he's going to do is cause more trouble. We should have killed him when we had the chance." Nova adds.

"No. If he was with the Grounders, then he knows things that can help us." Finn says.

Nova scoffs as Bellamy answers, "Help us? We hanged him. We banished him, and now we're gonna kill him. Get the hell out of my way."

"No. Finn is right." Clarke starts.

"Like hell he is. Clarke, think about Charlotte."

"I am thinking about her, but what happened to Charlotte was as much our fault as his. He's not lying. His fingernails were torn off. They tortured him."

"You and the Grounders should compare notes." Finn says to Bellamy.

"The Grounders know we're at war. What did you tell them about us?" Bellamy asks.

"Everything." Murphy states.

Nova shakes her head, "You should have kept your pathetic mouth shut."

"Yeah like you would have if you were the one being tortured."

"I would have because my life is not worth risking the life of my people. I would have kept my mouth shut and I would have let them kill me. They wouldn't have gotten shit from me."

Clarke speaks up to stop the argument from continuing, "Once he's better, we find out what he knows, and then he's out of here, okay?"

"What if he refuses to leave? What do we do with him then?" Bellamy asks the blonde.

"Then we kill him."

*_*_*_*_*_*

Nova was carving more arrows and watching Elara practice with her weapon when she heard one of the delinquents scream. "Where's Clarke and Elara?"

Both girls exchanged a worried look and ran to where the delinquents were panicking. Around them a handful of delinquents were coughing as blood dripped from their eyes.

"What's happening?" Nova asked, watching as Elara ran towards one of the sick boys.

She turned to Clarke as the blonde yelled, "Raven, Elara, get away from us."

"What?" Raven asked.

"Why?" Elara added, eyebrows knitting together.

"They're the ones who brought Murphy in." Clarke answered.

Nova took the chance to help the sick into the dropship, knowing that she already came in contact with Murphy earlier. "I'll help Lara, just make sure you stay away. We don't need you getting sick too."

Elara hesitantly nodded but both girls knew that she wouldn't be able to stay away for long.

Nova joined Clarke beside Murphy just as Bellamy stepped through the dropship entrance. "Bellamy, stay back." Clarke says, noticing that the boy isn't sick. "Nova you shouldn't be in here either."

"Bellamy and I have both already been exposed, we either aren't going to get sick or it's already too late." Nova replies, staying beside the blonde.

"What the hell is it?" Bellamy asks, also coming closer.

"Biological warfare. You were waiting for the Grounders to retaliate for the bridge? This is it. Murphy is the weapon." Clarke explains.

"Is this your revenge, helping the Grounders kill us?" Bellamy angrily asks.

"I didn't know about this, okay, I swear." Murphy replies, hunching over to cough up some blood.

"Stop lying. When are they coming?" Bellamy questions, not believing the younger boy.

"Murphy, come on. You got to know something. Anything about them. Think." Nova says.

"They are vicious, cruel." Murphy says, shaking his head. "They really make you look like an angel, Angel."

Nova instantly rolls her eyes. She watches as Bellamy takes a step closer, "Hey back up. Whatever this is spreads through contact." Clarke scolds.

Finn chooses that moment to walk in. "Clarke?" He asks, looking towards the blonde.

"Finn, you shouldn't be in here. No one should."

"I heard you were sick. Clarke, what is this?"

"I don't know. Some kind of hemorrhagic fever. We just need to contain it before-" She's cut off as Derek retches.

"What the hell is happening to him?" Finn asks, watching their fellow delinquent.

"I don't know."

Derek coughs one last time then falls over. "Is he-"

Bellamy gets cut off with Clarke confirming their suspicions, "He's dead."

"What do we do?" Finn asks.

"Quarantine. Round up everyone who had contact with Murphy. Bring them here." Clarke replies. The group watches as Finn leaves.

"What about everyone they had contact with? Everyone in this camp could have a chance of getting it already." Nova states.

"Well, we have to start somewhere. Connor, who was with you when you found him? Who carried him in?" Clarke asks the sick teenager.

"The first one there was Octavia." He answers.

*_*_*_*_*_*

After Clarke checked Nova she sent her up to the third floor since she wasn't showing any symptoms yet. In the meantime Elara kept her gaze locked on the dropship entrance. She knew that she had to do something to help.

So collecting some water and rags she finally made her way inside. "You shouldn't be in here, Elara." Clarke called out.

"I need to help. Plus I was technically in contact with whatever this is anyways."

Clarke raised an eyebrow in question, "I've been with Nova, who has been in contact with Murphy." Clarke nods at the girl's answer. "Plus you are sick. You need to worry about yourself and let me deal with this."

Clarke gives another nod but doesn't sit down and relax. Instead she makes her way to the dropship entrance to talk with Bellamy. Elara makes her way outside when she starts hearing the delinquents freak out.

In the blink of an eye, Nova is beside her and lets out an ear piercing whistle. "Everyone calm the fuck down!" The petite girl yells. The camp is silent, clearly afraid of her despite getting to know her better since they came down.

Clarke takes the silence as her chance to speak, "This is exactly what the Grounders want. Don't you see that? They don't have to kill us if we kill each other first."

"They won't have to kill us if we all catch the virus. Get back in the damn dropship!" A delinquent yells.

"Why don't you shut the fuck up." Nova spits out. "If you haven't noticed not everyone who has come in contact has gotten sick. And most who have gotten sick are still alive."

Right after the words leave Nova's mouth Clarke falls forward. Elara and Finn both rush towards her, trying to break her fall. "Finn, don't touch her!" Raven yells at the boy.

The two have a whispered conversation once Elara backs away. A little louder Clarke says, "Octavia will come back with a cure."

"There is no cure." Octavia says, stepping back into the camp. "But the Grounders don't use the sickness to kill."

"Really? Tell that to them. I warned you about seeing that Grounder again." Bellamy scolds his sister.

"Yeah? Well, I have a warning for you, too. The Grounders are coming. And they're attacking at first light."

The girls and Finn walk into the dropship to talk, "What do I have to do to stop you from coming in here?" Clarke asks Finn.

"Get better." He replies.

"If he's not sick by now, then he's probably immune like me." Octavia says.

At this, Nova nods, "Great. Then I probably am too. I need to talk with Raven and Bellamy to see what our plan is for the attack."

The brunette stands up and walks out of the dropship. Elara watches her go, "Rest, Clarke. We'll make sure everyone stays hydrated. But you need to take care of yourself."

*_*_*_*_*_*

As Elara gets to work helping the sick delinquents, Nova finds the group talking about the attack. "Oh we're so dead." She hears Harper say.

"What's wrong?" Nova asks.

"We're running out of gunpowder." Raven answers the girl.

"Could we build a bomb?" Nova suggests.

"Depends on what you're trying to blow up.

"How about a bridge?" Finn asks, stepping up to the group.

"What are you talking about?" Bellamy asks.

"Murphy said he crossed a bridge on his way back from the Grounders' camp. Sound familiar?"

"Yeah. So what?"

"So the virus is fast. He's already getting better. Blowing the bridge won't stop the attack, but the longer we can delay it, the more of us will be able to fight."

"Even if Murphy is telling the truth, that bridge has survived a nuclear war and ninety-seven years of weather."

Raven confidently speaks up, "It won't survive me."

A few hours later Raven has collected rocket fuel from the Exodus crash site and has made the bomb. "Okay. You can come in now." She calls for Finn, Bellamy, and Nova to enter. "Boom."

"That's cute." Bellamy says as he looks at the bomb.

"Relax. It needs an accelerant-gunpowder. Container of hydrazine. Put the gunpowder around the hydrazine. Hit the bull's eye. Win a prize."

"It's the rest of our gunpowder. Won't be able to make any more bullets."

"Well we need this bomb. Plus I've still been training everyone with the other weapons. We'll be okay." Nova states, crossing her arms.

"To be safe, you need to be at least two hundred feet away to make the shot."

"No problem. Which one of you plants the bomb?" Bellamy asks.

"I will." Finn quickly answers.

"You won't pick up a gun, but blowing people up, that you're okay with?"

"We're blowing up a bridge. There's not gonna be any people on it."

"There might be. It depends on how quick we get there and when they arrive." Nova says.

"Plus we have one bomb. We need to use it to kill as many of those bastards as possible." Bellamy adds, Nova nodding in agreement.

"But they don't know we only have one bomb. If we did, why would we waste it on the bridge? I'm talking about deterrents, peace through strength." Finn replies.

"The appearance of strength, you mean." Raven says.

Bellamy's nose starts bleeding just as Finn nods at Raven's words. "Don't touch anything." Raven says to the older boy.

"Doesn't look like you'll be able to come after all. Get to the dropship." Nova says.

"Like hell." Bellamy replies, "Make sure the bomb is packed and ready to go in ten minutes."

*_*_*_*_*_*

Elara watches as Bellamy walks inside the dropship coughing up blood. She moves to go help but Octavia beats her to it. She leaves the siblings alone and turns back to help the other delinquents.

Outside, Raven and Nova left with the bomb. Deciding to do it themselves rather than wait for the boys. Halfway to their destination Raven's eyes started to drip blood.

"Shit Raven." Nova says noticing the blood.

Raven immediately holds up a hand to touch her face. "I'm fine." She says.

"For now. We still have a while to walk. And Clarke nearly passed out because she wasn't resting. Head back, I'll do it myself."

"No. I am not letting you do this by yourself. Plus you should stay off the bridge and in position to shoot."

"If someone finds out that I let you do this when you were sick." Nova trails off as she shakes her head. She decides against arguing anymore though as the two girls continue their journey.

Not too long later they make it to the bridge and Raven lets out a quiet, "Oh, thank God."

"Are you sure you can do it yourself? I can place the bomb and you can stay with the gun instead."

Raven determinedly shakes her head and starts walking towards the bridge by herself. "God, she's more stubborn than me." Nova says under her breath.

*_*_*_*_*_*

"Get the hell away from me." Bellamy hisses at Murphy who tries to help him.

"I got this Murphy." Elara says walking up to the two boys. He nods and hands her the water.

Elara sits crossed legged beside the older boy. "Here." She says as she helps him drink.

"How's Clarke?" Bellamy questions.

"Doing better. She's starting to help everyone again." Bellamy nods as he watches Elara rings out the rag that she brought over. "How are you feeling?"

"I'm okay. The sleep helped." There's a brief moment of silence as Elara focuses on cleaning the blood off of Bellamy's face. "Have you seen Octavia?"

"She was up all night helping people. Murphy and I gave her a break."

"Don't tell me you trust him now."

Elara shakes her head, "No. But I do believe people deserve second chances."

Bellamy studies the girl carefully as she turns back to cleaning his face. "You know you're really beautiful."

Elara's face flushes and she avoids eye contact. She mumbles out a quiet, "Thanks," never stopping her cleaning.

"It's almost dawn. Better get everyone inside. If we lock the doors, maybe the Grounders will think we're not home."

"You don't think Finn and Nova are gonna pull it off?" Elara asks, finally putting the rag down.

"Do you?"

"I always have confidence in Nova. She's brilliant. But if it will make you feel better, I'll get everyone inside."

*_*_*_*_*_*

Nova watches Raven build the bomb on the bridge. The older girl is taking longer than Nova would like, though she doesn't start panicking until the sound of war drums fills her ears. "Fuck."

The petite brunette starts to walk forward to help Raven but stops when she hears people yelling behind her, "Raven! Nova!"

Nova turns at the sound of Finn's voice, "Quick! Help her! And get out of there!" Nova yells at Finn. She pulls Jasper with her so that she can line up her shot for when Raven and Finn are out of the way.

Nova carefully watches as Finn helps Raven up. The boy then yells, "Shoot, Nova! Shoot! Shoot!"

"What the hell does he mean shoot!? They're too close!" Nova rushes out quickly looking at Jasper.

"You got this." She hears from behind her.

She jumps and looks over her shoulder, "God, don't do that Monty!"

Jasper looks at his friend in shock, "Why did-"

"Shut up. I need to concentrate." Nova scolds the boy. Both immediately fall silent and once Nova deems Finn and Raven to be far enough away, she takes a deep breath and pulls the trigger.

The bridge explodes and the group - plus everyone back at camp - cheers.