week two, thursday afternoon

[jettisons]

[Bellamy practically tears his way down to the beach from the oasis, heart in his throat. He's forcing himself to cling to the fact that it's too early for this, that Haru's body didn't disappear, that it doesn't make sense for this to be so different, but that doesn't wipe the image of Raven, throat slit, red bleeding into the rocks, out of his head.

It doesn't matter. He hasn't been this blind with panic since Roan took Clarke, since Octavia was locked out of the bunker. He's almost dizzy with it.]

Raven!

Comments

[hydrazine]

I wasn't. I didn't know if it would be safe for me, either. I know you wouldn't tell anyone, but... It's in the rulebook. Don't reveal your role.

[She exhales, a stressed noise.]

[jettisons]

[Bellamy scrubs a hand over his face.]

Alright.

[He's giving in. It's clear he's not happy about it, but he gets why she did it.]

Tell me exactly what you have to do.

[hydrazine]

...Until we find a way to stop it, every week we pick someone and kill that person to stop the volcano from blowing.

[jettisons]

"We"? Who's "we"?

[hydrazine]

...I can't tell you that.

[A sigh.]

They told me it was fine if I told you what I'm doing, but they didn't want me to tell you who they are or how many of them there are.

[jettisons]

So what can you tell me, Raven?

[He's frustrated, even though he knows it isn't entirely fair to be.]

[hydrazine]

You're the only one I've told! You're the only one I trust enough to tell.

[She rakes a hand through the loose hair of her ponytail.]

I can tell you he told me if I don't cooperate, he's going to send me back to a world with no other inhabitants. I can tell you that I ran out of time and ideas and someone else is going to die in a few hours. What do you want me to tell you?

[jettisons]

[It's a very good thing he's gotten adept at shoving his fear aside, because that's pretty terrifying.]

That's a start. What are the other roles? Are they the same?

[hydrazine]

I don't know. So far, he's only given us information we absolutely need, and apparently we don't need to know about the other roles yet. I could probe more when we have our meeting next week.

[jettisons]

Your meeting.

[This is utterly surreal.]

Who's in charge of picking who dies? All of you?

[hydrazine]

Yeah. We meet every Monday night.

[She nods.]

...All of us. We're working on a list of people who we want to make it to the end.

[Sound familiar?]

[jettisons]

[It does sound familiar, which is why his next question is immediate.]

Are you on the list?

[hydrazine]

Yes. All of us in the group are.

[She pauses.]

Then... You, Lief, Lelouch, and Hiro. We're going to work on it more going forward.

[jettisons]

[A normal person would probably be relieved to be on that list, but Bellamy isn't. He's not sure he deserves it, especially not over someone like Nino or Yona.]

How are you deciding it? Partners don't matter?

[hydrazine]

Partners matter. We aren't targeting any of our partners or the partners of the people on that list.

[A sigh.]

But that's still more people than he told us we could save.

[jettisons]

I'm not leaving this island without you.

[Just to make that crystal clear before this discussion moves forward.]

[hydrazine]

I'm not asking you to. We're still getting out of this together. That hasn't changed.

[jettisons]

[Bellamy just nods. He needed to make sure.]

So the only way off this island is killing everyone else. That's what they're telling you.

[hydrazine]

[She nods.]

Seven people out of forty, unless that gets increased.

[jettisons]

[Great. Awesome. He's going to deal with how awful that is later.]

You need to tell me how to protect you at the trials.

[hydrazine]

...Akira was asleep when I left and when I came back to the hut last week, so there was no problem with the alibi.

[And there's a certain amount of guilt in her voice as she says that, a rarity for her.]

I'm not sure he'll do the same this week, after what happened. You could say we were together tonight.

[jettisons]

[God, he hates this, but of course he'll lie for her. Bellamy nods.]

Are you doing the killing or is that someone else's job?

[hydrazine]

Everyone who's willing to do it is going to take turns.

[jettisons]

Are you up this week?

[hydrazine]

[She takes a breath.]

Yes.