Archive of Our Own

The wind whipped around the trees in the forest as the green light from the Anomaly swirled overhead. A leaf, from an Offering Grove tree, broke from its branch and got caught up in the wind. It flowed effortlessly until being swept up into a vortex. Down, down, down it went before being spit out and carrying on with its path. The wind reached a crescendo and then died away as suddenly as it had appeared 

“Octavia,” Bellamy whispered. The green light faded slowly back to the yellow of the afternoon suns. He looked down at his empty, stained hands. His sister had slipped right through his fingers and there was nothing he could do to stop it. 

It took him a moment to reorient himself to his surroundings. His throat burned from screaming his sister’s name, his cheeks were marked with tear tracks, and his whole body was vibrating with nervous energy. 

Though everything inside him felt different, Sanctum looked exactly the same again when he looked up from his grief. The radios were still buzzing and Gabriel's tent stood strong in the middle of the clearing. He stood up slowly and walked toward the tent. 

Echo met him at the entrance, her face was guarded as she reached out for him hesitantly. He shook his head at her, so she pulled back, and let him pass inside. 

“Did you find anything out?” Bellamy asked. He wanted to get straight to business. The quicker they figured out what had happened, the quicker he could get his sister back. A darker part of his mind reminded him that she wasn’t his responsibility anymore, but he brushed it off. 

“She’s been out since it…happened,” Echo trailed off behind him. Inside the tent, Gabriel was frantically consulting his notebooks and drawings, but Bellamy didn’t care what one hundred and fifty years of speculation would tell him, they had the answer right in front of them. 

He moved to the couch where they had set down the strange woman when she passed out after stabbing Octavia. Bellamy wiped the blood off his hands onto his pants’ leg and then went to place his hand on the stranger’s forehead. 

She wore odd layers of clothes, belts, and fabrics that reminded him of the Grounders. Her face was young, she was somewhere in her 20s. Bellamy skimmed over the symbols tattooed on her forehead and cheeks. 

“Where’s Octavia’s drawing?” Bellamy spoke hoarsely. Echo didn’t move but looked around. Her eyes catching on all the symbols and spirals under the tent.

“Gabriel!” Bellamy finally called out impatiently. “I need Octavia’s drawing!” 

The other man stopped mumbling to himself and a flurry of papers went up in the air. Gabriel raced over to Bellamy and handed him the drawing.

“Do any of these match?” Bellamy questioned him. There was the octonion symbol like the one Octavia had pushed on the Anomaly Stone, but none of the others looked familiar. Gabriel checked her arms for more.

“What if we pushed the symbols again?” Echo supplied. She reached down to unlock the hatch with a need to make herself useful. 

Bellamy searched back and forth between the letters and numbers to find some sort of pattern, to decipher some kind of clue. He calculated that the spiral went out seven times, one hundred symbols in total, and the red octonion in the very center. 

“Let’s do it,” he agreed. They left the stranger and went down below. The Anomaly Stone hung suspended in midair. Held up a force beyond Bellamy’s scope of understanding. It was damp underground but the brass sphere sparkled in the dim light making it impossible to tell how old it truly was. The symbols were barely raised, a slight notch of gilded gold that ran along the helicoid. 

“There’s way more than a hundred symbols on this,” Bellamy muttered to himself. 

“What?” 

“On the drawing, Octavia’s had one hundred symbols.”

“What does that mean?” Gabriel asked perplexed by the questions that kept coming at him. He had studied the Anomaly for a century but felt no closer to its answers than when he first discovered it. 

Bellamy held the paper up and began to push the symbols. They gently vibrated at each touch. Echo and Gabriel held their breaths as they watched.

“You’re playing with something you don’t understand,” a voice from above them spoke. Bellamy’s hand paused and he looked up the stairs to see the mysterious woman had awoken. She stood there, not making her way down to them, and then turned away. 

Bellamy dropped the paper, Anomaly Stone forgotten and raced after her. Echo and Gabriel not far behind him. Above, the woman moved gracefully around the tent. She grabbed a handful of objects scattered around and then reached into a metal basket. She picked up a gun and a knife. 

“Those belong to Diyoza,” Gabriel insisted, his hands raised up at her like he was trying to calm a wild animal. The tension in the room bubbled up like a balloon pressing around them on all sides. 

“These belong to my mother,” the woman spoke angrily. She pocketed the weapons and thumbed through some of Gabriel’s spirals. 

“Who are you?” Bellamy commanded. He had to resist the urge to corner her, to wrap his hand around her throat, and demand her to answer everything. Every second they wasted, Octavia could be in trouble. 

“I’m Hope,” she said simply. “And I would suggest not touching that sequence again. Not while a Dimension is in progress.” 

“What—where’s my sister?” Bellamy fumbled with his words. Some of the tension dissipated, but he still didn’t understand what she was talking about.

“Octavia is on her journey. Soon you will be too.”

“I’m not going anywhere until you tell me what the hell is going on!”

“That’s Diyoza’s notebook,” Gabriel claimed as Hope picked up a book flipping through a few pages. 

“My mother is in trouble.” She closed the notebook and placed it inside a pocket on her chest. Gabriel looked like he wanted to protest but kept his mouth shut. The woman had an air of otherworldliness to her that he wanted to see explained. 

“Maybe we should get the others,” Echo whispered. She was right beside Bellamy now, a hand on his shoulder and uncertainty still in her eyes. “Clarke will want to know what’s happening.” 

“Clarke?” Hope looked between them, a small smile forming on her lips. “You’re definitely going to need Clarke. And the others from the hundred.” 

She sat down on the couch, not meeting their confused stares, and crossed her arms. “I’ll be right here until you get back.” 

She didn’t offer them any other explanation, so Gabriel kept watch over her, while Bellamy and Echo went back to Sanctum.

—

“Okay, tell me again,” Raven repeated for the millionth time, but continued before Bellamy could answer her. “The octonion opened the Anomaly. That would suggest string theory, with double the dimensions of quaternions, but an alternative powerful enough to defy quantum physics.” 

“Raven, English, please,” Murphy grumbled from the back of the line. Clarke huffed out a laugh and glanced over her shoulder. Murphy rolled his eyes as Emori held on to every word Raven spoke. Miller looked as confused as Clarke felt. She squeezed Madi’s hand and turned back to look at Bellamy. 

His shoulders were hunched, the tension so tight, she wondered when he was going to snap. When he had made it back to Sanctum, Clarke was forced out of her mourning at the sight of him. His hair stuck up in all directions, eyes wide and lost. 

All he had to do was mention Octavia’s name and she was stumbling through the forest beside him. She couldn’t comprehend what had happened. She knew the Anomaly was a mystery. Thanks to Josephine, she knew of the Anomaly Stone and she tried to explain it to the others as best she could on their way, but nothing else made sense. 

Raven was working it all over and over in her mind. But she lost them as soon as she had mentioned the mechanisms of some advanced science. 

“All I know is Hope Diyoza came out and Octavia went in,” Bellamy said and came to a stop at Gabriel’s home. Clarke felt a shiver run through her body. The last time she was here, she was fighting to survive. 

“So let’s go get her back,” Clarke spoke confidently. She gave Bellamy a supportive nod and they pulled back the tent flap together.

“Hope Diyoza as in a 200-year-old fetus that went into the Anomaly and came out a full-blown adult?” Murphy asked. No one answered him as they all made their way inside. 

The young woman sat inconceivably still, perched on the edge of her seat, and eyes unmoving as she stared across the room. 

“She hasn’t said anything,” Gabriel told Bellamy. “She hasn’t done anything either.” 

Bellamy crouched down in front of Hope and said, “I brought Clarke and the others. Care to tell us what’s going on now?” 

Hazel eyes snapped out of their trance and glanced at Bellamy and then over to Clarke. She wanted to recoil at her intense stare. There was something off about the way the woman looked at her.

“I said only the hundred. The rest of them can’t come,” Hope said monotonously, not taking her eyes off Clarke, but nodding toward Madi, Emori, and Echo. 

Ignoring the protests that rang up at her words, Hope rose up from her seat and went down the hatch. Bellamy followed her quietly. The allure of answers pulled at him like a tether. 

“Wait here,” Clarke told Madi. She embraced the small girl and looked up at Echo. Tears stung at the corner of her eyes. 

“I’ll watch after her, if you watch after him,” Echo jerked her head after Bellamy. Clarke promised she would, and followed after Miller down the rabbit hole. 

When Clarke’s feet hit the cold, hard ground, Raven was circling the Stone, muttering to herself. Gabriel stood in the corner with his hand on his chin in thought. The other guys stood slack-jaw at the underground room in shock. She pushed past them.

“Incredible, isn’t?” Gabriel said as she walked up beside him. The leftover memories of Josephine's, that floated around her mind, made it difficult for Clarke to not be excited for him. 

“This is what you’ve been studying?” 

“It took Monty thirty years to crack the Eligius III file. You’d think someone would have more headway on this thing after a few lifetimes?” Raven taunted from her side of the room. Clarke arched an eyebrow up at her.

“If a team of the best scientists from before your time couldn’t grasp the concepts here, I doubt any of you could,” Hope dismissed her and Raven sucked in a surprised breath.

“What is it then? What does this all mean?” Bellamy spoke up and gestured toward the Anomaly Stone. Clarke could sense the frustration that was rising up in him again. They had been spinning around this mystery for long enough. It was time to get answers. 

“I don’t know how it got here. I don’t know how it all works. But...I can show you better than I can tell you,” Hope responded. She handed Gabriel a piece of parchment. The paper was worn. Clarke could see that it was filled with new symbols, not exactly like the ones from the other drawings. “I’ll need you to input the coordinates.” 

Gabriel nodded his head at the command and walked up to the Stone. Clarke moved toward Bellamy as the others joined them, standing right in front of Hope. 

”She’s not…” Hope’s eyes trailed over to Raven as she slowly made her way to them. 

”She is,” Bellamy and Clarke spoke at the same time. They stared down the stranger daring her to challenge them. 

“Whatever this is. She’s apart of it,” Clarke added and reached out her hand. Bellamy took it and Raven took the other. 

Hope sighed, made a spinning motion in the air with her finger, and Gabriel began to push the symbols on the Anomaly Stone. A light vibration ran under their feet and a green storm brewed in the sky they wouldn’t see again. 

“When we get inside the Anomaly, time is going to start behaving weirdly. Whatever you do, don’t let go until I say so,” Hope yelled over the growing noise of the wind. Clarke watched in horror as green smoke began to overtake Hope’s features. She held tight to the others’ hands. The last thing she saw was the woman’s bewitching hazel eyes. 

—

The Anomaly was a spiral.

And to enter it, you had to coil yourself around it. 

The mind curled in on itself first. Then the curvature of the spine was wound up in the stars and shot out into the galaxy. Time and space twirled ‘round and ‘round until it blended into one. 

Like a dancer lost in her pirouette, one foot firmly on the ground and the other twirling endlessly to perfection, the Anomaly spun. 

—

When Young Diyoza screamed out for them to all let go, Miller didn’t know how she expected them to do that when he couldn’t even feel his own body, let alone his hand that was holding onto Murphy’s. 

But he must have managed to do what she asked because the pressure on his center came rushing back in, he felt like he was flying through the air in a circle, and then he crashed to the floor. 

His vision swam as he searched out the others, but before he could locate them, he lurched over expelling the contents of his stomach onto the aluminum floors. 

“The first time is always the hardest,” Young Diyoza said squinting her eyes and scrunching her nose at him. He thought she was going to offer him a hand up, but she turned away, leaving him to sit back on his haunches and push himself up.

“Thanks for the heads up,” he grumbled. Once he was on his feet, he found the rest of his companions checking out their surroundings. Raven was inspecting a panel on the wall, Bellamy and Clarke were peering through the glass window of a door, and Murphy had sat down on the floor. 

“You alright, man?” Miller toed his leg. Murphy’s eyes shot up. He wasn’t sick like Miller had been, he was just unenthused with his predicament. Miller left him alone. He’d never understand John Murphy. 

“This system looks really familiar. Where are we exactly?” Raven asked the first question. She punched in a combination on the keypad at the door Bellamy and Clarke stood at, and it hissed open. They all moved through it, following one after the other down the hallway, until they reached their answer. 

It was Hope Diyoza who asked the second question. She cursed under her breath and then rushed to push them back into the shadows. 

“Could we have picked a smaller place?” Hope exclaimed. Miller hadn’t seen what was up ahead, but Raven and Clarke apparently had. Their faces were as white as a ghost. 

Clarke went to march around her, but Hope threw out her hand. Miller watched in horror as it slid right through Clarke’s shoulder. Even if Clarke didn't feel anything, it still stopped her in her tracks. 

”Please, don't go any further,” Hope pleaded, hands up in the air in surrender. “I’ll explain everything but we have to hide. Now!” 

The desperation in her voice was enough for Miller to falter in his steps. But it was too late. Once Clarke and Young Diyoza had moved back against the wall, Miller could see the rows of cryopods. 

He felt trapped. They were back on the Eligius IV. 

“Okay, I need you all to move. Time for a Crash Course in Anomaly 101. Let’s go!” Young Diyoza sounded a lot like her mother at that moment. It was all they needed to understand to get their joints moving again. Miller took off behind Murphy.

“How did we get from the ground to the ship so quickly?” Bellamy called out in the darkness. They moved away from the main part of the ship towards the staterooms. Now, their footsteps lead them all on their own, tracing the familiar paths of the ship. 

“We technically haven’t left the Anomaly,” Hope called back. 

“I saw something...someone...this isn’t making any sense!” Clarke was bewildered. Miller had never seen her so flustered. And Raven was quiet. Raven Reyes was never quiet. 

“Wait!” Raven slammed her heels into the hard floor. They all came to a screeching halt behind her and tried to catch their breaths. “No one will be in this part of the ship right now. Speak.” 

Young Diyoza swallowed and nodded her head, a pleased glint in her eye. “Raven can explain the quantum logic behind this in another dimension. But since this one is so...limited on space, I’ll go ahead and tell you that...the Anomaly creates a portal into another universe. An alternate universe, you could say.” 

Murphy raised his hand to ask a question, pointer finger shooting up to the metal rafters, and panted out, “I’m going to pass out now.” 

He promptly fell to the floor and they all rushed to his side. Clarke checked his pupils as Bellamy cradled his head. He was only down for about a second before he was awake again. Miller felt like he was going to pass out next. He needed to grab hold of something...someone...anything. 

His fingers reached for the nearest person, sliding right through Young Diyoza’s torso. The pass through her body was like being doused with cold water. His hand tingled like he had plunged it into a snowdrift. He waved his hand watching his fingers wiggle under her rib cage. 

“I probably should have mentioned that I’m kind of a ghost in every sense of the word, in every possible world because I was born in the Anomaly, too, huh?” she chuckled and stepped away from him. He stared at her in bewilderment. 

“Why would we need to be in another universe?” Clarke finally asked the most important question. She had remained on the ground pulling her legs up to her chest. She looked up, her blue eyes shining with unshed tears. 

Young Diyoza squatted down in front of her to meet her eyes as she spoke. 

“You destroy everything, planet after planet. Every world is destroyed because of you. In every way. You’ll destroy this one, too. If you give it time.” 

“The Universes are giving you a final chance to be the good guys.”

She looked at Clarke and then stood up to look at the other four. Her words hung in the air, but sank down into the pit of Miller’s stomach.

“What about Octavia?” Miller thought aloud. A good soldier never left a man behind. He glanced over at Bellamy. The man gave him a grateful grimace. 

“She’s making amends for her wrongs. Erasing her sins. We will meet her again. If you all succeed,” she spoke cryptically. 

“Succeed at what?” the words spilled out of Raven’s mouth a little louder than she meant and it echoed down the hallway. They all listened for any noise and heard the distant sound of footsteps coming their way.

“Everyone hide!” Bellamy ordered them. They scrambled, checking the doors to the staterooms, shuffling in, or hiding behind corners. Miller shut himself into a room leaving the door cracked open a hair. 

“It’s the utmost importance that your alternate selves do not see you,” Young Diyoza whispered in the shadows. Miller’s heart beat wildly in his chest and he prayed that he wouldn’t see his own body walking towards him. That was a trip he did not want to take. That was the fear Clarke and Raven had experienced at the Cryo Hall when they saw their other selves slipping into the pods for a long nap.

But when the footsteps rounded the corner, it wasn’t one person, but two. And it wasn’t anyone who had ever stepped foot on Sanctum before. 

It was Monty Green and Harper McIntyre. And they were headed straight for him. 

—

“If we ration the supplies, we should have enough to last us for about six months.” 

“And then what?” 

“The algae, of course,” Monty said and tickled Harper’s side. She let out a peel of laughter, skipped away from Monty, and let him open the door to the Captain’s room for her.

Raven advanced closer, out of the shadows, and listened to them move about the room after they had closed the frosted glass door. They looked exactly as they did the day she went to sleep in space. It had only been a few weeks since she had woken back up to find her friends had chosen a life together, without her. It was only a few weeks since she had discovered they were no longer alive. A pain and longing for them poked her sharply in the chest. 

“How is this an alternate reality if this is exactly what happened before?” she hissed hoping wherever Hope Diyoza was that she could hear her. 

The woman revealed herself from the darkened hall next to Bellamy and Clarke. Her ghostly body shimmered in the pale light as moonbeams shone over her from a window at the end of the hall. “Some dimensions are similar to others. Your friends choose to do better. Their ending is always a happy life.” 

Raven looked back at the door watching their shadows dance about the room. This journey, she and the others had been sent on, was their choice. How could they force Monty and Harper out of theirs? 

“We can’t take this from them!” Raven voiced. Hope looked down at the floor and shook her head. Clarke shared a look with Raven then pressed her ear to the door. 

“You need them,” Hope said simply after a moment. It wasn’t simple though. Raven had figured out the Anomaly. Science was simple to explain. Parallel universes where you lived happily ever after sounded like a dream. But the Universes, and Hope, were wrong if they thought a group of delinquents could change the fate of their lives to do better for all of humanity. 

“So we’ll wait to wake them until we’re absolutely sure?” Harper’s muffled voice came through the door. Raven shook her thoughts away and watched as Clarke listened in on the conversation. 

“Who do you think we should wake first?” Monty asked. There was no response, but Raven imagined they were giving each other the same look that Murphy was giving her now. 

“God, their sexual tension could make stars burst into supernovas!” Monty exclaimed and Raven snorted immediately. Bellamy turned his head up at her an inch. 

“Do you think they even realize how obvious they are?” 

Raven smirked and looked at Clarke’s face. Her expression was one of slight confusion, eyebrows knitted together and mouth slightly agape. Oh, boy, were they clueless.

“Could you imagine if I hadn’t made a move on you in Arkadia? Like how have Bellamy and Clarke not hooked up before? It’s ridiculous!” Harper blurted out loudly. Everyone outside the door could hear it clearly. The truth had Raven doubling over in stitches. Bellamy appeared to choke on Harper’s words, he coughed violently, and Clarke beat his back with her fist. They wouldn’t look each other in the eye. 

“Did you hear that?” Monty shushed Harper and the door was thrown open. Clarke and Bellamy stumbled inside. Raven made a trilling sound with her tongue in excitement and hung back against the wall. They had been caught. 

“You just have to convince them to follow you and then the Anomaly will take over! You only have a few moments!” Hope raised her voice after the pair. Raven blinked and Hope’s form vanished before her. A puff of green smoke swirled slowly in her place. Raven knew all they had to do was step into it and they would be on their way.

When Bellamy and Clarke hit the floor, Clarke landed right on top of him. She looked up at Harper sheepishly. “Would you believe that we were just looking for a room of our own? Or does it sound better to say that the Universe needs you two to come with us to another dimension?” 

Monty and Harper were surprised to catch them there, but not as surprised at Clarke’s admission. 

“The latter,” Harper whispered in wonder and Monty agreed. They had been asked to do impossible things before. Miller revealed himself from his hiding spot under the bed. He was laughing raucously as he pulled himself out from under the bed frame. Monty took his discarded jacket from him. 

“We’re getting the gang back together, boys! Let’s go!” Murphy drawled and sauntered into the room. Raven rolled her eyes at him, she motioned for the group, and they followed Raven into the green smoke without much fanfare.  

As the Eligius IV faded around them, so did Raven’s memories of video logs, a forever scorched Earth, and the smile of a man who looked like his father with the heart of his mother. 

—

The Anomaly was a spiral.

And to enter it, you had to coil yourself around it. 

The particles that made up the body divided into four divisions. These divisions, when combined, acted on themselves causing time and space to fold against each other until they blended into one. 

Like an accordion with its bellows stretched out, a vacuum was created, then pressure returned as it tightened, and finally the Anomaly could expel her melody into the void. 

—

Murphy opened and closed his eyes slowly when he released Raven’s hand. The white light was blinding. He waited for gravity to stabilize him before he began to move his limbs. Once it had, he sat up and had no idea where in the Universe he could possibly be. 

His eyes adjusted to the artificial light and he realized it wasn’t as biting as he first thought. It was a clean light beaming down on him from long bulbs hanging from the ceiling. Concrete walls curved on either side of the tunneled hall around him. 

“Is this the Bunker?” he questioned. 

“It’s a bunker.” A hand was thrust into his peripherals so he grabbed it. Bellamy brought him up to his feet and up to speed. “Welcome to the Mount Weather Emergency Operations Center.” 

The others were moving down the corridor stealthily. Their bearings easier to gain in a place they had been in before. Murphy glanced at the insignia of the former United States of America that was painted on the wall. 

It smelled like damp earth and stale air. He wished he could wiggle his toes in the dirt, see a single sun in the sky, or hear the birds sing. He hadn’t realized how much he missed Earth.

“Any chance we pop out on the surface during this excursion?”

“We’re near Medical. Three floors down,” Clarke told him over her shoulder. Her heels hardly touched the floor as she walked, back straight as a rod, and eyes darting everywhere. Murphy noticed the others were spooked, too, in the crypt of the Mountain Men. Even Monty and Harper had more ghosts than Hope Diyoza reflecting in their eyes.

This was the place that had started it all. A lever pulled. A genocide committed. He shivered under the air conditioning unit over his head as he passed. 

“Another dimension in a freaking tiny Labyrinth!” Hope grumbled under her breath. Murphy couldn’t help but agree with the ghost. The cement tunnels and white halls were impossible to distinguish. He couldn’t tell if they were going in the right direction until a group of people met them head on. 

Jasper Jordan’s lanky form was leading a pack of former delinquents and Mount Weatherians. They were all dressed in muted blues and grays with pale faces and sunken eyes. Murphy’s eyes landed on the track marks in the crook of Jasper's elbow as he approached them. 

“Who’s happy ending is this?” Miller challenged under his breath. Murphy had heard about what happened in Mount Weather. He saw how it had affected Jasper and the others in the aftermath of the fallen mountain. In this alternate reality, how had all that changed? 

“Hey, guys! You’re here early for the Treaty renewal. How’s topside?” Jasper greeted them. He raised his hand and Monty raised his automatically slapping it with their opposite one. 

“Rough winter?” he continued when no one spoke. “You guys look like shit.”

An uneasy laughter rang up among them. Harper and Monty looked about the same, though cleaner than any of them. Bellamy and Clarke looked obviously older. Murphy was a god now. Miller and Raven looked the same thanks to their flawless brown complexions. But the Anomaly had changed them all. 

Murphy ducked his head behind Miller’s shoulder to hide his face. The inverted tattoo over his brow and short hair were a dead give away and out of the realm of normalcy for this world. 

Bellamy stepped forward and embraced Jasper tightly. “It’s good to see you, man.” 

“Uh, thanks,” Jasper awkwardly patted Bellamy’s back. “How was the honeymoon? Maya wanted us to go to the wedding but her treatment was taking a little longer than expected.” 

Of course, Jasper’s happy life would end with saving the girl. In a world, where the sky and the ground were at peace. He wondered how much blood Jasper had donated for the greater good. Looking at the gloom on all the faces in front of him, it had to be more than they were willing to spill. 

“Not your life,” a singsong voice echoed into his ear. Murphy jumped at the icy breath on his neck. Hope was standing right behind him now. A finger pointing to her wrist and his judgement reflecting on her face. It was time to go. 

“Hey, Jasper, Bree, Peter, and you other guy,” he interrupted the reunion they were all having. Something made him call out the other names. “If you can follow us on a short detour before the famous chocolate cake, I’ll tell you all about who cried during Mom and Dad’s vows.”

Bellamy groaned and Clarke sputtered this time. It was too easy to tease the two of them. Murphy threw his head back in laughter and caught a glimpse of Jasper and the others smiling happily as they trailed behind him. The memories of drunken anger, Priamfaya’s black rain, and the black claws of Death faded to green. 

—

The Anomaly was a spiral.

And to enter it, you had to coil yourself around it. 

It started in the front of the eye. Corneal nerves at one level terminated at a more superficial layer in a logarithmic pattern. The density would decrease over time. 

It ended in the arms of galaxies. Bars of stars affected the motion and interstellar gas of the spirals. Radiating waves from the center of the galaxy caused the distance of the stars to orbit out, so the Anomaly stretched on infinitely. 

—

Clarke had to rescue Zoe Monroe and another delinquent from the City of Light where A.L.I.E. kept them under lock and key. They were oblivious, but happy in that world. 

Bellamy grabbed Sterling and Fox from Arkadia. Two happy soldiers in Kane’s regime. 

Murphy begrudgingly tugged Conner and Myles away from the Dropship. In that world, they had avoided crossing paths with the Grounders and had survived their first winter. 

And Raven sobbed on the hill where they found Finn. He wore forgiveness on his sleeve and peace on his lips. The Spacewalker who had never walked among the stars now swam under constellations with the protection of Floukru and their redheaded nightblood at his side. 

Sometimes it took seconds. Sometimes it took hours. It was hard to tell time inside the Anomaly. 

One by one they collected the Delinquents from their worlds like a set of fairy tales plucked from their pages. 

—

It smelled like smoke when they dropped into the next dimension. A campfire smoke, woodsy and pungent. It curled up into the sky where Earth’s moon hung high above it, a sign that it was late in the night. The air away from it was crisp and blew across the valley lazily. An endless canopy of twinkling stars could be seen for miles in every direction. The mountains in the distance had a light dusting of white powder on their peaks, like the tips of spears that guards held close to their chests. 

The fragrance of wildflowers and scent of animal tracks crisscrossed the tall grass beside a bubbling brook. The sharp aroma of onion stalks and the rattle of catacombs were revealed closer in the mud of the banks. 

Clarke and her companions stood in the middle of paradise, so rich and full, it made the hairs on her arms stick up and caused her heart to thrash violently against her ribcage. 

“Is this dimension big enough for you?” Murphy joked with Hope Diyoza. The apparition wore an open expression of curiosity and marvel at the beauty of the old planet on her face. Clarke briefly wondered what all the woman had seen in her short, long life in the green obscurity of the Anomaly. The Universes were endless, but cruel in most instances. 

Hope had told them she was a ghost in these worlds, and that her mother had corrected her timeline. When Bellamy tried to ask her why they needed to still be here then, she proudly told him that her mother didn’t cause the end of their world, they did. 

“How many do we have left?” Clarke asked her. She glanced behind her at the growing band of bandits. Almost one hundred of them. Some were older like her, and some the same age as when Clarke first met them. Fear and awe was frozen on all their features, a permanent response after so many trips through the Anomaly. She couldn’t remember all their endings, happy or original, but they followed her all the same even if she had failed them before. 

“Octavia will have a few. But you just have one,” Hope answered her solemnly. She walked forward, deeper into the valley, and brought them to an encampment. 

A ruddy fence surrounded the premises of the camp that was made of fallen trees and scraps of wire and metals. A sturdy door of clamped tin sheets was slightly ajar and Clarke slipped right through it. Bellamy, Raven, Miller, and Murphy trailed behind her. They left the others outside so they wouldn’t draw any more attention to themselves than necessary.

Clarke looked back one more time at the group. She wondered who could lead them again. Who could bring a group of delinquents together so seamlessly? Hope’s form was dissolving into the green smoke leaving only the sly smile of a ghost who knew too much. 

Clarke sighed and turned back to gaze at the camp. She could see the source of the smoke now. A campfire burned brightly in the center. Embers flickered up to the stars. Untrammeled dust blew up around the burning wood. And a few bodies were silhouetted in the darkness as they sat by the warmth of the fire. 

“Smells like boar cooking,” Bellamy whispered beside her. Clarke blew out a big breath and nodded her head in agreement. They crept closer and the smoke fogged up her vision, she had to blink rapidly to clear it. 

A dark figure stood up from a log at the campfire directly in front of them. A chessboard was left sitting on a stump beside it. White marbled pieces littered the ground as the red mahogany King and Queen, that appeared to be hand-carved, cornered the last remaining King. 

“Checkmate,” Clarke grinned. There was only one person that she knew who played the Queen’s mate. 

The outline of the person grew closer, stepping over the log in her direction. Only the broad shoulders and a long stride could be made out in the darkness. Clarke sensed it was a man and when he stepped into her space, bright white teeth sparkled against stretched onyx skin. The wrinkles around his eyes and confidence in his swagger put him closer to Clarke’s age now, she figured. She gasped at the realization of who her final delinquent was. 

“Wells Jaha,” she breathed out. She threw her arms around her best friend. Tightly she clutched at him like a lifeline. A low chuckle rumbled in his chest. 

“Easy now, don’t want to make Blake jealous over there,” Wells’ deep voice surprised her. 

When she pulled back to look up at him, the moonlight shone down to illuminate his features for her. He had no beard, but his jawline was sharp. Always order among the chaos. The muscles under her fingertips were more defined. Wells carried himself the way Murphy wished he could now that he was a god, the way Bellamy did during their first Dropship days, and how Clarke always imagined herself. He carried himself like the leader he was born to be. 

There wasn’t much inside the Anomaly that Clarke found too hard to believe. She had fought every day since her feet hit the unforgiving ground, to ensure that her people lived. And they did, in the alternate realities she had seen. To their fullest potential and their happiest fulfillment. 

But to see Wells here now. Alive and happy. That was staggering. So long she had held his death close to her heart. Next to Lexa. Locked away in the deepest recesses of her mind. 

She let the tears flow freely as she mourned him openly. The memories disappeared like all the others. All that remained was the kind smile of the man who represented Clarke’s hope for a better future. 

“We were wondering if you could show us what you’ve done here,” Bellamy spoke pulling Clarke from her thoughts. Uncertainty lay on his lips. Bellamy was impressed with the camp but couldn’t determine exactly what was going on here. 

Wells looked between Bellamy and Clarke. There was a wide berth, like a chasm, hollow and alien between them that was hard to comprehend in Wells’ mind. 

“You helped build the place, Blake. What are you talking about? Did you guys get into the jobi nuts or something again? I told Lincoln to burn those damn bushes.” 

“Chancellor Jaha,” a delinquent guard approached them before anyone could say anything. “There’s a lot of movement on the south gate. I think you should take a look at it.” 

Wells held up his finger at Bellamy’s silent protest and went around Clarke in the direction they had entered before. The wind whipped around the small huts that were dotted through the camp. Clarke could see the shadow of the Dropship through the trees. There were gardens and gathering spots everywhere. The camp had to be bigger than Arkadia ever was. 

“How many?” Clarke called out to Wells. The man faltered in his steps, but didn’t turn around when he spoke. A leader always knew the exact number in his charge. 

“Hundred and two,” Wells looked straight ahead, brown eyes piercing the night through the cracks in his barricade. 

Miller whistled and Bellamy rubbed the back of his neck. In every world, delinquents were lost; to war, to Mother Nature’s need to start again, to a mistake in Clarke’s choices, or to a cut in Bellamy’s heartstrings. They had never seen all of them accounted for, like this. 

Clarke also had the sudden realization that if they didn’t hurry they were going to run into their alternate selves and this would all be for naught! She jumped in front of Wells to block his path. 

“Look, I can explain what’s happening. But I’m going to need you to remain calm and follow me through the gate,” Clarke’s speech was rushed. She could see the storm that was brewing in the distance. Odd green clouds formed above them. They had no time to waste. It had never felt this hard to get one of them to go with them. 

“You’re acting strange, Clarke. Did the Grounders mess with your head? Are you feeling okay?”

“She’s fine, Jaha! But you’ve got to go with us now!” Bellamy yelled out. Wells whirled around landing toe-to-toe with him. He didn’t shy away from him like he might would have in a different universe. This Wells looked at Bellamy like an equal, and raised the bar higher for his potential. 

“We can prove it,” Clarke interceded. Both hands thrown up between the two men. Her palms rested on their sternums. She could feel the steady rhythm of heartbeats. She thought of the chessboard by the fire. The Queen and her King overtaking the opponent to win. 

“Prove it,” Wells spit. His eyes were filled with distrust. Clarke wondered what tricks this world had played on him with the people he loved most. “Kiss her! I dare you.” 

Raven and the others took a step back immediately forming a staggering half-circle around Clarke and Bellamy. A spiral. 

“Why are we always together in these alternate realities?” Bellamy quipped quietly under his breath. Just loud enough for Clarke to hear. They pivoted to face each other and Clarke winked at him. He wiggled his eyebrows back at her. It cut through some of the tension in the air. A needle prick into a balloon. Small gasps of laughter leaked from Clarke’s lips. 

She licked them drawing Bellamy’s eyes down. Her gaze flickered to the face of her best friend and back to the man who had been by her side. Always. 

The question Bellamy had posed still lingered in the air. She had never put a word on what her and Bellamy were. She had been spinning in the Anomaly for so long that she didn’t know her own truth. 

Enemies from long ago, squabbling over wristbands and guns? Co-leaders to a band of delinquents? The princess and her knight? Friends? Unrequited lovers? Strangers who knew what the other was thinking with a single look, even now, after everything? 

Whatever the answer, their souls were entwined. She had to trust the Universe knew how to correct itself from her own destruction. 

Together. 

Like touching broken glass, Bellamy picked a lock of Clarke’s hair that was stuck to her face and placed it behind her ear delicately. He left his hand to rest on the pulse point under her ear. She closed her eyes as their lips melded against each other. But Bellamy pulled away as soon as they had touched. A light smack sounded and Clarke was left to chase after him in her blindness. 

As far as kissing went it was quite platonic. And Clarke Griffin was getting damn tired of that reality. 

She grabbed the collar of Bellamy’s sweater and hauled him back down to her level. His eyes shot open in surprise. This was no longer a dare they had to prove to anyone but each other. She pressed her lips together and searched out his. The stubble of his beard tickled her chin as he met her and she opened her mouth to let the kiss deepen. 

Bellamy’s eyes fell shut again and his other hand went up into her hair fisting it firmly. The jostle caused Clarke to reach up on her tiptoes and throw her arms around him to steady herself. He automatically centered her. 

Her tongue swept out across his bottom lip and Bellamy relented. His sweet, warm breath mingled with hers as he sighed in contentment. An urgency overcame them after that, teeth clashed and tongues moved on their own accord. Clarke felt like she was spinning. She wanted oxygen, but she needed Bellamy more. 

It took the chorus of four clearing throats for them to break apart. Raven had her arms folded in slight disapproval, Miller was smiling triumphantly, Murphy scowled his usual scowl, and Wells beamed at them. 

“You two were always your strongest together,” Wells said and clapped Bellamy on the back. His grin showed the satisfaction of being proven right. He never doubted them, but just wanted to see his friends happy, too. “Let’s go see what all the fuss is about.” 

—

The Anomaly was a spiral. 

And to exit it, you had to bend to her demands. 

The body had to flex and twist out of its normal limitations. The mind had to open to its endless possibilities. 

Like a contortionist in the circus, the feet entered the box first, the back rested on the back of the legs, and the head stretched on through. The real trick was getting out of the box. After enough time, the body will endure anything. To bend and not break, the Anomaly finally lets go. 

—

Bellamy let go of Clarke’s hand and was thrusted into outer space. He couldn’t breath for a second and panic welled up in his throat. It felt like the time he ran out of oxygen before he could make it onto the Ring after Praimfaya or during one of his nightmares where he was helplessly to protect Clarke or Octavia.

“I—I—I—,” the words were stuck and he clambered to release them by pawing at his neck. Tears sprung from his eyes. His chest heaved forcefully, trying to move his lungs that felt like lead. A small hand reached up and pulled his hands away. He followed it down his side with his eyes and up to its body. 

“O—,” was all he could manage before he was crying. 

Once he was anchored in reality, the rushing sound of the wind filled his eardrums to almost their bursting point. His whole body shook. He wasn’t shooting up to live among the stars, but falling down to the ground. In the Dropship. 

Octavia was sitting beside him smiling up at her brother. She was alive and real. And they were through the Anomaly spinning down to Earth to start again. She looked younger, back to her original state before touching the soil of the Earth. Her hair shined, her face unmarred with the trials and tribulations of her past. 

Atom and Charlotte, including a few other delinquents, were seated behind her. He wished he could hear the story of the journey she had been on, but he couldn’t ask now. 

If he wasn’t still struggling to speak, he would call her his sister, his responsibility. Octavia . Not Skairipa or Blodreina. Those names hadn’t yet come to be. They didn’t have to be at all. Bellamy understood now that he didn’t have to carry the weight of his responsibilities on his shoulders all by himself. Maybe Octavia stood a better chance on the ground because of it. 

He searched out the others; Clarke, Miller, Murphy, and Raven. Their shared memories were dissolving away but as he held their faces in his mind, he hoped he could do right by them all, too. 

“In peace, may you leave this shore,” a small voice echoed around the rocket. Hope Diyoza was floating in the rafters above him as if she was in zero-G. Her body shimmered and he wondered where she would go now. 

The Traveler’s Blessing was the prayer of a people who found comfort in the unknown. As a child, Bellamy’s mother’s hushed voice soothed him to sleep with it. The leaders of the Ark used it to usher out the dead. The Delinquents would it use it to remember. 

“In love, may you find the next. Safe passage on your travels,” a chorus of voices joined in. No scars, no broken parts, a whole hundred and two delinquents sat in the spinning shuttle and prayed. 

Raven slipped back to her post in the stars, waiting for her turn to drop down. Clarke gripped Wells’ hand tightly. Bellamy called out for them all to stay seated as they entered the atmosphere. Glen Dickson checked his seatbelt. And the green light spiraled around them. 

“Until our final journey to the ground,” Clarke’s strong voice finished the prayer for them as they hit the ground. 

I feel the sun on my face. I see trees all around me, scent of wildflowers on a breeze. It’s so beautiful…

the end