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Another Cell
Echo is no stranger to being locked in a box. It’s larger than the one in Mount Weather, she’ll give these captors that. But of course they had to go and lock her in with Octavia. They can’t know the significance of locking her up with another Blake, but she feels the pain of familiarity deep in her soul.
She’s doing better than her first time in the spaceship. Her first week on the ring was riddled with nightmares and hidden panic attacks. Bellamy would find her and refuse to leave her alone, would make her talk to him. He’s the one who broke down her walls, who refused to let her hide away, who made her interact with the others. He saved her.
And now he’s gone.
She knew she was a placeholder. Anyone with eyes could see how Bellamy felt about Clarke. When they thought she was dead, it was one thing, but then Clarke was found alive and Echo waited for the moment Bellamy would decide to end it. No matter what, he was her best friend. But Bellamy was always so fucking stubborn. He refused to acknowledge it, and Echo had decided to wait.
She had decided to wait and now he’s dead.
Watching that recording had broken her all over again. Bellamy, Raven, Emori, and Murphy were everyone who was left from the Ring, her people . When she lost Ice Nation, she had them. They became her people, the first people she connected with outside of her time as a spy. Harper and Monty chose their time. She mourned them but it was peaceful.
This is different. He was ripped away and she was too late. She spent five years on Sky Ring, training to rescue him and they’re too damn late to save anyone but Octavia.
Bellamy would be glad of that at least.
Tears fall, hot and unbidden, down her cheeks and Echo remains in Octavia’s arms, not sure how to make sense of everything. She’s never had a family before the Ring. Bellamy was her home. Even as she reluctantly sinks into her hug, part of her wonders if this is the moment when she finds a blade in her back - revenge for the time she almost killed Octavia on Roan’s orders.
Echo breathes out and closes her eyes. She would almost welcome the end, but through her pain, her mind is still trying to discover what she’s currently missing. But instead of death, Octavia said the most surprising thing:
“You are my family, too.”
NO, she wants to scream. She wants to deny it. To say the truth they both know - that Bellamy would have left her. Except that isn’t what made them family. And if they’re family...she’s the best chance for their survival.
Echo lets Octavia pull away and return to her mattress. She twists away to stare back at the wall, thinking about the past and the things she’s done to survive. She’s become whatever she needs to be. What’s happening now - leaving them in this cell together - there’s something intentional here.
Her grief melts into resolve. These people want something from them. They want to break them. They killed Bellamy. She can’t let them win, and she can’t convince them that she’ll follow them when her emotions are leaking out all over the place.
Slowly, she pulls out the shard of glass she broke off one of the light fixtures and turns to face the wall so Octavia can’t see. She’s leafing through some book that was left for them. Every so often there’s the sound of paper being lazily turned. It shows how little these people know: Echo never had a book to even begin to read.
Echo stares at the shard in her hand, turning it over. She contemplates the edge: it’s not as sharp as she would prefer but it will do. Her breath stutters but her hand is steady as she lifts it to her brow. She recites Ice Nation prayer as she digs the blade into her skin.
With the physical pain, she focuses on Bellamy, on the sharp cut of her loss, the piece of her heart that is now missing. Hot blood pours down her face and coats her hands. She finishes her silent prayer at the same time Octavia notes the difference she’s already noticed.
“Something’s different. There’s plenty of cells, but they put us together. They’re feeding us. We have blankets. Why?”
“Do you know Azgaida warriors scar their own faces?”
“Echo?”
She stands and lets the shard fall from her hand as she turns around to face Octavia.
“They do it to symbolize that the pain is over. That wound is healed. So that we never forget.” That’s not quite true. It’s a physical wound to match the emotional pain of true loss. When it heals, it serves as a reminder of what was lost.
“Sit down, and let me call you a-”
“No.” Echo figured it out. She knows what they need to do to survive, to escape this pace. “Orlando told us that all they care about is their last war. They want us to fight with them. That’s why it’s different. We’re not prisoners. We’re recruits.” And she’s getting out of this damned box. She can’t avenge Bellamy’s death stuck in a cell.
She pounds on the door. “We’re ready to fight with you.”
“Please, this is crazy.”
It’s unorthodox, but Echo’s been a spy most of her life. She knows the tactics Ice Nation used to break those few captives they left alive. She’s aware of what they’re up against. She’s been trained not to break. Octavia, Dyoza...they can handle it. To be honest, part of her doesn’t really care if they survive. This is about vengeance for Bellamy.
She glances back at Octavia as the door slides open to the sound of overhead announcements. She gives the other girl a significant look and leaves the room with intent.
The training, the mental exercises, the tests: it’s all familiar to her. It’s what she trained for. She knows what they’re looking for and she makes sure to show it to them. Her heart is hardened into stone as she forces herself back into what she was.
Dyoza and Octavia struggle to submit while Echo embraces it with reckless abandon. It softens the pain of her grief. Still, sometimes, her fingers tangle with Octavia’s after a difficult test, when their minds are having trouble separating fact from fiction, when some challenge reminds them of Bellamy.
They don’t talk about it. They can’t, not when they don’t know who might be listening, but they learn to speak with looks and blank expressions. Hope is the one who always seems to get worse, too angry with these cult members on Bardo. Echo isn’t lying when she says these kids have it better than she ever did.
She quickly realizes her best chance is to become the star student, like when she killed her best friend and became Echo. It was easier back when she didn’t have feelings and was just cold. It’s harder now that she has these connections she needs to keep hidden because they keep her human.
The scars help. They remind her who she is, where she came from, and what she lost.
Standing over the open pipe - toxin in her hand - Echo’s ready to become the spy she thought she left behind. She thinks she can do it, that she can just squeeze the plunger and wipe out this whole forsaken cult. For Bellamy.
It’s Raven’s words that drag her back. Back from the abyss of nothing and into the loving embrace of her family. And as she looks past Raven, she meets Octavia’s eyes and she breaks.
Her heart shatters as all the pain and grief comes racing back. She doesn’t know what she did to deserve this family, these powerful women, but they’re here now and she can let herself break, to let go and finally feel the pain.
She can finally go home.