OUT OF MIND² ━━ Bellamy Blake

𝐗𝐈𝐈: No Rest for the Wicked

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NO REST FOR THE WICKED

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"BECCA'S JOURNAL is amazing."

Fighting the urge to just snatch the leather-bound book from Raven's hands, Lyra peers over her shoulders at the ink scribbled across the pages. Her heart races as if she's just run a mile. Knee jumping up and down with bounciness, she decides she can't contain herself anymore.

Should she be scared that Alie wants her so badly? Yeah, probably.

But, also, it's nice to feel wanted.

"She found a pathway to access the human mind at 26!" Lyra gushes. "Which, y'know, is freakishly incredible."

She swings her legs back and forth giddily, but no one else seems to share her enthusiasm.

"That same year, she had to lock up Alie because her answer for what was wrong with the world was too many people," Raven reminds her as she turns the page. There's a blue ink doodle of the mushroom cloud from a nuke. "She was 27 when it launched the bombs."

Jasper snorts. "You're certainly living up to the family legacy."

In the rearview mirror, Lyra can see Bellamy's scarred mouth pull into a scowl. The rover trundles across an open field with him driving and Clarke in the passengers seat. Lyra is far too enthralled with Becca's journal to be afraid of the rover right now. But before Bellamy can say anything to Jasper, Clarke twists her head around from the passengers seat to face them. Her eyes are narrowed.

"What did she write about the Flame?"

"Alie 2.0," answers Raven. "She saw it as a way to atone for her sins. She designed it not to just access a human mind, but to merge with one. It could never wipe us out because it would be one of us. She put it in herself first. Altered her genes so her body wouldn't reject the implant."

"Cloning genes, splicing DNA segments together, and inserting genes into cells." Lyra sighs in delight, leaning back. "Recombinant DNA technology. Am I the only one who sees how cool this is?"

"To be fair, she also created a murder bot," Bellamy points out from the drivers seat.

Lyra makes a face. "Everybody makes mistakes."

"Becca Pramheda, the first Commander," mumbles Clarke, mostly to herself. She glances back at them again. "The gene therapy made her blood black, didn't it?"

"Yeah." Lyra grins. "Again, that's cool."

"How did you know that?" Octavia asks Clarke sharply.

"Nightblood. That's where it came from," answers Clarke promptly. Lyra recalls what she'd said about Lexa's blood being black rather than red; to be a Commander of the Blood and take the Flame, you must be a natblida, as the Grounders call them. "Somehow it became hereditary. Luna had it. That's why we have to find her. If she can access Alie 2. . . "