The One Who's Fallen

Chapter 147

The next morning, Lexa and I eat breakfast then head outside to get Raven. She kisses Luna and Anya before she goes and follows us as we walk towards Maya.

"So what's up? Why do you both have such serious expressions?" Raven asks, sounding a little worried.

"We're going to talk to her about destroying the bombs and acid fog for good." I respond quietly, walking alongside Lexa.

Raven nods understandingly. "Right. I can understand that. No one should have that kind of power."

Lexa nods and we stop next to Maya, who's talking to a couple of warriors. She glances over at us and hurries through the rest of her talk, sending them away when she's done. Lexa is standing up straight, her hands clasped behind her back. She looks like the Commander in this moment, more than usual.

"Yes, Heda?" Maya asks politely. She's getting better at Trigedasleng.

"We would like to discuss your weapons." Lexa says.

Maya nods. "I was wondering when we would get to that. I'm assuming you want them destroyed?"

If Lexa's surprised by Maya guessing correctly on the first try, she doesn't show it. "Yes. I will do it with or without your permission."

"But you're still asking to give me a chance to prove my loyalty." Maya observes, making Lexa's eyebrows raise slightly, betraying her surprise. "Of course you have my permission, Commander. I'm assuming this doesn't include our guns and some of our smaller weapons?"

"Those are fine. It is the large ones, the bombs and missiles and fog, that worry me." Lexa says.

"You have my permission to destroy all of them." She pauses for a moment and turns her head. "Bali! Come here for a moment!"

A man with skin darker than Raven's jogs over. "Yes Maya?"

"The Commander wants to destroy the larger weapons we have. The missiles, bombs, and fog." Maya explains.

"But... Without them, we're defenseless! They're for our protection." Bali says, his eyes wide.

"You are not defenseless, you have guns. You have warriors here, protecting you." I remind him. "The weapons we want to destroy aren't just powerful, they're dangerous and deadly. No one should have that kind of power."

"The clans will not see them as means of defense." Lexa says, continuing where I leave off. "I will not allow you to keep them, but if you do it will be seen as an act of mistrust. Proof that you do not have faith in me and my Coalition. Just having these weapons is more dangerous than you could imagine. People have been slaughtered for less. Understand?"

Bali hesitates, then nods. "Okay. I'll help. I was chief engineer. I know where all of the weapons are, even the ones well hidden in the system. Come with me."

We follow him inside the Mountain, the lights above flickering.

"What's wrong with the lights?" Raven questions.

"The dam is what's wrong. I've been working on maintaining it all by myself, when usually there would be a minimum five-person team working on it." Bali sighs.

"I have some free time. I can make it mainly automated for you." Raven offers.

"You... You could? Are you an engineer?" Bali asks, surprised.

"Pfft, an engineer." She hides her scoff with a well-timed cough. "No, I'm a mechanic and all-around genius. Raven Reyes, at your service."

"Bali Patel. Nice to meet you." He pauses so they can shake hands. "So you can make it automated? How?"

Raven goes off on a rambling tirade that's truly impressive in the amount of words I vaguely recognize but don't understand and in it's length. By the time she's finished and has allowed Bali to give some feedback, we're at the first area.

"This one is the fastest and easiest to get to. All you need to do is neutralize the acid and if someone releases it, it'll be fog instead of acid fog." Bali explains.

Raven moves to the center console and cracks her fingers. "Let's do this."

She swiftly goes through the list of commands she can use, so fast I can barely believe that Raven can read the words. Her eyes light up and she taps one of the selections, squinting down at it when it says it requires her to tap in a numerical password.

"Try 2052. The year the world ended." Bali suggests.

There's an error message that pops up on the screen and it warns that Raven has one more try before the gas is... released into this room. Lovely.

"1959!" I say. "That's when Mount Weather was founded. That has to be it."

"If it isn't, we're dead." Raven mutters.

She taps it in and braces herself but nothing happens, no hiss of gas. After a moment, the screen lights up and it's green.

"Password accepted," the automated voice says. "Commencing full neutralization."

There's a hissing noise now, but it sounds like it's going into the tank instead of out, which is a good sign. There's an acidity chart up on the screen and it slowly moves up from the bottom, where it's dark red, towards the center where it's yellow.

"Acid neutralized. Would you like to neutralize the backup tanks?" The automated voice says.

"There are backup tanks?" Raven mutters, then presses the big yes on the screen.

"Back up tanks neutralized. Warning: there is now no acid fog. I repeat. Warning: there is now no acid fog."

Raven powers down the console and we head to the next place, where the Maunon stored all of their bombs. My eyes widen as I take it all in. It looks like there's hundreds of them! All missiles, all huge. Just the room is massive.

"How the hell are we going to get rid of all of these?" Raven breathes out.

"Send them into the ocean? Or somewhere we know is deserted." I offer.

"The ocean might work." Raven muses. "They're all on a conveyer belt, yeah?" She walks over to the center console , typing in the same number again to get access. "So I can shoot them all, one after another. Alright. I've got this."

They nearly died... Again! But always remember that I'm not cruel, they'll have their happy ending. I mean, the next book isn't going to have that many life-threatening moments if it goes as I've planned... Next chapter, explosions and stuff! Thank you guys for commenting! It seems like everyone either likes the names "the Ones on the Ground" or suggested some new names. I think I'm going to stick with my name, though you brilliant people came up with some pretty good ideas. Anyway. Thank you all for reading and for your amazing comments! Stay awesome!