Successors
Mercury finds his two best friends standing before him.
"Octavia, Bellamy." Mercury says, as Perai had let him take control.
Octavia and Bellamy rushes him in an embrace, which he finds himself reluctant to return, but upon shutting his eyes, he wraps his arms around them as he feels his heart sinking.
The door shuts behind them, Kaelin exiting the room to give them privacy.
"We're so glad you're okay." Octavia says a hoarse voice while squeezing Mercury tighter.
Mercury feels himself sinking further, and before he knows it, his eyes begin to water, then a steady stream flows down his cheeks.
"Why'd this have to happen?" Mercury says, pain becoming an ocean in his voice.
Nothing more is said amongst them, they just hold Mercury in n embrace, trying to give him strength, or... trying to find strength of their own.
The minutes pass before they finally make it onto a bed, not belonging to them, where they sit.
Mercury had been insensitive as a direct cause of his pain without even knowing it, but he finds something amiss in their sunken gazes.
"You two..." Mercury says, unable to finish his words, as the dreadful creep of a terrible realization takes a hold of him.
"You're parents," He looks to both Octavia and Bellamy. "They were..they were..."
"Part of the mission." Octavia says, ducking her gaze.
Mercury's eyes widen out of shock, he turns to Bellamy, who had yet to say a word all this time, now he knows why.
"But...but, how come..."
"We aren't crying out eyes out?" Octavia says, an ironic grin on her face. "Mom and Dad..." Her voice goes weak, so she clears her throat, trying to put a fallen cog back into place. "They, told us...blatantly yesterday, that they...wouldn't...be... coming back." Her lips begin to quiver the more she speaks, no matter how hard she tries to fight against it. "So, little brother and I...have had all night to wallow." She smiles, but a tear slides down her right down.
Mercury, now sunken deeper into a void of despair, searches for Bellamy's gaze, but doesn't find it.
He clenches his fights, trying to hold back the anger accompanying and overshadowing the pain in his heart.
"How could they do this to us?!" The streams that had barely ceased return in full force. "How could they just leave us?!" Mercury screams once more.
Uncaring of anyone or anything as of now, all he cares about is the anger boiling within him.
"Didn't...didn't they even...care about us?" Mercury's voice dies down and his anger becomes replaced with grief once more.
"...they," Octavia tries to speak, she clears her throat and wipe sthe tears off her eyes. "You have to, pull it together." She says to Mercury, trying her best to convince him, or rather, trying her best to convince herself.
"What...what do you mean?"
"You have to pull it together, we all do." She turns to Bellamy, who still has his gaze fixated on the bedsheets underneath him. "They did what they had to do."
"What are you saying Octavia?" Mercury gets off the bed, unsure for how to react to her words.
"Don't you get it? You're angry at them, but...but...you're not thinking about what could've been so important, that they would risk their lives for, risk our lives for."
"What could be more important than us? Than our families?" Mercury asks once more, confusion in his eyes.
"A better world Mercury, I get that you're mother and father never told you about..."
"Wait, wait a minute. You knew? You both knew that our parents were Practitioners, that they were part of the resistance?"
"Yes, Mercury, and we knew how important their duty was."
"Important?"
"This world we live in is not a world worth living in, you see everything that happens around us and yet you act as though it's all fine."
"I don't care about any of that, we were happy as long as we had each other."
"But how did you think they felt? Each day, knowing they couldn't give us a better life, better food, better clothes. More than two square meals a day if we were lucky. They had to fight for the future, for our future."
"Was that future worth my sister?" Mercury asks and Octavia goes silent.
"Mercury, I'm sorry about your sister, but..."
"But nothing, nothing Octavia..." Mercury heads for the door.
"Where are you going?" Octavia asks.
"Anywhere, anywhere but here."
"We don't have anywhere to go." Octavia gets off the bed, standing her ground as though doing so would make her words any more impactful.
But it would seem it had some effect, as Mercury halts in place.
"I don't care." Mercury says, and exits.
"Mer..." Octavia attempts to follow, but she is held back by her brother.
[Mercury, you're being brash]
"Please stop talking to me."
Mercury says as he exits the dorm,and once he does, he finds Kaelin standing on the outside, leaning against the wall.
He ignores her and heads for the elevator.
"Wait, Mercury, where are you going?"
"I don't know, but I don't want to stay here."
"Wait." Kaelin says and Mercury does as told. "If you leave, the Enforcers will find you...and they don't take Practitioners as prisoners, plus, the bounty on your head won't make it easy."
Mercury continues to the elevator, not heeding her words.
"Stop." Kaelin makes her way towards him and gets in front of him. "I can't let you leave."
"I'll be fine." Mercury says, unsure of where he is even going.
Home perhaps.
"No, it's...the chip in your head."
Realization sinks in, and he discover the real reason for her concern.
"Oh, I see." Mercury says.
"Mercury." Bellamy's voice rings into his ears and he turns to it, somewhat an instinct from not hearing him the whole time.
Once he meets Bellamy's gaze, he says nothing.
Bellamy makes his way over to Mercury's side, then he turns to Kaelin.
"He needs to clear his head." Bellamy says to her, voice low to the ground.
"It's dangerous."
"I'll watch him."
She is hesitant.
"I don't think..."
"Please Kaelin." Bellamy says with a weak voice, not a feign but a real one.
Once more, she is hesitant.
If she lets them go, Mercury could do something rash, runaway even.
But if she says no, it'll be as though they're keeping him prisoner.
With her hands tied, she makes the obvious decision.
"Fine."