Sanctum - THE 100 REWRITE Chapter Fourty-Five
[THE 100 MASTERLIST]
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Warnings: The 100 season 6 spoilers (covering episode 3 "Children of Gabriel"); half of the chapter is filler as Aurora is unconscious during that part but I felt it was still relevant to write it all, occasions to see Aurora's interactions with Jordan/Clarke/Murphy without Bellamy around
The children stared at them in silence, while a large group of people walked in their direction. Some dressed in dark robes held tall sticks. Bellamy lifted his head, “Remember, we’re in their home. Everyone keep calm.”
“Weapons down.” Clarke added quietly.
“Abby, stay with Murphy. Jordan, stay with her.” The young man gave him a nod and Bellamy stood up, going to stand in front of Clarke. A woman called for the child named Rose to get away from them, while guards rushed to them to protect what they called the ‘hope’. Clarke put her hands up.
“We’re from earth. We come in peace.”
The people in black robes and holding sticks turned out to be the guards. They came in between Clarke and the group, and the children. A woman with colored strands of hair approached the handcuffed one, calling her Kaylee, asking about her family.
“They killed them.” She stated.
“That’s… not good.” Jordan said.
All of a sudden, they heard loud gasping and turned on their heels. The black veins had progressed and were now covering half of their necks. Bellamy panicked, running to his daughter, not knowing what to do.
“Help us, please. Our friends are dying.” Clarke pleaded. “He’s not breathing. Is Ari breathing? No?”
Abby began to do CPR on Murphy, while Bellamy urged to do the same on his daughter after replying to her in the negative. Clarke looked up when a man commanded the people to let him pass. He was followed by two guards, and marched towards them, wearing this floor-length black coat. He motioned for Abby and the others to be removed from Murphy and Aurora. Bellamy squinted his eyes, observing the man. They eventually stepped back to give him space to approach. He rolled up Murphy’s shirt. There were many more black veins than in the beginning.
He looked up at them, “He’s already dead.” He did so too with Aurora, just less high on the chest, of course, but had the same conclusion.
“No.” Bellamy shook his head, staring at him. “No.”
“Fortunately for them, death is not the end.” He turned, called to a man named Cillian, explaining the two had been exposed to the seaweed during the red sun. Cillian didn’t say a word. He crouched in the space between the two, put down a bag he was carrying and pulled out a long, red snake with black stripes. “We call it Kěpà Shé, means hideous snake in Chinese.” Cillian brought the snake close to Murphy’s skin. It had numerous red eyes on either side of its head, and two rows of sharp teeths. Bellamy took a step forward, his eyebrows pulled together, watching attentively.
“Oh my God.” Clarke exclaimed at the sight.
“Trust me, I know, but the venom degrades too quickly to deliver it in any other form.” The snake didn’t bite. Rather it used its tongue. Red and cylinder shaped. It seemed to have little spike all over it. Clarke crouched down to take a closer look. The snake planted the tip of its tongue into Murphy, and as the latter noticed, it was working. The black veins were disappearing.
The man in the coat spoke, “Amazing, isn’t it? Its curative properties were discovered during one of the earliest red suns.” He rose his voice, addressing his people. “Poison made the demon Gabriel believe he could walk on water. The Kěpà Shé bit him, and the toxin from the seaweed had no effect.”
Murphy gasped, taking a deep breath, and coughed. He didn’t open his eyes, still unconscious, but he was breathing. Cillian then turned and repeated the process on the girl. The veins retracted, leaving her skin as it was before the infection, and she breathed. Bellamy went on his knees and took her in his arms. His baby was saved. He couldn’t have been more relieved. Aurora was still unconscious as well and weakly moved around her hand until it was caught by Jordan, the other pinching her father’s shirt in between her fingers.
“Well done, Cillian. Now, lock them up.” His word was law, and the guards obeyed. They were pushed away, and Bellamy had to be pulled off Aurora. He got physical with one of the guards, telling them he was staying with his daughter, and the guard hit him with the thick stick he held.
She could feel her father and Jordan going away, a frown appearing on her face and her fingers scratching the dirt, her chest heaving with each of her breaths.
After the others were locked up, unconscious Murphy and Aurora were brought in the same room, covered with blankets, with both having one rolled up to support their heads. Emori and Bellamy had pulled stools closer to watch over them. The two were getting worried, wondering why they were still not waking up. Clarke tried reassuring them that they would. Bellamy stroked her hair and placed a kiss on her forehead, watching her like the apple of his eye, which she was.
“I can’t believe I did this to me.”
“Emori, you didn’t. I did.” Bellamy lifted his head, speaking with a quiet tone.
“Who cares? We need to get out of this place.” Octavia chimed in.
Bellamy pinched his lips in annoyance and stood up, putting his gaze on his sister and repeating his question, “What are you even doing here?”
“I came to save your ass.” She replied, sitting at the counter. “And also, you know, to meet my niece. Could you imagine how surprised I was to hear you had a child?”
He walked around the table and in her direction until Echo came to stand before him to stop him, “Not now. If we’re gonna fight our way out, we need her.”
“Echo, we’re not fighting them.” Clarke rectified. “We need them to teach us how to survive down here.”
She turned around upon hearing footsteps. A guard was leading a pretty young woman in off-white dresses, carrying glasses, followed by a bald man with a tray in his hands.
The man exclaimed, “Welcome friends.” The girl crossed Jordan’s eyes, a bright smile on her face. He held her gaze for a moment, the tip of his fingers brushing over Aurora’s hand. When he felt it move, his eyes fell back onto her. “If it’s true you survived the red sun, then you need a drink.”
Bellamy returned to the stool by his daughter’s side. Clarke sketched a tight smile as the man stopped in front of her, and she took a glass from the tray, thanking him. The girl came forward and handed a glass to Jordan. He peeked at the drink and gulped it down, “Mmh, that’s amazing. What is it?”
“We call it—”
“Delilah…”
“Relax, mother. I don’t think they’ll steal your recipe. We call it Jo juice, after Josephine Prime. Hallowed be her name.”
The other repeated those four words in chorus. The eyes from the Eligius IV group went left and right, uneasy.
“Uh, can I ask—” Clarke stepped forward. “It’s probably none of our business, but what’s a prime?”
“Sanctum was colonized by a team from Earth made up of 4 families—the Primes. Their blood rules us still.”
“Make way for the Primes.” A man’s voice rose from the entrance, and the same man in the black coat that they had encountered outside entered, alongside a woman dressed in similar dark attire, with a golden necklace. The girl and her mother bowed.
“Which one’s the pilot?” The leader demanded.
“There, that one.” It was the woman in a braid, Kaylee, pointed to Raven. The guards headed for her.
“Stop. Did I say to take her?”
“No, sir. Sorry, sir.” They lowered their heads and stood behind him.
Clarke spoke up again, “Look. If this is about what happened on the mothership, your people stole our transport and then boarded us by force. My people were just defending themselves.”
“Lies. She wasn’t there. We hurt no one.” The woman in the braid rebuted.
“What’s your name?” He asked.
“Clarke Griffin. What’s yours?”
“He is Russell Lightbourne, seventh of his line, savior of Sanctum, and you will bow before using his name.”
“I don’t think so.”
“My wife’s a strickler for protocol, but she knows you can’t observe customs that you’re unaware of. You have questions, understandably, and we’ll get to them all, but first, we need your transport ship to be flown into sanctum. You can land in one of the lower fields.”
“Why? What’s out there?” Abby questioned.
“There are worse things in this world than eclipse-induced psychosis. All of them are outside the shield, and the worst of them would love to get their hands on the weapons Kaylee says are on your ship.”
“Why are we asking for permission?” Kaylee was a rather abruptive and direct woman. “My family is on that ship.”
“Which is why you’ll be on the team sent to retrieve them.” Russell said. “What? Now, you’re afraid to leave the shield?”
“I told you, we were late for shelter when we saw that ship. Either we took it, or we suffered the red sun.”
While she spoke, Clarke swiftly went to her mother, seeing there was something she wanted to tell her, and it was that Madi herself was on the transport ship. She rose her voice, upset that she had been woken up, bringing the Primes’ attention to her.
“Never mind. Raven will fly the ship, but we’re going too.”
“Didn’t realize you were giving orders again, Clarke.” Raven snapped back before the latter had even finished.
Russell settled the matter and asked Clarke to choose her most ‘disposable’ people, as he put it. It was time to go. She stepped forward, and he rose his hand, stopping her in her path.
“You don’t strike me as disposable.”
“None of us are. But my child is out there, so I’m going to get her.”
“Please. We have things to discuss. Are you the leader of your people, or not?”
“She is. She can speak for us.” Bellamy’s comment made Raven scoff and shake her head.
“Good. You can escort your team to the steps. The rest of you will remain here, well-cared-for ‘till we can decide what to do with you.” On those words, he left, along with the guards and the rest of his people that had come in. Bellamy stood up, called Raven and Echo’s names, and the latter told Octavia to come along.
“Hey, Miller, you stay here. Keep an eye on things.” He added quietly.
“Can I talk to you for a second?” Clarke looked at him and he walked around the tables where Murphy and Aurora were lying down, telling Jordan to stay with her, with a firm tone. The young man didn’t say a word and nodded, sitting down.
Bellamy walked alongside Clarke, “What? You said it yourself. We need these people. For some reason, the leader seems to like you, so let’s try and keep it that way. Hey, Clarke, we’ll bring Madi back. I promise. We’ll both have our daughters with us, safe and sound, okay?”
She nodded, pressing her lips in worry, and as she saw him walk out with her, she stopped him with her arm, “No, you should stay with Ari. She’ll need you when she wakes up.”
“She well surrounded, and we won’t be long.”
“You don’t know that. Bellamy…” She grabbed his arm, softly. “Don’t blame yourself for Murphy. You were under the red sun’s influence.”
“He was trying to save her, and I beat him up, and drowned him. And I’d like to keep an eye on Octavia. I don’t trust her out there.”
They let the doors close behind them.
***
Jordan stood by the window, looking up in awe at the transparent dome shielding all of Sanctum. He jumped on the occasion when Clarke came back in, “Clarke, I need to get out of here.”
“Not gonna happen, Jordan.”
Jackson was patching up Miller’s arm at the counter, “You’ve been locked inside for 26 years. What’s one more day—" when Murphy woke up with a start, yelling and panting, and throwing the blanket off him, jumping off the table and onto the floor when Emori touched him, trying to reassure him. Aurora had woken up with a gasp, leaning on her arms, eyes widened, looking around, confused. She tried calming down her breathing and sat up, touching her stomach and neck, frantic.
“The toxin’s gone. It’s gone. Everyone’s okay. Clarke, tell him.”
She leaned forward, “It’s true, okay? We all made it, thanks to you.”
He frowned, looking down, touching the large wound on his chest, “No, I didn’t. I died, didn’t I? Ari—Is Ari okay?” His eyes swept the room rapidly and stopped on the girl, looking back at him.
“Yes, she’s okay. Look, she’s right there.” Clarke assured, showing her with her hand.
Abby crouched down, “Both of your hearts did stop,”
“I died...” Ari mumbled, in the middle of Abby’s sentence, rubbing her neck nervously, her lips trembled.
“…but the people here revived you.”
“I saw something. I f— I felt something…” The tone of his voice lowered.
Aurora’s efforts at calming down were going out the window. Her eyes were lost in the void, her eyes squinting and her visiong getting blurry from the tears filling them, bringing her knees to her chest, whimpering, repeating she saw something too, and was greatly distressed over it. Both Clarke and Jordan ran to her, but she turned to Clarke, who grabbed her shoulders, and encouraged to look at her, calmling out to her repeatedly, “Hey, hey, hey, Ari, you’re okay. You’re okay. Look at me. You’re okay now. Come here.” She drew her into a hug, letting her cry it out. Jordan stepped back, watching, looking disappointed not to be able to help her himself. It took some time, but eventually, she calmed down, her panting getting slower.
She wiped her eyes, taking a deep breath in, touching her arms, realizing she was only wearing her t-shirt and that her mom’s jacket was gone, “Where’s my dad— where’s my jacket?”
“Here. Still a little wet.” Jordan handed it to her. She thanked him, glancing at him, and kept te jacket on her knees after she sat at the edge of the table.
“Where’s my dad?” She repeated, facing Clarke.
“He went out. He’ll be back soon, don’t worry.” She didn’t know that, and Aurora felt it, but she just nodded, as the latter was called onto by her mother. They talked about Madi not wanting to stay into space, but that’s all she heard. She wasn’t paying attention to their conversation. She was still lost in her thoughts, remembering all that happened while under the red sun’s influence. She remembered her mom’s voice… and all she said to her. All the awful things said with her voice, but which her real mom would have never spoken. And she remembered walking into the pond, and trying to let herself drown, to die, and be with her mom, until she was pulled out. She was pulled out of the water, and therefore saved, by Murphy. She slowly looked up at Murphy, being hugged by Emori on the floor.
Jordan approached again, “Hey, do you want some water?”
“No.” She closed off, almost by reflex, and felt her regret not to tell him to stay when she saw him walk out from the corner of her eyes. She frowned, frustrated with herself. She jumped off the table and walked to the counter, crossing her arms on it, resting her chin on them, her mother’s jacket lying across her thighs. One of her feet kept swinging, hitting the counter. After some time, Murphy came to see next to her, along with Emori, and Jordan came back, accompanied by a brown-haired girl in a light, flowy dress. He was smiling. Aurora stared at the two without moving her head. The girl went behind the counter, apparently, she was working at the tavern they were locked up in. She filled a few small glasses with an alcoholic drink they made there, and Murphy drank a couple, asking that she kept them coming.
“Good thing we harvest tonight.” She spoke. “Gonna need to make more.”
“Hmm, you harvest at night?” Jordan picked up a glass, drank it, and coughed. His voice sounded a bit hoarse afterwards. “Oh, that is so cool.”
“You can try it.” Murphy told Aurora. “Your dad’s not here to advise you not to. It’s not like one glass is gonna get you wasted anyway.”
She took the glass he put in front of her, observed it a little and drank it one go. She cleared her throat, frowning a bit. Murphy patted her back, leaning on his arm. When Jordan’s voice rose again, she glared at him, “I’ve read that it helps preserve the purity of the fruit. Is that why?”
“Need to work on your game, kid. I owe your pops at least that much.” Murphy brought another glass to his lips.
“His game is just fine.” The girl’s comment made Aurora’s skin crawl. She almost jumped out of her seat and stormed outside, but they weren’t allowed to leave, and a guard was making sure they didn’t.
Having noticed Aurora looking upset, Murphy cracked a joke, “Oh, they grow up so fast, don’t they?” He put his arm around the girl’s shoulders, in a comforting manner.
A door opened above the stairs in the middle of the tavern, and Clarke walked down, wearing a pink linen dress.
“Yes, they do.” Abby added.
“What?” Clarke shrugged as some of them at the counter nodded with a knowing smile. “It’s just a dress. Thank you, by the way.”
“My pleasure. Your escort’s outside.” The girl’s eyes shifted to the door.
Aurora saw in her peripheral vision Abby getting up and going to talk to her daughter, but her attention was only peaked once the name of her grandfather was brought up. She turned her head to them.
“Mom, I’m so sorry. I didn’t even ask. Is he okay?”
“He’s back in cryo, and I’m hoping that there’ll be medicine here in Sanctum that will help him, but we won’t know that unless you get their leader on our side. Hey… Just be yourself. Don’t tell them more than you have to and don’t lie.”
“Hmm, unless they ask about the end of the world.” Murphy chimed in. “In that case, maybe don’t tell them you fired the first shot.”
“Don’t worry, Murphy. Hell’s big enough for both of us.” On those words, she left. Murphy grabbed a bottle, leaning back in his chair, and drank, this frown stuck on his face.
Aurora watched from her chair, as night fell outside, lying on the counter, sighing. So many things were going through her head, everything that had happened to her up to that point. She closed her eyes. If only she could fall asleep, time would pass quicker, maybe when she opened her eyes again, her father would be right there, smiling to her.
“Hey, Ari?”
She recognized Jordan’s voice and hesitated as to how to talk to him, but she reacted as she always did, and pushed him away, “Your ‘girlfriend’ went outside, if that’s what you wanna know.”
“No. I just wanted to talk to you.”
“Yeah, well, I’m tired. Try again in a hundred years.”
She heard him sigh, and then his footsteps getting further away and half opened her eyes, wanting to punch herself. She straightened up, seein others serving themselves plates of food on a table behind her and Murphy, still crashing at the counter as well, and she just let her arms hang and her head fall onto the counter. Rolling her face, she watched Abby approached.
“I’ve done bad things.” Murphy mumbled.
“There is no hell, John.” He lifted his head, not answering. “Hey, listen to me. At the end of our lives, we’re not gonna be judged for the things we did to survive. We’ll be judged for the reasons that we did them.”
“What if the reason was to save my own ass?”
“How is to save your own ass, when you risk your life trying to save someone else?” Ari spoke, quietly, and he looked at her over his shoulder. She was referencing when he went out there, knowing her dad was going around, crazy, looking to kill him specifically, and he still took the time to pull her out of the pond before she drowned, but little did she know how many times he helped her mother, and it wasn’t the choice that would just ‘save his ass’, and it made him think.
A door opened, interrupting them, and Clarke came down the stairs. She wasn’t wearing her pink dress anymore.
“Back in your murder gear already.” Murphy noted. “That’s a good sign.”
“Clarke, what happened?” Abby enquired.
“Jordan told them everything. Where is he?”
“On the roof with his barmaid-girlfriend.” Aurora said bitterly, shooting up her eyebrows.
Clarke ran up the stairs, followed by the guard watching them. After debating with herself for a while, Aurora hopped off her chair and climbed the stairs two by two. She took a second to admire the big planet with its ring, it was way more noticeable than the last time, almost occupying the entire sky, but the silence on the roof alerted her. Clarke wasn’t anywhere to be seen, and neither was the guard. Who she did see, was Jordan was lying on a couch. She called him and he only mumbled about Delilah, the barmaid, and she sighed through her nose, but her annoyance was soon replaced by her concern as she saw the blood on her forehead and understood why he seemed so disoriented and out of it. She groaned, struggling to get him up, holding him with one arm and supporting herself onto the railing with the other, heading back to the stairs leading down to the tavern. She called for help and Abby came up, helping her walk him downstairs. They sat him down and as the doctors of the team, Abby and Jackson took it upon himself to tend to his head wound. He had been somewhat beaten up, and left on the roof, while whoever attacked him kidnapped Delilah and took off.
Loud rumbling could be heard outside. Aurora went to the window and tried to get her eyes onto whatever was making that noise, but she couldn’t see, until it flew higher in the sky. It was their transport ship. No one had any idea if it had been stolen again, or if their people were on board.
At some point, Clarke returned, and told them the situation, “We know their founders on Eligius III were all nightbloods.”
“And we know hereditarily, it’s incredibly rare.” Abby added.
“Princess Clarke. Perfect.” Murphy said, gulping down an umpteenth drink.
Miller looked at him, “Not perfect it if makes her a target.”
“It does, which is why we can’t tell them about Madi… Unless you already did.” She took a few steps in Jordan’s direction. Aurora, arms crossed, head lowered, stared at the latter through her eyebrows, leaning against the counter. “Think. You told her everything else.”
“I didn’t tell her that. I was just being friendly. I’m—”
“You were being stupid.” Aurora said bluntly.
He glanced at her, and looked back at Clarke, ashamed, “I’m the reason they’re throwing us out.”
She nodded faintly, when the door opened, and Madi came running in, jumping in her arms. Aurora’s face relaxed, she uncrossed her arms, stepping away from the counter and looked behind her. Her father was right there. She sighed, reassured, and saw the relief to see her in his eyes as well. She met him halfway and he wrapped his arms around her, holding her tightly. He pressed his lips against his forehead, “I’m here, sweetheart. I love you.”
“I love you too, dad.” She breathed in in his neck, and they stuck like this for a hot minute before she followed him to the counter. He greeted Jordan on the way and went to stand by Murphy, putting his hand on the latter’s shoulder.
“I’m sorry.”
“It’s not your fault, man.” He put his hand on top of his.
The door opened. A couple guards walked in, and behind them were Russell Lightbourne and his wife.
“It’s been a long day, so I’ll keep this short.” He spoke. “Sanctum was created to be a sanctuary for the human race. After seeing you save Delilah, we’ve decided that you deserve that too.”
“You changed your mind? We can stay?” Clarke asked.
“For now, but no more of you. You’ll follow our rules, and respect our traditions, and we will teach you how to survive here.”
“What my wife is trying to say is, welcome to Sanctum.” He smiled.
They all sighed in relief and chuckled. This was great news. Bellamy took his daughter in his arms again and she rested her head on his chest. Russell’s wife approached a woman whose name Aurora ignored but seemed to be apart of their group. She noticed another young woman with short, white hair who she didn’t know.
“You are with child. How far along?”
“6 months, give or take.”
“Through cryosleep, then? That’s remarkable. If you’d like, we can have one of our prenatal physicians examine you in the morning.”
“I’d like. Thank you.”
“You should’ve seen Diyoza and Octavia fighting terrorists.”
Madi’s comment made Clarke look around, confused, “Where’s Octavia?”
Aurora only then noticed that her aunt was missing.
Russell stepped forward, “Charmaine Diyoza? Escort this woman past the shield right now.”
Bellamy let go of his daughter and stepped forward, “Just wait. Whas is this?”
“Seems my reputation precedes me.”
“You could say that.” Russell spat back. “Your face is in our history books next to Hitler and Ben Laden.
“Please, what about the baby?” Abby asked.
“If any of you would care to join her, be my guest.”
Clarke stopped Madi from going with her as she was escorted out by the guards, held by both arms. The Primes left as well, without another word for them.
“One way or another, the devil gets his due.” Murphy said, fatalistically, looking down at the bottom of his glass.
[To be continued…]
Previous Chapter / Next Chapter (SOON)
Published (01/23/2026) by Andrea
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