Chapter Text
Jasper wakes up to the familiar sound of light rain on the hood of the rover. It’s only been normal rain for just under a year now, and he’d forgotten how much he missed it, even though he’d only had it for 198 days on Earth before Praimfaya. He’s got into the habit of counting the days, how long it’s been since everything that led up to this.
Six years, six months, and seven days since he landed on Earth for the first time.
Two thousand, two hundred and one days since Monty left him at the window bay. He can’t hold that against him. Monty thought he was dead, which is fair enough, because he was supposed to be.
There’s no point dwelling on that.
He jumps down from the hood of the rover, careful to be quiet as he drops his notebook onto a seat and picks up the dish and his radio. It’s still early and he doesn’t want to disturb its occupants.
Balancing himself on a log and staring up at the sky, Jasper starts the same old routine he’s been doing since he was well enough to sit up. “Monty,” he begins. “Day 2,199! I don’t know if you guys are keeping count up there, but that’s 6 years and 7 days since Praimfaya. Correct me if I’m wrong,” he pauses for a second, aware of the irony, “but I’m pretty sure I remember you saying Earth would be safe after 5 years.” He pulls at a loose thread on his cardigan. “So, where are you? You better hurry up, or I’ll be forced to assume you didn’t make it up there. All I have proof of is that Becca’s rocket left, and that 8 of you were in it. Just a call back would be nice, I guess?” He wants to say more, apologise for what he’d said the day before when the weather had been kind of shitty and dragged his mood down. If Monty heard that, it might be for the best he hasn’t come down yet.
Jasper is trying to figure out how best to phrase this explanation when he hears a boom that shakes the ground, and nearly falls off his log. He cranes his neck to get a better vantage point, and try and see what’s going on up there.
His heart nearly stops when he sees a tiny black dot hurtling towards Earth. He flies to his feet, a tiny surprised laugh escaping. “Never mind,” he says to the radio. “I see you.”
Then he’s hurtling back to the rover at full speed, which is still not very impressive. The rover’s back doors are open, and he jumps in and starts shaking the piles of blankets on the floor in a way that he knows drives them mad. “Madi! Luna! Gyon op!”
Luna sits up straight away. Grounders tend to be light sleepers, he’s learnt. She’s about to say something to him when she hears the noise outside. Her eyes widen, and Jasper nods at her, grinning. When Madi sits up a few moments later, bleary eyed, she takes a few seconds longer to process. The second she does, her eyes go wide with excitement and she hops out of the rover, disappearing quickly around the side. Jasper smiles fondly at her, remembering the day they found her.
***
Day 396
Jasper is clattering about a little ungracefully as they search for edible plants. As ALIE had promised, 4% of the planet was habitable, and he wonders idly as he combs through the undergrowth if she had led Jaha to this area on purpose. The air is still ridiculously hot and clammy, and the Nightblood must be a factor in their survival, but he’s fairly sure that this must be some of the 4%. Lost in his thoughts, he almost misses the trampled plants and the footprint in the soil.
He frowns as he sees it, trying to figure out a way that it could possibly be anything other than what it looks like. “Luna?” he calls, eyes fixed on the ground, “have you already been over here?”
She frowns and approaches. They’re still not exactly chatty with each other, but Jasper feels fairly certain that she likes him enough for him to be able to ask stupid questions sometimes. “That’s too small to be my foot,” she tells him. “This is recent.” Even she can’t hide the note of hope in her voice as Jasper’s mouth drops open. “Someone’s alive nearby. A child.”
Jasper’s on his feet in an instant. “Hello?” he calls, trying to make his voice as reassuring as possible. “We’re not going to hurt you!” His Trigedasleng is still far from perfect, so he speaks English in the hope that the kid will understand, or at least recognise his tone of voice. Luna, who clearly has less faith in that plan than him, translates as she scans the area.
As Jasper crouches to search for more footprints, he hears Luna gasp. When he looks up, she’s crouched by a clump of bushes near the trees. He hurries over, trying to be a little lighter on his feet. When he sees what she sees, he understands her gasp.
A girl who can’t be any older than 8 is huddled in the bushes, staring at them with wide eyes. Before he can stop himself, Jasper reaches for her arm and she pulls away, terrified. “No, shh.” Luna cuts in, much better with children. “You’re okay.”
Jasper follows her lead. “Ai laik Jasper kom-” he pauses for a second, having never had to put this to use before, and makes a decision. “Jasper kom Flokru.”
Luna freezes for a second, then relaxes and looks at him in a way he can’t quite interpret. He forgets sometimes that she’s not that much older than he is. “Luna kom Flokru,” she adds softly. “What’s your name?”
“Madi,” the girl says quietly, her voice hoarse. She shifts a bit, leaning towards them, and Jasper sees a graze on her knee that is jet black. That explains how she survived, he guesses.
“ Hello, Madi,” he says, holding out a hand. “Let’s find you something to eat.”
***
Luna looks hesitant to follow Madi, which is fair, based on what she’s told Jasper about everything that went down whilst he was in Arkadia. She gestures for him to go, and he doesn’t hesitate. They live in the one spot of green for as far as they can see, and they’re not all that far from Becca’s lab. If Raven can aim the ship right, his friends are going to land close by. “Jasper?” Madi calls from somewhere near the front of the rover, and he makes an ‘mm hmm’ noise as he scans the ground for where they might land. “I thought you said their ship was small?”
“Yeah, it’s tiny.” Jasper ignores the confusion in her voice. “No idea how they got so many people in there.”
Madi doesn’t reply, instead staring up at the sky, eyebrows knitted together. Jasper finally squints up at the clouds to see what the fuss is about.
It makes sense straight away. The ship is huge, bigger even than the dropship that had brought them down in the first place. There’s no way his friends are on that thing. He tries to ignore the sinking pit of disappointment in his stomach as the ship flies towards Earth. “Madi,” he says quietly, “Can you get my rifle?” She nods and flees back to the rover. Jasper hears a stream of Trigedasleng from inside, then Luna exits, handing him the gun.
“She’s staying in there,” she tells him. “I’m not risking her.”
Jasper nods, eye to the lens. “That’s fair.”
“Jasper? If you can, don’t kill them.” Luna looks at him, sadness in her eyes. Six years alone on Earth and peaceful people to begin with, neither of them want bloodshed today. He gives her a look that he hopes is reassuring and then focuses on the ship again as they retreat into the treeline.
Prisoner transport. Eligius.
Jasper’s breath catches in his throat. An eerie sense of deja vu takes over as he tries to figure out exactly who could possibly be on this ship. There were no prisoners left on the Ark, and he doesn’t remember any being transported anywhere in his lifetime.
Whoever is piloting the ship has better control than their dropship did, because it lands surprisingly softly in the valley. No one will come straight up the hill, he guesses. Earth takes time to adjust to, he remembers that.
This time, he’s the grounder. He even looks the part with loose braids in his hair and the symbol of Flokru tattooed on his shoulder. The only indication that he is in fact, from the Ark, are the goggles resting on the top of his head. He hadn’t had a lot to do in those 6 years after it was safe to go outside, so he feels he can justify returning to Arkadia to get them hadn’t been a complete waste of time.
Jasper wonders briefly if it’s worth trying to get through to the bunker again. He has no idea who’s actually in there, if any of them are alive at all. Besides, even if he could get a message to them, they’re trapped under the rubble, which is really no help at all.
He must have been biting his lip, because blood wells up at the corner of his mouth. He wipes it away distractedly. Being one of only three people still on the ground, he hasn’t really had a chance to get used to it being black yet. That had been a bit of a shock.
Luna gestures to the rover. “We could leave the area,” she tells him. “The second they see this, they’ll know there are survivors nearby.”
Voices suddenly start to carry up the hill. “Too late,” Jasper says grimly. Madi has locked the doors of the rover, so she’ll be safe in there. If it comes to it, he and Luna can fight.
The group start emerging not far from them. They are significantly older than the 100, Jasper would guess most are in their 30s. All of them wear plain grey prisoner clothes.
All except two.
When Jasper leans forward to see what the group are clumping around, the whole world stops. They have two prisoners of their own. One is a girl with a grounder tattoo on her face, who is glowering at her captors. The other, head down, shoulders hunched, is Monty.