AN: It's like you guys don't review unless I ask you to :(
Chandra awoke on something cold and hard. Her head was pounding due to a headache and vibrations being sent through whatever she was laying on. Thunder and rain roared, and her skin was sticky with humidity. Somebody was speaking on a radio, a woman. After a few moments, she managed to peel her eyelids apart. She took in her surroundings and realized she was laying on a metal floor, the metal floor of the dropship to be exact. The vibrations pounding through her skull were from frantic footsteps running back and forth on the floor around her. She groaned, rolling over.
"Clarke!" Raven's shrill yell made Chandra cringe. "Clarke she's awake!" Chandra assumed Raven was talking about her, so she sat up. Raven was bent over someone, who was on a table. They seemed to be wounded. Chandra's eyes widened as she recognized the long brown hair- Finn had been injured. Clarke jumped down the ladder, rushing over to where Chandra was.
"Chandra?" Clarke's hand appeared in front of Chandra's face and she took it, pulling herself up with Clarke's help.
"Careful," she warned. "You were in pretty bad shape when you got here." Chandra nodded, feeling the stings of where her body had been slashed open with knives, and the ache of the bruises covering her from head to toe. She glanced down at herself and noticed she'd been dressed; instead of her usual fur and leather, she was dressed in a dark grey long sleeved shirt, black cargo pants and thick boots. She looked like the rest of the sky people.
"Chandra," Clarke called, gaining the girl's attention again. "Bellamy and I need you upstairs…" She seemed hesitant.
"What is it?" Chandra raised her eyebrows and Clarke swallowed before continuing.
"You're probably not going to like what you'll see," Clarke explained, peaking Chandra's confusion. "But you need to understand, we need to save Finn. He poisoned him." Chandra furrowed her eyebrows, pushing past Clarke and climbing the ladder. Clarke called after her, but she ignored her.
She got off the ladder, turned, and her jaw dropped.
Chained by his hands and feet to the walls was a grounder. He was bloodied, his face bruised and battered beyond recognition. Chandra's horror grew as she recognized him. Lincoln.
Her eyes landed on Bellamy, who looked ashamed as he avoided Chandra's gaze.
"You're a monster," she spat at him. She could have sworn she saw him flinch, but it was so slight she must have imagined it.
"We don't have time for this," he growled back. "We need answers, and if he doesn't talk soon, Finn's going to die." Chandra didn't answer, instead glaring daggers at him.
"Chandra," Clarke spoke, coming up behind her. She tried to touch livid girl's shoulder, but Chandra yanked her arm away. "Chandra, we need you to talk to him. We don't think he speaks our language and we're hoping he speaks yours." Chandra swallowed, looking back at Lincoln. She knew for a fact that Lincoln spoke English, but decided to keep that fact to herself.
"Ask him what's on the knife," Clarke urged. Chandra did. Lincoln remained silent.
"Ask him which one of these vials is the anecdote," Bellamy suggested. Chandra did. Again, Lincoln remained silent.
They told her to repeat. She did. No answer.
Repeat.
Chandra did.
No answer.
The cycle went on, everyone growing increasingly agitated, until Raven barged upstairs.
"Clarke! Finn stopped breathing!"
"What?"
"He started again, but next time he might not. What's going on up here?"
Bellamy groaned. "Nothing, he won't talk."
"Oh yeah?" Raven's eyes glinted and Chandra suddenly had a bad feeling. "Well he hasn't met me yet."
"Raven, what are you doing?" Chandra's voice shook.
"Trying something new," she said vaguely before reaching down and grabbing two wires. Chandra jumped forward, only to be held back by Miller and another teen. She elbowed one in the face, and stepped on the other's foot, managing to break free, but they were joined by another sky person.
"Tie her up," Bellamy ordered, and the 3 kids held her down. Clarke protested, and Chandra screamed and kicked, putting up a great fight but she was too injured to fight off a handful of healthy teenagers.
"Raven, NO!" Chandra screamed as the desperate girl pressed the wires to Lincoln's chest, causing him to convulse. He began to foam at the mouth. Chandra continued screaming.
"Gag her!" Bellamy roared, unable to stand her desperate screams. Clarke protested again, but she was ignored. Miller gagged her roughly with a belt, and she knew her mouth would be ripped and bruised later.
"Stop!" Octavia screamed. She had the poisoned knife in her hand. "He'll let Finn die, but he sure as hell won't let me." She dragged the knife up her forearm, and Lincoln struggled against his restraints to try to get to her. Octavia fell to her knees, pointing to the different vials and asking if they were the anecdote. To everyone's surprise, Lincoln motioned to the very left one and nodded. Octavia grabbed that vial and handed it to Clarke, who rushed downstairs with it.
Octavia glared at Bellamy before descending the ladder. One by one the rest of the delinquents left too, leaving just Chandra and Bellamy. A pregnant silence was thick between them.
Bellamy walked towards her but Chandra skittered away, looking away from him. Eventually he got her against the wall, and she pressed herself against it to get as far away from him as she possibly could. He crouched down next to her and reached for her face. She flinched violently, and Bellamy's eyes burned with guilt. She refused to look at him, pulling her knees up to her chest. Bellamy clenched his jaw, refusing to show how guilty he was feeling. He ignored how she cringed away from him as he reached forward again and pulled the gag away from her mouth. She could feel the blood pooling at the sides of her mouth from where her lips ripped, and Bellamy's gaze fell to the wounds.
"Chandra," he said softly, unclasping the buckles that bound her hands and feet together. She immediately began rubbing her tender wrists. "Who we are and who we need to be to survive are two very different things." He stood up, offering her a hand. She refused it, using the wall to pull herself.
"I don't need your help," Chandra snarled. She glared at Bellamy, who didn't back down. Chandra walked past him towards Lincoln, knocking his shoulder roughly. She grabbed the bucket of water sitting in the corner and a rag, and started to clean Lincoln's chest. After a few moments of heated silence, Bellamy finally sighed.
"Fine," he grinded out through clenched teeth. Chandra heard him stomp down the ladder and she closed her eyes, letting out a breath she didn't know she was holding. Her eyes hardened as she examined Lincoln's wounds.
"I'm sorry," she croaked, clearing her throat. She felt guilty when she spoke her native tongue; she didn't deserve to speak it after what she had done, but she spoke it anyway, for Lincoln's sake. Her eyes burned, and her throat constricted. "I'm so sorry." She stared at his chest, refusing to look up at him out of shame.
"I-It's… not.. your fault…" Chandra's head snapped up. Sure enough, Lincoln was looking at her, struggling to lift his head. Her lower lip trembled and she pulled it into her mouth to hide it. She smiled sadly.
"Thank you," she whispered, going back to cleaning his wounds. She jumped when she heard someone climbing the ladder. Octavia paused as she realized Chandra was there.
"I'll take it from here." She grabbed the rag from Chandra's hands, who looked up at Lincoln. He nodded, and Chandra smiled softly at the younger girl before climbing down the ladder. She stepped off the dropship, thankful that the storm has finally stopped.
Bellamy stepped in front of her and Chandra came to an abrupt stop, craning her neck to look up at his tall form.
"We need to talk about how and why you're here." Chandra inwardly groaned. She did not want to have this conversation.
"Fine," she mumbled. "Where?" He nodded towards his tent and Chandra sighed, letting him lead her there.
"Chandra!" Jasper jogged up to her, and her mood instantly inflated. "What happened last night?"
Chandra glanced at Bellamy, who was giving her a pointed look.
"Hey Jasper," she greeted, ignoring his question. "I'm a little busy right now, but I promise I'll tell you everything after." Jasper's eyes flickered to Bellamy, and his face fell.
"Sure, whatever, take your time." Chandra felt a pang of guilt as she and Bellamy entered his tent, she knew what it looked like to Jasper but she didn't have time to explain.
"Sit," Bellamy ordered. Chandra made a face at his tone, but complied anyway. She sat on a log near the cloth wall of the tent, meant to be a makeshift bench. Clarke was already there, pacing in the middle of the tent. Bellamy stood a few feet in front of Chandra, arms crossed, staring at her expectantly.
"My people banished me," Chandra confessed, her eyes burning. She opened her mouth to elaborate but Clarke interrupted her.
"You were banished?" she asked, disbelief coating her voice. Chandra looked away, before fixing her gaze at the ground somewhere off to her side. She nodded, struggling to keep her tears from falling.
"I murdered an entire village," Chandra admitted, her voice barely above a whisper. Chandra refused to look at either of them; she already knew the looks on their faces. "The flares," she went on. She swallowed thickly, wiping away her stubborn tears. "One of them hit a village. My village. 200 people died." A strangled sob forced its way from her throat, and she covered her face with her hands. "I lit that flare. The flares were my idea. And they didn't even work, I saw those bodies in the sky." She shook as a few more sobs shook her thin frame.
"Did they do… that to you?" Bellamy referred to her wounds. Chandra nodded.
"When they walked me out, they attacked me. With rocks and knives." She sniffed. "It could have been worse. But my leader and I, we…" Chandra struggled to find words to describe her and Anya's relationship. "We had a bond. She was merciful."
"How is this merciful?" Clarke motioned to her battered body. "That's cruel."
"I deserve it," she cried, standing up. Bellamy pressed his lips into a thin line, and Clarke looked like she was about to disagree. "No, Clarke! It was all my fault! Children died! Families! Innocent people! Because of me!"
"You had no idea that would happen-"
"But it did!" Clarke was stunned, and Chandra was breathing heavily. Bellamy was still silent. Chandra sighed, pushing the hair that'd fallen in front of her face behind her ear. She sat back down again, putting her head in her hands. She was suddenly exhausted. She felt a hand on her shoulder a few moments later, and she looked up to see Clarke sitting beside her.
"If your people won't have you," she said quietly, "Then we will. You're welcome here. Isn't that right, Bellamy?" Bellamy looked unsure, setting his jaw.
"Of course," he confirmed, though the extended pause before he did did nothing to reassure Chandra. "You're one of us now." Chandra nodded, accepting it. The tent fell into silence again, until Chandra cleared her throat.
"So, does this mean I get a tent now?"
Chandra ended up sharing with Octavia. She made her own tiny bed in the farthest corner. She lay there alone; Octavia was somewhere else, probably still with Lincoln. Chandra was fast asleep in moments.
AN: One of my shorter chapters, sorry about that. the next one is around 5000 words though so look forward to that. But this chapter was still important because it's the start of bellamy and chandra's relationship, and the two leaders of the camp are beginning to trust chandra and accept her.
Don't forget to leave reviews telling me what you think, also please leave suggestions for pairings and where the plot should go because this story is still pretty fresh so there's a lot of directions this story could go in. xx