I hope you'll love this chapter! xx

Clarke stood there, completely motionless, for a moment, her gaze fixed on Gellert.

"What kind of deal?" she finally asked, already knowing that this was a bad idea.

A smile spread on Gellert's face. He got up and ran his hands over his suit, like to remove invisible folds. Gellert motioned to the guard on his right to take the chair and told the other to open the door of the cell. Clarke stepped back into it, her heart beating fast. As the guard approached her and grabbed her arm, she began to struggle. She was really getting sick of all of it.

"Please, Clarke, don't do this. We'll just take you to a more… appropriate place. To discuss."
"I feel very good here, thank you."
"Is that so?" he asks and makes a sign to the guard, who stops trying to take Clarke out of the cell.
"I won't follow you anywhere," Clarke said with as much assurance as she could put in her voice.
"No? Not even for Madi?"

Clarke felt trapped. Part of her knows she should not follow him to God-knows-where. She didn't trust Gellert. At all. There was something about him… Something she recognizes as the look she had always seen on every single one of her enemies' faces. But another part of her knew it was the only thing to do to help Madi right now.

"Why can't we just speak here?" she asked.
"I just thought that we could make ourselves more comfortable. Wouldn't it be nicer, for the both of us?"
"I guess," mumbled Clarke.
"Then follow us."

He walked down the aisle, followed by the two guards who had each caught one of Clarke's arms. Clarke's legs were still weak, but she was determined to look as strong as possible. She raised her chin, straightened her shoulders, and walked with as much assurance as she could. It was a small imitation of what she could usually do, but it was much better than an image of a frightened woman.

Leaving the prison, Clarke watched the surroundings as much as possible. They walked to the left and walked a few minutes before entering what appeared to be a meeting room. The room was mostly empty, with only a few wooden chairs and a desk. Gellert, then opened a hidden door in the back of the room. The guards guided Clarke inside and Gellert closed the door behind them, locking it. This room was much more beautiful. A double canopy bed was in the right corner, next to a dresser, a sofa and a small library. On the other side, there was a desk and three chairs, two on one side, one on the other. Candles were placed here and there, illuminating the room. Clarke wondered if every room looked like that.

Gellert walked over to the desk and sat down, inviting Clarke to sit in front of him. Having no other choice, she did what he asked her, even though what she really wanted to do was… Much more morbid.

"So, what kind of deal?"
"Eager?" Gellert asked with a laugh, "Alright. The kind of deal that would be really beneficial for Madi."

Clarke sighs. Couldn't he just stop talking about nothing and say what he really want?

"Just tell me what you want."

Gellert suddenly becomes more serious. He folded his hands in front of him and watched Clarke very carefully.

"I want you to tell me everything you know about the bunker you talked about in your messages."
"That's it? Why? What would you do with this?"
"No. I want you to tell me everything you know about the bunker and the people living in it. You must spare no details."
"Or what?"
"And," he continued, "I want you to tell me everything about the people you were trying to contact," he took out a list of a drawer and consulted it, "Raven, Emori, Echo, Murphy, Monty, Harper and, obviously, Bellamy Blake. I want to know everything about them. I want to have all of their full names, what they look like, any information that may be useful to us."

Clarke felt her heart sink in her chest and her breathing becomes harder. She tried to remain calm, to give the illusion of being completely in control of herself, but she felt her palms becoming moist and was seriously thinking about just... being Wanheda again. Attacking a guard, taking a rifle and killing them all. Even though it wouldn't be that easy.

"Why would I do that for?"
"Perhaps to keep Madi alive?"

The bastard.

"What would you do with this information?"

Clarke thought of the space shuttle of her friends, whom she had seen come down. At this point, they had to be far enough away from the Miners to be safe. And the ones in the bunker... were they even alive? Her mom, Kane, Octavia, Miller, Niylah… Were they all dead already?

"We will kill them all, of course. And you, my dear, will be safe. Along side your daughter."

Clarke had to stop and think about how to breathe again.

"Are you crazy? They hadn't done a single thing to you."
"Clarke, dear, remember, we heard every single one of your transmissions to Mr. Blake. We know what all those people are capable of. I want what's best for my people. I want them to be safe. Not living with this kind of… monsters. We will purge this planet."
"So you're gonna kill everyone else? Don't you think it's a bit drastic? Besides, I was Wanheda. Commander of death. Why would you make a deal with me? Don't you think I should be the one to be afraid of?"
"Parenthood changes people, Clarke. I know you did. I did, too. With you by my side, we would make such a great team."

Before she could answer, Gellert continued; "You should think about it with more consideration. This decision is the only thing keeping Madi alive."

/

"Clarke Griffin" Maxim had said.

Even if Echo had tried to hide what he had said with a cough, the others froze. Maxim threw a puzzled look to Echo, who seemed like she was about to faint.

"What did you say?" Bellamy asked, persuaded that he had misunderstood.
"What did Clarke have to do with all of this?" Raven asked in a small voice.

Realizing that he had not misunderstood, Bellamy had the impression that he would either lose consciousness or puke directly on the floor. Either way, black dots were dancing in front of his eyes and he was barely aware of Harper putting her hand on his arm.

Maxim glanced at Echo, who looked like she was going to start crying in the next seconds. He didn't understand what was happening. Weren't they Clarke's friends? Besides, now he remembered that Echo had seen Clarke and Madi. Why didn't she talk to her friends about it? And then, he realized. She didn't want, for an unknown reason, her friends to know that Clarke was alive.

"She's dead…" murmured Madi, letting a few tears rolling on her cheeks.
"Of course, she's dead," Murphy says, "Praimfaya killed her."
"Then how would she know this girl?" Emori asked.
"Your friend didn't die in Praimfaya," Said Maxim, glancing at Echo, "She was taken here at the same time as you, along Madi."

They all stood there staring at Maxim as if he were mad. Then, little by little, they turned to Bellamy, who stared at the ground, completely distraught. His heart beat hard and fast and he didn't know how to feel. Clarke had survived at Praimfaya. He had abandoned her here, all alone. He…

Wait.

He turned toward Madi, who was the only one not looking at him; "What do you mean, she's dead?"

He refused to believe it. She had not survived for six years, just to die the day they returned to Earth!

Madi turned to Maxim and spat on the ground.

"They killed her."

The squad watched Maxim with murderous looks. Maxim was about to tell them the truth, that she was still in her cell, safe, but Echo's gaze stopped him. They had a silent conversation until Maxim lowered his head.

"She fought too hard for Madi, who had fainted because of an idiot who – Anyway, it was an accident," he lied, looking at Echo to make sure he had said the right thing.

Bellamy felt like he could feel his heart breaking into several pieces. He sat on the bed, trembling, staring into space. He had just lost her for the second time. He thought that this fucking planet was indeed cursed.

Echo, meanwhile, thought that Maxim was her guardian angel.

"I'm sorry," Maxim finished.

Raven and Monty exchanged a glance, their eyes full of water. They were worried about Bellamy, like all the others. As much as they were sad about the fate of their friend, they were also afraid that Bellamy would go down again. Everything was so… They just couldn't believe it.

"Wait," Monty says, "Echo, you talked about reapers, not about Clarke."

Raven glanced at Echo, and then at Bellamy. She quietly began to put the pieces of the puzzle together, but Maxim cut short her thoughts.

"Reapers?"
"Yes, those weird looking people your guards brought in. They looked a bit like people we knew before whom we called Reapers. Your guards talked about doing experiments on them," Echo said, wishing that he would act like it was the truth once again.

Maxim hesitated a moment.

"Well, we, hmm, we did find weird looking corpses. That's who you've seen. They were already dead. Hmm… I guess radiations did weird things to them. We wanted to know more about them, obviously."

Normally, Bellamy would have guessed right away that something was wrong. Maxim was stuttering too much, he was hesitant and was casting too much glance at Echo, as if he was seeking her approval. All the others suspected that something was wrong. They just didn't know what to do. And besides, they were each wondering if they were imagining it. Eban had taken Madi's hand in his as the girl was crying. Yet, now she had raised her head and was looking at Maxim curiously.

"Madi?" Raven asked her, hoping the girl would say something to sort out the situation.
"We've never seen any corpses before."
"Show us the bodies of these monsters," Murphy said, then, after glancing at Bellamy, "And Clarke's. Afterwards, we'll believe you."
"You don't seem to understand the situation," said Maxim, "You're in danger here. Gellert was looking for Clarke and I know he's looking for you, too. "
"And why's that?" asked Harper.
"It's because of the messages," explained Madi, "Clarke tried to contact you, but obviously they didn't get to you."

Bellamy imagined Clarke trying to talk to them for six years and he felt even more guilty than before. But now, he had to act. He stood up, crossed his arms in front of his chest and looked at Maxim like he wanted to kill him. Which was pretty near the truth.

"I don't know exactly what Gellert wants," Maxim says, feeling strangely little under Bellamy's gaze even though they're the same height, "Only a few people are in the secret. His son, Jakob, and Maria are probably the only ones who know the most."
"Why Maria?"
"Because she's his ex-wife. And Jakob's mom."

/

After about an hour, where Gellert had left Clarke alone in the room with the guards, he came back, a smile on his face.

"Hello, darling. Do you have an answer for me?"
"I want to see Madi."
"This is not…"
"I want to see Madi. I want to talk to her. Alone. I want her to stay with me, not in some cell. And then…" she took a deep breath, "Then I will help you."

Gellert thought about it for a few minutes, before nodding to one of the guards.

"Go get the girl," he turned to Clarke, "My dear friend, I think we have a deal here."

As he walked around the room smiling and singing, Clarke knows that this hard decision was her only choice. She had to save Madi and she hoped her friends were already far away and safe. She couldn't do anything for them anymore.

A few minutes later, the guard who was supposed to pick up Madi returned, all alone. Clarke stood up, already ready to fight with her bare hands.

"Where's the girl, Brant?"
"She's gone, sir. No sign of her. Her cell was unlocked."

Clarke hesitated between being relieved and distraught. Obviously, Madi was no longer in her cell and it was not because of the Miners. But were they lying? Had she run away? With whom? How? Where? Was she safe now?

Gellert made a sign to the second guard, who walked towards Clarke. Being totally lost in her thoughts, Clarke didn't expect the guard to lift his gun and strike her on the head, causing her to fully lose consciousness.

/

"Alright, here what we're going to do," Maxim was saying, "I've messaged my daughter. She's about the same age as Madi, same height and weight. She will bring some clothes for her. Then, I'll get you out of here, three at a time."
"What about the bodies? We want to see them," Bellamy says.
"There's no time!" Echo shouted, "Do you hear what he's saying? We need to leave."
"Yeah, I'm sure you really wanna leave this place," Raven says.
"What's your problem?"
"I think you know damn well what it is."
"Can't we do that later?" Emori asked, holding Eban in her arms.

As everyone started talking at the same time, someone knocked on the door. It must have been a signal that Maxim recognized because he opened the door without hesitation. A girl of about twelve years entered the room. She had long black hair and piercing green eyes, she looked very much like her father. She held several pieces of clothing in her hands. Seeing the small crowd in front of her, she stopped and gave her father an uncertain look.

"Alex, you have to keep it secret, okay? These people have to get out of here, and very quickly. You're gonna give your clothes and go home without any further questions, got it?"
"Got it," the girl, Alex, says, "But you should know that I saw Jakob while coming here. He doesn't look really happy."
"What was he doing?"
"He was talking with a few guards. He –"

As she was about to add something, an alarm started ringing loudly in the camp.

"Every citizen must stay where they are," a voice said, even stronger than the alarm. The message had to be pre-recorded because it keeps repeating itself, again and again.

"Shit, we need to get you out of here. Now."