"Just because people make bad decisions, doesn't mean they are always bad. It means that they are human."
Valery marched up the ladder with the knife in her hands. She climbed up the ladder with difficulty, her waist was burning and stinging. "Valery, they locked the hatch." Octavia said when Valery reached the first floor. Valery started to bang on the door.
"Open the door!" Valery yelled. The hatch opened and Valery climbed through. "Move, Miller." Valery panted and she pushed him out of her way. Octavia and Clarke followed Valery.
She walked up to the Grounder and slapped him in the face. She held the knife in front of him, very closely. "Tell me what's on this, now." Valery said threatening. "What are you talking about?" Bellamy asked her. "He poisoned the blade," Valery said breathlessly, "he knew all this time Finn would die, no matter what we did." Valery looked back to the Grounder. "Please give us the antidote, and I swear we will set you free."
"Valery, he doesn't understand you." Octavia said. "Oh he does. This is America, maybe he's talking in a dialect but I am sure he understand us." Valery replied and she looked around. Before she even said something, Bellamy walked over with the vials. Valery grabbed one. "This one?" Valery asked while holding one up.
This bullshit continued a few minutes, Finn still lying on that table. "Fine, then we are going to do this the hard way." Bellamy said. 'So you want to torture him now? He didn't harm Octavia, we are talking about a life here!" Valery said indignantly.
"We are talking about Finn's life!" Bellamy yelled back at Valery and she looked to her feet. "Do it." Clarke said to Bellamy. "no," Octavia mumbled, "Just tell us!" She said to the Grounder. "Hold her." Bellamy said to Miller and pointed to Octavia. Bellamy started to cut off the shirt of the Grounder, revealing scars and tattoos. "You are going to show us the antidote, or you're gonna wish you had."
Valery was sitting on the ground, with her arms crossed over her chest. Bellamy looked at her. "Go ahead then." She said with a fake smile. "Do you have a better plan?" He asked and Valery shrugged. "Bellamy no, please." Octavia mumbled with tears in her eyes. Bellamy cut off a belt with a big piece of iron attached to it. He started to swing it, hitting the Grounder hard, who moaned.
With every swing Valery's body shocked slightly, closing her eyes. She exchanged looks with the Grounder, who still kept his mouth shut. Valery looked over to Clarke and back to Bellamy, shaking her head in disappointment. What would Valery do? Valery is thinking quite practical. The best thing would be to just cut herself and Octavia. He'd care a lot if Octavia died, Valery knew it. but the risk would be too big...
Bellamy suddenly hit him in the face with it and Clarke sat down in front of the Grounder with the vials. "Please which one's the antidote?" Clarke asked. The Grounder was almost passing out, his mouth was filled with blood. "Please tell us." Clarke repeated.
"Clarke, Val, you don't have to see this." Bellamy said and he held up a giant kind of screw. "I am not leaving until I have that antidote." Raven suddenly walked up the ladder. "Clarke! He keeps having those seizures!" Raven said panicky. "Last chance." Bellamy said to the Grounder. Bellamy swung his hand back and forth and pierced the giant screw though the Grounder's hand.
The Grounder's hand was shaking, and Valery gaped at Bellamy all startled. Raven suddenly walked up to the Grounder, and grabbed cables that were lying behind him. Electricity was cracking and the Grounder tried to back off. Raven suddenly hold the two cables against the Grounder, who was shaking and started to yell. The light of the drop ship started to flicker.
"Which one is it? Come on!" Raven yelled and again, she started to touch him with the cables. "Stop it, enough! You monsters!" Valery yelled. "He's all I have! He is letting Finn die!" Raven yelled back. "Of course he does, look at what you are doing!" Valery yelled hysterically.
Valery grabbed the knife and walked over to Octavia. She grabbed Octavia firmly by her arm, holding the knife above it.
"Do it." Octavia whispered in Valery's ear. Valery looked at the Grounder, who was looking with big eyes to Valery. Valery took a deep breath and made a small cut in Octavia's arm. "Valery have you lost your mind?!" Bellamy yelled.
"He won't let me die..." Octavia said and she walked up to the vials. She sat down and held them up, one by one. "This one?" She asked. She grabbed another and another... "This one?" She held a vial up with a yellow kind of substance. The Grounder nodded slowly. Octavia smiled and walked up to Clarke. "Thank you!" Clarke said and she climbed down the ladder, followed by Raven.
Valery rushed to Octavia, holding her. "I am sorry, I didn't know what else to do." Valery said. Octavia smiled. "I wanted to do it myself anyway..." She said quietly. Bellamy bend down to help up Octavia. "Don't touch me!" She snapped. Everyone left the room, leaving Octavia, Valery and the Grounder behind. And Miller, who was sitting like a bag of potatoes in the corner.
Octavia grabbed a cloth, and started to clean the Grounder. Valery was looking at his hand. "I need to remove it," she said to the Grounder, "otherwise it will start infecting." He gave a short nod. Valery grabbed the screw firmly and pulled it out. It started to bleed, but not that much as before. She drenched another cloth in moonshine. "This is going to sting." She said and she cleaned his hand.
The Grounder moaned a little bit, his eyes fixed on Valery. Valery put a cloth around his hand and made a knot. "Thanks." Octavia said. "Also a bit for saving him." Valery frowned. "That was you, and you also saved Finn." Valery replied with a smile. Valery looked back at the Grounder. "I was never meant to hurt her, she's my friend," Valery said to him and smiled, "I will leave you two alone."
Valery climbed down the ladder, meeting Clarke. "Finn's getting better." Clarke said with a smile. Valery looked at Clarke and shook her head. "No he won't," she whispered, "this is for you and Bellamy, cherish it," and she put something in Clarke's hand and walked away. Clarke looked at it, and saw the Tarot card of the devil. Clarke looked up to say something to Valery, but she was already gone.
The storm had almost passed, but it was still raining. She stood down in the middle of the camp, the rain pouring down on her. She wanted to run, as far as she could, away from this mess. She had to process what had just happened. Seeing Bellamy like this... she would never forget that.
What if she was pregnant and had that child? Would her child have also grown up with a monster as a father? She didn't want to think about it, so she shook the idea off. The rain stopped and the sun appeared. Valery looked around the camp, and saw that everything was down and broken.
She sighed and started to clean up a bit. Her waist was still stinging, but she ignored the pain. She always ignored if she had the flu or anything, she doesn't have time for that. More people started to help rebuilding the camp. Valery looked up and saw Bellamy and Clarke talking to each other.
Valery avoided them as long as possible, and they surely knew she was angry. Valery walked back inside the drop ship and found Octavia, reading in Valery's book. "I am sorry," Octavia said and abruptly she said the book down, "no, please. Go ahead. anything interesting?" Valery asked. Octavia nodded eagerly as she grabbed the book again.
Valery found the Tarot card of the devil, lying on top of her bag. She was sitting next to Octavia, in silent. "the Grounder tahnked me," Octavia whispered, "you were right." Valery smiled in return, happy.
The radio was working, and since Clarke was upstairs with Raven taking care of Finn and Bellamy looking after the Grounder, Valery decided to take a look at the radio. Raven even installed a screen, so you could see with whom you are talking. Valery pushed a button to switch it on. "Hello?" She mumbled. The screen suddenly went on, and Jaha appeared.
"Ah, Valery, just in time." Jaha said and smiled. "For what?" Valery replied sheepish. "The council has gathered, we wanted to talk to Clarke about the Grounder-" Valery cut him off. "-Yes," she snapped, "as do I." Jaha gestured to let Valery talk.
"I never thought i'd say this, but we need you guys. Here, they are upstairs torturing the Grounder at the moment, for info."
"The Grounder doesn't speak English?" Jaha asked. Valery hesitated. "No, he doesn't." She said abruptly. "They hang skeletons in trees, wear creepy masks and are covered in tattoos. Not like any civilization from a century ago." Valery said quietly, shaking her head.
"Can he provide any insight on how to survive in the winter?" Jaha asked.
"Well, it's kind of hard to see, now his face is bashed in," Valery said flatly, "but his features are very similar to ours, he's a bit tanned though," Valery said indifferently, "and to prepare for winter, we are gathering berries and nuts. Also curing meats, digging for roots, but I think we will freeze before we starve."
The next moment, it felt like Valery froze and that all the happiness got sucked out of her when the screen switched to her father, who was looking at papers and started to talk. "There's good news on that front. According to defense plans before the war there's an old emergency aid depot not far from the landing site, here are the coordinates." Kane said and showed her the coordinates.
Her father looked at the camera, to Valery, who was glaring back at him. She couldn't even look properly, for she looked down. She held her mouth shut and looked away. "Lily..." He started slowly, and Valery looked up, taking deep breaths, in order not to start crying, rant at him or smashing down the radio.
"Stop right there, please. Listen to me." She said and she looked back to the screen and sighed out of relief when she saw Jaha again. "I do not have any authority here," she started, "this conversation never happened, if they find out, she'll start bitching. So I am going to get Clarke, and you will tell everything to her, got it? And Mount Weather is not gonna happen, it's crawling with Grounders over there."
Jaha nodded. "Okay, well I will talk to her," Jaha said and looked more closely at Valery, "it's good to see you again." Valery sighed. "Yeah, sure." She replied flatly and she stood up. She moaned loudly and looked at her waist. Her hair swooped to the other side of her face and revealed the wound.
"What was that?" She heard her father saying, "Jaha, what's going on?" Valery stopped, and saw Jaha's hand covering the screen. After a few moments, Jaha removed it. "Your father wants to talk to you." Jaha said. "Oh, is that so?" Valery asked as if she was clearly surprised. She actually was, though.
"Please, it will be in private. Just a moment, for we need to talk to Clarke." Valery hesitated, she hated her father. But to see him again did something to her, she was curious about him. "Okay..." She said weakly. She took a deep breathe and saw her father. "Hey, Lily." He said quietly. "Hey." She mumbled. Lily... only he called her like that, for Valery or Val wasn't a name he liked at all.
"How are you? How did you get that wound from?" He asked. Valery shrugged. "I am fine, I hit my head and got beaten up by John Murphy," she said airily, "but Bellamy banished him and I kicked him in the face." She added quickly, looking at the worried face of her father.
"What are you doing, that's not your face." She said abruptly. Valery cursed herself, for thinking out loud.
"How's grandma?" She asked wondering. "She's fine," Kane replied, "she's been taking care of your little tree." Valery smiled. "Good." She replied quietly. Kane was struggling to find words and she waited patiently. "I am so sorry, Lily... I really am, I have been a terrible father... But I had my reasons. "
Valery had no idea what to say about this. "Don't lie," Valery said flatly, "you knew exactly what you were doing. You are mean and selfish, and the only face I have been seeing of you is the one with the disappointment, arrogance and authority... Even when mom died!"
Kane sighed, looking down and was slowly shaking his head. Valery was at the edge of crying and ranting more at him, but the whole camp would hear that. She took a deep breathe and spoke to him again, calmly. "Send grandma my love, and make sure to bring my radio," Valery mumbled and stood up, "I'll get Clarke."
