Disclaimer: Refer to the Pilot
The 48
She hadn't a clue how long she'd been sitting in the goddamn blinding white room she had woken up to since getting taken at the camp. It could've been days, it could've been hours, but she had no way to tell when or where she was. For God knows how long, she'd been banging at the door, kicking at it, punching it, bumping it...anything she could think of to get out of it. Eventually, she ended up sliding against the door and waiting for something to happen, staring at the white walls, the white floor, the white clothing she'd been fitted in. Honestly, it was getting annoying. It wasn't long before she was completely bored, left alone with her own morbidly curious thoughts, and so she began to pace, biting down on her nail to keep from punching a wall. There was a camera positioned right above the door to see into her room, but she just kept her head down and paid no mind to it. Whoever was on the other side could keep watching for all she cared.
Her pacing increased until she was practically power-walking in the middle of the white room. It was only when she heard the sound of the door unlocking a few feet away from her when she purposely sprinted over to the bed where she had earlier been hooked to an IV and grabbed the rod in which the saline was positioned on. She chucked the bag and picked the rod up as quickly as she could, pointing it to whoever her enemy was walking through the door.
"Alessia Kane, you have been cleared from quarantine," someone, either a man or a woman, approached her in a blue body suit as if she were some kind of infected animal. Two of the same people behind that first person came up and started to struggle with Alessia to get her to release the rod. She screamed out protests at them, but they restrained her as she kicked and yelled. Over her own screams, she could hear the first blue person say flatly, "Sedate her, she's clearly overwhelmed."
"The hell you will!" She snatched her arm out of one of her restrainer's grasp and tightly brought her elbow back in a snap right into the throat of the hazmat suit. The outburst leveraged her to pivot herself and duck out of the way of a needle heading right for her neck, and from there she used her foot to kick in the other's knee, catching the needle in her grasp. The third one, the one who had spoken first to her, began to realize the situation and braced to restrain her. Instead, Alessia used the needle that she'd caught and went right for the neck, where she didn't care how she set it in, but she stabbed and plunged before running right out of the room. But she had no idea where she was, so she just picked a way and she went for it. There were multiple white rooms, she realized, each with a circular window to look inside. Alessia ran as fast as she could, hearing noises behind her confirming that there were people after her. At last, she came to a stop in an open hallway, to her right being elevators.
Elevators? she thought to herself in disbelief. There was a door beside the elevator, but when she went to open it, she found that it was locked. Of course.
Her only choice was the elevator. She tried to press the button, but there was a scanner beside it that was blaring red as there was no response from the elevator. She pushed the button over and over again, cursing to herself when there was clearly no response. She turned and turned but the men behind her were gaining; she could hear their voices down the hall. Right as she began to panic, the doors of the elevator slowly opened and she moved to hurry inside.
Instead, there was someone inside of the elevator, calmly stepping out of the elevator; that was, until he saw Alessia, the breathless girl in a white quarantine uniform. She was ready to fight, but when she swung at the young man who had stepped out, he twisted her hand so it was behind her back and spun her over the wall beside the elevator just as the two men in hazmat suits she'd left conscious came after her. With groans of both defeat and pain, Alessia struggled to get out of the brunette-haired man's grasp, but she was sure he'd broken her wrist. Ignoring her painful breaths, the man looked at those in the hazmat suits.
"Tell me she's been cleared," he growled, sounding as if he was afraid of his own life for some strange reason. Alessia didn't have time to think of why, she just struggled against his grasp.
One of the men answered, "Just now."
Alessia finally gave up struggling. It hurt too much and there was no way she'd be able to get out of whatever hold he'd put her in. She could hear his sharp breaths behind her and was even more confused when she'd heard a man she'd never seen in her life sigh out, "So you must be Alessia Kane."
She didn't answer. How could she? With her cheek pressed up against the cold concrete of the wall and her mouth wanting to scream out in pain from the way her wrist was bent, she didn't want to breathe, let alone speak. Honestly, she didn't even care when she heard the man behind her tell the people in the blue suits to sedate her, and once he'd released her out of his grasp, she was too outnumbered to stop the needle from impaling her neck.
When she woke again, she was back in the white room she had been in before, which only made her more pissed off. The white color was giving her a headache and she felt like she looked the equivalent to a floating head wearing the clothes that blinded her with so much light and matched the color of the walls. Except, when she was able to get herself to a sitting position in the bed, she realized that there was a new addition to her wrist: a cast. Just as she studied the plaster healing her broken bone, the door to her room opened and she jumped straight out of bed, ready to fight whoever walked in. The same man she had a run-in with at the elevator stepped inside, alone, and when he turned at her, he gave an exhausted sigh seeing her tense stance.
"Really?" He frowned. "You're gonna try and fight again? With a broken wrist this time? We both know how that's gonna go over. You might as well relax, Alessia."
"Don't talk to me like you know me!" she snapped, unexpected to him but expected to her. She was on the verge of breaking, having woken up in a strange white room that was pissing her off and being sedated by strange men in hazmat suits. The brown-haired man stared, waiting for her to finish as she swallowed and relaxed. "I don't know who you are. I've never seen you before in my life so there's no way you could possibly know my name."
"But I do," he countered with a simple shrug. She waited for him to elaborate, but when he didn't, she squared her jaw tightly realizing that he was being difficult.
"All right, then. You know my name, I don't know yours."
"Cage," he introduced himself, stepping forward. "Cage Wallace. I'm Head of Security here in Mount Weather. My father thought it would be a good idea for me to give you the whole 'welcome' speech. Your people say you're their leader."
Her reaction was delayed, but nevertheless amusing. She began to laugh, and though Cage was confused, he couldn't help a small, bewildered smile. Once she was done laughing, she pointed at him accusingly.
"Okay. Okay, now I know for sure that you're lying." Her face turned serious on a dime. "These supposed 'people' you speak of...they hate me. Well, they hate my father...so, naturally, they hate me."
He pursed his lips. "You are...Alessia Kane, right?"
"Yeah, I am, but—"
"And you ran security back at the camp you built back at your drop ship?" Alessia tensed again, confounded. Cage smiled sourly. "Sorry to disappoint you, but...along with two others, your people named you as their leader. Guess they don't hate you as much as you think." He paused and looked her up and down, causing her to look at him with incredulous eyes and shift angrily. "Though I can't imagine why they'd hate such a pretty girl like you."
"Back the hell off," she demanded through her teeth. "Even with a broken wrist I'll break your jaw. You caught me off guard back there, that's all. I don't know where the hell I am."
"I just told you," he stated blandly. "You're in Mount Weather. I'm supposed to give you a 'welcome' speech...is this ringing a bell at all?"
"I want out of here." Alessia ignored him, crossing her arms over her chest. "I have things to do, people to find. Actual colors to wear, okay? Being in this room is giving me a headache so...if you don't mind showing me the exit—"
"Now it's my turn to laugh." Cage chuckled to himself, cutting her off mid-sentence. Alessia looked at him, not surprised that her tactic didn't work but surprised that he was so light-hearted about it as he stepped forward with a sick smile. "I mean...you want me to just...show you the exit, huh? Hey, how about I show you where all the guns are, too? Or how about the sedatives so you can knock out some other people in this mountain before you go? Would that work for you or—?"
"That's enough, son." Cage and Alessia looked behind at the door where someone let an grey-haired, clean, shaven old man through the threshold and left the door open a crack to wait for Cage to exit. The old man looked at his son, presumably. "I'll take it from here."
"Shame," Cage muttered under his breath as he threw a glance at Alessia with a sick smile. "And I was just starting to get to know her—"
"Out," the old man pushed. With a scowl on his lips, the younger Wallace slipped through the door and it closed behind them, sealing Alessia and Dante inside. Alessia was getting impatient and more confused by the moment, only fueling her anger. At last, the old man turned to her with a kind smile and extended a hand. She stared at it, but didn't reach forward. "Dante Wallace. I'm sorry about my son's behavior, I was only trying to make you feel more comfortable here."
"Comfortable?" Alessia scoffed in disbelief. Dante dropped his hand and shrugged slightly.
"Yes, I thought the...relation of positions you both hold with your people would give you some common ground. But I can see by the cast that I was wrong." Dante's eyes flickered to the plaster on Alessia's wrist and she shifted uncomfortably. "Though you did attack three of our people today."
"They were trying to sedate me," Alessia defended herself. The old man nodded.
"Yes, I apologize for that, too." He looked around the white room. "This room must be extremely difficult to be in for such a long time. Please," Dante began as he turned around and knocked on the door so whoever was in front of it could open from the other side. Once the door was opened, Dante beckoned something inside and in came a large chest rolling on wheels. Alessia swallowed, overwhelmed, as he turned back to her. "Wear anything you'd like. When you've changed, the men outside will take you upstairs to your friends."
"My friends?" She stared at him blankly. "How many of us do you have imprisoned here?"
"48, including you and your co-leader, Clarke Griffin; but she hasn't been cleared from quarantine yet so it'll be a while before you get to see her." What the hell were they quarantining? Why? The radiation wasn't harmful and, as far as she was aware, the sickness the Grounders infected them with had long since passed. "But you've got it all wrong, you're not a prisoner here."
That's a lie, Alessia thought bitterly, but she didn't dare say it aloud. They were just letting her out and if she kept fighting them, they would keep sedating her. The best thing to do was pretend like she agreed. Her fist clenched and unclenched a few times out of nervous habit, and at last, she let out a heavy sigh.
"Get Clarke cleared next," Alessia demanded.
Dante hesitated. "Well, Clarke—"
"Get Clarke cleared next," she repeated sternly, a cold look in her eye. Dante and Alessia stared each other down for a long while until Dante finally gave her a kind smile and nodded.
"All right, then, I'll see what I can do." He turned for the door, which opened on his way out, but before he left completely, he turned back at her still settled with a smile. "Welcome to Mount Weather, Alessia."
With that done, he left the room to herself, the chest right in front of her waiting to be touched. Hesitantly, she walked forward and pushed it open, revealing a dozen outfits, jewelry, and shoes at her disposal. She tried to think as strategic as she could while she picked out what she was going to wear, making sure that it was clothing comfortable enough to escape in yet useful enough to use against her enemies. As her brain turned, she grabbed a pair of denim jeans, a black shirt, and reached for the pair of sneakers in the box. Instead, her eyes drifted towards the black heels standing at least three inches from the ground, and she thought back to her thirteenth birthday where Dr. Griffin had given her a pair of old, ratty heels in secret. Kane had found them, and when he did, rather than getting angry over the birthday present, he set Alessia to work. He trained her to fight in the most uncomfortable, impractical clothing and footwear ever made so that, if she ever came to an opportunity like the one she was in, she could use those uncomfortable, impractical choices to her advantage.
She grabbed the heels from the box and slammed it shut, turning back around to the bed where she'd set everything out so that she could get changed. Just as she started to pull her shirt over her head to switch clothing, she eyed the camera staring at her from above the door. Releasing the hem of her shirt, she walked back over to the chest, opened it, and grabbed an old, dusty shoe from the back of the chest that looked like it would do some damage. Without blinking, she chucked it at the security camera with her good hand and it was knocked off of its mount, hanging by its disconnected wire above the quarantine room's door.
After she'd changed and was released from the white room in clothes that had not a stitch of white fabric on them, Alessia was escorted to the elevators by the men who'd stripped their blue hazmat suits to take her to another level in the mountain she was imprisoned in. They rode in an uncomfortable silence and she was far from relaxed around the presence of strangers surrounding her every corner, but she remained focused on finding the rest of the delinquents being held captive as well. The men had taken her to Level 5, where she stepped out into a very intricately decorated floor with flags hanging above dozens of tables and people floating in and out setting placements on the wooden fixtures. Actual silverware and napkins lined the tables, contrary to all the things they had been forced to adjust to on the ground. To the left of the tables, there was a group of all the delinquents chatting amongst themselves, all dressed in clothing as nice and fixed as hers was. It looked roughly around 48, the number that Dante had given her, more or less. The moment she stepped into view, the first two people standing next to her happened to light up with joy at her sight.
"Alessia!" Jasper exclaimed as he took Alessia by surprise and tackled her with a hug the moment she'd rounded the corner. She stumbled back, surprised at the force of Jasper's hug as he squeezed her with all his strength. She tried to hug back, but she wasn't in a very 'hugging' mood. As Jasper kept a lock on her, Monty did the same and swung his arms around her neck and hugging her, too. She stood still, uncomfortably sandwiched between the two teenagers just as all the other juveniles a few feet away from them buzzed with excitement at Alessia's arrival. Finally, Jasper and Monty pulled back.
Monty breathed out a sigh of relief. "I thought they'd never release you. Jasper and I had a bet going on whether or not you'd try to beat someone up to escape."
Alessia held up her wrist proudly. "Which one of you bet against it? Because you lost." She examined her hand. "At least the asshole doubled up on my injuries. They patched up the one I got from Anya back on the drop ship. My entire left hand is out of commission."
Jasper and Monty both smiled for a moment at her before Monty looked behind her, expecting to see someone else. "Where's Clarke?"
"I told them to release her next," Alessia told him firmly; though her next words were sarcastic and bitter. "If she doesn't come out within the hour, I'm filing a complaint."
Monty chuckled, and as he did, Miller and Harper approached Alessia's side and greeted her, to which she gave them a polite smile and greeted them back. Everyone eventually made their way over to speak to her, and she felt entirely overwhelmed. The people around her named her as one of their leaders. Why? What had she done that was in any comparison to Clarke or Bellamy? She didn't run their camp, no matter how much she argued with Bellamy over how to do exactly that. Cage's words kept coming back into her head and, for a moment, she sort of believed that not all of them hated her as much as she thought. But remembering what had happened on the ground, a question came across Alessia's mind so fast, she looked around and finally settled her eyes on Monty and Jasper again.
"Hey...where's Octavia?" she asked them. Jasper and Monty were both silent, and so, taking the hint, she moved on, "Finn? Raven?" No response. Her last question came softer. "Bellamy?"
Beside her, Miller answered with a strained voice, "Alessia...uhm...none of them are...here. I saw Bellamy and Finn just before the drop ship closed—"
"Don't say it, Miller," Alessia cut him off as she saw Miller's eyes drop to the floor in distress. Alessia looked around at all of the juveniles around her and said sternly, "We don't know what happened to them. We can't jump to conclusions, not now. Right now, all that matters is that we're alive. And they are, too." Alessia licked her dry lips and took in a deep breath, repeating softly as if trying to convince herself, "They are, too."
She could try and convince herself of it all she wanted, but the painful fact was that she'd seen both Bellamy and Finn outside that drop ship before they blasted the bombs. There were a million 'what-ifs' going through her head, but Alessia pushed it to the darkest corner of her mind; the corner that she had shoved her father in when she found out he was dead. Her focus couldn't be on mourning the deaths of Finn and Bellamy, whether or not they were actually dead. Her focus had to be entirely on the fact that they were trapped inside of a mountain with people they didn't know that had captured them from their camp, claiming not to be bad guys when there was a great possibility that they were exactly that.
"Listen, Bucko," Alessia snapped at the guard who was standing behind the group of delinquents invested in a tourist talk of Mt. Weather that one of the kind citizens were providing. The guard Alessia was conversing with stared on as if she were nonexistent, but she persistently pushed, nonetheless. "I was told that my friend, Clarke Griffin, would be released from quarantine next. It's been over an hour and they've released three other people. Tell me where the hell she is!" He didn't speak, which only made her angry. "What are you? Some kind of mute?! Talk to me, damn it! I want to know what's—"
"Clarke!"
Someone had suddenly exclaimed the word, cutting off whoever was giving them their welcome orientation, and Alessia whipped her head around to see Monty rushing out of the crowd to run into Clarke's arms as she approached everyone from the back. Alessia turned to the guard beside her and cleared her throat.
"Never mind. Though you have been no help at all." With a scowl, she walked over to Monty, Jasper, and Clarke as she could hear the tone go somber. Alessia pushed her way through the ring around Clarke and let out a sigh upon seeing the blonde, who looked like she'd been through hell. Clarke's eyes settled upon her and both of them let out a relieved breath, where Clarke cracked a small smile. Alessia forced it upon herself to let a happy emotion seep through seeing that Clarke was okay, and she stepped forward and hugged Clarke willingly. "I've been trying to get them to release you ever since I got out."
Clarke cleared her throat awkwardly as Alessia pulled away. "Yeah, I kind of tried to escape."
Alessia scoffed. "Join the club."
"Welcome, Clarke." From the crowd, the honey-haired Mt. Weather spokesperson stepped forward with a package in her hand extended towards Clarke with a smile. "If you have any questions, I'm Keenan."
Clarke said nothing as Keenan backed away and left the delinquents to fraternize with their leader. Alessia stared after the Mt. Weather cheerleader with disgust and turned back at Clarke, looking as she opened the booklet Keenan had given her and looked over a map. Clarke's face showed obvious discomfort and distrust, to which Alessia detected and muttered lowly.
"Yeah. You don't trust them, either, do you?" Alessia muttered under her breath. Clarke looked up at her with agreeing eyes, needing not to nod to confirm what Alessia already suspected. The crowd around Clarke lasted for a while, the delinquents turning to the disoriented Clarke for guidance until, at last, they all dispersed when there was mention of food from the Mt. Weather people. Both Alessia and Clarke were the only two to hang back, their suspicions mounted so high that it had grown to distrusting the meals that were served. Clarke and Alessia both looked at each other with meaningful stares and with a jerk of her head, Clarke walked forward with Alessia to make it look like they were conversing with each other casually.
"I don't trust them," Clarke confirmed at last in a low tone. Alessia frowned.
"And you think I do?"
"I know you don't." Clarke sighed and crossed her arms. "We have to get out of here. We have to find our friends."
"Clarke." Alessia stopped them in the corner of the crowded dining room in which all the delinquents were eating tons of rich food provided by untrustworthy people. Clarke looked around nervously, but Alessia was sure they weren't suspected any more than they already were. She grabbed Clarke's arm reassuringly. "Trust me, I get it. But we're prisoners in here, okay? No matter how much that old guy smiles, he's lying. They took us from our camp and locked us in white rooms for God knows how long and won't let us leave. It's the very definition of a prisoner but...we both tried to escape today. There are going to be eyes all over us."
"We need access to the elevators so we can find an exit route," the blonde theorized, thinking aloud. Just as she said the last words of her spoken thought, a few people native to Mt. Weather walked by in mid-conversation, but both Alessia and Clarke stiffened and froze. Once they were gone, Alessia let out a breath she was unaware she'd been holding in.
"I have no doubt we look like we're plotting something completely diabolical. Come on." She pushed Clarke in the direction towards the tables, and both Alessia and Clarke slowly made their way over to Jasper and Monty, who were childishly arguing over chocolate cake, catching the attention of everyone in the room. As Clarke approached them, Jasper flinched back seeing her in the corner of his eye and let out a light laugh.
"Oh! Hey, Clarke!"
"Sit down and pretend you're happy to see me," the leader demanded as she pulled up a chair next to Jasper's side. Alessia pulled a chair up next to Monty, who smiled at her with his mouth full of chocolate cake. He looked back and forth between Alessia and Clarke in disbelief.
"We are happy to see you. Both of you," Monty countered and looked at Alessia, extending the chocolate cake in his hand. His eyes flickered between Clarke and Alessia. "You two have to try...the chocolate cake."
He said the words with a deep voice, his eyes passing past Jasper for a moment with a sick smile on his face. Jasper nearly gasped, "Oh, it is so on."
"We're not eating their food," Clarke snapped, ruining the light-hearted tone. Alessia eyed the chocolate cake and could feel her stomach growl for it, begging to devour the chocolatey goodness as it looked so delectable sitting in front of her. Without knowing it, she licked her lips greedily, but blinked a few times and shook off the hungry feeling.
"Right." She cleared her throat uncomfortably. "Right. We're on a hunger strike. I don't trust this place."
"Look," Clarke pushed to the two teenage boys sitting with them. She pulled out her notebook that Keenan had given her and pointed to the map on the first page. "They gave us a map with no exits. I need you to tell me everything you've seen. Every room, every hallway, every way out."
Alessia looked back and forth between Jasper and Monty, an unsettling feeling overcoming her stomach at their faces. "Why are you two hiding sheepishly? Why? Please don't tell me you trust these people! The President's son broke my wrist for crying out loud!"
"Look around you," Jasper began lowly with a scoff. "There's no one...hunting us here. First time in our lives we're not hungry...w-why would we want to leave?"
"Because we have friends out there who need our help," said Clarke.
"They're looking for survivors. And they're way better equipped to find them than we are," Monty added. Clarke looked around with a shake of her head in utter disbelief, her voice frustratedly strained and her jaw squared tightly.
"This place is too good to be true."
"Forget whether or not we have people on the outside who need our help." Alessia waved her hand dismissively and looked at Monty and Jasper with a serious look. "It doesn't matter whether we want to leave, it's a matter of whether we can. The fact that the second I try to escape the quarantine room, they sedated me means that there's something deeply wrong with this place."
"That's because you attacked three people!" Jasper exclaimed, a little louder than Clarke and Alessia would've liked. A few people around them looked, but Alessia just stared at Jasper and watched as he calmed down for a moment and sighed heavily. "You know what...you two are...are bumming me out. I-I'm gonna get more cake."
He laughed, as if the entire thing was just a joke to him, but Clarke turned around and watched Jasper as he left the table to get the cake that Monty wouldn't share. Alessia looked after Jasper with narrowed eyes, finding his outburst to be rude and uncalled for. Throwing her hand up in the air, she looked at Monty.
"What the hell is his problem?" she demanded. Monty sighed and picked at his chocolate cake.
"Don't take anything Jasper says right now personally. He's going through a rough time." Shoveling a piece of cake in his mouth, Monty paid no attention as Alessia awaited a further explanation. Clarke was too busy watching Jasper and his new friend, Maya, who was a medical assistant in Mt. Weather. Clarke knew this because...well, she attacked Maya to escape, and suddenly, there was an idea forming through her head. Once Monty caught onto Alessia's prompting look, he swallowed down the moist cake and finished softly, "Margot hasn't been released from quarantine yet and Jasper's getting worried. He says he doesn't remember if she was on the drop ship or not when the bombs went off."
A dark pit settled in Alessia's stomach as she looked after Jasper sitting with the brunette by the dessert rack. Margot. How would she tell him? If this was how he reacted without knowing her fate or not, what would it be like when he found out the truth—the truth that Margot had died inches away from the drop ship in Alessia's arms seconds before the door closed? It was a darkening thought, one that Alessia wanted to worry about, but couldn't. She watched as Clarke turned around at her with a very strange look in her eye as she stood from the table and moved towards where Jasper was. Alessia, with a heavy sigh, delayed following for a few moments and was too confused to get involved. She waited in the wings, watching as Clarke went over to Jasper and the brunette girl, talked with them for a moment, and walked back over to her.
When Clarke was a few feet away from Alessia, she visibly slipped a red card into her pocket that did not go unnoticed by Robin Hood. As Clarke moved past her and Alessia turned to walk with her away from the table where Jasper and Maya were sitting, Alessia mumbled, "Maybe they should start calling you Bond. Clarke Bond."
Clarke held back a laugh. "That would be funny if we didn't have...thirty seconds before she figures out this key is gone."
"Right." Alessia nodded stiffly and the two of them power-walked away from the crowd of Mt. Weather residents and the rest of the delinquents. The two knew they would have to go back for them; there was no way that they would be able to get all of them out at once. What was safest was for them to get out, find their people, and figure out a way back to save the rest of them. That was their best plan.
About two minutes after they'd escaped the clutches of the Level 5 dining hall, suddenly, an alarm started to blare and a yellow light flashed from netted hazard lights on the ceiling with an automated voice overhead announcing, "Alert! Code 5."
"Not a prisoner, huh?" Clarke muttered. Alessia threw her hands up at the alarm.
"This is what I'm talking about!"
Clarke grabbed her arm tightly. "Come on! We have to go!"
The two of them ran down the empty halls, Clarke's sneakers touching softly on the concrete and Alessia's heels clicking at an unavoidably loud volume. She hit the heel as soft as she could, having been trained in running with weapon-like shoes like previously mentioned, but it wasn't enough to be a silent click. Regardless, the guards found them, pulling both Clarke and Alessia to the stop in the middle of the hallway, looking left and seeing guards then looking right and seeing more. With no other option to exit through the level, they ran the only way they could—forward. As fast as the two of them could go, they ran to a door at the opposite end of the hallway reading a warning sign that prevented access to those who didn't clear for the restriction. Luckily, Maya's key card was able to pass them through the door, and once on the other side, Clarke and Alessia both pulled it shut, where Alessia ripped off her shoe and yanked the cord on the door so hard that the power line cut off. Clarke looked to her left and to her right to two staircases that led up and down as Alessia slipped her shoe back on, but the power cord cut would only keep those on the other side out for so long.
The incline was tremendously high as they climbed and climbed, following the evacuation route that was labeled on the wall. After the steep staircase, they managed to come to a deserted hallway with a door standing a few yards away that was surely able to lead them to the ground. Clarke rushed forward first, trying to pull on the lever beside the door to open it, but she realized very quickly that she couldn't pull it down. She tried and tried, wasting her strength, but Alessia had come up to the circular door and, without hesitation, she twisted the wheel on the door twice so that it came to a creaking noise. She looked over at Clarke.
"Try it now!" Alessia commanded over the blaring noise. With a nod, Clarke reached forward to pull the lever down, but just as she tried, there was a voice behind them.
"Clarke, no!" Jasper stood behind Clarke and Alessia with his hand outstretched. Maya had been standing beside him, but she rushed over somewhere else as Jasper pushed, "If you pull that lever, these people will die! Even a little radiation can kill them."
Alessia could see the waver in Clarke's features; the compassionate Clarke was too distracted to process the situation fully. Alessia turned at Jasper with a sharp look. "These people kidnapped us! We deserve the right to leave!"
So she stepped forward and put her hand on the lever next to Clarke's, attempting to pull it down, but before she could, she watched as the brunette-haired girl Jasper had been with before came out, wielding a gun pointed right at her. Maya swallowed thickly.
"Don't make me shoot you."
Alessia turned around at her. "I'm sorry...what?"
The petite girl stood with the gun in her hand, but it was clear that she was afraid to use it. Alessia could tell a weak spot when there was one, so she went for it. As the girl stepped forward with the barrel in Alessia's face, she swung her leg out and knocked the gun out of her hand so fast, spinning around and grabbing one of her shoes in her hand with the heel point right at Maya's throat. Maya trembled in her arms, her eyes closed with small tears pricking from the sides. Alessia looked at Clarke, who was nearly terrified.
"Do it," Alessia told her softly. But Clarke had already started contemplating her actions, and Jasper stepped forward from beside Alessia, stepping between Clarke and Maya to look at Alessia holding the Mt. Weather resident captive.
In a soft tone, he began, "Don't do this. This isn't you, Alessia."
"No!" She shouted at him, her throat tough from the moral compass inside of her ticking away. Alessia gulped down the guilt. "That's where you're wrong. This is who I am. This is who I have to be if these liars think that they can keep us in here forever!"
"Why would they lie?" Jasper pushed calmly, trying to reason with her. "Listen to me, we're safe here. Because of you and Clarke, we're safe."
"No, we're not," she countered at him quietly. "We're not...we're not all safe, Jasper."
But then she saw it; she could see this look in Jasper's eyes, the tears that spilled from them as he looked at her with something much bigger than empathy. His breath shook as he collected himself, stopping the tears from spilling out of his adolescent eyes, and choked out, "I...I keep...I keep replaying those minutes we were in the drop ship. I keep...I keep thinking that the more I look back through them that I'll see her." A silenced passed between Jasper and Alessia as he could see Alessia dropped her eyes. He knew he was right. "But she wasn't there, was she? Margot wasn't in that drop ship when I fired the bombs."
Alessia swallowed thickly, fighting back the tears in her own eyes thinking about Margot's painful death. In a quiet voice, she confirmed. "No, Jasper. She...she died in my arms. Before the blast."
And Jasper's breath trembled as he processed the information. A moment or two again was let by, and when things were absolutely silent for as long as they could be, Jasper brought himself together and spoke again, this time more firm, yet the heartbreak still evident in his voice.
"I was the one who fired the rockets. Should I not have done that?" he asked, his breath shaking. She didn't answer him. Jasper turned around at Clarke, his hands shaking as much as his breath was. "Clarke, when you pulled that lever, you saved lives. Don't throw that away by pulling this one."
Clarke had tears in her eyes, forming at the corners and threatening to flow out as she lowered her hand from the lever and backed away, realizing it was the wrong thing to do. Alessia stood, the heel of her shoe still pointed at Maya's throat, but Maya had become somewhat of a prop in her arms, useless to her. Nonetheless, she kept Maya locked, no matter how hard the brunette struggled. When Clarke had turned her eyes away, Jasper looked at Alessia with a nod.
"You didn't kill Anya back in the drop ship," he reminded her. "Because that isn't who you are, no matter what happens."
It was something she forgot very briefly, that moment on the drop ship where she decided not to kill Anya because she didn't want to lose herself. So many things had happened between that time and when she'd threatened Maya, it was hard to believe she hadn't completely crossed the boundary that she intended never to cross to begin with. But realizing that Jasper was right, Alessia lowered the hell at Maya's neck and slipped it back onto her foot, releasing Maya into Jasper's custody just as the guards emerged and ran after Clarke and Alessia, who were stationary. The minute they reached them, they were harsh and vile, causing Alessia to flinch away from them and whisper threats for them to back off for a few moments, but she had no choice but to oblige when they put handcuffs on her wrist forcefully, as she did one of the things she'd never done in her entire life: turn herself in.
Bellamy and Finn, both bound and restricted, watched in absolute shock as Tristan, the Grounder that had managed to gain the upper hand on both of them at the end of the day, dropped to the ground after two clean bullets to the brain from behind him. Monroe and Sterling, who had managed to survive the drop ship blast because they escaped at the last second to see what happened with the Ark falling form the sky, had tried to save Bellamy and Finn, but it wasn't them who had done the rescuing. All of them had crouched down hearing the gunshots, frightened for their own lives, but when Bellamy and Finn looked up from the butt of the horse in front of them that Tristan had been pulling them along with, it was people in front of them who had saved their lives; and Monroe and Sterling had come from behind them.
And then, as if the day couldn't get any more possibly get any more confusing, Marcus Kane stepped out of the bushes with his gun hot, releasing the two empty shells that had been fired at the Grounder attacking the delinquents. Behind him, a few men with guns followed, their weapons cocked as well.
"We're here now," Kane assured them. "Everything's gonna be okay."
Bellamy and Finn looked at each other, their eyes the size of the moon realizing what they were seeing: Robin Hood's not-so-dead father.
Kane stepped forward without another word and examined the corpse on the ground to make sure that the vicious Grounder had been killed through and through. Bellamy and Finn were able to untie their bound hands and Kane allowed the rest of the people who had followed them from Mecha Station to come out into view. Bellamy stumbled, his face covered in blood from the brutal violence he'd experienced, and it wasn't long before Abby Griffin approached him and Finn, without knowing who they were, of course.
"For God's sake..." she hissed.
"I'm fine," Bellamy mumbled distractedly. "I need to get back to the drop ship."
Finn moved to go with him, but instead, Abby pulled them back and asked coarsely, "Hey! Where's Clarke? Is she all right?"
"She was when we left," Finn replied. "We'll take you to her."
"Wait! Slow down. It's dangerous, there could be more Grounders." Kane stopped them as he saw Finn start to walk in the direction towards the drop ship where they had came from. Finn sighed at him, exhausted.
"Alessia's there, too." It was all Finn needed to say to get Kane to change his mind in a snap instant. He turned around, though somewhat reluctantly, and eventually called Sinclair over to him.
"Sinclair! We're splitting up. Everyone on Guard detail goes with me to the drop ship. Everyone else goes with you to Alpha Station. We have the coordinates; we'll follow as soon as we can."
"Yes, sir." Sinclair nodded and moved away, but Kane reached out and pulled him back softly. Sinclair returned obediently as Kane muttered, "Anything more from Jaha?"
Sinclair shook his head solemnly. "No. Nothing in the past hour."
Kane didn't respond. He let Sinclair go to lead the people back to Alpha Station, and when he turned around to the men who had been following him, among them Calix Mercer, he commanded them immediately, where they set out to the drop ship. When they returned to the place the 100 had set up camp, they were all crouched down, silent and as stealthy as they could be. Observing the lack of noise at the camp, Bellamy breathed out worriedly, "It's too quiet."
He moved forward to go into his camp, but Kane gripped his arm tightly and pulled him back. "We'll take it from here. Banks, Scanlan, you stay with them. We'll signal once we're sure it's safe."
Kane moved forward with Calix, Abby, and a few other guard members following pursuit as they entered the charcoal-covered drop ship scattered with bodies of the dead Grounders from the blast. Bellamy and Finn exchanged a glance once the guards were gone, and both of them were annoyed to the core that they were being pushed to the side when there were people that they cared about supposed to be on the other side of the wall they built from scratch. They paced and they waited for what felt like days before someone inside of the camp said something loudly, spiking Bellamy and Finn's attention. The two guards watching them blocked Bellamy and Finn from entering the main way, but fortunately for them, there was another way. After exchanging a glance, Bellamy and Finn darted for the foxhole by the entrance, earning shouts from the guards who were supposed to hold them, but they managed to climb into the foxhole immediately and get into the camp without a hitch. They observed their entire camp dusted with skeletal bones and a burnt ground, but there were no signs of their friends.
"Where is everyone?" Bellamy muttered to Finn, looking around desperately. Right as he walked further into the camp towards the drop ship, he observed Kane coming out with Murphy leaning on his arm, spilling some sob story. The immediate sight of John Murphy had Bellamy in an outrage because of all the terrible things he'd done—including the fact that he almost killed Bellamy and also shot both Alessia and Raven. The rage was too much to handle, and when Murphy had the audacity to look up at Bellamy and mutter, it pissed him off to no end.
"Bellamy," Murphy breathed. "You're...alive."
He lunged. There was no simpler way to put it; Bellamy Blake lunged at Murphy with all his strength, knocking Murphy out of Kane's grasp and tackling him to the ground with shouted expletives and animalistic punches. Bellamy could hear protests from Finn behind him, but he didn't care. Murphy deserved to die—to rot—for all he'd done.
Kane, who was staring down at the brawl with disgust and pity, looked over at Calix next to his shoulder with a nod. "Mercer."
Calix looked up at Kane with a sick look in his eyes, knowing what Kane wanted him to do. It was his 'tase him' look that was so disinterested, so unemotional, that it made Calix sick to his stomach. With a scoff, Calix muttered while stepping over to the fight, "Screw you, Kane, he's my friend. Blake! Blake! Bellamy!"
Calix must've shouted Bellamy's name ten times before he managed to loop his arms around Bellamy's punches and mustered enough strength to peel Bellamy off of Murphy's body with a struggle, but kept him far away. He didn't want to tase him; he would never do that to a friend. Bellamy struggled against Calix, but Calix shoved him further from Murphy and snapped, "Enough! Enough!"
When Bellamy had settled down with a large, furious sigh, Calix looked back at Kane, who stared with hardness in his eyes, itching to yell. Instead, he just snapped bitterly, "Can you place him under arrest, Mercer? Or is that too challenging for you?"
Calix raised a deep, irritated sigh as he turned back at Bellamy and shook out a cable tie from his pocket that Kane had supplied all the guards with when assigning Guard detail. He had no other choice but to tie it around Bellamy's hands tightly, binding them together so that he was restrained. The two guards behind Kane came over to help Calix get him situated.
"Wait," Finn tried to defend his friend. "You don't understand. Murphy murdered two of our people! He shot two others when he tried to hang Bellamy!"
"I don't care," Kane spat.
"One of the people he shot was your daughter," Finn explained, trying to spark the same change in Kane's mind as he had done before. But instead of doing what Finn had thought Kane would do, Marcus just frowned.
"If that is the truth, then fine; he will be punished for his crimes, among them being firing a weapon at my daughter. But you are not animals." Kane turned back at Bellamy coldly. "There are rules! Laws! You are not in control here anymore."
Clarke and Alessia were brought into President Wallace's office at the same time, though they had both been held in different containment areas and, while Clarke was content with being pushed around by the guards handling her, Alessia was flinching away from them every time they tried to touch her, especially with the handcuffs on her already restricted wrists. When they entered President Wallace's office, Dante was standing with his back turned to the both of them. Without turning around, he spoke to the guards.
"Lose the handcuffs," he ordered them. Obliging, both guards beside the two prisoners unlocked the handcuffs from each girl's wrists. Dante pointed with his paintbrush to a blank canvas in the corner. "There's a blank canvas, if you'd like. Though, Alessia, I'm sure you'd prefer a notebook."
"I don't draw," Alessia said simply. Clarke swallowed.
"I used to paint the ground, too," she told Dante, looking at the painting he was working on as they spoke.
"It's not just the ground. It's a memory."
"You've been outside?"
"Yes," Dante continued, still painting. "56 years ago. For five minutes. I was seven when the first of what we call 'the Outsiders' appeared. Before that, we thought we were all there was. Imagine our surprise."
"I don't have to imagine," Clarke responded.
"My father, this was his office at the time, believed it meant that the Earth was survivable again. And so he opened the doors. Within a week, 54 people were dead from the exposure. My mother and sister among them." He turned around and wiped his hands free of paint while looking between both leaders. "Loss, pain, regret...time eases these things, girls, but the only time it's ever truly gone is when I'm painting."
"All right, so cool." Alessia crossed her arms. "You want to sit here and chit-chat about painting all day or are we gonna cut to the chase?"
Dante, who had set his suit jacket on the back of his chair in his office, looked over at Alessia with an amused smile. "I'm curious as to where you learned your manners."
"Oh, the Kanes don't have manners." Alessia ran a hand through her hair with a shrug. "It's a nuisance to us. We prefer hostility, it's ten times more effective. Otherwise, it just builds...and builds...and builds—"
"You didn't bring us here to talk about paint or manners," Clarke interrupted, covering up Alessia's rude and tired statements as she stared at President Wallace. "So what is it that you wanted to talk about?"
"I'm afraid I have bad news," Dante began, looking between both of them. "Our patrols have swept the area and have found no evidence of survivors; either at your camp or from the Ark."
"How can they be sure?" Clarke pushed.
"They can't," Dante admitted. "I've ordered them to keep searching, but—"
"I-I need to see it for myself—"
"I'm sorry, I can't allow that," the President cut her off immediately. Alessia audibly scoffed, an action that did not go unnoticed by Dante, but went unspoken of. "I'm doing this for your own good, Clarke. It's not safe out there."
"It's not safe in here!" Alessia exclaimed, frustratedly turning around at him with her hands up in the air. Dante looked offended, but she barreled on. "There's absolutely no excuse for you to sit here and tell us that we aren't allowed to go outside. You said we weren't prisoners in here but that's exactly what we are if we can't leave! If you send search teams after us to make sure we don't escape! The radiation has no effect on us; there is no threat other than the Grounders, and so far, we've done a pretty good job at fending them off for ourselves, thank you!"
"It's not the radiation or the Grounders I'm concerned about," Dante explained as he called in the guards from outside. Clarke and Alessia both looked back at them, realizing they were being taken back to wherever they were going to be held next. He looked at the two of them with saddened eyes. "You both need time to grieve."
"I don't grieve!" Alessia groaned, burying her head in her hands, absolutely exasperated. All she heard coming out of President Wallace's mouth was bullshit on top of bullshit. None of it made sense and it didn't excuse anything. It was all a lie. Besides, there was nothing to grieve over. In her mind, at least, there was nothing to grieve over. There were more important things to focus on, more important things to do, then care about who lived or died at the end of the day. Maybe there was a small part of her that believed Bellamy was dead—that her friends, in general, were dead. But she shoved that part out of her mind and let it be. Their first priority was getting out.
When things had gone silent, Dante told both Clarke and Alessia, "The guards will take you to your room."
Clarke, through her teeth, spat, "And if we try to leave?"
"Please don't test me, Clarke," the President asked, confirming both of their thoughts. Mt. Weather couldn't be trusted; they were all liars. Clarke scoffed and turned, but Alessia didn't want to give up. She wanted to fight. But President Wallace looked at her with a hard stare. "You, especially, Alessia, I can see will be a very hard challenge. But I asked Clarke not to test me. I expect the same from you."
If her wrist wasn't broken, she would've fractured it by clenching her fist so hard in her hands. She was sure that the inside of her right palm was bleeding from her nail marks, but all she could do was huff and follow Clarke out of the room with the guard at an uncomfortable pace behind her. The guard put his hand on her arm to lead her out, but she shook him off with a murmured expletive, but didn't object to going in the direction she was pushed.
While the rest of the adults they came with stressed over other, more important things than what happened with Bellamy, Finn made his way over to the prisoner that had been placed on a crisp log by the front of the drop ship. He jogged over and observed Bellamy's hopeful eyes, but was forced to say a grim sentence.
"We're leaving," Finn informed him.
"What?" Bellamy exclaimed. "This is where they'll come back!"
"I don't think they're coming back. The Grounders took them and you know that." Bellamy shielded his eyes, looking at the floor, and slowly, Finn bent down to Bellamy's eye level and dropped his voice to a murmur. "We go with Kane to Alpha Station, we get reinforcements, weapons. Then we find our friends."
"Question," the leader piped sourly. "How many more of us will be dead by then?"
Finn swallowed harshly, knowing Bellamy was right. But then he turned over his shoulder and saw Raven lying on the ground, her back flat by the stretcher they had been able to construct, pale as a ghost. Though all Finn could think about was where Clarke was and that he needed to find her, he knew that it would have to wait. It was slightly different for Bellamy because, though a large part of him wanted to find all of his people, there was one person in particular he knew he had to find. The daughter of the man who ordered Bellamy's arrest for attacking Murphy not even two hours from a time where he'd rescued them.
"Abby says Raven needs surgery or she's gonna die," Finn told Bellamy with a sorrowful tone. Bellamy looked over at Raven and sighed, realizing that Spacewalker made a point. "It's time to go."
There was no more discussion after that. Finn got up from his bent position and turned to walk over to Raven, where he helped get his ex-girlfriend up off the floor and ready for movement. When he was gone, Calix walked up to Bellamy and grabbed his arm to pull him up off the leg. The two both knew who each other were, and regardless of the circumstances, found it nice to see each other again. They were friends. Best friends, in fact.
"Still getting yourself into trouble, Blake," Calix murmured, slightly bitter and slightly amused. Bellamy scoffed.
"Still working for Kane, Mercer."
Calix shrugged. "Some things never do change."
"Abby? We're ready to move out." Kane called out as he watched his Guards lead the way from the camp to Alpha Station's coordinates. Dr. Griffin was standing by the side of the drop ship, carving something into the metal. Kane pushed, "We've gotta get there before dark."
Abby nodded at him and, once finished with her masterpiece, fell into line as they all walked to Alpha Station. Where she had been placed at the drop ship, there was a message covered in metallic dust but surprisingly legible even with the knife that Abby had used.
Clarke, please come home. 22KM South/SW. -Mom.
"For the past and the future we serve," Dante spoke to his people as they gathered around the dining table at the end of the evening for supper.
"We give thanks," the entire crowd repeated, excluding those who were not aware of the prayer—which was most of the delinquents surrounding them, holding another's hand. Clarke and Alessia exchanged a glance from beside one another, skeptical as hell but refusing to say anything.
"Good health, good food, and good company in the blessing of new friends," Dante finished.
"We give thanks," said the crowd again, and this time, Alessia and Clarke could hear some of the delinquents repeat the blessing. Everyone sat down afterwards and began to eat their meal. Clarke, though reluctant, took a bite of her stew and it was visibly evident that there was a smile on her face as she was satisfied from the bite of food. However, Alessia was too stubborn. She could be forced to sit with them and listen to prayer all she wanted, but she didn't want to eat. She didn't want to enjoy herself. She didn't see a point in it if all of them were liars.
But Clarke gave her a look, one that told her to stop thinking about it. She pushed her bowl to Alessia and allowed her to take a bite of the meal in offering, trying to get her to do what was necessary to survive in Mt. Weather. Though she was reluctant, Alessia eventually took her spoon and managed to swallow down a bite of deliciously prepared food that she'd never had in her entire life. The mouth-watering taste she imagined before was just confirmed, but though she enjoyed it, she tried her hardest not to show that rejoice for the sake of her reputation. But after Clarke had taken the bowl away from her and finished it herself, Alessia proceeded to eat from her own plate in front of her.
When they were released from the dining hall and shown back to their rooms, Alessia found Jasper and Monty sitting across from each other on two bottom bunks of the bunk beds constructed for them in the room, and she could see that Jasper was explaining to Monty what had happened with Margot—it didn't take much to see that. She realized that it was in the best interest for her to join them, and so she sat down next to Jasper and the two looked at her with eyes glistening, where she took in a deep breath to keep herself from breaking.
"It was a pretty badass way to die." The sad smile on Alessia's lips faltered as she watched Monty and Jasper both realize what the statement meant, and both of them let out a tear for their friend. While Monty tried desperately not to cry but was still accompanied by the tears, Alessia, her throat thick, turned to Jasper, who looked like a heartbroken puppy. She asked him a question that she was sure she'd already known the answer to. "Did you love her, Jasper?"
Jasper looked down to the floor for a moment, silent, and both Monty and Alessia awaited his answer. Finally, Jasper's eyes lifted, and through shaking breaths, he nodded.
"S-Since I was two," he confessed, giving a slight sorrowful laugh. Alessia smiled at him, again melancholy. Jasper avoided her eyes. "I don't think she felt the same way, though."
"She did," Monty answered immediately, earning Jasper's attention. He seemed slightly surprised at Jasper's outburst, and Jasper to Monty's as well. A confused look overcame Jasper's face, but Monty nodded a few times, as if he knew the unavoidable truth. "She always did."
Alessia let Jasper and Monty talk it out, honoring their friend's memory in their words. Meanwhile, Alessia noticed that Clarke had climbed to the top bunk of their bed, claiming it for her own, and was lying in relaxed clothing as she drew in the Mt. Weather book that they had supplied everyone with. Lifting herself from Jasper's bed, she walked over to her and Clarke's bed, but before she could get a word out, she noticed something on the lower bunk for herself. It was a leather-bound book full of blank notebook paper, accompanied by a letter with her name neatly written on the front. With a sigh, Alessia sat down on the bed, knowing that Clarke was too distracted to notice her, and opened the letter.
Alessia,
To release some of that pent-up hostility.
Dante
Her response was more a groan at the letter as she chucked it away from her and scoffed. But she looked at the leather-bound book, finding comfort in the blank notebook paper that didn't look like it was aged seventy years and the crisp ballpoint pen that looked somewhat professional. The object was so inviting—all she had to do was pick up the pen and write. But when she took a deep breath, she realized that she couldn't just write it down; it would feel too odd. She wanted to talk to someone; and if anything was odd, it was that, but it was the truth. So, setting aside the journal in her hand, she climbed up the bunk bed and joined Clarke, who looked up at her distractedly once Alessia joined.
"I saw you talking to Jasper and Monty," Clarke said quietly as Alessia situated herself to sit cross-legged on Clarke's bed. Still shading in the Mt. Weather book, which by her angle, Alessia could tell that Clarke was not so much drawing but more plotting, Clarke looked down and said quietly, "Are they okay? With what happened to Margot?"
Alessia swallowed. "I don't think they'll ever be okay. They lost someone close to them. We all did." Clarke looked up and, realizing the look in Alessia's eyes, she set down the book and her pen, giving her friend undivided attention. Alessia sighed and slipped her heels off her feet, throwing them onto the floor beneath them so that they landed with a heavy drop. Alessia looked back at Clarke at last, reluctantly. "Do you think they're still out there?"
Clarke hesitated, but at last, whispered, "They have to be."
"And if they're not?"
"We're gonna find a way to get out of here," Clarke said quietly, low enough so that no one could hear. Alessia dropped her eyes with a heavy sigh. "And when we do, we'll find Finn and Bellamy. We will."
But Clarke's assurance sounded so forced because she knew both of them were outside of the drop ship when the blast had gone off. She had seen both of them distracted by Grounders who were threatening to chop them to pieces. Neither one of them knew where Finn and Bellamy were, let alone Octavia or Raven. Raven was even in the drop ship and she wasn't with them, which only made them think the worst. Alessia turned her cheek for a moment, thinking about whether or not to say it aloud for the sake of her own health. She could go back to being herself; she could go back to bottling up her feelings and just write them down in the leather bound book that Dante had given her and disregard Clarke's willingness to listen. But she wouldn't.
"I slept with Bellamy," Alessia confessed. Clarke, though partially surprised at the outburst, was hardly surprised at the contents of it. Without waiting for a response, Alessia continued, so quiet that no one but themselves could hear. "And then...then, he slept with Raven."
"Raven?" Clarke repeated, this time surprised. Alessia nodded.
"Yeah. Raven." She let out a deep breath and ran a hand through her hair before continuing. Clarke surveyed her, keeping an eye on her friend and watching her expressions as she turned sharply back at Clarke with a bitter tone. "Do you...do you remember Calix's ex-girlfriend? The one who kept coming around and trying to seduce him? Do you remember that? How he hid it from me for two weeks before he told me what had been going on."
"Vaguely," the blonde admitted.
"I don't get jealous." Alessia scooted forward with a dramatic look in her eye. "I've never gotten jealous before in my entire life, even when I learned that some beautiful 21-year-old was coming around trying to steal my boyfriend back. I mean, I trusted him enough not to get angry with him, but...but I saw you, Clarke. I saw what happened between you, Finn, and Raven, and you were jealous." Clarke avoided her gaze, but didn't object. "But what pisses me off more than anything is the fact that I was too. When I saw Raven in Bellamy's tent, I wanted to punch her. I mean, I didn't, but I...I wanted to. So what the hell is wrong with me?"
Alessia waited for a response and watched as Clarke tried to hide, and inevitably failed, a chuckle from her lips. Frowning, Alessia watched as Clarke laughed softly and then smiled at her. "Did you ever think that...I don't know, maybe...maybe you actually care about him?"
"No."
"Really?"
"I mean, I slept with him once, Clarke. Probably because I was drunk. And three quarters of the time, I can't stand him. I mean, I care whether or not he lives or dies because...he's Bellamy, but...but..." She trailed off to try and find the right word, where Clarke waited patiently and condescendingly as Alessia struggled and eventually came to the resolution with her eyes laser-focused on Clarke. "If I didn't react that way when it came to someone I loved unconditionally, it can't be possible that I felt that way when it comes to someone I don't."
Clarke didn't want to say what she was thinking, because she knew it would upset Alessia. Some things were best left for another day, especially after the day they'd had together. With a shake of her head, Clarke shrugged.
"Maybe it's the air down here," she suggested. Alessia thought about it for a moment.
"Or those hallucinogenic nuts," she added. Clarke scoffed as Alessia gasped. "Oh, or Monty's moonshine! It's probably Monty's moonshine."
Clarke smiled. "I'm sure that's exactly what it is."
Alessia let out a relieved breath and looked around them at all of the 48 chatting amongst themselves in the room they shared. They all looked so happy, but all she could imagine was what would happen when the Mt. Weather people suddenly decided to stop taking the food away or lock them in the quarantine rooms again and etcetera, etcetera. Dropping all previous conversation with Clarke, she turned back at the blonde with serious eyes.
"All right. Enough about me. Back to the daily grind." She picked up the welcome book Clarke had been drawing in and observed the estimated enhanced map that Clarke had drawn inside. Alessia lifted her eyes. "We need to find a way out of this hellhole."
When Kane, Bellamy, Calix, Abby, Finn, Raven, and the rest of the Guards following pursuit finally reached Alpha Station, after a round of warm welcomes from people who had survived the fall, Murphy and Raven were taken into Medical with Abby and Finn behind them, Calix was instructed to take Bellamy to a secure location within the station, and Kane reunited with Sinclair with a welcome handshake. Kane looked down at a piece of metal positioned at the front of the camp, where someone had carved "Camp Jaha" into the scrap metal. He looked up at Sinclair.
"Was this your idea?"
"Yes, Sir," Sinclair said without hesitation. Kane nodded with a small, melancholic smile.
"It's a good idea. Have we heard from him?"
"No, Sir. Still radio silence."
Kane took a moment to process the information, thinking about the Chancellor who had sacrificed himself for his people. Too many things had happened in one day for Kane to process—in addition to arresting Bellamy Blake and rescuing John Murphy and Raven Reyes from the drop ship, Abby was still unable to find her daughter and he was unable to find his.
But collecting himself, Kane began to walk further into camp, muttering to Sinclair, "Well, you better brief me, then."
"Yes, Sir." Sinclair smiled. "Mr. Chancellor."
Kane and Sinclair exchanged a look, but as Sinclair moved at a normal pace into the camp, Kane took a moment to hang back and reflect. He didn't want the position this way—no matter how much he wanted it to begin with. There he was in the middle of camp, Chancellor of their people, while their real Chancellor was most likely dying of asphyxiation on Earth Monitoring and his daughter was nowhere to be found.
Thanks for reading! Please review!
queenmargaerys: Thank you! Here it is, I hope I didn't keep you waiting too long! Alessia will be leaving Mt. Weather with Clarke and Anya in 2x03 just because I need her to be on the outside to move the plot line along. Otherwise she'd be yelling at everyone in Mt. Weather and it'd be a whole big thing lol. Thanks again!
CyberGirlfriend: Thank you. Yeah, I mean, you've gotta think that being on the ground fighting for your lives would change a person so I'm trying to really convey that Alessia is torn between letting herself go to that "Kane-like" place inside of her or stay on the good side of the moral line she promised she would always have so it'll help develop her character a lot. Calix is portrayed by Robert Pattinson and Alessia is portrayed by Shelley Hennig. If all else fails, you can always go onto my profile page and all my actors/actresses for OCs are displayed with a gif so you know who they are :)
Aiphira: Thank you! I can't speak to what will happen in 2x16 right now...honestly because I really want to watch the first few episodes of Season 3 before I can decide what I want to happen in the last one. There can be three ways that Mt. Weather situation could go but right now it's a total toss up so I haven't decided but I will be able to get back to you on that sometime once the show starts airing again. Thank you for your input because I really do appreciate it and I will consider what you say. I try my best not to make everything about romance but sometimes I just need to put it in there to either show development or move things along so I mean, the romance won't disappear entirely but that point you made about her deciding that she has no time for romance is more or less going to happen. Really, she's going to see what's happening between Calix and Bellamy when they both realize they like the same girl and she's going to flat-out say that they don't have time with everything going on to decide who gets to sleep in her bed at night. But she does know that romance isn't everything, only sometimes will she really need to bring it up and that's just a part of her character development. But yes, I will definitely consider your thoughts and thanks for reviewing!
Alexis-mikaelson: Thank you! Here it is :)
TheDysfunctional: I did. I killed her because I felt it was a really good plot twist and plus, I was always a little shocked how no one "important" legitimately died in that battle considering all of the hell they raised so I did it to be practical about it. I know, I shipped her with Jasper too, and hopefully this episode gave you closure because from the moment I decided Margot was going to be killed off, I wanted to have this scene where Jasper admits his feelings and Monty tells him that he knows she did, too. I'm really sorry though don't cry. Jasper said he loved her even though she's gone! Yeah Alessia's raging is pretty awesome. There's no new story, just a new chapter. If I split seasons up into new stories I would have a headache from having so many stories lol but I hope this update was soon enough. Thanks for reviewing!
WinchesterDixonBros: I know. Poor Margot. Yeah school is hella stressful ugh but I finally got time this weekend. Alessia and Calix's reunion is only a few episodes away and Kane and Alessia's a few episodes after that! Was it what you expected? Thanks for reviewing!
Nirvana14: Thank you! Here it is!
voidlahey: Aw I'm sorry! But hopefully this chapter gave you closure! Thanks for reviewing!
hella-sirius: Unfortunately it is not one of those "deaths" where it's not real because it was time for poor Margot to move on. Alessia definitely does not fit into Mount Weather. Not at all lol. thanks for reviewing!
Momsen-xxxx: Thanks! Nope. Not one bit. Which is going to be super fun in 2x16 when Lexa betrays them all and Alessia's kind of gonna be like "See, what did I tell you?"
sydhuman: Thank you! Episode 2 will be really Bellamy/Kane/Calix heavy because they're all going to have interaction with one another and Bellamy's gonna learn that his best friend is the "dead" boyfriend of the girl Bellamy has feelings for so that's gonna be fun. Thanks for reviewing!
katiesgotagun: Dramatic, indeed! Thank you! There's not really a sequel, just the chapter, but I hope you enjoyed it!
BrittWitt16: I try not to take away as many Clarke scenes as I can because I don't want Alessia to steal Clarke's place at all. Sometimes, however, it's necessary, and when it is, I don't make it verbatim. Everyone jumped on the Robin Hood bandwagon but Bellamy likes saying it so much more lol. HA yes I love it! I might have to use the "Try not to get yourself killed" line again then. The Mountain Men deserve a "woo"? :P Hope you enjoyed this chapter. Thanks for reviewing!
ambrosesdixon: Margot's death got everyone. It's good to know I can still surprise all of you when I'm responding to reviews and I get to answer questions. Bellessia's separation is sad but it will definitely affect Alessia...until she realizes that Calix is alive and then kind of gets all confused and frustrated and fed up. Alessia...kind of denied it in this chapter, but Clarke definitely knows the truth. Yeah Bellamy and Alessia are definitely going to go through their fair share of rough patches in Season 2 but it'll all be worth it. It's definitely good! It's gonna be a little awkward, but good, at least. Of course, that is until he screws it up again. Surprise, surprise. Aw don't cry. I'll fight for Bellessia too don't worry :)
pureO: Hey, if she had to go down, at least she went down knowing she was a badass! Yes, they definitely do care about each other and that line was specifically meant to act as a peace offering for all you readers so that the separation is more bearable. Calix and Bellamy's reunion was eh. It could've been better, but I was thinking about how to reunite them but honestly, Calix and Bellamy both strike me as the sort of guys who don't "hug it out" or whatever but in the next chapter, they're gonna have way more interaction where it'll become apparent that they're best friends. Though I'm not sure, I think I might have flashbacks in the next chapter that involve Bellamy and Calix. Either in 2x02 or later in the season, I'm not sure. Bellamy is not going to mention anything about Alessia to Calix, but Calix will tell Bellamy who he's looking for which makes Bellamy realize. But Alessia will be the one to tell Calix about Bellamy and someone else (not Bellamy) will tell Alessia about Calix at Camp Jaha. Oh she was definitely sassy and suspicious about the Mountain Men in this chapter. I hope I didn't keep you waiting too long! Thanks for reviewing!
Violet Smoak: Thank you! Hopefully Jasper's confession gave you a bit of closure so you don't have to be sad about Margot's death. Like I said, their reunion was pretty mellow in this chapter but next chapter they'll really get to talk and it'll be good. Here it is! Thanks for reviewing!
The Auburn Girl: Thank you! Upcoming drama here we come...
LovelyFandomLover: Thanks! I wasn't too into writing it at the beginning if I'm being honest but once it got to 1x05 I started liking it a whole lot more lol so you're not alone. I hope you enjoyed 2x01! Definitely not drawing out the love triangle. Alessia's going to get pissed at Calix and Bellamy when their testosterone comes out, don't you worry. Thanks for reviewing!