Disclaimer: Refer to the Pilot.
Long Into an Abyss
It'd been hours since Jaha's return to camp; hours since Clarke, Raven, and Alessia had been left in the dust when Abby and Byrne took Jaha into the Council Room and locked him inside so no one could disturb their intense conversation. Clarke was practically biting off her fingernails waiting for her mother and the former Chancellor to make some kind of public announcement, as Jaha's return spread quickly through the camp, as did rumors told by eavesdroppers that the Grounders would be attacking soon. Alessia had lost track of Raven, but when she had tried to keep Clarke under control and soothe her conspiracy theories about how her mother wouldn't care about their people within Mount Weather, she gave up and, leaving Clarke to her pessimism alone, joined the crowd of people that started to form at the door of what was left of the Ark. She looked for Bellamy within the crowd, but saw him nowhere and instead decided to join the silent, brooding Finn as he waited with the rest of the civilians.
"Still nothing?" Alessia muttered to him.
"Well, what does it look like?" He scoffed. With her eyes beginning to narrow, she crossed her arms and turned to him, vigorously shaking her head in immense protest.
"Uh, uh. No. No, I refuse to have you mad at me, too, Spacewalker, so get rid of your moping and self-loathing and lose the attitude." She let out a furious sigh and watched with angrily clouded lids as he turned to look at her with a tight line on his face. Alessia could tell he still wasn't happy with her, no matter how much she threatened him. "What? What on Earth could I possibly have done to offend you? Did I sleep with your best friend, too?"
Finn paused, but softened his attitude as he admitted, "No. You sided with Clarke and Raven out in the woods. I thought you had my back."
She snorted. "You massacred a village, Finn. People here will sugarcoat it for you, but I won't. You killed people...you thought you were doing what had to be done, but you still did it. But it was a mistake. What separates your action from a mistake and a lifestyle is whether or not history repeats itself so..." Alessia struggled for the words as she let out a deep, exhausted sigh. "Don't let it repeat itself, you hear me?"
He hesitated for a moment, but eventually couldn't help the small smile on his lips. "It's impossible not to hear you."
"Good. I'd like it to stay that way."
"Speaking of, I, um, guess you put all the pieces together about Bellamy and Calix, huh?" She looked up at him where the two teenagers locked eyes and he swallowed awkwardly. "How's that working out for you?"
"Fantastic, Spacewalker. Fan-fucking-tastic."
Suddenly, the murmur in the crowd died down, causing Alessia and Finn to cut their conversation short and look up to see Dr. Griffin exiting the Council Room with Jaha on her tail. As she looked out into the crowd of her fellow peers, Alessia felt Clarke come up by her side, wide-eyed and ready to listen to what her mother had decided.
"By now, you've all heard the rumor," Abby began, audible to those even in the back of the crowd. "And, unfortunately, it's true. The Grounders are coming. We have a difficult decision to make. Thankfully, Chancellor Jaha has found his way back to us and we're discussing all options."
Jaha stepped forward and around Abby. Alessia knew he couldn't stay quiet. Thelonious was a leader, not a follower. "But to be safe," he bellowed, "you need to pack. Now. Whatever you can carry. We may need to leave at a moment's notice!"
"Where will we go?" asked a worker inside the crowd.
"I don't know is the answer," he answered, shaking his head. "But I heard of a place; a city of light. It's across the dead zone."
"What makes you think we'll make it there?" asked another.
"Because we made it here! I have faith and...right now, given the alternative, that's good enough for me."
"What is he saying?" Alessia mumbled to herself, Clarke, and Finn as she focused on the former Chancellor with confused eyes. "That we just leave here? That we just leave the rest of the forty-eight with those ass—"
"Not for us!" Clarke thundered within the depths of the crowd, gaining her mother and Jaha's attention from in front. The entire population turned to her as if a spotlight had given them the chance to spot her within the sea of people. "If we leave here, what happens to our people in Mount Weather?"
"As your mother said," Jaha returned, a bit of a sour edge to his voice as he stared at Clarke, nearly throwing daggers in her direction, "that is a very difficult decision to make. But the time has come for each and every one of us to ask: is this how the story of our people ends? Did we come all this way just to die tomorrow? Because if we're not gone by the time that sun rises, that is exactly what will happen!"
Murmurs rumbled through the crowd; whether they were of praise or of protest, it was unclear. However, Abby looked at her people and spoke up clearly. "No decision has been made! Please report to your station supervisor and gather emergency supplies."
Abby and Jaha left their stage while guards replaced them to order the chaos that was most likely going to erupt while everyone scrambled for emergency supplies. Alessia opened her mouth to speak to Clarke, who was standing a few feet ahead staring after her mother and the former Chancellor, but right as words started to form in her head, she felt someone shove her from behind it.
"Excuse you!" Alessia growled, but barely realized that it was Bellamy dashing straight to Clarke. The blonde was too far ahead for Alessia to hear what Bellamy was saying to her, but she could see Clarke's face turn down and Alessia knew it was something big. He said something quickly and then turned around, locking eyes with Alessia for only a moment before taking off again. She debated on whether to stay with Clarke or go after Bellamy, but she wasted nearly a second before sprinting after the hurrying dark male who was desperately avoiding her. After shouting his name multiple times, she managed to grip onto his wrist and pull him to a brisk stop. "Hey! What the hell is going on?"
"Nothing," he barked. She scowled at him. "Get off! I said nothing's going on! Mind your goddamn business, Kane."
He tried to move, but she locked her fingers on his wrist and tugged him back, forcing him to remain where he was. Through her teeth, she sneered, "Any business you share with Clarke is my business; even if you are pissed at me. So I'm not going to ask again."
Bellamy let out a frustrated sigh and yanked his arm back. She let him have the win, knowing by the look on his face that he wouldn't try to take off again. Nearly biting her head off, he hooked his arm around her back and shoved her forward. "Fine..fine. Just...come with me. Now!"
As he led her out of the crowd, he tried not to attract any suspicious eyes but inevitably failed—Calix stared after them, confused but silent and calm, as they huddled through the crowd together and disappeared.
Clarke was the first to climb up the ladder of the drop ship to the top level. The ship was practically charcoal on the outside, but on the inside it was just a victim of negligence. When Clarke reached the top level, she looked to the side and saw Octavia sitting on the floor, an relieved look on her face when Clarke arrived. But as Clarke stepped up onto the leveled ground and Bellamy and Alessia followed in suit, there was a sudden growl, causing Clarke to jump nearly ten feet back.
Lincoln.
He was strung up and chained, as he had once been before, but his eyes were bloodshot red, his teeth were razor sharp, and he was covered in blood, some of which was most likely not his own.
"It's okay. It's okay. He's been restrained," Bellamy tried to assure Clarke, who was frightened by the very sight of him. But Lincoln was testing those restraints to the brink, pulling forward with all his strength. Alessia worried that the chains would break, but she trusted Bellamy to have secured them as tightly as he could. Lincoln pulled, an echoing sound thundering as he tried to free himself from the chains. Clarke's breath shook as she took in a heavy sigh.
"I can't believe we're back here again," she whispered.
"Can you help him?" Octavia asked quietly from her position on the floor, trying desperately to drown out the noise of Lincoln's animal-like growls that were uncomfortable to them all. He struggled and fought so loudly that it was impossible for anyone to hear their own thoughts."
"I don't know," the blonde admitted as she watched Lincoln continue to growl and struggle for freedom. "I knew Mount Weather controlled the Reapers...I had no idea they were creating them."
Bellamy swallowed back the fear in his throat. "If they can do that to Lincoln, what are they doing to our friends?"
Other than the gruesome sounds that were coming from their prisoner, the rest of them were silent as they realized the extreme possibilities that floated through their minds. But as everyone watched Lincoln in his loud, violent struggle with the chains on him, Alessia stepped around Bellamy and shook her head, nearing Lincoln with her eyes narrowed, thinking hard. Her voice was soft and was barely able to be heard over Lincoln's groans, but she spoke regardless.
"It makes sense," she realized, studying Lincoln with interested eyes. "They create the Reapers to kidnap the Grounders they held in the secret back room. Those idiots couldn't have done it all themselves." She turned around and looked pointedly at Clarke. "There should be a way to undo it."
"How?" Clarke asked, confused. Alessia stepped forward and shrugged.
"I-I don't know. But there has to be a way, right? They wouldn't be able to just...persuade Lincoln into becoming a Reaper. Maybe...it's a virus? Maybe there's an antidote. I don't know, but there has to be a way for whatever it is to get out of his system and he'll be normal again."
Bellamy raised his eyebrows. "What, like a drug?"
"Hold on, he's convulsing," Clarke observed, and Alessia turned around to face Lincoln who, sure enough, had started to shake and stopped pulling against his restraints. Alessia studied him closer, but as she tried to reach the conclusion in her mind, Clarke pointed at the blood pooling around Lincoln's thigh. "What happened to his leg?"
Clarke turned and looked over at Octavia and Bellamy, and the two of them were quiet for a long time before Octavia finally cleared her throat and confessed, "I shot him."
Clarke observed Octavia, who was anxiously shaking her leg trying to fight back the tears in her eyes as she said the words. Clarke didn't need to respond, she knew it had to have been hard for Octavia to do. But before she could even get a chance to think of a response that would sound remotely helpful, Bellamy spoke up.
"Clarke, he's lost a lot of blood."
"It's exactly like a drug," Alessia suddenly whispered, earning everyone's attention. She spun around at Octavia, who was shining a light on Lincoln's body so they could see him. The brunette waved her hand at Lincoln's neck as she inched closer. "Octavia, can you please put the light on his neck? I think I see something."
Octavia obliged, moving the flashlight so that there was illumination on the inside of Lincoln's neck. Clarke looked at it as well, and suddenly gasped when she realized what Alessia was seeing.
"Needle marks," Clarke noted.
"So he's being drugged," Bellamy confirmed.
"Possibly," Alessia agreed, but before she could say anything further, she felt herself under attack.
One of Lincoln's chains bursted, whiplashing her as he reached forward with no restraint and tried to strangle her. She fought back, but his strength completely outmatched hers as it would anyone else's. Octavia lunged, but Lincoln smacked her away, and when Clarke tried to peel Alessia off of Lincoln, he did the same to her. Bellamy was the first one to jump, but he managed to maintain a firm grip on Lincoln while Alessia tried to wrangle herself free. Lincoln's hand came onto his throat and he squeezed, though Bellamy fought back with everything he could. Lincoln tossed Alessia to the ground and head-butted Bellamy to the floor. When Lincoln was free of anyone attacking him, he managed to free himself from the other restraint and tossed the chains aside. He fell to the floor, attempting to attack those who were lying on the ground and watching him as he struggled free. The chains on his feet restrained him from going after them at a certain distance, which caused everyone to shuffle backwards and out of his grasp. When Lincoln realized that he was still tied, he lifted himself from the floor and tugged at the chains on his feet, trying to undo them quickly before anyone could strike. Bellamy grabbed a pipe piece that was lying in the corner from the drop ship wreckage and he lunged at Lincoln in an attempt to put him down so they could restrain him once more. But Alessia could see the link of the chain coming loose and so she screamed Bellamy's name in protest. Instead, Bellamy went at him and the chain Lincoln had been pulling bursted, therefore Lincoln was able to turn around and block Bellamy's attempt before he even tried. Lincoln threw down his fists over and over again, beating Bellamy brutally. Alessia lifted herself from the floor and reached behind her, where she produced a small handgun and, after just a second or two, pulled the trigger. The bullet hit the flesh of Lincoln's arm, as intended, and while he screamed in pain, Octavia came up behind him and hit him over the head with the pipe that Bellamy had attempted to use before. Lincoln fell to the floor, unconscious and bleeding from the fresh wound.
Other than the heavy breathing of those who were fighting against the Reaper, there were no more animalistic screams. There were a few moments of silence, but after those few moments, Bellamy slowly started to sit up straight, and Alessia limped over to him, kneeling down on the ground as he sat up against the wall.
"Shit, you're bleeding. A lot," she noticed, reaching out to note the wounds on his face. Bellamy slowed his breathing down and looked at her with confusion.
"Is that my handgun?"
Alessia knotted her eyebrows and lifted the gun in her right hand, where she looked down at it and remembered where it came from. With a scoff, she shrugged. "Yeah. I guess it is."
"You stole my handgun?" he asked again. She grimaced at him and lifted herself up from the floor, wincing at the pain in her ankle but ignoring it to look down at him with disdain.
"You're fine," Alessia determined bitterly before limping over to Clarke, who was trying to get herself up from the ground. "Clarke, you okay?"
"Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine." Clarke rubbed her head as she lifted herself up from the floor with Alessia's help. Once on two feet, Clarke looked over at Bellamy and sighed. "What about you? Are you okay?"
Bellamy scoffed and stood as his sister helped him up from the floor. "Well, apparently, I'm fine. Come on, we need to get him restrained again before he wakes up."
"I need to fix his wounds," Clarke added, walking over to Lincoln as Bellamy went over to the broken chains on the floor and started to fix them so they would hold Lincoln better than they had before. As Bellamy fumbled with the restraints, Clarke told Alessia what supplies to get her so that they could fix his wounds. Octavia went to get water for Lincoln so that he wouldn't be dehydrated during Clarke's mending, and when she returned, Lincoln was strapped up, chained as if he were in a straight jacket. She was so disappointed at the sight, but pushing her feelings aside, Octavia bent down and listened as Clarke began, "We have to stop the bleeding and get the bullet out of his leg. But the wound Alessia gave him is through-and-through. It didn't hit any major arteries."
"It wasn't supposed to," Alessia informed her, as if it were an obvious thing. Clarke sighed.
"Three inches to the left and you could've killed him."
"But I wasn't aiming three inches to the left, Clarke." Tired of arguing, the blonde just stayed quiet and started to work on fixing the bullet wound in Lincoln's leg while Octavia leaned forward and spilled some water into Lincoln's mouth so he could drink. Instead, Lincoln growled at her incessantly, fidgeting to the point where Octavia, afraid of what he might do, dropped the canister so water spilled everywhere. Clarke and Alessia exchanged a worried glance and then looked at Octavia, who was avoiding the gazes of everyone in the room with her as she took a deep breath and spoke calmly.
"I'll get some more," she said quietly before lifting herself off of her knees to go back down the way she came. Before she could reach the ladder to climb down, Bellamy stepped in front of her.
"O, once the drug is out of his system, he'll be okay," Bellamy assured her. Octavia shook her head at him and fought back tears in her eyes.
"You can't protect me from this one, big brother."
With the words out of her mouth, Octavia walked around Bellamy and hurriedly went down the ladder to avoid hearing anything else Bellamy would say, afraid that she might break. Bellamy sighed and turned back to Clarke and Alessia, who were trying to attend to Lincoln's wound. Clarke had instructed Alessia to keep pressure on the wound so that the bleeding would slow, and squatting down beside Alessia, Bellamy frowned at her as he saw the paleness in her face.
"You look like you're going to throw up," Bellamy noted, jerking his head at Alessia to indicate who he was talking to. Alessia sighed.
"Yeah, well, this whole situation kind of makes me sick," she confessed, watching as Clarke moved her hand so that she could take the bullet out. With a heavy exhale, Clarke swallowed and then dug her fingers into Lincoln's wound, causing the Reaper to scream violently, thrashing back and forth. Bellamy and Alessia did their best to hold him down, and at last, Clarke pulled her hand out victoriously with a shiny bullet to show for it. She set it to the side and nodded to Alessia to hold pressure on the wound again as Clarke tied a tourniquet around his leg and the bleeding slowed. Bellamy looked up at Clarke and nodded.
"Your mom would be proud," he tried, seeing the glum, depressed look on her face. She disagreed.
"My mom would know how to save him."
Clarke got up from her place on the floor and went to grab something to wipe of her hands, but just as she did, the hatch to the level opened. Bellamy looked over and saw that it was only Octavia, but at second glance he realized that someone was following her. A Grounder. The minute Bellamy had seen the Grounder, Alessia had as well, and she snatched her gun from the floor, leapt to her feet, and pointed it at the accompanying Grounder just as Bellamy grabbed the rifle from behind him. Octavia stepped in front of the Grounder, as if protecting him.
"No, don't! He's Lincoln's friend!" she told the two, waiting for them to put down their weapons. But just as Octavia announced who the Grounder was, on the floor, Lincoln began to convulse for the second time, shaking the entire ground. Alessia didn't hesitate to put the gun away and drop down to the floor so she could help Clarke, but Bellamy was a bit more reluctant. At last, he lowered his weapon and allowed the Grounder to lower to Lincoln's side, making Alessia stand up and get out of his way. He unrolled a belt full of old, dusty bottles filed with liquids and picked up a smaller bottle, looming it over Lincoln. Clarke was immediately suspicious
"What is that?" she asked, but there was no response from the Grounder. Still, he loomed the bottle over Lincoln's mouth and looked down with a sorrowful gleam in his eye.
"Yu gonplei ste odon," he mumbled before tilting the bottle very slightly so that only one droplet escaped the neck of it. But just before that droplet fell from the bottle and into Lincoln's mouth, Clarke dove her hand above Lincoln's slips.
"Wait!" she shouted. The Grounder pulled out a knife, and Bellamy, who still had his gun in his hand, raised his weapon and pointed it at the back of the Grounder's head.
"Back off! Right now!" he ordered.
"Yu gonplei ste odon," Clarke repeated to herself. She remembered those words. Those were the words that Anya had said to the Grounder in the Reaper cage before snapping the Grounder's neck with her bare hands. She looked up at the Grounder in front of her with a hard look in her eye. "It's what they say before death! He's not trying to heal him, he's trying to kill him."
"Nyko, is it true?" asked Octavia slowly. The Grounder nodded.
"Yes. Death is the only way."
"Hold on," Clarke pleaded. "There could be a way to bring him back."
"None that I've ever seen," he countered pessimistically before dropping the knife in his hand, realizing that there was a lethal weapon pointed to his head. Before anyone had the chance to say anything further, there was a sudden shout as someone came rushing up to the top level of the drop ship.
"We have to go! The camp's leaving! We have to stop—" Finn announced as he faced those standing by Lincoln's body. But before he could even catch his breath, he heard someone shout at him.
"You!" Nyko growled, and suddenly the gun behind his head didn't matter. He lunged at Finn, wrapping his hands around the teenager's throat and shoving him up against a wall with a hard slam. Everyone jumped up, aware of the attack. Bellamy pointed his rifle at Nyko and screamed at him to get off of Finn, but Nyko was relentless. He pushed harder on Finn's throat, all while growling, "You slaughtered my people! Elders, children, innocents!"
"Nyko, you're killing him!" Octavia shouted, trying to calmly get Nyko to release Finn.
"Blood must have blood!"
"Get out of the way!" Bellamy warned his sister, inching his gun towards Nyko.
Octavia held up a hand at him and screamed, "Bellamy, you are not shooting him! No!"
"Clarke, over there!" Clarke, who rushed over to the opposite side of Nyko, looked around desperately as Alessia shouted out her help and pointed to the floor. With wild eyes, Clarke scanned the floor for what she meant, and when she saw the small wand one of the guards from the Ark must have left behind when they rescued Raven and Murphy from the drop ship, she picked it up in her hand and didn't hesitate to electrocute the Grounder, who fell onto the floor as the wand in Clarke's hand buzzed with electricity. Things went quiet, but not for long. Octavia caught her breath, but when she realized it was too quiet, she looked over at Lincoln and became instantly alarmed.
"Lincoln!" Octavia exclaimed as she knelt over to his side and felt his chest for breath patterns and his neck for a pulse. Through heavy panting, she gasped, "He's not breathing!"
Clarke instantly rushed over to her and loomed over him for a moment. "His heart stopped. Move!"
Without wasting a second, Octavia stepped over Lincoln to the other side of his body while Clarke pressed her hands together and started compressions on his chest. Alessia, Bellamy, and Finn observed as Clarke kept pushing, trying to restart Lincoln's heart before it was too late. Nyko came to, still weak from the electrocution and not strong enough to attempt to go after Finn once more. Tensions mounted in the one room as Clarke continued to compress, and finally, there was a gasping sound, and Lincoln opened his eyes as he sucked in a deep breath of air. Clarke let out a relieved sigh, as did Octavia.
"He was dead," Nyko noticed with a bewildered look on his face, as if he'd just seen magic happen before him. Clarke looked over at him as he asked quietly, "How did you do that?"
"You've tried bringing Reapers back before?" He nodded. "And they died like this?" Another nod, and it caused Clarke to think things. It caused her to come to a solution.
"What is it?" Alessia asked, stepping forward while noticing Clarke's thinking face. "What are you thinking?"
She looked down at Lincoln. "I know how to stop the attack."
Clarke and Finn returned to camp so that they could talk to Abby and Chancellor Jaha about the plan she had to make peace with the Grounders so that they wouldn't attack by dawn. While they did so, Alessia and Bellamy agreed to stay behind with Octavia to keep an eye on Lincoln and Nyko, but they could barely stand to be in the same room together if they were being attacked, let alone if they weren't in any immediate danger. The silence had worn them both down and instead of fighting, Bellamy decided to patrol the outside of the drop ship in case there were any Grounders headed their way as a result of the attack on Camp Jaha. It was still dark outside, but it was beginning to show signs of dawn in less than a half hour or so.
It was as Bellamy paced in front of the drop ship, worried about Clarke and wondering whether or not she was able to salvage their final chance at being able to rescue their friends from Mt. Weather, that he heard something snap. A branch, a leaf, he wasn't sure, but he sure as hell wasn't taking any chances. Bellamy gripped his rifle tightly and squinted in the dim light of the earliest hours of the morning, ready to strike if a Grounder attacked. He heard another snap and readied his finger on the trigger. Another snap and he was about to pull. Instead, he made out a small figure in the limited light, and therefore he straightened and lowered his rifle.
"Shit, Mercer, I thought you were a Grounder. You were making so much noise," Bellamy growled as Calix stepped into the boundaries of the old camp. Calix held up his own rifle.
"If you shot me, I would've shot back," he promised, walking around Bellamy and further into the camp. Bellamy turned around and ignored the salty comment, swinging his rifle behind his back so they could talk.
"What's going on? Did Clarke send you here? Did she talk to—?"
Bellamy didn't get a chance to finish his sentence before Calix took him completely off guard, throwing a right hook right into his jaw and forcing him back a few steps. Bellamy could feel blood in the corner of his mouth, and he reached up to wipe it off while taking a moment to let himself be stunned. When he looked back up, he saw Calix throw his gun on the ground and stand tall. Bellamy spat the blood in his mouth and looked up, shaking his head.
"You've got to be kidding me," he growled. "And what was that for?"
"You know what it was for."
Bellamy watched Calix, noticing the red fumes in his eyes. Right then, he knew what he was talking about, and he shifted uncomfortably realizing what he'd gotten himself into.
"She told you?"
"Damn right she did."
"I didn't know, okay?" Bellamy reasoned cautiously. He knew Calix wouldn't really hurt him, but he would definitely try. "You never told me her name...she never told me yours...and she thought you were dead."
"That's supposed to be an excuse?" Calix scoffed. "You did know! I told you about her when I came down here. We talked about it! And you didn't even have the decency to tell me?"
Bellamy threw up his hands angrily. "And how do you think that would've gone? 'Oh, so Kane's your girlfriend? Funny, she's mine, too'?"
"You shouldn't have gone after her in the first place."
"I didn't know!"
"And if you did know?" the bronze-haired male proposed, his voice hard and cold. Bellamy watched him as his friend sneered the words out of his mouth. "Would it even have made a difference?"
Bellamy thought about it. If he'd known, would it have made a difference? Would he have saved her from falling down into the panther trap when they rescued Jasper? Would he have still kissed her in the forest the day he ruined Raven's radio and inadvertently killed hundreds of people? Would he have kissed her again on her birthday? Would he have took her out into the forest on Unity Day? Would he have made her stay by his side when they were infected with the virus? It would be so simple to think that he would never have done these things, even if he did know. But the truth of the matter was, he just wasn't that self-disciplined to have stopped it.
"No," Bellamy answered truthfully. "It wouldn't have made a difference if I'd known, okay?"
But, though he told the truth, it wasn't the answer that Calix wanted to hear, and it only made him angrier. Rushing forward, Calix took another swing at Bellamy, but Bellamy was able to deflect it and dodge out of the way so his fist never came into contact with his face. But the fact that Calix was fighting him only made him mad as well, and therefore, Bellamy knocked them both to the ground and had no choice but to fight. He swung a few good hits before Calix grabbed him by the throat and cut off the airway to his lungs. Bellamy tried to pry his hands off, but eventually he ended up getting enough leverage to wrap his hands around Calix's throat as well and do the exact same thing.
And that's where Alessia came in.
"You two are pathetic!" she shouted as she yanked Bellamy up by his rifle and broke him and Calix away from each other, shoving Bellamy to one side of her while keeping Calix on the other. They both caught their breath while she narrowed her eyes and knotted her eyebrows at them with a look of pure confusion. "Choking each other to death? That's really what you want to do? You two are friends, you morons! What the hell were you fighting about, anyways?"
"You know what we were fighting about!" Bellamy snapped at her, wiping off the blood from his lip. She looked over at him and watched as his eyes drifted slowly and met hers, where she realized what he meant. And it caused an outrage.
"You're kidding! Oh, you two have serious issues." She grabbed Calix by the collar of his shirt and shoved him over to stand next to Bellamy, where the two glared at each other for a moment before Alessia went off on them. "You want to fight about whoever gets to play in the sandbox first, be my guest! I couldn't care less! But me? You want to fight about me? This is the most irrelevant thing we could be doing right now! Octavia is up there praying that Lincoln doesn't kick the bucket and you two are out here fighting over me? Try it again, I dare you!"
The two of them were silent. They didn't say anything, but watched her as she practically fumed at them. A frustrated growl escaped her lips and she kept mumbling something about testosterone for a few seconds before she looked up at them and took a deep breath.
"Bellamy, get inside the drop ship. Now," she ordered. Reluctant to take her orders, Bellamy stayed on his ground for a few extra seconds, earning a very angry look from her. Finally, giving in, Bellamy ignored them both and stormed back into the drop ship where she told him to go. While he left, Alessia bent down and grabbed Calix's gun from the ground, where she tossed it to him and he caught it in his arms. "Calix, get out of here. Go back to Camp Jaha. They need you there."
"I came to help," he tried.
"You didn't come here for Lincoln, Calix, you came here to get revenge on your best friend because I told you there was something going on between us." Alessia let out an exhausted sigh. "Just...please, go back. I can't handle the two of you right now. There's too much at stake."
"Alessia—"
"Don't argue with me!" she shouted, cutting him off entirely. Calix flinched, but she took another deep breath, this time trying to calm herself and refrain from blowing up again. "Just go. Now."
She didn't wait for him to leave. Alessia turned back and went to the drop ship and trusted that he would go back like she asked. When she walked through the tarp at the door to the bottom level, she saw Bellamy trying to wipe off the blood on his knuckles and his lip. He looked up at her when she entered, but quickly looked away as she walked inside and towards him.
"He shouldn't have hit you," Alessia admitted, crossing her arms. "But you should've walked away." He still said nothing, and she sighed. "Oh, right. I forgot who I was talking to. Bellamy Blake doesn't walk away from fights, he welcomes them, right?"
Bellamy threw down the washcloth in his hand, causing Alessia to flinch slightly, but she never once broke her concentration. She watched as Bellamy opened his mouth to speak, presumably to yell at her, and she waited to take the heat. She was thinking of all the things he'd probably say to her; things like he was tired of fighting over her, he never really cared, and other lies of that sort. And she was too preoccupied thinking of comebacks to what she thought he would say that she didn't notice him close his mouth and abruptly walk forward before forcing her lips onto his, crushing into her with all his strength. His hands were around the back of her neck, his fingernails digging into the base of her head as he forced the deepest intensity out of the both of them. Alessia was instantly alarmed, and for a split second, she thought about pushing him off. She was so angry with him—with Calix, too—but for some reason, that only made her want to kiss him more. And it was wrong, it was irrelevant, but she didn't care. She took what she could get and kissed him harder, moving her arm to wrap around his neck and causing one of his hands to slip down and coil around her back, clutching her closer to him. It was head-spinning and intense, but most importantly, it was maddening.
"Come on, it's this way." Bellamy and Alessia barely had enough time to realize they were being interrupted before Finn tossed over the tarp over the doorway, watching as Bellamy and Alessia both broke away from each other with heavy breathing. Finn walked in skeptically with Abby by his side, eyeing the two with confused eyes. "Uh, sorry, were we interrupting something?"
"No," they said at the same time.
"Okay..." Finn trailed off, slightly concerned. He turned around and looked at Abby. "Let's go. They're on the top level."
Finn led the way for Abby, who followed him promptly, not realizing what had transpired with the two young adults moments before. Alessia and Bellamy looked at each other for a split second but didn't say anything, they merely followed Abby up the ladder to where Lincoln, Octavia, and Nyko were.
"Oh, thank God. Where's Clarke?" Octavia asked as Finn helped everyone off the ladder.
"Trying to stop a war," he replied. Abby walked over to Octavia, who was trying to clean all the blood off of Lincoln while they waited for someone to return. She bent down at Octavia's side and leaned forward, using two fingers to lift Lincoln's eyelid. She studied it for a moment and then sighed.
"Pupils are unresponsive. Tie off his arm," she ordered Octavia, who didn't hesitate to do what she asked. Abby began to prep a needle she brought with her and looked up at Octavia with a nod. "Thanks to the supplies your brother found, Lincoln might have a chance."
"What's that?" Octavia asked.
"It's to bring down his fever." Abby bent down and injected the needle into his arm, but as she did, Lincoln began to thrash back and forth, screaming out loudly and convulsing from the detox. Suddenly, he stopped, and Abby put her hands on Lincoln's chest to feel his heartbeat.
"What's happening?" she demanded. "Why isn't it working?"
"His heart stopped," Abby answered as she started chest compressions rapidly. She looked up and spotted Nyko, who was standing above Lincoln as if ready to step in. She realized that he was the Healer Clarke told her about earlier and, without slowing down her compressions, spoke in shortened breaths, "You're their Healer? Tilt his head back. Pull his chin down to open his airway."
The Healer did as she wanted him to, but nothing was happening. Everyone fell deathly silent and Abby kept preying, mumbling to herself for Lincoln to respond positively. But she kept compressing and nothing kept happening and then she realized that it was too late, that there was nothing more she could do. She was getting tired and he was being unresponsive. It was too late.
"You're stopping," Octavia observed nervously. "What's wrong?"
"I'm sorry. He's gone." And we're all dead.
"No, it's not possible. You're wrong!" she screamed before shoving Abby out of the way, taking her place with the chest compressions. Bellamy stepped forward, shaking his head.
"Octavia..." Bellamy knelt down and watched her as she cried, trying to maintain a strong outlook but inevitably failing as the tears spilled over in her eyes. Bellamy swallowed hard and reached out to comfort her as the hatch opened and Clarke stepped onto the level and Octavia stopped the compressions, squeezing out her tears over Lincoln's dead body. Abby looked over at her daughter and exchanged a warning glance as the Grounders who were following Clarke, who were waiting to see that what Clarke said she could do was possible, realized that she was nothing but a liar. The Commander looked over at Clarke with skeptical eyes and a warrior stepped out as if she were ready to attack. Other than Octavia's crying, the room was pin-drop silent. Clarke looked down at the gun beside Bellamy and he slowly reached for it while Abby spotted the electrical wand lying on the floor. Alessia moved her hand slowly and discreetly behind her back, lifting up her shirt and reaching for the handle of the handgun in her waistband. And as everyone realized what it came down to, the Commander simply turned her head at the warrior beside her and nodded.
"I'll kill them all," said the warrior before pulling out a sword. Everyone reached for their weapons—the Grounders revealed their rustic swords, Bellamy jumped to his feet with the rifle in his hand, Abby bent down and kept a firm grip on the electrical wand, and Alessia pointed her handgun at the Grounders across the room, waiting for someone to make the first move so she could shoot.
"Please," Clarke begged, stepping forward. She had no weapon in her hand, defenseless against the Grounder's attack. "You don't have to do this."
"You lied," the Commander sneered. "And you're out of time."
Clarke tried to come up with a response, but she couldn't. Words were failing her because everything the Commander said was true. By the time she realized she had stayed silent for too long, there was a sudden movement in front of her and she feared that it was someone attacking. Instead, she realized that it was her mother who abruptly turned around and slammed the electrical wand onto Lincoln's chest in an attempt to shock his heart back. Nothing happened.
"Hit him again," Clarke told her mother. Abby did so, putting the electrical wand onto Lincoln's chest for a second time, causing him to arch his back and finally gasp back to life. Everyone surrounding them widened their eyes at the miracle and Octavia, who had been sitting beside Lincoln the entire time, went to find his eyes.
"Lincoln?"
"Octavia..." Lincoln breathed out softly, causing her to let out a sigh of relief. He was okay. Lincoln was alive; and he was no longer a Reaper.
They did it.
Sorry for the long wait, everyone, but I hope this chapter was worth it! Thanks for reading! Please review!
RHatch89: Haha keep shipping it! They're not going away any time soon! :)
Pompeii1224: Bellessia lives on!
ambrosesdixon: That's one of the reasons Alessia will bring up to him later on in the story. Calix is like this typical character who thinks his girlfriend can do no wrong but she'll set him straight in the later chapters. She thinks it's unfair of him to hold a grudge against Bellamy when she's equally at fault, but Calix also feels betrayed by Bellamy because he was his friend. Calix had everyone mad in this chapter lol. I want to hug Bell too! Alessia is going to be heartbroken basically. Not looking forward to it. Hope you liked the chapter! Thanks for reviewing!
Iwannabelikeme: Bellamy was definitely being passive aggressive in the last few chapters but I think in this one he sort of realized he isn't gonna take any shit from Calix anymore and he doesn't care what Alessia wants because he realized that nothing would've changed even if things were different to begin with. Eh, the confrontation wasn't that bad. It's what caused him to realize his feelings...mostly. They didn't necessarily 'reconcile' in this chapter but they have gotten past this incessant state of blaming each other. Alessia and Finn will have some more interaction definitely in the next chapter before he dies. I'm so sad to watch him go. Thanks for the review!
sarahmichellegellarfan1: Alessia is not like that. She would never pick Calix because she feels an obligation and she would never stay with Bellamy just because she thinks he's the attractive bad boy or whatever. She obviously feels some remorse about being with Bellamy but she doesn't let that stop her from telling them both how she really feels. She needed time but Bellamy sort of ruined that for her which will force her to realize a lot of things in the next few chapters. Thanks! Hope you liked this one, too!
Bee-back: Aw thank you! Calix will eventually become his own person and learn how to deal with himself without Alessia...and maybe we'll like him a little more. We'll see. Yep, Marcus Kane returns next chapter! I'm excited! Hope you liked this chapter and thank you for reviewing!
A: Thank you! Haha Alessia's got some anger issues but he knows she really didn't mean she wished he died. Things definitely got physical. Kane and Alessia reunite in the next chapter when he returns to camp! He'll be...more tolerable, let's just say that. Haha thank you! I'm glad you liked it! Here's the update! Hope you enjoyed it!
Maddie Rose: Thank you! It's always nice to hear that I keep the characters in check. That's always a big fear of mine. Well, for what I have planned now, Calix won't be dying any time soon and he will definitely find himself another love interest. Depending on how Season 3 goes the love interest I have in mind might change. But right now he's pretty much hooked on Alessia and until he gets closure he won't really move on from her. Thanks for reviewing and I hope you're enjoying the story!
Lucy Greenhill: Thank you! Here's the update!
katiesgotagun: Mm...that is definitely a really good question that was basically answered in this chapter and not at the same time. It's complicated. He'll have some reservations, as will Alessia, but in the end, Bellessia will always win. Thank you! Hope you enjoyed the chapter!
Shorty-leigh: Thanks! Physical fighting? After this chapter, no. Emotional fighting? Most definitely. Calix hasn't given up on Alessia and Bellamy's made it very clear how he feels. She's in for a fantastic ride. Hope you enjoyed the chapter!
pureO: Haha sorry :P Wish granted! Bellessia owned the stage in this chapter basically. Bellamy and Alessia won't clearly confess their feelings until the end of Season 2 (if that) but yeah, it's pretty much clear to everyone but them that they love each other. Kane reunion up next! Sorry for the wait on this chapter but I hope you enjoyed it! Thanks for the review!
sagge: They've got a long way to go but I think they know deep inside how they really feel, it'll just be a while before they show it. Tension mounts everywhere, my friend. Thanks for reviewing! Hope you enjoyed the chapter!
PorcelineLady16: Thank you! Here's the update!