A/N: So my muse abandoned me and I didn't write a word for months. I'm so incredibly sorry it took me this long to update, but I'm hoping there's enough good stuff here that you'll all forgive me. The good news is that I've decided I can wrap this up in the next 2-4 chapters, so you won't have to wait another year for it to be finished. To those of you still reading this, thank you so, so much for sticking with me. It means so very much. :)

"We need to round up everyone from the dropship days," Bellamy said, raking a hand through his hair. He was pacing in Kane's living room, staring at the floor while his mind raced to think of anyone and everyone he could find to stand with Clarke. "There are going to be some people who still side with Jaha because all they know him as is the benevolent leader who got them to the ground. But anyone who came down on the dropship will side with Clarke."

Nicolai huffed. "Why do we not just kill this man and be done with it?"

Bellamy rolled his eyes. "Because Clarke doesn't want him to die and she has more people on her side than I do on mine," he grumbled. "I'd slit his throat while he slept if she'd let me."

"Bloodshed isn't the answer," Kane said quietly, and Bellamy glared at him. "Clarke's already gone that route once. It nearly destroyed her. You can't ask it of her again."

"I wasn't going to ask it of her," he snapped. "I was just going to do it."

Kane shook his head. "You know Clarke would never forgive you if you took a life on her behalf, especially against her wishes."

"What am I supposed to do then?" he yelled, reaching his breaking point.

"You could ask me for help," Jasper said, and Bellamy whirled around to find his friend-turned-assassin leaning up against the door frame. "I returned in order to save Clarke's life. Tell me to kill Jaha, and I will. She can't blame you if I'm the one who does it."

Bellamy stared at him. "You'd do that?"

Jasper shrugged. "I've killed a lot of people," he said blandly, as if those lives were of no consequence. "Jaha would just be one more. I wouldn't miss him. Would anyone?"

Bellamy and Jasper locked hard gazes, and finally Bellamy expelled a harsh breath. "Kane, I need you to talk to our people. Prepare them for battle. I don't care what Clarke says, I want Jaha dead if it will mean she's safe, but in case we fail… We need to be ready. All of us."

Kane's face expressed his disappointment in Bellamy's decision, but he nodded and turned his attention to Nicolai and Andrei, who stood awaiting orders. Bellamy didn't even wait to hear what Kane said, he just gestured at Jasper to follow him outside.

"What do you need to make this happen?" Bellamy asked grimly as the two fell into step together.

Jasper thought it over for a moment. "I can make it public or private, whatever you want, but it would be easier if it was private," he said frankly. "I have my gun with me, but it's meant for long-range, not short. I have knives too, although I'm more comfortable with the rifle."

Bellamy winced, finally recognizing just what Maya's death and the time since then had done to his former friend. "I agree with private," he conceded. "This isn't about starting a revolution, it's about preventing Clarke's death." Jasper nodded sharply and Bellamy paused, uncertain as to whether he should say anything or not. "I, uh, I never got a chance to say I was sorry for what went down in Mount Weather," he finally muttered.

"Don't." Jasper's voice was rough, exposing a hint of emotion that he'd been doing well at keeping under wraps since his return, with the notable exception of his blow-up at Monty. "I've made my peace with what happened." He carefully avoided saying Maya's name or mentioning her death, but the hardness in his eyes belied his statement.

"No, you haven't," Bellamy said bluntly as he came to an abrupt stop, and when Jasper's eyes snapped, he held his hands up in a placating gesture. "I don't blame you. What happened was horrific, it's not something you can come to terms with so easily. It still haunts me. What's more, it still haunts Clarke, no matter how hard she's tried to make her own peace with it."

The assassin's skin turned white at the mention of Clarke's name. "I almost didn't come," he said, his voice barely audible. "I considered letting Jaha kill her. But then I remembered how everyone wanted to kill me, when we first landed. When I was on the verge of death and everyone just wanted me to finally die so I'd shut up, and Clarke wouldn't let them talk her into it. She fought for me. She's the reason I'm still here. So no, I couldn't let her die. But after this, we're even."

Bellamy studied him. "You think you'll be able to hate her now, don't you?"

He flinched. "I've wanted to hate her for almost two years. I've wanted to blame her. But I can't. I won't hate her when this is done, but I won't miss her when I go back home, either."

"I get it." They silently resumed their trek back to Bellamy's house; Jasper was staying in a tent in the woods behind it in order to keep out of sight. Bellamy had arranged to be the only guard assigned to the area so no one else would stumble over him, except for the people who already knew he was there. It only took a few minutes before they were skirting the edge of his yard to disappear into the thick trees in back.

Bellamy stood by the flap to the tent, on high alert for any signs of the presence of intruders. Jasper was rummaging around inside, loading rounds into a rifle magazine and strapping a knife to his thigh. It was thoroughly disconcerting to see the once gangly, goofy, warm-hearted young man who was now as cold and calculating as any Grounder Bellamy had ever seen, and he wondered if there was any chance at getting Jasper back to at least a close approximation of the person he had once been. When he emerged with a blank look on his face and the gun comfortably thrown over his shoulder, Bellamy realized it was very unlikely.

"Show me where Jaha spends his time," Jasper instructed, his eyes darting around to take in any potential vantage points, any areas with likely camouflage opportunities. Bellamy knew it was time to forget what had turned Jasper into the killer he was now and focus on protecting Clarke. Which he would do no matter the cost, even if it destroyed him. Even if it robbed him of her trust, and her love. It didn't matter. Jaha couldn't be allowed to continue to live, as long as he was a threat to her.

lllll

Bellamy was in the worst possible mood he could be when he strode into his own house an hour later to find Onyx reclined on his couch. He stared at her uncomprehendingly for a moment before uttering "fuck" with as much irritation in his voice as he was feeling.

Onyx smirked. "I'm so happy to see you, too," she cooed sarcastically.

He groaned, collapsing into the chair across from her. "I didn't mean it like that," he began, but she waved him off.

"Don't insult me. You don't want me to be here any more than I want to be here," she countered, and he stared at her, resigned. He wasn't ready for this conversation, not now, but it didn't seem like he had a choice. She'd picked the time and place, and she was going to force the issue.

"When did you get back?" he asked instead, knowing he was only delaying the inevitable.

She cocked her head, eyeing him shrewdly. "Last night." She waited for a beat to see if he would acknowledge that she'd been home almost a whole day without making an attempt to see him. He continued to stare at her, saying nothing. "It was late, so I went straight to the mansion and stayed there. Gem needed my report this morning, and then we spent some time strategizing. When we got done, you were already gone for the day."

"Onyx, you don't need to explain to me why we're just now seeing each other," he sighed.

She laughed mirthlessly. "I don't, do I? Because you don't care."

"Of course I care," he started to object, but her indelicate snort stopped him.

"You called me Onyx," she pointed out, and he blinked at her, baffled.

"Because that's your name?" Bellamy countered in confusion.

She sighed. "You haven't called me Onyx since before we got together," she reminded him, the tension easing from her face until she just appeared sad and worn out. "Nyx was your name for me from the start of our relationship. Now you're back to calling me Onyx and you don't even realize it."

He exhaled wearily as he sank back into the chair. "Why don't you just say what you came here to say?"

"Why? So you can continue to be a coward?" she spat at him, and his eyebrows pulled together in annoyance. "I want to hear you say it."

"Say what?" he shouted, unable and willing to deal with her games for another minute. They'd spent the months leading up to Clarke's return very happy, relaxed and easy-going, so this was a side of her he had yet to see. It wasn't that he blamed her, exactly, but he was beginning to understand that she was unpleasant and vindictive when things didn't go as she wanted them to. He felt both guilt and relief that she wasn't making this harder on him, beyond their current little dance around the issue.

Onyx bolted upright on the couch, her eyes spitting fire as she glared at him. "I want to hear you say you didn't miss me at all!" she yelled.

"I didn't!" he yelled right back, and she fell backward, stunned. He swore under his breath, not having meant to be so blunt, but damn it, she'd gotten exactly what she was asking for. "There, are you happy now? You wanted to hear me say it, and I said it."

"I can't believe this," she hissed. "After all the time I put into our relationship, all the faith I had in you when Clarke showed up, and you really just didn't give a damn."

"Why are you pushing this?" he asked in frustration. "When you left, we were planning to talk things out when you got back. Except then I came home to an offensive attack as soon as I walked in the fucking door!"

She glared malevolently at him. "Because I spent a lot of time today listening to people talk about Clarke's return home and how you reacted to that Caspian guy. I heard how you punched him and got into a knock-down, drag-out fight with him, all because he was paying too much attention to your perfect princess," she sneered.

He flinched at the accuracy of the words she was hurling at him. "People can't keep their damn mouths shut," he muttered, and she made a face at him.

"Don't blame the gossips," she snapped. "This was all your fault. Do you know how humiliated I was when I realized everybody but me knew you were going to choose Clarke? That people are taking bets on when you're going to break up with me?"

Bellamy sighed, rubbing a hand over his face in exhaustion and frustration. "I didn't even know myself until the night before you left. It was too late to say anything, so I decided to talk to you when you got home. I wasn't stringing you along."

"Why wouldn't you tell me before I left?" she demanded. "Why would you let me spend a week and a half thinking maybe we'd be able to work it out, when you knew we were over?"

"Because I didn't want you to leave on such a bad note!" he retorted. "I didn't think you deserved that."

She shook her head in disbelief. "There's a lot I didn't deserve, Bellamy. But what I really didn't deserve was being played and manipulated."

He shook his head, scowling. "If you think that's what I did, then you didn't know me at all."

Onyx shot to her feet in fury. "I'm realizing that now. Goodbye, Bellamy." She stomped out of his house and he breathed a sigh of relief. It hadn't gone well by any means, but it was over.

Pulling himself out of the chair, he ambled into the kitchen to make himself dinner. Despite the anger and the tension that still lingered in the air there was a lightness of spirit that was consuming him, a peace that settled over him when he realized he was free. A smile split his face as he imagined the next time he would see Clarke.

It collapsed as soon as he remembered he was planning to thwart her wishes for how the Jaha situation was handled, but all he could hope was that she understood how he couldn't just stand back and give Jaha the opportunity to take her out first. She had to forgive him. There was just no other alternative.

llll

It was long after dark when he rejoined Jasper on the edge of the woods. They'd decided to scout out Jaha's office, which was on the back side of the mansion, and see if they could take him out while he was alone. Bellamy honestly didn't hold out much hope; Jaha was paranoid in more ways than one, and he wouldn't make himself an easy target. Still, there was always the chance that he'd get cocky, thinking his Clarke problem was about to be resolved.

Jasper flicked a glance up at him before resuming his careful watch of the brightly-lit square of window, through which Bellamy could see Gem and Jaha in deep discussion. Both were gesturing, not wildly, but with economic movements. He snorted. Even in arguments they were reserved.

He sank down onto the ground beside Jasper, unsurprised when the other man remained silent and watchful. They sat quietly for some time, each of them lost in their own thoughts. At least Bellamy assumed Jasper was thinking about something, although if he was honest, he would believe that Jasper had the ability to turn his brain off as easily as he seemed to have disconnected from his humanity.

Bellamy wasn't sure how long they'd been sitting there in the stillness of the night, although he figured it had to be approaching midnight, when Jasper finally spoke. "You really love her, don't you?"

The sudden break in the quiet startled him, and he had to collect his thoughts before replying. He considered playing it off for a moment but he realized immediately that it wouldn't do any good. "I always have," he said instead, going for brutal honesty. "Even before she left."

Jasper nodded. "You killed for her. You did it then, and you're doing it now."

"I killed before her. Or tried to, anyway."

He shook his head. "This is different. This isn't about survival, or Octavia. You wouldn't kill for anyone else."

Bellamy smirked. "When did you get into the soul-searching deal?"

"When I had to look inside myself and understand that I had to be willing to pull the trigger every time," he replied simply, and Bellamy flinched.

"Seriously, how did you end up like this?" he asked after another moment of pensive silence. "What made you want to be this person? It can't just be because of what happened at Mount Weather."

Jasper didn't answer for so long that Bellamy assumed their conversation was over and he resumed keeping an eye out on Jaha. Seriously, was Gem a damn vampire or something? She never seemed to sleep. He was starting to believe that Jaha would leave first, which would piss him off for having to waste several hours of his night.

"I could say that it was Maya, but I'd be lying," Jasper said suddenly, and Bellamy looked at him in confusion for a moment before realizing he was finally getting his question answered. Sort of. "The truth of it was, I was tired of being weak. I was tired of being the goofball, the joke. Maya was an excuse to leave, but I didn't lose my humanity because she died, if that's what you're thinking."

"I'm not really thinking anything," he responded, and the beginnings of a smile curled Jasper's lips. Bellamy was pleased to see that his former friend could actually still smile at all. There might still be hope to bring him back to himself.

They both snapped to high alert when Gem suddenly stood, and Bellamy held his breath when Jaha rose as well. Jasper slowly lifted the military-grade rifle to his shoulder and waited, the good humor fading from his eyes as cold calculation took over. They waited tensely, and when Gem began to move for the door, Bellamy released a slow breath. This was it. Jaha was going down, never to be a threat to Clarke again.

And then he moved out of range, away from the window somewhere to the left side of the room. Bellamy clenched his fists in frustration when Gem exited the office, pulling the door shut behind her, and Jaha didn't reappear. He struggled to remember what was on that side of the office, anything that would draw Jaha's attention and the likelihood of whether it would keep him preoccupied for a long stretch of time.

Jasper relaxed, drawing his eye back from the scope while still keeping the rifle propped on his shoulder. The tension of the moment dissipated and Bellamy nodded toward the gun with his chin. "So where'd you learn to shoot that thing?" he asked. "You said your leader assigned you to be an assassin when you first joined your new clan, right? How did you get that assignment?"

"Hal was looking for a protégé for Gideon, our shooter. Guns aren't a big thing in my clan so no one had really been curious enough to learn how to use one. When I said I was getting decent, Hal jumped on the opportunity."

Bellamy was trying to place the leader, but he was coming up blank. He'd learned a lot about neighboring clans when he and Clarke were preparing for their first expedition, although no one named Hal. "I don't know him," he finally admitted.

Jasper shrugged. "Most people outside the clan wouldn't," he acknowledged. "And if they did, they'd know him as Hammond. That's his first name, he just goes by Hal because those are his initials."

"What did you say?" Bellamy asked sharply. There was something familiar about the name, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it.

Jasper looked at him strangely. "My leader's name is Hammond Locke. Why? Does that mean something to you?"

Bellamy's mind raced as he tried to figure out what had grabbed his attention, but it continued to elude him. "What clan did you say you were with?"

Furrowing his brow, Jasper slowly replied, "I didn't. Does that really matter?"

"It might," Bellamy said urgently. "Jasper. What's the name of your clan?"

At that moment Jaha came back into view and Jasper hoisted the rifle back up, peering through the scope as he gauged the distance and Jaha's placement within the window frame. The ex-Chancellor just needed to take another step to the right and he'd be in the direct line of fire.

After a beat while he waited for that next step, he finally answered Bellamy's question. "I'm with the River Lords."

The puzzle pieces fell into place and Bellamy went white. "Stand down, Jasper, now!" he hissed frantically, and Jasper lowered the rifle and turned to look at him in shock. "Jaha isn't the one trying to kill Clarke." His face darkened grimly. "Gem is."