Disclaimer: Refer to the Pilot.
Blood Must Have Blood
Part 2
Alessia and Clarke walked urgently into the Reaper caves, both of them on high alert for any stray killers that could come their way. At an unusually brisk pace, Alessia quickly strode with the firearm in her hand, one finger placed precisely on the trigger. Clarke, however, kept her weapon concealed as they made their way to find the door that let them enter the Mountain. She couldn't help her panic, the air around them getting caught in her lungs over and over again as she tried to breathe evenly but continued to fail. Alessia, on the other hand, kept a blank face and a mean stare as they continued down the dark corridor.
"What's the plan?" asked Clarke. She was struggling to keep up with her friend's pace, but made do. Alessia didn't even turn her head.
"The plan? The plan is to go in there and do whatever it takes to get our people back, Clarke. No more rules."
"We can't kill everyone. There are people in there that have helped us...innocent children—"
"I didn't say we go in there and slaughter everyone without batting an eye. I said we go in there and do what it takes. If that happens to be killing everyone to get everyone back...well, I suggest you come up with a better plan before it comes to that."
Clarke studied Alessia with extreme caution as they came to rounding the corner they'd first encountered on their escape from Mount Weather. It seemed like ages ago, like another life. It felt like it had been decades since she and Alessia had been sitting on the beds in Mount Weather talking about their boy issues, and now look where they were: about to eradicate everyone if they didn't get their people back from those that claimed to be their friends.
Suddenly, halfway through rounding the dark corner, Alessia stopped Clarke short and cocked her gun so fast that Clarke barely saw it happen. Just as Alessia was about to pull the trigger, the figure in the darkness that had caused her split reaction had a familiar face.
"Jesus Christ." Alessia lowered her gun to her side and scowled. "Octavia, what are you still doing here?"
"You stayed!" Clarke stepped forward, a hopeful gleam in her eyes. Octavia opened her mouth to respond to Alessia, but when Clarke had felt the need to step in with a comment, she shut her mouth into a tight, thin line and turned away.
"Screw you." She turned back at Clarke with a vicious look. "Of course I stayed! I know where my loyalties lie."
Alessia rolled her eyes as Octavia stepped forward with a bone to pick with their dear blonde friend. She brushed past Octavia and Clarke's girl fight and stepped closer to the door.
"I don't know about you two, but when you're done, we've got to figure out a way to get in that door."
"If that was possible, do you think I'd still be out here?" Octavia proposed right as Alessia stopped cold in her tracks as she came up to a cart underneath the harvest chamber shoot that she, Clarke, and Anya had come through. In the cart, as opposed to being empty because all of the Grounder prisoners had been released, there was a girl inside. One of the 100.
"Fox," Clarke murmured under her breath as she stepped forward to see who it was inside. Alessia could feel her stomach churn as Octavia pushed forward.
"Why did Lexa sound the retreat?"
"Because she's a good for nothing bitch," Alessia grumbled. Clarke's eyes dropped to the floor as she turned away from Octavia, who was expecting a real answer. When the blonde realized she wouldn't get away with skirting the truth for Octavia, she had no other choice but to tell the truth, no matter how much it hurt her.
"She made a deal with Mount Weather. Freed the Grounders. Now we're on our own." Clarke stomped over to the door leading into the Harvest chamber and banged her fist on it so hard, whoever was inside was bound to hear it. Alessia's eyes widened as she looked to Clarke and Octavia rushed forward, yanking Clarke's hand back.
"Stop! They'll know we're here!" Clarke's breathing increased dramatically as she stepped away from the door and tried to think. Meanwhile, Octavia interrogated her further. "What about Lincoln? There's no way he would've gone along with a plan like this."
"He didn't. They took him."
Before Octavia could ask any more questions, Clarke and Octavia both heard Alessia put her gun over her shoulder and point the barrel at the keypad at the door. Octavia launched her body in front of the gun, knowing Alessia wouldn't pull the trigger.
"What the hell is wrong with you, Alessia?"
"Get out of my way, Octavia. I'm getting through that door," she said calmly. Octavia scowled at her, so Alessia shrugged. "Fine. Don't get out of my way. I can hit it even if you're in front of me, it'll just take a bit more effort."
"You're acting crazy! This is your plan?"
"Yes! Does anyone have a better one? No? Okay, then—"
"Alessia, stop." Clarke earned her attention, and Alessia and Octavia both turned their heads to the teenager beside them, who was pacing and hyperventilating at the same time. "L-Let me...let me figure this out."
"What's to figure out? Dead keypad, open door!"
"You don't know that," Octavia reasoned to the brunette in front of her. Frustrated, Alessia put her gun down and looked over at Clarke angrily.
"Come on, Clarke! You wanted to be a leader, so lead! We need a plan and we need it now."
"I'm trying!"
"Bellamy's counting on you." Octavia walked over to Clarke with furious eyes. "Everyone's always counting on you!"
"Well, what do you want from me?!" the blonde screamed. If no one had heard her banging on the door before, they sure as hell did now.
"You trusted Lexa. You let a bomb drop on Tondc. You let all those people—" Octavia berated, stepping closer and closer to Clarke as she said the nasty words that dripped with venom from her lips. Clarke looked back at her with wild eyes about ready to burst into tears.
"I am doing the best I can!" she replied, trying to hold herself together.
Octavia and Clarke stared at each other with a broken bond, and finally Alessia broke the silence beside them by putting her gun back on her shoulder and lowering her head to look through the lens so she could shoot.
"It's not good enough, Clarke," Alessia muttered as she readied her finger on the trigger to shoot. Right as she nearly pulled the easy trigger at her fingertips, there was a beep from the door, and instead of pointing her gun at the keypad, she moved it quickly to the door. Her finger was too fast on the trigger to stop, but luckily she was so caught off guard that the bullet only hit the frame of the door as she recognized who it was.
"Bellamy?" Octavia exclaimed, and without wasting a second, she rushed into her brother's arms as he lowered his own gun in his hand. He was taken by surprise as Octavia clutched him close, and looking into the darkness of the caves, he saw Alessia and Clarke standing behind Octavia, both with surprised and relieved expressions on their faces. Clarke's eyes were torn away when Monty jumped into her arms, taking her by surprise as well. She felt herself smile, something that she thought wouldn't happen again. She could still feel the pain from only a few hours before when Lexa had betrayed her, but it was nice to have her friends back. Still, she knew it wasn't over quite yet.
When Octavia released her brother to go over to Jasper, he put his gun into his holster and walked over to Alessia, who lowered her weapon cautiously.
"I'm sorry, I thought—" She didn't get a chance to finish her sentence. He ignored her entirely by reaching out and pulling her closer to him. If they didn't hear the 'tick, tock' of war around them, the kiss would've been a lot more enjoyable, but just as meaningful. Barely anyone around them noticed as Bellamy pulled away after a second and a half with a hard breath.
"I just...needed that."
Alessia scoffed. "You and me both."
"Where's your army?"
"Halfway up the hill in the opposite direction right now. We got screwed over, Bellamy. It's just us now, and we need a plan. Fast."
He nodded and stepped away a few inches, noticing Clarke coming up right beside them. Bellamy made sure he faced both her and Alessia as he sighed. "We need to talk to Dante. Maya said he's in quarantine."
Clarke opened her mouth to say something, but as she did, she heard Jasper behind her as he ran around.
"Robin Hood!" Jasper exclaimed at the same time Monty said, "Alessia!" The two scrawny teenagers came up and hugged Alessia so tightly that they could feel the tension in her shoulders. Bellamy snickered to himself as he watched the sour expression on Alessia's face as she coughed.
"Okay. Okay. Enough hugging now." She slowly peeled them off of her and patted their backs as a sign of her affection. She never really did like to hug people, but she could make an exception for them. She could see Maya standing behind Bellamy in a blue hazmat suit for her oxygen, admiring the sight. Just as Jasper and Monty stepped back, there was a quiet beeping sound from her suit. Jasper spun around quickly and rushed over to her, his eyes wide when he reached behind her to check the oxygen supply.
"Thirty minutes," he whispered to himself and looked up at Maya. "We just changed it. That can't be right!" He turned around at the rest of them. "Um...this is her last tank."
Clarke stepped forward with a nod. "We'll find you another one."
Maya shook her head. "All supplemental oxygen is on Level Five."
"Then we have to get you to Level Five," Jasper reasoned.
"Five isn't safe for any of us!"
"We'll take the trash chute again. It'll work."
"To get in, maybe," Bellamy added sourly from behind them. Everyone turned to look at him as he made serious eye contact with them all. "But Maya's right, every soldier in this mountain is there. We'll never make it out."
"We can do this," Jasper hissed. "We'll split up."
"Okay. You guys go for Dante," Octavia agreed, looking at Clarke, Bellamy, Alessia, and Monty. She turned to Jasper. "We'll help Maya."
No one objected to the plan, and so Octavia moved forward as she lifted her sword from behind her back and walked through the door. Jasper and Maya followed, and soon, Bellamy closed the door on all of them so they could end their mess once and for all.
Takeo watched with arms crossed over his chest as their Commander ordered her warriors to set up camp for the night. She specifically directed them to making sure the Grounder prisoners were taken well care of until they could finally get back to their villages and clean up. All of the warriors departed to do their duties, but Takeo couldn't help but feel like what they were doing was wrong. He stood his ground, and when the Commander noticed, she walked over to him cautiously.
"Takeo," Lexa said in a soft tone, as if she didn't want anyone else to hear them speak. "Did you not hear me?"
"I heard you." Lexa watched him as he stood silently for a moment or two and finally uncrossed his arms with a defeated sigh. "Forgive me, Commander, but...but this is wrong. What you did to the Sky People was wrong."
"What I did to the Sky People is not for you to judge. It was a decision made by your Commander and you will follow it."
"Alessia and Clarke need help. It is not fair for—"
"No one said it was fair. No one said it was right. But it was my decision and it was mine alone and you will not challenge it until you are sure you want to face the consequences." Lexa tensed and gave her warrior a stern look in his eyes. Takeo squared his jaw as he thought of what to do, and Lexa stepped forward cautiously. "Do you not know where your loyalties lie, Takeo? Do they lie with the Kane girl you've been making friends with or do they lie with your people? The people that you swore an oath to protect? The people that have been your family for centuries? Are you willing to throw away your family for your Skaigada?"
She said the words with such harshness that he would have flinched had he not been so used to the Commander's rough attitude. He knew that he was even more on edge because of what she did to the Sky People's leader, and no matter how she tried to cover it, he knew that their Heda was feeling just as guilty for leaving them behind as he did.
Regardless of the guilt he felt, Lexa was right. She knew it, too, as she simply brushed past Takeo and let him stand in his own sinking pile of guilt. He would not choose a Sky Girl over his crew. He would not defy his Commander to help their enemy, no matter his feelings. He could see ahead of him the real sympathizer, Lincoln, who sat tied to a tree with a look of disdain on his face that expressed not only guilt but concern. Lincoln was a traitor to their people, he was that person that defied their Commander because of a single girl.
Takeo would not be that person. He straightened himself and turned away to set up camp for the night without another word.
The melodic sound of classical music played softly in his ears as Cage Wallace walked around Level Five of his Mountain, observing the people he would go above and beyond to protect. He wore a grin from ear to ear on his face, smiling about his recent victories. Not only did he get Lexa to turn on Clarke and subsequently ruined the Sky People's chances to eradicate them, he was assured earlier that there was a team at Camp Jaha rounding up Arkers to bring back so they could give every man and woman in Mount Weather the opportunity to live above ground for the rest of their lives. He smiled proudly at his people knowing that he had done them right.
"Sir, Lieutenant Emerson is back. You're needed in the dorm," one of his guards informed him in a hushed tone so none of the others could hear him. Cage nodded respectfully and followed his guard's request to where the Arkers were being harvested. Upon entering, he looked around at the several teenagers around him that had been captured running about in their mountain. Seeing Lieutenant Emerson in the corner, he walked over to his blood-soaked soldier.
"Did we take any losses?" Cage inquired. Emerson inhaled sharply.
"Not as many as they did, Sir. But I'm afraid I'm the only one left who's been cured." Cage looked around and noticed quickly that none of his other accomplices that had the bone marrow transplant were standing beside them. What a shame. "Some of the kids are still missing. If you'd like, I'll take a...team in hazmats. We'll sweep the other levels."
"No." Cage shook his head as he looked around him, realizing that they had more than enough people to start implanting. "No more wasted lives. In 48 hours, we will all be on the ground." Cage turned to the guards standing behind those that had been recently brought in with the group, and he gestured quickly to them. "Take off their hoods."
One by one, the hoods of the captured were taken off.
The first was Zoe Monroe.
The second was David Miller. His son, who stood not even twenty feet from him, yanked at his chains with wide eyes.
"Dad?!"
"Nate!" Sergeant Miller shouted as he tried to lift himself up from his knees and make his way over to his boy. Of course, the guards behind him had the advantage, and quickly knocked Sergeant Miller on his head without batting an eye. Nate shouted curse words at the soldiers, but they didn't care. They moved on.
The third was Marcus Kane, who looked around with confused and alarmed eyes as he watched the end of the scene transpire between Sergeant Miller and his son. He looked up to find Mount Weather's soldiers standing above him and quickly noticed the other Arkers in the room chained to the walls. In front of him, he could see Calix limply hanging from a pair of chains. Their eyes locked, but there was nothing but lifeless in the man's eyes in front of him. Kane swallowed thickly at the sight.
The fourth and final captive was Abigail Griffin, and once Marcus realized this from beside her, the panic started to set in. Of course, that wasn't even the beginning. Noticing Abby's eyes had transfixed on one thing, Marcus moved his own pupils to look to where she had been staring and realized that one of their own was lying on the table in front of them while a doctor dressed in a lab coat stained with their blood moved a file of marrow across the room.
"What is wrong with you people?" Kane whispered quietly, though he'd intended to say it a lot different than it had come out.
Abby tore her eyes from the grotesque sight in front of them to look at Cage, who stood above her. In one snap, she hissed, "Where is my daughter?"
"She's talking about Clarke," Emerson clarified for Cage, who pressed his lips together and stepped forward cautiously. Abby eyed him with disgust as he bent down and shook his head.
"I'm sorry it had to come to this."
He said nothing else. He didn't say what it had come to, what he was sorry for. All he did was walk away, leaving Abby's heart lying on the floor wondering where the hell her daughter was and if she was okay.
Clarke knew the way to the quarantine room like she knew the back of her hand. She knew which one Dante would be in, and she was right. They entered her old room, a room with four bright white walls that washed out anyone and everything. The only catch was that Dante, being the former President of Mount Weather, had the luxury of his many beautiful color-popping paintings on the wall, almost mocking him of the past. As much as Alessia wanted to make a snide comment, she kept them to herself. Everyone was dead silent upon entering Dante's room, and even he did not speak until everyone was settled into their place on the floor.
"Hello, Clarke. Alessia." Dante stiffened at the sight of them, but his voice remained polite and brisk. Neither Alessia nor Clarke responded to him.
"Sir, we need your help again," Bellamy began, jumping right into what they came into the room for. There was no time to waste. Monty nodded from beside Clarke.
"It's okay. I took out the camera from the junction box in the hall. We can talk freely."
"No one's watching anyway. Thanks to you, they're all on Level Five."
"You're not," Clarke observed, her voice cold. Dante turned to her with a nod.
"No. I'm not."
"Please," Bellamy started again, brushing past Clarke and Dante's distant and indirect conversation. "We don't have much time. We need a way to get our people out of this mountain without killing everyone."
Dante turned to Bellamy and straightened, but said nothing. As the air in the room grew stale, Alessia let out a frustrated and curt scoff.
"Forget it. I knew he wouldn't help us. We'll have to figure out something else, let's go."
"No. He's going to help us," Clarke assured them, stepping forward cautiously. Dante narrowed his eyes at her.
"You cut the power, risking the lives of everyone in this mountain, my people! Even the ones who helped you."
The blonde walked closer until she was merely a few feet from Dante. She gave him a hard look with her broken eyes. "We knew they'd be safe on Level Five. We made sure not to destroy the turbines so you could repair them. We're the good guys here! Not you!"
"Tell me," Dante began in a low voice, unscathed by her words, "if we released your people and theirs, what would have happened to mine?"
"This is ridiculous! Not to mention a waste of our valuable time." Alessia walked over to Monty and crossed her arms tightly over her chest. "Monty, can you get us into the command center so we can see what's happening on Level Five?"
"No problem."
"Good. Bellamy, take him just in case some hazmats come down here looking for him and let's move for Christ's sake." With that said, she stormed out of the room with Monty at her side so they could make their way over to the command center. Clarke followed them out and Bellamy obliged Alessia's orders by rushing forward and grabbing Dante by the collar of his expensive shirt.
"You're gonna help us whether you like it or not," Bellamy hissed as he pushed the old man out of the corridor to follow with the rest of the crowd. Alessia rounded every corner with a gun hot in her hand, Clarke right behind her with the same idea. Bellamy kept an eye on Dante while still scanning their perimeter to make sure that there was no one in the darkness. After a while of the nonsense, Dante sighed.
"I told you, there's no one here," he pointed out as they came up to an empty hallway. Bellamy frowned.
"Sorry if we don't take your word for it."
"Why aren't you with your people on Level Five?" Clarke pressed as she struggled to keep up with Alessia's pace in front of her, per their usual.
"After what I've done, they can be free. I can't."
Everyone came to a slow as Monty started to mess around with the panel beside the door to let them inside without a key, since Bellamy's had been deactivated. Clarke stared up at Dante with curious eyes and watched him as he hung his head painfully and continued.
"Deliverance comes at a cost," he warned. "I bear it so they don't have to."
A silence washed over them, but Alessia scoffed as she scanned her eyes around the hallway and occasionally looked over at Monty to check on his progress. Clarke didn't bother to look at her as she mumbled, "Oh, how noble of you."
"It wasn't Cage," Bellamy realized, causing all eyes around him to turn and focus on his face as he pieced it together. He lowered his weapon and stepped closer to Dante with a hard look on his face. "It was your idea to make the deal with the Grounders."
Dante didn't have to say anything; all he did was nod.
"We're in! Got it." Monty exclaimed as they all heard a beep and watched him push open the door. Bellamy cut in front of him since he was the closest and scanned the room with his weapon quickly before anyone else stepped inside. When he realized there was no one else inside, he stepped back and straightened.
"It's clear. He was telling the truth." He reached behind him and grabbed Dante's arm to pull him into the room. Clarke, Alessia, and Monty followed, and almost immediately, Clarke had Monty working on getting the monitors up. It took him a few minutes, but finally, Monty pressed a button and the screens beside them buzzed to life.
"The command center's live," he announced. Everyone in the room looked up at the monitors to see the gruesome sight before them. In the dorms on Camera 60, they could see men in lab coats performing an extraction on unwilling donors strapped down to gurneys.
"Oh, my God," Clarke whispered as she stepped closer. Bellamy swallowed down the bile in his throat as he looked onto the screen and noticed something vaguely familiar about the girl on the table that was being forced down.
"Is that Raven?" he asked aloud, his voice soft yet urgent. On another camera up in the corner, Alessia stepped forward and squinted up at the screen, and when she saw who was on it, her eyes widened bigger than the size of the moon.
"Oh, no. No! My dad." She took a moment, and then turned to Clarke. "And Abby."
Bellamy reached behind him quickly and grabbed a radio from a cart. He turned back to Dante violently. "Tell them to stop! Now!"
Dante looked back at Bellamy with a blank stare. "I won't do that."
Clarke stared up at the screen as Alessia spun around sharply with a vengeful gleam in her eye directed right at Dante. He straightened upon seeing her glare and tried not to flinch as she shouted at him, "That's my father in there! Call it off, right now, or I swear, I'll—"
"Emerson," Clarke breathed out before turning around sharply and storming over to Bellamy. She yanked the radio out of his hands, stopping any and all conversations in the room as she pressed her finger on the intercom and spoke into the small walkie talkie. "Carl Emerson, Mount Weather security detail, come in."
There was an almost immediate response. "Who is this?"
"You know who it is. Give the radio to the President."
Clarke stared up at the screen and watched as Emerson hesitated for a moment before walking out of the mess hall to find Cage.
"They're moving," Bellamy announced. Monty nodded and his fingers began to tap at keys on the switchboard to command the center.
"Not a problem. I'll bring it on the main monitor."
They all turned to the side to the huge screen along one side of the room, and within seconds Camera 79 in Corridor 12 was displayed on the screen, showing a hesitant Cage Wallace pacing back and forth with the radio at his mouth.
"This is President Wallace."
"I have your father," Clarke threatened. "If you don't let my people go, I'll kill him."
"How do I know you have him?"
Clarke extended her hand over to Dante, who took the radio and quickly spat out, "Stay the course, Cage!"
On the monitor, Alessia watched as Cage's eyes enlarged at his father's immediate danger. He brought the radio back up to his lips with desperation in his voice.
"You won't do it."
"You don't know me very well." She watched Cage as he said nothing but merely stood in the corridor speechless. She turned away from the monitor feeling sick to her stomach, but had no other choice. "This ends now. Release my people!"
"I can't do that."
Clarke stood in a corner, the darkness around her filling up as if the sky was the limit. She could hear Dante's faint voice behind her, and it made her even more agitated than she already was with his son.
"It would mean the end of our people, Clarke."
Two seconds later, she turned around with the gun cocked in her hand, the barrel pointing right at Dante's head. Monty immediately lifted himself from his chair in shock and fright, Bellamy stiffened, and Alessia held her head up with a locked jaw a few steps behind and to the right of Dante as she watched Clarke's eyes go wild and crazy just a few feet away from them. Bellamy tried to reason with her.
"Clarke, we need him!"
"And I need his son to believe me." She held the radio up to her lips. "Don't make me do this."
There was another silence over the radio line, and Dante looked back at the monitor to see his son, who struggled with the decision he was forced to make. After a few painful moments passed by, Cage held the radio to his mouth and looked up at the camera he knew his father could see him in. With a shaking breath, he nodded.
"Dad, I'll take care of our people."
Suddenly, it became inherently clear for Dante. In the next few moments, he would die. He turned back to Clarke with a thick throat. "None of us has a choice here, Clarke."
Clarke's eyes swelled up with tears. "I didn't want this."
"Neither did I."
She gripped the gun tighter in her hands and pointed so hard she felt as if having the barrel pointed at the old man would do the job. She wanted to shut her eyes and have it be over when they opened, but she knew that wasn't how it worked. She forced her eyes to stay open as she looked into Dante's eyes with pure, cold hatred. The Mountain had taken everything she had; not only did it take Finn's life, but it took her own life with it, too. She was no longer that girl that stepped out of the drop ship with the hope for peace on Earth. She was no longer that girl that wanted a fair and just society.
"Clarke, you don't have to do this. You have a choice," Monty tried, and Clarke's hand shook as a result of it. Bellamy and Monty watched in anticipation as Clarke kept the gun upright, but they could tell she was wavering. She wouldn't. She couldn't.
It all happened in the span of two seconds, but it felt like a lifetime. A gunshot fired, but it wasn't from Clarke's gun. Clarke's face was just as confused as Dante's chest filled with blood from his bullet wound and he fell down to the ground, revealing Alessia who stood behind him with a freshly fired gun in the air. On the monitor, Cage flinched at the sound of his father's death, and in the command center, everyone stared at Alessia with a frightened look.
Then it dawned on Clarke. Mount Weather didn't just take her life; it took Alessia's, too.
No one moved. No one breathed. For a while, it was like everything was frozen in time. That was until Alessia stepped forward, over Dante's body, with not a tear in her eyes. Calmly, she took the radio out of Clarke's hand and cleared her throat before speaking into the radio.
"Remember me?" she whispered as she stepped aside, closer to the monitor. She watched Cage stiffen as he stifled the tears in his own eyes.
"Alessia Kane."
"The one and only." Her chest hurt, but she ignored it. "Now you're going to listen to me very carefully. I killed your father. Eventually, I'll kill you, too. But if you don't do as I say and let our people go, I will irradiate Level Five and kill everyone inside this mountain that is not immune to radiation. Is that clear?"
There was no response. They watched in the monitor as Cage stood at the edge of the corridor with one hand on the wall, bracing himself as he let it sink in that his father was dead. Alessia did nothing but watch him, and eventually, Clarke walked over to her side and slowly grabbed the radio back from her hand to speak into it.
"Look," Clarke said in the softest voice she could muster. "We don't want anyone else to die. Stop the drilling and we can talk. There must be a way to get us all out of this."
Cage didn't respond. They watched him as he called Emerson over, handed him the radio, and let him disappear down the corridor. It wasn't hard to guess what Cage ordered him to do.
"Emerson's coming for us," Clarke realized. Bellamy leaned over the command center table and looked at Monty.
"They deactivated my key card. Can you do that to his?"
"That one's easy." Monty immediately sat down at the chair to do his work. Bellamy turned his head back to the monitor and watched as the camera moved on Cage, who walked back into the mess hall. Alessia wasn't paying attention, she just looked into the corner with a stern, hard line on her lips, deep in thought. Clarke and Bellamy watched as Cage stormed across the mess hall and went into another corridor. On another one of the monitors on a smaller screen, they watched Cage enter another room.
"The dorm," Clarke breathed softly. Alessia turned her head slightly, snapping out of her trance.
"Monty, can you do it? Irradiate the level?"
"I can do it." He looked up at her with one of his looks, one that she didn't particularly care for or notice at that point in time. She turned around to the cameras to watch Cage as she felt Bellamy come up beside her.
"Wait a second, Alessia. We need to think about this."
"We don't have time to think about this, Bellamy."
"There are kids in there."
"You think I don't know that? I know that."
"People who helped us—"
"I know that!" she spun around angrily to face Clarke and Bellamy with a broken look. "Someone figure out a better plan and do it fast because we're running out of time! We're running out of time and we can't do anything about it so please! I'm begging you. I'm begging you, give me a better plan."
"She's right." Clarke stepped forward to Alessia's side. Alessia turned her eyes up to look at the blonde, who nodded at her. "There is no better plan. This is it. This is what we have to do to get them back."
"Clarke, we can't."
"There is no more 'can't', Bellamy. We have to."
"No!" Alessia exclaimed breathlessly as her eyes wandered over to the cameras, where she saw Cage pull her father off of the chains in the dorm room after Raven was escorted off the table. She rushed over to the monitors and covered her mouth with her hand to prevent herself from screaming. "This can't be happening. This can't be happening! Monty, please!"
"I'm trying. I'm trying," he breathed. Clarke looked over at Bellamy, who caught her gaze nervously.
"If we do this, there is no going back!"
"There's already no going back," Alessia muttered, but everyone else in the room heard her loud and clear. She watched as her father tried desperately to punch out the people on the table, but it was no use. Being a Kane didn't mean you were a superhero. "Not for any of us. Not anymore."
Clarke turned her head to look at Monty, where she nodded quietly to give him the go-ahead.
They didn't count the minutes that went by as Monty tried his hardest to get the system prepared for irradiation from the command controls. Alessia paced by the monitor where she could see her dad thrashing on the table as the men in lab coats pulled vials of his marrow out of his body. To his right was Abby, trying everything she could to get out of the chains to get to him. Alessia knew that she was next once they'd finished her father off, but that wasn't an option. If Monty didn't get the irradiation software up in the next two minutes, she would burst into the dorms herself. She would get killed for it, but at that point, her mind wasn't going that far.
"Now what?" she heard Bellamy whisper. When she turned, she could see him staring at a camera where two teenagers were running through the corridors, and Octavia followed behind them with her sword drawn. Guards bombarded her, but she slashed every one of them until they were all dead on the floor. Maya followed quickly behind, out of breath, and they ran again when they saw guards coming from the other side of the hall.
"They gotta get out of there," Bellamy stated, although it sounded more like a hope. As Monty continued to work, they heard a loud banging on the door outside. One look at Camera 40 and they could see Emerson outside the door attempting to kick it in. Clarke inhaled stiffly.
"He's here."
"Jasper. They caught him." Monty informed them as he stared up at the camera Alessia had been staring at, noticing the small teenager entering the dorm room where they were keeping the prisoners. Too much was happening all at once. They could see guards storm the mess hall and corner Octavia and Maya, Emerson banging on the door, Kane thrashing on the table, Jasper being locked up in chains, and so much more. It was all coming to a head, and they had seconds left on the clock.
Alessia whipped around as she heard a ding from Monty's station. He stilled his hands, causing her to flip.
"What's the matter with you? We've run out of time, Monty! Why the hell did you stop?"
"Because I did it," he told her softly and looked between her, Clarke, and Bellamy before looking down at the lever in front of him. "All we have to do is pull this. Hatches and vents will open and the scrubbers reverse, pulling in outside air."
No one moved. If they wanted, it could be over in seconds. Bellamy interrupted their thoughts as he spotted Emerson outside their door with a pack of explosives. Without wasting any time, he drew his firearm and pointed it at the entrance.
"He's gonna blow the door!"
"Clarke, we're out of time," Alessia whispered to her as she walked around Monty and came up to her friend's side. Clarke pushed her aside and gripped the top of the lever, but she looked up at the monitors for a second measure. All her people, all of her friends. They were all counting on her to stop it, and she had it right at her fingertips. She could feel the tears in her eyes.
"I have to save them," Clarke whispered to herself. Alessia shut her eyes tightly.
"Life sucks, and then you die. Life sucks, and then you die." Maybe if she said it enough, she'd get over the overwhelming sense of hatred for herself that she felt inside as she leaned forward and placed her hand over Clarke's. The blonde turned to her best friend and choked back her tears.
"I'm sorry."
Alessia didn't need to say anything. She nodded and they both let the lever underneath them slowly pull back towards them until it didn't go any further. Within seconds, yellow lights flashed everywhere and on Monty's screen they could see the hazard signs as they flooded into the mountain. The alarm began to sound and on the monitors, they could see every Mount Weather resident start to drop and scream in pain. Although she could feel something kicking so hard in her stomach that she was afraid she would fall apart, Alessia remained stoic on the outside, unlike Clarke, who was two seconds away from bursting into tears. Every person on the monitors that was not immune to the air dropped and writhed until the radiation consumed them.
They waited until Emerson realized what was happening, and then fled the scene because he knew quickly that he was then outnumbered. By that point, everyone on the monitors were still.
"Let's go get our people," Clarke suggested quietly and turned around, the first to leave the room. Bellamy watched as Alessia avoided his eyes and followed behind her. They walked around to the mess hall first, where Alessia's heart nearly stopped. There was a person for every chair in the dining hall, and every single one of them was slumped over with skin burnt to a crisp. Massacre, she thought. This is a massacre.
Yet they moved forward, attempting to make their way to the dorms. But as they passed the piles and piles of dead bodies, they came across Jasper slumped on the floor, a very dead Maya in his arms. His eyes, red and swollen from the tears, glared up at them.
"What did you do?" he whispered in a broken voice. Clarke's breath shook.
"W-We had no choice."
"I was gonna kill Cage," he cried. "If you'd given me one more minute, it would've been over."
"It was never going to be over. They never would've given up, Jasper. They never would've stopped. I'm sorry," Alessia murmured as she took a deep breath and stepped forward, but Jasper then turned his eyes up at her viciously, causing her to stand, frozen.
"You." He looked up at her with glassy eyes filled with sorrow. "Margot. Maya. They're both dead because of you."
She winced. Never in her life had words stung her so badly. She'd been called names, she'd been punched and ridiculed, she'd been hated because of who her father was. But never had she, herself, been so despised by someone so much before. Never had she been accused of being the reason that two people—two of her friends—were dead.
"We have to go to the dorms," Clarke whispered to her, and as Jasper hung his head to cry over Maya's dead body, she allowed herself to leave with Clarke and Bellamy. When they reached the dorms, nearly everyone had been freed by Octavia, who was going around with a key to their chains in her hands.
Clarke rushed immediately over to her mother, who was helping Kane off of the table. They embraced in a long hug until Clarke finally pulled away, tears running down her face. Her mother wiped them away and brushed her hair out of her face gently.
"I tried," Clarke admitted, allowing herself to let the tears rush down so quickly that she could feel herself lose control. "I tried to be the good guy."
Abby looked back at her with a sorrowful look, but it was nowhere near as disappointed as Clarke thought it would be. Dr. Griffin sighed. "Maybe there are no good guys."
Rather than running, Alessia let herself walk over to her father, who slowly lifted himself off of the gurney he was lying on with a wince. She came up to him with a somber look on her face, and the moment she came to his side, he knew what was wrong. They stared at each other for a while before he reached out and grabbed her hand in his, holding it in a way she'd never thought he would. He looked up at her with his own tears.
"You did what you needed to do. Just like you did before. I wish I had seen it then, but I see it now, Alessia."
She knew he was referring to when she was arrested, but she didn't agree. She didn't agree at all, in fact. So, she just stood there and nodded for a while, looking down at her shoes before she let her eyes drift up, unaware that there were tears. When she realized that a tear fell down her face, she wiped it away quickly and shook her head.
"I'm sorry. I shouldn't be crying..."
"No." He lifted himself from the table and pulled her into an embrace. She let herself hug him back, even though she felt like it was all wrong. Everything was wrong. Everything. "Don't be sorry. Don't ever be sorry."
A few feet away from them, Octavia unlocked Zoe's chains as fast as she could. As soon as she did, Zoe went rushing over to Calix, who was all the way across the dorm rubbing his raw wrists and propping himself up on a table so that his leg wouldn't have to bear the weight anymore. The second she reached him, she threw her hands around his face and sighed, relieved.
"You're okay. Thank God you're okay."
"I'm okay." He nodded in her hands, and she let out another relieved breath before stepping away, realizing that she might've gone too far. But before she could get too far, he grabbed her hand back and pulled her closer to him. "You're okay, Z?"
"I...I'm okay," she replied, very aware of his hand in hers. She could feel her heart race, and realized too quickly that she was going insane. Insane enough to blurt out the words that came from her mouth in the following seconds. "I need you to know that I love you, Calix. I do. And maybe almost dying today kind of...kind of made me want to tell you."
He smiled at her. It was a sad smile, and she knew it. Calix could see Alessia out of the corner of his eye, with her father. And it was strange. For the first time, he hadn't thought about her first before asking Zoe if she was okay. The thought didn't cross his mind at all. And, in a moment, he realized that piece of information was a big one. Maybe he could move on, after all.
"I know you do." He gripped her hand tighter and straightened himself up. She put another hand on him to stabilize him, and he put his other hand on her face and kissed her cheek, softly. He could hear her heart thumping from a few inches away. "You just have to give me a little time to say it back again."
"I won't break your heart, C."
And it was the first time he realized that when she said it, she was right. He knew Alessia would break his heart from the moment he met her, and look at where she was now. But standing in front of Zoe, he knew right then and there. She wouldn't break his heart.
Alessia pulled away from Kane's hug, even though there was a part of her inside that really didn't want to. As she did, she watched him walk away over to Bellamy, who was standing in the corner looking around at all the lives they saved at the expense of those in the other room. He didn't realize it at first, but he felt a soft hand come down onto his shoulder gently, and when he actively looked up, he saw Kane with a somewhat proud look in his eyes.
"You did good." Bellamy nodded at him, a silent 'thank you'. "Now let's get these people home."
"Yes, Sir."
They moved to rally the rest of them, but before they could, Octavia came rushing up to their side. She looked between them both, her eyes wide in alarm. "Where's Cage?"
He had managed to slip out before Clarke, Alessia, and the rest of her team could track him down within the Mountain. With his flashlight and bag of supplies he had quickly thrown together, Cage walked through the unfamiliar forest in the dark trying to figure out where the safest place to go would be. But as he got further into the darkness, he only grew more paranoid. As trees rustled and leaves crunched, he looked around cautiously.
"Who's there?" he called out. More rustling and crunching went on, and he knew that he was not alone at that point. So, in a deep voice, he shouted, "Show yourself!"
In the mist, through a small window of light that appeared from a patch of moon, he could see Lincoln charge towards him, bellowing as he drew his sword for the kill. Cage reached into his pocket and pulled out one of his frequency toners, which had Lincoln on his knees with no strength to pull himself back up. Keeping the toner on, Cage reached into his bag and pulled out the Reaper serum. With a large grin on his face, Cage bent down next to Lincoln.
"I've got something for ya." He inched closer with the needle in the air. "This is for you!"
Just as he was about to come down and insert the serum into Lincoln's neck, Lincoln found the strength within him to grab the end of his sword and pull it out from the dirt, swinging up to slice Cage's hand off with the needle inside of it. Cage screamed aloud as he felt the pain from the dismemberment, filling the forest with his bellows. Lincoln watched as Cage sank to his knees, and slowly he bent down to grab the Reaper serum from the severed hand.
"No." Lincoln reached down and injected the Reaper serum into Cage's neck without batting an eye. Cage's eyes rolled back into his head as he fell over onto his back, staring up at Lincoln, who blended into the night. Lincoln stared at him from above with a vengeful glare. "The first dose is the worst."
And slowly, he watched as the life faded from Cage's eyes and his entire body fell completely limp. With that finished, Lincoln threw the empty needle onto Cage's dead body and fled into the night.
She could hear ringing in her ears as she washed the blood off her fingertips gently, scrubbing when necessary to get the dried liquid life off her skin. Yet, despite the fact that she hadn't slept since the bombing at Tondc and had just contributed to a massacre of an entire facility of mainly innocent human beings, Alessia breathed evenly as she cleansed herself free of the bloodshed that she bathed in.
But while she remained stable on her exterior, she could hear that voice in her head shouting so loud she was sure it would kill her.
You killed them. You shot a man point-blank and exterminated an entire civilization. Is this really what you've become?
"Alessia?" Bellamy called out as he pushed aside a shrub and stepped out in front of the river, where he saw his dark-haired Robin Hood knelt over at the shallow mouth, taking both the time and effort to rid herself of her sins. He stood behind her, unable to see her face as he walked closer. Softly, he asked, "What are you doing?"
"I just needed the blood to come off, okay?"
"I think it's gone."
"Not all of it," she retorted icily. Bellamy didn't know what he expected after they'd left the mountain, but he didn't exactly know how to handle it, either. All he could come up with was to inch forward slowly and try to be there for her the way she had been so many times before.
"Kane—"
"I'm fine. Go back to the rest of the group, I'll catch up soon." Alessia used her elbow to wipe away the sweat on her forehead as she continued to wash her hands without a word to him. Bellamy hardly gave up; instead, he walked beside her and bent down so that he was at her level, staring with wide, uneasy eyes. She didn't notice him—she just kept washing her pale, pruned fingers. In an effort to earn her attention, he reached out and brushed her hair off her shoulder so he could get a better look at her face.
"Alessia, look at me."
"What?" she asked, flinching away from him. Alessia refused to look up, in fear that seeing him would make her hate herself less. She needed to feel the pain from Mount Weather, otherwise she would be even more upset. Bellamy was quiet and merely watched as she started to shake, trembling from the trauma of what they'd been through. He didn't blame her.
"Talk to me."
"Talk to you?" she repeated incredulously. Bellamy stayed silent as she processed his words, and he could see the tears that threatened at her eyes that she begged herself to hold back. "I-I did this, I did this. I might as well have opened the door on them all when Clarke and I tried to escape! All of this bloodshed, everyone we've lost...it's been so unnecessary. I could have even made this all easier if I had taken Cage out when I had the chance, but I didn't. I was so weak…but I could've stopped everything."
"Dante would have waged the war himself," he whispered. Her eyes snapped up to meet his furiously.
"Well, I took care of that too, didn't I?" He flinched at her brisk tone, but she barely noticed it. Instead, she lifted herself from the river, as did he, and she continued, "I proved everyone right today, Bellamy! I am my father's daughter! I am nothing but a malicious, power-hungry hypocrite! Kane put three hundred people into an airlock and sucked all the oxygen out of their lungs to save civilization on the Ark and I pulled a lever that killed hundreds of civilized people to save ourselves! What's the difference?"
"Everything. Everything's different." Bellamy shook his head. "What we did today was for the sake of our people. We saved them, Robin Hood."
"At what price, Bellamy?" she hissed, and he noticed her eyes as they swelled up. Whether it was the heat of the moment, the sun dawning on her over what she had done, or some other factor, he watched as she slowly started to fall apart. "Everything I've done…was so futile. Everyone calls me Robin Hood because I tried to do something good for our people back on the Ark. The law was flawed and corrupt and I wanted to make a difference. I wanted to save people but the truth is, down here, all I've done is kill people for the sake of our survival! How selfish is that? And Robin Hood? It's just a sick, twisted joke!"
"Don't," he warned, stepping forward and wiping a tear from her eye. She turned her cheek and tried to rid herself of the tears, but he ignored her. "I killed someone too, Alessia. When I first got into Mount Weather. I strangled one of the guards with my bare hands…and an hour later, I met his kid. What we have done here was for our survival, but there's nothing wrong with that! With survival comes bloodshed, it's inevitable. But don't forget that you tried to change that. From the second we came down here, you begged me not to build our lives on war. Sometimes I listened, sometimes I didn't, but…but the important part is, you were the one who did that. You were the one who showed me a different way. We did this together, and if you need someone to blame, you can blame me. I'll take the responsibility for what we've done."
"You didn't pull that lever."
"I might as well have." He could see the hurt in her eyes, just as he was sure she could see his.
Alessia hesitated, processing his demand. He waited for her as she stared at him, and he tried to find some part of her that he could hold onto, but he could see clearly that she was not going to be okay at that moment. She could blame him like he asked, but who was he kidding? It was Alessia. She would never forgive herself, and he knew that. Which was why the words out of her mouth made his heart break.
"Do you know what it's like to be raised by someone that you hope to whatever God is out there that you don't grow up to be? To hate yourself when you find that you can't escape it?" She shut her eyes as a flicker of pain crossed her features. Bellamy wanted to reach out and console her, but he was afraid it would set her off. "Even if you wanted to, you couldn't pass the blame to someone else, Bellamy. When you live in my world, everything you do is pointless because, at the end of the day, you're a monster by genetics, and there's nothing you can do to change it!"
"You're not a monster, Alessia! Nothing you do could ever convince me of that. I—" He stopped himself. No. It was too soon, the timing was terrible, and he couldn't do it. In the span of five seconds, time stopped. Alessia stood, frozen, and Bellamy…well, he panicked. It came out too quickly to stop. "I love you."
God damn it.
"I love you," he repeated, watching her expression carefully as she listened to the words out of his mouth. It was too early to tell whether or not he would regret them when they went back to camp, but it wasn't looking in his favor. "I've loved you for a while, I think—no, I don't think. I know."
The brunette before him was quiet—almost too quiet. As much as he hated to admit it, Clarke had been right ever since he'd talked to her when they had tried to find Calix and Finn; but the thing was, he wasn't ready to admit it then. And still, after everything they'd been through, he finally thought he was ready to tell her, but seeing the look on her face, he didn't know if that was a good or bad thing. At last, Alessia opened her mouth cautiously to respond.
"I…wouldn't if I were you. I would run for the hills and take back what you just said before I say it back because..." Alessia drew in a sharp inhale as she looked into his eyes, melting into the chocolate color. "I don't deserve you, Bellamy."
Bellamy looked into her own eyes, where he could see both the joy and the sorrow that filled them. He shook his head sternly. "I'm not running. I've been running from you since we started this. I don't want to run from you anymore. I love you."
He waited while she hesitated, contemplating her next move carefully, but was taken by relief when she reached forward touched his cheek, lightly but sincerely. Bellamy could tell it hurt her to feel the happiness that she did, but she didn't hurt because she didn't love him. Her hand, cold from the river's waters and trembling from her fear, was only on his skin for a few moments, but it was worth it. Finally, she whispered, "I love you too, Bellamy. More than you know."
Bellamy smiled softly and watched her do the same, though still a sorrow twinge in her lips. When she tried to drop her hand from his face and retreat into herself, however, he stepped closer and enclosed his fingers in hers. He reached forward with his other hand and used his strong finger to pull her chin up to look into his eyes. "Listen to me. You're a leader, Alessia. Leaders make tough decisions, but that doesn't make them terrible people."
Though her face was next to his, her eyes dropped to the floor. "I never wanted to be a leader."
"But it's where you belong."
Alessia didn't disagree or agree with his statement. Instead, she looked up at him and, in a voice full of disdain, admitted, "It wasn't supposed to be this way."
Bellamy nodded. "I know."
He didn't have anything to tell her. What was done was done. There was no way to change it. So instead of saying anything else, he just pulled her into a hug and let her cry as long as she needed into his shirt, judgement-free, so that she could get it out of her system before they joined the crowd again.
Just as the last of the survivors from the Mountain walked into the gates of Camp Jaha, Alessia watched as Clarke walked over to her, avoiding her gaze like the two of them had done to everyone else. They stood outside the gates, observing their friends and family trying to cope with what had happened. Alessia stood quietly, feeling as if her heart had physically broken inside of her chest. She wondered if Clarke felt the same way.
"I bear it so they don't have to," Clarke whispered quietly, breaking their silence. It almost hurt to hear the words. "We've been through too much. After everything I've done to you, I won't let you blame yourself for this."
Alessia swallowed. "Clarke—"
"This is what I want you to do." Clarke turned to Alessia, who reluctantly turned to look at her. They locked eyes, something that was hard for the both of them to do. Clarke tried to hold back her tears. "I want you to go inside. I want you to sit down and have a cup of Monty's moonshine with Bellamy. I want you to be happy with him, with your father, with our friends. I want you to get through this. For me."
"It doesn't work that way and you know it."
"Then promise me you'll try."
A silence hung over them for a while, but rather than agreeing to promise Clarke what she wanted, Alessia inhaled sharply when she pieced together what was going on. Her chest suddenly felt ten times heavier. "You're leaving, aren't you?"
"Yes."
"Listen to me, Clarke." Alessia straightened and fought back the emotions that threatened in her tear ducts. She'd never felt so many feelings in one day before. "You said you were sorry before we pulled that lever, but I didn't tell you that I forgive you. And I do. I forgive you, Clarke. I forgive you. We can forgive each other, but you have to stay here. You can't run away."
"I don't need forgiveness, all I need is for you to forgive yourself. I'm leaving whether or not you do, but I'm telling you that I will not let your life turn upside down." She smiled at her friend, who let a tear fall down her face. She really hated crying, but she'd done it three times in one day. "You can be happy here, Alessia. Don't let what happened today get in the way of that."
It was then that Alessia knew she couldn't stop Clarke, even if she'd given her all the forgiveness in the world. She realized almost immediately that it wasn't about her and her happiness. No matter what happened, no matter if she spent the rest of her life miserable or if she spent the rest of her life in bliss, Clarke would still be in pain. Clarke would always be in pain, and it was that pain that she needed to felt. Alessia understood that completely, knowing that if she didn't feel the pain that she felt inside, she would feel even worse. They were both ruined; they were both in pain. The difference was, Clarke couldn't be around everyone while she mourned.
"Take care of them for me," Clarke requested as she noticed Alessia come to her conclusion. The two were quiet for a while before Alessia dropped her eyes and asked a question.
"Where are you gonna go?"
"I don't know."
"Please be careful, then." Alessia brought her eyes back up to Clarke, where she did not smile but rather looked at her with the pain they shared. "You're still my best friend, you know."
"Always. No matter where I am." Clarke stepped forward and threw her arms around Alessia, pulling her into a hug. She knew Alessia wasn't one for hugs, but at that moment, it was inevitable. She was surprised when she felt Alessia hug her back, and although Clarke could feel the torture inside of her, it felt nice to know that she still had a friend. "May we meet again."
"May we meet again," Alessia whispered back as Clarke pulled away and walked in the opposite direction immediately, wasting no time for her to change her mind. Alessia turned, herself, back to Camp Jaha, her eyes flooded with tears and her back turned on her best friend. Moments later, she felt someone come up to her side.
"Hey." The brunette looked up to find Bellamy standing in front of her, a concerned look on his face as he noticed Clarke walking away. "What's going on?"
"Our Princess just resigned," she said softly, refusing to look back as Bellamy did. When he realized what that meant, she saw his expression change, flickering between sorrow and anger. She shook her head and grabbed his hand in hers. "Let's just...let's go inside. Please."
She pulled him with her, but just as they crossed the threshold into the camp, Bellamy turned her to him with a halt. "Alessia, we'll get through this. Together."
But no matter how hard they tried or how much they wanted things to stay the same, the inevitable truth was that the old Robin Hood and Messiah were left at the gate. In the wake of their sins, they simply became Alessia Kane and Bellamy Blake. Together.
Thanks for reading! Please review!
A few things to wrap up with...
First: Roman Holiday is now online! It is a Bellamy/Alessia AU fanfic to thank you all for your continued support on this story. In addition to the story being posted, there is also a playlist and a trailer on my profile under Roman Holiday's section.
Second: I'll be taking a short break from this story to make it appear like you've waited months for Season 3 like we had to do this year :P Don't worry, it will be a much shorter break than the network's (I'm talking maybe two or three weeks), but in the meantime, I would appreciate it so much if you all would share your thoughts about the season finale and predictions about season 3 in a review below and also go and check Roman Holiday out!
I'll be back soon! :)
RHatch89: Thanks :)
RellaRose100: You know, as I was writing it, I realized it was a quasi-confrontation. Alessia got her "revenge" of sorts by killing his father, and Cage in return tried to kill hers. I wanted to have Alessia kill Cage, but I also didn't want to take away from Lincoln's revenge and so I altered my agenda a bit so that the characters in the 100 continue to have the same MO as they do in the show. But there was a little something there, and so I hope you liked it (that and the Bellessia reunion)! Thanks for the review!
caymanislands: Thanks! I hope you were satisfied with the end of this season, but the Season 3 opener is going to be extremely different from the way we left this season. I'm excited about it though. Hope you enjoyed the chapter! Thanks for reviewing.
GraceTM86: Haha I'm glad you enjoyed it! It took me a little while but here it is. And the Bellessia side fic is up! Go check it out! Thanks for reviewing.
soccergurl382: Wow A+ for devotion! 28 chapters in one day has got to be a record. Aw, thank you! So for Calix, I have him down as Robert Pattinson and for Takeo, I have him down as Michael Ealy (both really really good actors...and also not bad-looking lol). If you ever want to know who I have pictured for a specific OC and don't want to wait for me to respond, you can take a look on my profile. I have all of the characters on there with links to GIFs and the actor/actress's names in parenthesis next to the character name. Thanks for reviewing and here's the update! Hope you enjoyed it.
Guest: I had been planning on it, but I really wanted to get this chapter out of the way first. It will hopefully come soon, though! I just have to get the right motivation, which I feel should be coming soon since I have published this chapter and have gotten Roman Holiday out of the way. I hope you enjoyed this chapter of Outside and thank you for reviewing!
