I was leaning against the wall, reading Invitation to a Beheading, when Cal came back from breakfast. He tossed me an apple and I grinned. "Blondie had a whole farm out there." I tried to imagine Clarke as a farmer, tending to crops in a field. It was laughable. "Charmaine sent a group out to harvest. We'll be eating good tonight."

"Damn, I've missed the ground," I said, with a wistful sigh. I bit into the apple, savoring in the crisp taste. "You gotta get me more of these," I said, mouth half full.

Cal laughed. "There's plenty more where that came from. We'll go check out the rest of the harvest after."

I raised an eyebrow. "After what?"

"You any good in a fist fight?" He asked.

"I'm fine, I guess," I said, shrugging one shoulder. "Most of my combat training was with swords though."

"Swords?" Cal repeated, giving me a skeptical look. "What is this? The Middle Ages?"

I leaned forward, closing the book and sitting it down on the bedside table. "I mean, there were reasons the grounders didn't use guns." Thinking about the Mountain Men still sent a shiver down my spine even now. "And I trained with them." My fingers traced lightly over my scar. "I'm a damn good shot though."

It was odd to think that there had been a time when I refused to touch a weapon. Now they felt like an extension of my body. I couldn't imagine life without being able to fight back. "My friend promised she'd teach me how to shoot a bow and arrow when we got back."

"Well, let's find out if you can throw a punch." Cal nodded toward the hall and I hopped up to follow him. As we headed through the door he shook his head. "Bow and arrow," he muttered like he didn't quite believe it. "Who uses a bow and arrow?"

OoOoO

The training room looked like the one we'd thrown together on the Ring. Mismatched padding covered the floor, and a single cracked mirror leaned against the wall. I was sure Diyoza had a more permanent arrangement on her side of the ship, but this was Shadow territory.

Cal nodded at two men leaving the room. They each had a stiletto knife tattoo on their forearms, matching Cal's own. Clearly they were some of his men, but he didn't bother to introduce us. Inside there was a woman. She glanced up as we came in, wiping sweat from her brow and showing off her tattoo. Her knife was smaller, only half the length of her forearm, and a little more stylized. But, still, unmistakable.

"Kenna," Cal called. He nodded toward the door behind us.

She rolled her eyes. "For fucks sake, pretty boy. Can I have five seconds without you on my ass?" Kenna let her braid down so her black hair flowed around her shoulders. She looked younger like that, probably around Octavia's age. As she headed toward the door, she flipped Cal off. He just smirked.

"Round up Gav and Ella," he told her. "Make sure Charmaine's people share the food."

"Ooh, can I shoot someone?" Kenna asked, wiggling her eyebrows. Cal shot her a look. "Come on, Callie, you're no fun! Shooting Gavril might get him out of bed faster. He and Emma kept me up all fucking night." She leaned forward. "If you know what I'm saying."

"Drag him out of bed if you have to," Cal insisted. "He's still on Charmaine's good side. You'll need him."

"Uh huh, we both know why." She crossed her arms. "Someone should talk to him about sleeping with the enemy." Kenna's eyes slid to me for the first time, looking me up and down, then flicked back to Cal. "Not you, though."

"If you want to give him the talk, be my guest," he said, waving Kenna toward the door. "I don't give a shit about who he's fucking."

"You will when Emma goes running back to Diyoza with all our secrets." Kenna made a tsking noise, but headed toward the door. "Have fun, Callie," she called over her shoulder in a singsong voice.

Cal shook his head and turned back to me, scowling when he noticed the smirk on my face. "What?"

"Callie?" I repeated.

"Don't start, Maia." He slipped his jacket off, tossing it into the corner of the room.

I giggled, as I pulled my hair back in a ponytail. "She reminds me of my little sister."

"You have a sister?"

"Not exactly," I said, with a shrug. Moving toward the center of the mat. "But we grew up together, so it felt like we were."

"You don't talk about your family much," he noted.

"It's not like we do a lot of talking," I pointed out. "You don't really talk about yours either."

He shrugged, and joined me in the middle of the room. "Fair enough."

"Alright, show me what you got, Callie."

OoOoO

We were winding down, when Kenna knocked on the door. Cal glanced over his shoulder and scowled. "I thought I told you–"

"Yeah, yeah, we checked on Diyoza," she said, waving him off. "That's why I'm here. She wants her." Kenna pointed at me. I pointed at myself, raising a skeptical eyebrow. "I didn't ask questions."

Cal looked like he was about to argue, but Kenna raised a hand. "It's about the others." From the way she said it, I knew exactly what others she was talking about.

I nodded once. "I'll go."

Kenna motioned for me to follow her, and I did. Letting my hair down as we went, and fluffing it out so I looked a little more presentable. "You've known Cal since before?" I asked her.

She shrugged. "Not well. He got locked up pretty much right after I moved to Long Island, then I followed a few months later. They didn't even bother to throw me in gen pop, they just dropped me on Eligius IV."

I raised an eyebrow, finding it a little hard to believe. It seemed like the miners were all hardened criminals, not first timers. "What'd you do?" I asked. She shot me a look that said that question was against the rules.

We walked the rest of the way outside in silence. Kenna motioned across the lawn to the church. "In there." Before I had a chance to say anything else, she was gone, heading off to join the other Shadows I'd seen earlier.

I took a deep breath and headed toward the small building. I hadn't been in the village since that first day, and that had been at night. It was so colorful during the day; it wasn't hard to imagine the grounders that had once lived here. I hoped that the Louwodakru who had made it into the bunker would be able to return here soon.

The inside had been turned into a base of sorts. McCreary and his men gathered around a table, while Diyoza hovered over a screen, watching. Kane sat next to her. I gasped, loud enough that everyone turned to look at me.

Diyoza stepped back to let Kane stand. He walked over, a big smile on his face, and pulled me into a hug. There were times when six years seemed like an eternity, and other times when it felt like the blink of an eye. This was one of the latter. "When I heard you were here, I had to bring you in on this."

"Does this mean you still want to be my mentor?" I asked, teasingly.

He patted me on the back, and steered me toward Diyoza. "Always."

Charmaine nodded at me as I approached, and Kane pulled out a chair. "So, we meet again." As we settled in, I searched the screens for any information that might be useful. "I'll admit, I was a hesitant to bring a Shadow into my inner circle." I held up my forearms, free and clear of tattoos. She raised an eyebrow, and shrugged. "Kane put in a good word."

"I was a thief when I first came down here, and I wasn't interested in being a hero. I certainly wasn't interested in becoming a part of the government I fought against my whole life," I said. Diyoza smirked, she'd been a freedom fighter, so I was sure she knew the feeling. "But Kane saw potential in me, and he gave me a purpose when I was lost. He's one of the best people I know, and he's the closest thing I've ever had to a father."

I glanced between Diyoza and Kane and shook my head, pushing aside the old feelings that were bubbling up. There was no time to be soft. I had to keep working. "So, what's up? Did Octavia do something?"

"Not yet," Kane said. "But we're hoping to force her hand."

I raised an eyebrow. "How?"

"Things happened in the bunker, and now–"

"Tell me," I said. Kane glanced away from the screen for a moment. "I talked to Octavia when she came out of the bunker, Miller too. Neither of them would tell me what happened down there, they just talked around it. What happened?" Kane was quiet for a moment. "I can't help you if I don't know."

He nodded. "When we realized we were trapped, we had to plan long term. The hydrofarm wasn't built to last longer than five years. We were over taxing our resources. There were riots. Our people wanted the bunker for themselves. They were the ones who knew how to keep it running, so they believed it should be theirs."

"Skaikru," I clarified. He nodded. I shook my head once. He knew how I felt about the people I'd grown up with. "Of course they did."

"Octavia wouldn't let that happen. It was supposed to be a new era. We were Wonkru." It hurt to hear that, knowing it had been Roan's idea first. But I nodded for him to go on. "So we had to make compromises to keep us alive. Anyone who refused to follow the rules was an enemy. To reduce population, criminals fought in the pit."

"Miller told me that much at least."

"Over time, we forgot who we were before. Octavia…" Kane paused, shaking his head. "She lost herself." I nodded, letting him know that was enough for now. I could push more later, but for today I didn't want to think about how Octavia had changed. She was already so different from the girl I'd grown up with.

"You're hoping that there are others who still remember," I said. Kane nodded. "You want to draw them out, weaken Octavia." I hesitated. "I don't know. How many lives are you willing to risk for this?" Diyoza and Kane both looked at me. "You think she'll just let people go? I know her, when she's scared she lashes out, and it sounds like she's only gotten worse."

"We have to try," Kane insisted. "This valley is big enough for everyone, but we have to be willing to share it."

"Use the food," I said. I didn't like the idea, whatever had happened to Kane in there, he wasn't worried about the others anymore. He was willing to risk other lives to keep himself alive. "Once they taste what they're missing it'll be hard for them to go back." I thought about that apple. For a moment I'd forgotten about why I was here. I just wanted to stay.

Diyoza nodded. "We'll do it."

She left Kane and me alone at the table. "How did you get here?" He asked.

I leaned forward on the table, watching the screens. "When Bellamy came to make his deal, I snuck on board. I found someone who could keep me safe. Diyoza knows better than to try and pull my leash. Apparently Cal has sway around here."

"You're with one of them?" Kane asked, disapproval in his tone.

I made a face. "Just because you're the father-figure I always wanted, doesn't mean I want to tell you about my sex life." I glanced around the room. "What about you, what are you doing here?" I asked. "Is Abby with you?"

He nodded. "The miners are sick, something on that planet poisoned them. They don't have a doctor of their own, so they took Abby. I should have died in the pit the day they saved us, I couldn't stay. Besides, I could be of more use here."

I sighed. I hated that I was right. Kane may put on a front, but he just wanted to live. If he wasn't here to watch out for Abby, who would? "What if they're too scared of Octavia to leave?"

"Some of them will be," Kane admitted. "But others will try."

"Try," I repeated. "I don't like this, Kane."

"We have to do something. If Octavia marches on this camp, hundreds will die, and there will be no going back."

"The lives of a few in exchange for the lives of many," I murmured. It always came down to that in the end. "And even if no one makes it out alive, the others will see that Octavia is not as solid as she pretends to be."

"I know you care about her," Kane said. "But she isn't the girl you remember."

I shook my head. "That doesn't make me care any less."