Chapter 12 - But I Brag About You When I'm Not Around You, You Don't Even Know It
The commander had whisked Clarke away to his tent when the cries of outrage started in his camp. She knew that he was doing her some small kindness in keeping them from killing her. But she is sitting in his throne desperately trying to wipe off Finn's blood and wondering if it wouldn't have been kinder to let them have her.
Her vision is blurry as she tries to make out who is entering the tent. Her eyes flutter rapidly as she tries to blink away the tears. Her eyes meet her mother's when she blinks away enough of the tears, and Kane is not far behind her. Clarke leans her cheek into her mother's hand which was pressed to her face as her mother kneeled in front of her.
"They would've tortured him I had to." Clarke knows how broken she sounds. She can hear it in the cracks and sobs that stilt her words. "I-I had to. I had to. What did I do?"
The tent flap is hastily thrown and the tall man that shadows the commander enters the tent saying, "The commander is ready to talk." and Clarke stands up out of thrown and moves herself and her mother over the side where Kane is standing. She swipes at her faces to dry it of tears as she tries to pull back the sobs that are still threatening to escape. She knows there is nothing to be done for her red eyes and tear stained face, so she just stares straight ahead.
The tall, freckled man who a mess of confusion for Clarke, enters the tent followed by Indra. His dark eyes trail over Clarke's face and she clamps down hard on the loss that still tries to explode out of her.
"Blood has answered blood. Some of my side say that's not enough they wanted to murderer to suffer as out traditioned demands." He leans towards her from within his throne. Compassion that she doesn't deserve radiates towards her. "But they do not know that your suffering will be worse. What you did tonight will haunt you until the end of your days. Still, there will be restitution, the body will be given to TonDC murderer and murdered joined by fire. Only then can we have peace."
When Clarke can offer no words, Kane steps forward. "No, no, we've done enough the boy should be buried by his own people-"
"Enough?" Indra shouts, cutting off Kane. "We were owed the pain of 18 deaths; we were owed the righteous kill my village deserves justice."
Abby who flounders at the words that Indra spits denies that she even wants justice. Only vengeance. Indra moves toward them with her hand on the hilt of her sword as she tells Abby that she has not seen her vengeance.
"We'll do it." Cuts in before more words can be bandied about by the adults. They don't have time for this and if they don't get their peace, Finn died for nothing. "But when it's over we talk about how to get our people out of Mount Weather. All of our people."
"We want the same things, Clarke." The commander says in a soft voice.
"Good," She nods at him. "when do we leave?"
"Now. Choose your attendance." He says as he stands from his throne.
Abby turns to grab Clarke by her shoulders. "Clarke, you don't have to do this."
"Yes, I do," Clarke knows her eyes are dull now that the shine of tears has passed. She knows she should feel more but her heart is barely beating in her chest, Finn is dead, and her friends are still not safe. She doesn't have time for more conversation about what does or does not need to be dead. "if this truce doesn't hold, I killed Finn for nothing."
The tall man nears her as they move to leave the tent. His warm hand settles on her elbow for such a brief moment, she isn't even sure it happened at all. "You can call me Bellamy. I understand your sins, Clarke."
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His hand is still tingling from the brief contact with Clarke as they exited the tent. He can't keep his eyes off her as she moves towards the angry tan girl. The words that they exchange are heated even as tears still cool the brunette's cheeks.
When two of his men attempt to pick up the boy. The angry girl starts to panic, and he can hear her asking what they are doing. Clarke's arm is roughly pushed aside as she tries to calm the other girl.
"She's strong, Bell." His sister's voice draws the majority of his attention away from Clarke, but he can still see her pleading with her friend, from the corner of his eye.
"She might have been, once." He says. "But her love for this boy may be her undoing."
Octavia cocks her head to the side as she looks up at him. "She's still strong. Look at her."
"I am." He can't deny that she draws his attention. "Only time will tell how if she survives this, but her eyes are empty right now and it's up to her to find a fire within herself in order to live."
"She will, Bell. I can feel it in my bones." She sets her hand lightly on his shoulder.
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Clarke keeps catching the sight of Finn out of the corner of her eye and it makes her jump every time. Her eyes doing double takes, even as the feel of his eyes linger on her body. When Wells asks her if she is doing okay, she tells him she is, even though nothing could be further from the truth.
"You did the right thing." He says as his eye pin a look she can't decipher on the Commander, on Bellamy.
"Now I get to live with it." She says, looking at him as he watches the Grounders around them. "You still think this truce is a bad idea, don't you?"
"I think we're wasting our time on politics while our friends are in trouble." His words surprise her, considering who his father is and how both of them were raised. She wonders if maybe the ground hasn't changed all of them.
"We need their army to get to Mount Weather, Wells and you know it." Her eyes dart to the forest again as she feels Finn watching her.
"Their army has been getting their ass kicked by Mount Weather forever. What we need is an inside man. Someone to be our eyes and ears."
"Forget it, it's too dangerous." She shakes her head as her hands tremble at the thought of him in the mountain.
"Clarke if you can make it out, I can make it in." His voice is pleading with her. Begging her to understand that he doesn't feel like he can wait any longer. A feeling she knows all too well.
"I said no." Her trembling hand come up to rest on the arm that loosely holds his gun. "I can lose you too. Okay?"
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As Bellamy and Gustus dismount at the edge of TonDC he can hear the villagers shouting for the gates to be opened. Gustus turns to the Sky People and points to the basket off to the side. Lincoln who still holds his ribs in pain tells them that they need to disarm before they enter the camp. Putting his own knife in the bin before they make a move to follow. Gustus disarms the angry girl, whose name he has learned is Raven, when she refuses to do so herself. He can feel Clarke's eyes watching him as he watches Gustus disarm Raven.
Gustus gives him the all clear and they move into the village as the people cry out to him asking him why they brought the murders here. Before one brave individual steps in their path with a knife drawn, crying out that they took everything from him. He knows Sindri and has always known he has a temper.
When Sindri doesn't move after Gustus tells him to step aside, Bellamy has no choice but to give Gustus the signal to move him by force.
The burn of Clarke's hand on his arm shocks him as she begs for the man who was spewing ugly words at her and would have hurt her if he'd be allowed. "Commander, stop him, please. They'll blame us for this too."
He tells Gustus to let him live in trigedasleng before switching to English, so the Sky people understand as well. "The Sky People march with us now anyone who tries to stop that will pay with their life."
He hears the young man with dark skin mutter "warm welcome." to Clarke before she moves past him to follow Bellamy further into the camp.
By sundown the pyre for the dead has been built and Finn's body is added to it stretched across the bodies of the innocents he slaughtered. Bellamy moves forward and starts to speak the words of their people. He can hear Lincoln's soft voice translating for the Sky People.
The torch is handed to him and he looks to the despondent blonde who stands beside him. He hands her the torch with a soft call of her name, hoping that this will give her the closure she needs. His eyes widen briefly as he hears her whisper "Yu gonplei ste odon." as she flashes a look to the empty space at side before her eyes find the pyre again.
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The warm presence of Bellamy at her side offers her a silent comfort that he shouldn't be able to. His deep voice pulls her from the edge of emptiness in her mind when he says. "I lost someone special to me too. Her name was Gina. She was captured by the Ice Nation whose Queen believed she knew my secrets because she was mine. They tortured her, killed her, cut off her head." He shakes off her apology. "I thought I'd never get over the pain, but I did."
She turns her face up to him. She knows her look is slightly desperate, but she doesn't know how she will manage if she keeps feeling this way. "How?"
"A wise woman once told me to recognize it for what it was." He tips his head to stare into her eyes. "Weakness."
"What is? Love?" Her eye pace back and forth between his. He nods at her and she can't help but ask. "What about Octavia?"
He shrugs. "She is my weakness." His voice is low and quiet as if sharing a secret with her.
"I could never do that." She finally pulls her stare away from him.
It takes him a moment to move his eyes from her face before he says. "Then you put the people you care about in danger and the pain will never go away. The dead are gone, Clarke, the living are hungry."
It isn't long before the two of them are ushered down a set of starts to a dining all. The smell of delicious food barely masks the mustiness of the forest that had attempted to reclaim the room.
Kane pulls a bottle of moonshine from his pack and offers it to Bellamy. "Please accept this gift, Commander. We drink this at special occasions I believe this qualifies."
Gustus takes it from Kane's grasp as Bellamy nods to him and thanks him for his gift.
"You're welcome, Belomi" He pauses as his mouth works around the works in the Grounder's language. "Kom Trikru. Just uh don't drink too much of it, its strong."
Bellamy nods before he turns his gaze onto her. "Clarke, let us drink together."
"It would be my pleasure." She says as she watches Bellamy unstopper the flask and pour it into the goblets that Gustus had brought out. He hands one to Clarke and she is glad to see at least the shaking of her hand as stopped.
Gustus takes a sip from the goblet before handing it back to Bellamy who says, "Today we celebrate our peace, tomorrow we plan our war. To those we've lost, to those we shall soon find."
Right as Clarke and Bellamy are about to sip from their drinks Gustus collapses at Bellamy's feet and begins to convulse. Clarke looks up from the shaking man to meet Bellamy's angry eyes. "This wasn't us! You have to know this wasn't us!" She begs him.
He turns to Indra and says something in their language, and suddenly Gustus is being tended too and is slowly opening his eyes. One of the other guards is helping him to stand. Once he gets to his feet the rest of the room begins to move and the guards being to pull her away from the others as they search everyone for the poison.
She begs Bellamy again to listen. "No, we didn't do this."
His stony face meets hers as black swallows up the warm brown in his eyes. "Gustus warned me about you but I didn't believe him. Tell me something Clarke, when you plunged the knife into the heart of the boy you loved did you not wish that it was mine?"
Gustus calls out to Bellamy as his had pulls something from Raven's coat. She tries to rip her arm away from Gustus as she yells that it wasn't her and that he put it there when he searched her.
"No Sky Person leaves this room!" Cries Bellamy as he storms up the stairs.
Once everyone has settled in to wait Clarke picks her way over to Raven and as softly as possible asks Raven for the truth.
The gravel in Raven's voice, grates over Clarke's ears. "I'd step back if I were you."
"You wanted me to kill Bellamy yesterday" She presses on anyway, the sight of Finn on her periphery egging her on. "if you tried to poison him, I need to know.
She doesn't expect the punch to the face, but she accepts it. The same as she accepts the words that spill from Raven's mouth. "You're the only murderer here!"
Clarke moves off to the chair at the back of the room grabbing her head. "He gave me no choice, why did he turn himself in?" The tears she had suppressed since the day before come flooding back up and over the brim of her eyes.
She can tell it's her mother who approaches her when she feels the tiny hands brushing her hair back from her damp face. "Listen to me Clarke, I know how you feel. But the pain will never go away but Bellamy's wrong you won't be haunted by this forever. The pain will fade. What got me through was loving you."
Clarke pushes the chair that she's in slightly away from her mother as she moves her head out of Abby's reach. "What is it?" Her mom asks in confusion.
"You're talking about dad?" She finally feels something other than despair, the anger blazes hot and heavy in her chest. "What I did to Finn was nothing like what you did to him!"
Through tears Abby begs Clarke not to do this now but she presses on anyway. The fire in her chest will not be appeased before it destroys something. "I was protecting everyone. I didn't have a choice you did!"
Abby's voice is no more than a whisper when she says, "no!"
"You turned him in!" She shouts at her mother.
"I trusted Thelonious to talk to your father and convince him not to go public!" The tears fall more freely from her mother's eyes.
Clarke knew she was hurting her mother, but she couldn't seem to stop the next words from falling from her lips. "You knew dad would never stop! You knew what would happen to him!"
"I was protecting everyone too! I was protecting you!" Abby cries, holding her face in her has as Clarke stands to walk away. "Clarke, please!"
The last of the pleading tone from her mother douses the fire and leaves her feeling empty again. "We are the same." she says before moving further away from the group.
It isn't long before Kane approaches her and drops a hand to her shoulder. "Tearing each other and yourself apart isn't a way to get through this." He looks over at Abby who still has tears running down her face before he takes the seat next to Clarke. "Bellamy needs this alliance just as much as we do. He's shown himself to be flexible, he listens to you."
Clarke shakes her head. "He thinks we tried to kill him."
"We know we didn't. So, let's figure out who did. Who would want her dead?"
"Too many to count. Forming the alliance was a risk." Lincoln's voice carries as he enters the dining hall. "Especially with what Finn did at this village."
"So, it had to be someone trying to break the alliance." Wells adds in. Clarke can see the thoughtful expression on his face and knows his mind is working a million miles ahead of where they are.
Behind Lincoln, descends Indra and a few guards. She tells the guards something and suddenly they are grabbing for Raven and hauling her out amidst the shouts and pleas of the rest of the group that she didn't do it.
"I argued for all of you to die," Indra turns on Abby, "but the Commander is merciful. He wants only one. The rest of you are free, when she is dead so is the alliance. You should run."
Clarke can't bring herself to move. She can hear the call of the crowd to do harm to her friend. She knows the rest of her people have followed Raven up the stairs. Her mind's eye doing a good enough job to show her what is happening above her. Her mother's voice calls out to her, but she still can't get her body to move.
A flicker of Finn catches her eye again before she sees the goblet that's on the ground a puddle of moonshine still around it. "It wasn't in the bottle." she murmurs to herself before she stands up and runs out to the grounders that are blocking the rest of their people from Raven.
She presses forward and Wells grabs for her arm as she passes him. "Clarke, stop! What are you doing? You'll get yourself killed."
"I need that bottle," She turns to Lincoln who was standing near the rest of her people. "Now!"
"Stop, Bellamy!" His dark eyes are curious as they meet hers, he tells the guards to let Clarke pass. "One of your people tried to kill you, Bellamy. Not one of mine."
Indra's angry voice reaches her ears, but she ignores it as she takes the bottle from Lincoln's outstretched hand as she says she can prove it. When Bellamy tilts his head to for her to continue, she brings the bottle to her lips and takes a long swing of the moonshine. All eyes are tense on her as they all wait for something to happen.
When nothing happens, Bellamy raises his eyebrow as he demands she explains.
"The poison wasn't in the bottle; it was in the cup." She says as she takes another drink. Her chest heaving under the stress of it all. She can feel his eyes heavy on her.
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He doesn't look away from her as Gustus tells him they are playing a trick. His eyes raking over her petite form. Her eyes are a little wild, and her hair is in disarray as if she had been tugging at it. He feels drawn to her in a way he knows he shouldn't be.
The tall dark-skinned boy turns away from watching Clarke, just as he has been, and points at Gustus. "It was you. He tested the cup, he searched Raven."
"Gustus would never harm me." Bellamy can't help but deny it. He's been faithful to him since he began as the commander, taking up the mantle that Lexa had placed down. Through all the negotiations that it had taken to get to this point.
"You weren't the target," The boy says, stepping up beside Clarke. "the alliance was."
"We didn't do this, and you know it." Clarke's eyes are pleading with his. The blue in her eyes is crystalline as the sun that is struggling to set glares off them.
He finally pulls his gaze away from the blonde and turns to Gustus. "You've been accused, Gustus. Speak true."
"This alliance would cost you your life Heda. I could not let that happen." Gustus bows his head, looking ashamed, though he's not sure if it's because he did it or because he got caught.
"This treachery will cost you yours," Bellamy growls. "Put him on the tree!"
His other guards rush to pull Raven from the tree as Clarke and the boy that Raven calls Wells dart forward to catch her. Her body sagging in pain that mirrors how Clarke's must have felt after all the injuries she had when he met her.
Gustus is tied to the tree that had housed Raven, previously. His head held high and his lips clenched tightly together, as each person in the village draws a sharp knife across his skin. Some deeper than others. He can hear Raven behind him as she clings to the boy next to her asking if this was to be the fate of the boy Clarke killed. Both he and Clarke share a look at her words; he knows that she knows his fate would have been worse at the green color of her face.
Once every villager has had their turn and the day has turned fully to night, Bellamy steps forward as unsheathes his sword.
"Stay strong." Gustus says, and Bellamy swallows as he nods.
"Yu gonplei ste odon." He says as he presses his sword into Gustus' chest, between his ribs and into his heart before twisting his sword and pulling it back. Bellamy clenches his jaw as he strains to keep his face impassive.
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Lincoln approached her group as Clarke watched the others talking softly across the fire. "How did you know it was Gustus?" He asks Wells.
"You'd do anything for him to protect him." He shrugs as if it was always the most obvious answer. "So, it made sense."
When no further comment was made, they all settled into not quite comfortable silence. Clarke's eyes stayed glued on the fire in front of her, zoning out as her mind spit image after image of Finn's death.
Raven's voice startled all of them as she limped up to them. Her voice was enthusiastic. "Guys! Listen to this!"
The radio in her hand spit out Jasper's voice. "47 of us are trapped inside Mount Weather."
She gripped Raven's arm as she said. "Talk to him, say something."
"It's repeating." Raven shook her arm free of Clarke's. Her face uncomfortable, but not angry any longer.
The radio crackled again. "We don't know how much time we have left, please hurry."
Wells voice cut over the radio loop. "We need to do this now. We've got the alliance now is the time to use it."
Clarke closed her eyes before she looked at Wells again. "We need an inside man. You were right without someone on the inside to lower their defenses, turn off the acid fog an army's useless." Her hands started to tremble at her sides. "You should go."
"I thought you hated that plan." He cocked his eyebrow. "That I would get myself killed."
"I was being weak, it's worth the risk." She nodded as if confirming that for herself as she dug through her bag to pull out the map. Handing it over with shaky hands. "My map of Mount Weather. Find a way to get on that radio and talk to us. Good luck."
As Lincoln volunteered to take Wells through the tunnels, Octavia walked up to the group. Her face became furious as she listened to Lincoln's offer. "You can't go back there, not yet."
Raven pulled Wells away on the pretext of showing him what he needed to find when he got in the mountain and Clarke pulled away to look at the where the pyre had been the night before, giving the couple some privacy. "Love is weakness." She mumbled to herself before turning away only to bump into her mother.
"Clarke this is for you." She holds out a canister, that Clarke eyes but doesn't take. "Finn's ashes from the pyre. I thought you could scatter them somewhere might help you say goodbye."
"I've already said goodbye." her voice devoid of anything. She doesn't look at her mother again as she moves to enter Bellamy's bunker. She can feel the eyes of her people on her back. She doesn't acknowledge them other than to set her shoulders and raise her chin as she passes through the door.
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Bellamy watches the blonde as she paces the bunker for a moment her guard standing behind her at the wall. Her limp seems to be less pronounced. He knows that the other war generals are tracking his eye movements as they track the blonde. He hopes they think it's because he doesn't trust her and not because he can't seem to stop staring. Her anxiety is bringing his heart rate up and he just wants to put his hands on her to calm her down.
Quint who has always been brash, slams his hand on the table. "This argument is useless. If they can't breathe our air, then why not open the door and let them burn?"
The others at the table agree with him but Clarke's clear voice cuts across them as she stops at the table. "No! Because they have a containment system, multiple airlocks just like we had on the Ark. Our inside man can shut that own."
"If he gets inside." Quint sneers at her.
"What if we shut it down from the outside." He offers as a way to steer the conversation back to civil grounds. "You say the dam gives them power, take that away."
She shakes her head, but her voice is softer with him than the others. "That dam withstood a nuclear war, commander. I highly-"
"All she offers is no." Quint cuts her off in a rawr of words.
"Quint." Bellamy's eyes cut to him and he bows his head towards him.
"Apologies, commander. But the biggest army we've had waits for us to give it a mission, the longer that takes the more of our people die inside that mountain." He sounds passive but Bellamy notes the scrunching of his brow as he looks at the sky princess.
"It's the same for all of us." She argues back.
"We've lost thousands, how many have you lost, girl?" He sneers at Clarke again before turning to meet Bellamy's eyes that had once again strayed to Clarke's face. "She says she has a plan; I say waiting for one man to get inside is not a very good one."
"I agree with Quint, we have an army let's use it." Indra says.
"We will, after Wells lowers their defenses, turns off the acid fog." Her hands come down on the table in frustration. "I don't care how many men you have! If you can't get to your enemy, you can't win."
Quint rounds on Clarke. "You are the enemy."
"I'm sorry, have I done something to offend you?" Her blue eyes blaze with cold fire.
"Yes," Quint says as he stalks towards her. "You burned my brother alive in a ring of fire."
And just for a moment Bellamy sees the spark of life in her again as she leans in close to Quint and says, "He shouldn't've attacked my ship.
Quint's voice is quiet, but Bellamy can still hear the threat in it. "You're very brave under the commander's protection."
"Enough." Bellamy says. "Quint's right. Waiting for Wells isn't a plan, it's a prayer. One that's not likely to be answered."
"Excuse me," Clarke says as she starts to flee, her guard not far behind her. "I need some air."
"Everyone take a break," Bellamy calls the rest of the room. His gut is telling him he needs to follow Clarke. "We will meet again after supper."
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Clarke starts running when she hits the forest and only stops when she can no longer breath. Major Byrne is long behind her and even though she knows she should have waited she couldn't stop.
The flash of silver catches her eyes just before Quint's voice calls out. "Not so brave now are you, Skygirl?"
He pulls back on the bow and she moves just in time for the arrow he volleys at her to hit the tree instead of her. She takes off running without paying attention to what direction she is going. She can only hope that its back towards the village. The crunch of feet on the forest litter catches her attention as she skids to a halt and yanks the gun from the small of her back.
When she sees familiar blonde hair, she breathes out in relief. "Byrne, thank god! Quint-"
Her relief is short lived when Major Byrne turns to her and Clarke sees that her arm is missing and the whole side of her body is coated in blood. She only has time to tell Clarke to save herself before the thud of her body hitting the floor meets Clarke's ears.
With a yelp Clarke takes off again in the opposite direction Major Byrne had been stumbling from. The sudden jolt of fear rushes through her as Quint tackles Clarke to the ground. His knees are pressing hard on Clarke's hands as he straddles her body keeping her trapped underneath him.
"For my brother!" He shouts as he pulls the sword in his hand above his head, preparing to sink it into her chest. Suddenly there is a knife sticking out from his hand and he's dropped the sword. Then he's being violently pulled off her.
"Attack her and you attack me." The deep voice of Bellamy rumbles and her body relaxes without her permission.
His hand reaches down to help her up. As her feet find the forest floor below her, she thanks him. His voice is concerned when he asks where her guard is.
"He killed her." she says as she points behind her.
"She lies." Quint shouts from where he is restrained by Bellamy's guard. "My fight is only with her."
"Yu gonplei ste odon." Bellamy says before he turns soft eyes towards her. "The kill is yours, Clarke."
Clarke lifts her gun to point at Quint, trying to force herself to pull the trigger. A sharp crack grabs her attention before a deep growl reverberates around her. "What is that?"
The fear in Bellamy's eyes shocks her when she hears him whisper. "Pauna." He turns so quickly she almost misses the action but when he stabs Quint in the leg, she hears the hissing through his teeth before Bellamy grabs her hand and yells at her to run.
Clarke can feel the hand that drags her getting sweatier with every mile they run. She knows she isn't going to be able to keep this pace up much longer. Her leg aches and there is a stitch in her side. "We need to hide!" She yells at Bellamy just before the sight of a tunnel catches her eye and she pulls him towards it. "This way, I found something."
Bellamy crawls in ahead of her with his guard following closely behind. When they hit the end of the tunnel what they see shocks her. "What is this place?" she asks, looking around at the dead bodies of humans and animals alike, the smell of rotten flesh assaults her nose.
"It's her feeding ground." He says, pulling his hand away from hers.
She rubs her hand absently against her leg. Now that he has let her go, she feels the anxiety spiking in her chest. "Let's go."
They start to climb up the square rocks that jut out on top of each other when the Pauna stands tall at the other side of the crevasse they found themselves in. They all paused when suddenly Pauna stood up and roared at them. Bellamy and his guard pulled their swords out and the gun that she hadn't put away while they ran shook at her side.
Pauna leapt towards them and landed on his guard, biting into him and tearing him in two before throwing part of him aside. Her head rose with fresh blood trailing through the fur around her muzzle. She started to climb towards them and the sound of two shots ringing through the air startled her. Only when her gaze flicked down to her hand did she realize that she'd been the one to shoot.
Pauna kept moving towards them despite the two rounds she had fired into her chest. When she leapt again Clarke emptied the rest of her clip into the gorilla, who staggered backwards before falling. They took that opportunity to scramble further up the hill. As they crested the hill, Clarke heard Pauna grunting as she started to rise to her feet.
She grabs Bellamy's hand pulling him to the edge before she stops. She looks at him before leaping off and onto the hard ground below. He follows suit just in time to avoid the swipe of Puana's giant paw. He rolls on his ankle as he hits the ground and tells her to leave him there.
"No way!" She shouts at him as she pulls his arm over her shoulder and drags him forward, closing the metal doors behind them she takes his sword and shoves it across the doors to lock them in.
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When they finally sit down Clarke pulls his leg toward her and starts to run her hands over his ankle, sending chills up his spine and a hiss through his teeth. His eyes roam over her face as he says, "You should've left me behind, now two will die here instead of one."
"I'm still new to your culture but when someone saves someone's life, my people say thank you." She says as she leans back against the wall behind her after she set his ankle down. "Your ankle is only sprained, not broken."
"I'm serious Clarke," He can feel the frustration with her rising in his chest. Now she will die because she tried to save him, and he hates her for it. "To lead well you must make hard choices."
"Hard choices?" Her voice is incredulous as she turns hard eyes on him. "You're telling me that."
"I've seen your strength, it's true but now you waver." He tries to gentle the bite in his tone, but he can't seem to let it go anywhere. "You couldn't kill Quint; you couldn't leave me to die. That was weakness."
"I thought love was weakness." She sneers at him.
"Mockery is not the product of a strong mind, Clarke." He sighs and drops his head against the wall behind him.
"You wanna know why I saved you? Because I need you. God forbid one of your generals becomes commander. You may be heartless, Bell, but at least you're smart."
His heart clenches when she uses the nickname only his family has ever used for him. He lifts his head to look at her. "Don't worry, my spirit will choose much more wisely than that."
"Your spirit?" Clarke's face is confused when she looks at him.
"When I die, my spirit will find the next commander." He shrugs at her.
The door begins to rattle effectively cutting off any further conversation. "It found us."
Bellamy stands up resigning himself to this fate. "Don't be afraid Clarke, death is not the end."
"We are not dying here!" She says, and he watches her blue eyes dart around the room. "I need your spirit to stay where it is!"
He pulls out the second sword he had strapped to his side as he drops down into a fighting stance, mindful of his ankle. "Get ready to fight, it's coming in."
"Maybe we let it in. Come here!" Bellamy is surprised when he is yanked towards her as she stands next to the door. Her hand reaches out and grabs his sword that is holding the door closed. "Now!"
The door swings open and they are running out behind Pauna as she launches herself inside. The doors swing close from the momentum and they drop the metal bar that is there across it and take off running as fast as his ankle will allow.
When they finally stop running, they have put some distance between them and the gorilla. "How's your ankle?" She asks as he watches her chest heave as she gulps down air.
"Hurts." He grunts at her. A heavy feeling settles on his chest and he notes that it's not from the running.
She turns her blue eyes back toward the way they came. "We should go, that cage won't hold forever."
"Wait," He grabs her hands to stop her from moving off, capturing her blue eyes with his intense stare. "I was wrong about you, Clarke. Your heart shows no sign of weakness."
"The cage won't hold." She says as she pulls back from him. "I think I know how to take Mount Weather. We've been trying to get inside, but they've already let us in."
His brows furrow in confusion. "What are you talking about?"
"Your army is already there, locked in cages." Her blue eyes start to dance as she slowly pulls the words out of her mind. "We just need someone on the inside to let them out."
"Wells? You have faith in him." His chest tightens as he says the words.
When she smiles softly as she says, "I do.", he begins to understand that the feeling he has is jealousy.
"I hope your faith is well placed. Because if he can't get inside, we can't win." He says sharply.
"He will. Bell, this is gonna work. Come on" She says, reaching out for his hand to pull him forward, back towards camp.
