Third Person's POV
Julia Blake stood near the drop ship, conversing with a few other prisoners. She was in the middle of a sentence when a girl's scream cut her off. She immediately went running in the direction of the scream.
Her run slowed to a stop when she what was happening. Murphy was forcefully holding a girl over a fire. Bellamy, Wells, and Atom all ran over too, along with a small crowd of people.
"Bellamy. Check it out. We want the Ark to think that the ground is killing us, right? Figure it'll look better if we suffer a little bit first." Murphy said and Julia rolled her eyes.
"Let her go!" Wells shouted, shoving Murphy away from the girl and the fire. Then Wells turned to Bellamy. "You can stop this."
"Stop this? I'm just getting started." Bellamy said just before Murphy stood up and punched Wells across the face. The two of them started fighting, while the crowd screamed "fight!" over and over, egging them on. Julia did not join in chanting this time.
Murphy punched Wells in the stomach and went in for another punch, but Wells blocked, punching Murphy in the stomach.
Then Murphy tackled Wells to the ground and got a few punches in before Wells turned them over so he was on top. He punched Murphy a few times before standing up, leaving Murphy on the ground.
"Don't you see you can't control this?" Wells turned to Bellamy again. Murphy grabbed his knife before standing up. Julia tensed. Fighting, for the most part, was harmless. It wouldn't have long lasting effects. Bringing a weapon into it made it much more serious.
"You're dead." Murphy spoke and Wells turned to face him.
"Wait." Bellamy put his hand up to stop Murphy before turning to Wells and throwing a knife on the ground in front of him. "Fair fight."
Kids murmured and Murphy smiled a bit sadistically before Wells picked up the knife.
Murphy made the first move and went to slash at him with his knife, which Wells dodged. He did the same thing again for Wells made a move. He lunged forward to slash him, but Murphy dodged.
Because of the momentum Wells had, Murphy was able to slash his arm, going through the material of his shirt and digging into his skin lightly.
Julia chewed on her lip as she watched. It was a nervous habit she had ever since she was young. And right now, she was very nervous. She didn't want anything to happen to Murphy.
"This is for my father!" Murphy shouted and lunged forward towards Wells, but Wells managed to twist his arm and turn him around, holding his knife against his throat.
Julia didn't believe that Wells had the guts to actually kill a person, but she wasn't willing to take any chances. She only made it two steps forward before Clarke's voice cut through the air.
"Wells! Let him go!" Clarke exclaimed as she and Finn came into sight. Wells roughly shoved Murphy away from him.
Murphy went to attack him again but Julia moved to block his way. She shook her head at him and spoke quietly, "Not now, Murphy." He didn't like it, but he stood down.
"Octavia." Bellamy's worried tone caught Julia's attention. She looked over to see Octavia was limping and Monty was helping her walk. Bellamy ran over to take Monty's place.
"Are you all right?" Bellamy questioned and Octavia winced as she was transferred from Monty to her brother. "Yeah," she answered.
"Where's the food?" Bellamy asked the other kids that went with her. As Julia scanned the group, she realized someone was missing. "And where's Jasper?" She added on.
"We didn't make it to Mount Weather." Finn spoke, sitting down on a rock. "What the fuck happened out there?" Bellamy demanded.
"We were attacked." Clarke answered. "By what?" Wells responded. "Not what. Who. It turns out when the last man from the ground died on the Ark, he wasn't the last grounder." Finn explained and Julia furrowed her eyebrows.
"It's true. Everything we thought we knew about the ground is wrong. There are people here, survivors. The good news is, that means we can survive. Radiation won't kill us." Clarke announced.
"Yeah, the bad news is, the grounders will." Finn finished Clarke's thought. "I'm going to ask again, where is Jasper?" Julia questioned, more force in her voice this time.
"He was hit. They took him." Clarke answered and then noticed Wells' wrist. "Where is your wristband?" She demanded and Wells turned to Bellamy. "Ask him."
Julia's eyebrow raised in surprise. This was news to her. She knew Bellamy wanted the wristbands off, but she didn't think he'd force them off of people who wanted to keep them on.
"How many?" Clarke questioned Bellamy, taking a step towards him. "Twenty-five and counting." Murphy answered, a smirk on his face.
Clarke looked horrified. "You idiots. Life support on the Ark is failing. That's why they brought us down here. They need to know the ground is survivable again, and we need their help against whoever is out there. If you take off your wristbands, you're not just killing them. You're killing us!" Clarke revealed to the crowd.
The information shocked Julia and the newfound guilt she felt made her feel like there was a weight crushing down on her chest.
She had taken her wristband off because she wanted to help her brother and because she didn't care if the people of the Ark came down after them.
She figured they could just continue living in the Ark until the point where they had originally planned to bring people down. She didn't know that taking off her wristband was essentially killing them.
Yeah, there weren't any people she personally cared about on the Ark, but there were innocent people and children. The thought of them dying because of something she was involved in made her sick. She found herself unconsciously touching her wrist where the band used to be.
Bellamy rolled his eyes at Clarke's speech before starting his own.
"We're stronger than you think. Don't listen to her. She's one of the privileged. If they come down, she'll have it good. How many of you can say the same? We can take care of ourselves. That wristband on your arm? It makes you a prisoner. We are not prisoners anymore! They say they'll forgive your crimes. I say you're not criminals!" Bellamy adresses the crowd.
A chorus of "yeah"s again spread through the crowd. Julia did not join in this time either. She agreed with some parts of her brothers speech, but she couldn't get over the fact that if they all took off their wristbands that everyone on the Ark would die.
Julia could see the disgruntled look on Clarke's face before she started walking away. Monty went to follow her, but so did Julia.
Julia jogged up to Clarke and touched her arm, making Clarke face her. "Clarke, I'm sorry. I didn't know. I wouldn't have done it if had." She spoke and Clarke studied her for a moment before nodding in a forgiving way. She could see the girl was being genuine.
"What do we do now?" Monty questioned and Clarke glanced over at him. "Now we go after Jasper." Clarke answered. "I'm in." Julia spoke up and they both glanced over at her.
After a moment, Clarke nodded. Julia was glad Clarke was forgiving her and letting her join in, even after she had taken her wristband off.
Jasper may not have been one of her closest friends, but he was a friend and she wanted to do everything in her power to help bring him home.
~~~
Octavia groaned as Bellamy crouched down in front of her and cleaned the wound on her leg. Julia was sitting next to her, waiting while Clarke gathered supplies.
"What the hell was it?" Bellamy asked Octavia. "I don't know. The others said it looked like a giant snake." Octavia answered and Bellamy looked up at her.
"You could've been killed." Bellamy said just as Clarke walked over. "She would've been if Jasper didn't jump in to pull her out." Clarke told him.
"You guys leaving? I'm coming, too." Octavia said but Bellamy immediately shut her down. "No, no. No way. Not again." He told her. "He's right. Your leg's just gonna slow us down. I'm here for you." Clarke said to Bellamy, who stood up.
"Clarke, what are you doing?" Wells, who had followed Clarke over, asked. "I hear you have a gun." Clarke ignored Wells and continued to speak to Bellamy.
Bellamy confirmed this by lifting up his shirt to reveal his gun tucked into his pants waistband. "Good. Follow me." Clarke said before taking a few steps ahead.
"And why would I do that?" Bellamy questioned, turning around to face her. "Because you want them to follow you, and right now, they're thinking only one of us is scared." Clarke answered.
Julia stood up to start to follow Clarke, which Bellamy noticed and shook his head to. "You're not going." He told Julia, turning to face her. "Actually, I am. I already told Clarke I was." Julia announced.
"Absolutely not. It's too dangerous." Bellamy said and Julia nodded. "I agree that it's dangerous, but I'm not going to stay here just because I'm afraid of getting hurt."
"I came down here to protect you. I'm not just going to let you go on a mission where I know you could get hurt or worse." Bellamy spoke, placing his hands on his hips.
"You came down here to protect me. So protect me. You're already going, Bell, so it's not like you won't be there to do just that. But I'm not asking for your permission. Jasper's a friend. I can't just sit here doing nothing while he's out there suffering and dying. I won't." Julia told him.
Bellamy just stared at her and she stared back, silently standing off against each other. Julia was unwavering. After a few very long moments, Bellamy sighed and looked at the ground.
"You're the most stubborn person I've ever met, you know that?" He spoke and Julia looked up at him, questioningly. "Does this mean you're letting me go?" She asked him.
Bellamy sighed again. "Yes. But there are rules. First and most important, don't ever leave my sight. Second, if there's ever a point where I think it's actually to dangerous for you to go any further, you're coming back. No arguments. Is that clear?" Bellamy questioned.
"Crystal." Julia begrudgingly agreed. She knew that this was the only way he'd even consider letting her go, so she agreed to his rules.
Hearing his sisters compliance, Bellamy turned to Murphy and Atom. "Murphy. Come with us. Atom? Octavia doesn't leave this camp. Is that clear?" Bellamy asked him.
"I can't believe you're letting Jules go and not me. And besides, I don't need a babysitter." Octavia objected as she tied a bandage around her leg.
"Anybody touches her, they answer to me." Bellamy told Atom before he, Julia, and Murphy started off after Clarke and Wells to go rescue Jasper.