Review Responses:
Water vs. Fire- Hi, thanks for leaving a review! Always nice to see that a person likes my characters. I can't wait to keep on writing this story either! The show is great, and I have so many ideas on what I can do with it in season 2. :)
artificial-paradises- Your reviews always make me smile! They're so lenghty, I love it! Thanks for the little bit of constructive criticism, I tried working on that in this chapter. Don't know if it's noticeable, since I am aware that that's what I mostly need to improve on, but I'll keep trying.
Once Lea and Angelos have reunited on the ground, there will definitely be more questions answered about their family and back-story.
The relationship between Angie and Wells is something I want to work on. Also with Clarke, there might be a strong friendship forming on between Angelos and her. There's moments in this chapter that hint on it, too.
Bellamy and Angelos. Ah, those two are so very fun to write! But yes, there will be a heart-to-heart moment later on. This will be a slow-burn, yeah.
I can't wait for Angie's character development! Honestly, this chick is gonna be something else (probably, I hope). Thanks for reading and reviewing, looking forward to your next The 100 story update! :)
The 25-year-old debated whether to talk to Abby Griffin about what she saw yesterday as she searched her jacket's pocket for her key-card.
Wrapping her fingers around her residential unit's card, Lea sighed and turned to head for Medical.
"Where you going?" She heard Taylor open the door and ask from behind.
"Distribution center, we're almost out of soap," she lied swiftly, meeting the boy with a smile.
"Oh."
"Don't worry, I'll get that later." Lea stepped inside the small flat, ruffling his hair, and grinned when he hissed angrily at her. "Tell me, how was school?"
"Fine," he shrugged, trying to comb his messy hair with his fingers, and glared at her as she took off her uniform jacket.
Lea sat down at the table, shaking her head at him in confusion, "Why are you looking at me like that?"
The teen crossed his arms and called her out on her lie, "We have two soap bars to spare, Lea. What where you really going to do? Pay back Allan for that extra couple of rations he lent you? You promised you wouldn't-"
Taylor knew her too well. How couldn't he? She'd been babysitting him since he was four, and, after his mother's death, she looked after him like a son. Lea was the closest thing he had to a family now, and she felt the same way about him, too. That's why there where no secrets between them and she couldn't let him think that she was prostituting herself again.
"I'm not, Taylor," Lea cut him short, her tone serious and honest, and he took a seat across from her.
"Then, why'd you lie?"
She rested her arms on the table and leaned in, her voice lowering to almost a whisper even if the two were the only ones in the room, "It's my sister. The Council has finally sent The 100 down to Earth, and I want to know if she's safe. I was going to Medical to talk to Dr. Griffin, see if she could give me some details, but I'm not sure if she will... I kinda slapped her the last time we spoke."
"I'm sure she's over it," he gave her a small smile, knowing how worried she must be. Lea rarely talked about Angelos- he didn't even know she had a sister, until his mother told him they floated her parents for having an illegal child, a few days after Lea moved in with them- but he saw the way her blue eyes grew sad whenever Angelos' name came up, and he knew how much Lea still cared for her little sister.
"Thanks, Tay." She let out a breath, remembering the day the Council tried to float her sister after she escaped the Sky Box and threatened to kill Chancellor Jaha.
At first, Lea had become angry at Angelos. What was she thinking?, Lea had thought.
The answer was that she wasn't. For all she knew, Lea was dead along with her parents. The thought of her big sister being alive never crossed her mind and she'd let herself be blinded by the grief. Angelos had tried to take the pain away by getting revenge, not caring what happened to her.
But Lea cared if she died, and she'd let the Council know that when she stormed in on their meeting.
"You're not floating my sister." They had all been surprised at her, the guards standing at either side of the doors immediately aiming their guns to stop her. "She's not eighteen, yet, and the law says you can't float her for her crimes until then."
"I am the law, Ms. Hicks." Chancellor Jaha rose from his seat, ordering the guards to stand down, "And I say that, by threatening my life and the lives of the Council Members, your sister's crime is punishable by death."
"She's sixteen!" Lea had exclaimed, alarming the guards when she stepped forward but they didn't hold her back. "You locked her in a cell for being born. You floated our parents for not killing her! If anyone should be punished with death, it should be you, Chancellor!"
"I'm sorry, Lea, but Rita and Caleb knew the Ark's laws and they chose to ignore them." She was taken back by Abby Griffin's words. The woman who had been like a sister to her father was siding with the man who'd killed her parents and was about to do the same to her sister. "As for Angelos, she must've known the consequences of her actions when she chose to attack Chancellor Jaha, and she went through with them anyway."
The loud smack of Lea's slap had echoed across the large room, Abby and the others too stunned to do or say anything.
"Don't you ever talk that way about my family," Lea growled. "You knew my father well, Abigail, and you know why he did what he did." Lea's eyes were cold and blazing all at once as Abby blinked the stinging pain on her cheek away and listened to her say, "Tell me, Abby, if they were deciding whether Clarke got to live or die, what would you do? Would you not fight, kick, and scream to stop that?"
The doctor nodded, holding the brunette's gaze, "I would do whatever it took to protect my daughter."
Lea smiled, though it was far from warm and friendly, and she looked over at the table to the Chancellor, "What about you, Chancellor Jaha, would you do the same for your son?"
"Yes, but-"
Making her point, she interrupted him and said to all of the Council, "Then you would understand why I am willing to trade places with my sister and demand that I be the one to pay the price for her crimes." Before they would all start protesting, she added, "You can do whatever the hell you want. Shock-lash me. Float me. But my sister will not be floated until she's Reviewed at 18."
Lea stood tall looking at the adults with a hardened glare, lettting them know that if anyone was going to hurt her sister, they'd have to go through her first.
Angelos woke up from another nightmare with her hands shaking as she brought them up to rub her face. The loud bang of the gun's shot she'd aimed at her father just before she opened her eyes rang in her ears and her heart bat wildly in her heaving chest.
"Hey," someone said behind her and she jumped a couple inches from the ground. "That bad, huh?" Wells held out his hand with an apologetic look, realizing he scared her.
Without replying, Angelos took it and lifted herself from the ground. Killing that guard back at the Sky Box had done a number on her, and so had that nasty dream, but she didn't let herself show it as she glanced at Well's shovel.
"What are you doing with that?"
He looked down at it before meeting her eyes, "The two kids that died on impact, someone's gotta bury them. Wanna help?"
"Sure," Angelos shrugged and followed him to a clearing a short distance away from the dropship.
Wells dug the graves while Angelos stripped the bodies of their clothes, leaving the two teenage boys in their underwear.
They were cold to the touch and she swallowed down the smell of death, piling up the clothes next to a tree log and dragging one of them by their feet to the grave.
Wells stopped digging and put his shovel down when he saw her cheeks turn a sick shade of yellow-ish green. "Hey, I got it."
With a look up, she nodded in a grateful manner, "'Kay."
Angelos watched Wells grab the corpse by the waist and throw him over his shoulder with merely any effort. It was then that she noticed- or didn't notice, rather- the wristband on his right wrist.
"What happened to your wristband?" She asked in confusion as he dumped the dead body in a six-foot-deep hole.
"It's gone," Wells replied. His eyes flickered with anger for a second before he picked up the shovel and started covering the grave with dirt.
With a sigh, Angelos grabbed her own shovel and helped him. "It was that Bellamy guy, wasn't it?" She asked again, knowing that the Chancellor's son would never take the device off willingly. "He took it off for you."
Wells nodded at her, pausing for a moment to look at her, "They took yours off, too." His eyes lowered at her bruised wrist, "I thought you'd put up less of a fight, knowing how much you hate my father."
"I do hate the Chancellor," she agreed, dumping another shovel of dirt into the hole, "but I hate Bellamy, too."
Recalling her words from last night, he said, "He was the guard who put you in Lockup."
"And for that, I'll make his life a living hell," she promised, more to herself than to Wells, and there was no talking after that.
Moments later, the two of them finished burying the dead guys and they split their clothes to take back to camp.
Kids ran around laughing as they chased each other and Angelos slightly frowned as Wells and she passed through them, trying to remember the last time she had any fun.
The memory of when Lea last played hide-n-seek with her was faint, but still there, and she quickly pushed it to the back of her mind.
Angelos didn't have time for fun, not when Clarke's group was still out searching for food so they could survive on the ground. Even if she did, the only person she wanted to spend her spare time with was dead.
And the one person she despised the most was with her on the ground.
She scoffed to herself, earning a confused glance from Wells that she ignored as a dry smile formed on her lips, Oh, sweet irony. Never fail to amaze me, do you?
"Hey, where did you get the clothes?" She stopped and stared back at a boy not much older than her.
"They were from the two kids that died during the landing," Wells answered for her.
"Smart," the dark-haired guy nodded, stretching out his arms to take them from her. "You know, I'll take it from here. There's always a market for-"
When Angelos didn't do anything to stop him, Wells put his arm between them and blocked the kid from getting the clothes, "We share based on need, just like back home."
Angelos opened her mouth to stop the arguing, but she took a step back when an older voice said, "You still don't get it, do you, Chancellor?"
Bellamy Blake came out of the dropship, standing shirtless in front of them. Not a moment later, a girl in a sports bra appeared from behind the drapes, that concealed the inside of the dropship, to kiss Bellamy goodbye.
Surely, that has to be illegal, Angelos watched the teenage girl walk away with a pleased smile on her face, and glanced back at Bellamy with disgust.
But he ignored her as he continued with a cocky smile, "This is home now."
Wells rolled his eyes as Bellamy walked closer to Angelos, who looked pissed at the older man standing in front of her.
"Your father's rules no longer apply." Bellamy smirked down at her, still talking to Wells and grabbing for the shirt in her hands.
Angelos clenched her hands tight around the fabric, catching a glimpse of the gun against his bare hip as she looked up at him indignantly.
"Come on, I need the shirt, sweetheart," he tugged on the blue shirt, his voice giving out a spark of annoyance.
"My name is Angelos," she took off his hand from the clothes to throw them on the ground, meeting his eyes with a challenging glare, "and if you want it so badly, go get it."
His jaw clenched, a dark look crossing his face, but her daring eyes didn't falter as he opened his mouth only to be silenced by a high-pitched scream.
Wells and Atom turned their heads in the direction of the scream, Angelos watching as Bellamy took his gun and picked up the shirt with a disapproving huff, before leaving the dropship's entrance.
"Bellamy! Check it out, we want the Ark to think that the ground is killing us, right?" A crowd gathered around John Murphy, who held a girl's face close to the fire as Bellamy, Wells, and Angelos made their way to the front of the crowd. "Figured it'll look better if we suffered a little bit first-"
"Let her go!" Wells shoved Murphy in a fit of anger, the kids around them gasping as Murphy hit the ground.
The teenaged girl backed away from the fire, stumbling backwards and landing on Angelos's arms with widened eyes.
"Are you okay?" Angelos asked the frightened girl, helping her stand back up as she nodded breathlessly.
"I'm fine, thanks," she looked at Angelos, wrapping her fingers around her cuffed wrist as she glanced at the fire, and walked away.
"You can stop this." The dark-haired girl turned her attention to Wells, who was talking to Bellamy now.
"Stop this? I'm just getting started," he contradicted, but Murphy didn't give him enough time to keep running his mouth.
Angelos blinked once and the bastard was off the ground, already punching Wells in the face as the audience reacted with eagerness, waiting for a fight to ensue.
"Fight, fight, fight!" the delinquents cheered when Wells made a move of his own after letting Murphy beat his ass around.
Three hits was what it took to pin Murphy down and Wells stood up from the fight to shout at Bellamy, "Don't you see you can't control this?!"
"Your dead," Murphy muttered, Angelos watching as he stood up with a murderous look in his eyes.
She swore under her breath and lunged at him before his knife drove into Well's back. The crowd made some noise, Wells and Bellamy looking at Angelos as she swung her fist at Murphy.
He caught her hand easily and jabbed his knee into her stomach, the eruption of pain making Angelos fall back on the ground. Her body coiled on the dirt, she watched Murphy hold up his knife but Bellamy held his arm back to stop him.
"Wait." He made Murphy back away from Angelos, letting her sit up and take a few breaths before he took his knife and threw it down at her, like she'd done to the clothes, "Fair fight."
Angelos looked up at him with a devil's anger as she took a mouth-full of saliva and furiously spit it out at his knife.
"Thanks, Prince Charming," her voice dripped with sarcasm, taking her knife out of the sole of her boot, "but this damsel can take care of her own."
"Doesn't hurt to help," he stepped out of her way with a nonchalant shrug, only adding fire to the fuel inside Angelos as she stood up.
"Ready for a beat, dickhead?" she sneered at Murphy, who only smirked in return.
"Are you?" He charged, his knife cutting for stomach but she backed away and let the blade slash through thin air.
The crowd grew ecstatic, Wells the only one who appeared worried as Murphy made another attempt to stab Angelos in her chest, but the girl had it handled.
Angelos ducked when Murphy slashed at her head and she tackled him down by the waist, putting all her weight on him as he fell to the ground with her knife pressed against his throat.
"Come on!" A few from the crowd shouted but a female voice cut through their noise, leaving them to wonder if Angelos would've gone through with slashing Murphy's throat or not.
"Angelos, let him go!" she heard Clarke demand and she stood up from atop Murphy, who looked as happy as a fire-breathing dragon when her blade left his throat.
The pissed off teen brushed himself off from the ground and lunged at the distracted brunette. Seeing Murphy come after Angelos, Clarke pulled the girl closer to her and out of his way.
Angelos furrowed her eyebrows in confusion, staring at the blonde's grip on her shoulder, "What the hell-"
"Murphy, that's enough!" Bellamy raced over to Murphy, getting in between Angelos and him to hold him back.
With a death glare shot at her, Murphy shoved Bellamy off of him and left.
"Oh, now you stop it," Angelos said to him with mock disbelief when he glanced back at her, she rubbing off the blood on the corner of her lip with the back of her hand that held her knife. "Thanks again, Charming."
She watched a muscle in his jaw tick again, a sign that he was pissed off, but his face relaxed and his eyes grew worried as he looked behind Clarke and her at his little sister.
"Octavia," Bellamy breathed out, walking towards Octavia. "Are you alright?" Angelos freed herself from Clarke and turned to face the limping girl, who was given a hug by her brother.
"Yeah," the small brunette nodded and pulled back from Bellamy's embrace.
"Where's the food?" he looked at the returning group.
"We didn't make it to Mount Weather," Finn answered from the rock he sat on.
"What the hell happened out there?"
"We were attacked," it was Clarke that brought on the bad news, her blue eyes expressing her worry.
"Attacked?" Wells echoed while Angelos looked at the group and began to count them. "By what?"
"Not what," Finn spoke up, clarifying, "who. It turns out, that when the last man from the ground died on the Ark, he wasn't the last Grounder."
Four, Angelos finished. Not five. They were missing a kid. The scrawny one with the goggles, she realized.
"It's true," Clarke nodded to the other delinquents around her, "Everything 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."
"That bad news is, the Grounders will," Finn added as an afterthought, not loud enough for the whole crowd to hear, but those who were close did.
"There's four of you," Angelos announced. "Where's the fifth?"
"Jasper was hit," Clarke cast her eyes downward. "They took him," she finished, catching Wells' bare wrist. "Where's your wristband?" Her look of distress was gone, a mildly angry one taking its place as she picked up his arm.
Wells gulped, looking up from her hand on his wrist to rest his eyes on Bellamy, "Ask him."
"How many?" She was furious now, turning to face the dark-haired young man.
"Twenty-four and counting," Murphy replied with a smug smile.
Clarke's eyes widened, letting out, "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!"
"We're stronger than you think," Bellamy looked at Clarke, shaking his head in disagreement. "Don't listen to her!" he took a step closer to the crowd. "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 you carry, it makes you a prisoner. We are not prisoners anymore!"
"But we're people," Angelos stepped up next to him. If she was here to defy him, she might as well be doing it right now. "People with a family! Up there, on the Ark, live the ones who you care about. Loved ones that you will be killing if you take those metal cuffs off! They have forgiven our crimes! They have given us a second chance to live with our families on the ground! Get rid of your wristband, and you'll be ridding yourself of seeing your family ever again."
Bellamy nodded, handing it to Angelos. She was a good influential speaker, but he was not going to give up that easily. "They say they'll forgive your crimes! I say you're not criminals!" The crowd erupted in agreement and Bellamy looked away from the enraged girl at his left. "You're fighters. Survivors! The Grounders should be worried about us!"
"Yeah!" The audience shouted, although some of them stayed silent as they thought about Angelos' words.
"Great speech, Charming," her tone was sarcastic, making sure to bump his shoulder with her own as she walked past him.
"Not bad yourself, sweetheart," he called after her, and, although he couldn't see her, Angelos rolled her eyes and caught up with Clarke.
"Are you going after that Jasper kid?" Angelos asked her.
"Yeah," answered Clarke as she kept walking to the dropship. "Monty's coming, and I have yet to tell Finn. Octavia's not going, she'll only slow us down with her injured leg, so you're welcome to join if you want. The more people looking out for him, the greater the chance of finding him."
"I, uh...," Angelos wasn't into the whole rescue rangers thing, but she couldn't stick around Bellamy and his minions any longer, "I'll take up on the offer." Getting away from the dropship seemed like the perfect idea. "When do we leave?"
"First, I'm going to need to clean that cut," Clarke stopped and glanced at her bleeding forehead. Angelos touched her wound and winced, realizing that Murphy had gotten a slash at her after all. It was probably because of the adrenaline in her body that she hadn't felt any pain, until now. "It can get infected otherwise," the blonde pressed on and Angelos nodded.
"Yeah, whatever you need to do is fine by me."
A/N: And that's the end of part 1! I felt like updating something, and this is what I had written so far so I apologize for it being short. My plan was to write down the whole episode in one chapter, but with school and its pesky exams, this is what I managed to squeeze out between 'studying'. I'll try my best to update sooner, but it's most likely that I'll start writing again when school's over.
Please, don't forget to leave a review, they seriously encourage me to write faster! Thank you so so much for reading/following/favorite-ing and reviewing! Wish all you lovelies a good day/night! :)