Chapter 29

The ELIGIUS ship slowed its descent, but Jane couldn't see anything from where she was detained. But she didn't care. All she could think about was her two kids and her husband, who was breaking down. They touched down and the engines quieted. Jane noticed the silence – beside the brouhaha inside the ship – and stillness of the ship. After six years in space, machine noise was embedded in everyone and everything.

Robert McCreary ordered one of his guys to open the door. He obeyed and lifted the lever. The door hissed opened and sunshine illuminated the inside, blinding everyone. Jane squinted in the bright light, and everyone needed a few seconds for their eyes to adjust.

Bellamy, still on his knees, slowly came back to his senses and realized what was going on. He quickly looked at his wife and children who were also detained, but unharmed. For now. He noticed Atticus was wiggling in his seat, concentrating on something. Bellamy glanced at the blonde woman standing next to the children, and noted she was looking at the outside of the ship instead of her prisoners. He looked back at Persephone and Atticus and caught his son's eyes. Atticus discreetly showed his father that his hands were unbound. Bellamy nodded once to him.

"Let us go," he said, standing up. "We know the Ground, and you don't."

"So?" Robert McCreary said, lifting an eyebrow.

"We can help you."

Skaikru 2.0 looked at him in disbelief.

"What are you doing?" Murphy asked from his seat to which he was still bound to.

"We need each other," Bellamy said, his eyes focused on Murphy. He didn't dare look at Atticus, but he knew he was slowly making his way out of the ship. If he could just keep everyone's attention on him, maybe Atticus could get away unnoticed.

Murphy, Monty and Bellamy still argued loudly in front of everyone. Suddenly, Jane became pale.

"Bell," she said slowly.

"I know, honey. I got this."

"Hey!" the colored man who had asked who Jane was on the Ark called out. "One of the kids is gone!"

Bellamy closed his eyes, hoping Atticus got far enough not to be seen. A group of men scrambled out of the ship, looking for five-year-old Atticus. But he was far away, looking for help. And it came pretty much by chance.

"Hey, pssst!" Atticus heard from behind a thicket of trees.

He stopped in his tracks and listened for another call. "Clarke?" he finally tried out. He had heard more than once his parents tell him the story of their time on the ground and how this girl was left behind and waiting for them. And he had just heard her say Never mind, I see you, so he knew she would be close.

"Yeah," she whispered. "Come here."

Atticus followed the voice and stumbled upon a blonde young woman and a much younger brunette girl.

"We need help," he quickly told her. "My daddy and mommy are prisoners on the ship!"

But Clarke was frozen in place, staring at this young boy who looked so much like his father and mother. He had dark curls and freckles like his daddy, and hazel eyes like his mother. Clarke caught her breath. Bellamy and Jane had another kid. Her hands started to tremble. Had he not heard her messages? Probably not. She swallowed back the tears and held her rifle tighter against her.

"You look like your daddy so much," she said softly. "What's your name?"

"Atticus. But we need help," he said again.

"We saw the ship come down," Clarke said. "Tell me what happened inside."

And Atticus told her how "the ship docked on the Ark and how this man called Robert had offered to take us to the ground, and how when we got in we heard a girl's voice, yours I think, and how the Robert-man ordered our people to be prisoners and I managed to take my hands out of the knot and ran away to find help."

Clarke and Maddi exchanged a look. "They probably intercepted my messages and know I'm here. Otherwise why would they have stopped at the Ark and taken our people prisoners?"

Maddi nodded. "What do we do now?"

"For starters, Atticus stays with us. Did you load all the guns?"

Maddi nodded again.

"Good. Bring them here, Natblida," Clarke said, keeping an eye on the ship a few hundred yards away.

"Atticus, where are you?" an unfamiliar voice called out. "Come back, we're not gonna hurt you."

Atticus turned around, looking at the ship and the men walking around looking for him. he looked up to Clarke, asking without a word what he should do. Clarke shook her head. "You're staying with me," she whispered just as Maddi came back with five guns in her arms. Clarke took the biggest, her rifle on which she had carved the names of every person she had known on Earth.

"Atticus," another voice said. "If you're not coming out, I'm gonna hurt your mommy."

Atticus, Clarke and Maddi crouched behind some bushes and observed the scene.

"I have to go," Atticus whispered desperately. "They're gonna hurt her."

"No, they're not," Clarke said.

But as soon as Jane was brought on firm ground, the man holding her kicked her behind the knees and she fell on her knees.

"Don't touch her!" Bellamy yelled from inside the ship.

Clarke noticed a bearded man. "Is that your Robert-guy?"

Atticus nodded.

Robert McCreary motioned to the guy holding Jane and he obeyed the silent order. He took out a knife from inside his boot and held it to Jane's neck. Jane stayed stoic, knowing that her son was out there, but not knowing where. Bellamy was losing it again. He couldn't let them hurt his wife.

"Please," Bellamy said. "I'll do anything, but please don't touch her. Don't touch my people. I'll do whatever you want."

Clarke felt a pang of emotion seize her heart. She had said the same thing about Bellamy when Roan was about to kill him. And now Bellamy was using the same words to save Jane and his people. She closed her eyes just a second to get a hold of herself. She was the Grounder, now, and these people had her friends. She had to do something.

Robert himself took a stick from the ground and hit Bellamy in the back of his head. Bellamy groaned and fell on his knees, too. Now both Jane and Bellamy were kneeling in the dirt. The guy pressing the knife on Jane's neck pressed harder, enough to draw a small prickle of blood that streamed down her throat and into her shirt.

"We need to do something, Clarke," Atticus whispered again desperately.

Robert took out another knife and also put it under Bellamy's neck. "Clarke, if you're out there," he said loudly, "You better come out unarmed." He paused, looking through the trees for movement.

Clarke and her two protégés didn't dare move.

"I'll count to twenty, Clarke," Robert McCreary said. "If you're not here by then without a weapon, I'm killing him."

Clarke and Atticus gasped at the same time. The only thing that betrayed Jane's terror were her wide eyes. Otherwise, she was as still as a statue. She knew the knife would cut her if she moved.

"One," Robert McCreary started. "Clarke, you better come out."

Everyone was silent, looking around for movement among the trees.

"Two. Atticus, if you're out there, you better come out, too."

Pause

"Tree. Remember your mommy has a knife to her throat, too."

Pause.

"Four. You can save her."

Pause.

"Five."

Atticus couldn't wait any longer. Before Clarke could hold him back, he dashed through the bushes and appeared in front of everyone.

"Leave her alone!" He said to the guy holding the knife to his mom's neck, kicking him in the shin.

"Six."

The man howled and dropped the knife. Atticus quickly took it in his little hands and ran toward the guy holding his leg.

"Seven, Clarke. Come on out."

Atticus managed to cut the guy in the arm and another one held the little boy above the ground, kicking and thrashing in the air.

"Eight."

He dropped the knife and bit the hands holding him, which got him to be dropped back on the ground. He ran to Jane and started to work on the rope binding her hands.

"Nine."

Atticus didn't get far, though, because the blonde woman, Charmain something-something, quickly got a hold of him, and secured him on a seat inside the ship.

"Ten. Clarke, you've only have half the time left. You better get out here."

"Leave her out of this," Bellamy hissed. "She isn't even here."

"Eleven. Too bad, then. Because if she's not here when I get to twenty, you're dead."

Atticus was still thrashing on his seat. But at least his mommy didn't have a knife to her neck anymore. She had a boot holding her down, her face in the dirt, now.

"Twelve."

"Why do you want Clarke?" Murphy suddenly asked from his seat. "Why don't you just go look for her, huh? There's a hundred of you, and one of her."

"Thirteen," Robert continued, ignoring Murphy and keeping an eye on the trees.

"You afraid of her?" Murphy said, taunting him. "You know, she got out of situations worse than this." He laughed, shaking his head.

"Fourteen," he said, looking at Murphy.

"I remember the two times she actually killed three hundred people in one blow. There are just a hundred of you guys. Easy."

"Fifteen." Robert looked at the trees again, looking for Clarke.

"You know what they called her? Wanheda. You know what that means?"

"Sixteen." Robert had trouble focusing on his counting, now.

"Commander of Death. Yeah it went from Princess to Commander of Death."

"That escalated quickly," Monty said, joining Murphy in stalling the guy.

"Seventeen."

"I wouldn't count on her being afraid of you, you know?" Murphy continued, although he knew she might be terrified for Bellamy.

"Eighteen."

A crack of a stick froze everyone, and they all looked in the direction from where the noise came. A very young girl, no more than twelve years old, with brown hair, stepped out of the bushes, a gun in her hands.

"Clarke?" Robert McCreary asked.

"Nope," the girl said proudly, and Bellamy's eyes widened. Who on earth was this girl? Was she Clarke's daughter? But no. It was impossible. She would only be six or seven years old, and she seemed much older.

The girl walked closer, her gun still pointed at Robert. "Drop the knife," she said.

Robert looked at his men, confused. How did a little girl like her have a gun? And where was Clarke?

"Drop your knife," Maddi ordered again, coming closer.

Robert McCreary realized that he didn't stand a chance against a gun. They only had makeshift knives from their ship. So he dropped the knife. As soon as it was on the ground, though, he made sure Bellamy couldn't move.

"You're afraid of a little girl with a gun?" came a very familiar female voice from behind them. Bellamy almost choked on his breath, but he couldn't turn around. Clarke pointed her rifle on Robert's back. "Take your hands off him," she ordered.

Now that Clarke was taking charge, Maddi pointed her gun to the others. "Untie them!" she said with as much force as she could.

No one moved.

Maddi shot at the feet of Charmaine who jumped and gasped. "What did I just say?" Maddi said. "Untie them."

Charmaine looked at Robert who nodded to her. She obeyed and started by untying the kids. Atticus ran to his mom and untied her wrists and Persephone and Jasper were crying in terror. Maddi was following closely what Charmaine was doing, making sure she was untying everyone.

"Robert," Clarke said, which surprised him. "Yeah, I know who you are. Now, untie Bellamy." She pressed the rifle with more force on his back, and Robert obliged. He untied Bellamy, who quickly scrambled to his feet. "Bellamy," Clarke said, "tie him up." And Bellamy obliged.

Clarke and Maddi exchanged a glance and Maddi quickly ran back to the bushes and came back with three more guns. She gave one to Bellamy, one to Murphy and one to Harper, after Clarke told her who to give them to.

Now the ELIGIUS crew was backing away from the guns, back into their ship. Once they were secured and held at bay by Maddi, Murphy and Harper, Clarke gave her rifle to Jane and ran into Bellamy for a very long-awaited hug. He was stunned at first, but quickly recovered and held her tightly against him. He caught Jane's look, and she rolled her eyes, placing Persephone on her hip.

Bellamy was the first to let go of Clarke. He looked at her and smiled. He tugged on one of her pink hair strands. "I like it. It suits you." Was he blushing?

Clarke rolled her eyes and stepped back. "Thanks," she still managed to say.

Bellamy joined Jane and his children. "Clarke, you remember Jane?"

"Sure," Clarke said, embracing Jane as well.

"We got married on the Ark, six years ago. And this is Atticus and Persephone, our kids."

Clarkes eyes widened. "You had two other kids," she said in awe.

Bellamy and Jane walked to the others with Clarke. She hugged everyone. Clarke had dreamed of this day when Skaikru 2.0 would come back down to Earth. But she never thought it would be in these circumstances. She hugged Raven as long as she could, and finished her round of hugs with Monty and Harper.

"This is Jasper Junior," Monty said proudly, showing her his son. And Clarke lost it. She started to sob as she was drowned under the biggest group hug she could imagine. Echo and Emori were Holding the ELIGIUS crew inside their ship with guns.

"This is Maddi, my little Natblida," she finally managed to say, when she finished crying over the reunion.

Hi everyone! thanks for reading and sticking with me! Sorry for the long wait, I was pretty busy lately... ugh

Anyways, there's only ONE chapter left! So stay tuned!