After Bellamy had left Rhea had decided to spend the rest of the night relaxing in her tent. She wasn't tired so she had just been laying processing the events of the day. The sound of something small hitting the tent made her come back to reality. Not hearing anything else she shrugged it off thinking it must have been something falling from a tree. When another soft whack sounded she knew it was intentional. Quietly moving to the entrance of the tent, she peeked out, not wanting the guard on watch to see her. Seeing that no one was there, she snuck to the wall behind her tent and hoisted herself over it.
When her feet landed she took a look around, noticing that no one was there. Growling at the fact that someone had tricked her she went to jump back over the wall. That is, until a small rock hit her square on her butt, spinning around she looked wildly at every shadow. Someone was watching her, but where were they?
Another rock came at her, this time she dodged it, she moved towards where it had come from. Going around a set of small trees she came face to face with the injured grounder and the one she had spoken to days before.
"What are you doing here?" She shrieked, looking behind her to make sure no one had followed.
"We came to see you." the uninjured one informed her. She looked at them like they were crazy.
"You came to see me? What? I don't understand. I don't even know you." Her voice sounded squeaky and uneven but she couldn't help it.
"Malix, at your service." He bowed mockingly, at her. Her eyes moved to the other man, wondering if he was going to introduce himself as well.
"Lincoln." His voice was much deeper than Malix, more solemn as well. Rhea nodded a small thank you.
"You need our help Sola." Malix told her, placing a hand on her shoulder. Rhea didn't move, her eyes glancing at his hand and then towards him, her gold ones and his night blue eyes meeting.
"Why would I need your help?" None of this made sense. Why would they want to help her, her people were their enemies.
"For starters, you are dependant upon that thing on your leg." Malix pointed out, " Secondly, you get injured too easily. If you are going to live, you need our help." He stepped away from her, speaking to Lincoln in their language before disappearing in the dark.
"Meet us here early in the morning, before the rest of your camp wakes up. That's when your training begins." Lincoln told her before he too disappeared. Rhea stood there, stunned for a moment before she turned and walked back to the Camp wall. It was most likely after midnight so she knew if she returned to her tent she would not be awake for early morning. Taking a seat she leaned against the wall and drifted to sleep.
Rhea felt something hard poking her, as if someone was trying to get her to wake up. Groaning she shoved whatever it was away and tried to go back to sleep. This time, the person decided to give her a shove so she fell over right onto her face. Opening her eyes, she went to attack whoever it was, but stopped when she saw Malix in front of her.
He stood there in a simple t-shirt and pants, no grounder gear in sight. Now that the mask was gone and the war paint had been washed off Rhea could really get a good look at him. Rhea would be lying if she said that he wasn't attractive, which unnerved her.
"Good morning Sola." He smirked, as he took in her appearance, she must look like crap. Glaring at him she asked,
"Did you really have to be so rough?" She gave her head a gentle rub to empasize her point.
"Well, sleeping beauty, it was still dark when I started trying to wake you up." He informed her as he pointed to the sky, revealing that the sun had now risen.
"Sorry" she muttered, "It's been a long couple of weeks." She offered.
"I know," he stated with a sheepish smile,
"I've had to follow you ever since that day in the woods." Rhea's eyes widened as flashes of last night came to her, had he been watching. As if he had read her mind he kept talking.
"No, I have not seen you naked or in any uncomfortable positions." He told her, setting her mind at ease. "Now can we, you know, do what we are here for?" He questioned,
"I don't really want to be captured and tortured." With that he walked away.
"You know," She said, following right behind him, "my people aren't really like that, they were just trying to save us."
"Yeah?" he asked spinning around quickly, "tell that to Lincoln."
Rhea really didn't know what to say to that so she just dropped the conversation which he seemed to take as a queue to continue walking.
When he stopped walking Rhea smiled, he had made sure that they stayed close enough to camp so Rhea wasn't nervous, and for that she was thankful. What he did next, made her less thankful.
"Take off the gun." He ordered, motioning towards the piece on her leg. She glared at him for a moment, but remembered the switchblade in her pocket and proceeded to follow his instruction.
"First lesson Sola, is basic hand to hand, I have seen that you can handle yourself many times but you still always resort to pulling your gun out. Why is this?" He questioned her while warily eyeing the gun she had placed not far away.
"It's what I'm trained to do." She stated truthfully, guns were a way to stop violence before it got worse, or at least they should be. He nodded,
"It may be, but to my people it is the coward's way." He informed her, what he said stung Rhea slightly, she had never thought of it like that.
"I'm no coward" She told him, with a look that dared him to test her. He nodded at her statement as if agreeing with her before he began to walk around her.
"That I have no doubt, and today's lesson will prove that." Before Rhea could even react he was launching himself at her, picking her up and throwing her onto the ground with one swift movement. She hit the ground hard, the impact making her lose all the air in her lungs.
He gave her a minute to recover before lunging at her again, this time she managed to dodge just in time, rolling off to the side as his foot came down where her head had been. By now she was less stunned and more angry.
"Are you serious?" She growled, "If you wanted to spar why didn't you just ask?" She asked him as she sent a punch towards his jaw, he dodged just in time.
"Someone that is intending on killing you, won't ask." He managed to send a kick to her ankle, which sent her flying to the ground but before she landed Malix had his hands at her waist, hoisting her back to her feet.
"Anger, is a distraction Sola." He said, his face not far from her's, "Contain it." She wasn't hearing him by this point, her mind was too clouded by rage. So instead of heeding his words she just launched herself at him. He was caught off guard so she managed to land a punch to his ribs.
He seemed shocked at first but then he backed away and proceeded to walk around her like a predator would to it's prey. She kept her eyes on him, not trusting him. After the third time around she finally realized what he was doing, he was waiting until she calmed down, until she had control over her emotions. Everything she was doing showed that she was letting her anger overwhelm her. Her hands were balled into fists, her chest was heaving and her face was contorted into a snarl. Disappointment shot through her, she had been trained to be better than her emotions, but now here she was completely disregarding her training. Her father wouldn't have been impressed with her.
At this realization she closed her eyes and took a deep breath, letting it out she felt the anger leave with it. When she opened her eyes she noticed that he had stopped infront of her.
"Ah, good. You have overcome your rage" Malix said, clearly impressed. Rhea hadn't realized that she had held that much rage inside of her, normally she could contain it, but this time she just snapped.
"I'm sorry, I wasn't thinking." She muttered, clearly embarassed, but he just shook it off, walking closer to her. Malix looked at her with a hidden emotion, like he was keeping a big secret.
"Why did they send you to protect me?" She hadn't meant to ask him, but it just seemed to slip out. The look he gave her as he processed her question made her want to know more about him and the reason he was here.
"You are Sola." Was his brief answer, but it wasn't good enough for Rhea.
"What does that mean Malix?" He wasn't getting out of this one.
"Not want it means, who it represents." His eyes had drifted towards the sky, but only for a moment before they connected with hers. He was now directly infront of her, if he took one more step their noses would be touching.
"I can't explain anymore Sola, not unless the Commander allows it." His hand moved so it grazed the side of her face, a gesture she did not understand, but then again she didn't understand grounders at all. Before she could ask any more questions shouts from the direction of the camp grabbed their attention. Stepping away he spoke,
"Meet here tomorrow morning, we will train again." With that he was gone. Rhea stood there stunned for a moment, how could grounders just disappear like magic? Knowing that she wasn't going to get an answer she walked back to camp.
As she got closer to camp she noticed how loud everyone really was. Baffled by their stupidity she stormed into camp ready to start yelling. Walking through the gate she saw that there were kids everywhere, it was chaos.
A few kids close to her were having a conversation, but that wasn't what bothered her. They had guns in their hands, which meant that they were supposed to be on guard. Also, one of them was flailing their gun around like it was nothing. Rhea stormed over to him, once she was close enough she swiftly disarmed him and gave him a shove to the ground. Positioning the gun in her hands she snarled at them,
"These aren't toys." Their faces told her that she was scaring them, but she really didn't care and continued.
"If I see you mishandling a gun again, you are grounder bait."
Taking the gun with her she walked off, leaving them gaping at her. She knew that she had been a little harsh, it wasn't their fault that they weren't trained on how to use a gun and she didn't blame them for their stupidity, it was the fault of whoever put the guns in their hands.
She felt the eyes of the other camp dwellers on her as she stomped towards the drop ship. Admittedly she enjoyed the fear she caught in their eyes, maybe they would take the intensity of the situation seriously. She came face to face with Clarke after entering the drop ship. The distant look in the blonde's eyes set Rhea off.
"So we are just giving guns to untrained kids now?" She questioned, placing the gun on her shoulder. "Are you trying to get us killed?"
"They are all kids Rhea and you just have to accept that." Clarke informed her, seemingly bored with the conversation.
"Oh really? So I just have to accept the fact that your guard detail is currently having a good ol' conversation about god knows what and flailing guns around when they should be protecting this camp?" Rhea growled, Clarke just ignored her, leaving the drop ship, but Rhea wasn't nearly finished so she followed.
"Don't walk away from me Clarke, you are a leader of this camp so act like it!" Rhea shouted, her shouts causing people to look up.
"That's where you are right, I am the leader and right now you are questioning my judgement." Rhea was flabbergasted by the idiocy that was coming out of Clarke's mouth but she continued.
"So because you voted yourself leader you think you can decide who holds a gun and who doesn't?" Rhea sneered, not impressed at all with how Clarke was acting,
"These aren't toys Clarke, one mistake could end someone's life." Saying this didn't seem to matter, it was like her words were falling on deaf ears.
"You aren't in charge here Rhea. Now walk away." Clarke snarled, these words sent Rhea over the edge, catching movement out of the corner of her eye Rhea lifted the gun in her hands and shot one bullet. The bullet flew through the air, impeding itself in a bird that had been flying above the camp killing it instantly and sending it barreling to the earth. Rhea glared at Clarke as it fell, smirking as it landed directly infront of them and stunning the blonde. Walking forward she slammed the gun into Clarke's chest. Turning her head she looked Clarke in the eye. The camp seemed to feel the ice radiating between the two girls as gold eyes met blue, their murmurs starting to increase, but neither Rhea nor Clarke noticed nor did they care.
"Your leadership skills are going to get us all killed." Rhea growled, with one last glare she walked away. The kids that had been watching the argument were gawking at her, impressed with her shooting ability, but Rhea ignored them. What she didn't realize was that Bellamy had been watching the entire thing play out and had started to follow her out of camp.
"Rhea." She heard from behind her after she left the gate. Spinning around she sighed, she knew he was going to give her the "you shouldn't question your leaders" speech and she wasn't interested.
"If you are here to scold me, don't bother."
"I agree with you." Was all he said, his eyes not leaving her face, "Those kids aren't ready to hold a gun, but the decision was made without me." Rhea scoffed at this and threw her hands into the air.
"Are you serious right now?" His last statement only made her angry increase, he was supposed to be the camp's leader as well, shouldn't the two of them be making decisions together?
"I was.. preoccupied" He mumbled, clearly disappointed and slightly embarrassed,
"But I'll fix it alright? I'll go talk to her right now." He stated as he pointed back towards where Rhea had last seen Clarke. It was clear that he didn't like that she was upset so Rhea forced herself to calm down, for his sake.
"Okay, I'm sorry." She told him as she moved to stand in front of him, placing one of her hands on his cheek.
"I know this isn't your fault, I just let my anger get the better of me." Her words seemed to make him release the tension that had started to form in his shoulders. He rested his forehead against hers, relishing in the moment briefly.
"You had me nervous for a moment there." He mumbled, Rhea understood why he would have felt that way, she had a knack for running off in anger.
"Don't worry, but we need to speak to Clarke." Rhea insisted, determined to get through Clarke's thick skull. Clarke was usually a reasonable person, something else must be causing the girl to make such bad decisions and Rhea was determined to figure it out, but she needed Bellamy's help.
"Are you up for that?" She asked, making sure to look him in the eye. He nodded in response but his mind seemed to be focused on something else entirely.
"Bellamy? What's on your mind?" She questioned, wanting to hear what he had to say before they continued on to speak with Clarke. Her question seemed to catch him off guard, almost like he hadn't realized that his thoughts were written all over his face.
"Uh, I uhm." He started, which was out of character for him but Rhea waited until he finished.
"I kicked her out" Was the conclusion, Rhea smiled at this their earlier conversation coming back to her.
"Oh really?" She questioned, her voice laced with amusement,
"Did you break her heart?" This question made Bellamy visibly tense, which made Rhea wonder how it had actually gone down, but she just waited it out hoping he would tell her later.
" We'll talk about this later okay? We have to go hash it out with your co-leader." Rhea told him, giving his chest a slight pat before she went to walk away, but Bellamy stopped her by grasping her wrist.
"Rhea, hold on a minute there's something I have to do." Before Rhea could speak his lips were touching hers. After the initial surprise she returned the kiss, with a slight smile on her face. Bellamy pulled away within moments, his mouth turned up into a brilliant smile.
"I've been waiting to do that since last night." He told her, moving his hand so he could hold hers. Rhea could feel her cheeks turn slightly pink at his words but she shook it off, she had to stay focused.
"You can do more of that when we are done talking to Clarke, now we have to go before someone gets killed." She informed him, giving his hand a firm squeeze, but she didn't let go. She had waited a year to be able to be with him again and even though they couldn't be fully together until things were smoothed over in camp, she wasn't about to let his hand go unless she absolutely had too.
They paused at the gate, partly to get ready to clash with Clarke, but also because once they walked into camp with their hands clasped together there would be no going back. Everyone would know that they were an item. Rhea already knew what she wanted, but she feared that Bellamy wasn't ready yet so she braved a glance in his direction. To her surprise he was looking at her as well. He seemed to be reading her expressions, waiting for a decision on what she would like him to do. In response to his questioning gaze she gave his hand a gentle squeeze before releasing it. With a soft smile Rhea send a nod in his direction, she show that she was alright with the decision. Turning her head towards the gate she let out a small sigh and then starting walking into camp, not entirely ready for the fight that they were sure to have.