It's Christmas week! And this is a gift for my dear kabby squad! I know you lot like angst so… you get angst (Yes, Sam, I know it's not angsty enough but I did my best). Thanks for those last couple of months of uninterrupted fangirling and laughing! It had been a real pleasure to be with you lately 3
This takes place between S2 and S3 because it's my favorite place to write ;)
Kidnapped
It was one of those days when Marcus was desperate to find five minutes to sit down. He had been running from one end of camp to the other all day, settling disputes, trying to figure how best to fix the problems that were arising with the new housing area, generally trying to follow what Raven was talking about and mostly failing until Sinclair took over with much simpler words and better analogies… Filling in for Abby while she was away wasn't as fun or rewarding as he had thought being Chancellor would be on the Ark.
He had skipped lunch, too engrossed in the current question of: were they risking an eventual mudslide destroying everything if they built houses on the left of the Ark's wreckage and there was a torrential downpour one day. He was inspecting the ground – or pretending too because he had no real idea what he was looking at – nodding at what the head of the work crew was saying when Jackson showed up at the edge of his vision, looking a bit uncertain as he shuffled on his feet.
Taking the young man's appearance as a providential way of getting how out of this, at least for a little while – he wouldn't take a decision by himself, he needed to consult with Abby and, as Chancellor, she was the one who had final say anyway – he quickly excused himself and walked over to the doctor's assistant.
"You need to see me?" he asked.
He almost prayed for an incident in Medical. Something that would require him to act as a guard and not as a Councilman. He loved both of his jobs, he did, but all he had dealt with all day were petty arguments and problems easily solved – until the housing question, at least – and he was eager for a distraction. Besides, there was always a possibility to hide for a few minutes in Medical… Their Chancellor would harbor him. She would laugh at him, sure – when didn't she? – but she would hide him for a while, let him rest for a couple of minutes and, maybe, even make him some tea. He could go with a quiet friendly conversation.
"I was wondering if you knew how much longer the Mount Weather expedition was going to be?" Jackson looked hopeful if a bit sheepish. "It's just… Abby was supposed to be back by now. We booked a lot of people for implant removal this afternoon and I'm swamped."
"They're not back?" he frowned.
They should have been. For two hours at least.
Jackson shrugged and then shook his head. "I don't think so. Abby never showed up and she was supposed to bring back equipment…"
Which was why she had gone on the mission in the first place despite his protests.
He reached for his radio, not liking the feeling of foreboding in his stomach. "Miller, has the Mount Weather scavenging team come back yet?"
Maybe they were and Abby had gotten stuck somewhere, much like he had been all morning. He would have been notified though. He was notified every time the Gates opened for someone. And he should have noticed that they had missed the scheduled arrival, he should have…
"Negative, sir." David Miller answered.
His unease increased.
"Those teams are late all the time…" Jackson ventured. "I'm sure it's nothing."
"Probably not." he answered, forcing himself to sound reassuring. "Go back to Medical. Cancel what you can't handle on your own, I'm sure Abby will understand."
Jackson nodded and did as he was told. Marcus turned back to the head of the work crew and made his excuses with the promise to take a closer look at the problem at the earliest opportunity. Then, he rushed to the fence as quickly as he could without breaking into a run, not keen on alerting anyone that something was amiss.
The Mount Weather scavenging teams were always late, that was true… But they didn't usually have their Chancellor with them.
Getting everything that could be used out of Mount Weather was a necessity, both he and Abby agreed on that. It was stupid to let resources like that go to waste but the mountain was a sensitive subject with the Grounders. Indra had warned them that they couldn't be seen colonizing the mountain, that if they were perceived to become the new Mountain Men, the fragile truce would break…
He had been against Abby going with them. Send Jackson, he had told her because she was too valuable to risk like that. They were in good terms with Trikru, they weren't in so good terms with other clans. Some had accepted their presence and were happy to trade with them, others were still wary and challenged the Commander's order to respect the truce. There hadn't been an armed incident since Mount Weather, though, at most, dissident Grounders made a show of ambushing their recon teams, scared them a little and sent them back to Arkadia. But one or two clans were more volatile than others and he didn't like the idea of their Chancellor out there in unsecured territory.
It was one thing for Abby to visit other clans with whom they had a good relationship. It was another to go to Mount Weather with a minimal escort.
But she had been desperate to grab some medical equipment and she was as stubborn as ever. Their teams had been going to and from the mountain without encountering any real problem for weeks, it had even been made easier by Raven's repairing one of the Rovers. She had a team working on the others, which would allow them to bring even more stuff with each trip and Marcus couldn't deny he liked the cars. He wasn't as at ease behind the wheel as the kids seemed to be but he enjoyed it all the same – even if Raven insisted he drove like a grandpa who was scared a tree would jump in front of him.
The point was, Abby had insisted it was safe enough and had literally ordered him to stop worrying so much about her. He hadn't liked it at all but he had relented because there had been no incidents so far. And because Bellamy had agreed to go with her and he trusted the boy to keep her safe.
When he joined him on top of the fence, David Miller nodded once at him and then made a face. "I'm sorry, sir. I should have noticed the delay but the fence didn't seem to work on the south front anymore and…"
"I know." he cut him off. "Engineering is on it."
It had been the lecture he had had to go through from Raven and then later from Sinclair, a problem of overloading the generators because of the housing development work crew or something like that.
"I tried to contact them but either they're out of range or…" Miller hesitated, letting his sentence trail off in a way that wasn't good. But to be fair, the idea Miller had were probably as not good as his own.
It was possible the scavenging had taken more time than planed or maybe there had been a problem with the Rover… But the fact that nobody had contacted Arkadia yet… It didn't sit well with him.
And he had that impending doom feeling in his guts.
"I'm heading out to meet them." he decided. "I'll take Harper, Octavia and your son with me. You're in charge of the guards until the Chancellor or I get back."
He didn't want to leave the camp unprotected by taking too many soldiers and the kids were those who had the most experience on the ground anyway. Octavia could track them down if necessary and Harper and Miller were his best cadets.
He quickly found Sinclair and left him in charge of the political aspect of things – to the man's obvious dismay – before heading back to the courtyard where his team had gathered, briefed by Miller. Octavia looked impatient, worried for her brother, probably, and was already on top of her horse. Harper was too. Miller, like him, didn't look as happy about the means of transportation.
The boy made a face when he spotted him. "Do we have to go on horses?"
"It will be quicker." he answered, making a note to ask Raven to get a move on with the other cars. It took him two attempts to get on top of the horse – and it was just his luck that they had picked a temperamental one for him – to Octavia's amusement. "No comment." he warned the girl.
She rolled her eyes. "At least, you don't fall down anymore. I told you I could teach you a thing or two."
"That's your excuse for calling me an old man." he accused, taking the lead of the group.
The Gates parted for them and he spurred the house forward, not quite at a gallop but… They went fast up until they reached the woods at the base of the mountain, it was trickier up there. He took advantage of that to swallow down the emergency power bar he kept in the pocket of his jacket – well… Abby had taken to hide power bars in there because she claimed he tended to forget to eat sometimes.
They tried to contact them through radio several times but to no avail.
The woods were too silent and Marcus didn't like it. Neither did Octavia if the looks she kept throwing him meant anything. They all kept a hand on their weapons without him having to give the order.
They spotted the Rover first.
It was unmistakable, a mass of black against the green of the forest, crushed to the ground by a tree. It looked like an accident at first. A dead tree that had fallen down at the wrong moment.
Then, Marcus spotted the bodies.
He lifted his hand to order his team to stop and he hopped down the horse, imitated by the others, keeping his gun ready to fire. Octavia had her sword out and was looking around warily.
"I think they're gone." she whispered.
Marcus wasn't sure. An ambush could hide another.
He fought his instinct to rush to the dead men on the ground. He fought his instinct to look.
"Octavia, help me secure a perimeter." he ordered. "Harper, Miller, look for survivors."
He didn't think they would find survivors. The dust was clogged with blood. And he didn't want to look. He didn't want to…
The thought of finding Abby…
It was cowardly to send the kids to look for him. It was cowardly and it went against everything his guts were screaming at him. But it was Abby and he couldn't…
Asserting they were alone didn't take very long. Octavia was right, whoever had done that had moved on. As soon as she made sure of that, the girl rushed to the bodies clad in black.
"Bellamy isn't here." Harper said, sounding a bit shaken. "I can't find the Chancellor either."
Marcus breathed more easily. He and Octavia took a look around. He searched the Rover, glanced at the untouched boxes that came straight from Mount Weather, looked for clues… There was no hint that Abby had even been there. No hint that…
"Ice Nation." Octavia spat, rolling one of the only Grounders' corpse on his back.
"Why would they take them?" Miller asked. "They killed the others. Why would…"
"Because Abby's our leader and their Queen will want to do it herself." the girl shrugged. "Bellamy…" Her face crumpled with worry. "I don't know about Bellamy…"
"So they're taking Abby back to Azgeda?" Harper asked.
"Over my dead body." Marcus growled. "Miller, contact Arkadia. Ask for backup. And tell them to warn Trikru, see what Indra can do. We're going after them." He was back on his horse before he even realized what he was doing. "Tell them to put the camp on lockdown. Octavia, lead the way."
Octavia was their best tracker and it didn't take her long to find a trail.
Everything was his fault, Marcus mused. He should have forbidden Abby from going. He should have put his foot down. He should have assigned more guards to those scavenger parties. He should have…
The list was endless.
And he couldn't help but going over and over it again and again.
Thirty minutes later, they found Bellamy's body in the middle of the path.
Marcus' blood ran cold.
Octavia was the first one down her horse though, shouting her brother's name. It was Marcus who rolled him on his back though, breathing a sigh of relief when he saw the boy was alive and conscious. Short-lived relief though. The wound on his stomach looked deep and serious. He immediately put pressure on it, snatching the first aid kit from Harper's hand and doing what he could with his limited experience.
"They've… They've got… Abby…" Bellamy stammered, looking straight at him. "I'm… I'm sorry… Kane… I tried to… Tried to go after…"
"We know. It's okay." he told him, worried by the gurgling sounds the boy was making. "It's okay, Bellamy. You did good."
"It wasn't… planned." the young man insisted. "They… They recognized her but… They didn't know… What to do… With her… The… ambush was just… ambush…"
"Which is a good thing." Octavia cut in. "They won't kill her without their queen's permission. We just need to get them first."
Bellamy tried to stand up, claiming he could help, but Marcus pinned him down to the ground without much efforts, with a simple hand on his shoulder. He didn't like at all the small whine that escaped the kids' lips.
"Harper, stay with him." he ordered, waiting until the girl had taken his place by Bellamy's side to squeeze her arm. "Don't let him die."
"Yes, sir." she nodded.
They got back on the road. Marcus didn't like the odds of the three of them against who knew how many enemies but he didn't feel they had a choice. Letting them take Abby to Azgeda wasn't an option.
Night had fallen down for a while when Octavia suddenly signaled them to get off their horses. She placed a finger on her lips and they followed her between the trees, trying to be as stealthy as she was. It wasn't long before they saw the light of a campfire and they dropped to the ground, crawling between bushes to take a closer look at the clearing.
There were two Grounders on guard duty on either side of the small camp. Four were asleep under heavy blankets. And Abby was kneeling not too far from the fire, her hands bound behind her back, gagged, and looking worse for the wear. Her hair was loose and hid most of her face as her head was bowed but he thought half of it was covered in blood.
The fact that she had been hurt made him furious but he swallowed that down. He needed to keep a clear head.
The odds weren't that bad, after all. With their guns, they could take six Grounders.
However, Abby would be caught in the crossfire and that…
He didn't see any way around it though. Backup wouldn't be there for a couple of hours and waiting was taking the risk that they got up before dawn and left. It would also make them lose the surprise effect.
Miller was a good shot.
So was he.
They could take them down.
It would make things tense with Polis and Lexa would probably have some work to do to smooth ruffled feather but the Jus drein jus daun rule should protect them from an open war breaking out with Azgeda. They had attacked first, after all.
When Marcus glanced at him, Miller immediately nodded, having already worked out what he wanted of him. He silently pointed out the Grounders he wanted the kid to take down and crawled further away to get an open line of fire for his.
Abby's chest was rising and falling fast. She was discreetly struggling with the ropes holding her wrists together, probably trying to get free…
He wasn't quite sure what her plan was once she would be. He wasn't quite sure she had thought that far.
He waited until Octavia had crouched in the shadows, ready to jump in if the fight got physical, before making eye contact with Miller. He nodded once.
They took the first shot.
Both Grounders on watch duty fell but the noise roused the others from slumber.
"Abby, down!" Marcus shouted. She immediately rolled out of the way and he let loose a stream of bullets that caught two Grounders, Miller got the third. The fourth…
The fourth grabbed Abby and forced her up in front of him, like a human shield, his knife at her throat.
"Hold your fire!" Marcus ordered, scrambling up and walking out of the trees, in open sight. He didn't lower his gun though. "Breik em au." he ordered the man, never taking his eyes off him. Abby's stare was boring a hole into him but he didn't meet her gaze. His finger was on the trigger… It was a good thing she was so short really because the head was a perfect target… But the knife was digging in her throat so hard he could see a trickle of blood and he didn't want to risk shooting if it wasn't necessary. He didn't want to… "Breik em au!" he repeated, stronger. Let her go.
"Em wamplei gon Azgedas koma." the Grounder spat.
Marcus fired before the words even registered, reacting to the muscle of the man's arm twitching as he got ready to slice her throat.
Her death for the Ice Nation's glory…
Abby fell as the man collapsed, the blade catching her a little down her neck. She scrambled away as much as she could with her arms bound, her eyes wide, choking a little on the gag in her mouth. Marcus dropped to his knees next to her as the kids walked out of the shadows, immediately freeing her from the old cloth and framing her face in his hands to keep her still. Octavia was already taking her knife out to cut the rope that was trapping her. As soon as she was free, her fingers coiled around his wrists, digging into his flesh.
"Are you alright?" he asked, inspecting the cut on her throat. It didn't look that deep so he moved on to her forehead because the skin of her cheek was encrusted with blood. She must have been hit with something heavy, it looked like a bad blow but the bleeding had stopped and she seemed coherent enough. "Abby, are you alright?"
"I'm fine." she replied eventually, in a shaky voice, flashing Octavia and Miller a brief grateful smile. "The others…"
"I know." he told her, helping her to her feet. She wasn't particularly steady and he didn't let go of her arms.
"Are they all…" she asked.
"Bellamy made it." he told her, steering away from the Grounders' bodies and toward where they had left the horses, keeping her against his side in case she was light-headed. He heard Miller updating the backup team behind him through the radio. The clever thing might have been to set camp somewhere and wait for them to arrive but Marcus wouldn't be happy until they were all back in the safety of Arkadia. He had let his Chancellor slip through his fingers once, it wouldn't happen twice. Besides, he would only feel better once Jackson had had a look at her and swore she was in one piece. "Are you sure you're okay?"
She nodded, touching her throat with a wince, and then forcing a smile. "I was going to escape, you know. I had it all figured out."
He couldn't help but chuckle. It was a bit hysterical, and the horse stepped to the right at the sound, but he couldn't help himself. He had ignored it for most of the day but he had been so… terrified. She seemed surprised when he pulled her into a bone crushing hug but she immediately embraced him back, wrapping her arms around his torso and grabbing his shoulder from behind.
"Don't get kidnapped by Grounders again." he requested against her hair.
"Not so fun to be the one who has to stay behind, is it?" she joked weakly.
"Point taken." he granted. "Neither of us is getting kidnapped again."
"I can live with that." she agreed, half laughing.
Octavia cleared her throat and they awkwardly broke apart, not quite looking anyone in the eyes.
"Let's go home." he declared.
Octavia offered to share her horse with Abby since she was the best rider and he and Miller were armed with guns but Marcus declined before their Chancellor could. He had spent the whole day dreading to find her dead… He wasn't going to let her go that easily. He helped her in front of him. It wasn't comfortable but he only truly relaxed once she leaned against his chest.
"I knew you would come after me." she whispered eventually. "I wasn't really worried."
"I'll always come after you." he promised, discreetly squeezing her thigh. She turned her head to look at him and the moment felt heavy, heavier than he was comfortable with given that Miller and Octavia kept throwing them glances. "I can't let my Chancellor die…" he smiled, trying to lighten the mood. "It would leave a black mark on my record."
"No, we can't have that." she snorted but she discreetly covered the hand on her thigh with her own.
She settled back straight, this time leaning her whole weight on his chest.
And, for the first time since he had spotted the Rover, he breathed easily.