As I slowly climbed back into consciousness, I felt a headache worse than the worst hangover I'd ever had. I tried to reach out and hold my head, but my hands were bound behind my back by ropes. It took me a few minutes to piece together what had happened, but once I did, I immediately searched the room for Bellamy.
I was tied up to a wall in an underground room. The room was exactly the same as the one where Finn and I tried to save Tris's life after the bridge explosion. The good news was, I'd escaped this place before and there was no doubt in my mind that I could do it again. The only problem was, Bellamy wasn't with me.
"Where is he?" I tried to say, but my voice was almost unrecognizable. There were two guards standing at the door wielding sharp swords. Once they realized that I was awake, one of them went to go find Anya.
"I know you speak English." I coughed out to the man still guarding the door. He refused to respond to me, so I sunk back against the wall and waited for Anya to arrive.
"So you're the leader of the sky people." Anya said as she entered the room. I was happy and not happy to see her. Maybe this time if we did things a little differently, she could stay alive.
"How do you know that?" I asked, slightly hopeful that maybe she was sent back in time too.
"When we tied up the boy you call, Murphy, he begged us to save his life. In exchange he was willing to offer up your name." Anya replied as she played with the knife in her hands. I groaned and rolled my eyes, of course Murphy would tell them about me.
When we cast him away and he was tortured by the grounders for three days, he told them everything. I couldn't blame him for doing that again, he did have a spear through his chest, but still it hurt to know he wanted to trade his life for mine. I just spent the last few days saving him. Bellamy would kill him if he ever found out about this.
"The man you call Bellamy, offered us a deal." Anya said. I was so relieved that Bellamy was still alive, but I had no idea where they were keeping him or what this deal was.
Suddenly, two guards entered the room, carrying Bellamy's lip body. He was covered in knife wounds, burns, and bruises. My whole body felt numb looking at how broken he was. At first, I thought he was dead, but when they threw him on the floor next to me, I could hear him breathing. Tears of joy fell from my eyes as I watched his chest rise and fall. I'd treasure that view for a lifetime.
"We will give you a few minutes to discuss the terms of our agreement." Anya said as she signaled for the guards to leave us alone. They knew that we couldn't run; Bellamy was far too weak and I was tied to the wall.
"Are you alright?" I gasped. He lifted his head and nodded. His eyes were almost swollen shut, and the skin on his face was covered in so much blood that it all looked red.
"They tortured you." I whimpered, trying to scoot over so that I could hold him, but not being close enough to reach. There was only a foot between us, but it felt like we were miles apart.
"It's okay, I can handle torture. That's why we are making a deal." Bellamy was able to say. His voice cracked, and I could tell every word killed him to say, but he was doing his best to talk to me.
"You can handle the torture? Bellamy you haven't been tortured before-" I cut myself off. The only thing close to torture he ever endured was when Murphy tried to hang him, right?
"You were tortured before, weren't you?" I gasped, hoping that he would say no, but knowing deep down in my heart that the answer was yes.
"I wanted to tell you, but you were so wracked up in guilt already I just couldn't-"
"You were tortured, because of me. You almost died inside of Mount Weather, because of me." I cried. What if he died inside of the Mountain? The last thing I would have said to him was that sending him in there was worth the risk. I fucking told him that his death would be an affordable causality. What was wrong with me? How could I let Lexa get to me like that?
"Clarke, it's okay. It wasn't necessarily traditional torture like this, it was the intake that the grounders were forced to go through in order to become human blood banks. Look, we can talk about that later, the grounders will be back any minute." He said. I tried to get myself together and focus. He reached over with all of the strength he had to wipe away my tears. I rested my cheek against his hand, knowing that we could die here and that might be the last touch of his that I ever felt.
"The grounders tortured me off and on for the past couple of hours. They wanted to know everything about us and our camp but I wouldn't say a word. Eventually they gave up with the traditional methods and tried something else...something that they knew I couldn't refuse." Bellamy said.
"What did you do?" I gasped.
"They threatened to torture and kill you instead. I gave up, I told them that I would tell them whatever they wanted to know if they let you go, so that's the deal we made." He revealed.
"No, Bellamy. There's no way in hell I'm leaving this place without you."
"And there's no way in hell I'm going to let them lay a finger on you. Clarke, I need you to focus and trust me. You need to get out of here, head for the supplies that we lost when we were ambushed and return to camp. You need to run the place with Miller and get the 100 ready for war. Octavia needs to find Lincoln, once they reconnect maybe we will have a chance at setting me free and creating peace. I need you to promise me that you'll go and you won't look back." He instructed me. I shook my head, tears falling out of my eyes. How could I leave him again?
"Princess," He whispered, trying to wipe the tears away again but only managing to smear his blood on my face. "Both of us don't need to die in here."
"I can't do this without you." I sobbed.
"And I can't let you die. I'm only going to tell them select things, just enough that they are satisfied but not too much so that you all are safe. I need you to watch over Octavia, and tell her that I love her." Bellamy told me. My whole world was crashing down around me. I was about to leave the man I love to die.
"It sounds like you're saying goodbye…" I sobbed.
"No, this isn't goodbye, baby. This is may we meet again." He said, leaning over to kiss my forehead.
"I love you." I crieed.
"I love you too, Clarke. I love you so fucking much." He replied, pulling away from me for the last time. I could tell he was trying to stay strong for me, but it wasn't easy on him.
"Times up. Do we have a deal?" Anya asked as she reentered the room.
"Yes we have a deal." Bellamy answered for me. Anya signaled for her guards to grab me. I tried to fight them off at first, screaming Bellamy's name, but Bellamy shook his head at me. He needed me to protect our people. If I stayed here to die with him, our people would be defenseless against the grounders.
With tears in my eyes, I let the grounders carrying me away from him, and I did what he asked me to do, I didn't look back.
It was dark outside when I finally made it back to the drop ship. There were several kids guarding the entrance, aiming their makeshift arrows at me. I tried to hold my arms up in surrender, but the guns and supplies were weighing heavily on my arms.
"It's Clarke!" Miller shouted at them. The gate swung open, and I was greeted by Octavia. She ran to me, pulling me in for an embrace until she realized that her brother was missing.
"Where's Bellamy?" She asked, searching over my shoulder to see if he was lagging behind.
"He's not here, the grounders took us." I whimpered. Octavia almost fainted but luckily Jasper was behind her to keep her standing. Several members of the hundred circled around me, curious as to what we would do next without Bellamy.
"Guns? Seriously?" Finn groaned from behind Conner and Mbege. I glared at Finn, I wasn't in the mood for him right now.
"Miller, take these and give them to your best shooters." I said, handing over the guns, "You and I are in charge now. You can handle the military, training, and hunting while I will cover strategy, building, supplies, and trying to make peace with the grounders. I need you to prepare everyone for war, because if I can't negotiate Bellamy's release, that's what we will have to face."
Miller nodded, pretending to keep it together, but clearly upset about what I told him. He and Bellamy had gotten pretty close since we arrived back on Earth and I knew this was killing him.
"It's what Bellamy wanted." I added. Miller bit his lip, but still held himself together. He knew we had a job to do, for Bellamy.
"You heard her! Jasper, Harper, Mbege, Conner, Sterling, Monroe, and Fox! Each of you grab a gun and get on the wall!" Miller ordered. The crowd dispersed, leaving me alone with Octavia. We were still outside of the gate, so I wrapped my arms around her waist and helped her inside. When the door shut behind us, I never felt further away from Bellamy.
"What the hell happened?" Octavia asked through fits of tears. I pulled her aside and lead her to my tent, only to be stopped by Raven.
"Holy shit, you're here." I gasped. Raven shrugged her shoulders.
"I'd been waiting out here for you since your boys brought me back to camp. Your mom sent me down here because the council wanted to execute 300 people. They thought that the mission to Earth failed." Raven explained.
"Where's my dad? He was supposed to stop them from doing that, "Plus, it's a year early, they don't need to execute anyone yet." I argued. Raven gulped.
"The council figured that if they executed the people now, it would give engineering enough time to fix the problem." Raven replied, but she was avoiding my question about my father.
"Raven, what happened to my dad?" I asked calmly.
Raven couldn't even look me in the eyes, "Clarke...your dad's dead."
I felt my knees give out as I fell onto the dirt in tears. Today I managed to lose my father and Bellamy. How the hell was I supposed to keep going? How could I live without them?
"What happened? He, he said he would stop the council from killing all of those people. He promised Bellamy that he wouldn't get himself floated." I sobbed. Octavia reached down and rested her hand on my shoulder to try and comfort me.
"He knew that the council was going to go through with the culling and he thought that the people had a right to decide if they lived or died, so he aired a video of himself on the ark wide channel explaining everything. He told us about how the ground was safe, how the hundred are down here, and what the council planned to do. The council floated him for the broadcast, but people in the lower classes panicked. They knew that they would be part of the 300 so they (along with Diana Sydney) took the Exodus ship. The ship crashed several minors for here and had no survivors. Your mom sent me down a day before this all happened so I was able to tell the Ark that the ground is survivable. They are coming down this week. " Raven told me. This couldn't be happening, ,my dad made Bellamy a promise that he wouldn't air that video.
"But he promised-"
"He was out of options. They were going to kill 300 people so he sacrificed himself so that the people would have a choice. He was a hero." Raven said, "But because of your dad's sacrifice, the culling never happened."
"But he's dead. My dad is dead and the grounders are going to kill Bellamy. What the hell am I supposed to do now?" I sobbed. Octavia helped pick me up and bring me into my tent. When I laid down on the bed, the blankets still smelled like him. Octavia crawled into bed next to me and held the blankets to her nose.
I sobbed and sobbed with Octavia for hours until we both fell asleep cuddling in my bed. It wasn't the same, waking up next to the other Blake. I loved Octavia to death, but she wasn't Bellamy. As much as I didn't want to get out of bed, I knew I had work to do. If there was any hope in saving Bellamy, I had to keep it together.
I left my tent without waking up Octavia. She could use the extra sleep after everything we've been through.
"Clarke, how are you doing?" Raven asked as she ran to me.
"I'm alright." I replied.
"Your mom is on the radio, she wants to talk to you." Raven said. I groaned and followed the girl to the drop ship where her radio was set up.
"Hello?" I asked.
"Clarke! Thank God you're alright." my mother exclaimed over the radio.
"Yeah, I'm fine. What is this about?" I asked impatiently. I knew she wasn't responsible for my father's death this time, but I was sure that she sided with the council.
"Thelonius and Wells wanted me to tell you about a bunker located-"
"I already went there with Bellamy." I cut her off.
"Alright then, Raven tells me the Exodus Ship crashed the day after she arrived and that a group of boys went to scope out the reason for the crash this morning." My mother added. That was strange, since Bellamy, Raven, Finn and I went to the site the last time.
"Has Sinclair figured out how to send the Ark down?" I asked.
"Yes, he's finishing that up as we speak. The Ark will be arriving in a week's time if all goes according to plan." She told me.
"And when you get here you will have a team assembled to rescue Bellamy, correct?" I asked.
She hesitated for a moment, "the council will have to vote-"
"Mom! Bellamy is out there, getting tortured by the grounders so that we can all survive. He gave up so much for all of us and you're just going to leave him out there to die? How could you?" I gasped.
"Clarke, sweetie, it's not that simple. We can't risk the lives of our own to save one boy."
"If I were still out there you'd risk the lives of everyone on the Ark to save me. If you won't save him, then I will." I snapped.
"Clarke, don't go and get yourself killed. Raven told us about the deal Bellamy made with the grounders. They are willing to leave you all alone for now if you stay away from them. You kids don't have enough weapons or strength to fight a war!" Abby yelled.
"We could do just fine without you." I seethed, "I'm done talking to you!"
I slammed the radio off and leaned back in the drop ship chair, crying. Miller cautiously stepped in, resting his hand on my shoulder. He was covered in dirt and ash from the Exodus Ship,
"Clarke, we have a problem." He said, I turned around, not knowing what could be worse than everything that has happened already.
"Octavia's missing."