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Clarke tucks the rifle into her shoulder and looks down the scope. It’s second nature, still after all this time.
It’s been six years since she’s needed to use her rifle as a weapon, longer than that if she really thinks about it. When the others were here she was rarely on sniper duty, that was Harper, Miller, Bellamy.
And over the last few years, she hasn’t needed to use it in defence. There are no animals large enough to shoot and other than teaching Madi the basics she hasn’t needed to use it for anything other than scouting.
But that changes today. Because there’s a ship, that is not from the Ark, and there’s a woman in armour stepping down from it.
Clarke has her in the crosshairs. She’s not the best shot but she could definitely make this one. She hesitates, for less than a second, but it’s enough. The woman is surrounded by others – men, mostly – all looking as angry as she does.
They don’t look awed, which Clarke would expect. They’re on the only patch of living land, they should be amazed. But they’re not, which means they knew it was here.
Do they know she is here?
Madi is safe, hidden away with the Rover. Clarke needs to go too, but she doesn’t want to leave her home. She was left with nothing once before and the memory of it still burns in her chest.
It’s that memory that makes her pause. That sends her back to her home to collect a few mementoes; drawings, her journal.
She was sentimental before they first landed on the earth and then she stopped. She can’t remember why she stopped, but with Madi, in their home, it came back. She never considered why she’d forgotten that part of her life.
As the electric shock rings through her body, jolting every nerve, Clarke remembers why she stopped being sentimental – she was trying too hard to stay alive.
*
When Octavia was little and hiding to stay alive she’d make up games to stop feeling scared. She made the darkness a friend – the brightness was scary, the dark was familiar, a comfort.
She didn’t think she’d have to embrace the dark again. When they landed on earth, the sky bright and shining around them, she thought the darkness was gone.
She was wrong. Octavia tried to embrace the light – she tried for all of them. But she knows now, she belongs in the darkness. She triumphs in the darkness.
She didn’t want this – had told Bellamy as much – but he believed in her ability to lead. And he wasn’t wrong. She is a leader, one forged in blood and death, but no one told her how to lead. They just said she had to.
*
The first time Bellamy came to the ground he was scared but had to pretend he was strong – people won’t follow weakness.
This time he doesn’t have to pretend, his people will follow him anywhere. But he’s not scared this time. He’s weary. He’s resigned. Part of him, the smallest deepest part, is hopeful that he’ll see his sister again. But mostly, he’s ready. He knows Earth now. Knows it will be a constant fight. Knows he always has to be prepared for anything. And he is.
Until he isn’t.
Until a small dark-haired girl that reminds him so much of Octavia asks him to help get Clarke.
Clarke who died. Who he mourned and grieved over for six years.
Bellamy is ready for earth. But he’s not ready for this.
He helps her because he can’t not. This girl that looks like Octavia and sounds like Clarke. Bellamy is as powerless to refuse her as he once was to refuse them.
And right now, he doesn’t have them.
The girl, Madi, is determined. She wants to go, to move now. It reminds him of someone he used to know – the man he used to be – and it shakes him. People die when you charge in without a plan. People get left behind. He won’t do that now.
He tells her as much and she sulks. But that doesn’t bother him. He’s used to sulking. Octavia used to do it. And Murphy spent a year sulking on the ring.
That should have been the first warning sign.
Madi goes to Murphy behind his back. Murphy who embedded with Eligius on his orders, Raven’s too, but Bellamy was the final vote. As always.
She persuades him that the bunker is their best way of getting Clarke back, of getting rid of Eligius and surviving. Bellamy knows that surviving is the plea that makes it through to Murphy, but it doesn’t matter what did it because suddenly everyone is going to the bunker.
“They have an army in there.” Echo tells him. “Your sister is the general.”
He doesn’t reply. Bellamy has learnt when to keep his mouth shut – it took him six years but he knows how to now.
He also knows Clarke won’t be in the bunker, which is why he holds back under the guise of talking to Harper.
“You’re going for Clarke?” She whispers.
“I’m going for Clarke.” He confirms.
“Take Echo,” Monty mutters on the other side of him.
“No, she needs to be at the bunker. She’s our best fighter.”
“Then take me,” Emori says. “John will be more likely to stay alive if I’m not there.”
They’re not the same people that went into space, that’s clear, but Murphy and Emori still have a bond Bellamy recognises.
“Wait as long as you can before sounding the alarm,” Bellamy tells Harper and Monty.
They both nod.
“May we meet again,” Emori smiles at them.
Trigedasleng and fighting weren’t the only things that were shared on the ring.
*
Clarke knows pain. She has endured. But so have these people. They are ruthless in a way Clarke had forgotten.
She isn’t sure how much more she can endure, how long she has been surviving when they accidentally give her hope.
“Apparently it looks like John Murphy made some friends and he’s leading them away from us. Towards the city of rubble.”
“I knew that boy was good for something.”
They turn their attention back to Clarke, the familiar smell of electrical current fills the room but she barely notices it. Because if John Murphy is alive, then so is Raven and Bellamy. And Madi. Madi will find them, she will be safe.
So Clarke closes her eyes and focuses on the room, the pain, the chance of escape that lingers in the shadows.
She is the commander of death. And now there are people to kill again. So she will endure because she has a family to get back to.
*
When they get the bunker open – a year and countless lives too late – Octavia is confronted by the brightness again, but she’s ready for it this time. A true warrior knows how to acclimate to their surroundings and no one would dare accuse Octavia kom Wonkru of not being a true warrior.
She’s not ready for the girl. Looking at the girl is like looking straight into the light and it’s too much.
Octavia was ready for anything.
She was ready to see her brother.
She wasn’t ready for a child that speaks of survival.
A child with black blood. A child who weaves tails of living in a green land with Clarke.
Clarke who didn’t go to space.
*
Clarke is bruised, bloody and beaten when he finds her. But he thought she was dead, so anything is an improvement on that.
Bellamy’s hands aren’t clean, they’re bloody again for the first time in six years but he can’t bring himself to care. He did what he had to do – every life he’s taken is for a reason.
Emori gets to Clarke first, holding the girl who is little more than a stranger to her with such softness that Bellamy wants to turn away. But he doesn’t. He looks at Clarke, makes sure Clarke really see him.
“She’s with Murphy, Echo and the others. She’s safe.” He says.
He hopes time hasn’t made a liar out of him.
“They’re heading towards Polis, and when we’re out of here, so will we.”
Emori picks the locks on Clarke’s shackles and helps the other girl up.
“We have one more stop to make. You need to stay out of sight.” He tells Clarke, gruff.
They hide her in an alcove on the ship. She protests of course, but when she can’t even put her own legs up to hide she concedes their point. He still doesn’t touch her, lets Emori help her.
He stalks off first, following the maze of corridors that Murphy had described.
They have to cross a control room and Bellamy misses the man, so focused on the girls he’s trying to save. Luckily Emori is there for him, jumping out of the shadows to take down the man. Echo taught them all well. Taught them to save themselves.
“Took you long enough,” Raven says when he gets the door to her cell open.
“Yeah, yeah. You can yell at me when we’re out of here.” He says going over to her, Emori on his heels to pick the locks.
“But trust me, we have bigger problems.”
“We’re on earth. Of course we do.” Raven sighs, accepting the strong-arm that Bellamy hooks around her waist to pull her up.
*
She doesn’t have time to be surprised. And if she’s honest, she’s not really. She didn’t live for them to die – even earth is not that cruel.
It’s still a lot though. After years with only Madi, then days, (weeks?) being tortured and beaten, and now her friends are back.
“You said they’ve gone to the bunker? Why? It’s completely covered Madi knows that.” Clarke demands of Bellamy.
He’s still not come near her. Has left Emori to help her, while he gets Raven. She understands, but Raven didn’t hesitate to wrap her in a hug, breathing her name like a prayer.
“Because we needed to draw them away from you,” Emori says.
“You used my child as bait.” Clarke snarls at him, all white-hot fury suddenly.
“It was her idea. I didn’t stand a chance.” He spits back.
She can see him warring within himself, pausing, almost counting before he speaks again and when he does it’s calm, measured – he’s not rising to her anger.
“Besides, it’s like the mountain. There’s an army in there.”
“An army that will have to cross the dead zone to get here.” Clarke sighs, the fight draining out of her too.
“How far is that?” Raven asks, her mind already working on the solution.
“I’ve only ever done it by rover, which takes a few hours. Three maybe.”
Raven is muttering to herself. Clarke tries to catch Bellamy’s eye but he’s looking away from her, his whole body focused on Raven.
It’s a pain Clarke isn’t used to. One she hasn’t had to endure before. Even when he hated her, he still saw her.
“That’s impossible. It would be hundreds of miles. It will take them weeks.” Raven sighs.
They’re on the cliffs near her valley. She can see Eligius down there, making themselves comfortable in her home, on her land. She is furious and reminded of a different group of people from the sky a long time ago. Anya’s face flashes in her mind, a face she hasn’t thought of in years.
They’re the grounders now and she wants her land back.
“Then we meet them halfway.”
*
There are moments when she still misses Lincoln so much, so strongly, that she can’t breathe. She’s found a way to lessen the feeling but it’s not healthy. Fighting dulls the pain, turns into something physical, something she can manage but she can’t do that now.
Now, she’s following the child towards ‘Eden’ - a little oasis that Clarke has found. It sounds ridiculous but then everything about Earth, about Clarke, has always seemed a little ridiculous to Octavia. This is just another part.
“They won’t go down without a fight.” She hears Murphy tell Indra.
If Lincoln could see those two, she thinks but banishes it instantly. She can’t fight here, not yet.
“Neither will we,” Octavia replies.
And she means it. She wants that land, not for herself, oh no, Octavia is ready to walk away from all of that. She wants it because then she can give them the land to live on, the little nightblood to lead them, and her fight will be over.
*
It’s a terrible plan. One that will almost certainly get them all killed. But it’s also the only plan. And while six years may have changed them all he still knows Clarke. He knows the set of her jaw, the way she frowns and knows if he says no she’ll go without him anyway.
A part of him – the part that gets forgotten when he’s trying to be the good guy – wants to go too. He wants to see his sister. He wants to be around his people again, to remember what that’s like.
And if he’s honest, he wants to see Madi and Clarke together. Wants to see the person she made her family when he left her behind.
They haven’t even been walking for two hours when the flaw in their plan becomes clear – Raven. Her leg is better, six years have made her stronger, but she will never be healed and it will always hurt.
“I’m slowing you down.” She states sitting down on a boulder.
She’s not complaining, one thing Bellamy has learnt about Raven Reyes is that she doesn’t complain, but she’s weary. He can hear it in her voice.
“We’re not leaving you behind.” He snaps and it takes every part of him to not look at Clarke.
“You have to. I will just slow you down and put you all in danger.”
“We’re not leaving you alone.” Clarke tries, sounding so like the girl he once knew that Bellamy can’t help but look over at her this time.
She doesn’t meet his gaze.
“You won’t be. I’ll stay with her, we’ll find another way to get to you.” Emori says.
“No!” He barks out, hearing Clarke in the background say the same thing.
Even as he protests, he knows he’s lost the argument. This does make the most sense. Clarke knows the terrain and wants to get to Madi. He wants to see Octavia, their friends. But he doesn’t want to leave Raven and Emori, doesn’t want to be alone with Clarke.
“I already have half a plan. Don’t worry.” Raven is telling Clarke, hugging her tightly.
He turns from them to Emori, “Whatever you’re about to tell me, don’t. Just make sure John is ok.”
“Take this.” He says, handing her the gun he took from the Eligius man, “I know you hate them, but if you get boxed in it might be your only option.”
“What about you?” She says, taking the gun gingerly.
“I have a pistol and my sword.”
She nods.
He hugs Raven tightly.
“Don’t say it. Whenever we say it people don’t come back.” She whispers fiercely.
“Make sure you find us.” He says squeezing her. The words ‘may we meet again’ float in his mind unbidden.
“Take care of each other.” She tells him.
He nods and pulls back.
“Lead the way.” He tells Clarke.
A ghost of the words hovers on his tongue, he’s said it before a million times a million ways, a lifetime ago.
She nods, her short blonde hair floating with the movement, her jaw set, determined.
He falls into step with her, the familiarity washing over him. He can do this, has done this. It’s a role that used to be as easy as breathing – he was her back-up, her protector, her partner – space doesn’t have to change that.
*
Every day for 2199 days she spoke to him. She told him when she found Madi. Told him when she found Eden. Told him when she didn’t think she could go on anymore. Told him when she knew she could.
Clarke knows she’s spoken thousands of words to Bellamy over the past six years so why can’t she find the words now.
They’re sitting ducks out here. No protection from either side. It’s the most in danger Clarke has ever felt. And yet, she still can’t find the words.
He’s not speaking either but that seems to be the new Bellamy way. Look, listen, watch and then respond. It’s the complete opposite of the boy she knew, but she thinks maybe that’s part of it. He’s not the boy she knew. He’s a man, a grown-up who grew up away from her.
They’ve been walking all day with barely a word between them when Clarke breaks. They’re sitting in a sand dune, sheltering from the wind that threatens to cover them in sand in seconds. She can’t see him – they both have scarves pulled up and over their faces.
“Are you mad that I didn’t die.” She shouts to be heard over the wind.
“What? No, of course not.”
“Because it seems like you’re not happy to see me, alive.”
She sees more than hears him huff, recognises the move of his shoulders in the action. He’s warring with himself again and once more she is furious. She wants him to explode, to be hurt and angry like her.
“What? Did you just hope you’d leave me to die and that was that?”
“No, I…”
“Because I didn’t die Bellamy. Once again, I survived and I spoke to you every day for years. I radioed and radioed and you never replied but it was ok. I wasn’t mad. I knew Raven would get you back, bring you home.”
Clarke thinks she’s crying but it’s been so long she can’t quite remember if this is how it feels.
“But you’re not home. You’re not here.”
“We’re at war Clarke. Once again, we’re on earth and we’re at war. I am just trying to do what you said and it keeps being wrong!” He shouts, frustrated.
“What I said?”
“To use my head and my heart. So I am.”
He doesn’t pause to let her speak and Clarke tries to remember telling him that. She knows she told him that he inspired people and was a great leader but she didn’t tell him to change.
“And apparently that’s still not enough for you.”
His final word echoes into the wind and suddenly it’s silent. The storm has stopped, disappearing as quickly as it began.
“It’s always been enough.” She says softly, “I never meant you needed to change.”
“I left you to die.”
“No,” Clarke says pulling her scarf down and reaching for his hand, “I left you, so you could live.”
“I said goodbye to you every day for six years.” He croaks, holding her hand so tightly she can feel the blood pumping in the veins.
“And I said hello to you every day for six years, so somewhere in there we had a conversation.” She smiles, softly, shyly.
“I don’t know how to do this anymore.” He admits.
Clarke doesn’t know if he’s talking about earth, war, their friendship or something else but it doesn’t matter.
“Do you trust me?”
“Of course.”
“And I trust you. We will figure this out. We just need to find our families first.”
*
If you’d asked her when she was in the bunker to imagine seeing her brother for the first time in years she would have said he would look strong, dependable and Clarke would be by his side.
After the space revelation, Octavia was expecting to see Bellamy alone or with Raven.
But, she should have known better. Less than a few days on earth and of course, he’s with Clarke again.
She’s with Indra, Madi and Murphy in the rover, driving towards ‘Eden,’ which is where Madi said Clarke was. The world ended but the rover survived. She thinks there’s a metaphor in that but Bellamy was always the more poetic of the two of them. Of course, he was the one that got the education and opportunities so it’s not surprising.
She’d know it was Bellamy from a million miles away, even without Madi shouting for Clarke.
Madi is out and running toward Clarke before the rover has fully stopped and that’s when Octavia realises her plan might not be so simple.
She gets out, her hood up against the sand, and walks towards him. The hope on Bellamy’s face reminds her of being a child, of climbing onto his lap to hear stories about distant lands. Of course, he never told her about monsters. Didn’t prepare her for any of this.
“O.” He croaks.
And she almost breaks then. She did miss him.
“Hello, big brother.” She smiles instead, taking his face softly and kissing his cheek.
He wraps his arms around her and pulls her tight.
“I knew you could do it. I knew you’d survive.”
You know nothing, she thinks. But she just holds him back, lets herself be Octavia Blake for a few more minutes. It will be the last time she gets the chance.
*
If Bellamy had allowed himself to dream on the ring, if he had allowed himself to hope, to imagine a future, this would have come pretty close.
His sister is alive, next to him. Clarke is opposite him, alive.
He has everything he has ever wanted. He thinks that’s what makes him slow to notice the tension. He’s been away from them for so long he’s forgotten parts of them.
“And then I’m going to have my own army. Isn’t that amazing.” He hears Madi say to Clarke.
It sounds like a child’s story but there’s something in the way his sister stiffens beside him, the way Clarke smiles indulgently at Madi, before fixing Octavia with a glare that could freeze fire that makes him think it’s not a bedtime story.
“We’ll discuss it later my little one. Sleep now.”
He can’t remember ever hearing Clarke be so soft. It opens something inside him he’d been trying to keep closed.
“How many of you are in the dead zone.” He says to his sister, for something to say.
“All of us who were left in the bunker.” She replies.
He doesn’t miss Indra stiffen that time.
Clarke is stroking Madi’s hair softly and after about ten minutes of silence, he can see that the girl is asleep. Looking even younger than she did before.
“Murphy, stop the rover.” Clarke hisses, her voice barely a whisper.
“Uhh…”
“Do it,” Bellamy tells him and he does.
Murphy turns back and frowns at him, “I thought we were on a time pressure.”
“Outside now.” Clarke hisses at Octavia who merely smirks.
“Murphy, Indra, stay with Madi,” Clarke says, climbing over Bellamy to open the rover doors.
“Don’t take orders from you Griffin.” Murphy replies as Indra looks to Octavia.
“Stay with the child.” Octavia nods, following Clarke out of the Rover.
Bellamy looks to Murphy, who nods, and then goes too.
He pushes the door closed behind him and leans against it. His sister and Clarke stand squaring off against each other.
“Are you out of your damn mind?” Clarke snarls, “She’s a child.”
“She’s a nightblood. And I know she was training before Primfaya, she was so excited to tell me about it.”
“That was then.”
Bellamy feels like he’s two steps behind them. They’re fighting about Madi but he doesn’t know why.
“You know as well as I do, that they’re born to lead.” Octavia points out.
It’s then that Bellamy gets it. Octavia wants Madi to lead, to be the Commander.
“O, she’s a child.” He interjects.
“So was Lexa. And all of the ones before that. Believe me, I’ve learnt all about the commanders. People were not happy to give up their icons.” She snaps, before adding wryly, “at first anyway.”
Bellamy can see how this will play out before it does. Neither of them will back down, he needs to find another way. He needs time to find another way.
“Look, let's just get back to our people and then we can talk about this.”
“Madi is my people and there’s nothing to discuss. It’s not happening.” Clarke growls.
“There are more of my people than there are of yours. Be careful Wanheda, you’re not in charge anymore and you haven’t been for a long time.”
“O!” Bellamy warns.
“It’s not a threat if it’s a fact.”
“The enemy is Eligius, we shouldn’t lose sight of that.” He tries.
“The enemy is all around us.” Octavia counters.
“Apparently so.” Clarke snarls at her.
This is why Bellamy never allowed himself to dream of getting them back, because hope is pointless when reality gets involved.
“Let's keep going and discuss it later.” He sighs.
“You can’t be serious. I know she’s your sister but you can’t just take her side, Madi’s a child.” Clarke pleads, turning to him.
“So was I when I was put in Skybox. So was I when I was sent to the ground.” Octavia snarls, “Madi is a born leader Clarke.”
“I have nightblood too.” Clarke counters, “I’ll lead.”
Bellamy feels like all of his nightmares are playing out in front of him but he can’t wake up.
“Oh, you’d love that. But you’re not nightblood, you were made, not born. They’ll never accept you. You can’t even fight.”
“Try me,” Clarke snaps, stepping towards Octavia who has already drawn her sword.
“Get in the damn rover, both of you.” He growls, getting in between them, “We need to get to Eden, stop Eligius or it won’t matter who leads. There’ll be nothing to lead.”
He can feel Octavia’s blade at his side, feel Clarke practically vibrating with rage next to him but he refuses to back down.
“I can’t believe you’re siding with her.” Clarke spits at him. Before opening the door of the rover and climbing in next to Madi.
“I’m not surprised you’re choosing her.” Octavia shrugs, following Clarke inside the vehicle.
There’s a moment when Bellamy contemplates closing the door and just walking away. They both know how to hurt him, even when they don’t mean too and he knows how this will go. His sister and his, Clarke, at war will only end one way. He will lose one of them, maybe both. So wouldn’t it be easier to walk away now, to let them lose him?
His hand pauses on the door for a moment ready to slam it shut.
But then:
“Bellamy, why are you outside?” Madi says sleepily, her eyes fluttering open, from where Clarke has her head pillowed in her lap.
And that’s enough.
“Just getting some air.” He smiles climbing inside and shutting the door, “like you’re meant to be getting some sleep.”
She grins up at him and winks before squeezing her eyes shut.
He reaches over Octavia to tap Murphy on the shoulder, “let's go.”
He won’t leave. He can’t. His sister, his responsibility. He’ll stay and protect the women he loves from each other no matter the cost.
*
Raven doesn’t think she arrives that late. By the time she convinced Zeke to get on their side, found a vehicle the three of them could steal, she thinks she’s only a day or so behind Bellamy and Clarke.
So when she arrives in the dead zone. In the place they’ve all settled, she’s surprised to see the battle lines already drawn – especially because she thought they were all on the same side.
Echo is the first person they reach.
“What’s going on?”
“It’s to do with Clarke’s child, Madi.”
Emori had explained that Clarke had found another nightblood. Raven had felt some the guilt that lives in her chest lessen at that, at least Clarke hadn’t been totally alone.
Raven’s eyes sweep across the people, searching out Clarke’s blonde head.
She sees her sitting away from the fire, her head bent down towards a dark head, listening. There’s a moment where Raven’s brain does a freeze frame, stutters. She’s so used to seeing Bellamy’s dark head in a whispered conversation with Clarke that seeing this young girl jolts her. The thought is gone as quickly as it arrived, replaced instead by curiosity.
She keeps looking around at the people. She sees Miller and the man who assists Abby, Jackson she remembers, talking to Niylah and Harper. She can’t see Kane and Abby but knows they must be here, she’d know if they hadn’t made it.
Her eyes rove around the people, landing on Bellamy. Alone.
“What’s with him?” She asks Echo as they walk towards the fire pit if anyone knows Bellamy it’s Echo.
“Clarke.” Echo shrugs, then adds, “And his sister.”
Raven pauses. Clarke and Bellamy on opposing sides is something she has seen before. She’s even seen Clarke and Octavia on the same side against Bellamy, but this, all three of them alone. She hasn’t seen this for a while.
“What’s happening?” She says coming up to a group she considers hers. Harper, Monty, Murphy, Miller, Echo and Emori. Others are there too, Jackson and Niylah among them.
“The family are fighting.” Murphy snarks.
“Someone other than Murphy please.”
“We don’t know. Clarke and Bellamy arrived here with Octavia, Indra and the child before the rest of us. And, something clearly happened.” Miller says.
“Something went down in the rover but they left me babysitting and kept their voices low.” Murphy says, “but I know Bellamy had to step in between Clarke and Octavia. It looked like Clarke wanted to kill her.”
“That’s… that’s madness. Clarke wouldn’t.” Emori says.
Privately Raven knows there is very little Clarke wouldn’t do, but to go up against Octavia – Clarke won’t win that fight.
“Are we going to have to choose?” Harper asks softly.
“There’s no choice. We’re with Bellamy.” Echo answers, and the rest of them who were in space nod.
“If he’s with Octavia, then I’m with Clarke,” Miller says.
That makes Raven pause. Miller is Bellamy’s man – always has been.
“Me too,” Niylah adds, and Jackson agrees.
That makes more sense, she thinks of them as Clarke’s but there’s something about the way they’re saying it, how they’re standing, shielding themselves that makes Raven sure she’s missing something.
“What happened in the bunker?” She asks them.
The look they share scares her. It reminds her of when Murphy and Bellamy came back from the grounder village with Finn, all those years ago.
“Octavia leads by example.” Niylah answers carefully.
“And her example is kill or be killed.” Miller adds.
The way he says it, so flippant, so lightly makes Raven certain that whatever happened in the bunker is not something she wants to know.
“Bellamy just got Clarke back, he won’t fight against her. Surely?” Monty says, looking over at Bellamy.
“He just got Octavia back too.” Miller counters.
“Has anyone actually talked to him?” Raven sighs, knowing the answer before she hears it.
She rolls her eyes and makes her way over to him. She can feel Clarke’s eyes on her, knows that Octavia will be watching from somewhere but she doesn’t care. She’s Bellamy’s people and she owes it to him to find out what’s going on.
“Sitting with all your friends.” She teases, sitting down on the log next to him.
“Don’t start.” He sighs.
“Talk to me. I can’t fix what I don’t know.”
He tells her quietly, haltingly, about the sister who doesn’t want to lead anymore, who wants a child to take her place. He tells her about his friend, his partner, the ghost in front of him who wants to charge into every situation with a ferocity he doesn’t recognise.
Raven listens as he tells her that he knows the enemy is Eligius but he can’t leave Clarke and Octavia alone, because he thinks if he does he’ll come back and one of them will be dead.
She doesn’t speak. Lets him unburden himself her mind already coming up with solutions and problems and solutions to those problems.
“Clarke didn’t die for this right?” She tells him when he’s done. It was his mantra on the ring and she wanted to choke him with it more than once.
“She didn’t die Raven.”
“Exactly. We fight for a place to live first. And then we fight for who gets to live in it after.”
He looks confused but eventually shrugs and says, “what’s the plan?”
“Go to your sister. Support her and convince her to mobilise her people against Eligius.”
“And Clarke?” He asks, his eyes darting over to where she sits with Madi. And Raven wonders, not for the first time, if the timing will ever be on side for those two.
“I’ve got Clarke.”
Bellamy nods and squeezes her shoulder, before making his way over to Octavia.
Raven doesn’t tell him that she doesn’t think there’s a way he gets to save everyone this time. She doesn’t tell him that if the haunted looks and scared faces of the people in the bunker are any indication he might not want to.
Instead she does what she says she would. She goes to Clarke. She convinces her to fight with them, and Octavia, for Eden. Promises that she’ll help protect Madi – that they all will.
In the end, they all do.