Chapter Text
2 months ago
When the three women had made it to camp just before dawn, it had been clear to Clarke that unseating Pike as the chancellor was going to be much harder than she had anticipated. Pike and his band of rebels had already posted several guards about a half mile outside of camp. Octavia and her had been able to easily evade them, while Indra had already met up with the warriors who were enforcing the blockade.
Octavia had been granted entrance to camp by Bellamy, but Clarke had to hide out until the other girl could sneak her in through the secret entrance.
Her mother had been the first person she spoke with.
“Clarke. Oh, Clarke. You shouldn’t have come back. It’s too dangerous for you here.” her mother sighed as she embraced her in a tight hug.
“Mom, I couldn’t stay in Polis with the blockade being enforced.” she whispered.
Octavia snorted an unapproving laugh. Abby looked at her questioningly, but Octavia made no move to explain her clear disdain for Clarke.
“What blockade Clarke? Tell me what’s going on?” Abby implored.
Clarke tried to quickly explain what had happened in the last two days at Polis. How the latest attack on the grounder village had ended up with Octavia captured and brought before the Heda as a prisoner. That even though Lexa was desperately trying to change the grounder ways to a more merciful and peaceful way of ruling, it seemed impossible when at every turn the skaikru kept pushing her to start a war. She told her mom that Lexa had no choice to enact a kill order for any skaikru person caught outside the borders of the blockade.
Octavia couldn’t stand to listen to Clarke any longer. She boldly voiced her own opinion on the kill order.
“She’s the Commander, Clarke! If she wanted, she could stop this. But she’s always putting her people first. And she always will. Don’t you get that?” she spat out.
“Octavia, no. No she can’t just stop this. What would you have her do, after what Pike and your own brother did? And still she let that pass. But enough is enough. Our people, OUR people have to be accountable for their actions. She wouldn’t treat any of the other clans any differently. I know this.” Clarke urged.
Abby observed the interaction between Clarke and the dark haired girl and sensed there was more going on than Octavia just being upset about the kill order.
Octavia just huffed in defiance and sat down away from Clarke and Abby.
“Mom, who do we have on our side? Who can we trust?”
Abby told her that at least half of the camp were not in agreement with Pike’s rule. Most of his supporters were obviously from farm station.
If they couldn’t get Pike to stop his vendetta against the grounders then they were destined for a war. And a bloody one at that.
As much as she wanted to, she knew now wasn’t the time to tell her mom of her relationship and marriage with Lexa. She had tucked the necklace beneath her shirt before she had come into camp. But there was no way she was taking off her ring. It was the one thing that kept her physically close to Lexa. Hopefully, she would be as happy about the news as Clarke was. They had much to accomplish before Clarke could even think of celebrating peace with Lexa, but it was certainly her motivation for helping her people once more.
The blonde turned to Octavia then.
“O, what do you think your chances are of getting Bellamy to see reason?”
Octavia met Clarke’s eyes and sadly laughed.
“I’d say they aren’t much better than yours. He’s so far up Pike’s ass I’m surprised you can’t see his head on Pike’s shoulders. But I’ll try again. We don’t have anything else to lose, right?” she whispered and shrugged her shoulders.
//
Octavia had been successful in talking to Bellamy, but it had taken her almost beating him senseless for him to see that following Pike was only going to end up in all of Arkadia being killed or imprisoned.
“Listen O, don’t you get it? The grounders are savages. They kill without any thought to human life.”
That was when Octavia had enough. She decked and knocked him clear on his ass and about a good three feet from where he had been standing in front of her.
“Are you fucking kidding me Bell?” She spat as she pressed her knee roughly into his chest as he lay on the floor beneath her.
“You can say that and believe that shit after you and your little band of fuck-ups killed 300 innocent people. People with families. Fucking kids Bell! You killed parents for God’s sake! They were there to protect us, and you murdered them. And you say the grounders are savages? Take a look in the fucking mirror you piece of shit.” She said through clenched teeth.
“How can you say that after all the people we’ve lost? I lost Gina, O. I, she’s gone.” He said sadly and rose to sit up.
Octavia raised her arms in the air in exasperation.
“Bellamy, we’ve all lost people. Everyone here has lost someone. Everyone! I get it. You want someone to blame, but that isn’t Trikru. Ice nation was responsible for the deaths at Mount Weather, not Lexa’s clan. How many fucking times do you need to hear it?”
He grimaced when his sister said Lexa’s name. He had no idea how Clarke could have forgiven her for leaving them both to kill so many people after she had made an alliance with them.
“And how am I supposed to trust that, O? When they make promises they break as soon as the advantage is theirs. They don’t care about us and they never will. Lexa left us and our friends to die. Don’t you get that?”
“I don’t trust Lexa any more than you do, but I’ve seen what she’s been trying to do Bell. She made us part of her coalition. We were protected. But fucking Pike got a wild hair of revenge up his ass and now look where we are. Do you really want an all out war? It’s time to pick the right side.”
//
Clarke looked at her ring again. Letting her finger spin the thick silver band while she thought of the feel of Lexa against her body. She was lost in that moment when the sound of Octavia’s boots near her door brought her back into the reality of her current situation.
She slowly turned around a slight frown upon her features as she took in the hard stare of her friend walking into her hidden room. It wasn’t exactly a hidden room, but Kane and Abby had made sure to find the remotest part of the ark to keep Clarke from being discovered. It was an area that had been heavily damaged upon reentry and landing and was currently last on the list of the space stations many areas to be repaired.
If the blonde had to take a guess as to the outcome of the dark haired girls talk with her brother she would be heavily leaning toward it having been unsuccessful. But before Octavia could tell her what the result had been, she saw the her reach into a pack and hand her a half of piece of some sort of sweet bread and some small bits of dried fruit and meat. She also handed her canteen of water.
Clarke broke into a smile at the sight of food even if it wasn’t very much, it was more than she had eaten since they’d arrived back at camp over a day and a half ago. She greedily finished off the meat first and mumbled her thanks in between bites of the bread. Once she had quenched her thirst, she thanked Octavia again before addressing the elephant in the room.
“He’s with us, Clarke.” Octavia spoke breaking the stifling silence.
Clarke’s eyes rose up, her eyebrows almost reaching her hairline in shock and surprise.
“What? Octavia, how did you convince him?”
Bellamy agreeing to help those who opposed Pike’s regime was a blessing Clarke had scarcely thought could become a reality. And it was much needed if they had any chance of winning this war.
She had hope now.
Hope that the promise of no longer being obligated to her people was soon approaching.
Hope that Lexa and her could bring about a lasting peace among the clans.
“Honestly? I sort of just beat the shit out of him. Told him we’ve all had losses and he was being a big man-baby wallowing and persecuting the very people who helped us. Had no idea he’d actually wise up and see reason.” The brunette huffed out.
“Octavia, have you been able to speak with Indra at all?” Clarke wondered aloud. Honestly really just trying to find if Lexa had sent any word to her while they were separated.
“I may have an idea of how to move things along, but we need a grounder healer to help us.
And since Nyko is locked up here, we’ll need someone from the outside. Remember those nuts that made us all trip out? If we can get our hands on those-”
Both girls had been so into their conversation they hadn’t heard the soft footfalls coming from the corridor. Unbeknownst to Octavia, Kane, and Abby, was that while this wing of the Ark was not cleared for habitation it was still being patrolled every few days to check for pests and possible intruders.
There was no time to react as the first sleep dart hit Clarke in her arm. Octavia spun around quickly to face the doorway, sword and dagger already drawn. She struck quickly at the guard in front of her slicing him cleanly in the neck. He gurgled and fell to the floor in seconds. The second guard was stunned enough for a moment that Octavia was able to land two quick punches to his kidney. Unfortunately, Clarke was already passed out from the tranquilizer and could offer no help to the dark haired warrior.
He landed a blow to her stomach and she doubled over from the force. His leg thrust out in a hard kick landing her on her back. As he advanced toward her, she scissor kicked and spun away from him.
With all of her strength she slashed her sword down his back, then stabbed him fatally in his kidney. Octavia recognized him then. A guard friend of Bellamy’s named Kaz. His brown eyes looked up at her, furious and scared. Octavia knelt down upon his chest with her right leg. Her left knee came up and she pressed her entire weight onto his throat. His weak hands futilely tried to push her off, to do anything to survive.
“Yu gonplei ste odon.” She said as he sputtered his last breath.
//
She was up and grabbing Clarke to get them out of the deserted area of the Ark. She had been foolish to not think about guard patrols. Hiding Clarke now would be even more difficult if at all possible. But she had to try.
By some grace she was able to sneak Clarke into the medical hold to leave her with Abby.
“Octavia? What happened?” Abby gasped as she saw the smaller girl carry her unconscious daughter into the medical unit.
“We were planning back in the damaged wing when two guards found us. Kaz shot Clarke with a maunon tranq dart before I could take them out.”
Abby winced at the young girl’s words. Her expression one of resigned acceptance.
“Okay, we can deal with this. I’ve got Clarke, but you’ve got to get rid of the guards. Take Bellamy.”
“Abby, I had no choice.”
Abby sighed and closed her eyes. Looking at Octavia she softly nodded her head.
“I know.”
//
Bellamy had been spending most of his time on the outer border of the Ark’s claimed territory. Just close enough to the blockade to be antagonizing. True to Lexa’s word though, her armies remained stoic and unprovoked. Were any of her warriors to disobey her orders they knew it would mean their life as payment.
Octavia found him gathering some nuts and berries to snack on while on patrol.
“I need you to come with me right now. We have a problem.”
“Don’t we always?” He huffed out.
“Don’t forget I’m cleaning up your mess, Bell.” disdain dripping from her words. If they made it out of this alive and with all the clans celebrating peace, she might consider forgiving her hot headed brother. As it stood, it was taking much of her strength to not hand him over to Indra’s army. She hated that in order for their plan to work they needed his support. Where was the justice in that, she thought?
As quick as they could, Bellamy and Octavia made it back to the station and secreted their way to the damaged wing.
As quick as they could, Bellamy and Octavia made it back to the station and secreted their way to the damaged wing.
They carried the bodies as quickly as they could using the least traveled passages in the space station. Bringing them through the secret entrance and out beyond the lines of Arkadia
Once they had gotten far enough away from the ark but well within the limit of the blockade they furiously began to dig graves. Knowing that dark was coming soon, they hastily covered the graves and covered it with logs and leaves.
“Now what, O? What happens when their patrol notices Kaz and Flynn have gone missing?” He shook his head in frustration.
She debated at telling him the story she had concocted for the guards being gone. The innate trust they had was shattered, but it had to be rebuilt and now might be the only chance they had.
“Abby radioed Indra so she’ll know there are bodies buried out here. When Pike finds out Kaz and his partner are gone, Monty will say they went off to get high. I put a bag of weed on Flynn before I came to get you. As far as to why they were killed? Emerson is still at large out here somewhere. It’s the simplest explanation and gives Pike no reason to question what really happened. How many times did you, Flynn and Kaz get high on the Ark? It’s no secret they both liked to indulge in the herb quite frequently.
We aren’t breaking the blockade and they can’t implicate the grounders either.” She smirked.
“O, I don’t know whether I should be impressed or scared that you put something that good together.”
Bellamy looked up at the sky. They needed to get back to camp now so that Bellamy wouldn’t be missed. He needed to make sure he got a little extra food to sneak to Octavia later as well. Being a guard afforded him an extra ration in his meals to keep up his strength.
“Let’s go. It’s getting dark and we need to get food for you and Clarke.” He took a sip of water from his canteen and passed it to Octavia. She drained it and they both took off back to camp hoping no one had noticed them.