XX

[PREVIOUSLY: Dustin and Bryce rescue Octavia and Murphy from the woods. Octavia confronts Clarke and Bellamy returns to help his sister in her fight for justice].

"Ark station, come in, this is Bellamy Blake ... Ark station, come in, can anyone hear me?"

Bellamy sat hunched over the crackling radio, jiggling his knees nervously. He passed a hand over his sweating brow and heaved a deep sigh.

I leaned over to place a soothing hand on his leg. "It's okay not to be okay, Bell," I assured him. "But if Chancellor Jaha is the only one that can bring the rest of the Ark, including the reinforcements that we need, down to the ground, then he needs to know what you're about to tell him. You can do this."

Bellamy nodded and sent me a quick smile as he tried again. "Ark station, please, come in, over," he pleaded, holding the receiver against his mouth.

"This is an unidentified signal transmission. Who is this? Sinclair here. Over."

I flashed my brother a wide grin and nodded encouragingly at him.

"Sinclair? This is Bellamy Blake," my brother returned. "I need to speak to Chancellor Jaha stat, I repeat, I need to speak to Chancellor Jaha. Over."

"Bellamy, we're patching you through to the chancellor's office now," Sinclair replied gruffly. "Please wait a moment."

Bellamy lowered the radio as he glanced around quickly. Then, he turned to me. "If Commander Shumway finds out ..."

"Bellamy. This is Chancellor Jaha," a gravelly voice crackled through the headset, cutting him off mid-sentence.

Bellamy heaved a deep breath as he began, "Uh ... Chancellor Jaha. Hello."

"What do you want, Bellamy? The last time I saw you, you tried to kill me and you would have too if it weren't for Abby."

"I know, sir, and I'm sorry, truly, I am," Bellamy's words stumbled over themselves. "B-but this is a bit more serious than that."

"What do you mean?"

"Chancellor Jaha, sir, your life is in danger."

"How do you know this?"

"I ..." Bellamy hesitated before drawing a deep breath and continuing, "In order to get on that drop-ship, I had to do something for someone, something really bad. That something was killing you and that someone was Commander Shumway."

For a moment, only the crackling static of the radio's signal met Bellamy's announcement. Then, Chancellor Jaha spoke up, "Commander Shumway was the person behind this treason?"

"Yessir," Bellamy affirmed. "He blackmailed me and my mother many times; but this time, this time he knew I'd do anything to save my sister ... and - and I did. I'm sorry, sir."

"Don't be sorry, Bellamy," Chancellor Jaha returned soberly. "Us leaders - we do things we never thought we would to save our own. It will be dealt with accordingly, thank you for your concern."

"Wait, Chancellor Jaha?" I quickly piped up as I snatched the radio from Bellamy. "This is Octavia."

"O, what are you doing?" Bellamy hissed.

I held up a warning finger as I ventured, "I - I have a question for you, sir."

"Yes Octavia? What can I help you with?"

"T-those 300 people ... the ones you were going to kill to save air ... did - did you do it? Did you kill them? Did you even see the flares we sent up?"

Chancellor Jaha sighed. "Yes. We saw them. But it was too late. We - we had already completed the task assigned us. We now have six more months of oxygen to plan our next move."

I swallowed hard, tears stinging the back of my eyes. "Oh."

"I'm sorry, Octavia," Chancellor Jaha tried to console me. "We all cried that day. But there is an upside to this awful tragedy ... the council members have voted to use the exodus ship and return to the Earth, hopefully within the month."

I raised my eyebrows and smiled at Bellamy. Then, my composure turned serious. "Chancellor Jaha, sir, we don't have that long. The grounders are planning to attack us. When? We don't know. But what we do know is that it will be soon. It could be today, tomorrow or even next week. But I fear that within a month's time, we'll all be dead. You need to hurry."

"We're doing our best with the resources that we have," Chancellor Jaha responded calmly. "Hang in there. Help is on the way."

As Bellamy and I exited the tent set up for the radio, we were greeted by Raven, Finn and Clarke who bombarded us with all sorts of questions. As Bellamy did his best to explain the basics, I curled my fingers around the hilt of my sword and stalked off in the opposite direction.

One half of me ached for the grounders. They were misunderstood and scared of losing their homes and loved ones. Somewhere, out there, were Aidan and Lincoln. I hadn't known them that long, but I knew them long enough to realise that they were human too; compassionate, kind, empathetic. Even though they struggled to show it, it shone through the cracks of their brokenness. If I continued to assist Bellamy with his plan for war, they could die.

The other half of me longed to protect and help my people. Dustin. Bryce. Monty. Jasper. They were like family to me. But the others? They had kept me locked up for 16 years, abused me, hated me, told me I was worthless, unloved, and unwanted. Why should I help such foolhardy people? Ones that ravaged and destroyed. Ones that hurt and stabbed you in the back. Ones that you could not trust and could not love. The answer was simple - Bellamy. He was my brother and if there was one thing that I had learned in my short mess of a life, it was this: you don't give up on family, no matter how much you wanted too.

I heaved a deep sigh as I slumped down against the camp wall next to the front gate. Peace. That's what we desperately needed. But the grounders wouldn't listen to that and neither would Bellamy and Clarke.

I buried my face in my hands and groaned. What was going to happen to us?

"Hey Princess, you okay?"

Slowly, I lifted up my head and gazed into the deep chocolate eyes of Finn Collins.

I pressed my lips together and nodded. "Uh ... yeah. Yeah, I'm good."

Finn frowned as he settled himself down beside me. "You don't seem good."

I let out a low, sardonic chuckle as I turned around to face him, "Are you serious, Finn? You think you can just break my heart and then waltz back into my life pretending nothing ever happened?"

Finn hesitated. "I - I ... of course not, Octavia! But y-you can't keep blaming me for this. I didn't think I'd ever see Raven again, I've explained that to you before."

"It still doesn't make up for what you did!" I snapped, pulling at some fresh stems of grass near my feet. "You could have at least told me about her!"

Finn sighed. "You're right. I should have done that and I'm terribly sorry that I didn't. I wish you could forgive me but I know you can't. If - if we can't be friends, then, please, at least let us be mere - er - acquaintances?"

I raised my eyebrows as I stared disbelievingly at him. "Acquaintances? Friends? Aren't they the same thing, Spacewalker?"

Finn cracked a small smile. "Not exactly. B-but I didn't come over here to pester you with a friendship request. I came over here with an - er - suggestion that might help sustain a relationship with the grounders."

"Okay, I'm listening."

"Well, we only need to convince them to tie up a temporary peace treaty, right?" Finn stated, getting somewhat excited. "We only need to have the assurance that they won't attack us ... not until the others come down from the Ark anyway."

"What are you saying?" I demanded.

"We tell Bellamy that we can - er - 'temporarily' establish a peace treaty with the grounders and then when the exodus ship arrives, we can break it," Finn concluded. "In the meanwhile, we can prepare for war; but the treaty would ensure our safety until we are joined by the rest of the Ark. Besides, after we raided that grounder village, we have more than enough supplies to last until then ..."

"So ... let me get this straight," I interrupted him. "You want to deceive the grounders by pretending we're at peace until more reinforcements from the Ark arrive? Wow. Brilliant. Amazing way to break someone's trust, that's for sure."

"Octavia, c'mon, you know Bellamy would never want to be on the same page as the grounders ... permanently," Finn pointed out. "Sometimes, we have to do what we have to do in order to survive."

I bit my lip and nodded reluctantly. "Well ... how would we get in touch with them?"

Finn shrugged. "We'll work something out but for now? Let's prepare for our next move. Our people will not, must not, die by the hands of those grounders ... not under our watch anyway."

I heaved a deep breath as I struggled to my feet. Then, I glanced down towards the shiny edge of my sword as it reflected the light of the overhanging sun.

I was at a crossroads and the worst thing about it? I didn't know which path to walk down.

Gif: Octavia as she walks away from the others who are deep in conversation.

XX