V: A RESCUE MISSION WITH ALL THE WRONG INTENTIONS

[oh dear, immortality is not a blessing, it is a curse]

After Athene and Bellamy's outburst, she stormed off, and was more than right do to so. If she were to be in Bellamy's presence for a few seconds longer, she would have decked him, and that would definitely not be a pretty sight. Not for him, and not for her. So she retreated back into the outer circle of the so-called-camp. Which, if you'd ask Athene, looked more like a pig's nest than an actual camp with living teenagers, but then again, the two didn't differ from one another all that much.

Athene crouched down on her knees and let her hands grasp earth's dirt. The mud seeped through her fingers, and it calmed her down to have something in her hands, even if it didn't stay there. It showed her that she could at least have a grip on something. Athene closed her eyes and tried to rearrange her thoughts to stop them they from running around and making her lose her head.

Not that it helped, once her eyes fluttered open, mud no longer seeped through her fingers, it had turned to a stream of thick blood. It coated her nails and the tips of her fingers, and a scream was stuck in her troat. You know that horrible feeling in your gut when you know something is wrong? When the tide has changed and is headed straight your way with enormous waves, and you know something is on its way, but you can't do anything about it. Because you just stand there, with your feet glued to the ground and your head tilted as wide eyes stare up at the water. Most of the time, that gut-wrenching feeling disappeared as quickly as it came, but that wasn't the case with Athene. It had nestled itself around Athene's intestines, and wasn't keen on letting go.

And the blood. Oh my God, the blood. It was insufferable.

Athene raised her hands, with her palms in the direction of her face, and her green eyes stared in bewilderment. They didn't feel like her hands. They didn't look like her hands. But they were her hands. A tingling sensation started at the tip of her fingers before taking over her completely, and the shaking of her hands caused droplets of blood to splatter onto her shirt.

While scrambling, Athene tried to stand up. Her jeans no longer blue, instead, a dirty aura surrounded them. What could be described as a flicker of a static tv screen took over her sight as Athene pressed her palms vigorously into the sockets of her eyes.

It is not real.

It is not real.

IT IS NOT REAL.

The blood was gone. Her mind had been playing tricks on her, again. But they weren't really tricks, how could they be? Her mind hadn't been playing tricks, they had shown her memories, and for some reason, that was worse. She wasn't imagining, she was reliving. Over and over again. The mistakes she made breathing down her neck like the fire of a dragon, always reminding her of what she was, and more importantly of what she did. Athene had always taught that only nightmares were able to haunt her, that only during the night were demons able to torment her. What a pleasant surprise was it to have learned to her demons don't shy away from the light. They crave it.

Distraction. What Athene needed was a distraction. So as she was making her way over to Clarke, her teeth grinded and her hands disappeared into the sleeves of her shirt. The blonde stood out in the sea of dark and brooding juveniles, and she reminded Athene so strongly of Jeff that her remaining steps were a bit wobbly. Athene grasped Clarke's shoulder and she hoped her grip wasn't too tight.

If it was, Clarke didn't show, and Athene was glad she could lean on Clarke for the support the girl didn't know she was giving.

"Whatever you are going to do, I am in, I can't stand to stay at this godforsaken camp longer than necessary."

Bellamy raised his dark eyebrow at Athene's statement. "Are you now?"

"Don't test me, Bellamy," Athene hissed, and her popping green eyes resembled the skin of a poisonous mamba snake.

Bellamy's hands shot up in the air in mock surrender, but he didn't open his mouth to present Athene with a snarky remark of his own.

Clarke initiated for the group to follow her, and with her head held high she walked into the trees and let the unknown engulf her. She didn't cast her eyes backwards, because she knew they were following her. Bellamy was too damn prideful to let Clarke be ahead of him in any possible way.

"This is a joke, right?" Athene jogged to catch up with Clarke and Wells. "They are not actually coming with, are they?"

The silence was more than enough of an answer to Athene's question. "You're kidding me. This has got to be the most pathetic scramble of teenagers I've ever seen. You do realise that neither Bellamy nor Murphy care about the life of Jasper, right? If it was up to them – which it isn't by the way – they would let him rot just because they could."

Clarke lips were drawn in a thin line and she cocked her head slightly. "I know, I know they value their life above that of others, which seems ironic, now that we are on a rescue mission, but that way I'll know that if there is any danger, they will be the ones to attract it."

"Fair enough, but don't expect me to like it."

"Oh, I definitely wasn't counting on that."

Athene grinned, "Good, because I need a distraction, and even though this rescue mission is quite important, it doesn't hurt to annoy the living daylights out of Bellamy and Murphy."

☙

Everyone has an outlet, right? A way to set free the suppressed emotions. Athene had always found solace in talking. Whether she was sprouting random facts, making someone's blood boil, or maintaining a civilised conversation didn't matter to the girl. The funny thing, however, was that it wasn't an outlet, Athene just liked to talk. She had put her emotions in a bottle, screwed it shut and thrown it in the ocean a long time ago.

Here on the ground, it was easy to talk, and even easier to annoy.

"Jesus, fucking, Christ, can you shut up."

Murphy's cheeks had darkened with anger and Bellamy was holding onto his shirt like one might hold onto a dog's leach.

A laugh bubbled out of Athene, and she wasn't surprised that Murphy was the first one to snap. He was a ticking time bomb stuck on an infinite loop, and with every minor inconvenience his emotions got the better of him. When he calmed down – or at least to how calm he could get – the whole cycle would just repeat itself.

Athene had struck a deal with herself to at least set him off three times today.

"Knock it off, Athene, even though your words might not be directed at me, I still get to enjoy your endless rambling, which is definitely not helping when I need to decipher the correct way to save Jasper from bleeding to death at the hands of a grounder," Clarke mumbled, but Athene knew she had enjoyed herself at least once the last few minutes.

The beginning of a conversation was enough for Bellamy to halt their strolling through the debris of the earth's supposed extinction. "Why are we in such a rush anyway? Do I need to remind you that you don't survive a spear through the heart?"

Beams of the sun illuminated a black gun that was loosely clasped around Bellamy's fingers as he pointed the gun in multiple directions – including theirs.

Wells growled and stretched his back to appear more masculine as he stood in front of Clarke, "Put the gun away, Bellamy."

With a little bump of Murphy's chest against his, Wells was able to lose his balance, and he stumbled on his still sore ankle. Their quarrelling, however, was drowned out by Athene's angry exclaim. "What the fuck are you aiming that thing in my direction for? How the hell did you get a gun anyway, and I do think that it isn't going to be much of a help against the grounders. Not when they will struck you down before you have even acknowledged their presence?"

Bellamy's lip curled up in satisfaction, he was pleased to get Athene wired up. To provide Athene with an answer he let his finger hover over the guards emblem inked on the gun. Once she got a good look he lifted his shirt and strapped his gun in the space between his body and jeans.

Count to ten. Still angry? Repeat.

Looking at the direction her relationship with some delinquents were headed in right now, Athene was going to be a master at counting to ten. She raised her eyebrows and nodded her head as a way to say 'bravo' and applaud Bellamy for his clever thinking to bring a goddamn gun to a fight which involved spears and swords.

As usual, Clarke ignored the whole ordeal that had occurred between the four, and jumped straight to the point, providing facts to back up her statement, "Jasper screamed when they moved him. If the spear struck his heart, he'd have died instantly. Which means we don't have to waste any time on pointless arguing."

Bellamy beckoned his head to say he understood what she was saying, but his eyes betrayed him. They were fixated on Clarke's wrist, or rather, what circled it, "As soon as you take that wristband off, we can go."

Athene stared at him incredulously. Who did he think he was? Favouring Clarke's stupid wristband over the life of Jasper.

"The only way the Ark's gonna think I'm is if I'm dead. Got it?"

"Whoop, whoop! You tell 'em!"

Bellamy rolled his eyes at Athene, and sneered at Clarke, "Brave, princess."

Athene faked a smile and threw it into the direction of Bellamy. He wanted to play with fire? Unfortunately for him, Athene Turner only came in packages of raging downpour.

Louder growing footstep came running into their direction, and at first Athene was afraid it was a grounder who had grown so sick of their feud that instead of waiting for them to fall into some sort of trap, he was going to finish them off right there and then. But the boy clad in a bomber jacket with a mob of dirty blond hair was nowhere close to resembling Athene's idea of a grounder.

Her heartbeat decelerated at the familiar face of Finn.

"Hey, why don't you find your own nickname?" Finn's protectiveness echoed through the trees, and he instinctively pushed Athene behind him. "You call this a rescue party? Got to split up, cover more ground. Clarke come with me." With a tug of her arm, Finn whisked her away from the prying eyes of Bellamy and Wells.

Bellamy tugged at Wells arm like Finn did with Clarke. Bellamy, however, wasn't gentle, and he jerked Wells roughly to the side lines. No doubt to either intimidate him or to pester him with an obnoxious remark.

Behind her, Murphy groaned loudly and a smirk found its way to Athene's pretty face. Time for round two. "Don't leave me to deal with Athene. Not again."