CHAPTER NINE
THE EDEN TREE
"you've been acting so sad"
˚✧₊⁎*⁎⁺˳✧༚

     "Dylan, don't."

     One thing you should know about Dylan Brown Kane was that she never backed down from a dare. No matter how stupid, reckless or dangerous the dare was, she didn't back down. Dylan was proud of that for a while. She thought it made her courageous, reliable and bold. In her mind, it made her cool. But Dylan had grown a lot since Murphy dared her to steal Chancellor Jaha's moonshine. Anyone could tell that she had matured a lot since arriving down on earth.

     Or maybe she hadn't, maybe she was the same old Dylan as she had been back on the Ark. And the whole new persona she had put on was just a feigned personality to cover up for the fact that she was a scared, immature little girl.

     Lincoln was beyond baffled at how easily this Cassie girl had pushed Dylan's buttons. How she just said a few words and it was enough to make Dylan do something really stupid. Lincoln had decided. He didn't like this girl. She got on his nerves as well as Dylan's.

     "Are you a scaredy cat? Are you a chicken, Dylan?" Cassie taunted.

     You might be wondering what exactly Cassie had dared to do. It wasn't that dangerous or anything, it was simple really. As the grounders had most control of the woods all around them, food was on the low. Which meant that camp Jaha was back to rationalizing the food and resources. Cassie was craving something sweet, and Dylan was standing outside of the room that hosted said sweets. There was a vent Dylan was small enough to crawl through, and Cassie had volunteered to give her a boost.

     "I'm not scared." Dylan deadpanned. "But seeing as your new down here, there's a thing called spiders. They really creepy, and I'm just checking to make sure there aren't any in the very, very small space I'm about to crawl into. So, just give me a sec."

     Cassie was crouched over with Dylan standing on her back. Lincoln wasn't taking any part of what was happening. He didn't need to give the people of camp Jaha any more reason not to like him. And frankly enough Dylan didn't either, which was another  one of the reason this whole thing was stupid.

"Yeah, well I'm scared. Scared that I'm going to turn into a hunchback if you don't get off my back soon." Cassie complained, her hands planted firmly just above her knees.

     "What the hell arr you guys doing?"

     At the sound of Clarke's stern voice Cassie immediately threw Dylan off of her and stood up straight, looking around and whistling pretending that she wasn't just about to be an accomplice to a crime. It didn't work. Lincoln swiftly moved over and caught Dylan in his arms before she had the time to slam to the ground. With wide eyes she grinned at him. He let her down on her feet.

     "We're just checking out that vent." Dylan lied. "It was making a weird sound so we figured we'd fix it." Cassie cleared her throat in an attempt to stop her laughter. That didn't work either.

     "Really?" Clarke narrowed her eyes at three. "Lincoln when did you become such an expert in vent-fixing." Her head was tilted, her accusing eyes locked on the grounder.

    "I'm not. They were trying to steal from the storage." He admitted. Dylan's jaw dropped open.

     "I can't believe you ratted me out!" She exclaimed, repeatedly smacking his upper arm.

     "Dylan are you serious? You just came back to the dead and instead of spending time doing something useful you're just falling back into old habits like on the Ark? I can't believe you." Clarke lectured. Something about the way Clarke yelled made Dylan feel ashamed.

     "Whatever." Cassie said, rolling her eyes. She pushed past Clarke, heading down the hallway to find someone or something else to humor her.

"I have not missed her." Clarke sighed, sauntering over to Dylan.

"I've been all over the place looking for Jasper, Monty, Murphy and Octavia. Does you know why they're hiding from me?" Dylan jokingly asked. She was exploding with excitement. She really wanted to see them all again, especially Murph and Octavia. Dylan was assuming they didn't know that she was there yet.

Clarke averted her gaze. The Griffin girl had hoped someone else had gotten the Kane girl up to speed. She didn't want to have to be the one to break the news to her. These days she felt like she always was the messenger of bad news.

"Dylan. . . You should sit down for this." Clarke said, her voice barely above a whisper.

"What? Clarke stop hesitating and just spit it out already, geez."

     Clarke took a deep breath before spilling everything.

˚✧₊⁎*⁎⁺˳✧༚

"Are you telling me there's a mountain with people pretending to be vampires?"

    "I guess you could say that."

     "I swear, if I don't find a Salvatore or Mikealson brother inside, they're going down."

     That's how it went when Clarke told Dylan about Mount Weather. She told her about Anya and other grounders being hung up side down and sucked completely dry of blood. And that the blood magically healed the people that lived inside of the mountain. Clarke told Dylan about the reapers that ate the dead grounder, and how they were like rabid dogs tearing everything they saw apart. The blonde Griffin girl told Dylan about Jasper and Monty still being stuck inside of the mountain. Dylan was shocked to hear that Anya and Clarke had worked together to escape, and she was saddened when she found out Anya was dead.

     Lincoln was devastated too. He felt like he had completely forsaken his nature and backstabbed his leader. When Dylan had doubted Clarke's story, Lincoln had confirmed that it was true. Lincoln didn't know everything about what was going on inside that mountain. He only knew that when the mountain men came, no one was safe. Any grounder that got taken by them was never seen again. Same went fir the grounders unlucky enough to be taken away by the reapers.

     When Clarke was finished talking the first question Dylan had asked was "where the hell is Murphy and Octavia if they're not here or in that mountain". Clarke had asked the same question when she arrived at camp Jaha and Finn was nowhere to be seen. Clarke calmly explained to Dylan that Finn and Murphy were out there searching for them, and that they would be back in no time. No one knew where Octavia was, which was for sure the thing that worried Dylan the most. That girl had grown pretty damn close to Dylan, and if anything happened to her. . . Let's just say someone was going to have to pay.

     After Clarke was done telling Dylan everything she needed to know she was called off to help somewhere. Dylan had taken a few minutes to let it all sink in. She simply stared ahead with a blank look in her eyes. Lincoln and stayed by her side, silently supporting her.

Out of the blue she stood up, taking off down the hallway. Her original plan had been to find a hideout where she could be by herself and think, but she had stumbled into her father. Which was good. She was looking for one last person.

"Dad, where granny?"

The young Kane girl was dressed in an uncomfortable skirt. The ten year old hated dressing up, especially in dresses and skirts. But her grandmother loved dressing her up. And Dylan loved seeing her grandmother happy.

The two were incredibly close, despite her rocky relationship with her father. Vera Kane was not only an amazing spirit, but a headstrong woman. Vera was the perfect role model to her granddaughter. Everything Dylan needed to learn to become a mature and strong woman she learnt for her grandmother. While she still had a long way to go, Dylan was well on her way.

Dylan was on her knees infront of what the arkadians called the 'Eden tree'. Vera Kane had several titles. She was a mother, a grandmother, the caretaker of said tree and a religious leader. Vera burnt for the hope that she would one day return to earth and plant the tree. Her church was earth-centric, and the ones in her congregation believed earth was a type of heaven. The tree was a symbol of the living earth.

"It's besutiful, isn't it?" Dylan looked up at her grandmother with a toothy grin, nodding her head up and down. "You know, one day we'll all be back down on earth. Would you like to help me plant the tree then?"

Dylan squealed with excitement. "Yes! Yes, yes, yes! A hundred times yes!" The little girl exclaimed. Vera chuckled at her granddaughters excitement. Vera devoted her entire life to two things; Dylan and the Eden tree. In her mind the tree not only symbolized life, and earth, but her recently deceased daughter-in-law Candace Brown.

"Come on, you're dads expecting us for dinner. You know how he gets when we're late." The elderly woman chuckled, pulling Dylan to her feet.

"Fiine." Dylan groaned. "But you promise that I get to stay up late to watch the meteor shower tonight, right?"

"I promise."

Marcus Kane could barely look his daughter in the eye, let alone tell her what had happened to her grandmother. How could he? Dylan loved her grandmother so much, and a big chunk of Marcus knew that the said woman raised Dylan to become the person she was today. So, how could he break the news to her?

"Dad? Hello, earth to Marcus." Dylan joked when she noticed her father completely zoned out. "I promised her on the Ark that we would plant the tree together if we ever got down to earth." Dylan really needed a symbolizing service right about now.

"Dylan. . . On unity day a bomb went off." Marcus started, his breath shaky.

"Yupp, I know that."

"A lot of people were wounded, and even more died." Her stomach dropped once she realized where he was going with this.

The Kane girl started shaking her head in disbelief. "No." Her voice was stern. "No, don't say what you're about to say. No, don't."

"I'm sorry, she was one of them. She didn't make it."

The brunette sucked in a sharp breath. The familiar feeling of staining in her eyes appeared. Dylan clenched her eyes shut, taking several deep breaths through her nose. She stood like that for a minute or two, neither of the Kane's saying anything. Then, she opened her eyes, no tears in sight.

"Where's the tree?" Marcus furrowed his brows. "Where's the Eden tree?"

He jutted his thumb in the direction of his room. "It's in my room. I was going to plant it when we came down to earth, to honor her, but when you weren't here. . . I couldn't do it."

Dylan nodded in understanding. "Then we should do it now."

     Soon enough Kane and Dylan stood side by side, looking down at the tree planted neatly in the ground. It no longer symbolized life, or earth. Not for Dylan. It symbolized hope, hope for a better future. It symbolized her mom Candace and her grandmother. It symbolized grief for everyone lost since they arrived down at earth; Wells who was unfairly taken away from them, Atom who suffered from the acid fog and even Charlotte, as much as Dylan now resented the dead girl, it symbolized her demons. Demons no one deserved, especially not at that age. And lastly it symbolized love. The love Dylan held for her father, her friends, Lincoln. . .

     The sudden commotion and yells quickly captured Kane and Dylan's attention. "What the hell is going on?"

     Lincoln trashed around as several guard threw him to the ground, clamping handcuffs around his wrists. Dylan's eyes widened. "Hey! Hey, stop what you're doing!" She yelled, landing a punch directly in one of the guards face.

     "Dylan stop!" Kane pulled his daughter away from them.

     "Let him go!" The girl screamed. "What are you doing!?"

     "At the command of the council and chancellor Kane, the grounder is to be held prisoner. Anyone who dared interfere will suffer the same fate." One of the guards said. That's when Dylan realized.

     Her father had used her grandmother and the tree as an distraction while they grabbed Lincoln. Dylan was wrong, he hadn't changed. Marcus Kane was the same selfish man he had been on the Ark.

     Remembering what Delphia had taught her about combat, Dylan felled around, grabbing Kane's arm and throwing him to the ground. The heel of her combat boot found his throat, pressing down on it. With wide eyes the man stared at his daughter. Her eyes were completely dark and so cold shivers went down his spine.

     "I will never forget this." She growled. Then she bent over to pick up a rock, launching it directly at one of the guards. "You're going to have to get through me if you want to take him."

     And then, she pounced.

word count; 2300
a/n

chapter nine out ! i'm currently at home 'sick'. you know, sick in the sense where i'm not at school, but i'm well enough to watch greys anatomy, write on this book and eat loads of trash food. i'm desperately craving a hamburger or something right now, and i really need to pee because i've got an uti, which is so fun. also, i'm very interested in seeing what you guys think of cassie ! anyways, hope you guys enjoyed the chapter. stay tuned for chapter ten !

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