He’s still tense on the road that lies them towards or away from Polis. There’s no more hatred in his heart when thinking about the grounders now, but the anxiety will likely never go away — not with the memories of torture at the hands of Azgeda. His worn body falling into Clarke’s arms as she came to sacrifice herself. But it’s gotten better. And Bellamy has to admit — it’s working. The grounders and Arkadia not only working alongside one another, but thriving. Learning from each other. For the first time since landing on Earth, he feels like they’re not just surviving — but living.
And maybe it’s the successful trip that allows Bellamy’s mind to drift, only slightly, to what he can do when he gets home with Clarke. She’s good at making sure he’s comfortable in the grounder capitol. Soft touches at his arm when something agitates him. A calm, cool demeanor when people whisper about the two of them. And at night, when it’s just the two of them, her gentle lips against his skin, the luxurious furs wrapped around their bodies in a real, warm bed. Last night, when she was dozing against his bare chest, he’d decided he would make sure she had something better than their shabby old tent.
Even with the thoughts of giving her a home occupying most of his attention, Bellamy can sense her tense up beside him and his focus shifts immediately. He sees her problem just as his name screams from her lips and his foot presses down on the brake, as fast and hard as he can manage. But it’s not enough — the other group got passed before the avalanche, he’s sure of it — and the rover SLAMS into the boulder with a sickening crunch.
His arm flies in front of Clarke, trying to hold her back from the impact, even as his body shifts violently forward and thumps against the steering wheel. His ears ring as he sits up fully and his vision blurs before focusing on her next to him. ❛ Clarke? You okay? ❜ But she’s focusing on everyone in the rover and he looks into the back, where the others sit without any barrier to protect them from the crash. And his heart drops into his stomach because, there, bleeding on the ground is Thalia, a metal something sticking from her chest. For a moment, he’s flashed back to Jasper, the spear sticking from him as he moans rung up on the tree. It halts him for a second before the cries of Thalia forces him to rush back to reality. ❛ Clarke, get back there! I’m going to see if I can get the back open from the outside. ❜
The door on either side is bent from the impact of the head on collision with the giant boulder, causing Bellamy to push his whole body against the door several times before it flies open and he stumbles out. He can hear the others from the other side of the rubble calling to them, checking on them, and Bellamy yells back to confirm that they’re all alive. Though, judging from the state Thalia is in…
No, he can’t think about that right now. Clarke’s the medic — he has to trust her. He races to the back of the rover and opens the back doors wide. There’s less damage back here and he’s relieved to see both Jensen and Matt in one piece. ❛ Get out here and help me, ❜ he orders them and they jump from the rover. Something seems off and Bellamy hand instinctively touches the gun on his hip.
But this is nothing. Just an accident. The grounders — they are no longer a threat. And, just as the thought crosses his mind, an arrow slices through Jensen’s neck and he coughs. For a brief moment, all Bellamy can do is stare at the arrow, Jensen’s bulging eyes, Matt’s confused gaze. And as Jensen falls to his knees in the dirt, he springs into action. Pulls his gun from its holster, eyes scanning the hill above them, covered in trees. He fires, the bullet going through the eyes of a grounder he can see. But he knows there are more. Can feel it.
❛ They’re in the trees! ❜ he calls to Matt — Jensen’s gone, he has to accept that fact — and he pushes his body against the doors again, shutting Clarke and Thalia inside the safety of the rover. ❛ It was a trap! ❜ And just as he yells it, he can see them coming. Running down the hill with their spears and swords and knives. They’re covered in dirt, dressed in the Earth — leaves and mud and feathers. These aren’t the grounders that the group had just left in Polis.
They’re the ones who will never accept Skaikru. Bellamy takes a deep breath, feeling the anger rise in his chest. It’s not over — it’ll never be over. And he squeezes the trigger of his pistol again, the bang loud and familiar and full of rage.
She’s stunned for a moment. A flash of Jasper on the rocks with a spear in his chest and the sound of him choking. The nightmares she’d had for weeks after the incident bubbling to the surface. Except it’s not Jasper’s blood soaked gasping and the blonde blinks a few times to come back to the just as nightmare-ish REALITY in front of her. It’s Thalia’s. Clarke remembers to suck air into her lungs and then pushes herself out of the tight confines of her now-crunched seat and maneuver to the soldier’s side as Bellamy forces his way out of the driver-side door. A well-oiled machine in their synchronization.
Clarke’s heart aches as she get’s closer, blood shot eyes pleading with Clarke to do something. To stop the pain. To fix her. To end it. Jasper’s wound had missed major organs. He’d had internal bleeding that Trikru had stopped with their healing salve once the spear had been removed and he’d been bandaged. Thalia’s wound was something entirely different. How high it was on the chest, the blood seeping from her mouth... it had torn through her lungs. So wide and jagged that Clarke was helpless. Already too late and there’d only been moments since the crash. The medic takes her friend’s hand, Thalia’s grip already weak and eyes knowing. Like Atom in the forest, Clarke has nothing but MERCY to offer.
“ Thalia... ” Her voice croaks and the other woman shakes her head, not ready to leave just this moment, though she had seemed to accept her fate. It’s then that Clarke remembers how devoted the soldier’s family had been on the Ark. How they’d always been so full of faith, attending the sermons at what they thought was their last living tree. Clarke can’t help but feel bitter at the thought. Look at where her FAITH had gotten her, and yet she recites the goodbye they were taught. The one she’d recited too many times for such a short life.
“ In peace may you leave the shore. In love may you find the next. ”
The next line burns on the tip of her tongue. There was nothing safe about their journey to the ground. It’s sour and tarnished, and it’s as if Thalia can hear her thoughts because she squeezes Clarke’s hand one last goodbye before she let’s go so Clarke can move her. A deep breathe and the blonde positions her arms around the soldier, to cradle her entire body before they shift. “ May we meet again. ” A gasp of pain is muffled in the crook of Clarke’s neck as she’s pulled into the Commander of Death’s arms and off of the metal rung to breathe her last breath.
It was all so quick that Clarke barely has time to process it when she hears Bellamy’s ROAR and the shot of his gun. She sets the lifeless body on the floor, covering it with one of the travel blankets and suddenly the back doors are open and she feels someone grab her leg. She can’t breathe, feeling not only the real hands pulling her out of the rover, but imaginary ones around her neck, breath in her hair and the snarl that’s haunted her for months. It’s only momentarily before she grabs one of the benches to hold before she’s fully out of the vehicle, trying to pull herself out of a grip as she cries out in frustration, fighting off the flashbacks as well as the grounder rebel. Finally Clarke squirms a leg free and without hesitation it cracks back down, her captures nose cracking under her boot and she manages to catch her breath enough to scream;
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