𝟐.𝟏𝟖

──── 「HERE WE ARE」 ────

     As Ion, Sheda, and I made it back to the camp we heard a noise similar to the missile one as if something were flying somewhere in the distance. The three of us turned around to check what it was, looking at the sky on the horizon.

- "The flare!"

- "Your inside man did his job," -Ion spoke cheerfully next to me- "now we can kick some ass."

- "Bellamy's alive; he did it." –I couldn't handle my excitement as I spoke to myself- "I need to find my sister."

I quickly apologized and started running around camp. The Grounders around me started shouting in excitement and I cheered with them, gaining some approving looks from a couple of them. Maybe now things with the Grounders will be easier, as it should have been from the beginning. I could faintly hear Lexa's voice in the distance, but I was too far away to understand anything she was saying, although it was most definitely some speech about how the Mountain Men were going to pay for the missile and the Reapers' ordeal. I finally distinguished Indra in the distance. If someone knows where O could be, that's Indra. I approached her but, before I could reach her, a hand grabbed my arm and pulled me to the side.

     As I saw the flare, I knew I had to find Sam, running around the camp, trying to find my sister, shouting and jumping on her as soon as I saw her.

- "He's alive!"

- "I was looking for you just to say that;" –she chuckled- "guess you were faster this time."

- "You know what that means?"

- "That, as usual, he came through and now we get to kill whoever launched that missile." –she smoothly raised her eyebrow at me.

- "Your boyfriend is alive and all you are thinking of is killing someone?" –I laughed.

- "Your brother is alive and all you can think of is setting us up and calling him my boyfriend?" –she retorted back at me as I smirked, punching her lightly on the upper arm as we both laughed- "God, I'm so glad he's alive." –Sam sounded so relieved, I couldn't wait to see the reunion- "I already threatened Clarke once, I don't think Lexa would appreciate it if I did it again."

- "I think that won't be necessary just yet." –I smiled remembering the look on Clarke's face- "Also, I love your new look." –I pointed out the paint on her face.

- "Thank you, haven't seen it myself, but if you like it, then Sheda did a good job."

After that, we moved back to gather our stuff from our tent. I was sat on my bed when Sheda came by, handing Sam some clothes as she raised an eyebrow at him questioningly.

- "You can't go to war covered in that gross blanket or whatever that is. I know you used your jacket to cover Oreth so I brought you these; now put them on, you'll be coming with me."

Sheda left Sam hanging there, giving her no time to answer as I started laughing, unable to keep it together any longer. She shot me a threatening look so I raised my hands in surrender while she inspected the clothes: a jacket made of different fabrics and something that looked like a corset where I assumed she could keep her knives.

Once we were done and Sam was all dressed up, we got out of the tent as everyone started marching forward and so did we. For the most part, Sam and I walked together, eventually finding Indra who nodded at us in approval. After walking for a while, the last person I wanted to see came into sight. Clarke.

- "Hey."

- "What do you want?" –I asked her in a monotone voice.

- "I'm changing both your missions; you're not going to the mines with Indra and you won't be first-line with Lexa's warriors."

- "Last time I checked" -Sam glanced at her- "we didn't take orders from you."

- "I'm placing you both at the rear guard, where you'll be safe."

- "You were ready to let us die two days ago," -I pointed out, seeing the guilt washing over her face- "what changed?"

- "I'm trying to protect you."

- "Protect us?" –I almost laughed, but I was getting madder by the second.

- "We don't need protection, Clarke. What we need is to get close to that stupid mountain and save our people and both our positions are the best ways to do so, and that's what we are doing." –Sam was firm with her words- "I'll see you once this is over, O."

- "Don't get killed. I mean it. I don't wanna have to deal with Bellamy mourning you."

- "Same goes to you. I love you, O."

With that and a smile only meant for me, Sam moved away from us to find Sheda and Ion. We weren't afraid of dying and losing each other for this was a rescue mission but, still, I wished Sam would think things through before she did anything reckless, even if that wasn't very in line with how she usually moved. She had gotten more outspoken about her feelings, expressing them out loud for they were always crystal clear; I was sure it had to do with finding a family with me and Bellamy. That's all I wanted since we landed: Sam, Bellamy, and I, together. All the family I had and all the family I wanted, plus Lincoln, who had been obviously quickly accepted by Sam just like the big brother she deserved and whom Bellamy had slowly but surely started to see as family too; or at least I hoped he did. I was deep in those thoughts when Clarke spoke again.

- "I hope one day you'll understand why I did what I did."

- "Never. I'll fight this war with you now because I want our friends and my brother back but, after that, we're done."

Clarke looked at me, her eyes showed hurt but I couldn't care any less. At that moment, Indra came back to us and addressed Clarke, informing her the Commander was looking for her. Clarke spared me another look but didn't say anything else before moving away. There was nothing she could say to make me change my mind about anything that had happened the past couple of days.

- "What was that about?" –Indra had picked up on everything.

- "Clarke was trying to reassign us to the rear guard."

- "You're warriors. You'll be in the mines with me while Samantha takes care of the entrance with Sheda and the others." –she made a pause and looked at me- "I know what bothers you: they knew about the missile."

- "How could you not hate them?" –I questioned surprised- "Indra, they almost killed you."

- "They didn't do anything, the enemy did. Lexa's a great commander because she's ruthless. That's how we'll win this battle."

- "That's wrong."

- "That's war."

She stated and gave me an unyielding look and walked faster, taking out her sword and pointing it to the sky while she let out a battle cry, quickly being followed by the people surrounding us, all yelling at the same time; I joined them. We're coming, big brother.

     After finally getting the acid fog down and recovering from the aftermath events, I managed to sneak into the harvest chamber to fulfill the promise I had made to the girl that helped me get rid of Lovejoy. As I got there and checked there were no guards inside, I took the keys to the cells that I had borrowed from one of the guards and walked up to her cage, opening it.

- "Get up, it's time to go." –I offered her my hand to get out- "I told you I'd come back for you." –she took my hand and I helped her out- "Our people are marching on Mount Weather right now." -I let go of her and moved to open the next cage, but the Grounder inside was not so friendly- "Hey, it's okay." –I tried to calm him down- "We're getting you out."

- "Slow down." –the girl forced me back and away from the cage- "They just bled him."

- "Listen to me. There's an army inside this room and I need you to help me get them ready to fight, can you do that?" –I confronted her and she nodded- "Good. Start with him."

I left her with the other Grounder and moved up to the next cage to open it but, as I was going so, every Grounder on a cell started making noise and kicking their cells.

- "Too much noise."

The girl walked past me and to the center of the room and started screaming at them in Trigedasleng making them all stop. Effective, thank you.

- "Okay." –she was now next to me again- "How do we do this?"

- "There's an army outside going for the main door. When they get it open all hell will break loose; that is the signal for my friends to come here and then..."

I was cut by the noise of the public-address system and the voice of a man through it, Wallace's son: Cage. He was going to go public with what they were doing and what we had done to get out of here, also explaining that our bone marrow could get them all to the ground. Fuck, this isn't good.

- "Here." –I gave the keys to the Grounder- "I'll be back."

- "Where are you going?"

- "He's trying to get his people to turn on each other. They'll find my friends. I have to bring them here now; I'll send them in groups. You get your people ready to go but wait for me to come back, you understand?"

- "Wait." –she followed me to the entrance of the air vent- "Thank you."

- "You free your people, protect mine when they get here. We can thank each other when we're all outside."

She nodded and I got inside the air vent as I kept hearing Cage's voice through the Mountain speakers. He's never going to stop, is he?

     Once I found Sheda, he explained that Ion had been assigned on another mission but that he had asked him to tell me to remember my training. Lincoln would come with us to the main door, which I appreciated since I didn't want him anywhere near the tunnels again. Once we were at the entrance of Mount Weather, a tent was built for the Commander and we had got together there to discuss the plan with all the Grounder generals, the Commander, Clarke, and some people from the Ark.

- "Welcome, Skaikru." –Lexa greeted Monroe, Sergeant Miller, and some other guards who came inside the tent- "Join us."

- "Package from Raven." –Sergeant Miller gave it to Clarke- "Hydrazine. She said it'd do the job."

- "Good."

- "Fields commanders, today's the day we get our people back. The enemy thinks it's safe behind its doors, but it's not." –Lexa started her speech- "When it realizes that, it will fight back; hard. We need to be ready."

- "This is a rescue mission."

Clarke explained the plan again for those who didn't know it by now; basically, we had four teams: one at the dam commanded by Raven, one at the Reaper tunnels commanded by Indra and joined by Octavia, one inside the mountain led by Bellamy and composed by both the Ark and Grounder prisoners and one just outside the main door: us. Once the conversation shifted, I started listening again.

- "That's a small window." –the sergeant referred to the one minute we had to blow the door's lock- "Why don't we just take the backup generator too? Bellamy's inside, have him do it."

- "Leaving them without power that long would kill them all and, as I've said, that's not the mission."

- "Yeah, we'll just wipe their soldiers out, the kids had nothing to do with this. Maya and the other people who helped us deserve to live just as much as we do."

- "Right." –Sergeant Miller nodded my way.

- "Besides, we lost contact with Bellamy."

- "Wait, what?" –I asked surprised, furious, and concerned, all at the same time, focusing my eyes on Clarke- "When?"

- "After he took out the acid fog."

- "Bellamy's a warrior." –Lexa spoke as I clenched my fists to the sides of my body- "He'll be fine."

- "Oh, he better be." –I whispered as I felt Clarke's eyes on me- "Or someone will be in trouble here."

- "Samantha, enough."

Lexa reprimanded me and I rolled my eyes as Lincoln squeezed my arm. She then glanced at Clarke so that she'd keep on explaining the plan.

- "As the Commander said, once the door is open, the shooting will start and they'll throw everything they have at us. But that's what we want; we want them looking at us because while we're fighting at the front door Indra's team will be escorting the prisoners out the back, right through the Reaper tunnels. Once all our people are free, they'll sound the retreat. We'll be back home before Mount Weather even knows they're gone. And that's it." –she looked at me- "That's the plan."

- "The mountain has cast a shadow over these woods for too long." –Lexa paced around the room, looking at every one of us- "They've hunted us, controlled us, turned us into monsters; that ends today. Thanks to our alliance with the Sky People, the mountain will fall. As Clarke said, we spare the innocent. As for the guilty... jus drein jus daun."

As Lexa said those words, every Grounder in the room started chanting them and so did I. The Mountain Men felt safe inside their doors, but that was about to change. We all got out of the tent and followed Monroe and Sergeant Miller to Mount Weather's main door; they had brought a machine to break a hole into the door where we would place the hydrazine Raven had given them that would explode and give us access inside the mountain. Monroe started working the machine as we watched her.

- "That should do it." –she said as she moved back- "Bombs away."

Two men moved away the heavy machine as Sergeant Miller moved with the hydrazine towards the door, followed by Lincoln and me.

- "Archers, watch the trees."

Lexa commanded as Sergeant Miller took the hydrazine from his bag while Lincoln and I looked at him, we both noticed he was shaking. He's afraid and worried, his son is in there.

- "Hey." –Lincoln moved his hand to the sergeant's forearm- "You can do this."

- "What if we're too late."

- "We aren't." –I tried to encourage him.

- "Why are you so sure?"

- "Can't afford to think another way." –I gave him my best confident look as I shrugged my shoulders- "We'll get them, your son included. I promise it's not too late."

- "Draw strength from your son."  –Lincoln backed up my words- "You can do this."

- "This mountain has taken too much from both of us, hasn't it?"

Lincoln tensed a bit but nodded lightly, anyway. Sergeant Miller took a deep breath and slowly placed the hydrazine inside the hole and activated the mechanism attached to it as a little 'beep' sound and a red light turned on, letting us know everything was going fine. Now we just need Raven to do her part and for everyone to remain alive, easy.

     After Paul and another guard had found Jasper and I hiding at Mrs. and Mr. Peter's home and had killed them, we had been taken prisoners with some other friends of Jasper: Miller and Fox. We had been tied up and were now walking through Level 5 when I saw my father, standing alone in the middle of a hallway.

- "Out of the way, Vincent." –Paul warned my dad.

- "That's my daughter."

- "Dad, don't. They..."

- "Quiet." –Paul cut me off- "She's been aiding and abetting the Outsiders. You need to get out of our way."

- "I won't let you take her, Paul."

- "Listen carefully, we've got orders. She knows where they're hiding. Now, step aside." –Paul asked my dad again as I started sobbing, knowing fully well he wouldn't move- "I'm not going to ask you again."

- "If you want her, you gotta go through me."

- "Dad, please." –I begged, trying to get him to move- "They'll kill you."

- "Don't make me do this, Vincent." –Paul said, taking out his gun and pointing it at my father as tears started to fall down my face.

- "I'm sorry, Paul."

Paul gave a couple of steps towards my dad and a gunshot was heard, Paul falling to the side, dead. The other guard moved towards him, but Miller intercepted him as my dad opened an air vent, revealing Bellamy, who pointed his gun at the remaining guard but didn't need to shoot as Miller was choking him with his handcuffs and shoved his head against a wall, killing him. Bellamy came out of the air vent and thanked my father before going to Miller.

- "Miller, how are you?"

- "Better than you, I'd say."

- "Get everyone to the Harvest Chamber, you'll be safer there."

- "Safe in the Harvest Chamber?"

- "Just trust me." –Bellamy reassured Jasper- "I've got a plan."

- "Are the others there?" -Bellamy shook his head- "Monty?"

- "Monty's with the other group on Level 3." –my dad informed them- "Don't worry, we moved them after the last sweep." -he faced Bellamy- "You should go there next."

- "Alright." –he agreed- "Go on, Vincent will take you. I won't be long."

- "Hey." –Jasper stopped him as he took a rifle from one of the dead guards- "I'm coming with you."

- "Jasper..."

- "I promised I'd protect them, that's exactly what I'm gonna do."

Bellamy eyed him but ended up agreeing, probably as the determination in Jasper's tone settled in. They started walking away, Bellamy disappearing through a corner as Jasper turned to look at me. I knew what I had to do.

- "Maya..."

- "I'll be okay." –I reassured my dad- "I promise."

- "Your mother would be so proud." –my dad hugged me- "I'll see you soon. Be careful."

- "You too."

I let go of my dad and turned to Jasper who nodded at me. We both started running after Bellamy, who was already way ahead of ourselves. We had a lot of work to do. Hopefully, by the end of it, everyone would be safe where they belonged.