Chapter 9: Ch. 9 – Unity Day Disaster

Lincoln was not opposed to spending the day in his cave and we had a very good time. Before either of us knew it, it was already dark outside, so I knew that I needed to head back to camp. He helped me out of the cave with a smile and gave me one final parting kiss, but then we heard a twig snap. Lincoln swung around me, drawing a knife, obviously ready to defend me, but I recognized who it was.

"Finn? Lincoln, wait, wait!" I exclaimed, pulling at Lincoln's arm. "He's my friend."

Finn had a knife in his hand and looked ready to fight, but slowly, he offered the knife that had been stabbed into his chest as he said, "I think you lost this."

Lincoln looked at the knife suspiciously for a moment before he careful took it out of Finn's hand. He glanced around to make sure that we were alone then motioned towards the hole to his cave. Finn nodded and headed down first with me then Lincoln following behind.

"So, what the hell are you doing here?" I asked, seeing the familiar prompt so I knew this was somehow related to the plot.

"I could ask you the same thing. I could also ask how long you've known that he speaks English... but I won't," Finn retorted as he looked around Lincoln's cave. He picked up the foghorn and looked at Lincoln as he asked, "You blew this when your people were hunting us."

Lincoln nodded.

"You saved our lives. I have to believe there's more like you."

"I stabbed you," Lincoln said with suspicion.

"And we tortured you. If the two of us can get along, then maybe there's hope. Learn from history instead of repeating it, right?"

"How's that gonna happen?" I asked.

"For starters... no more killing," Finn replied.

"I don't have the power to call a truce," Lincoln said.

"Then bring me to someone who does."

Lincoln scoffed, but Finn was not done.

"Hey, look. The rest of our people are coming down here. The first ship lands in two days..."

"It's true," I agreed.

"And because of the attacks, they're sending mostly soldiers, the people that enforce our laws. The Ark is about survival at any cost, and they'll kill people who fall out of line. When those people get down here, if they feel threatened, they will start a war and I don't want that... Neither do you, and I think that's why you blew that horn. Once the soldiers get here, it will be too late and we'll have no power to stop them, but if they see that we're at peace... Then maybe we will have a chance to stay that way."

Listening to his speech, I could not help but wonder if he should have been the leader of our band of criminals. He seemed to have his head and heart in the right place, but I already knew that this attempt would fall through somehow and what had been the cause of death in the show. I just could not tell either of them that thanks to the warning on the prompt.

"Alright," Lincoln agreed with a nod. "You bring your leader, I'll bring mine."

"What... Bellamy? He'll never go for this," I remarked.

"No, not your brother," Lincoln said.

"Clarke," Finn answered with a bit of hesitation.

Lincoln nodded, "Octavia... take him to the bridge that we pass when we go hunting. That's where we'll meet. I should be there by midday. No weapons."

"No weapons," Finn promised.

"Be careful," I said with concern.

He gave me a weak smile then kissed me for a moment. Despite knowing that it was too early for Lincoln to be killed, I could not help but worry about his safety. At some point, he would be branded a traitor by his people, and it was all because of me. He was so selfless throughout the show, bearing the title of traitor then reaper and finally martyr as he surrendered to Pike for the sake of his people. I could only hope that I would be strong enough to save him when the time came.

The three of us left the cave and Lincoln ran off, towards his village, I assume. It was slightly off from the direction of the bridge, but Lincoln knew this land far better than any of us, so I did not say anything. I watched him for a minute before the darkness of the night hid his figure and I let out a sigh.

"This way," I said quietly to Finn.

"You care a lot about him; you must trust him a lot too," he remarked as we walked.

"It happens when someone saves your life multiple times," I replied coldly.

"Hey, I'm not looking to pick a fight. I'm trying to get peace between our groups," he reminded me.

"Would you still say that if Clarke had been the one to get hit with the spear instead of Jasper?" I asked in hopes that he would not make the same mistake as he did in the show. He was quiet for a while and I eventually sighed, "I'm sorry, Finn. I know your heart is in the right place with this idea, but it's not going to be that easy. It's far simpler to make grudges than it is to heal them."

"We have to start somewhere," he said.

"I agree, but you need to keep trying even when you lose those around you," I said, hoping that he would remember my words when Clarke goes missing with the others.

We walked for twenty minutes or so before we approached the bridge. I pointed him back towards camp but did not go with him despite his protests. The prompt suggested that my presence would draw even more suspicion from Clarke, so he finally agreed after some arguing. I spent my time waiting by the river's edge, practicing a water spell until the sun came up. Unfortunately, neither Finn and Clarke nor Lincoln had arrived, which did not help my nerves. From the moment I woke up, I knew that something bad was going to happen and it was quite clear that it would be centered around this event.

As I paced back and forth on the bridge, I heard footsteps approaching fast. I turned around in time to see Finn, followed by Clarke, jogging through the trees. They both slowed down and stopped next to me, but Clarke did not look happy.

"So, that's how you set this up. You helped him escape, didn't you?" Clarke accused.

"I trust him, Clarke. I know he attacked Finn, but Bellamy was about to kill him," I replied.

"There's a lot of that going around," she remarked with a frown.

The sound of footsteps floated through the air from the other side of the bridge and both Finn and I turned our heads.

"Someone's coming," Finn said.

It took another second for him to appear, but it was Lincoln who looked unhurt. I sighed with relief then jogged forward to meet him in the middle of the bridge. He stopped with his arms outstretched and I practically jumped in, wrapping my arms around his neck. Lincoln looked over my shoulder at Clarke and I turned around as she took a step back, but Finn grabbed her hand, pulling her to his side. 

The sound of hoofbeats hit my ears and suddenly, the Grounders appeared on horseback. There were two large men on black horses and wearing leather armor, masks, and war paint. Coming up behind them, a woman on a brown horse rode between them and forward before she dismounted.

"Hey, we said no weapons," Finn said angrily.

"I was told there wouldn't be," Lincoln replied.

"It's too late now," Clarke said.

Clarke and Finn looked at each other for a moment before nodding and then took a step towards the Grounders, but Lincoln stopped them.

"She goes alone," Lincoln explained, shaking his head.

Again, the budding young couple shared a tense look between each other, but Clarke took in a deep breath and said, "I'll be fine."

"Clarke..." Finn started with regret in his voice.

"Hey, it's time to do better," she said firmly, cutting him off.

He gave a little nod and let her go. She walked forward and only then did the woman start approaching. The pair met in the middle of the bridge, but they were too far for me to overhear their conversation. Unfortunately, the face of the Grounder leader did not look happy, so I could do nothing but worry. Things could only progress at the rate of the show for now, or I could cause the wrong change, and get everyone killed. My hope was that when I found Katye, we would be able to change certain things like Lincoln's death, Finn's, Lexa's, and other crappy situations that plagued the characters of the show.

Suddenly, a voice yelled from our side of the river, "Clarke, run! Run!"

Jasper broke through the trees with a rifle in his hands and started firing up into the trees on the other side of the river. This was the moment that I knew had been coming all day as havoc broke out immediately. Arrows and spears were fired in our direction while Bellamy and Raven also appeared with guns. The Grounder leader pulled a knife out of her glove and was about to attack Clarke, but Bellamy managed to clip her arm with a bullet.

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"Clarke, get down!" Finn yelled as he ran forward, crouched down.

I tried to as well, but Lincoln kept me back while using his body like a shield in case anything came my way. Clarke threw herself towards us just before an arrow hit where she had been standing. Finn scooped her and helped her run back towards us while the Grounders continued to fire arrows at them. One stray shot came flying towards my head but before I could react, Lincoln shifted in front of me and took the arrow with his shoulder.

"Oh my god, Lincoln!" I exclaimed with true fear.

"It's just a scratch," he grunted as he snapped the feathered end off. "Okay, run, don't stop till you get behind your walls," he ordered, pushing me along with Finn and Clarke. "Go! Take her!"

"Lincoln, no!" I nearly screamed as both Finn and Clarke grabbed my arms and pulled me with them.

"GO!" he shouted.

They pulled me along for another few steps, but I understood the danger that we were all in now. It was a good two-hour run back to camp and we would be lucky if we made it back before dark after how long Clarke and the Grounder Leader had talked. The Grounders were far more comfortable with this terrain, so even though we saw them retreat, they could still change their minds and chase us.

When we finally reached the gates of our walls, we all stopped running and were breathing hard. Everyone looked upset, but none more than Finn. He could not stop staring at her like some betrayed puppy.

"You got something to say?" Bellamy snapped.

"Yeah, I told you no guns!" Finn yelled.

"And I told you we couldn't trust the Grounders! I was right!" Clarke retorted.

"Why didn't you tell me what you were up to?" Raven added.

"I tried, but you were too busy making bullets for your gun," Finn defended.

"You're lucky she brought that!" Bellamy interjected. "They came there to kill you, Finn."

"You don't know that. Jasper fired the first shot!" Finn shouted. "Well, if we weren't at war already, we sure as hell are now!"

"I saved you!" Jasper scoffed and pushed his way through the small group to head inside.

"You didn't have to trust the Grounders. You just had to trust me," Finn said, giving Clarke a hard look, then stormed off after Jasper with Raven and I following behind.

"Like I said... best Unity Day ever," Bellamy said sarcastically to Clarke.

"I need a drink," I grumbled to Raven.

"You and me, both," she agreed, holding the gate open for me.

There was a faint explosion in the distance which caused me to turn around and look for the source. Shining in the sky, there was a falling star that could only be one thing.

"The Exodus ship?" Bellamy asked with surprise. "Your mom's early."

The white light dimmed and was replaced with a subtle red glow at the bottom, but something was wrong. The ship did not deploy a parachute or do anything to slow its rapid descent.

"Wait, too fast. No parachute? Something's wrong," Clarke said, seemingly echoing my thoughts.

The ship kept falling until it crashed on the far side of some nearby mountains. The following explosion confirmed our fears and Clarke fell to her knees while she let out a choking sob. Abby was supposed to be on that ship, yet I also knew that she lived through most of the seasons. There was no way that I could have affected anything on the Ark, so I started to worry that Katye had been the cause behind the change in the scheduled arrival and whether she had been aboard the ship, or not. 

Despite my sudden realization that I could be alone in the world of 'The 100', the sound of Clarke crying brought me back to reality. I was already alone, so if Katye did die in that crash, I could only do as I had been and carried on. My friend had just lost her mother and she needed comfort more than anything right now. I walked forward and knelt down by Clarke, putting my arms around her shoulders.

"I'm so sorry," I whispered.

Clarke grabbed me as she started to cry on my shoulder, and I looked up at Bellamy.

"We'll send a team out to check for survivors at first light," Bellamy said.

It was not quite what I wanted, but Clarke nodded her head while I helped her up. I helped guide her back into camp while Bellamy followed behind. I sat Clarke down by one of the bonfires and went searching for some alcohol while Bellamy announced the crash of the Exodus ship. Although it was a dumb method, I planned to get Clarke drunk enough to pass out and then I would carry her, if I had to, as we searched for the crash site in the morning. Sleep would take her mind off the crash, whether or not she wanted to, and she would insist on going with the group to search for survivors of the crash in the morning. Surprisingly, as soon as I made it to Monty's tent, Raven was walking out of the tent with a bottle in her hands and she passed it over to me.

"You're getting it for Clarke, right?" she asked.

"She isn't going to sleep tonight without some outside help," I sighed in response.

Raven nodded and said, "Abby was a badass... Clarke isn't exactly my favorite person, but I'm sorry for her loss."

"I'll let her know... thanks for the help," I replied, showing the bottle. "Tomorrow night, you wanna hang out? I don't think that I'm going to be doing a lot of sleeping without some kind of aid for a while."

"I know the feeling... Yeah, it will get my mind off of other things," Raven agreed.

"Thanks," I replied before I headed back to Clarke.

At first, Clarke did not want to drink, but after promising to make sure that she would be a part of the group that left in the morning, she agreed. It also helped that I was matching her shot for shot as my mind wondered about Lincoln and Katye. Losing either of them would make my future a lot more uncertain and I had no way to find out about either of them any time soon... if at all.

When I woke up in the morning, the first thing that greeted me was a nasty hangover headache, but then I realized that there was someone pressed against me. I turned my head and found Clarke asleep next to me, but the fact that we were both fully clothed told me that we had just gotten too drunk last night. Rubbing my face, I pushed Clarke's arm off of me and sat up as I tried to remember last night. Although my memories were foggy, nothing that I could remember told me that we crossed any sort of line.

"Wake up, Clarke. You and I will go if Bellamy was stupid enough to leave us behind," I said, shaking Clarke's shoulder.

She woke up but grimaced quickly as she placed a hand on her forehead and groaned.

"Tell me about it... the joys of drinking too much. I'll get us some water," I said as I climbed out of my bed.

I kept a large bottle of water in the corner of my tent, so I walked over and sat down next to it. I poured myself a cup and downed it in a single gulp. I poured a second cup and offered it to Clarke as she sat up. She took it without any complaints, so I poured a little more water into my hands and splashed it across my face, trying to wake myself up.

"Octavia? What happened last night?" Clarke asked, after finishing the water.

"We drank too much," I replied, rubbing my temples. "It's still early, but Bellamy might have left already... I'll go check unless you need anything."

"No..." she said softly as the pieces of last night fell into place, no doubt.

I stood up and was about to leave, but I wanted to give her some kind of hope, so I said, "We don't know what happened on the Ark... It was a day early so maybe she wasn't onboard."

Although I barely believed it myself, I wanted to hope for the sake of Clarke that her mother was not on board the ship; after all, Abby originally got the chance to reunite with Clarke. I ducked out of my tent and found the camp already awake. It was rare for me to sleep this late, but I was still surprised by the level of activity when the sun was barely above the horizon. Bellamy was at the center of all of it, giving orders here and there, with no one questioning his decisions. It was actually quite impressive that a twenty-four-year-old could manage so many other people, but I guess that was the difference in a natural born leader.

"Clarke is waking up now... How long do we have before you head out?" I asked as I walked up to Bellamy.

"I should have the group together to go search the crash site ready in ten minutes, but you aren't coming," Bellamy said.

"Bellamy, I can..." I started.

"I don't want to hear it, O. You've been seeing that Grounder behind my back, and I am supposed to just trust that you won't disappear when we start off? No, you are staying here with three of my men watching you. If you want to sneak off again, you aren't the only one who will pay a price," he growled.

I sighed angrily, "The bridge wasn't my fault. Jasper fired first, so we are to blame. If you can't see that, you are a bigger fool than I thought."

I did not give him the chance for a rebuttal and walked away. I headed back to my tent and found Clarke washing her face similarly to how I had. With a huff, I let her know that Bellamy was waiting for her then I threw myself back onto my bed. There was little that I could with Bellamy being this stubborn, and I was not about to get the men he ordered to watch me in trouble since Monty or Jasper would be one. I would just have to stay in camp, at least until they got back.

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