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justinewt · 2 years

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Knife-Edge - THE 100 REWRITE Chapter Seventeen

[THE 100 MASTERLIST]

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Summary: Now that Finn was gone, the negotiations between the people from the ark and the commander could begin. Hopefully, a steady alliance would be born from this but some people were apparently not ready to let that happen and things would certainly not go as smoothly as they thought.

Words: 6.2k

Warnings: The 100 season 2 spoilers (episode 9 “Remember Me”), long chapter, angst, grief/nostalgia, envy of Clarke and her mother, blood, mutilation (getting stabbed and shit, if you’ve watched you know), knife wounds

Abby and Michelle walked across the Grounders’ camp. Finn was dead; killed by Clarke and the latter was at first nowhere to be found until the two women were told where she had gone. They walked into a tent and there she was, sobbing feverishly, trying to wipe his blood off her hands, her face twisted with grief and anguish. Michelle was hurting to see her like this, and it made her eyes get teary, but she stayed near the entrance, letting Abby walk to her daughter and she looked behind her when she felt movement. Kane had joined them inside. Abby crouched down in front of Clarke, softly putting her hands onto her daughter’s and she looked at her mother, her lips were shaking.

“They would have tortured him.” She gasped. “I had to. I—”

“It’s okay.” Abby told her, drawing her into a comforting hug. Michelle couldn’t help but be reminded of her own mother. She wished that everytime she had cried as hard she would have had her mother to comfort her, but she appreciated the fact that she always had her sister by her side, and she really wanted to try and make things right with her, now that Finn was gone for good. Kane was touched too by the sight of Clarke in this state. He looked away, glancing at Michelle who felt his gaze on her and peeked at him. When a tall Grounder entered the tent, Michelle automatically stepped out of the way and stood next to Kane who put a protective hand on her shoulder, and she simply glanced at him from the corner of her eyes. Their relationship was going to take some time to build, and she was still unsure as to what she really expected from it. She didn’t know what she wanted from it and was going to have to figure that out.

“The commander is ready to talk.” The man declared. Michelle observed him for an instant; he had a long beard descending to his chest. Clarke’s cries had calmed down and she nodded, briefly licking her lips and wiping her tears. Her mother helped her up and she looked down when a woman with facial war paint entered and walked past her, followed by another quite intimidating Grounder. The commander went to her seat in the back of the tent, on a sort of platform and sat down, the two other Grounders standing by her sides.

“Blood has answered blood.” She spoke. “Some on my side say that’s not enough. They wanted the murderer to suffer as our tradition demands. But they do not know that your suffering will be worse. What you did tonight will haunt you until the end of your days. Still, there will be restitution. The body will be given to the people of Tondc. Murderer and murdered joined by fire. Only then can we have peace.”

“No. No, we’ve done enough.” The commander’s eyes fell on Kane. “The boy should be buried by his own people.”

“Enough?” The woman on her side cut him off, infuriation and annoyance clearly piercing through her voice. “We were owed the pain of 18 deaths. We were owed our righteous kill. My village deserves justice.”

“You don’t want justice.” Abby retorted, her facial features tensed, staring at the Grounder. “You want vengeance.”

“You have not seen my vengeance.” She hissed back.

“We’ll do it.” Clarke then declared, taking a step forward, face up. “But when it’s over, we talk about how to get our people out of Mount Weather. All of our people.

"We want the same things, Clarke.” The commander assured in a low voice.

“Good. When do we leave?”

“Now.” She stood up. “Choose your attendants.” The discussion was rather formal and cold, and Clarke probably didn’t expect her to say this. Michelle swallowed harshly; with all that went on with Finn and the others and everything that bothered her mind, she didn’t really have much time to think about their peers still stuck in Mount Weather and she felt somewhat bad about it. Clarke turned to her mother as the Commander left the tent.

“Clarke, you don’t have to do this.” She tried to talk her out of it, shaking her head.

“Yes, I do.” She replied with a straight face, seeming drained from all the pressure of tonight’s event. “If this truce doesn’t hold… I killed Finn for nothing.”

Michelle stood there in the corner, a little taken aback and sighed silently while Kane and Abby talked. She didn’t even listen to their conversation, she just stared into space, her face turned in the direction taken by Clarke when she left. She didn’t know what to do at the moment, or where to go as if she wasn't supposed to be with Clarke or here in the tent, like she never should have been there in the first place. If they had been sent to earth even a month later, she would have been 18 and executed before any of this happened and none of it would be up to her, exempting her from going through all this mayhem and troubled thinking. That would have been too simple though. Michelle eventually stepped outside of the tent, looking around, trying to find Clarke and she stopped in her tracks when she saw her standing near the pole to which Finn had been tied but now, his corpse lied in the grass and Raven was on her knees beside him, her face looking down in sorrow.

“I said, go away.” Raven then shouted, jumping on her feet, her jaw clenched and teetch gritted. Michelle slowly approached, remaining far behind Clarke, in silence. If she did or said anything, she would just be told to shut up by Raven or that she must be happy that he was finally dead, and it would just be a pointless exchange of upset comments. But whatever Raven must believe Michelle thought of the situation and Finn’s death, the latter was definitely somewhat glad he was gone now. He went too far in her opinion.

“I know how hard it must be for you… but I’m leaving with the Grounders, and I need you to keep working on the radio.” Raven was just staring at Clare in bafflement at the bluntness of her request in a time like this and when she felt people behind her, she turned around.

“What are you doing?”

“They need to take him.” Clarke grabbed her arm.

“Get off.” She spat, releasing her arm from her grasp and she asked the two Grounders for a minute. They put Finn down and stepped away. Raven’s face showed how much of a betrayal this felt like for her. “You agreed to this.”

“We’re taking him back to where the massacre took place. There’s a death ritual. It’s the only way to get our people out of Mount Weather.”

“Then I’m coming too.” She retorted, bitter. “And don’t worry. I’ll bring your damn radio.”

Raven then walked away, almost nudging her with her shoulder as she passed, and Clarke nodded at the Grounders who came back to pick up Finn’s body and carry him away. Michelle frowned slightly upon seeing her friend stop moving and just staring at the body. She walked up to her, softly putting her hand on her shoulder and Clarke almost snapped out of a trance and jumped at the touch, glancing at Michelle. The two just looked at each other, one deeply troubled and the other worried for her dear friend.

Led by the Grounders, the procession of people from the Ark marched through the forest in heavy silence. Clarke and Michelle right after the Grounders, Bellamy, Abby and Kane right after them, along with Octavia and Lincoln, followed by even more Grounders mounted on horses. It was a long walk, and they all had been walking for a while now. Michelle glanced at her best friend every now and then and often found her staring in the distance, her gaze getting lost between the trees. It was the same look she had when they carried Finn’s body away from her. They all had their demons; she was haunted by the sight of someone she loved, and Michelle couldn’t stop thinking of her mother and her newly found father. Thinking about it, she glanced at Kane over her shoulder. Still confused and torn between hating him and wanting to give him a chance to be her father, she looked away and met Bellamy's eyes, which made her head turn around faster and she held onto her gun, looking forward until she heard footsteps coming closer and Bellamy's voice rose at the two girls' attention.

“Hey. Doing all right?”

“Yeah.” Clarke assured, trying to convince him as much as herself while Michelle stayed quiet for a moment.

“You did the right thing.” He added.

“Now I get to live with it.” She stared ahead of her. “You still think this truce is a bad idea.”

“I think we’re wasting time with politics while our friends are in trouble.”

“Well, we can’t really help them if we’re busy fighting against the Grounders.” Michelle spoke, shrugging.

“Michelle’s right.” Clarke agreed. “And we need their army to get to Mount Weather and you know it.”

“Their army has been getting their ass kicked by Mount Weather forever.” He retorted. “What we need is an inside man. Someone to be our eyes and ears.”

“Forget it. It’s too dangerous.” She shook her head, dismissing the idea.

“Clarke, if you can make it out, I can make it.”

“I said no.” He shot up his eyebrows at her blunt response.

“Since I don’t take orders from you… I’m gonna need a better reason.”

“I can’t lose you too. Okay?” She then said and Michelle glanced at her. What Bellamy had proposed was extremely risky, but it was also quite the good idea and if that attempt at making alliances with the Grounders failed, it would still be a nice plan B. All these things happening constantly were getting tiring and Michelle had a hard time keeping up with everything but now, she told herself to focus on supporting Clarke while they tried to get that alliance going and then save their friends from Mount Weather. She couldn’t even believe that she had been so preoccupied lately that she kind of forgot about them for a time. She briefly shut her eyes, sighing silently and watched the trees as they walked. Trying to think of nothing was practically impossible for her now and thinking 24/7 was pretty bothering, especially when it was the same thoughts repeating themselves in a loop in her head. It was becoming overly unbearable as it was all she could think about so she was going to have to get herself to speak with Kane, whether she liked it or not, she had to get these things off her chest, for her own good or keeping it all to herself and bottling up her emotions would drive her nuts.

It was already night when they arrived near Tondc. Fires were lit and they set camp for the night, Grounders on one side and their people setting their tents on the opposite side while Clarke laid a blanket in the middle, near a fire. Bellamy walked to her, trying to get her to come to their side as it was safer, but she wanted to show them she trusted them. If they were to be allies, there wouldn’t really be sides any more. Michelle was walking back and forth, pressing the sole of her shoes on the leaves to make them crack, arms folded, head tilted forward, a rather bored expression on her face. She straightened up when Abby, seated in front of her tent, addressed her softly, concern in her voice.

“Hey, Michelle. Are you okay? I’m sorry, with all that was going on… I didn’t take the time to check on you.” Ever since she was a child, Abby had always acted as a second mother to Michelle along with Callie and now, the latter had lost hers completely and she was the only maternal figure she had left but she wasn’t really her mom.

“I’m fine. I just…” She tried dismissing her concerns but sighed and shook her head, glancing at Bellamy who decided to lay down near the Grounders with Clarke. She bit her lips. Kane wasn't anywhere near them, and she knew she could tell Abby anything and it would maybe be even easier this way because she would surely tell Kane afterwards and he would come to Michelle himself, but she was still thinking it all over. “You told me who was my dad, but it just still feels so unreal… It’s the only thought that’s been on my mind ever since you told me. I can’t shake it off.”

“It’s all right, Michelle.” She got on her feet and came up to her, tenderly grabbing her shoulders. “Don’t let that bother you. Give it time. You two will discuss it after we establish this alliance, don’t worry, okay?

“Yeah…” She sighed, nodding and as Kane walked up to them, she turned around and settled down next to Clarke, staring at the starry night sky, thinking of her mother. She closed her eyes, a tear rolling down the side of her face and she tried to go to sleep, hoping her night wouldn’t be as troubled as her day. When the sun rays poked through the treetops, they all set off again in the direction of Tondc and arrived there quickly. They heard a Grounder shout something from inside the camp but couldn’t quite discern the words and their meanings as it was their language, which the people from the Ark hadn’t yet learned. As the gate was slided open, the commander and the Grounder riding beside her got off their horses and they walked up to Clarke, Michelle, Bellamy, Octavia, Kane, Raven and Abby who had marched behind them.

“Your weapons.” He requested.

“We need to disarm before we enter.” Lincoln said to the small group as he came forward, giving the Grounder his knife. Clarke and Michelle put their guns inside a sort of bucket a Grounder handed to them and the rest of them reluctantly gave up theirs in a heavy silence. Raven was the only to not move and the Grounder walked up to her, taking her weapons one by one and she let him do so, staring at him with contempt and he then turn to the Commander, addressing her in their language. She nodded at what he said, and they marched into the village. The Grounders inside immidietaly riled up at the sight of the people from the Ark, grabbing their weapons and shouting at them. They stopped in their tracks when a single man blocked the path and spoke to the Commander. Clarke, Michelle and the others were rather confused as to what was being said until the Commander nodded to the Grounder by her side, the one who had to disarm Raven himself and he stepped forward, throwing a punch at the man’s face. He grunted, falling backward violently and was then pinned down and beaten up. Michelle widened her eyes slightly.

“Commander, stop him. Please.” Clarke begged. “They’ll blame us for this too.” The Commander said something, and the Grounder instantly stopped, standing up, letting go of the villager.

“The Sky People march with us now.” The Commander went on to declare in english. “Anyone who tries to stop that… will pay with their life.”

“Warm welcome.” Bellamy spoke as they resumed their walk through the village and Michelle couldn't have agreed more, simply shooting up her eyebrows, glancing at the inhabitants of Tondc standing by. A moment later, they found themselves in front of a funeral pyre with Finn’s wrapped corpse on top and the dozen people he took the lives of had their bodies all around the pyre. The Commander delivered a speech in their foreign language. They would have been lost, unable to understanding a word that came out of her mouth if it weren’t for Lincoln quietly translating as he stood with them.

“People of Tondc… in fire… we cleanse the pain of the past.” The war chief passed her flaming torch to the Commander and after a second, she eventually looked at Clarke, handing it out to her. Given the looks that were exchanged around the Commander, the Grounders didn’t really appreciate it but they weren’t allowed to say it so they remained silent while Clarke eventually accepted to take the torch, stepping beside her and after a moment of contemplation in a heavy silence, she set the pyre on fire and spoke a few words in the Grounders’ language. It was something Michelle had often heard too, but she didn’t understand it. Nonetheless, the Commander and the everyone that heard her seemed surprised to hear her speak their tongue, out of respect. The fire slowly grew, eating at the woods and the bodies. Raven had tears rolling down her cheeks and she shut her eyes closed while the lot of them watched, uneasy as the warm breath of the fire reached their faces. Michelle looked at the smoke slowly appearing to their eyes, and she lifted her head, her brown eyes staring at the blue sky above their heads. It was the first time she actually wondered what happened after death and if these people would ever be at peace, wherever they went; if her mother was at peace wherever she was, and proud of her.

After the funeral, a banquet in the honor of the alliance that was being forged between their two people was prepared and Clarke leading the way as she, Bellamy, Michelle, Abby, Kane, and Raven joined Octavia and Lincoln already there. Michelle went to her seat, in between Kane and Bellamy. They all stood by the table, facing each other, Grounders on one side and the people from the Ark on the other; the Sky People as they called them, and rightfully so given they did indeed come from the sky, or space, really. The very formal and serious setting of the banquet with light from outside penetrating this dark room through the two thin rectangular windows at the top of the wall on their left and by the dim orange light from the many candles placed on the table and the chandelier on the ceiling, weren’t necessarily of Michelle’s liking but they would all walk just out of there once it would be done, with the alliance secured and hopefully, not any bloodshed. If just showing up, being there and supporting Clarke was enough, she was totally capable of it.

“Please accept this gift, Commander. We drink this at special occasions. I believe this qualifies.” Kane spoke, unwrapping the bottle he held in his hands and held it out to her, a friendly smile on his face while she nodded at the Grounder by her side, and he took it and handed it to her himself.

“Thank you, Marcus of the Sky People.”

“Thank you, Lexa…” He added a few words that sounded somewhat blurry to Michelle’s ear, but she assumed it was referencing to Lexa’s people, just as she called him of the sky people. Nonetheless, she raised her head, seemingly appreciating the effort despite keeping a straight face. “Just, uh, don’t drink too much of it.”

“Clarke, let us drink together.” She then declared, turning her head to the blonde.

“It woud be my pleasure.” They looked at each other whie someone brought two goblets and Lexa then poured the liquor into them, giving one to Clarke and keeping one.

“Heda, allow me.” The man beside her took the cup and slowly brought it to his lips, staring at the Sky People as he took a sip of the drink in order to test it for poison before his Commander would drink it. After he drank and everything seemed fine, he gave the cup back to Lexa.

“Tonight, we celebrate our newfound peace. Tomorrow, we plan our war. To those we’ve lost. And to those we shall soon find.” She rose her cup and the second they were about to take a sip, the Grounder that had drunk from it fell heavily onto the table, knocking plates and cutlery off of it. The people in the room started getting agitated while Michelle and her peers looked around in confusion. He was coughing and gagging as he hit the ground and Michelle didn’t even need him to say it, she understood something was wrong with the drink and Michelle outpaced Bellamy, who took a step forward, about to knock the cup of alcohol out of her hand when she did. The war chief immediately drew her swords at them, accusing them for what had happened. Michelle really thought that for once things could go well but it had gone downhill again, and pretty fast in the end. Grounders started yelling and shouting, pushing the table to the side in a scary manner. Bellamy walked in front of Clarke as she held her sword up to her. Michelle stepped back as a reflex but also felt Kane’s hand grab her arm.

“This wasn’t us. You have to know it wasn’t us.” Clarke rose her voice, trying to tell Lexa they weren’t involved in this faied attempt at poisoning her and it was true. Even Raven wouldn’t have done something so foolish that could get them all killed on the spot. Michelle didn’t like her but she didn’t believe her to be this stupid, on the contrary, she was rather smart. The Grounders and the Commander spoke in their language for a second, giving what sounded like orders before taking the poisoned grounder out of the room and others started searching them. Lexa turned to Clarke, gritting her teeth in anger, staring at her.

“Gustus warned me about you but I didn’t listen.”

“Lexa, please.”

“When you plunged the knife into the heart of the boy you loved… did you not wish that it was mine?” She wondered, cutting her off in her pleading.

“Heda.” The Grounder who took their weapons upon entering the village addressed Lexa after finding a small vial on Raven, ignoring her while she refuted it being hers. He didn’t care and showed it to the Commander.

“I’m telling you. That’s not mine. He put it there when he searched me.” There was a silence as she looked at the vial and then at them.

“No Sky People leave this room.” She ordered fiercely, her face tensing up and walked out. Michelle was as baffled as her peers, just standing there, watching them leave.

“Do something.” Octavia asked Lincoln and he approached the war chief.

“Indra.” She ignored him at first, so he rose the tone of her voice and spoke in their language as she finally stopped in her tracks and turned around. It didn’t work really well though and she simply said a few words before shutting the door, locking them up in there. The situation had gone a quite unexpected way. There hadn’t been any bloodshed, but the peace had been disturbed again.

Having no idea how long they woud be stuch in here, Michelle sat in a corner, casually leaning against the wall, her hands resting on top of her knees, fidgeting her fingers as she looked around the room. Kane and Abby were talking here, Lincoln and Octavia sitting at the table and Clarke trying to approach Raven there. Michelle looked up, watching Bellamy climb a few stairs and try to see out the windows but they were way higher above her head. When Raven suddenly punched Clarke in the face and the blonde let out a grunt, Michelle instinctively turned her head to them, standing up. Abby walked to her daughter.

“You’re the only murderer here.” Raven hissed. Octavia went to Clarke as well and Clarke started whispering, staring at the door where no one was standing. Her mother got in front of her, but Clarke just walked away and settled on a chair in a corner of the room, her back to them. Michelle didn’t like seeing her best friend obviously distressed, still troubled by Finn’s death and understandably so as she directly ended his life to avoid him any further suffering, but she didn’t know what she should do beside letting her be. Michelle sighed heavily but silently and sat back down, pulling on her jacket’s sleeves, not knowing what to do with her hands, letting her head rest against the wall, staring into space. Kane had sat down somewhere on her left and she could feel him sometimes looking at her, but she let herself get lost in her thoughts until she eventually thought about him, remembering the brief talk she had with Abby just the night before this disastrous banquet. She needed to talk to Kane about their situation but didn’t want to take the first step as she still felt some resentment towards Kane. She was angry and upset and blamed him for most of what happened, from the day he put both her and Clarke in solitary confinement, cutting them from their mothers for a whole before sending them to the Ground without warning, well, every single other juvenile prisoner had had lessons on hos to survive apparently but not them. Now that some time had passed since she reunited with Abby, Michelle was able to say to herself that Kane had nothing to do with her mother’s death but whoever had been behind the explosion, they weren’t here today while Kane was, and he let her unleash her anger onto him, taking it without a word when it wasn’t actually fair.

“May I sit?” She looked up at Kane, just realizing he had walked up to her, and she shrugged, looking at her hands as he sat down beside her. On the opposite side of the room, Abby went to talk to Clarke now that she had calmed down and here, she was, having a talk with her dad. Before they even started talking, she began to ask herself whether or not she wanted to be the bigger person and say sorry for blaming him for her mother’s death, but she wasn’t sure if she wanted to speak first. He looked a bit worry as he started the conversation. She could tell he wasn’t sure if she would even speak to him to begin with or just give him the silent treatment but, even though this whole thing would take time, they woud both have to put in the effort. She could be angry at him, but it wasn’t exactly fair to expect to do all the work. “Abby told me you two talked last night.”

“I knew she would.” She spoke, letting a silence hang over them and sighed. “So, she never told you either.”

“I had my doubts… but she never said anything, and I didn’t feel like it was my place to question it. We weren’t exactly on good terms after we ended things.” He explained, and she actively listened, glancing at him from the corner of her eyes every now and then. She remained silent, quietly telling him to continue. “She raised you on her own, and never seemed to need any help so I stayed in my place.”

“I never thought it could be you. She always seemed annoyed when I asked. I never understood why cause if my dad was dead like she said, she could have just told me. Clarke had her dad… Wells had his and I was there, not even knowing his name.”

“I don’t think she wanted me to be to be involved in your life.”

“Well, I don’t know, you were always kind of a jerk. I’m not sorry for spitting on you, by the way, or fighting the guards.”

“You were quite fierce. I remember.” He nodded, remembering the scene, sketching a smile. “You’re a lot like your mother, Michelle.”

“I often wonder what she would think of me…”

“She would be proud of the woman you’re becoming.” He put a comforting hand on her shoulder, softly squeezing it and as he stood up, he spoke again, making her looke up at him. “I am.”

She wasn’t expecting him to say this, and she watched him slowly step away, letting her be alone after their talk and went to sit in the middle of the room. Her lips were parted in surprise, and she stared at him. He had kept on trying to be there for her lately, being protective of her and while she kept a distance between them, not hiding her resentment for him, he still tried to show her love. It made sense but she hadn’t let herself see and realize that he did love her, and, in a way, he told her. She honestly didn’t think he was proud of her so despite it only being two words, it was more than she ever expected from their conversation. It would probably take her a long time before calling him dad out loud, but this was a start, and it definitely shook how she perceived their budding father-daughter relationship. It couldn’t be so bad in the end. She was suddenly snapped out of her thoughts when she heard Clarke raise her voice at her mother. Everyone turned their head.

“I was protecting everyone. I didn’t have a choice, you did.” Just with these few words, Michelle understood she was referring to what happened with her dad and what happened with Finn. Abby shook her head. “You turned him in.”

“No, I trusted Thelonious to talk to your father and convince him not to go public.”

“You knew Dad would never stop. You knew what would happen to him.” There was no need to see her face to know how hurt Clarke was by this.

“I was protecting everyone too.” Abby then said, lowering her voice. “I was protecting you.” Clarke stood up, turning her back to her mom. She stood up, calling out to her and what came out of Clarke’s mouth afterwards didn’t reach Michelle’s ears and their conversation came to a stop anyway with Clarke sitting further away from her mother. After a moment, Michelle saw Kane stand up and walk to Clarke, to try and talk to her. She looked at them from afar, not hearing what he was saying to her but they spoke for a couple minutes until Lincoln’s voice rose.

“Too many to count.” Kane must have said something about who would want Lexa dead, given Lincoln’s comment. “Forming an alliance with you was a risk. Especially after what Finn did to this village.”

“So it had to be someone trying to break the alliance.” Octavia assumed and when she finished her sentence, they heard steps coming from the door. Every single one of them stood up and stepped away, wondering what was going to happen to them now. Indra entered the room.

“How’s Gustus?” Lincoln asked.

“Gustus will live.” The Grounder with the long beard spoke.

“Wait, what are you doing?” Kane inquired as Indra ordered something and Grounders threateningly walked to Raven to take her. Bellamy stepped in.

“She didn’t poison anyone.”

“I argued for all of you to die. But the Commander is merciful.” Indra spoke. “She wants only one.”

“She’s innocent.”

“I don’t care.” She cut Lincoln off, pressing each word, gritting her teeth. “They move, they bleed.” When the Grounder pushed Bellamy away effortlessly, it was Octavia’s turn to try and say something, but they grabbed Raven’s arms, and dragged her out of the room. “The rest of you are free. When she’s dead, so is the alliance. You should run.”

“I take no joy in this, Raven.” Lexa stepped towards the young woman. A crowd had formed around the around the bloodied post Raven had been tied to. She was shaking, looking around fearfully, breathing heavily. A little further away, her peers were still there, staring at the scene. They found themselves in quite the situation, not knowing how to help their friend het out of this. The only way would be to find the person that was actually behind the attempted poisoning, but they had no clue who it could be. “But this time, justice will be done.”

“We have to do something.” Bellamy said, nervously moving around when he was stopped by Kane. Lexa brought her knife to Raven’s bare arm and the latter let out a high-pitched cry as she cut across it, wincing in pain, blood flowing down her T-shirt.

“Lincoln do something.” Octavia asked him but he probably didn’t know what else to do. They watched Lexa step back and Indra approached, lifting Raven’s shirt and cutting her on the stomach. Raven kept screaming. “You can talk to them. These are your people.”

“Not anymore.” He took a few steps and was met by the Grounder with the long beard.

“You’re no longer safe here, friend.” He told him as he glanced at Raven being mutilated behind him. “I’ll do my best to make sure you get away. Then you’ll be on your own.”

While the two Grounders shared a hug, Abby called her daughter from outside as the latter had remained downstairs, trying to get her to come out so they could go before it was too late for them but as she remained silent, Michelle decided to go to her, nodding at Abby as she quickly descended the stairs, wondering what her friend could be doing.

“It wasn’t in the bottle.” As she arrived behind her, she heard Clarke whisper to herself and stepped beside her, looking at the goblet still lying on the ground.

“What?” Clarke noticed her presence and looked at her. Within seconds of exchanging silent glances, Michelle understood what she had just realized. The poison had never been in the drink they had brought, it was the cup. The two of them then almost ran up the stairs and suddenly walked out the door that Abby was keeping opened ajar.

“Stop. What are you doing? You’ll get yourself killed.” Bellamy picked up the pace and followed Clarke and Michelle as they walked straight toward the Grounders. Knowing that it wasn’t their liquor that was poisoned helped proving Raven’s innocence, but they would still request justice to be done and someone to blame for it. They would probably not let go Raven if there wasn’t any other possible suspect.

“I need that bottle now.” Two Grounders armed with spears blocked their way and Clarke yelled for them to stop what they were doing. Everyone looked at them and Lexa turned around, allowing Clarke to come closer and Michelle, Bellamy and Abby followed her. “One of your people tried to kill you, Lexa, not one of mine.”

“You should have run.” Indra said in a low voice.

“I can prove it.” Clarke looked around and Lincoln’s friend handed her the bottle. This one seemed friendly enough, compared to Indra at least. The blonde then directly drank from the bottle, taking full sips of the liquor and Lexa let her surprise show on her face. There was a heavy silent for a second where Lexa and Clarke just stared at each other, the commander expecting something to happen.

“Explain.”

“The poison wasn’t in the bottle. It was in the cup.” Lexa looked over her shoulder as Gustus spoke to her in their language. Michelle took a look at him. He had an impressive beard like Lincoln’s friend, but his hair was cut short on the sides, almost shaved. He gave off a way less friendly vibe than the other for sure.

“It was you.” Bellamy voice his thoughts, having come to the conclusion that it was Gustus that was behind the attempted murder, trying to frame the Sky People for it. Michelle thought that I was certainly possible as he knew he would be the one tasting his commander’s drink, if he knew the poison, he knew he would survive and make it look like the drink was poisoned. “He tested the cup, he searched Raven.”

“Gustus would never harm me.” Lexa retorted, staring at Bellamy.

“You weren’t the target. The alliance was.”

“We didn’t do this, and you know it.” Clarke spoke. Lexa then raised her head and turned to Gustus, addressing him in their language.

“The alliance would cost you your life, heda.” He said after a moment of silence. “I could not let that happen.”

“This treachery will cost you yours.” He nodded and she then gave an order. He was grabbed by two masked Grounders and while Michelle remained beside Clarke, the others rushed to Raven to get her down. She must have been in an awful lot of pain with al these cuts over her body and looked exhausted. Abby woud tend to her wounds as soon as possible so she was saved now. Michelle hadn’t showed much worry and empathy for Raven, but she never wished for her to die, especially because of something she didn’t even do. It wasn’t fair. The way she had treated Murphy when all the situation with Finn was going on wasn’t fair either, but she didn’t deserve this.

[To be continued…]

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Published (10/21/2022) by Andrea

Taglist: @cathrin2405 @kika64

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