six; YOU WANT THEM SO BAD?

seven years earlier

Fifteen year old Reese Kane was seated alone in the mess hall, a tattered book in her hands that she was stuck in, her eyes reading the words on the page in complete wonder, still so incredibly excited that Bellamy and Octavia had gifted her with such a wonderful book that she hadn't been able to put down.

She turned the page as a figure cast a shadow on the crinkled paper and she glanced up in time to watch Bellamy plop down in the chair across from her.

A wide smile stretched across her face.

"Hey, Bell." She greeted, dogearing the page and closing the novel in order to turn her attention to her best friend.

"How's it going, Spitfire?" He asked with a grin.

"Great, sorry I haven't been to visit lately, I've been spending some time with my Mom and Gran." She apologised, "How's O doing?"

Bellamy spared a quick glance at his surroundings before turning back and speaking, "She's fine, she misses you a bit, but we both understand why you've been side-tracked."

Reese, who wore a guilty expression, lightened up considerably hearing that. She absolutely adored Octavia and missed her immensely but her Gran had fallen ill and she just wanted to be with her to cheer her up and make her feel a bit better.

"I'll visit soon." She promised, "How're you though?"

Bellamy shrugged, "Fine, I suppose. Mom's been pushing me to become a guard."

"Is that what you want?" She asked him hesitantly.

"I think so." He responded, brows furrowed, "It would be a lot easier to get to a system and log O into it."

Reese smiled, her heart-tugging at how protective Bellamy was of Octavia and how much he truly loved her.

"Reese! Reese!"

With furrowed eyebrows, Reese glanced to her left just in time to see eleven year old Clarke Griffin skid to a shaky stop at the table, her eyes wide with tears and Wells Jaha hot on her heels, his expression more stoic than usual.

"Clarke, what's wrong?" Reese asked gently, looking at her young friend worriedly when she saw just how distressed she was.

"It's your Mom." She cried tearfully, not taking her eyes off of Reese, "She was just arrested."

Reese couldn't help but wonder if Finn and Raven had broken up at some point during her time in the Skybox because it wasn't like Finn was trying to hide that he was flirting with Clarke and she found herself wanting to beat her head against a tree for listening to Finn when he told them both to follow him.

"Can we please talk about something else?" She finally begged and Finn gave her a sideways glance before changing the subject of his and Clarke's conversation, "I've been thinking about Mount Weather."

'Thank the stars.' Reese mouthed to herself happily, "What about it?"

"How come they didn't attack until Jasper crossed the river?" He asked, "It's not like we were being quiet and they didn't know we were there."

"That's true." Reese nodded and Clarke stared at the two for a moment in confusion before realisation struck her.

"They waited for us to cross." She exclaimed, staring at Finn, "The river's a boundary."

"Yeah, which means Mount Weather is off limits." Finn trailed off, looking slightly fearful.

"To us or to the Grounders?" Reese asked them, her question being ignored by Clarke who scoffed, "How are we gonna get those supplies? I mean, what are we gonna do for food?"

✦❀✦

Murphy was becoming increasingly irritated, something that Reese had quickly discovered didn't take much doing.

"Hey." He called after Finn, "How do we know this is the right way?"

"We don't." Bellamy answered before Finn had a chance to before his tone turned rather mocking, "Spacewalker thinks he's a tracker."

"Will you stop being an asshole for, like, five seconds?" Reese asked her friend who didn't look at her.

"It's called 'cutting sign', fourth-year Earth Skills." Wells responded, defending the tracker and the Ark class, "He's good."

"You want to keep it down or should I paint a target on your backs?" Finn asked, sending the four who had spoken an annoyed look before he turned back to the tree he had been looking at, taking note of the broken branches and the blood splatters that were covering the rocks.

"You're invisible." Reese just heard Bellamy say to Wells as she crouched beside Finn and glanced around for any sign of more blood which they could follow.

Just as Reese nudged Finn and directed his attention to a bush that someone had clearly fallen into, a loud cry echoed and the woman's head snapped up, glancing around for a way to decipher which direction it had come from.

"What the hell was that?" Murphy questioned.

"I'm guessing Jasper." Reese murmured

Clarke then spoke, her words aimed at Bellamy, "Now would be a good time to take out that gun."

The group split and Reese found herself walking in step with Murphy, the two silent as they jogged through the trees, jutting left and right when they found that the cries of pain were louder in one direction and not the other when finally, they stepped into a clearing where a large tree grew in the centre and at the very top, positioned on a thick branch with his hands tied to two separate tree limbs was–

"Jasper." Clarke breathed out in shock and relief as she and Finn broke through the treeline a few short feet from where Reese and Murphy had frozen in shock and horror, "Oh, my God."

"Clarke, be careful." Finn hissed at the blonde when she rushed out from the cover of the treeline.

"Jasper?"

"What the hell is this?" Reese and Bellamy asked in unison, following after the determined blonde who had let out a panicked scream as she disappeared from sight and Bellamy dove forward, grasping her wrist before she could drop further.

Reese scrambled to her knees and leaned into the hole, quickly gripping Clarke's only free hand tightly and using all of her strength to try and pull the girl up but it did nothing because Bellamy had not moved.

"Bell, help me." She shouted at him through gritted teeth, sparing him a brief glance, only to see him staring directly at the wristband on her arm, "Bellamy!"

He seemed to snap out of whatever daydream he was in when Finn and Wells began screaming as they rushed to the edge of the hole.

"Pull her up! Pull her up!"

"Get her! Pull her up!"

Finn and Murphy rushed to either side of Bellamy and Reese and gripped her arms, pulling her up out of the hole which Reese had only just realised had spikes at the bottom and Clarke fell on top of Reese, wrapping her arms tightly around the older girl as she wanted heavily, her eyes coming back into focus.

"You okay?" Finn questioned.

"Yeah." She huffed out, her breathing slightly laboured.

"You okay, Bright Eyes?" Reese asked her when the blonde had pulled away.

Clarke nodded, a smile curling at her lips, "You haven't called me that in years."

Reese smiled faintly, shrugging her shoulders as Bellamy came back into her sight and Clarke scrambled to her feet, pulling the brunette up with her as she spoke, "We need to get him down."

"I'll climb up there and cut the vines," Finn announced, pulling a small blade from his jacket pocket.

"Yeah, yeah." Wells nodded, "I'm with you."

Finn immediately refused, ordering the male to stay with Clarke and keep an eye on Bellamy, and he gestured to Murphy, directing the scowling male to follow him to the tree.

"There's a poultice on his wound," Clarke said.

Reese glanced up at Jasper who was groaning in pain and her eyes focused on the green covering his chest where she had remembered the spear hitting him.

"Medicine?" She asked, fainting remembering her mother once telling her about the mixture of herbs used to relieve pain from soreness or inflammation, or in Jasper's case, a spear skewering him.

"Why would they save his life just to string him up as live bait?" Wells asked the question on each of the minds.

"Maybe what they're trying to catch likes its dinner breathing," Bellamy told them and Reese's stomach churned at the thought.

"Maybe what they're trying to catch is us," Finn called down from the branches, a few feet above their heads.

"That's a wonderful thought." Reese yelled up at him sarcastically, "Thank you, Finn."

Finn didn't reply as he made it up to where Jasper hung and quickly began cutting through the bonds that secured him to the branches.

"Hurry up, Murphy." His voice carried down to the four that remained on the ground below.

"Be careful," Clarke called up and the only sound that could be heard was the wind in the leaves, the cutting of rope, and a loud roar that Reese knew was far too close to be comforting.

"What the hell was that?" Murphy asked, taking his eyes away from his task to look at Bellamy who shook his head, his eyes darting around the trees.

"Grounders?" He suggested.

"Well, whatever it was, it did not sound human." Reese spoke, her voice shaky, "Speed it up, you two!"

She was correct in her assumption when she spotted a dark shape appear in her line of sight and fear flooded her when its eyes fell on the group and slowly began to prowl.

"Bell," Reese whispered fearfully, not taking her eyes off of the beast that appeared to be staring right at her. He was on the other side of the tree feet away as his eyes flickered between his best friend and the creature which snarled viciously and began to run at them, "Reese!"

"Bellamy, gun!" Clarke hollered at the man as Reese immediately heard loud pops which she could only assume was the gun being fired and she looked around wildly as the creature disappeared from her sight and the long grass began to move and she remained tense, her eyes darting around, attempting to pinpoint where it was exactly and then the growling and moving blades of grass ceased entirely, leaving Reese to look around wildly as she moved away from Clarke.

In a single split second, a loud roar shook the ground and she saw a dark flash leap from the grass.

"Bellamy!" Reese screamed and she sprinted toward him, shoving him away from the creature as another pop went off and something hit her, sending her straight to ground, her head connecting with the earth where she expected to feel the claws ripping into her skin but she felt nothing aside from the weight that was heavy on her torso.

"Now she sees you."

"Is it dead?" She shouted dumbly, her voice muffled by the fur on top of her.

"Yeah."

"Then get it the fuck off of me!" She screamed out and when the weight was gone, she scrambled away from the unmoving creature and slowly got to her feet, clutching her twice injured head which Clarke immediately rushed over to inspect.

"Did you just push me out of the way?" Bellamy asked incredulously and when she nodded, a near-hysterical laugh escaped him, "You're insane."

"Yeah, well." Reese smiled faintly, "What are friends for?"

✦❀✦

All Reese wanted was to lie down and sleep but Clarke had ordered her not to, should she potentially have a concussion, so she walked slowly toward the dropship, her eyes drooping down occasionally but Murphy walked beside her, having the displeasure of having to talk to her in order to keep her awake as he carried one end of the old parachute Wells had originally intended for Jasper but now held the animal that was now their dinner.

"They're back." She heard a familiar voice shout and she had never been more grateful to see the dropship ahead, behind what looked to be the start of a wall.

Through her droopy eyes, she saw Monty and Octavia rushing to where Clarke was, followed by Wells and Finn who had carried an unconscious Jasper all the way from the clearing

"Is he...?" Monty trailed off, too terrified for his question to be true.

"He's alive." Clarke assured him, "I need boiled water and strips of cloth for bandage."

Reese slowly sat down on a log beside the blonde girl from the dropship whose name she couldn't remember and watched as Jasper was taken into the ship and Clarke turned her attention to her, her doctor face set in place.

"Stay there and do not go to sleep." She ordered, "I'll be out once I've looked Jasper over."

"Aye, aye." Reese murmured mockingly and Clarke disappeared, rushing to help Jasper.

"The hell happened to you?" The short blonde asked worriedly when she caught sight of the dried blood on Reese's hand that had been holding her head earlier.

"Who's hungry?" Bellamy shouted.

"Hit my head," Reese answered softly, blinking rapidly, hoping that Clarke was quick because she just wanted to lay down and sleep.

Clarke came out after what felt like years and took a look at the wound that had stopped bleeding ages before she had properly seen it and she quickly patched up the new injury and checked the old, deeming them to be okay, but she wanted Reese to rest nearby so she could check it over throughout the night.

Reese stood and her stomach rumbled when she smelled the cooked meat and slowly made her way over to where a line had formed. Too tired and irritated to wait, she cut it and was soon face to face with Bellamy who cocked an eyebrow at her.

"You're trading wristbands for food?" She asked with a laugh, "God, you're an idiot."

"You take off your wristband, then you get to eat." Bellamy confirmed with a nod, "Simple."

"You were gonna let Clarke fall." Reese remembered, "Do you really not want the Ark down here so much that you'd willingly let a girl die just so you could get another wristband?"

"If the Ark thinks that everyone is dying, especially the privileged, they won't come down here." Bellamy defended himself.

Reese rolled her eyes.

"You want them so bad?" She asked, "What were you gonna do, cut mine off while I was sleeping?" At the guilty look on his face, she laughed loudly but it was a flat and unamused sound, "You know what? I'm tired and I'm hungry and I am so pissed off at you so just take this stupid thing off of me so I can relieve two of my current issues."

She held out her wrist with the band on it and when Bellamy opened his mouth, she shook her arm in his face and spoke, "Well, go on then."

"You wouldn't want to do this if you weren't delirious." Bellamy finally spoke, knowing she would probably attempt to kill him for taking off her wristband when she was in a better state of mind, "Actually, you would, you would do anything to hurt your Dad."

"Maybe so." Reese answered, "But I would like to pass out so take off my damn wristband so I can eat."

He didn't move so Reese scoffed and turned to Murphy, raising her wrist to the already smirking male, who grabbed it none too gently and slipped the rod beneath it in order to pull it up. Reese hissed as she felt the spikes in her skin shift and she grunted in pain as she heard a pop and a crack as the spikes were removed and the metal band was dropped onto the ground beside the roaring fire.

The woman smiled in satisfaction, rubbing her bare wrist for a moment before she grabbed a stick and made her way to the dropship, pulling meat off of the stick and popping it into her mouth as she went, finding that she quite liked the taste of meat, having never actually had it before.

She passed Octavia as she moved into the ship and quickly made her way up to the highest level where she found Monty and Wells sitting with Jasper and she offered them her food to share, knowing that there was no way in hell that Monty would leave his best friend and even though Wells' wristband had already been taken off, he'd refuse to eat out of spite for what was happening.

Thousands of miles away, the beeping began once more and an alarm sounded.

Marcus Kane watched in horror as his daughter's tile flashed once and darkened before the 'Transmission Terminated' screen flashed and stayed there.

"They are all removing the wristbands themselves, Marcus," Abby told him, as she turned to face the man just as his face had crumbled in pain before it quickly returned to his usual stoic mask.

"She wouldn't." He spoke after a moment, his voice strained as he stared at the now darkened image of his beautiful little girl, "My daughter is dead, Abby."

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thanks for reading!

~r