I groaned as I opened my eyes. My vision was slightly blurred and there was a sharp pain twisting in my head, like little knives stabbing at my brain. It wasn't the worst I'd ever felt but it was painful.

I definitely drank too much last night.

I sat up and slowly pushed away the blankets but a head suddenly popped into the tent, freaking me out. "Clarke!" I hissed, blood pounding intensely in my ears from the scare she'd given me. "What's wrong?"

"Is Bellamy in here?" She asked, craning her head further inside as her eyes glanced around my tent.

"No?" I frowned, unsure as to why she was asking me that. "Why?"

"Just wondering. Okay, follow me." She whispered. I sighed and lifted the flap of the tent up, crawling underneath. I was surprised to find that it was still dark outside. Obviously, I hadn't been sleeping long.

Finn was waiting outside and he sighed in relief when he saw us both approaching. "What's so important that you had to disturb me from my sleep?" I asked, looking between their two anxious faces. They both shared a look before Clarke answered.

"Finn wants to make an alliance with the grounders."

I almost choked, shocked at his idea. It would never happen. The grounders would never make an alliance with us. "Are you serious? No way."

"If we can get them on side-" Finn started.

"And how the hell are we gonna do that?" I asked, shaking my head in disbelief. "All they've done since we got here is attack us. I don't think they're ones for talking!"

"It's worth a shot," He defended.

"A shot in the dark!" I exclaimed, wincing as another wave of pain hit me. I rubbed my hand along my forehead, closing my eyes shut and taking a deep breath.

"Look, you remember the Grounder we captured. Lincoln." Finn prompted. His eyes had a pleading look to them and it seemed like he was not only trying to convince me, but Clarke too. "He said he wanted the leaders to come. Obviously, Bellamy wouldn't be up for the idea so he asked for Clarke."

"So where do I come in?"

"He mentioned you too and because of that, we thought it would be best that you came with us."

"Plus, you're really great at saying the right thing at the right time," Clarke added.

"What does that even mean?" I asked, pressing my hand against my head again as I tried to process everything.

"You're great at trying to keep the peace," Finn said. "So are you in?"

Meeting with the grounders would likely go downhill. There was a high possibility it would end in a fight. And it would be a risk pissing them off any more than we already have. But, on the other hand, meeting with them could also possibly erase the tension. We couldn't just sit around waiting for something to happen- that would get us killed. To survive, we had to do something.

I looked between the two of them, my gaze finally settling upon Clarke. "Fine. I'm in."

~

"I'd love it if you were right about this, but did you ever consider it might be a trap?" I asked Finn as we trekked through the forest. We'd been walking for ages and my legs felt heavy from all the exercise.

"Yep, but since it's Unity Day, I decided to have hope instead." He stepped down suddenly and let out a small grunt of pain.

"Hey. Let me have a look at that," Clarke said, probably referring to his stab wound from the other day. Finn stopped in his tracks and unzipped his jacket, slowly lifting his shirt to show the wound on his skin. It was clotted with blood and the skin surrounding it was purple and bruised. It still looked incredibly painful.

Clarke sighed, shaking her head. "Seriously, Finn, you're putting a lot of faith in a guy who stuck a knife in you."

"And you're sounding more and more like Bellamy."

"I'm just trying to keep us alive," she defended.

"So am I." Finn zipped his jacket back up and took the the lead, with Clarke and I following, me a couple of paces behind her. And that's how it stayed.

It was light outside when we finally reached our destination. Finn must have realised we were close because he broke out into a jog until we reached a bridge where Octavia seemed to be waiting.

"So that's how you set this up," Clarke said coldly before turning to Octavia. "You helped him escape, didn't you?"

"I trust him, Clarke," She replied defensively.

"There's a lot of that going around." She grumbled, glaring at Finn.

There was a rustling at the edge of the bridge and Finn snapped his head over. "Someone's coming."

A man came running out of the forest and I soon realised it was the Grounder we'd kept captive. Lincoln.

Octavia instantly ran towards him and they met in the middle of the bridge, engulfing each other in a hug. Lincoln's gaze then fell on Clarke and his eyes hardened. I couldn't read his expression as he looked at me, but he seemed less tense. Finn grabbed Clarke's hand, obviously showing that she could be trusted. I was slightly hurt, despite the fact I wouldn't have wanted to hold hands with Finn anyway.

The sound of hooves hitting the ground caused me to look up. Horses emerged from the forest with Grounders on top of them. My eyes widened in amazement. The horses were just like I'd imagined, beautiful.

"Oh, my God," Clarke gasped, her eyes immediately lighting up. "Horses!"
Two stopped in front of us, with another following behind. There was a woman riding it. I presumed that she was the leader, or just very important.

"Hey! We said no weapons," Finn exclaimed as he ran to Lincoln, pulling Clarke along. I followed, standing a little further behind them.

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

"It's too late now," I said, causing Finn and Clarke to turn around and glance at me for a moment.

Finn then took a step forwards but Lincoln's arm shot out. "They go alone."

"They?" Finn queried.

Lincoln turned towards me and I frowned. "Me too?" I lowered my voice, my eyes widening in fear. "Seriously?"

I didn't want to do this. I was probably going to die. Shaking my head, I pushed down the raising anxiety in my chest and stepped forwards, beside Clarke.

"We'll be fine," she assured.

I hope she's right.

"Clarke-" Finn started.

"Hey," She cut him off. "It's time to do better."

I swallowed the lump in my throat as Clarke and I walked towards the Grounder. My head began to pound again and I blinked, trying to ignore the pain for now. I was confused as to why I was going with her. We'd definitely established that I'm not a leader - not like Bellamy and Clarke. Even if I was here to attempt to keep the peace, I wasn't needed up front. That was down to Clarke and her leader duties.

The grounder walked forwards too and met us in the middle of the bridge. She was very tall, with high cheekbones and black smudged around her eyes. I was intimidated, to say the least. "Your names are Clarke and Billie?"

Clarke nodded. "Yes. I'm Clarke," She then nodded to me. "That's Billie."

"I'm Anya." Clarke held her hand out for Anya to take. The woman glanced down but didn't move so she sheepishly let her hand fall back by her side again.

"I think we got off to a rough start." Clarke started. "But we want to find a way to live together in peace."

"I understand. You started a war that you don't know how to end."

"What?" I accidentally blurted out, wishing I hadn't said anything. Clarke was always so much better at talking than me.

"We didn't start anything," My friend quickly added. "You attacked us for no reason."

"No reason?" Anya's voice raised, causing me to feel like I'd shrunk down to the size of an ant. "The missiles you launched burned a village to the ground."

Missiles?

"The flares?" Clarke asked, suddenly realising. "No. That was a signal meant for our families. We had no idea-"

"You're invaders," Anya snapped harshly. "Your ship landed in our territory."

"We didn't know anyone was here," I defended, trying to speak calmly and collectively. "We thought the ground was uninhabited."

"You knew we were here when you sent an armed raiding party to capture one of us and torture him," She retorted back. "These are all acts of war."

"I see your point," Clarke replied. "That's why we need to put an end to all of this."

"Lincoln said there are more of you coming down," The grounder said. "Warriors?"

"The guard, yes," Clarke confirmed. "But also farmers, doctors, engineers. We can help each other, but not if we're at war."

"Can you promise that these new arrivals won't attack us, that they'll respect the terms you and I agree on?"

Clarke and I shared a glance. We couldn't promise that. "I promise I will do everything I can to convince them to honour the terms that we set." She said.

"Why would I agree to an alliance that your people can break the moment they get here?" Anya demanded.

"If you fire the first shot, those people coming down won't bother negotiating," Clarke said firmly. "Our technology- they will wipe you out."

"They wouldn't be the first to try."

I frowned. Anya seemed to have a reply to everything we tried to convince her with. Clarke had tried just about everything.

From somewhere below us, I heard a familiar voice suddenly scream. It was Jasper. "They're gonna shoot! Billie, Clarke, run! Run!"

I turned to see him out in the open, firing his gun up at the trees.

What the hell is he doing here?

The sound of a knife being drawn out caught my attention and I turned around, noticing Anya gripping the weapon. Without thinking, I pushed Clarke behind me slightly just as Anya reached out and aimed the knife at my throat.

A shot fired and Anya stumbled away, the knife not even managing to scratch me. I looked over and met Bellamy's eyes as he lowered the gun slightly. "Get down!" I heard Finn yell.

I didn't break Bellamy's gaze until Clarke suddenly yanked me down to the ground with her. An arrow landed beside us, where we'd been stood. The two of us turned to each other with wide eyes. "Shit. Thanks," I breathed out, my heart pounding in my chest from my second close call with death today.

She looked like she was about to reply but then her jaw dropped. "Finn, get back!"

Finn ran towards us, lifting Clarke up and then me. The three of us ran back to the safety of the forest as bullets and arrows flew past us. I barely noticed Lincoln get hit until Octavia yelled his name. 

We reached him as he tossed an arrow to the side. He then passed Octavia over to us. "Run! Don't stop till you get behind your walls. Go! Take her!"

I grabbed Octavia, and started to try and pull her away. She thrashed around in my grip. "Lincoln! No!"

"Go!" He yelled, still clutching his wound.

I pushed her by the shoulder, trying not to glance at the pained look on her face. As we started to run, I was aware that Finn wasn't behind me. I turned around to see nothing but trees. Just as I went to call out his name, someone's hands were on my waist, stopping me from smacking into them.

I looked up at Bellamy, who was checking me over, probably to see if I was hurt. "I'm fine," I assured. He didn't seem to believe me. "Keep going!" I pushed him forwards just as footsteps sounded behind me. I glanced back to see Finn and gave him a gentle nod before I continued running.

Once we reached the camp walls, everyone stopped, all standing around in a circle. We stood breathlessly, looking at each other, daring someone to speak first.

"You got something to say?" Bellamy jabbed at Finn.

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

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

"Why didn't you tell me what you were up to?" Raven shouted at Finn.

Finn turned to his girlfriend. "I tried, but you were too busy making bullets for your gun!"

"Yeah, and I'm so damn grateful she brought that!" I snapped. "We almost died!"

"They came there to kill you, Finn," Bellamy added.

"You don't know that!" He defended. "Jasper fired the first shot!"

"You ruined everything," Octavia spoke up, her voice colder than ice as she glanced at Jasper before turning away to head inside camp.

"I saved you!" Jasper called after her. He shook his head, walking off too. "You're welcome."

"Well, if we weren't at war already, we sure as hell are now," Finn said, staring at Clarke with a crestfallen expression. "You didn't have to trust the Grounders. You just had to trust me." He sighed and pushed past, heading into camp. Raven followed him without another word.

"Like I said, best Unity Day ever," Bellamy shook his head.

An explosion sound ripped through the air, causing us all to look up. A ball of light was descending through the dark sky and I gasped. "The Exodus ship?"

"Your moms are early," Bellamy said, looking over at the two of us with a hint of a smile.

Clarke and I shared a look of elation. But then the light died down, causing my face to fall. Clarke must have noticed it too. "Wait," She started, eyebrows arching in confusion. "Too fast. No parachute? Something's wrong."

The ship dropped below a line of mountains and a flash of light erupted in the sky until there was an explosion of fire.

The ship had crashed.

My heart fell. As did I, because my legs turned to jelly and I dropped to the ground on my hands and knees, my voice cracking. "No!"

Clarke dropped to her knees beside me, both of us uttering the same word over and over. "No, no, no."

Bellamy's hand was on my shoulder, trying to comfort me, but I couldn't tear my eyes away from the cloud of smoke. There was a pressure in my chest that made me want to scream until I couldn't anymore. My eyes blurred with tears and my breaths seemed to come out in short gasps.

Mom was all that I had left.

And now she was gone.

~

A/N

sorry for not updating in like forever I've been really busy agjsjshsjs .