"It's when you're acting selflessly that you are at your bravest.

17.

"Come on, hit me." Jack encouraged me. I was hesitant about actually punching him, I don't know how much I'm packing but I don't want to hurt him. I've always loved training with him. It was fun and I know how to defend myself a little bit more than I use too. But this is the first time he's ever wanted me to actually fight him "Jack, I don't want too, what if I hurt you?" I whine. I wasn't being cocky, I never knew how hard I could punch. All I've ever punched were punching bags.

"You won't, babe, now come on. Give me the best you got." He points to his cheek and I sigh. I lift my hands up like he showed me to do and tighten my fist. He nodded to me waiting for the punch. I quickly smash my fist into his cheek as hard as I could and he stumbles back and squeezes his eyes together shaking his head. "I'm sorry." I take his face into my hands and he laughs lightly. My hand ached a little but it wasn't too bad.

"You got a mean right hook."

"Damn it, you're going to have a bruise there tomorrow." I sigh and touch his cheek lightly. He doesn't flinch but smiles.

"Didn't you say it was hot the last time I had bruises.'" He teased grabbing my waist and planting a kiss on my lips. I roll my eyes at him and pull him in for another longer kiss. He smiles into the kiss and I can't help but do the same. We break away laughing and he kisses me one more time.

"It is hot, but not if I'm the one giving them to you. Why do I need to hit someone anyways? Why not just walk away? I'm not a big fan of violence." He shakes his head at my words.

"No, Taylor, You have to fight your battles, you can't just run from them. If you run you'll never learn. The battles you fight for yourself will be tough, but when you're fighting for the people you love it makes just a little more sense, and hurts a little less. Warriors don't give up or run when it gets tough. They face their battles head on. Don't run, fight."

"I'm not a warrior." I shake my head at him. "Yes you are, you just don't know it yet. But come on, I think my Queen needs a nap." He pulls me into his side and we walk out the door of the training room. "Yes I do, your place or mine?"

"If they follow, it's a hundred and twenty mile walk to the ocean." Bellamys words cut me out of my head.

"Look we're wasting time, if he want's to stay he can stay." Finn argues and storm out. What a jackass.

"We can't do this without you, Bellamy, without both of you!" She shakes her head at us pleadingly.

"What do you want us to say, Clarke?" Bellamy questions her.

"I want you to say you're with us, those kids out there listen to you guys." I shake my head disagreeing with her words.

"They're lining up to go, they listen to you more." I interrupt.

"I gave them an easy choice. But five minutes ago they were willing to fight and die for you both. You guys inspire them." Bellamy stays silent and Clarke speaks up again, "And I'm afraid we're going to need that again before this day is through." As soon as she finishes her sentence she turns around and walks out the dropship. Bellamy goes after her, l stay and turn to look at Raven. She still looks to be in a lot of pain and l feel like now might be the right time to apologize. "Hey, Raven, look I'm sorry for what I said about you and Finn. I was just angry at you." I sigh and look at her. She shakes her head and laughs lightly.

"No, don't apologize. I deserved it, l'm sorry for everything. For everything said and for electrocuting you." She says making me smile lightly.

"I'm sorry for what you saw in his tent. I was hurt about Finn and Clarke which is no excuse for me to behave that way. I just didn't know what else to do. But you should know he turned me down right away. And I know it's because of you." Her words catch me off guard, l know Bellamy told her no but she thinks it's because of me. But we weren't even together. Are we even together now? Once again, this is the wrong time to be thinking about my feelings when there is a huge grounder army out there trying to kill us. "Ready to go?" Finn comes in with Jake and a makeshift stretcher in his hands. Raven nods her head and I help them transfer her from the table to the stretcher. We head out of the dropship and I notice everyone is heading out already. Bellamy stands by the fire that is still lit in front of us and I walk towards him.

"You did good here, Bellamy." I place my hand on his shoulder and he looks to me.

"Eighteen dead." He says but I reply quickly, "Eighty-two alive. You did good." He nods and grabs a bucket near me and dumps it onto the flames. They quickly sizzle out and smoke rises. He throws the bucket down and grabs my hand as we walk out of the camp we called home.

Me and Bellamy were at the back of the line making sure no one gets left behind until everyone came to a stop. We quickly let go of each others hands and grab our guns. From what I gathered Octavia was at the front of the line so if she thinks there's reason to stop than there's probably most definitely a reason to stop.

We hear a couple of shouts and then I hear Jasper yell, "Grounders!" My eyes widen as everyone turns around and starts running back towards camp. Me and Bellamy run with them all and make it back inside the camp. Once everyone was in we close the fence.

I hope up on the lookout platform and Bellamy follows after, he points his gun out while we look.

"Where are they? Why aren't they attacking?" Bellamy questions.

"Cause we're doing exactly what they wanted us to do." I say, realizing the grounders plan.

"What are you talking about?" He looks at me. I turn around and see Clarke and Finn looking up at us.

"Lincoln said the scouts would be the first to arrive." I exclaim out of breath.

"If it's just scouts we can fight our way out." Octavia says to me, "That's what Lincoln would do." Bellamy jumps down from the platform and speaks.

"We're done doing what that grounder would do. We tried it and now Drew is dead." He points to Drew whose body is laying on the ground with his face covered by a jacket, "You wanna be next?" He questions her rhetorically.

"That grounder saved our lives. I agree with Octavia, for all we know there's one scout out there." Finn cuts in.

"A scout with insanely good aim." Jasper speaks from the platform next to the one I'm on.

"I agree with Bellamy, we have to look at this a different way." I say to Finn and Octavia. Finn rolls his eyes at me.

"You only agree with him because you guys are screwing." I jump down off the platform and make my way toward him getting ready to punch him in the face when Clarke holds me back.

"Stop. The grounders are the real enemy." She tells me and I push my arms off of her, still sending glares towards Finn. What a jackass, he's just mad because he wanted to get out of this without lifting a finger. Screw him.

"Clarke, Taylor. We can still do this." Octavia says to us. Me and Clarke share a look. She already knows where I stand.

"What's it going to be guys? Run and get picked off out in the open, or stand and fight back?" Bellamy asks us and I sigh.

"We stay." I speak up and get off the platform.

"We stay." Clarke follows my lead.

"Clarke, if we're still here when Tristan gets here..." Finn trails off and shakes his head. Who is Tristian? We don't have time to be discussing this any further.

"Lincoln said scouts, more than one. He said, "get home before the scouts arrive. " Finn, they're already here." Clarke tells him and I nod.

"Looks like you got your fight." I tell Bellamy and he nods and turns to the crowd.

"Okay, this is what we have been preparing for. Kill them before they kill us. Gunners, to your posts. Use the tunnels to get in and out. From now on the gate stays closed." Bellamy orders and everyone starts rushing around.

Octavia starts walking away getting her sword out. Bellamy runs to catch up with her. I go into the dropship where Clarke and Finn were. They were talking with Raven and soon Bellamy joined us.

"We've got 25 rifles with 20 rounds each, give or take. Roughly 500 rounds of ammo. While you two were gone, we made some improvements. Thanks to Raven, the gully is mined." Bellamy speaks up and we listen.

"Partially mined. Thanks to Murphy." Raven lets out, I can tell she's still in a lot of pain.

"Still, it's the main route in. If the grounders use it, we'll know. She also built grenades." Bellamy holds up a silver one.

"It's not many." Clarke sighs.

"Again, thank you, Murphy." Raven huffs. I shake my head,

"It's something." I say, Clarke is being a downer just because her original plan backfired.

"We'll make them count. If the grounders make it through the front gate, guns and grenades should force them back." Bellamy's plan isn't too solid but it works.

"And then?" Clarke asks. No one says anything until Raven decides to speak up, "Then we close the door and pray."

"And pray what? That the ship keeps them out? Because it won't." Clarke interrupts.

"Then lets not let them get through the gate." Bellamy tells her and lifts the walkie talkie to his mouth.

"All foxholes, listen up. Keep your eyes and ears open. Inflict casualties, as many as possible. You can hold them off long enough to make them turn back. That's the plan."

"That's always your plan. Just like the bomb at the bridge." Finn glares at Bellamy. Are they ever going to stop fighting?

"Damn right." Bellamy says which makes me smile a little.

"You got a better idea?" Bellamy points his question toward Finn.

"It can't be that simple." Clarke shakes her head looking at our make shift map, "You said there's fuel in those rockets, right? Enough to build 100 bombs."

"I also said we got no gunpowder left." Raven huffs.

"I don't want to build a bomb, I want to blast off."

"Draw them in close. Fire the rockets. A ring of fire." Raven nods her head at the plan. Holy shit.

"Barbecue grounders, I like it." Bellamy nods in approval. This is probably the best idea Clarke has had since we've been down here.

"Will it work?" Finn asks Raven.

"The wiring's a mess down there, but yeah. You give me enough time, I'll cook them real good."

"Then it's settled, we will hold them off long enough for you to do what you have to do then we will light 'em up." I say and nod towards Raven. I walk out of the dropship getting my gun ready. I make my way over to the tunnels but a hand grabs my wrist and stops me. I turn around and see Bellamy.

"Where are you going?"

"I'm not just going to sit here and do nothing. I need to be out there with the gunners. I'm a good shot." I explain to him.

"It's dangerous." Bellamy sighs. I smirk.

"Dangerous is my middle name, baby." I lean up and give him a quick kiss on the cheek and start to walk away.

"What is your real middle name?" He calls out to me and I turn around while walking backwards. He has a light smile playing on his lips.

"I'll tell you when all of this is over." I turn back around and head into the tunnels, once I get out I see Octavia and Miller.

"Hey guys, I came to join the party." I smile as they jump.

"Damn it, Queen, you scared the shit out of me." Miller says and I laugh. I join them on the platform and look out with them.

"I'm surprised my brother let you out." Octavia smirks. I scoff, "I'm not a dog."

"I don't know, you kind of are a bitch." Miller jokes and I smack him on the head while Octavia laughs.

We stay watching for a little while longer till Octavia starts to get off the platform.

"What are you doing?" I ask her.

"I have to go out there, if I can take some of them out before they get here we don't have to waste our bullets." Octavia says as she starts to walk through another tunnel that leads out of camp.

"Wait, I'm coming with you." I jump down off the platform and follow her. She doesn't argue which I am thankful for. I want to watch her back, I can't imagine anything happening to her. What would Bellamy do with himself?

"Where are you guys going?" Miller questions us.

"On a field trip, don't die before I get back." I smile at him and he shakes his head.

I follow Octavia through and we stay crouched down when we get out. It's night time but who knows if grounders just saw us come out. We don't say anything and I just follow her farther out. All of a sudden we hear drums, Lincoln told us they are war drums. Me and Octavia stop.

"Did you hear that?" Octavia whisper so quietly I barely hear it.

"The loud ass drums playing thought the woods? No, I didn't." I reply sarcastically. I get sassy when I'm nervous.

"No, I-" Octavia didn't get to finish because a snap was heard from behind us. I shut my eyes tightly and sigh.

"There's a grounder right behind us isn't there?" I whisper to Octavia even though it's pointless now.

She nods and I quickly turn around and hold my gun up. He quickly pushes me to the ground and hits me in the head. He gets on top and of me and tries choking me. I'm trying to hit his face but the lack of oxygen makes me weak. Where the hell is Octavia? He's squeezing harder and I'm now shaking. Before I could pass out he gets a sword through the back and he stops and falls on top of me. I see that it was Octavia. She pushes him off of me and helps me up. All of a sudden we hear lots of guns going off. Looks like they are here.

"Are you okay?" She huffs.

"Yeah, let's do it again, shall we?" I choke out. My throat hurts and I know my voice sounds hoarse. I cough a couple times and clear my throat before I'm good to go.

"You're crazy, let's go." She walks forward and I follow rubbing my neck softly.

"Wait." I pull her behind a tree with me when I see four grounders coming our way.

"There's four of them." I whisper and she takes a peek. They are spread apart, there's 2 to the right and 2 to the left.

"You get the two on the right, I'll get the two on the left." She whispers and I nod and quietly make my way towards them making sure to hide behind the trees. Once the two pass me I run towards one of them and get on his back, quickly slicing my knife across his throat. He falls forward and I fall with him alerting his partner two feet away. The other grounder comes at me with a sword and slashes it across my leg and I fall to the floor. I yell from the pain but push through and grab the gun out of my belt. I didn't want to use it in case it gives Octavia away or alerts other grounders but seeing as I can hear shouting and guns still going off it looks like i'm okay. I take the gun out and point it towards his head and pull the trigger.

He falls to the side and drops the sword.

I pick it up and wave it around getting a feel for it. I could handle it. I take off his holster for it and slide it over my back and adjust it to my size and head over to where Octavia was. She looked to be in the same predicament as me, she had a grounder holding the handle of the axe to her throat trying to choke her. I run towards them and in one swift motion I stab him through the back and kick him off of her. He chokes on his blood for a couple of seconds and then he stops breathing.

I try not to think much about killing them, if I don't kill them they will kill me. It still weighs heavy on me, it's the same feeling I have had since I killed the two guard back on the ark. I push the feeling away like I always do and look to Octavia.

"Thanks." She breaths out and gets up.

"You save my life, I save yours." I shrug and she lets out a small laugh.

"Where'd you get the sword?" She points to it in my hand.

"I borrowed it from a grounder. You can't be the only samurai around here." I smile at her and she shakes her head.

"The shots stopped, we need to go back." Octavia says and I nod agreeing. I feel a pain in my leg as we walk and I look down to see my right leg was still bleeding from the cut. I walk back to the grouder and rip a piece of his shirt and wrap it tightly around the cut to prevent it from bleeding anymore. My jeans and the darkness aren't allowing me to see it clearly so I'm not sure if it's really deep to where I need to be concerned. I don't think it's a problem because it isn't gushing blood so that's a good sign.

"You good?" Octavia questions and I nod, "Yeah, we need to go." I huff and we continue walking until we reach camp. We're far away but we can see all the grounders climbing over the walls and we see fire.

"They need help." I take off running, but still making sure I'm hiding myself. I hear Octavia right behind me and we run through the fox hole. No ones on guard anymore and there's some guns lying on the floor and I check them. They're out of ammo.

"This was their plan all along, make us use all our ammo and fight hand to hand. They are better at it."I explain to Octavia. We hear lots of shouting and we quickly run into the fox hole to the other post. Grounders are attacking Miller and Bellamy. Octavia goes to help Bellamy while I run to Miller and slice the sword through the grounders stomach and then I plunge it into the other grounder trying to choke Miller. I turn around to see Octavia kill the grounder on top of Bellamy.

"Admit it, you want one." She tells Bellamy as she helps him get up. There's arrows flying everywhere and I duck down to avoid them. One manages to hit Octavia in the leg.

"No! You're hit! Miller, fall back, now. Can you walk? O." Bellamy yells over the yelling and commotion going on. She nods her head and tries to stand up but she can't.

"Hey, hold onto me. Let me get you behind that wall." He says and puts her arm over his neck and picks her up.

Me and Miller follow in suite through the woods but we stop when we see the grounders and what appears to be the reapers fighting each other. I guess the enemy of my enemy really is my friend. Bellamy sets Octavia down and looks around.

"While they're distracted lets move." He says and Octavia shakes her head.

"We'll never make it. Leave me, I'll find another way." She says but I know that's not an option for Bellamy. Even if it was it's not an option for me. We can't leave her behind. Like Bellamy said, we don't abandon our own.

"I'm not going anywhere without you." He tells her.

"Octavia." I hold up my sword to the voice and then lower when I realize it's Lincoln. He crouches by them and I notice Bellamy tense up. He still isn't Lincoln's biggest fan.

"You did this?" Bellamy nods towards the grounders and reapers and Lincoln nods, "With Finn."

He looks down at her wound and touches around it.

"It's deep, I can help you but you have to come with me now." Lincoln offers, I can see Bellamy contemplating it but there's no other way out for Octavia.

"Go, let him help you." Bellamy nods at her.

"No way, I have to see this through." She huffs.

"You can't walk and I can't get you back to the drop ship." Bellamy explains to her.

"He's right, your fight is over." Lincoln says.

"So is yours." Bellamy says while looking toward me.

"What are you talking about?" I question him.

"You're going with them." He states. He's lost it, there's no reason to go with them when I can fight. We need all the people we can get, plus I got a cool sword that I need to use.

"The hell I am, I'm just getting started." He sighs and exchanges a few words with Octavia and Lincoln picks her up but he doesn't walk away. Bellamy walks up to me and grabs my face into his hands.

"Please, princess, I can't lose you." He whispers. I cover his hand with mine.

"You won't, but I'm not going anywhere. I'm not just going to walk away from this, Bellamy. I'm not going to walk away from you, that's final." I shake my head, he looks at me for a few seconds and nods.

"Go on, keep her safe." He says to Lincoln. He nods and walks away carrying Octavia in his arms.

"Let's get back." Bellamy says to me and Miller and we follow his lead. We make it to the foxhole and go through it. Once we get inside I take a look around. It's chaos, our people are killing grounders and I see some grounders killing our own. I quickly go up to a grounder who's about to swing his axe at Jake and I plunge my knife through his back and he falls.

"Get to the dropship." I tell him. He nods and gets off the ground and runs towards the drop ship. I see more of them climbing over the fence and one is charging right at me. I quickly bring my knife out and slice him across the legs making him fall and then I push the knife through his chest and pull out. He plops to the ground and I turn around, most everyone is inside the dropship now.

I turn back around and a grounder is about to swing his stick at me but I duck. He kicks me onto the ground and brings his stick to my throat and starts to press down making it hard to breathe. What is with them and choking people. I push back the stick with all my power but he won't let up. I reach for my knife but it's too far away.

"Close the door!" I hear Miller shout. I know they are about to fire up the ship, I keep trying to reach for the knife but I can't reach it. Before I can try anything else the grounder coughs up blood. I look down and see a sword through his chest. He rolls over and off of me and I look up to see a grounder. Why did he help me?

"Lincoln sent me, let's go." I hear the ship starting to rumble and we take off running toward the foxhole. We get in but I turn around to see Bellamy and Finn still fighting a grounder.

"No! Bellamy!" I scream, I try to go back but the grounder pulls me back and struggles to pull me through the hole. I can't see Bellamy anymore as we make it out when the dropship blasts off making the woods light up in an orange glow.

"No!" I scream and tears fall down my face. I drop to my knees and start sobbing. He can't be dead, he can't be. But the other part of my brain knows that there's no way he could've gotten out of the blast quickly, he was right by the dropship.

"We have to go, now." The grounder tells me but I don't get up. I feel arms under my knees and one on my back and before I know it he's carrying me. I don't say anything and I let him. Before I knew it, I had cried myself to sleep thinking about Bellamy.

A/N:

The End (of season 1.)

Hey guys! Sorry for not updating sooner, my phone broke and I won't get it fixed till Tuesday but I couldn't wait to post this till then so here it is!

I can't tell you how much fun I had writing this story and Taylor. I loved every second and I can't tell you how thankful I am for you all. I loved picking out quotes and gifs for each chapter because it kind of set the tone. I loved loved loved writing all the cute little Baylor moments. I loved writing sassy Taylor Queen (especially when Murphy is involved.) Thank you all so much for reading, honestly I'm extremely happy every time I log in and see more and more readers, so thank you. 

SEQUEL: Yes, there will be a sequel! I'm pretty sure you all knew already because I stated in a previous chapter that I have started writing season 2. I'm super excited to write it because of all the other characters I can explore and play around with. And also introduce new characters. I've been having fun writing it and I can't wait to post the first chapter! Go add the second book, it's called Castle. I do ask that you be patient with updates though seeing as I'm sort of just getting started with season 2. As much as I want to write all day I have work and school along with working out in the mix. Please be patient with me, you won't get chapters as frequent as I had been giving you for this book because I already have all of season 1 written out. Updates might be every other day depending on when I can write/update so nothing is set in stone.

Thank you once again, love you all. xoxo