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"NYKO, is it true?" Octavia asked, looking completely shocked and betrayed at the revelation. Nyko nodded in her direction.
"Yes. Death is the only way," he remarked in finality.
"Hold on — there could be a way to bring him back," Clarke interrupted, shaking her head.
"None that I've ever seen," he denied simply.
Taylor stepped closer with caution. She couldn't let him try anything again. "Our medicine isn't anything you've ever seen either. There has to be a way," Taylor interjected, looking to check on Octavia through all of this talk. She looked about as well as expected.
"We have to go, the camp's leaving," Finn's voice floated up through the hatch as he climbed up the ladder. Everyone stopped to look over at him, Nyko's eyes lighting up in fury.
"YOU!" he screamed, leaping up from his crouched position to pin Finn against the wall. He let out a string of words in Grounder language, Bellamy raised his gun and ordered him to get off. But Nyko moved his hands to Finn's throat in means to end it.
"BLOOD MUST HAVE BLOOD!" he let out more clearly through the threatening mumbling that nobody else could pick up on. Octavia pleaded at his side over and over, begging him not to kill him. It had no effect.
"Get out of the way!" Bellamy yelled at Octavia, who put her arm out to block his shot.
"Bellamy, you are not killing him!" she screamed back. Taylor's hand tightened around the grip of her knife, but something was stopping her from stepping forward and plunging it into his back. Two steps and it would be over.
Clarke stepped up and hit him in the back with one of the shock batons, rendering him unconscious while Finn dropped to the floor. Taylor dropped her knife with a loud clatter, eyes flashing to her. Attention was immediately drawn back to Lincoln at Octavia's worried tone.
"Lincoln," she breathed, everyone noticing how unmoving his chest now was. "He's not breathing."
Clarke raced forward and felt for a pulse, the look in her eyes saying everything. "His heart's stopped. Move," she commanded. She wasted no time in beginning CPR compressions, everyone waiting with bated breath to see if she could truly save him.
Moments later, he took a choked breath, struggling to get the air into his lungs, but breathing nonetheless.
"He was dead, how did you do that?" Nyko, now awake, asked from across the room.
"You tried bringing Reapers back before?" Nyko nodded. "And they died like this?" He nodded again. Clarke looked away, deep in thought.
"What is it?" Bellamy questioned.
"I know how to stop the attack."
__________
"I need you to come with me," Clarke stated, dead seriousness in her expression. Taylor stared back at her blankly, with furrowed eyebrows.
"Why me? You're the leader, Clarke," she responded, looking over at Bellamy across the room who sat next to Octavia. Even he was more qualified than her.
"You were there with me the whole time. In the mountain, before that, even. I trust you. I'm going to need help convincing the Commander," she explained earnestly, the anticipation of leaving and of what they were about to do building up.
Taylor paused and looked over again at her family, careful and worried at Lincoln's side. They wouldn't have a place to go back to if she and Clarke didn't do this. They would die.
"Okay, I'm with you. You won't be alone," Taylor conceded. Clarke gave her a faint smile.
"We leave in a few minutes, I'll meet you at the door," she informed before heading down the ladder to meet with Finn, who was recovering from the attack on the floor below.
Taking a breath, Taylor shuffled over to where Bellamy and Octavia sat and crouched down beside them. "I'm going back with Clarke," she told them, honest right out the gate. She didn't want to dance around it. Octavia looked confused.
"Why?" she questioned, looking genuinely upset. "I thought you were staying, to help with Lincoln."
"Clarke wants me to be there when she meets the Commander. She thinks it'll help because I escaped with her," Taylor elaborated, unable to really look her straight in the eye. She felt utterly guilty for leaving after just being reunited.
"Okay," Bellamy said shortly, Octavia shooting him another puzzled glance. Things fell dead silent and Taylor rose to her feet and made her way to the ladder. Her stomach was sinking with each rung she went down, but she knew it was the right thing. It had to be. Lincoln's pain was momentary, but theirs would all be permanent if this didn't work.
Nobody was in the room, she assumed that Clarke and Finn were waiting for her outside beyond the tarp. She was about to leave when a series of shuffles and the sound of someone climbing down the ladder behind her made her turn around.
Bellamy was looking at her with not quite the same look that Octavia had worn, more of a worried but understanding one. He didn't say anything, only crossed the room and pulled her into a tight hug.
"Please be careful," he mumbled near her ear.
"I'll be back, I promise."
__________
The entirety of Camp Jaha was in complete disarray, each resident scrambling to pack their things. Finn, Clarke, and Taylor strode into camp with purpose, passing each individual with urgency. And waiting there near the gates was Abby, Elara, and Jaha, all orchestrating the packing and moving.
"Mom!" Clarke called out, her mother rushing to meet them with Elara and Jaha in tow.
"Where have you been?" Abby questioned sternly. "We're leaving."
"I know how to stop the attack," Clarke told her, ignoring her question entirely.
"What are you talking about?" Jaha asked, looking at her with his eyes narrowed.
"There is no stopping the attack," Elara interjected.
Clarke looked at each one of them, wasting no time in explaining her idea. "We haven't been able to negotiate with the Grounders because we haven't had anything to offer them. The biggest threat they face is from the Reapers. I think we may be able to eliminate that threat for them once and for all."
"And with every single one of us dead, they can't do that," Taylor added, Elara giving her a questioning gaze. She wanted to give her one right back, wondering exactly how she came to acquire any power at all.
Abby and Jaha exchanged a glance, and Abby looked at her daughter curiously. "How?"
"Abby, you can't seriously —" Jaha began, interrupted by the loud shouts and worried comments of nearby citizens. They looked around to see crowds of people pointing past the gates, grouping together in renewed panic.
When they turned around to look where the points were directed, it didn't seem real. Sprawled out on the grass before them, bordering with the woods, were hundreds upon hundreds of torches. Horses and people riding atop them were visible for miles.
