𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟐𝟑
"ᵂᵉ ʰᵃᵛᵉ ᵃ ᶠⁱᵍʰᵗⁱⁿᵍ ᶜʰᵃⁿᶜᵉ"
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After Leo's attempt to make a stretcher, he had help with a new one that was currently being used to carry Raven out of the camp. Both Leo and Finn carried each side as the large group were walking out of the camp. Midway into their walk, the group in the front suddenly stopped walking which forced the middle and back to stop walking.
Leo picked his gaze up and turned to the side to see Finn with the same anxious look on his face. Something was wrong. The quietness in the air was tense. Everyone was silent and still, trying their best to be as quiet as possible so that they could hear.
A blade quickly flung out from the trees and towards the front of the group. It hit straight into one of the delinquents' skull, making him fall backward.
"Grounders!"
Everyone was quick to run back into camp.
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Back in camp, Bellamy joined Finn and Clarke who were in the dropship along with Raven and Leo. He and Finn had helped with bringing the stretcher back into the dropship.
"We've got twenty-five rifles with twenty rounds each, give or take. Roughly five hundred rounds of ammo." Bellamy then looked at the two, Finn and Clarke, "While you two were gone, we made some improvements. Thanks to Raven, the gully is mined."
The table in front of them all was a map of their camp, a war map.
"Partially mined. Thanks to Murphy." Raven struggled to speak as she leaned back on the seat. Her eyes then landed on Leo. "Your best friend."
Leo slowly looked up at her, a bit guilty because of the look on her face. Though, he raised his brow at her words with a sigh, "You don't choose 'em."
Bellamy continued going over his plan on how they were going to fight. "Still, this is the main route in. If the grounders use it, we'll know. She also built grenades."
At the word of grenades, Leo's eyes quickly glanced down at the box where Bellamy took a grenade from.
Clarke also looked down at the grenades, seeing the amount. "It's not many."
"Again, thank you, Murphy." Raven lowly spoke as she went to look at Leo again, wanting to provoke him and she only did so with a look. Only to find out that he was looking elsewhere.
Leo quickly leaned over his seat while having his eyes on the grenades. His hand went over–
"Uh-uh." Raven quickly said out loud which made his hand stop. "What did I say about touching things–"
Leo froze his body as he glanced down at the grenade that he was going to grab then he looked at Raven. He slowly rolled his hand into a closed fist to lean back onto the seat. "I wasn't going to."
He quickly told her. "Hey, I didn't know you made grenades. With how ancient everything is, how did you even achieve this?" His mind was blown away at everything Raven had achieved in her short time on earth.
Leo turned his head to face Raven, "I mean, we have a fighting chance now, right?" He glanced around at the others who were agreeing as they looked at the table. "There aren't as many of us in comparison to the grounders but we have weapons and bombs now."
"We do."
Raven silently smiled to herself that someone had appreciated her work. "You're welcome."
"Thank you." Leo genuinely told her after her words of, 'You're welcome'.
Finn had cooled down a bit after having argued with Bellamy earlier but now he felt something off after hearing Leo and Raven talking. He furrowed his brows while glancing between the two. Last he remembered they hated each other. So, when did they start being all buddy-buddy?
His mind was occupied with other thoughts that he didn't notice how Raven would glance at Leo even when they weren't talking to each other.
Their final plan wasn't the best but Clarke did have an idea. They would blast off. As in the dropship will blast off. This thought had brought a smile to Raven's face. A ring of fire. Raven wasn't the only one to smile. So had Leo because that sounded like a fun and awesome plan.
To put the plan in motion, Finn and Clarke went under the dropship to get the right tools and find the right wires to make the ring of fire. Raven's condition was only getting worse by each minute and in her condition, she couldn't go down there herself.
Whereas, Leo did what he did best. He stayed out of the dropship and near the camp, being at its last sign of defense. He was outside by the nearest guarding post. Rather than having him on the front lines, he stayed in the camp in case the worst came to worst; they still had great guards, guarding the last defenses. It wasn't Bellamys initial plan but he went with it.
"Leo." A masculine voice was heard in the faintest whisper beside Leo's ear.
Leo stared forward and slowly turned his head to look around. His eyes spotted the delinquent next to him, "You say something?"
The delinquent looked at him then towards the side, "It's Finn?"
From the corner of Leo's eyes, he saw Finn hurrying out the dropship and that had grabbed his attention. The tall delinquent, Leo, tilted his head up at the other delinquent, "Stay here on watch."
Even through the very serious situation they were in, Leo felt the need to push Finn's buttons. There was progress. Leo didn't feel like punching him anymore. Another thing, Finn was supposed to be helping Raven and Clarke but Leo caught him trying to leave camp.
Leo jumped down the post and towards the boy, "Finn, isn't it a little late to go shopping? Where you off to in a hurry?"
"To find coagulant." Finn simply told him as he hurried to walk past Leo. "Raven's getting worse and this might be the only thing to help her."
"Okay, then I'll come too then." Leo placed himself beside Finn, ready to follow Finn to wherever this coagulant was.
Finn slowly stopped walking and turned to Leo. He looked slightly up at Leo, looking over his face, wondering what Leo's endgame was. "Why?"
"Why? Maybe because you shouldn't be out there with an army of grounders." Leo repeated the question with genuine confusion. "And like you said, it'll help Raven."
Finn furrowed his brows at Leo. "You care enough to travel through the wilderness mid-war to find a coagulant in a grounders cave...for...Raven?"
Leo looked forward to the trees that probably had scouts in some then back at Finn with a confused look. "If this will save her. Then, yeah, why not?"
Also, if they were to lose Raven now then Leo might as well just dig his own grave. After all the time he spent with Monty, Leo knew how valuable the two really were. There were other smart ones among them too like Jasper and Clarke.
"She's also...kind of nice to have around." A small soft smile formed on Leo's face.
"Nice?" Finn truly questioned him, not even knowing that Leo had interacted much with her. He actually can't ever remember seeing the two have a conversation besides that one time when Raven wanted to kill him. Or the other time when she thought about killing him.
Leo nodded with a smile while thinking of Raven, "Yeah, so, let's go find this coagulant thing."
Finn put his hands on Leo's shoulder, making him walk back towards camp. "You stay at camp. Watch over Clarke and Raven in case I don't make it back in time."
Leo kept his eye on Finn, letting the gun strap hang from his neck. "So...just to be sure, I'm not going with you to get coagulant?"
"No." Finn nodded as he hurried to run off.
"Okay, fine, yeah, I'll just be here then." Leo watched him run off, filled with confusion about the questions but made his way toward the dropship.
Leo then spent the rest of his time in the dropship with Clarke and Raven, trying to help however he could with the explosive plan that Raven and Clarke were trying to get worked on.
From inside the dropship, you could hear the gunfire going off outside along with the radios of the others talking. Each group that was outside kept communicating, this allowed Leo and the others to hear everything from the dropship.
Currently, Leo crawled under the dropship's underground vent.
"Leo." The voice called his name out more clearly.
"Did you find it?" Leo stopped crawling and turned his head towards the voice that called his name.
His eyes shut close to darkness. A loud wince escaped his mouth along with a loud bang that was heard underground, making Leo's body lie forward. He rolled around as he held onto his forehead where he felt a stung.
"Damn pipe," Leo muttered to himself, hoping that no one heard him hitting his head on a pipe.
"Leo." A voice called out in the vents, it was Clarke. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah." Leo quickly got up from his lying position and started to look for the wire again. "I'm fine."
"Do you see it or don't you?" Raven shouted from the top, putting some things together on her end. "It'll be orange. Look harder! You have to find the one that connects the manual override to the electromagnet. It's not rocket science."
It wasn't just Clarke who couldn't find the orange wire but Leo was also down there trying to help. He felt very cramped down there.
"It is rocket science, actually." Clarke looked up at the vented ceiling, towards Raven's voice.
"Guess we finally found something you're not good at," Raven spoke from the top. "I used to be picked first for everything. Earth skills, zero-g mech course. First...every time. So, how the hell did I end up here?"
Clarke looked down at hearing Raven's voice soften. "Hey, Raven. I'd pick you first."
"Of course you would." Raven pulled a sad smile on her face. "I'm awesome."
Leo looked up at the voice with a smile. "I'd pick you first too."
"Oh, shut up, Leo." Raven chuckled from hearing Leo's voice. "You're just saying that to get on my good side now."
"You know that's not true." Leo raised his voice from the lower level. "I'm already on your good side."
This had made Raven shake her with a chuckled scoff behind a small formed smile.
"Hey, I found it," Clarke spoke out, on the other side of the lower level from where Leo was. "Orange wire."
"Great." Leo smiled as he made his way to the exit. "I can finally stretch now. It's very cramped under here."
"Don't get comfortable yet Leo...Raven? It's fried. Totally useless. Tell me this isn't as bad as I think." Clarke told them all which made Leo stop in his spot, near the exit. This is what happens when you celebrate too early.
Raven looked down in thought, coming up with an idea. "You know how to splice a wire?"
"No." Clarke looked at the wire in her hand, not even knowing what a splice is.
"Then it's worse." Raven put the tools down then she let a painful grunt out.
Leo was already on his way toward the exit while talking, "You can't tell us how to do it?"
"Well, smart ass, if you do it the wrong way then say goodbye to your face." Raven raised her voice with irritation. She tried to make her way toward the vent.
This made Leo peek his head out of the vent. "Hey! No. Stop moving." He saw her try to move herself, most likely trying to get into the lower level to splice the wire herself. "You are not going down there in your condition."
Raven stopped moving to look down at him with a huff. "Too bad, you can't tell me what to do."
"Clarke," Leo called out while keeping his eye on Raven. "Tell Raven to stop moving because she won't listen to me."
Raven scrunched her face and leaned back onto the wall in defeat with a groan. Leo was also blocking the entrance to the vents.
Clarke looked up at their voices. "Hey, stop. Just talk me through it."
The radio went off, calling for backup. Then there was Jasper on the other end, telling them about how the mine went off and it worked. That meant the others should work and they'd be very successful.
Raven looked up with a smile remembering, "Jasper could splice."
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