"Spacewalker."
season 2, episode 8
Thalia, Dimitri and two other grounders had led Clarke back the gate of their camp. Thalia was not leaving until they handed over Finn and she would kill every last one of them until she got him. She watched as their gate opened and Clarke walked in. Finn ran forward towards the blonde and Thalia immediately sent a glare in his direction. Clarke turned her head and demanded them to shut the gate before anything could happen. "You can't be out here."
Bellamy was stood inside, his gun aimed at the gate and his eyes found the woman he saw on the bridge. A bow and arrow strapped to her back like the first time he saw her, except this time, she looked pissed.
Clarke ran forward into the arms of her mother as Abby spoke. "What did she say? Is there a chance for a truce?"
People had started to gather around as they waited for the answer. "Yes." She said shakily.
"What's wrong?" Finn asked as he sensed something was wrong by her tone of voice. Bellamy walked forward to hear them better as Clarke continued.
"She wants you. If we want a truce, we have to give her Finn." Clarke said as her eyes looked from her mom to Finn.
"What the hell are you talking about?" Raven asked with anger evident in her tone.
"It's Thalia's offer." Clarke simply said.
"It's not an offer-" Raven started but was interrupted by Finn.
"It's punishment. For what happened at the village. Blood for blood." He said not taking his eyes off Clarke.
"That's insane." Bellamy interjected looking at the group. Finn may have went a little crazy but that's not who he was.
"If we refuse?" Abby asked looking to her daughter.
Clarke glanced over at the gate that held Thalia on the other side and looked back to her mom. "They attack. Thalia will wipe us all out." The crowd began murmuring and fighting as they argued whether to give him up or not.
Abby and Clarke went inside to talk to Lincoln, who was strapped down to a table. "He's not a reaper anymore, he doesn't need to be restrained." Clarke said softly as her mom gave her a side glance.
"Yes I do." Lincoln breathed heavily and coughed a little bit.
"Just tell us, is there a way to make peace?" Abby asked him as she stood next to Clarke and Octavia with her arms crossed.
"Did she leave riders behind?" Lincoln asked as Abby nodded. "Is Thalia there?"
"Yes." Abby nodded her head, "they're waiting at the gate."
"They're waiting for Finn. You don't have much time. Thalia won't leave until she has him." Lincoln told the three girls.
"She can't expect us to just hand over one of our own people. Would she do that?" Octavia asked as she walked forward to stand next to him.
"She wouldn't let the rest of her people die to protect a murderer." Lincoln told Octavia as his eyes glanced to Clarke and Abby. "If you don't do this, she will kill everyone in this camp, including Finn."
"There has to be something else we can offer." Abby insisted as she tried to find a loophole.
"Finn took 18 lives. Thalia is offering to take just one in return. Take the deal." Lincoln tried to encourage them.
"How could you say that? Finn was the first person to come to you to offer peace, he's your friend." Clarke said with a hint of disgust at the thought of handing him over.
"He massacred my village. Some of them were my friends too." Lincoln retorted angrily.
"But that wasn't Finn. You know that's not who he is." Clarke begged for him to understand.
"It is now. We've all got a monster inside of us, Clarke, we're all responsible for what it does when we let it out." Lincoln told the girl who took a step back at his words.
"What will they do to him?" Abby asked him.
"Fire." Lincoln told them. "Because he killed the innocent it starts with fire."
"Starts?" Clarke asks confused.
"They'll take his hands, his tongue, his eyes, and anyone who agrees will have a turn with a knife. Sunrise, the commander with handle it with her sword but I've never known anyone to survive until the sword." He explained the process to all of them—who felt sick at his words. "He killed 18. He will suffer the pain of 18 deaths. Then we can have peace."
"The commander and Thalia have accepted this agreement?" Lincoln asked in surprise as Abby, Kane and Octavia stood in front of him.
"No, we haven't made the proposal yet." Abby shook her head.
"But I think she'll be willing to consider it." Kane said with a nod, convinced that this would work.
"I need to know, if we put Finn on trial ourselves, is your commander gonna accept the outcome?" Abby asked desperately as they tried to find a solution.
"No. Thalia is my commanders sister. Thalia was close to the people in my village, it's how her and I met. Her friends were killed, children she cared for were killed. Even if the commander wanted to accept this deal, she'd be dead by morning and she'd know that."
"Your people would kill their own leader for being merciful?" Octavia asked in shock.
"For being weak. Finn killed innocent people. If death has no cost, life has no worth. It's how we live." Lincoln said with a small shake of his head.
"I've spent time with your commander. She's a visionary." Kane said quietly as he leaned forward.
"And that's why you're all still alive. If it were up to some of her table, you wouldn't be." Lincoln says as a few people came to his mind.
"Thalia." Octavia nodded her head as Lincoln nodded as well to signal that she was right.
"She's dangerous, Abby." Kane said glancing up at the woman.
"She's the one standing in the way of our agreement. I need to speak to Thalia face to face." Abby said with a determined look on her face.
"There's nothing you can say." Lincoln tried telling her but Abby didn't listen.
"Maybe not but I can show her we understand her pain. Maybe that will be enough." She said and walked away.
Berlin was in one of the rooms in the ark, lying on the bed, her back to the door. She had a few people try to talk to her. Bellamy was the most frequent one, Octavia tried a couple times, they had even sent in Damien but Berlin said nothing. She kept replaying what Finn did at that village, the people he killed. Then she got flashes back to the ark when she was a 10 year old girl, shooting that guard. It was like a repetitive loop in her mind that she couldn't stop seeing. It was breaking her and it made her feel weak.
The door opened from behind Berlin and her mind drifted off to who they sent in this time. She heard heavy footsteps approach her and she assumed it was either Bellamy or Damien but she was wrong. "Berlin."
Berlin froze for a moment before she slowly turned her head to see her father standing there. She sat up, her knees coming to her chest as Marcus sat down on the edge of the bed and watched her. He noticed her red and puffy eyes. Her hair was messy, like she had been playing or pulling at it. "Berlin, what's going on? Damien told me that you haven't left this room since Finn-"
"Stop." Berlin whispered before her dad could say the rest. "Please, don't say it." Her eyes watered once again as she recalled the events that happened two days ago. "I can't..." Berlin let out a shaky breath as her hands came up to her head, clutching it as if she was in pain. "I can't stop seeing it."
"Seeing what?" Marcus asked his daughter as she cried. He'd seen her break down before, the day she shot the guard but this was different, he hadn't seen this before.
"He just kept on shooting them." Berlin shook her head as she tried to stop the flashes. "I just keep seeing bodies dropping and blood and hearing the gun continuously going off and then when it's all over..." she paused as a sob escaped her lips, "I'm back in the ark. A gun in my hand and I just have to stand there and watch as I shoot the guard. It's playing on a loop in my head." She looked up at the man before her with wide eyes that begged for him to help her, "I want it to stop, please, dad. Please, make it stop."
Marcus was a little bit struck as he tried to figure out how to do this. Out of all the people that came in to talk to Berlin, he was the one she needed, not Bellamy or Damien but him. "Berlin, look at me." He said softly as his hands reached up to her cheeks. His thumb brushing away her tears as she leaned her head into his touch. "What Finn did, he did for his friends, for Clarke. I'm not saying that it was right, it wasn't, but he was also scared. Fear is what made him pull the trigger, it's the same thing that made you pull the trigger."
Berlin parted her lips as he spoke, "I never should have came with those guards. I was taking the easy way out, trying to avoid what I had been scared of. I should have came alone but I didn't and that was my fault. You did what you did because you were scared. What happened that day was just as much my fault, maybe even more but I need you to understand this, you are the most compassionate and strong and beautiful person on this earth and every other planet." Marcus had tears in his own eyes as he spoke to his little girl.
"Some days I am just in complete awe at your strength and your beauty. Both of which come from your mother." Marcus smiles softly as he remembers his wife, "you are not a bad person, you've made mistakes but guess what? We all have. It doesn't mean we're bad people, it just means we're human. You're okay to cry, you're okay to have bad days but just don't forget the people you have that love you and want to be here for you on those bad days. I know that I didn't raise you the best on the ark and I sent you down here and you had to learn to take care of yourself but if you'll let me, if I'm not too late, please let me make it up to you and let me be here to take care of you."
Marcus finally finished and Berlin wanted to burst into tears. This was the man that she needed all her life. This was the first man that she ever loved and she needed him now more than ever, so she nodded her head and dove into his arms. "I love you, dad."
"I love you too." Marcus whispered as he held his daughter in his arms. A foreign feeling that he hasn't felt since she was a kid, a feeling that he missed more than anything else in this world. Marcus kissed the side of her head and let her cry until she couldn't cry anymore. Nothing else was said, he was just there for her if she needed him and she did.
The gates of the sky people's camp opened and Thalia and Dimitri both got off the horses they were on. Thalia walked forward with him trailing behind her. Abby walked out to request a word with her. "What do you want, leader of the sky people?"
"To talk. Leader to leader." Abby said as she took a step forward. "We've both seen too many of our people die."
Thalia jolted forward and grabbed the woman, her hand wrapping around her throat as anger filled her. "You've come to lie to my face. You ordered the boy to run, we've seen your killer in the forest. Now you come here to distract us."
"I'm just trying to keep my people alive. Same as you." Abby argued breathlessly.
"You told our riders you were ready to fight. If we don't find the boy soon, you'll prove that." Thalia nodded her head, her hand not moving an inch away from her throat.
"You kill one of ours, we kill two of yours." Abby threatened the woman since the soft approach didn't seem to be working.
Thalia's eyes grew dangerous as she pressed harder against her throat, causing Abby to choke as she squeezed harshly, "you kill one of mine and I will slaughter all of you."
Thalia hadn't noticed two grounders making their way over when Dimitri had called out her name. "Thalia, the boy has surrendered. We have him."
Thalia turned her head to him and raised her eyebrows before she retreated and took a step back as Abby coughed and grabbed her throat. She looked back at Abby as she spoke, "looks like the boy knows what's good for him. He chose to surrender himself. If I were you, I'd do nothing to screw it up. Or you all die." With that, Thalia and the others walked off, ready for what's to come.
The grounders had set up some kind of stand in front of the camp for them to watch what happens to Finn. Everyone from the ark had been right inside their walls, watching what was going on. Clarke had managed to escape and make her way to where the commander had been. "I'm here to talk to your commander. Let me through." Indra had a spear pointing at Clarkes stomach, blood dripping onto it as it pierced the skin.
"Let her pass." Lexa said as she watched Clarke speaking to Indra. Indra simple stepped out of the way as Clarke walked to Lexa. Thalia standing behind her sister, a bow and arrow in her hand. "You bleed for nothing. You cannot stop this."
"No, only you can." Clarke told the girl and Thalia inhaled sharply. It was far too late. All the grounders started getting loud as two grounders brought out Finn, he looked pale and his skin was sticky. The only reason he stood was from the grounders that dragged him. "Show my people how powerful you are. Show them you can be merciful. Show them you're not a savage."
Thalia was a little worried that Clarke was getting to her sister, she knew that Lexa had a good heart and it sometimes took a hold of her but Lexa was not inspired by the girls words. "We are what we are."
"Then I'm a killer. I burned 300 of your people. I slit a man's throat and watched him die. I'm soaked in grounder blood. Take me." Clarke begged Lexa after she made eye contact with Finn.
"Finn is guilty." Lexa told her with a shake of her head.
"No, he did it for me." Clarke cried to the girl, tears falling down her cheeks. "He did it for me."
"Then he dies for you." Once Lexa said that, Thalia lifted her bow and arrow, pointing it at Finn and drawing her arrow. Her eyes watched Clarke, who looked like she had a plan swirling around in her head, making Thalia feel uneasy.
Clarke looked over at Finn who was only being held up by rope. His chest was rising and falling slowly, his breathing was short and he looked as if he was dying. He looked how Berlin looked when she got stabbed and poisoned. "Wait...what's wrong with him? What did you do to him?"
That made Lexa furrow her eyebrows and look over at the boy. Her eyes trailed back to her sister who still had her bow pointed at the boy yet her eyes locked on her sister. "I did what I needed to do. I'm doing what's best for my people. I'm sorry, Lexa." Thalia apologized to her sister before she let the arrow go, it flying in the air and landing in Finn's chest, right above his heart.
The grounders had gotten quiet as they watched the scene before them. Thalia slowly lowered her bow as Clarke cried and screamed for Finn. Thalia could hear screams coming from another girl inside their camp as well as Clarke's.
Thalia knew it wasn't tradition but she didn't care. She wanted them all to hurt, the way that she hurt. Thalia looked back at Lexa who was already looking at her. Thalia held no emotion on her face as she walked away. She knew her sister would be furious with her actions but as much as she respected Lexa, she didn't have to follow her. Thalia followed no one. She may have chosen not to be the commander but she never followed Anya and she wouldn't follow Lexa. She was her own person and she couldn't be controlled.
2889 words
edited january 21 24'