'I am tired of waiting,
Aren't you,
For the world to become good
And beautiful and kind?"
Langston Hughes
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Gasping, she pushed him away, almost falling back down into the van if it weren't for him pulling her back up. Once safely on the ground, she staggered away, making sure not to fall into the van but eyeing the grounder warily. He'd saved her and the last time they'd met, she'd been chill but she had also been drunk. This time around, he seemed much scarier. Maybe it was the fact that he was wearing a hood and a face mask or the fact that his eyes were so dark and there was paint around the parts she could see but it was weird.
"Oh my god," she breathed, resting her hand against her heart, "Oh my god, you scared the life out of me."
"Skai-snacha," he spoke, eyeing her warily. Unlike the last times, he seemed reluctant as though he didn't want to be here this time.
"Grounder," she replied, "Who are you?"
He didn't reply.
"Well can you take either the hood or the mask off? It's kind of freaking me out that all I can see is your eyes," she admitted.
The grounder hesitated but he eventually complied, pulling the hood down first. A mess of black hair flopped out of it, going all different ways. She expected him to stop there but he didn't, slowly pulling the mask down too. Olivia had been right about the paint, it was in a line over his eyes - a dark navy colour. The rest of his skin was a tan colour, his features surprisingly soft. Somehow, they made him seem less intimidating - I guess I didn't expect him to have a baby face.
"Osir don hon yu lukot," he said, watching her carefully.
"What?" she furrowed her eyebrows, "Do you speak English?"
She was followed with silence though the way his jaw clenched spoke volumes.
"You do, don't you?" she smirked, feeling somehow victorious though she wasn't sure if she was right. This was just a guess but she was hoping he wouldn't catch her bluff.
Sighing, he spoke, "Your friend." It was weird hearing him speak in English - as though his voice had completely transformed into another one. "We found her. My friend took her back to his hideout," he said, "Told me to come and get you."
Olivia's eyes widened as she realised that he was referring to Octavia. "Is she okay?" she gasped, taking a few steps closer to him. The fear she'd felt earlier had vanished and she was starting to feel more comfortable in his presence.
"She had a wound in her leg," he told her, his voice blunt, "But Lincoln is healing her."
"Lincoln?" Olivia questioned, "Is that your friend's name? What's yours?" The grounder's face darkened and he eyed her cautiously, obviously feeling as though he'd said too much. She wondered why though as it was them who'd attacked Jasper. Maybe he was crossing a boundary but it was still mostly unprovoked. Not to mention, this grounder had been so nice - if you wanted to call it that - before so she couldn't help but to wonder where the caution was coming from. "You knew that I couldn't speak your language so why did you tell me in that first?" she furrowed her eyebrows.
"We're not meant to interact with you," he said, "Especially speak with you in your tongue."
"But you saved me?"
"I did."
"Why?" she frowned. He didn't reply. Deciding that it wasn't important, Olivia moved the conversation back to Octavia. "Some of my friends went out to find her," she told him.
The grounder closed his eyes in annoyance, his eyebrows furrowing and his lips turning down. "They're dead then," he told her, crossing his arms.
"What?" Olivia widened her eyes.
"Invading our land," he explained simply. Her face fell, her eyes dropping from him as she looked around in worry. The grounder must have felt bad about her distress because he sighed, "Lincoln might protect them if the girl asks him to."
Olivia furrowed her eyebrows at this, wondering who this Lincoln figure was and why he would do what Octavia asked of him. "Octavia," she said, "Her name is Octavia."
"You care for her," he said, stating it rather than questioning her, "So why did you not join the search?"
"Cause I'm useless," she scoffed, then urged on by that thought, she remembered the dagger he'd given to her. Pulling it from her bag, she held it out to him. "I should probably give this back, I don't really know how to use it."
"It's yours now," he replied, not making a move to take it.
"Fighting and physical things aren't really my strength," she told him.
He frowned, tilting his head to the side, "What is your strength then? Are you a healer?"
"No," Olivia shook her head, feeling somehow worse because he'd failed to find importance in any other tasks, "I uh, I'm calculating and analytical. I do more stuff mentally."
"Are those not traits required to be a skilful warrior?"
Olivia found some truth in his words but didn't want to believe that he was completely right, finding some way to argue with him. "Well - I care too much about perfection and precision," she stated, hands gesturing, "I like planning and preparation." And words that start with P apparently.
The grounder smirked, his eyes narrowing slightly. "Maybe a dagger isn't your strength then," he said. She deflated at this, not pleased to have won but not quite sure that she felt disappointment either. "It sounds to me like you're an archer, Skai-snacha."
Surprised, Olivia's eyes flickered over to the grounder, her mouth parting slightly. She'd never once considered a bow and arrow but it was a weapon that didn't require her to be in close proximity and would keep her safe from hand to hand combat. Seeing that Olivia was contemplating his suggestion, the grounder smirked, stating, "I must go now. I have to explain why Lincoln is away when such a bad storm is approaching to my village. Don't worry about your friends, Skai-snacha, Lincoln will protect them. He's that kind of man."
Still somewhat shocked by the interaction, Olivia could only muster a feeble, "My name is Olivia."
"Olivia," he mouthed, as though he'd never heard the name before. He paused for a moment before he responded rather tentatively, "I am Orion."
Olivia was shocked by how pretty a name it was, expecting the grounders to have named their children all gruff and tough names. Lincoln wasn't too gruff but it sounded rather serious and intimidating whereas Orion just made her think of stars. In mythology, he was a hunter but she wasn't sure if they'd named him knowing so. After giving her one last formal nod, Orion turned, running off into the forest - the opposite direction of her camp.
It seemed that once he'd gone, all the questions she'd could have asked him only then started flooding her mind. It relieved her to know that it was a benevolent grounder who'd found Octavia rather than the ones who shot Jasper but she still had to wonder whether or not Orion had anything to do with that. Why was she always running into him as well? Did he hang around her camp? Was he watching them? Frowning, she shook her head, leaving just one thought in her mind. Approaching storm?
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By the time she got back to camp, the sun had been risen for a while - though there were dark clouds looming above, reminding her of what Orion had said in passing. Speeding up, she got into the dropship, finding that Raven and Clarke were already at the radio - working on it with Monty. She felt bad being the last one to get there but she didn't say much, pulling out the van radio and handing it over to Raven's waiting hand.
"I found this CD case full of CDs," Olivia told them, "I'm not sure if you're dismantling the radio completely but-"
"-I'll make sure it can still play," Raven smiled, understanding what Olivia was trying to ask. Not doing anything with the radio, Clarke took the CD case from her, flicking through it curiously. It made Olivia happy that she'd chosen to bring it with her as it actually seemed to brighten the other's moods. That being said, there seemed to be some tension in the air and Clarke was avoiding Raven's gaze.
"Hey Clarke?" Olivia nodded at her, "I think I cut myself whilst I was getting to the front of the van. Could you come help me with it please?"
Relief flooded Clarke's expression as she nodded, following Olivia away from the radio and out of the dropship. Some of the kids were hanging out, though most of them seemed occupied with something. Clarke seemed relieved to have some fresh air though as she let out a deep breath, turning to Olivia. "Where are you hurt?"
"I'm not," she smiled sheepishly, "I just thought you could use some space from there. What happened?"
"Raven knows," Clarke admitted, "About me and Finn." Clarke paused before she continued, "I was going to justify a relationship with Finn by telling myself that I needed him but... I think she needs him more."
Olivia furrowed her eyebrows, questioning quietly, "Do you love him?"
"I've only known him for about two weeks, Liv," she forced a laugh out, trying to appear unaffected.
"It's been a long two weeks, Clarke," Olivia replied sombrely, something that was so true it kind of scared Olivia to think about. The emotions she had for everyone down on the ground were so intense considering the time frame. Even Bellamy - she didn't quite know what she felt for him but she knew that it rather strong considering the short time span they'd spent together. Glancing at Clarke, she saw that the girl was staring down at the floor, her brows furrowed. It was the kind of topic that Olivia didn't know how to advise her on so instead, she talked about something else. "There's a storm coming," she told her, "We should try to bring all the important things into the dropship before it gets here."
"You think it's gonna be that bad?" Clarke frowned.
"I hope it isn't and that I'm just overreacting but I think it's still best for us to get everything in," Olivia replied.
Clarke nodded but just as they were about to start telling the campers to move stuff in, there came some loud yells from outside the camp. They were calling for Clarke and watching in surprise and worry, the girls saw that it was the search party back. Octavia and Jasper were the first to come through the doors but they were quickly followed by Bellamy, carrying a wounded Finn. He had a knife embedded in his torso, one similar to the one Orion had given Olivia. She felt sick, watching as Clarke directed them to the dropship.
Leaving Clarke to handle that, Olivia approached Octavia, questioning quietly, "What happened out there? Lincoln was meant to protect you guys."
"Lincoln?" Octavia furrowed her eyebrows.
"Didn't he save you?"
"He did," she nodded, "But he never told me his name. How do you know that?"
Olivia looked around nervously, eventually replying, "I know a guy." This earned a confused look from Octavia but she continued her question, asking, "What happened?"
"He was fine until they attacked him," Octavia told them, "He even went out and saved them from the grounders in the trees. Bellamy knocked him out so I think I'm going to go back and see if he's okay."
Before Olivia could dispute, Octavia was already headed for the gate. Bellamy stopped her though, pulling her in for a heated discussion. Not wanting to eavesdrops, Olivia set back onto another important task - the oncoming storm. Looking around, she found some of the more responsible campers, letting them know that they needed to start moving things and they passed the message on. Soon enough, things were being moved into the dropship at a good enough pace.
Heading back over to Bellamy and Octavia, she saw that Octavia was now storming into the dropship whilst Bellamy watched her with an expression of guilt and anger. After a sigh, he started heading for the gate. Olivia knew instantly where he was headed; he was going back for Lincoln. She wasn't sure what he planned to do with him but she knew it wouldn't be good.
"Bellamy!" Olivia called, surprising herself. She still hadn't worked out where they stood but she still couldn't just let him leave like that. "Where the hell are you going?" she questioned, running over to stand in front of him.
"Why do you care?" he scoffed, eyeing her in annoyance.
"There's a big storm coming," she said, gesturing to the mass of people moving things into the dropship, "It's not safe."
Bellamy paused, then raised his eyebrows, repeating the question more stoically, "Why do you care, Olivia?"
Olivia stared him down for a moment, shaking her head in disbelief, "You're so childish, Bellamy. What do you want me to say to that? Isn't it obvious? Because I don't want you to get hurt, you asshole." Bellamy faltered slightly but didn't say anything, his jaw clenching. Without saying anything, he turned around, about to head out. Olivia couldn't just watch him go however, reaching out and grabbing his arm. "Bellamy stop," she pleaded, "Just leave the grounder alone. Octavia said he saved her - let him be for her sake-"
"-he saved her?" he turned around, shrugging her off his arm, "I saved her, Olivia. I can't believe you're siding with a grounder."
"You got her back, Bellamy," Olivia sighed, "Isn't that enough for you?"
Bellamy stared her down for a long moment before he said, "I'll get back before it gets too bad."
Knowing there was no way to truly convince him, Olivia watched him go, closing the gate behind him. With a frustrated sigh, she headed over to her tent, bringing in all the important things in there. It started raining somewhere in between whilst Raven tried to get a hold of the Ark and Clarke began preparing Finn. Olivia was making a list of all the things they'd managed to bring inside, directing the kids on where to put them.
After a lot of effort, Raven managed to reach the Ark but it was patchy because of the storm. Olivia came down the stairs ladder around the time that Octavia had gotten back with some moonshine. By then, the storm was already going crazy - thunder was roaring and the wind was blowing madly. As well as checking off items, Olivia had a list of people which was almost all ticked off, minus Bellamy, Miller, Drew, Monty and Jasper. She could guess where the first three were but she didn't know where Monty and Jasper had run off to.
"The storm's getting worse," Clarke grimaced as she began sterilising her stuff, "Monroe, close the doors."
"We still have some people out there," Monroe frowned.
"Monty and Jasper still aren't back yet," Olivia stated, "As well as Bellamy, Miller or Drew - who I suspect are together."
"It's alright, they'll find somewhere to ride it out," Clarke assured them, nodding for Monroe to go close the doors. As she went to do that, Raven came over, handing Clarke a needle to use for Finn's injury. "Right," she nodded, "I still need something to close the wound though."
"There's some wire on the second floor," Olivia told them, "The one we usually use for tents?"
"Let's see it," Clarke nodded.
Olivia gave her a quick glance before heading up to the second level, finding a bunch of kids were huddled in there. They had all dispersed, though there were still quite a few on the bottom floor waiting for Bellamy to return. She gathered a ton of the wire, pausing slightly as she heard yelling come from down below. Frowning, she headed for the hatch, only to find that there were people coming up it.
Bellamy and his squad had come back, with Lincoln in tow. They'd tied him up and gagged him, his face beaten and bruised. Miller and Drew carried him up to the third floor, kicking out any of the kids that had been hanging out up there. Bellamy was the last to come up, stopping as he spotted Olivia watching.
"You realise that after I'm done helping Clarke you're gonna get a real earful, right?" Olivia raised her eyebrows, the anger evident on her face.
He seemed unfazed, smirking, "I look forward to it, Oli."
Releasing a frustrated breath, she pushed past him, heading back to the bottom floor to give Clarke the wire she'd found. Raven and Clarke were in the process of sanitising things but the kids down there seemed rather rowdy and obstructive. Handing Clarke the wire, Olivia started hording the kids out, sending them to the second floor. She felt bad that pretty much all the kids had to crowd on the second floor but it was for the best.
"Thanks," Raven smiled gratefully.
She just nodded in return.
"Olivia?" Clarke called her as she was about to head back upstairs, "Make sure Bellamy doesn't do something he'll regret."
"Would he be Bellamy Blake if he didn't do something regretful?" Olivia joked dryly before getting on the second floor. She closed the hatch behind her to stop the noise of the kids drifting down, then climbing quietly up to the third floor where she found Octavia already in a heated discussion with the Bellamy. Lincoln was now awake, watching her avidly. Orion had been right when he'd implied that he cared for her. None of them seemed to notice her presence.
"Miller, get her out of here," Bellamy ordered. Miller did as requested, grabbing Octavia along with Drew and forcing her out. She fought the whole time, though none of them seemed aware of the alarmed expression Lincoln had as he watched them manhandle her. In the end, she put up enough of a fight for them to release her.
"I don't even think he speaks English. He won't understand you," Octavia spat, angrily going down to the floor below. Lincoln watched her, his alarm growing before he hid it, clearly worried that the only person that had been on his side was gone now.
Crossing her arms, Olivia spoke up, "She's probably right." The boys on the floor all looked over at her surprise, not noticing her in all the chaos. "The likelihood of him speaking English is ridiculously low when you consider all the factors." At this point, she was just making it up, trying to figure out a way to stop Bellamy as she spoke. She knew very well that he could speak English but she understood now why they weren't meant to reveal that - they would treat him even worse if they knew that he could understand and respond but was just choosing not to. "Such as the apocalypse and the fact that human civilisation would have had to build itself back up from scratch, I mean, if you look at how language grew and adapted in the past-"
"-I can make him understand," Bellamy cut her off.
Furrowing her eyebrows, Olivia questioned, "Are you gonna teach him English? Do you know how long that takes on average? And we don't even know whether his language was similar to English or if it was something completely different like Chinese or whether he's a mute or maybe the radiation allowed his society to communicate telepathically, like it's all statistics-"
"-get her out too," Bellamy ordered. She must have taken her stalling too far as Bellamy had his eyes narrowed at her, completely unimpressed.
Olivia's eyes widened as Drew approached her, ready to manhandle her out. Her mind was racing a crazy amount, not knowing what to do. Lincoln had tried to help them - he'd even seemed to drag his friend in on it, and this was how they were repaying him? Orion had told her that Lincoln would protect her friends and from what Octavia had told her, it seemed like he had and now he was getting beaten for it.
A random idea popped into her head as Drew approached her - a memory - of her and Bellamy. Figuring the worst that could happen was that she'd embarrass herself, she waited until Drew was close enough, pulling her fist back and thrusting it in for a punch.
Secretly, she'd been hoping to hear a crack or something to show that she was born for this kind of thing but there wasn't. Drew did reel back though, clutching his nose and groaning. Miller and Bellamy were watching her in shock as though they hadn't been expecting that whilst Lincoln had an amused look in his eyes. Groaning, she shook her hand out, muttering, "I am not cut out for this."
Looking up, she saw that his nose had started to bleed slightly, feeling a mix of satisfaction and guilt as she noticed that. "Olivia," Bellamy frowned, not amused at all, "What the hell are you doing?"
Before she could defend herself, there was a huge rumble of thunder and the dropship rocked, throwing them all to the ground. It shook slightly for a moment before it stopped, returning to its usual position. Glad she was only slightly bruised up by the fall, Olivia pushed herself to a stand, looking around at all the boys. "Is everyone okay?" she asked.
They all murmured in assent as they rose too, looking around nervously. It was the storm that had caused it but it was still rather unnerving. Bellamy looked over at Olivia, a guarded expression on his face as he said, "Are you okay?" Olivia was going to reply but she stopped with her mouth slightly parted as she spotted something in the corner. "Oli?" Bellamy furrowed his eyebrows when he got no reply, "Olivia?"
"Is that his bag?" she blurted, walking over to where it was piled with the clothes they'd taken off him. "Have you guys looked in this?" she asked. They didn't reply but they all approached curiously, very obviously not having done so. "You jumped to violence before looking through his things?" Olivia scoffed, sending Bellamy a confused look.
Bellamy just rolled his eyes, taking the bag from her hands and pulling out something in it. He found a small tin case and opening it, there were vials of all different coloured liquid and powders. "What is all this stuff?" Miller gasped, watching as they looked through it.
"Hell knows with these people," Bellamy muttered as they dug further in.
Olivia took the tin of vials, picking up one with a black one liquid in it and appraising it in the light. She was tempted to open them and sniff them but they could have been anything and it wouldn't be a good idea to blindly open them.
Further in the bag was a rugged journal that as Bellamy pulled out, Lincoln reacted, trying to escape his binds. "I think we've found something he doesn't want us to see," Bellamy smirked, opening it up. He flicked through it, finding drawings of places that they'd seen and places they hadn't. "Not bad," he said, pausing as he reached a page with Octavia's portrait. The look of rage on his face said it all as he kept going, finding a page with tally marks on it. "It's our camp," he told them, "I'm guessing if I counted all those marks, it would add up to 103." He sent an 'I told you so look' to Olivia, thrusting the book into her hands. "There's ten crossed out - that's how many people we've lost." With one last look to her, he headed over to Lincoln, getting in his face as he announced, "They've been watching us ever since we got here."
Olivia gulped as she stared at the tally marks, having already suspected that they were watching them. It was concerning but not all ten of those marks were caused by grounder involvement - some of them had been self caused and some of them by nature. She knew that the grounders watching them couldn't have been a good thing but wasn't it slightly positive that they hadn't tried to attack their camp yet? Olivia decided to point this out, saying, "We don't know how many of them there are but we can probably guess that there's a ton more of them than there is of us. They know this and they haven't come to our camp to wipe us out yet, doesn't that seem like a good thing?"
Scoffing, Bellamy replied, "And who's to say they won't anytime now?"
"Well they're probably way more likely to now that you've kidnapped one of them," she sighed, clenching her jaw in annoyance. Olivia wasn't sure if Lincoln's disappearance would be noticed since Orion had informed her that he would excuse his absence but what would he do when he'd get there and see that Lincoln was gone? Would he admit to them what they'd both done?
"She's right," a new voice chimed into the conversation. They all turned to see Clarke coming up the ladder, an exhausted expression on her face. She didn't look devastated though, so Olivia could only assume that Finn was okay. The boys tried to block her but Bellamy told them to let her through. Coming over to Lincoln, Clarke looked at him, clearly disgusted by his wounds. She took Bellamy and Olivia to the side as she said, "Well, if he didn't hate us before, he does now."
"Who cares?" Bellamy replied, changing the conversation, "How's Finn?"
"Alive," Clarke retorted vaguely before moving the topic back to the grounder, "His people will care. How long until they figure out where he is? And what happens when they do? I mean, when they coming looking for him? They will, Bellamy." Olivia was glad that Clarke had arrived to speak some sense, glad she wasn't the only one nagging anymore.
"Relax, Princess," Bellamy told her, "No one saw us take him. He was chained up in that cave the entire time, and thanks to the storm, we didn't see a soul on the way back." When that didn't convince Clarke, he snatched the journal from Olivia, opening it back onto the page with the tally marks. "In case you missed it, his people are already killing us."
"Not all of those marks were caused by grounders, Bellamy," Olivia stated, earning an annoyed glance from him.
"Enough of them were," he replied, then continued, "How many more of our people need to die until you guys realise we're fighting a war?"
"We're not soldiers, Bellamy," Clarke shook her head, "We can't win."
Bellamy nodded, a determined look on his face, "You're right. We can't - if we don't fight."
From the lower floor, they heard Raven shouting for Clarke, an urgent tone in her voice; something was wrong with Finn. Clarke rushed down the stairs, desperate to go save Finn. They watched her go, concerned look on their faces as they wondered what could have gone wrong. When she was gone and it went silent, Bellamy looked over at Olivia. He appraised her for a moment before he clenched his jaw, "I think you should leave too."
Olivia sighed, looking away for a second towards Lincoln, taking in the blinds and the blood on his face. "You want to fight, fair enough," Olivia frowned. She glanced back at Bellamy, their eyes locking together. "But look at him - look at how you've tied him up. What you're doing right now isn't fighting, Bellamy. You must know that." Not knowing what more she could do, she took the journal from his hands, full of disappointment as she headed back down to the second floor. I don't even know why I expected more from him.
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Word Count: 4,670
I'm honestly having a ball writing this fanfic - I guess I just really like Olivia and have like some cool and maybe unexpected developments for where her character is going and how she's going to develop.
Also, the show is really good at the moment, like this season so far is amazing - despite her character becoming very morally grey, Octavia is my fav of the season so far! One thing I will say though, is that they definitely seem like (spoilers) *they might do Bellarke* which I'm cool with because I think it's a genuinely well developed and nice relationship but it's hard writing a fic with an OC when you ship the OG couple, you know?
Anyways, let me know what you think of this chapter! A lot more goes on in this one than the last one so I hope you enjoyed it - also there's more stuff that can be translated if you just comment. Thanks for the support, don't forget to vote and see you Wednesday!