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THE DECLARATION
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"I WILL KILL THAT SNAKE ONE DAY," Jinny growled as she stormed towards the Guard and picked up a rifle on the ground along with an extra jacket. She slipped it on slowly with a grimace, mindful of the wounds that still decorated her body, then picked up her pack. "And then, I'll shove her own poison down her throat."
She turned around and marched off to the side of the mountain doors, into the dense woods that surrounded the area. "Hey!" David called after her. "Where are you going?!"
"To get my boyfriend and friends back!" she yelled while throwing a hand up at the side.
"Jinny, wait!" Clarke shouted, running to catch up to her furious pace. "Hold up, wait for us! At least tell us your plan!"
"There is no plan, Clarke, there is only revenge served on an ice cold plate," she replied with a bitter edge in her voice.
"That is a horrible plan," Monroe quipped as the others hurriedly followed after her.
"Jinny, I'm sorry, but it's over," David told her. "We should go back and get reinforcements from camp. We won't give up on them but we can't rush in there without a proper plan of attack."
She halted in her tracks and whirled around to face them. "Sergeant Miller, head back to camp and gather reinforcements. Task the engineers to build more bombs."
"Yes, ma'am." He nodded his head, then waited expectantly for her to lead the way. When she merely stood there, he frowned. "Lieutenant Commander?"
"Go, Sergeant," she said, waving her hand for emphasis. "I'll catch up to you." He looked at her doubtfully. "That's an order."
"Jinny," Monroe started but the woman shook her head. She fell silent and looked towards the Chief Guard for help.
"Everyone, move out," David finally said after some deliberation. The guards started to turn around and headed back towards the direction of Camp Jaha.
Clarke grabbed Jinny's arm when she started to walk the other way. "What are you doing?" she whispered harshly.
"I'm going to get them back, Clarke, so if you want to help me then shut up and move," Jinny told her, wrenching her arm free and jogging deeper into the thicket. She could hear Clarke run after her and they made their way through the foliage, following the direction of the mountain's map in their heads. Soon, they came towards the mine entrance that led into the Reaper tunnels. Jinny leaned against the wall of the opening with a hand pressed against her side as she breathed tiredly through the pain.
Clarke panted slightly as she caught up to Jinny, standing by her side as she looked into the cold cavern. "Are you okay?" she breathed out in concern and the guard nodded her head. "Ready to go in?"
"Let's find out," she replied before venturing inside. They ran through the twisting labyrinth of the mine, using the light from Jinny's rifle to illuminate the darkened pathways. Clarke had memorised as much of the tunnel design as she could, as well as taking from her episodic memory, and led them towards the intake doors.
"It's near here," she said, before coming to a skidding halt as a shadowed figured emerged from a corner bend ahead of them.
Jinny pointed her rifle in the air, only to come face to face with Octavia's sword. They gasped when they saw each other, immediately dropping their weapons and rushing forwards to embrace one another. "What the hell happened out there?" the girl asked.
"Lexa is a traitorous coward," Jinny spat. "She made a deal with Mount Weather to get her people out."
"And what about ours?" Octavia questioned. "Bellamy's still in there."
"Which is why we need to get inside," Clarke said, striding forwards.
Octavia caught the crook of her elbow and cocked her head to the side where a metal cart sat underneath a chute. There was a body of a girl lying inside; it was Fox. Jinny felt a pang of anxiety bubble in her chest at the sight. "If that was possible, do you think I'd still be out here?"
"We don't have a choice," Clarke told her, rushing forwards and slamming the butt of her gun against the door's window.
"Stop!" Octavia cried, grabbing the blonde and forcibly dragging her away. "They'll know we're here!"
"Get out of my way," Jinny said, moving to the door and crouching down by the key panel. She took out the screwdriver from her pack and started to dismantle the board from the wall.
"That's too slow," Clarke remarked with a frown, raising her gun in the air and taking aim at the panel instead.
"What's wrong with you?!" Octavia lunged forwards to push her arm down. "Bellamy's counting on us to do this, and you don't have a plan."
"What do you want from me?!" Clarke exclaimed. Jinny listened to their heated exchange half-heartedly as she concentrated on the wires in front of her, figuring out the mess to get the doors to unlock themselves.
"You trusted Lexa," the brunette girl started accusingly. "You let a bomb drop on Tondc. You let all those people—"
"I am doing the best I can!" Clarke shouted at her.
Octavia's voice was clipped when she said, "Well, it's not good enough."
Jinny started, standing up in surprise when the intake door beeped and opened of its own accord. "I didn't even do anything yet," she stated in confusion, raising her rifle from her side warily. Clarke took aim with her handgun and Octavia drew her sword as they prepared to defend themselves.
A white sleeved arm appeared from the opening, grabbing the side of the door and pushing it further outwards. Jinny inhaled sharply and her eyes widened when Bellamy stepped through, a gun trained on them cautiously. The biting look on his face melted away to wondrous joy when he finally set eyes on her.
"Jin," he breathed out, holstering the gun and rushing forwards.
Jinny wrapped her arms around him tightly, not even caring that he was hurting her from how hard he was squeezing her sides. They exchanged chaste kisses on the cheek, revelling in the safety of one another's arms before she pulled away with an uncomfortable wince and an arm cradled around her body. Bellamy's eyebrows furrowed deeply as he caught her shoulder and examined the fresh cuts and bruises that undoubtedly adorned her face. "Are you okay? What happened to you? And what are you wearing?"
She brushed his questions off with a shake of her head and a quirk on her lips. "I look hot, right?"
"If you were any hotter, I'd die," he joked quietly while caressing her hair.
Octavia tackled her brother in a hug next just as Monty and Jasper shuffled out of the intake door. Jinny grinned widely when she saw them, reaching forwards and pulling the both of them into big hugs. They wrapped their arms around her warmly, sharing comfort in the sight of old familiar faces.
"I'm so glad to see you again!" she exclaimed breathlessly, ruffling their hairs messily.
"Same here," Monty said with a wide beam.
She turned in surprise when a figure in a blue hazmat suit approached them. "Whoa, it's okay, that's Maya," Jasper explained. "She's with us."
"Maya?" Jinny questioned, then went forwards to embrace her too. "Thank you so much for helping us."
"You're welcome," the girl said shyly, her voice slightly muffled through the breathing apparatus she wore.
"What happened to the army?" Bellamy asked, looking between Jinny and Clarke once the reunion was over.
"Gone, just like yours," Clarke responded. "Say you have a plan."
"Not really," he replied with a shake of the head. "We need to talk to Dante. Maya says he's in quarantine."
Jasper and Monty went forwards to give Clarke big hugs, sending the girl gasping in surprise from the attention. She caught Maya's gaze and mouthed a brief thank you to her over their shoulders. Just then a beeping resounded from Maya's suit and Jasper broke away from the group hug, darting forwards to check her oxygen tank.
"Thirty minutes," he breathed out nervously. "And we just changed it. That can't be right. Uh, shh—" He held her arms comfortingly as she started to gasp in panic, then turned to the others. "Um... It's her last tank."
"We'll find you another one," Clarke proposed.
"All the supplemental oxygen is on level five," Maya informed.
"Then we get you to level five," Jasper said in a matter-of-fact tone.
"Five isn't safe for any of us," the girl asserted.
"We'll take the trash chute again. It'll work."
"To get in, maybe," Bellamy told him with a frown. "Maya's right. Every soldier in this mountain is there. We'll never make it out."
Jinny cocked her rifle and tilted her head to the side. "Wanna bet? Hey, you forgetting who's standing right beside you?"
He smirked at her attitude, unable to help the chuckle from escaping his lips. "Okay. Fine."
"You guys go for Dante," Octavia told her, then looked to Jasper. "We'll help Maya."
They exchanged nods before heading through the intake doors. Bellamy paused to shut it behind them with a loud metallic clang. After that, their group split ways after taking the chute to the upper levels of the mountain. Jinny wasn't sure that she should have left Octavia with Jasper and Maya alone, but an extra person could draw too much attention to them. Especially when Jinny was covered in blood, injured and dressed in Grounder apparel.
"Had a nice vacation in Mount Doom?" Jinny asked as Bellamy pulled her out of the chute door.
He smiled, catching the reference to an old book they'd read before. "Felt like I had an eye on me the entire time."
She chuckled as they followed Clarke and Monty down the corridor of the quarantine floor. Its pristine white interior was a garish contrast to everything else she had seen on the ground so far. Even the Ark hadn't been like this; their walls were made of metal slate despite their routine disinfectants. Monty paused when he came across a small white box on the wall that held the electrical connections for the level. He took it apart before nodding towards Clarke and she opened a door in the middle of the hallway. Jinny stepped inside after everyone else, her eyes falling first on the breathtaking painting of a swirling starry sky, then shifting to the figure in the middle of the room.
An old weathered man with caverns lining his skin turned around to look at them with icy blue eyes and snow white hair. He looked ancient, as if he'd seen too much of the world and now waited wearily for his days to come to an end. It reminded her of a quote she'd once read from the old archives. There is no greater sorrow than to be mindful of the happy time in misery.
"Hello, Clarke," he greeted the blonde, his voice as papery thin as his skin. "We meet again."
"Sir," Bellamy started respectfully. "We need your help again."
"It's okay," Monty added. "I took out the camera from the junction box in the hall. We can talk freely."
"No one's watching anyway," Dante said. "Thanks to you, they're all on level five."
"You're not," Clarke stated.
"No..." he responded lowly. "I'm not."
"Please. We don't have much time," Bellamy told him. "We need a way to get our people out of this mountain without killing everyone."
The old man merely looked back at him in consideration. "He's not gonna help us," Clarke observed.
Jinny started forwards threateningly. "Won't he?" She raised her eyebrows. "Then he'll give me no choice but to slaughter my way through every single man, woman and child to get to our people."
He stared back at her. "You cut the power, risking the lives of everyone in this mountain—my people, even the ones who helped you."
Clarke stepped closer to him angrily. "We knew they'd be safe on level five. We made sure not to destroy the turbines so you could repair them. We're the good guys here, not you!"
"Tell me," Dante said, looking between the both of them. "If we released your people and theirs, what would've happened to mine?"
"We told the Grounders not to kill the innocents," Jinny snapped impatiently. "If your men hadn't made the deal for the Commander to betray us, we wouldn't be here right now. We'd have everyone out and the army would have left the mountain. I wouldn't have to threaten you with my damn gun." She cocked the charging handle of her rifle and raised it up to his chest.
Clarke whirled around to Monty. "Can you get us into the command centre? We need to see what's happening on level five."
He nodded. "Yeah, no problem."
"Then let's go," Bellamy said, grabbing Dante and pushing him out of the room. "You're gonna help us, whether you like it or not."
"And you're not gonna like it," Jinny assured.
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ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © KAYE CEE
DO NOT STEAL, COPY OR TAKE ANY PART OF THIS WORK.
[ author's note ]
yaayy jillamy is back!!
initially i made them kiss but then i decided nah it's okay. they have the next three months to do all that lol :)