"What are you doing here Jade?" Bellamy asked her carefully. When she entered the room the girl fidgeted around the room. Her eyes darting from one side to the other not staying on anything too long. "Nia's going to be worried about you."
"I know." She admitted quietly. Finally, she looked up at him and decided to speak. "Why did you do it? Nia was talking with Alec and she said you did it for me and her. But I don't think that's the truth."
Bellamy was taken aback on what she had just said. He didn't know what to tell her. She was a child, she shouldn't need to know about the horrors he had done.
"Is this about the attack on the mountain? Because that was Azgeda. They have been Trikru's enemy for years." Jade informed quietly unsure of who he'd react. But still he said nothing after. We were there, in the camp."
He said nothing as guilt began to seep through him. But her next question made his breath hitch. His feared his actions changed the image in her mind.
"Would you have attacked if we stayed? Indra wanted us to stay but Nia thought it best to come back." She bowed her head a little and he had no clue what to say.
What answer would comfort her? What would salvage the image in her eyes? But he was only protecting them.
"I know about your ghosts. Nia has them too. I think that's why she shelters us so much. She doesn't want us to deal with them." She finished.
Each conversation he had brought more guilt up inside him. First Nia had pointed out his mental standing, now Jade was questioning their standing in his life.
"I think you should go back to Nia." He recommended needing a moment to take in all that they had said.
She didn't say a word but she just turned and left the room. He hated how they had such an effect on him. But what he hated more was how they thought they meant nothing to him. How his actions were bad. He was simply doing what he thought was best for them and his people. Before he had more time to ponder, a knock sounded and it was one of the guards informing him about the meeting that would be taking place.
"Our goal is secure access to water and arable lands, with defensible terrain on as many sides as possible. A 15 kilometer perimeter around Arkadia should be sufficient." Pike informed those that were gathered for the meeting.
"15 kilometers? Sir, there's a Grounder village." Bellamy countered remembering the villages' location. Nia had spent so much time informing him of their culture and even their language.
"Which would no doubt be the staging area of a retaliatory attack. Clearing it will be our first order of business. What's the location of the village?" Pike asked Bellamy knowing he'd know the exact position.
"Clear the village?" Bellamy questioned Pike's orders.
"Give us the room." Pike ordered the others. The way Bellamy was questioning him, let him know that he wasn't on board with the plan.
"Yes, sir. Kane, Lincoln, and Nia are waiting outside." They informed Pike before exiting the room.
At the sound of Nia's name, Bellamy's head snapped up. Since they had become distant, he had missed her and Jade more. They're conversations brought all the guilt that made him feel like he had made the wrong choice but the damage had been done.
"Thought you might like this back." Pike held out the guard jacket Bellamy had turned in not long ago. Right now, Bellamy was his strongest ally and he needed to keep him on his side. "Do you have something to say to me?"
"We went too far." The guilt now getting the best of him.
"I know it seems harsh, but we don't leave survivors. We don't have the medical supplies to treat their people and we can't risk them coming back to kill us. And we all learn pretty quickly that causes us to do things that we'll spend the rest of our lives trying to forget. The only advice I can give you is to think about the lives that we saved today, not the ones we've lost. Can you do that?" Pike worded his way back into Bellamy's head. His words subsiding the guilt welling inside him.
"Yes, sir." Bellamy agreed, the girls conversations fading from his mind. He would push the ghosts aside and focus on the ones that were still alive.
After he pulled on his jacket, he exited the room and outside there sat Kane, Lincoln and Nia. Their eyes went to him but Nia's gaze went away once she noticed the jacket on him.
Before she was called to the office, she had been going crazy looking for Jade. The girl had slipped away and reappeared without their escorts noticing. But Nia was just grateful that she was unharmed. When she questioned her, Jade informed her of her encounter with Bellamy.
What made her mad was that Bellamy still hadn't realized the wrong he had done. As long as someone told him it was for the best of his people, he would continue to make reckless actions with no regret.
So, now that he stood in front of her, she couldn't bear to look at him. It was Kane that got up to speak with Bellamy.
"What the hell happened out there?" Kane asked the reinstated guard.
"We did what we had to do." He said simply making Nia even more mad.
"Wake up! You attacked an army that was here to help us! You murdered innocent people. Is that who you are now? You thought you couldn't live with yourself after Mount Weather? Well, you just started a war that will kill us all." Kane told Bellamy after his answer.
"You need two wake up. And don't tell me the difference between Azgeda and Trikru. Trikru killed 37 of my friends before you even touched the ground. We didn't start anything. They did." Bellamy retorted forgetting the siblings sitting not far off.
The statement that Bellamy said made them both mad. After all, they weren't apart of Skaikru, no matter how much some tried to forget.
"They?" Lincoln spoke drawing the attention to them. Bellamy looked over not expecting the fiery glares he was receiving.
"You know what I meant." Bellamy tried to salvage the situation, but it didn't do much to calm their anger.
"I used to." Lincoln said stepping away from Bellamy.
Bellamy should've left it at that but he had been wanting to talk with Nia. He wanted her to understand his motives. He didn't want her to be off with him.
"Nia?" He said carefully but it flipped the fire inside her.
"What?! What is it you want to tell me?! The reason you murdered my people because we're all the same. You wanna tell me that I killed you friends." Nia ranted out giving them an insight to her anger.
"I didn't mean it-" Bellamy tried to but didn't get much out.
"You did. You did mean to say it. You meant to say that we're all Grounders despite our clans. You mean to say that I killed your friends, right?" Nia stated back leaving them all in awe.
"No." Bellamy went to speak with her again but she wouldn't allow him.
"You said that there was no difference between Azgeda and Trikru. That Trikru killed 37 of your friends. I am Trikru. Jade is Trikru. So therefore, Jade and I are like Azgeda and I killed your friends. Jade killed them. Or else this marking means something else." Nia finished speaking while pulling her right arm sleeve up. The Trikru symbol in the center of her forearm.
It was silent as no one knew what to say. Neither one of the Skaikru males had seen Nia act in such a way. But Lincoln was proud that she had stuck up for not only herself but for their clan. He knew that if he had done it, it might have escalated further. With her speaking, they wouldn't dare to made an advance to her.
Not long after the door opened and they were called into Pike's office. Bellamy stood there for a moment before he left. He hadn't expected such an outburst from Nia especially directed at him. He seemed to keep forgetting that they are Trikru. He kept thinking that people would look past it like he did. But now he wasn't so sure. Everything was changing rapidly.
When they entered the room, they stood silently side by side as they waited for the Chancellor to speak. They all seemed to know what he would say next as they kept straight faces.
"Thank you for meeting with me, as the duly elected chancellor my main concern is the safety of my people. Because of this I have to make some changes. I appreciate everything you two have done, honestly, but I think it's in my people and your best interest if Lincoln were off the guard and Nia is to stay inside the walls." Pike explained but received no reaction. Instead Lincoln took off his jacket and placed it on the table.
"Mr. Chancellor-" Kane interrupted but Pike's decision was made.
"It is for the best." Pike insisted leaving no room for argument.
Nia and Lincoln didn't say a word as they simply left them alone in the room.
"Everything is beginning to change." Nia said quietly as they walked.
"Nothing will happen to you or the girls, Zhalia. Alec and I will not allow it." Lincoln reassured her once they reached the room. He pulled her into a hug and kissed her forehead.
Their lives were changing and there was nothing they could do to change anything. They could just hope that nothing would happen to them and those they love.