After walking for hours through the dark woods while her moment with Bellamy still lingered in her mind, the trio had finally reached the bridge, only to see a familiar face pacing around. "SO that's how you set this up." Clarke sighed, her gaze shifting between Finn and Octavia.
"You helped him escape, didn't you?" The shorter blonde continued, one eyebrow raised.
Octavia stood there silently before she spoke, her hands in her pockets while she looked at Clarke and Maisie. "I trust him, Clarke." She stated, the blonde guessing that the grounder and Octavia had somehow bonded between all of this hate, torture and war.
"There's a lot of that going around." Clarke sassed, her eyes now leaving Octavia's to look at Finn.
"Someone's coming." Finn whispered, pulling Clarke behind, making the blonde yank her arm away from the boy.
The fatal foursome watched as the grounder that they have tortured jogged towards them, lifting Octavia up and pulling her into a hug as the left three delinquents watched in surprise.
The blonde had guessed that something had happened between the two, some part of her still anxious about the fact that her friend had befriended someone dangerous to their own people.
As the two broke apart, Lincoln's eyes scanned the three delinquents, Clarke uncomfortably avoided his gaze, this time not letting Finn go when he grabbed her hand.
Finally his eyes landed on the blonde, studying her longer than he did with Clarke and Finn.
"Uh-, sorry for sticking a poisonous knife in you." The masculine man shifted awkwardly, while the girl stood unbothered.
"Sorry for torturing you." She offered a smile, the girl was now more relaxed, understanding why Octavia and Finn had some hope.
The sound of hooves beating interrupted the conversation, making the five of them turn their eyes towards where the sound had came from, Clarke looking out of the corner of her eye to the other three delinquents that were under the bridge, waiting with rifles in their hands. "Oh my god, are those-"
"Horses." Before Clarke could finish, the taller blonde cut her off, completing her sentence as a smile made its way towards her lips, only to fade one second later at the sight of the three grounders with weapons.
"I thought it was no weapons." Maisie spoke, her eyes traveling to Finn as he shrugged, not having any idea. "I was told there wouldn't be." Lincoln was the one to answer as she shook his head in confusion.
"It's too late now." Clarke let go of Finn's hand at her own words, instead, she grabbed hers, the best friends nodded at each other, the taller blonde taking a deep breath as the two started to walk towards the grounders.
They met at the middle of the bridge, the green surrounding them distracting the blonde for a second.
As she looked back at the bridge, there stood the most intimidating woman she had ever seen. She had tan skin, a clothing style just like Lincoln's, preferably due to the weather. And paint. She had black paint covering some parts of her face, making her cheekbones stand out.
"Your names are Clarke and Maisie?" She was the first one to speak. "Clarke." Her best friend quickly nodded, "Maisie." The taller blonde concluding it with a nod as well as Clarke held out her hand for the woman to shake.
"I'm Anya."
BUT, she looked at it in the most disgusted way the two had ever seen, Clarke slowly pulling her hand back as Anya narrowed her eyes at the blondes.
"I think we got off to a rough start, but we want to find a way to live together in peace." Clarke pleaded as she sighed, the hard look on Anya's face still plastered.
"I understand." The woman paused, "You started a war that you don't know how to end." Anya stated, lifting her chin up.
"What? A war? We didn't start anything, you attacked us first for no reason." Maisie shook her head in confusion at her words, not understanding what the woman was talking about.
"No reason? The missiles you launched burned a village to the ground." She announced, her voice getting louder as she started to grow more pissed.
"The flares?" Maisie gasped, but before she could continue, Clarke cut her off, not wanting her best friend to get pissed as well, knowing what she would turn into.
"No. That was a signal meant for our families. We had no idea-" Clarke begged, "You're invaders. Your ship landed in our territory." Anya chanted, having enough of this already.
"We didn't know anyone was here. We thought the ground was uninhabited." The shorter blonde shook her in denial.
"You knew we were here when you sent an armed raiding party to capture one of us and torture him." Once again, Anya paused.
"These are all acts of war."
"I see your point. That's why we need to put an end to all of this." Maisie spoke again, this time doing her best to keep calm.
"Lincoln said there are more of you coming down, warriors." Anya stated as her crossed her arms over her chest. "The guard, yes, but also farmers, doctors, engineers. We can help each other but not if we're at war." Clarke exclaimed in hope, the girls' hand becoming sweaty from holding each others' for too long.
"Can you promise that these new arrivals won't attack us, that they'll respect the terms you two and I agree on?" For a second, the blonde felt hope surround her, like Anya was actually about to cooperate.
"I promise we will do everything we can to convince them to honor the terms that we set." Maisie assured, not entirely sure about the Ark wanting to share something with them.
"Why would I agree to an alliance that your people can break the moment they get here?" And with Anya's words, the tiny hope inside her heart got crashed into millions of pieces.
"If you fire the first shot, we will wipe you out, our technology-" But before she could continue, Anya furrowed her eyebrows, cutting her off.
"They wouldn't be the first to try."
Earning two confused looks from the blondes, Anya shook her head as her gaze shifted from Clarke to Maisie.
The woman studied her for a long minute, the two best friends not daring to talk whatsoever.
She thought Anya was about to say something, but instead, in a swift move, she reached for the knife in her pack, yanking Maisie's arm forward as she cut the palm of her hand, watching as black blood dripped down.
The blonde hissed in pain at the unexpected act as she stepped towards Anya. "What the hell was that for?" The taller blonde shot a deadly glare at the woman.
"I had to see it with my own eyes." Anya hissed, still looking at the blood that was dripping down her hand.
"What if the knife is poisonous?" Clarke stated in a harsh tone, wanting Anya to prove her wrong, so she did.
Anya gripped the knife tightly, doing the same thing, the only difference being the color of her blood.
"Are there any more like you?" She shook her head as no, trying to ignore the pain forming in her hand as she stood next to Clarke.
Before the conversation could go on, the three were forced to turn around at the sound of yelling.
"Maisie, run! You're the target. Run!" Jasper yelled through the trees, glancing at him, he saw Bellamy, Raven and Jasper aimlessly shooting at the grounders, the blonde struggling to process what was going on.
But before she could, Anya took out her knife, it almost colliding with her heart when she suddenly stumbled back, running towards the horses as spears and arrows decorated the sky.
"Girls, get down!" Finn yelled as he stormed towards the two, grabbing them by their biceps as they ran towards their side of the bridge.
"Run! Don't stop till you get behind your walls. Go! Take her!" Lincoln yelled as they reached the end of the bridge, Finn letting go of Clarke's arm to drag Octavia as she cried out and struggled against his grip.
The two groups met up eventually, the seven delinquents running as fast as they could to reach camp before another grounder attack.
❁✧˖°◡̈
As soon as they saw the familiar lights of the camp, they slowed down, all seven of them panting like crazy to steady their breaths.
"You ruined everything." Octavia hissed at the goggled boy, shaking her head in disapproval. "I saved you! You're welcome." He yelled at the girl as she opened the gate to the camp, passing through.
Jasper followed Octavia, his head down as his eyes started to water.
For Maisie, Octavia was right. She was sure that Anya would break and cooperate if they were to talk more.
"Well, if we weren't at war already, we sure as hell are now." Finn hissed at the rest of the group. "You didn't have to trust the Grounders. You just had to trust me." He glanced at Clarke one last time before storming off, Raven following her.
"I can't believe you did that behind my back." Maisie shook her head in denial as Clarke approached her. "M, I had to make sure we were safe-"
"I really don't want to hear it right now." She cut her off, not having any of this. Clarke just looked at her for a minute before she nodded and left her to get in the camp, the taller blonde following after her.
"Maisie, wait." Bellamy grabbed her wrist before she could make it to the gate, forcing the girl to turn around to look at him.
"What?" She hissed at him, yanking her arm away from his grip.
"Clarke's right. We had to make sure you were sa-" But before he could continue, she cut him off.
"That was our only chance of peace, and you ruined it!" She had tried her best to be understanding with him in the past, but now they didn't have any choice but fight a war.
A war that would end up with death and pain.
"Going there without any weapons was a mistake in the first place! And what was I supposed to do, huh? You were their target, this was all planned to kill you!" His tone rose, anger forming up inside him.
"You don't know that!" Both of them had lost it by now, the two teenagers yelling at each other while they stood right outside the camp.
"Yeah, I do! They were holding the spears towards you, arrows aimed at you, that woman tried to stab you, not Clarke!"
They both fell silent for a second, the girl finding some sense in what he had just said.
"And I had to protect you!" Bellamy broke the long moment of silence, her eyes again meeting his. "Why do you care? We're all going to die anyways, now!"
"I won't let you."
But before she could say anything in return or catch her breath, he pulled her closer, and his lips were on hers.
It was like at that moment, fireworks erupted inside her.
Maisie widened her eyes at the unexpected action, only to close them after, giving in. The loud chattering voices coming from the camp now dead silent as the two teenagers held each other, lips locked. Maisie felt like she's melting into his arms, loosing herself in the kiss.
It wasn't hard nor was it rough, it was sweet, passionate. Her lips felt soft against his, like it was made just for him.
For her, he tasted like joy, and joy tasted better on Earth.
She wrapped her arms around his neck while her fingers played with his jet-black curls, Bellamy's arms around her waist as they continued to kiss, the two feeling like they were the only ones under the stars, the argument drifting away from their minds.
The kiss lasted until the two had to broke apart to take deep breaths, brown meeting blue once again as a smile curved upon her lips, making the boy chuckle.
"That was-" Maisie had given her first kiss to Bellamy Blake, the boy who had been nothing but trouble for her since the moment she laid eyes on him, but she had no regrets.
"The best Unity Day ever." This time, a small laugh escaped her lips with his words, her hands still on his neck while his hands stood right around her waist.
"So much for no one wants your company." He joked, referring to what she had said to him on their first twenty minutes on the ground.
"So much for the tough Bellamy Blake." She replied back, both chuckling again as his hands moved from her waist to her cheeks.
Grabbing them gently, he removed a single strand of golden hair from her face, watching as the girl continued to smile genuinely at the boy, something that drove him mad.
BUT just like their other happy moments, this one came to an end as well.
The two teenagers broke from their trance with the sound of an explosion through the air, as it got closer, revealing to be the Exodus ship.
"The Exodus ship? Your dad's early." The boy smiled at the girl as her eyes still followed the ship, a huge smile plastered on her lips as well.
"Ready to meet my parent, freckles?" He chuckled at her response, his hand finding its way to hers as they watched the ship descend.
BUT something was wrong, no, the ship wasn't slowing down nor was it opening its parachutes. "Wait. Too fast. No parachute? Something's wrong."
The two delinquents watched as the ship impacted heavily with the ground, creating a mushroom cloud.
Her mouth flew open, her eyes starting to water as she shook her head in shock, not being able to sink any of this in.
"No."
MAISIE'S knees collided with the ground, the girl had sinked down to her knees as tears escaped her eyes.
Her father was gone.