Chapter 23 - From the grave he raise

When he heard me speaking his language, ablest a little broken, but still decent enough for him to understand my words, the grounder's eyes went wide open for a second before he quickly returned to his previous and serious face.

"I have the whole day to lose, but you, my friend, you don't have that long. You either cooperate with me or you'll die, simple as that. So how's going to be?"

The grounder just glanced at me, not saying anything as if nothing mattered to him anymore, and that was exactly what I feared. Being a warrior, he was most likely trained to resist torture or at least some pain, making our torture useless.

Just as I was about to start my other method, Octavia and Clarke climbed the ladder in a hurry, and before I could say anything Clarke stopped in front of the grounder. She then revealed a few bottles of various sizes with some strange liquids inside of them.

"You have the antidote, don't you? Please tell me which one of them is, my friend is dying!"

Yet the grounder didn't budge even when a girl was crying for his help. At the same time, I saw the way Octavia looked at the grounder, and that made me shiver since a sudden thought crossed my mind. Does she suffer from Stockholm syndrome or does she really know this grounder to the point where she would do something stupid to help him? But from the way he looked at her, I'm more than sure that it was my second guess, which gave me a new idea.

I quickly went over to her and whisper something in her ear. Octavia keep nodding as she heard my plan.

"If you aren't willing to help us, then maybe you will help me. After all, you saved me back then. You won't let me die now, do you?"

What Octavia did shocked the grounder and Clarke at the same time. Fortunately, my plan and her stunt broke the grounder's will and he quickly pointed his head towards one small bottle that was on the ground. As soon as the grounder pointed at the bottle, Clarke grabbed the bottle and gave a little bit of it to Octavia before she went down to Finn in a hurry. Left behind to watch the exchanges of looks between the grounder and Octavia was one of the most awkward moments of my life. Not only were the two of them communicating through looks, but they even forget I was there.

"I'm sorry to interrupt your discussion, but I'm kind of in a hurry. So Octavia, please me alone with your friend for a little while."

"Please, Leon! He didn't hurt me. He saved me from the other grounders, he even saved my brother and the rest of our people in the forest."

"Finn was injured, Dax and Carl were killed …does that seem like a rescue to you? To me, it looks as if the grounders were slowly picking us one at a time. He either speaks or he dies."

"No! I won't let you!"

"I'm sorry, Octavia, but that's not how it works."

Before she could say anything, I just knocked her out, while gently leaning her body to one side of the dropship. Now that Octavia wasn't able to bother me, I was ready to talk with this grounder that made Bellamy mad.

"Now that no one can bother us, can we start talking or do you prefer what my friend did to you a while ago?"

The grounder gritted his teeth in anger, but soon after that, he let out a sigh.

"Lincoln, that's my name."

"See, it wasn't that hard. Now, Lincoln would you tell me why Anya wants from me?"

Unexpectedly, when he heard that name, Lincoln got both shocked and confused for some reason. While I believe it wasn't a secret her name, we as the skai people shouldn't know that name or at least that's what I deduced from the way he reacted.

"C'mon, it's not like is a secret and before you think about anything that could kill you, I believe it's better for you to know that you aren't the first grounder that I talked to."

"Then what do you want from me? I won't betray my people even if that would kill me."

"An honorable act, but pointless nonetheless. There are ways of getting information from you without your consent, but I'm not a savage that would use those crude yet effective methods. What I want is to know why she seems to be so obsessed with me."

"I don't know much about her obsession, but I'm sure that sees you as someone worthy of being a warrior or even more than that, but as I said, I don't know much about it and only Anya can answer your question."

Meanwhile, Octavia woke up from a short nap, and rather than yelling at me, she simply went down, leaving her grounder alone.

"I reckon you were sent here to watch us, right?"

Lincoln didn't answer me, but that silence was an answer itself and for me, that was more than enough to understand his role. He was just a scout from a nearby village which means that Anya was probably calling her warriors to war.

"To be honest I didn't expect you to answer me at all, but it seems like you actually like her or at least care for her wellbeing enough to keep her out of harm's way."

"Octavia called you Leon, so Leon, I want to make a deal with you in exchange for doing everything in your power to keep Octavia safe."

"I'm listening."

"A few days ago, we captured two of your people. A little girl and a guy that had his fingers cut, unfortunately, the girl managed to cut the face of one of our young warriors. We were forced to leave him behind, but we took the two of them. My friend Nyko saved the boy's life while the girl was taken by our chieftain and judged. I don't know what happened to the two of them, but I believe that at least one of them is still in my village."

"Let me understand this, you are willing to help us retake our friends in exchange for protection? To be honest this deal seems to be too good for my side to be true. What the catch?"

"Peace. I want you to meet with Anya and make peace between our people. This war would only make us weaker and believe it or not, but no one other than the Mountain men would win from this conflict."

"I'll think about it and tomorrow morning I'll tell you my decision."

As soon as left, thoughts start appearing in my head which made me curse myself at how stupid I was. While it was true that we find a black guy that resembled Wells body-wise, his face and fingers were cut off so we couldn't identify him, but why would he wear our clothes if he was a grounder…

Just as I climbed down from the first floor, I saw Clarke staying by Finn's side as he was sleeping, out of harm's way thanks to her and Harper. I slowly walked past them, fearing that I may wake up our princess before leaving the dropship.

Even though I didn't want to deal with Bellamy and his stunt, I didn't want to keep him locked forever since I didn't like for him to become the second coming of Murphy. When I arrived at his tent, I saw three people guarding it and when they saw me, they let me inside.

Inside the tent, I found Bellamy mumbling something in his bed, but when he heard the tent opening, he turned his head towards the entrance. As soon as he saw me, his face showed me how much he regretted doing that, but knowing him, he will definitely do it again if that means that he would keep his dear sister alive.

"Tell me, Bellamy, was it worth it?"

"I saved my sister and I capture one of them."

"We lost two of ours just to get your sister. Who by the way was in no danger, since the grounder saved her life."

"What do you know? She was kidnapped."

"No, Bellamy, Octavia wasn't kidnapped, she got lost and Lincoln, the grounder that you captured, saved her life. He took her to his cave where he took care of her injuries before you guys showed and fought him."

Right after I explained to him what Lincoln did to Octavia, Bellamy put his hands on his head while slowly lowering his head.

"Everything was for nothing then? The torture, Dax's and Carl's deaths were all for naught? I betrayed your trust again and again, but you keep giving me more chances …why, Leon, why?"

"I believe in second chances, well in your case in multiple cases since I don't want you to end up like me when they locked me away. That hate and that overbearing sense of fear would turn you into a monster."

"What's going to happen to me now?"

"Penance my friend. You will be punished for what you did, but since we aren't on the Ark, your punishment will be just a few days locked away, after your first punishment will be done, you'll be forbidden to leave the camp for a week. What do you say, is your penance hard enough for you?"

"I deserve worse than this and you know it."

"That's exactly why I won't punish you in the worst way. You know that you did something stupid that could have cost the lives of all of our people, yet you regret doing it, even though it was your responsibility to save your sister."

"You are right, Leon. My mistakes, my responsibilities."

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