Chapter 42 - Peace and Trust

When Anya woke, it was already morning. I was inside of the medical tent when Byrne burst into the tent and informed Abby that guards had seen some movement in the woods and that she was unsure if the grounders were watching them or if some of the children have managed to escape just like Clarke.

Clarke was up as well, but they all barely noticed her rise out of her unconscious slumber until she groaned, feeling the effect of the wound that had been masked by adrenaline.

"Damn it, I lost…" Anya hissed as she was forced to lie back down from the pain, but despite her pain, she would soon have to get up and leave this place. Even though I told her that no one will touch her, we both know that my words would hold next to nothing if the guards and the people force them inside the medical tent to kill a grounder that killed their children.

"Leon!" Clarke exclaimed as she slipped on her pants and made her way over to me and Anya. Anya again tried to sit up, still injured and exhausted, but after struggling for a while she managed to sit. Not long afterward, Clarke sat down on the makeshift bed before she looked at me.

"Thank God. I was starting to worry about you. I thought that you died that night."

"C'mon princess, I may act like an idiot sometimes, but I'm not that dumb to get myself killed, besides, if I die, who would look after your asses?"

"Still the same as always, I'm glad to see you again, Leon."

"You aren't the only one, princess. Clarke…I'm sorry if it would bring you some bad memories, but who many survived?"

"Sixty-one and believe it or not, Sergey was saved by the Mt. Weather."

I was surprised when I heard that he survived, because the last time I saw him, he was shot by quite a lot of arrows, but some things weren't right, about everything regarding Mt. Weather and their sudden desire to be good Samaritans.

When Clarke saw that I didn't respond or even show any tiny bit of excitement on my face, she pinched my arm.

"Ooh. Ouch. That hurt, princess."

"Good! You deserved it!"

"Oh, come on princess, I was thinking about the hidden motives of the people from Mt. Weather."

Suddenly, Byrne, who was talking to Abby, pulled her pistol and aim it at Anya's head.

Unlike what Byrne and Abby thought would happen, Anya simply looked at her, making them realize that she wasn't scared of dying.

"I may not an official prisoner, but I'm not that naïve to believe that Leon helped me for nothing, and to be fair, your little threat won't earn you anything. I survived countless fights, I was wounded more than I can even remember, been shot once when I was younger by the mountain men, I had my limbs broken on more than one occasion, and I was tortured, and stabbed. Do you think one pistol to the head is going to make me talk? If so, please be my guest, shot me."

Clarke could only shake her head in disappointment before she looked around the tent, as she noticed her mother staring at me and Anya as Byrne was pointing her gun at us. It took her a moment, but in the end, Clarke couldn't take it anymore.

"Mom! What's the meaning of this? Without Anya, I would have been dead!"

"That's exactly why she's here and not in a containment cell. Clarke, I know that you and Leon may not see her as an enemy anymore, but from what we saw and experienced since we landed, the grounder still sees us as enemies. Thanks to Leon, we didn't suffer any losses as he gave us quite a lot of information about the way, these people wage war and their tactics, but we need to learn more about them."

Abby walked over to Anya and sat down on the other side of her, she took her hand carefully. Anya was about to react when she saw me shaking my head as I tried to tell her that it wasn't worth fighting back.

"Anya, right? I'm sorry if the way we are acting right now may be seen as sudden or unjust, but you have understood our standing as well. Your people had attacked our kids and now, that we have come down here, the balance has tilted in our favor. I know that you realized that, especially after what you have seen last night."

"Then why are you keeping me here as a prisoner? To use me as a bargaining tool when you negotiate with my Commander? Or is it just your curiosity?"

"Here you are wrong. From what Leon told me, your people don't really like to deal with prisoners, but you aren't wrong either. We aren't going to use you to achieve peace between our people, instead I, as the acting Chancellor, decided to treat you despite what my people advised me. I put myself in danger for you and as such, I want your word that you will do everything in your power to help both of our people coexist in peace."

Abby's words were something no one in this tent expected to hear from her, especially now that the whole camp may become a battlefield if the grounders decide to attack us. But despite what everyone may think about her Abby knew that our only chance was to end this pointless fight and help each other. After all, if both sides die, no one would benefit from this war, besides Mt. Weather, but that's another problem that needs to be dealt with.

When she heard her mother talking about peace, Clarke let out a sigh of relief and, had she not been injured, she would've volunteered herself to be the person that would follow Anya to talk about peace with her Commander. Instead, she could only let me follow Anya back into enemy territory, hoping that the grounders would listen to our proposal. After a while, Clarke decided to ask us something that was making her feel scared. "Mom, Leon… what happened to the people that didn't enter the dropship when we use the blast? Raven, Finn, Octavia, Bellamy…"

"Raven's here. She was shot, but she's alive, thanks to John Murphy, who stood with her until Marcus found them."

"Then…Finn and Bellamy were here, right?" As soon as she realized that, Clarke smiled brightly as if what happened to her didn't matter anymore.

"They were here, Clarke. Bellamy, Finn, Sterling, Monroe, and I survived the blast."

"They were? Where are they now?"

"They left to find where you all disappeared while I had to remain behind to cover them."

"We have to find them. We have to go now if we even want to have a chance to stop Mount Weather from what they're gonna do to our friends and to all of the grounders locked there!"

Abby didn't say anything, but Clarke knew that her mother wouldn't let her leave, especially after she almost lost her only daughter and no one would change her decision. Seeing that her own mother wasn't going to help her, Clarke got up before she brushed past Abby without even looking back at her mother.

As soon as Clarke walked out of the medical tent, I run after her, just to be there in case she does something stupid. When I caught up to her, I saw Clarke watching as a bunch of people gathered around the entrance to see what was happening at the front gate, and when we were behind the crowd, I saw Raven slowly making her towards the gate with the help of a crutch.

Sadly, she got injured by that idiot, and thanks to him, she would have to spend the rest of her life walking with a crutch due to how severe the damage to her leg was. I quickly grabbed Clarke and jogged over to Raven.

"Good morning, Tinker Belle!" Raven turned around and gave me a smile.

"Hey, Leon. How many times did I tell you to spot calling me like that? I'm not a tailor."

After she said those words, Raven noticed Clarke, who was impatiently trying to look over the crowd to see what was going on.

"Clarke! How are you? "

"Me? Oh, I'm fine." Clarke didn't even look at Raven since she was focused on the front gate.

"What's going on, Clarke?"

"Bellamy and Octavia are back. They are on top of Betsy!"

I couldn't believe that they have brought Niylah with them, but then again, other than Lincoln, who I suppose was still injured, and the only grounder that may listen to them was Niylah and even then she would only help them for the right price of course. We quickly made our way towards the front gate and as soon as we reach the front of the crowd, I saw the same woman that pointed her pistol at me, yelling at Bellamy to stop moving any further.

"Bellamy Blake! One more step and we will open fire!"

"Our friends are wounded! We need help!"

"Our chancellor has declared you as fugitives and traitors! We have been instructed to kill or capture you as soon as we saw you, so give me a good reason why I shouldn't shoot you and your grounder-loving friends right now?"

Before either Bellamy or Byrne react, a gun touched the back of Byrne's head.

"It's quite simple, miss Byrne, if my friends aren't allowed inside, I will simply blow your brains out. I know that you hate the grounders for killing your husband, but that's not a good reason for me. My friends aren't the enemy and neither is anyone inside this camp. We all are fighting the same people and believe me, I'd love for this whole war between us and the grounders to end and for me to live peacefully for a change. So, Major Byrne, who are we going to do this?"

"Kane told me that I would have to deal with you someday, but I wouldn't have expected that you will have the guts to threaten me in front of our people like this, but for the first time since I've become a soldier, I'm wrong. Let the kids pass!"

"Thank you, mam."

"I hope this would be the last time you aim a gun at me, boy. Next time I may not take it that well."

"Point taken mam, also I want to ask permission for arming myself. I'm going to meet the enemy commander and propose a peace treaty."

"Permission granted and Leon, you shouldn't trust these people that easily."

"Mam, I know where I'll be going and I'm not that optimistic about how I would be treated."

Raven pushed through the crowd of people and stopped a few meters away from where she witnessed Clarke and Octavia in a hug and Bellamy standing idly to the side, while Monroe, Sterling, and a new girl were being helped by a few guards.

Meanwhile, Niylah looked at the camp in amazement because, for her, this was the first time she ever saw a new tribe as they call us with a culture completely different from theirs.

While everyone walked into the camp, Niylah stood outside, not wanting to create more problems for her and us alike, but that wasn't a good reason for me to ignore my friend. As soon as I walked out of the camp, I could feel a pair of eyes on my back and if I had to guess, Byrne was trying to understand the relationship between the two of us.

"Who would have guessed that you will visit me in such a grand way?"

"It's nice to see you, Leon. Octavia told me what happened… I'm sorry."

"Thanks, Niylah, but this is how wars are fought, people die…Anyways, how did Octavia persuade you to help her?"

Niylah smiled at me before she leaned a little to whisper something to me. When I heard what Octavia had promised, my eyes went wide open, before I let out a sigh.

"That's Octavia for you."

"It's not like you don't want to do it."

"Well yeah, but still, I have feelings."

"Poor baby, did your fragile feelings break that easily?"

"Of course, and because of that, I would need someone to comfort me."

We both laugh at my words before I heard Clarke yelling my name and that was the time when I knew that I will leave the camp. And for the first time since I've been sent down here, I was uncertain if this was the best way to achieve peace.

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