Chapter Sixteen: Live and Die on This Day

A/N: I own nothing mentioned in this story, the title of this chapter is from a poem by Jon Treloar. (Also the movie 'The Grey'.)

Inside the mountain Monty creates trouble for the mountain men, false alarms and trails of electronic destruction that has them occupied enough to not notice Raven hiding in their midst. Slowly Mara works with the revolution, trusting only those she knew were in it for the long run and they make plans, pulling all the untreated into the last section that will remain un radiated and with trembling hands and broken hearts they prepare to betray their people. Delieh works her magic in the nursery, getting mothers to agree to protect their children because the mountain was planning something and slowly the plan was coming too. Until Monty finds a surprise that has him stopping in his tracks and trembling. Medical documents on himself are in front of him and below his name is the name is a young girl he has sired. A young girl running around with his genes his blood that wasn't taken from his bones but a piece of him that was used to create miracles and it hurt because he had a daughter that did not know him. A daughter he knew nothing about and Raven face twists in anger and disgust because who would do something like this? Who would impregnate a woman just to diversify the gene pool. "I can try and get the guns down when we need to." His words are broken but resolute because he could worry about this later when lives weren't in their hands. When he had time to break down and shake, now wasn't that time. He needed to be strong and end this war.

"How?" Raven's hands press into his shoulder gently, dark eyes gentle yet understanding. The three years had changed them all but they were still family.

His eyes bore into her and his chest feels like the stings are loosening, like the panic is lessening with the trust and determination in the mechanics. It was calming and he pulls back his shoulders, ready. "I'll figure out a way, we just need to mess with some of the weapon. There wont be many causalities if we do."

Raven wants explosions and fire and all the guns to be gone bu knows that isn't and option so with a clenched jaw she offers the most diplomatic view. "Change the combo on most of the locks the day of. I'll keep them out of the gun safes."

Hours later Raven is pressing her hand into Monty's shoulder and pulling Maya along with her by her wrist, her eyes are bright with excitement, pride and fire. Dancing and churning as she drags the along. "The fogs disabled." They both look to her in excitement and Raven's lips twist into a smirk, wide and cocky.

Monty's eyes are worried yet hopeful and he squeezes the pale woman's hand. "Maya you have everyone ready?"

"Yeah, they just need the word." Maya's shoulders tremble and she wants her mom here to see the mountain fall, to see her ideas finally coming into play.

Monty sighs low in his throat, anxiety forcing him to pull at the sleeves of his shirt. "Good. They'll be here in thirty minutes."

Raven looks up sharply, her own nerves showing in the twitch f her jaw. "Guns disabled?"

"Delieh changed the locks on half of them." His eyes are remorseful and he bites his lip. "It's all the ones she could find."

"Good, half is better than none." Raven clenches her hand around the radio, swallowing thickly before looking at Maya. "Your warriors ready?"

Maya shifts on her feet. "I have weapons ready for them in the hospital wing."

"Okay." Raven presses the button and speaks lowly. "The fog is down."

It doesn't even take half a second for Clarke to respond. "Are you sure Raven?"

"Very Clarke. Its down. Be here in thirty minutes and blow the doors open." Raven connects her eyes to Monty and Maya's, swallowing down her nerves. "We'll handle the turbines as long as you can open the door."

Clarke bites her lips because this was a promise, Because there were always children who didn't know what they were into. Children who grew up in places that warped them into who they were. "The innocents?"

"Floor five, the most secure. We'll move them there in twenty minutes." Raven fingers the switch in her hand. "I'll blow the turbine in twenty-nine Clarke, timing is everything."

Clarke bites her lip but nods, chest trembling. This was it. It was happening. "Well be there in thirty. Stay safe Raven."

"Always gotta save the world." Raven smirks teasingly, voice heaving with mirth and determination and the hard truth.

The twenty minutes kill them and then Monty smiles, hitting the alarm for low oxygen levels. The guards head to level three and the innocent to level five, Delieh leading them with Daijon hand in hers. They counts heads and with a racing heart she locks the door because all the children under nineteen were in here and the revolution leaders were in here as well. All the innocents in one room. Only a hundred and seventy-two people out of three hundred and fifty were safe. Diego trucks down to the painting room, following his instincts instead of the order from the other guards. "Thought you'd do this without me?" His eyes are gleaming.

"Diego?" Maya questions, hand trembling and he just smile.

"Don't worry." He pulls out some bullets. "I worked behind the scenes seeing as you didn't trust me." He shrugs his shoulder.

Maya flinches in guilt but shrugs her shoulder. "I'm sorry Diego but you were-"

"A liability." He shrugs again, smiling. "I know. I could switch side, but I know this one is going to win so I might as well help make the odds better."

"All the guards?" Raven steps up from behind the mountain girl, eyeing the man in guard uniform.

"Most are on level three because they're immune. Some are on two and one searching for an escaped native." He tilts his chin to the room of cages, lips quirking just so.

Maya's eyes widen in anger because he wasn't risking his own life. He wasn't protecting and helping those he was forcing them into a dangerous situation. "You let someone out without telling us?" She steps closer, angrily because the ones in the cages were her people. She had fought tooth and nail to keep them alive. "They could die."

He just laughs. "I implanted it on one of the school rats and set it loose in the vents. If Monty locked the fifth floor off then they'll be busy on just the first through thirst. We're golden."

"Raven grins widely. "I don't know who the hell you are but that was smart."

He looks at Raven before finding Maya's eyes. "I'm and asshole in the revolution for all the wrong reasons."

An alarm goes off on Raven's watch and she nods to Monty, grin falling from her face. The boy flips the alarms until they begin screeching in their ears that there is a radiation lea. All the doors into the mountain unlock to allow people to move freely and Monty begins to corral the guards into one hallway per each floor, locking doors left and right on his screen and opening the ones he need. The screen is glowing on his face in the dark setting an ominous glow. Raven presses her own button with a racing heat because it was now or never. The sound of the turbines slowly recedes and the mountain stops pumping water, silent. "They cant turn them back on down there?" Diego asks with confusion.

"No the box should be blowing up ri-" The is a ground shaking explosion and Raven grins. "Now. Only I can turn them on now."

Cage is yelling out orders at his guards as an explosion rips through the mountain, shaking it. He stumbles to keep his footing and his eyes are wide with rage because there was chaos all around them with no explanation. "What was that?"

n of the guards presses his key card against the lock, biting his lip when it doesn't work. "I don't know sir. Nothing it working. The key cards are locked and the alarms are going off. There's a radiation leak."

He spins to glare at them. "You guys are immune, I don't care if there's a leak, find out what is happening! Shoot the damn doors out if you need to."

He presses a button on his remote and the reapers in the tunnel stand up straight as a low buzz sounds in the tunnels before they are ripping out of them like the devil is on their heels. Cage's jaw is ticking because this was it. This was the breaking point. The blonde had disappeared and escaped four days ago and now the mountain was falling apart. The turbines had stopped and the doors were locking. They were under attack and his guardians were needed.

They fall into the clearing as the first explosion sounds, Clarke lets out a sigh of relief because they were right one time. Anya is tense beside her watching the scene unfold as the warriors grip their weapons and those from the Ocean Clan grip guns. Monroe and Korian set up the explosions for the door and there is a ground rocking force and everyone backs away before Korian hits the button with a wide grin. The explosion is deafening and Clarke and Anya look to one another before nodding sharply, eyes promising. Murphy falls into step beside Clarke as Reapers come running out of the tunnels a low buzz greeting their ears. "Fuck." Murphy says and then the Ocean Clan are pulling the guns and aiming because sword fighting with this many warriors was suicide. A few guards exist the tunnels and Murphy jumps forward, grabbing something from his belt as he slices his throat open. He stuffs cloth into his ears because just the thought of it has his knees trembling and he tosses the noise maker to Clarke. "Press the button." He covers his ears and watches as forty plus reapers fall to their knees and backs. The sound slips quietly past the covering and Murphy stumbles but presses harder on his ears as they begin to knock the reapers out and tie them up.

Clarke grabs the radio from her belt. "Raven, hows the inside?"

Raven is panting from running, her back is pressed into a wall and Maya is beside her. "Just let loose the prisoners, they're tearing apart the guards with kitchen knifes and guns. Herding them outside to you. Leaders are hiding on the third floor. First floor and second floor guards coming to you.

"Commander?" Clarke looks to the woman who stares at the mountain in contempt.

"Raven is leading them to the large doors. We invade the mountain now. Kill all that are not innocent." Green eyes are bright and she grins ferally. "Half to the mountain the other after reapers! Jus drien jus daun!" Anya is by Lexa's side as they race through the front doors with one last look in Clarke's direction and Clarke looks to her own unit, watching as Octavia and Bellamy lead a group to the tunnels. Raid fights some guards with the rest of the warriors as they flood from the tunnels. The Ice Queen is across from Clarke, leading an attack on guards coming form the side of the mountain through the right hatch and Clarke races through the door, taking a left to Lexa and Anya's right not seeing the queen following after the Commander. Murphy on her heels with a group of warriors behind her.

Bullets rings and slam into walls and Monroe pulls something from her belt with a wink before tossing it forward, she presses against the wall and the unit follows her, Clarke watching as the explosion rips through the hallway and yells are heard. They stay low to the ground as they kill the guards and steal their guns. Harper tosses it to one of the Ice Nation warriors. "Point and shoot." She presses her finger to the muzzle. "Keep that pointed at enemies." He nods his head and they continues on. Some fall to the bullets and Clarke feels one dig into her arm as she shouts out, shoving her troop back. Murphy rolls his eyes, pressing into her side with a sardonic twist to his lips.

The mountain is full of ash and blood and death. The third floor is stationed off and it take thirty minutes for Clarke's forces to get through the guards and Murphy eyes are gleaming as they glare at the man in the center. "He's mine." Without thought Murphy is racing forward and like any idiotic loyal friend Clarke shakes her head and follows him into the fray. Ducks her head when guns swing her way and slides down on her knees to slip a knife into a man's illiac artery and watches him bleed out as she kicks the gun up into her hands and presses the trigger. It feels like before, Bellamy's hands warm on her shoulders and shooting at a cloth. It feels like muscle memory as she aims and shoots, watching each guard fall with blood spilling across their lips. Monty's blood. Her blood. Their veins previously filters with the blood of those in the cages and they fight with a viciousness that speaks of justice and revenge as she covers Murphy running after a the man with slick hair and a sneer.

Raven looks up from her work. "Once more into the fray." Her words are soft and gentle and goosebumps dance across her skin. "Monty i'm going to take down the tunnels, keep the reapers from getting to the others."

Monty stares at her with wide eyes and a fretful frown. "Raven, blowing them is dangerous."

"Reapers are dangerous." She smiles in a broken way, swallowing with a thick throat because this felt like goodbye. "I'll be back before you know it." She pulls him into a tight hug, heart aching. "It was great to see you again."

"May we meet again." His voice cracks.

"May we meet again Monty." Raven stares at him with tears in her eyes before spinning and running through the mountain.

Diego looks up with shocked eyes. "Shouldn't one of us go with her?"

Monty swallows with a thick tongue. "We need to keep them from the control room. If they get in here we fail."

Maya nods with a tense jaw but understanding eyes and Diego's chest is aching but he speaks with a foreboding resolution. "Then we defend it with out lives."

Lexa takes a bullet to the side and as she stumbles back Anya drags her behind a wall, pressing into her to prevent another bullet from meeting its target. The Queen is rolling her eyes as she stumbles upon the scene, her head bleeding from a blow caused by a guards gun. She grabs a gun from the ground, every instinct in her screaming to throw it down and take the guards lives with her hands and knife. She begins to shoot at the ones aiming for the Commander. "Find cover!" Anya stares at her in shock and the Queen teeth are white against her lip as she bites it. "Fix her wounds before she dies. We need to win this battle and if the Commander falls during it so does the hope of our people."

And so the one who fell from the graces of the spirits, not the sky, defends the Heda. The one who stole everything from her and the one who took everything in return are on equal grounds once more.

The ground shakes as explosions rip through it again and there is chaos and blood everywhere. Dirt falling from above them. Bodies cover the ground and Bellamy presses his hand into his bleeding head, a long cut along his hairline and a knife wound to his arm. The sound of fighting dies around him and all he can hear is this ringing in his ear. Octavia is crouched beside him yelling words but all he can make out is that god awful ringing before it begins to lessen. Lincoln is at her side and once Octavia presses a kiss to Bellamy's bloodied cheek, the two move as one. Knowing exactly where the other is and he watches at they take down five reapers together and he pants as one of the warriors ties a cloth around his arm, steaming the bleeding. "We have more to get." Bellamy's voice is rough as he stands to his feet. They were all bloodied and bruised but they were alive, reapers and mountain men dead at their feet along with some of their own people.

He begins to take out the remaining mountain men that stumble from the rubble around them. It is chaos, utter and complete chaos because the dirt walls around them were trembling and shuttering. Threatening to fall.

"Bell!" Octavia's voice rips him from his quest and he scrambles to his feet as he trips over a body, running towards his sisters voice with fear etched on his face. There was a desperation and broken sound to her voice that had him panicking.

Mara shouts out in pain as a bullet rips through her shoulder, it burns more than she expects it to and she slumps to the side as blood begins to runs from the hole. She presses into the wall as her blood spills from her arm in a steady frighteningly quick stream. She presses with gritted teeth into her wound, firing a few short bursts of bullets to kill the remaining mountain men as the cloth in her hand grows more red. She scoots back until she sits beside Lexa, who is pale faced and sweating. "Our fight is not over." The Queen voice is steady even as her face pales with the blood loss.

Lexa's eyes burn bright as she stands on shaky legs. "Our fight is never over." And the queen stares at her before shaking her head and standing with the help of the wall, because if this tiny girl could stand after being shot then so could Mara. She had not become the queen without pain. She knew pain and she could ignore it just as Lexa was doing.

"Then we find the leader and kill him."

Anya stares at the two of them, dark eyes wide and frantic yet calm in the face of battle. "The battle has raged on too long, wee must end it now." Her voice is full of reason and the three women head down the hall, following the line of bodies until they find a group of guards surrounding an older man, shooting with a fevor as their eyes become more and more panicked. "Lexa, Mara." Anya's voice is low and commanding and the three fall easily into their rolls, switching command again and again.

Mara grips her gun with pale hands. "I will kill the guards, take the kill Commander." She heaves the gun to her shoulder and fires, the shots echoing around the hall and meeting their marks as the force of each bullet rocketing from the barrel sends sharp pain through her shoulder. Lexa grabs her knife and creeps forward as the muzzles of the guards guns focus on Mara. Anya slips lowly beside her, grabbing the gun of a fallen guard and pressing her fingers down when Lexa gets to the older man. She rips him away from his guards as Mara and Anya shoot them down. Guns clicking once the run out of bullets and the old man is the last left standing in the middle of the room, blood surrounding him.

Lexa's face is a vicious snarl as she grabs him by his neck. Standing so much smaller than him but so much more threatening. "You bleed my people to live and you drill into those form the sky to touch the ground."

"We do what we must to survive." His words are resolute. "Would you not do the same?"

Lexa tightens her hold, growling at him but her eyes hold understanding yet hatred. "I would do anything for my people, but you have haunted us for too many years and now you fall."

He stares at her not in shock, but in a broken guilt. A broken knowledge that he thinks all of his people will die. "You will kill hundreds of innocents?"

"None of you are innocent but not all of you are guilty." With those final words she slips a knife into him, twisting it in his stomach. "I will not give you the satisfaction of touching the ground for your just torture. For you punishment of taking the lives of my people. You will die alone down here with the knowledge that you led your people to their death." Lexa's eyes are resolute and hard. He chokes on his blood coughing and pressing his hands into his wound.

The bullets ricochet off tree and find marks in flesh and Monroe is running, slicing into a guard when her eyes widen. Korian is trying and failing to defeat one of the reapers. That is not what has her heart in her throat. Behind them is a guard, taking careful aim at all of his targets and Monroe runs, feet pounding against the ground as the guard takes aim. "Korian!" Her shout rips through the air as a bullet is fired from a rifle and she jumps, shoving her body into her beloved's and they slam into the ground harshly, crumpling behind a boulder and sliding in the dirt. He grunts beneath her and his eyes dance with something as he smiles at her. She grins back, relief showing on her face. "That was close." There is a muscle relaxing slumping relief in her voice and her heart begins to calm. He chuckles wetly, smiling in a regretful way and there is blood on his teeth. She stares at him in confusion, shaking her head and he swallows, lips loosening into a tiny soft broken smile as he presses his hands into hers. Squeezing tightly as their eyes connect. There is one last shuttering breath leaving his chest and then everything is still. He isn't smiling anymore, his hand loosens from hers and falls to the ground. She shakes her head, the sound of the battle falling around her as she focuses on her beloved. On her love. She makes no sound. No wail of agony or shout of grief. She presses her head into his still chest, her shoulders trembling with loss as his unblinking eyes stare at the spot her eyes once occupied.

Yards away Miller is pressing a wet bloodied hand into Sterling's stomach, he shakes and trembles as bullets bounces off the rock around them and bury into the ground beside them. "Best kind of thief." Sterling's words are broken and choppy but there is love and amusement in his voice. "You stole my heart." He smile stupidly, lovingly, face twisted in the pain but so true and Miller breaks. Kisses him one last time, with the sharp coppery taste of blood on their lips, because they had been through hell and back and now one of them was going home alone. And with his last breathe Sterling leaves Miller smiling with a bitter sweet broken love. And he cradles his boyfriend, his soulmate, his lover, his almost unioned always beloved's body in his arms. He wants to rage and scream because all he can taste is blood on his lips and all he can feel Sterling's last breath on his cheek.

The battle continues to rage on and they have forgotten about fixing the reapers, bring them back because everything was a blood bath and they needed to stop holding back. In the midst of this chaos Bellamy stumbles from a dusty tunnel entrance, something small cradled in his arms. The body is covered in blood and dirt and there are tears on Bellamy's face. Nothing stops when he exist the entrance. This is no life altering, battle stopping moment that would lead to peace. This was a broken moment that was happening all over the battle field and he stares at the blood falling from the bodies of those all around him. Those he knows and those he doesn't.

The deaths continued and he hopes the woman in his arms wouldn't be next as he stumbles his way through the battle, slowly it was dying down but still the clash of metal against metal and flesh sounded. The bang of a rifle and the scream of the pained and mourning.

Luna spots him first, eyes the one in his arms before she is ripping her sword through the gut of a reaper and making her way to him. Her people defending her back as they try and turn the tides of the battle. There are tears in Luna's eyes as Bellamy drops to his knees beside a healers tent, the place where moaning bodies were lain and a healer fretted about. Too many wounded or dying.

Luna presses her fingers into a tan throat, the is nothing. No thrum of a pulse racing against her fingers and her chest stills before she presses harder, steadier and calms her stuttering chest. There is a soft, barely there, pulse against her finger tips. "What happened?"

"She blew the tunnels." He closes his eyes, pain etched across his features. "Stopped more reapers from coming but she was caught in it. I don't." His eyes are broken when he opens them and Luna's breath catches in her throat.

Gunfire greets them and Maya's shoulders tremble before she turns to Monty. "Go. Run I can handle it from here."

Monty shakes his head, straightening his shoulders. "I'm not leaving."

"You have people out there who care for you Monty." Her words are retrained and broken. "They'll want you to escape. My dad is dead, my mom is dead. I have no one waiting for me. Go."

"I will not leave you." His fingers tighten on hers and Diego nods from his place beside them.

"I'm scared to die." His words catch in his throat because Monty and Maya are acting like they wouldn't die, like death doesn't scare them. "I'm terrified, but i'd rather die fighting on this side than for the guards." His voice cracks and his shoulders are tight. Maya grips his hand and his other shakes as he holds his gun ready.

Monty holds another gun in his hand and Maya's fingers reach fro the second weapon strapped to Diego's thigh. The door trembles and shakes with each hit and Diego pushes them behind a desk. "Stay there, shoot anyone who comes through."

There is silence. No footsteps. No guns going off and no trembling door. The quiet is eery until it is not. There is a loud clang as something slams into the door, snapping the handle and sending sparks everywhere. Five men charge through the door with rifles and Diego fires his pistol. Killing on point black and injuring another. He stumbles back into the desk as two bullets rip into him and Monty shakes before he peeks around the edge and fires. One guard falls and there is an ear defeaning sound as Maya fires her gun beside his head, killing another.

Two more guards burst in and bullets fly to fast to keep track. There is pained shouts and grunts and blood. Monty pulls Maya back behind the desk, they were btoh bleeding and Many is paler than normal. He tilts his head to the side and she peeks around the corner and closes her eyes because there were five more guards there and they Maya and Monty were low on bullets. Diego is panting with sharp breath across from them, gun empty. She turns back to Monty and her heart stops. His eyes are closed and his breathing shallow.

She clenches her hand on her gun, feels the blood leaving from her wounds and she makes a decision. Popping her head and arm around the corner she fires. Hitting two guards in the chest and another in the leg. A bullet digs into her arm and she falls back. Wincing in pain before there are shouts on the other side of the room. She peeks around the corner to find green eyes staring back at her. There is blood coating the warriors body, skin pale and bone protruding harshly under the skin the warrior stands tall and steady. "You are safe now." She bends down, helping Maya up and pulling her arm over her shoulder, pressing with nimble fingers into the wound across Maya's side.

Maya jerks her to a stop. "Monty and Diego. They're injured. Badly."

She shouts harsh words to the hallway and the warrior with the wounded leg and almost white tattoos picks up Monty and another grabs Diego. Maya wants to stop, to treat them but the woman with green eyes speaks before she can argue. "The mountain is not safe. We must get to the ground." Maya still struggles to get to Monty and Diego but her vision is blackening, spots dancing across her vision before there is nothing.

Alarms are still ringing around them and flashing red. Murphy is shooting through any guard he can find. Stabbing at them with his sword on his way to Cage. His eyes are crazed with anger and pain as he slowly makes his way to him. Some of the guards are gun less, instead using batons and bats. And Clarke fights them. Slicing her sword through them, ducking under wide swings and spilling blood that belonged to her and Monty. Blood that had once been in their bones. There is red coating anger because these people had killed so many of the others. So many warriors and villagers dead. Monty stolen and drilled into and it made her all that more angry because they didn't feel remorse. They didn't as for help they stole it and demanded it. Turned her people into mindless monsters looking for a next fix.

Murphy makes it too Cage, eyes wide and angry and he pulls his sword back as the man swings his bat. Murphy's eyes widen and he screams. "CLARKE!" The blonde falls like a sack of limp potatoes, the baton having connected with the back of her skull. A sickening crack sounding throughout the room followed by the thud of her body. Murphy finishes swinging his sword, take a bat to his ribs as Cage's blood sprays from his neck. The man falls to the ground, chocking on his own blood as Murphy runs to Clarke, face twisted in a snarl as he kills the remaining guards with the help of the others. Harper is viscous, taking down as many as she can as Murphy race to the blonde.

The living stumble out of the mountain. Blood dripping and muscles weary. The battle done and there is an ominous silence. Clarke trembles unsteadily with her arm around Murphy's shoulder, leaning into him as her head swims. Her muscles still when she sees the left side of the battle ground, by the healer's tent.

Monty lays beside Maya and Clarke stumbles forward, ignoring the dizzying movements in her head as she falls to her knees. Her fingers touch Monty but he doesn't move. Doesn't twitch. Her brain stops working and tears fill her eyes. "Monty." Her voice is confused, begging and so pained. "Monty." Her hands press into his shoulder and Maya shakes beneath the hands of the green eyed warrior who tries to keep the blood inside of her as the other warriors scramble to save their other comrades. This is not a moment of stillness for everyone is moving in frantic motions. Clarke shakes his shoulder, tears falling down her face and the ones near her bite their lips and bow their heads because this was the man inside the mountain who helped them escape. "Monty!" She shakes with trembling sobs and another voice rips through the silence.

"Monty!" Jasper's voice is pained and broken as he stumbles forward. "NO." He picks him up, rocking him back and forth as he rips him from Clarke's hands. "I just found you." Tears fall down the goggled man's eyes. "No. No. I just got you back Monty. Please. Please come back to me." He presses his head into Monty's chest, his own heart shattering from the hope he had held for four days when Clarke utter Monty's name. "I love you. Please." He chokes sobs across from Clarke and the ones who fell from the sky watch with broken eyes because he was one of theirs and he was gone. All over again. Another one gone and lost and dead.

Maya's hand releases from her tight hold to Monty's as the man rocks him back and forth and Diego holds her other hand as he coughs up his own blood. His eyes are glazed and he stares at Maya and the green eyed warrior that had tried to save them as they had her. "I'm scared Maya. I'm scared." His eyes water and he trembles. "I'm scared."

Green eyes blaze as her fingers continue to press into the wounds on Maya. "There is nothing to fear warrior, you saved those you could and your pain will lessen. Do not fear death for it is not the end."

He shakes his head with a choked sob. "I don't want to die. I didn't want to die."

Lincoln presses his hands into the boy because there were so many injured and not enough healers. "His lung is full of blood and his intestines spilling. He will not survive."

Maya's chest is heaving with quick sharp breaths because she worked in medical. She knows the chance of him surviving without needing to see the grave look on the dark skinned native's face. "You'll be fine Diego. I promise." It is a broken promise, a false one meant to calm the panicking. "The doctors will help you. Just close your eyes. The doctors will help you."

He shakes, chest trembling and eyes watering and she feels him grip her hand in a tighter embrace, bruising and pained. "I don't want to close my eyes."

Maya's own lips trembles and she forces the tears down. "Then look at the sky Diego. Look at it."

"Its beautiful." His chest is slowing, gurgling and his eyes flutter as darkness creeps in. "It's beautiful." Maya's hand tightens on his as his chest stills and he stares unblinking at the open sly for the first and last time.

Tren frantically searches the fields, ignoring the others. Ignoring the man screaming at the body in his arms and the woman comforting the dying. Praying that he was in the mountain and coming out. Praying that his sisters unioned wasn't out here lying on the ground. He spots a familiar swirl of tattoos coated in blood and he runs forward, shoving the reapers body off of the man and staring back at him are dull brown eyes, once full of life and freedom.

He stops because no one saw the man fall. No one was there to witness his last moments and he closes his eyes and sighs low in his chest, aching. "Brother." He shakes his head and closes his eyes again in grief before pulling out his knife and dropping down to his knees beside the bloodied body. He slips a braid into his fingers before cutting it with gentle hands. "Yu gonplei ste odon Fin." His hands shake and tremble as he brushes across the twirling union mark on the fisherman's arm. He falls to sit down next to the man. Fingers restlessly brushing the blood from the almost complete union mark. Tears fill his eyes because Jun and Finn were almost completed almost together for eternity. Their spirits bounded by the swirling tattoos. "Yu don yongon." By the child growing in Jun.

Blue eyes search the battle ground, skipping over the red of the reapers and the starched clothing of the mountain and moving among the dark colors of the forest. the man he is looking for does not stand tall and loud in the battle. He is not clapping others on the back or searching for Murphy. He is laying still beside a rock, knife in his hand and eyes wide open staring at the battle. There is a bloody mess that used to be his arm and Murphy moves towards him, hands trembling before he presses his ear to the man's chest. It does not rise. Does not move and his body is still slightly warm. "Raid." His voice cracks and tears fill his eyes, his shoulders tremble and he wants to scream because he hadn't stayed with him. Hadn't grabbed the man and pulled hi into the mountain after Clarke. Hadn't gotten to say thank you. Or goodbye.

Raven lays unconscious at Luna and Bellamy's feet, the Ocean Clan Leader watching her chest rise and fall as her warriors gather their dead. Gather their injured. Slowly they were finding more and more of their people gone. Their fight over with and she watches Raven's chest to make sure the woman's fight does not end.

There is the sound a feet on metal before it is the sound of boots on dirt. The gaze falls to the mountain entrance where the Ice Queen stumbles from, The Commander's arm around her shoulder, both pale and bloody. Clarke looks up with sharp searching eyes until she finds a head of dirty blonde hair, bloodied by battle as they lead them from the door of hell, a group of innocents at their backs.

They are treating the wounded when there is the sound of feet breaking branches and every head goes to the forest, hands on their weapons. They stand ready to fight when a shout rips through the darkening sky. "Clarke!"

Clarke's feet stop moving. There is blood on her body and her hip aches and head spins but she would recognize that voice anywhere. There is loss in her heart but hope in her veins as she turns to see the ones at the edge of the forest. Her heart stalls because she had to be dreaming. The blow to her head had to have knocked something loose. "Mom?" Abby eyes to her daughter. Freezing in her steps before she is tearing forward, past the guards. Past the injured until she is sweeping her daughter up into a hug. Clarke clings to her like she is twelve again and the tears come. Throat tight chest aching. Everyone watches with rapt attention as the warrior who brought fire and death clings to a woman from the sky.

Kane stumbles forward, clapping his hand on Bellamy's shoulder, telling them they heard Monty's signal. Anya and the other grounders stand with tense shoulders at the sky demons in front of them and the mountain men at their back.

Lexa comes forward first, eyeing the man who stared at them with wonder. "Why do you have one of my warriors?" Her green eyes are accusing.

Kane straightens his shoulders but tilts his head in respect but Abby speaks with a raw angry tone. "She was following us, attempted Kane's life, he spared her when I would have killed her." Lexa clenches her jaw but nods, cutting the rope to her warriors bonds. The woman glares at the sky people before bowing at her knees to the commander and then moving to the healers tent to aid those who had been injured.

They set up camp for the night, treating the wounded even as they look at the mountain in contempt. The mountain people gather their belonging, prepared to leave the blood bath with the new group tomorrow. Abby is treating the ones of the mountain who do not have the marrow treatment. Clarke slumps beside Bellamy, shoulders pressing together as they stare at the night sky. They sit in the silence that they both understand and watch as they people slip into sleep or stare at the stars with them. The warriors that had been in cages are lying on the ground, backs pressing into the earth and eyes on the stars and the trees. Wind in their face. free once more.

Clarke's mother is inside the mountain checking out the supplies as she treats those who could not step outside and Clarke cant find it in herself to do the same. She just sits here in the silence as they load bodies of her friends and warriors onto carts to take back home for their fire and their spiritual release. Raven slumps down on the other side of them. Face covered in dirt but the blood is wiped clean and she is stitched up. "Who will tell Jun?" Her voice crack and Bellamy presses an arm over her shoulder and Clarke grips his other hand. "She didn't want him to come."

"Well tell her when we get there." Bellamy's voice cracks. "There are many families we have to tell."

"It's over though." Raven stares at them with broken eyes, tired and anguished. "Right?"

"Yeah." Clarke's voice sounds as broken as Raven's. "It's over." There is the shuffle of feet and Murphy presses into Clarke's other side.

"I put Raid with the others from our village." His thighs and shoulders are pressing harshly into hers but she leans back into him because they had grown up with Raid in the last three years.

They sit in silence again and slowly more people tricking into their fire. Monroe leans against Raven's legs, Octavia and Lincoln are pressed together in front of them. Miller drops down beside Monroe and pulls Jasper down with him. Harper stumbles to Jasper's side and slowly those of the former hundred fall into a circle, a cluster. Clarke wants to draw this moment. Wants to force and etch it into her memory because there are too many holes here. Too many missing spaces but this is their original family. They stay there pressed into one another until more people join them. The Ocean Clan shuffling to press against their brothers and sisters sides. Delieh sits down beside Jasper, Daijon in her arms and Jasper looks pained but accepting because she had been Monty's friend for ages and Monty had told her of him. Had trusted this girl with the knowledge of him and Monty.

Everyone begins to head to their sleeping quarters and Clarke stands, Murphy at her side and she feels for him because Raid had been Murphy's tent partner all these years. He looks at her with broken eyes and together they make their way to Anya's tent. Murphy dragging his feet behind her. Anya looks up with sharp eyes, shoulders wrapped in bandages and the kohl still coloring her face. "Clarke." There is relief in her face and she steps forward, nodding to Murphy. The man sits on the bed of furs, taking off his boots and burrowing into the blankets without looking at the,. Anya looks over Clarke, eyes stopping on the bandage on her arm and the dried blood at the back of her head. "Your injuries."

Clarke smiles with a crooked half heart twitch of her lips. "Have been treated. I'm fine."

"Good." She steps closer, brows furrow and her hand reaches to grip the side of Clarke's neck gently, eyes boring into Clarke's own. "I am glad."

They stand there for a moment, eyes taking in the damages done before Clarke presses closer, slipping her arms around Anya. The woman stiffens but then relaxes. They stand the for a moment before they pull off their boots, heading to bed. Clarke falls into the middle of the bed, Anya pressing into her front, and Murphy shuffles closer until he is pressing into her back, a wet spot forming on the blades of her shoulders where his head presses impossibly closer to burrow into her back.

Maya is sitting beside the green eyed warrior, shoulders pressed together as they enjoy the air and the night sky. The freedom from their cage. Lexa comes to stand behind her. "Lydia."

Sharp green eyes look up to find an all too familiar green. "Lexa."

Lexa's eyes are a hard plate of stubborn emotion but there is relief in there. "You are alive, taken by the mountain."

"You thought I had deserted." She stares at her sister with almost contempt yet there is love in there as she shakes her head. She had been stuck in that mountain for three years or more and they thought she had deserted them. "I would not leave you of my own free will."

"You will come home." The Commander is gone, in this moment is just Lexa, asking her sister to be there. to come back and forgive her.

Lydia's eyes narrow and her hand tightens around Maya's fingers, hidden by their legs. "There is no home for me, but I will go with you to Polis. You will need someone to watch your back."

Lexa ducks her head, swallowing thickly, guiltily. "Mother is gone."

"I know."

Her jaw ticks in emotion and nervousness as she stares at her older sister, the one who Lexa used to follow around. "I missed you sister."

Lydia smiles disarmingly. "And I you." She stands on sturdy feet, leaving Maya to stare at them in wonder. "I do not pledge to the forest but I will follow you into anything yongon." Lexa scowls at the reference to her age. Lydia turns to Maya, green eyes imploring because they had been constants in each-others life for three years. "If you wish to come?"

Maya swallows, eyes wide. "I have no where else to be."

Abby looks at the medicine slowly being loaded onto cart. The grounders wouldn't touch it, staring at it with contempt. She bites her lip as they load machinery onto the carts, preparing to take them back to the Arc. To have a real medical station. She offer any mountain men to come with them before turning and asking Clarke if she had to pack. Clarke stumbles back into Anya, whose face is twisted in dull broken acceptance.

Clarke chest aches because she hadn't thought about leaving. About living arraignments. Couldn't think about anything last night except that her friend had died. She had found them again after three years and they died. Couldn't think past the fact that Anya was okay. Anya and Murphy were alive. Her mother was alive and well and she had been exhausted physically and mentally so she slept without worrying about today. "We made a home." Clarke's voice cracks as she speaks to her mom. "The others with the Ocean Clan and Murphy and I with the woods. I can't leave." Clarke shakes her head, watching her mother's face crack. "I'm the healer."

Brown eyes are on fire, deep and all consuming and begging. "Clarke I just found you again, don't leave me again."

She looks torn, looking between her people and knowing her heart is ripping in three different ways. Withe Anya and Murphy. With Bellamy, Raven and Octavia. The hundred. With her mother and she aches because her mom was her home for the first 17 years of her life and Bellamy, Raven and Octavia the first months on the ground and Murphy and Anya had been home for the last three years.

She stares at Monroe and Miller's slumped shoulders. Jasper's broken gaze and Murphy's regretful eyes. She watches Luna pressing closer to Bellamy and Raven and Kane's hand on her mothers shoulder. Everything is so broken and resolute.

"I don't want to leave you mom." Her voice cracks and Anya face twitches but doesn't change as she stands behind Clarke. "I don't. I can'. I lost everyone I ever loved three years ago." Her words fracture. "And I found them again days ago only to lose them yesterday. I don't want to lose anyone else. I can't. I don't want anyone to leave." Her eyes water but steel in resolve. "But we've made our homes. We've buried our ties into places that can't be pulled out. I found a home in the forest mom and I can't leave it." Abby shakes her head in denial but Clarke continues speaking. "I can't ask you to leave the Arc, I know you wouldn't. I can't ask Bellamy and Raven to stay here in the forest with the others of the hundred because I know they won't. They made a home in the Ocean and to come back here or move away from her would be torture."

Tears fill Abby's eyes and she stares at her daughter in a pained understanding way. "So you're staying."

"I grew up mom." Blue eyes spill with tears. "I made something for myself when I thought I was the last one alive. I can't." She shakes her head, pulling in a deep breath. "As much as I want to go with you I cant. There are. There are thing I care about here. Things I have found and discovered and people I care about. They've been my family these last few years."

Abby throws her hands wide, eyes frantic. "I am your family, thick and thin Clarke. I am your mother."

"And you always will be." She presses close to her, pulling her hands down and hugging her tightly. "Hundreds of years ago kids would move away from home to go to college. They'd make something for themselves. This is no different."

Abby clings to here daughter, breathing in the smell of her. Forest, soot, and blood. Not like she used to. So different from those years ago on the Arc. "There are no planes or cars to take here Clarke. We live almost two hundred kilometers away."

"There are horses you can use and annual celebrations to go to." Clarke hugs her mom tighter, clinging to her like she would vanish. "There is Polis. The Commander will talk to you about an alliance." Abby can feel the finality of the moment. Of Clarke words and she clings to her tighter for the moment. "You came to aid in the fall of the mountain. She won't forget that."

Abby releases her daughter, pulling back with sad eyes and a stern expression, one that is barely holding grief together. "We have to get these machines back to the camp. Get everyone home." Behind her stands the remaining mountain men and many horses loaned to them. The Horse Clan ambles beside them, the Arc Camp on their way home.

"I will see you again mom." Clarke words crack and break and her heart does the same because this felt right but so wrong.

She presses a kiss to the crown of her daughter's head. "You've grown so much. Your dad would be proud."

"We both have duties now." Clarke wants to bury her face back into her mother's shoulder. "You need to get your people home and I need to get my own home."

Abby pulls her in for one last hug, cradling her to her chest as she presses a kiss to her daughters temple. "May we meet again."

Clarke's fingers scramble in her mothers jacket, gripping her tightly as her heart cracks. "May we meet again mom."

Anya finds her later that night staring at the dark sky. "You did not leave." Her words are low and almost relieved.

Clarke looks up to watch Anya, her eyes softening as they land on the general. "As much as my mom hates it, my home is here."

Anya nods with a finality in her eyes and a promise on her lips."And it will always be your home."

Clarke presses a soft kiss to Anya's lips, leaning into her. "We will see them again, everyone."

"In this life or the next." Anya's eyes are sharp yet sad because she had lost many tonight, the same as Clarke.

"Anya."

Dark eyes connect with Clarke's and stay there, unwavering and calm. "Yes?"

Blue eyes burn a fire into brown, uncontrolled and wild. "I choose you. Always."

There is emotion in Anya's eyes, burning and bright and chaotic as her eyes find Clarke's, remembering the blood coating the blonde. The pain in her face and something snaps into place and sets itself right. "In all of our lifetimes I will choose you Clarke. Your bright eyes and the stubborn set of your jaw." Anya pulls the blonde closer, pressing a kiss to her jaw.