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It was moments like this that I almost missed being back on the Arc. At least in space, there was only so much that could be done in secret. At some point, there was no more room to hide. There are only so many empty compartments, maybe a handful of people who didn't know you by name. It was hard to get away with anything before someone, somewhere found out. Earth wasn't like that. Unlimited space, unlimited people, unlimited time to fuck things up.

"There's no chance to get those in the mountain to reason with us?" Marcus asked from his seat at the war table. "At least long enough to get our people out?"

"Your people are not the only ones trapped inside," Anya growled from her seat, eyes glaring.

"Both of our people," Marcus corrected quickly.

"No," Clarke answered, trying to descalate the tension in the room. For the past few hours she had been debriefing the war council and the Arc council on her time imprisoned in the mountain. No one from the clan had ever been inside the mountain and come alive. And no one counted reapers among the living.

"Why give up a good thing," I mumbled, catching the attention of both sides. "They have our people to turn, and yours to heal them now. Why bargain with us? They have everything they need."

We were at a disadvantage and everyone was aware. These mountain men had a fortress of literal stone, a blood thirsty unfeeling army at their disposal, and a new fresh blood source to keep them sated for years. There would be no negotiating. No peace talks.

"Cole is right," Anya voiced, drawing the attention back to her as she radiated authority. "There will be no reasoning with them. Only war. Blood must pay for blood."

"If we are to succeed in stopping them, we need to work together," Marcus added, every bit the diplomat he acted as.

"You are here as a courtesy, alive by the mercy of the Commander," Indra sneered, fists banging against the table harshly. "Why would we need you? You know nothing of war."

"The burning bodies littering the woods would say otherwise," Raven countered, anger rising in her voice. Indra stood quickly, throwing her chair backwards while drawing a knife from her belt.

"Don't let her rile you so easily Indra," I spoke quietly, switching to the clan's native language. I spared her only a glance before turning to the dark haired scowling woman across from me.

"Tread lightly Raven," I warned. "Insulting the dead will not gain you favor here. And their favor is exactly what you need if you want to get any of your friends out of that mountain."

"We will need your help," Clarke interrupted, directing her attention back to Anya. "We have guns, but you have the army."

"You'll need more than those guns," Indra warned, taking her seat again.

"We've figured out how they are communicating and we think that we can shut down their radio signal and disarm the acid fog," Clarke continued, suddenly adding value to their proposition.

Just the mention of acid fog made my skin stand on end. Every encounter I have had with it has been lethal, and if I could turn it off - or better yet, turn it on the mountain men than I would jump at the chance.

"Cole is already finding a way to combat the fog," Indra hissed. I wanted to cringe, but I couldn't give us away. It was a bluff, sort of. I knew that the night blood had properties to combat radiation exposure, that much I had figured out. How it was possible, or how to transfer those properties were completely mystifying. But those from the Arc didn't know that, and it made them look far less helpful.

Dr. Griffin eyed me from across the room, but I kept my expression as neutral as I could manage. I even took care the censor my thoughts to keep from rambling as Jaxon often reminded me I did. Now was not the time to be thinking out loud.

"We also think that we may have found a way to reverse the drugs they use to make your men into reapers," Dr. Griffin voiced after studying me for a moment longer. Her statement caused me to finally meet her eyes. Roles reversed as I studied her. Reversing the reaping process would be huge.

"Is that possible?" Anya asked, leaning forward to look down the row to me. "Our healers have never been able to before."

"How?" I asked, brows knitting in confusion. I hadn't actually ran into any reapers since travelling south. Only heard rumors and stories.

"It's an addiction, they have to come off of it like any other drug," Clarke explained. "Except we can't wean them off, so we just have to monitor them while they go through withdrawal."

"Something that intense isn't an easy come-off," I responded, thinking through their process. Addiction was never a huge issue on the Arc, with most of the good drugs being locked and under guard constantly. However, where there was a will there was a way.

"People on the Arc died coming off drugs far gentler," I pointed out, not missing how Clarke dropped her gaze for a moment. "Exactly how many times have you tested this theory?"

"It doesn't matter!" Raven exclaimed with a smirk. "We have a reaper and can prove what we're saying."

I turned towards Anya and shrugged slightly. She had waited patiently through my questioning, curious about the process as well.

"In theory makes sense," I told her. "In practice seems shaky. It wouldn't be sure fire, not everyone would make it through the withdrawal. That's if any make it through at all."

"We can't save everyone, now without finding a way to duplicate the serum," Clarke admitted. "But this would be a start. A way to get some of your people back."

Anya sat back in her chair, her eyes calculating as she scanned the Arc group before her. She was never brash in her planning and it was something I had come to admire greatly.

"Bring the reaper here," she concluded, "show us you can do this and I will accept your request for an alliance."

The group hesitated before Clarke spoke up, "We can show you, but it's too risky to transport him, we have him at the original drop ship. You'll have to come there."

Indra scoffed from beside me and I didn't blame her. Having the Commander go anywhere with them was out of the question.

"Cole and a group of our warriors will go in my place," Anya countered. I wanted to groan, I should have seen that coming. "You will leave in a hours time, it will give them time to gather what they need to travel."

"There's one more thing to discuss," Raven spoke up, stopping everyone in their movements. "We're not leaving without Finn."

"The two of your men who attacked our village?" Anya asked, though it was more of a statement. "You only want one back?"

"We want both," Dr. Griffin corrected. "As a sign of good faith if you will."

"They will be released when you return with our warriors and this healed reaper," Anya decreed.

"We are not leaving without Finn," Raven argued, turning towards Clarke with a fire in her eyes. They were unorganized, and it made them appear weak. Anya apparently had the same thoughts as she stepped away from the table, not following the normal procedure that demanded respect.

"Then stay," she responded dismissively, signaling for her own council to follow her out. I heard Raven's rebuttals and arguments, but paid them no mind as I rose and followed the Commander out behind the council. Let Clarke deal with her.

The council stopped before Anya's tent, I briefly wondered if I should give them space to talk before her dark eyes met mine.

"See if what they say is true," she commanded. The council around us hummed with caution and excitement, healing our people would be a huge step forward. It would weaken these mountain men, and bring our people back home.

"And if it's a trap?" Gustus asked from beside the Commander.

"They need this alliance more than we do," I argued. "We have scouts watching their main camp, if any of them had moved we would already know. So it will just be our group with theirs, and there's no challenge there."

Others in the council voiced their concerns, some were from outlying tribes and still were unsure of my loyalties it seemed. Though I was starting to realize they were unsure of just about everything foreign. Their debate lasted only a few minutes before Anya quieted them.

"Cole is most familiar with their medicine, and has proven her loyalty," she said, eyes meeting those surrounding her before stopping on me. "If there is a way to return our warriors, she can be trusted to find the truth."

"Nyko, with Cole as your second you will go with her," she added. A handful of other council members were named to go as well. Looking at the group I realized that she had warriors from each major tribe: Jaxon and three other men. Of course not every tribe could go on our field trip, but those she had selected came from the major tribes that had the most influence on the council. It was smart I realized, me and Nyko would get the technical portion and if this worked then there would be enough high ranking warriors to spread the news with credibility.

An hour later we were trekking through the woods, there was a clear divide between us and them I noted. Even though Dr. Griffin had dropped back to try and talk to Nyko - space healer to Earth healer - the rest of the group stayed divided for most of the trip. Not as long as I would have liked though.

"There's no need, keep walking," I growled lowly, not giving him a chance to speak.

"Colette," he pleaded. "I just want to talk."

I saw Jaxon spare a quick glance back at me, waiting for a sign to step in. I shook my head slightly, I could deal with my father on my own. Though we were on the ground, he still had the same space mentality. It was something familiar, something that I knew how to deal with.

"You've created a strong bond with them," he noted. I almost laughed, he probably wouldn't be so supportive if he knew how deep that bond actually went. I glanced back up at Jaxon's figure ahead of us, yeah, that definitely wasn't a bond he would be keen on.

Just by his tone I could tell he thought I was still on their side. Just some silly little girl playing grounder for a bit. He would find out soon enough though, there was no faking it on Earth.

"They seem to trust you as well," he continued, not put out by my cold shoulder. "You need to convince the Commander that she needs this alliance as much as we do. That everyone is better off if we all work together."

"No," I interrupted harshly. "I don't have to do anything."

I readjusted the backpack on my shoulders, anything to distract me from the rising tension. I was prepared for this the moment he moved up beside me, he only spoke to me because he needed to use my position. That was the only reason he ever spoke to anyone - to get what he wanted from them.

"If you want her to trust you, then you have to give her a reason to. Prove that you are worth having as an ally," I explained. "I know that you're used to having things handed to you and going exactly how you planned, but that ended the moment you crashed here. There are no handouts on the ground, if you want something you're going to have to work for it this time around."

He almost faltered in his next step, wide-eyed staring at me. I had never been so vocal or resistant back on the Arc. I had been too scared, too weak. Too dependent on what little security he had provided back in space. But I wasn't that same little girl anymore.

"Colette, I know you're angry at me," he said after a moment, I could almost see the gears turning in his head. "You have to know that I'm sorry, for everything. For not being there when you needed me after the arrest, for not being a better father … But my life isn't the only one at stake now, don't let your anger at me cloud your judgement on what's best for our people."

"Don't worry," I told him, turning to make eye contact with him for the first time. "I'm seeing everything very clearly, for the first time in a long time."

"If you really want to do what's best for those remaining from the Alpha station, then stop playing these mind games and start putting in actual work," I advised, stopping just short of the rest of the group. We had reached the drop ship, but I wanted to say my peace. "Worry more about taking care of your people, instead of worrying about ours."

"They are your people too," he reminded me, tone losing all softness. He was dropping his facade. "No matter how much you deny it."

"No, they were never my people," I told him, tone matching his gravel. "They were just other humans that lived on the same spaceship as me. We may share that in common, but make no mistake where my loyalties lie."

"With these grounders?" he whisper harshly, motioning to the group up ahead. "These people who hunt and slaughter us with spears as if we're animals?!"

"Would you feel more comfortable if we switched to guns and shock whips instead?" I bit back at him.

"They are vicious," I conceded, though my voice lost none of its edge. "But they are loyal, honorable, and fair. The weak are always preyed on by the strong, so there is no room for hushed condolences or coddling. No place for lies and mistrust. We are only as strong as the weakest of us, so there can be no place for the weak. I know that seems cruel to you, but there is structure in their system and a sense of community among warriors that you will never understand."

"So that's it?" he asked, scoffing at my defense. "You think you're a warrior? You think that …"

"I think that I'm a goddamn fisa," I interrupted, wanting to waste no more time on an argument that was going nowhere. "And I have reapers to heal apparently, so you can stand out here and gawk on how unfair everything is, but I have work to do."

I moved forward briskly, not giving him a chance to formulate a response. As I approached the group both Nyko and Jaxon made eye contact with me briefly, telling me that my little family feud wasn't as private as I thought. I didn't dwell on it though, and I moved up the drop ship ramp until I found Clarke and her mother.

"So I'm assuming that this reaper you have is already coming down?" I asked, noticing the silent tension between mother and daughter in front of me. Seems I wasn't the only one having family issues.

"It started earlier this morning," Clarke explained, taking the lead as we moved into the drop ship. "The worst of it happens in the first 12 hours, if we can get them through that then there's a good chance they'll survive."

"Exactly how many times have you been through this process?" Nyko asked from beside me. He and a few of the others had followed us inside, though I noted some most be on guard out front. Always prepared for anything it seemed.

"Just a handful of times," Dr. Griffin admitted.

"You're very own reaper rehab center it appears," I said cheekily, as glanced around the scorched supplies that littered the floor. "And just how many actually survived?"

"Less than that," Clarke answered, but looked at the group determined despite her answer. "But we know it can be done."

"Let's hope so," I told her seriously. "Where exactly is the reaper?"

"Upstairs, Octavia is watching over him," Clarke explained. "We have him restrained, it was the safest option."

WIthout being promoted Clarke moved to the ladder that led to the next level. I moved to follow, but Jaxon pulled me back gently by my arm, taking my place instead with his weapon drawn. I looked over at Nyko who nodded once at the action but I just rolled my eyes. He sighed heavy, just as he always did when I made such 'space' gestures as he called them. They were undignified and childish he chided. I let out a short laugh and climbed up after the fearless warrior.

Jaxon pulled me the rest of the way off the ladder once I was close enough, and offered his hand to Nyko to steady the larger healer. I noticed without comment that he moved away and let Dr. Griffin and Bellamy climb up on their own. We looked after our own.

I heard Nyko let out a string of curses as he looked over my shoulder. Confused at the normally constrained healer, I set my bag down and turned to see what had caught his attention.

"Shit," I muttered, letting a few other curses lose as well. They didn't just have any reaper, they had Lincoln. And as I took in Octavia's desperate forlorn look, the apprehension on Clarke's face, and the rigid posture of giant healer beside me I realized that we were about to be in for a long night.

Hours passed and the tension in the room only grew. Despite making decent progress with Lincoln, the entire situation had everyone on edge. As we monitored vitas Nyko, myself, Clarke and Dr. Griffin discussed the reapers as a case study, seeing what we could apply from space and Earth medicine to make the transition easier. It was largely trial and error as me and Nyko switched from different herbs and tonics, but some eased the pain. Others had nearly gotten me bitten for my efforts.

"We need to replicate the serum," I concluded. It would be the easiest way to counteract the effects if we only knew exactly what the serum even was.

"That would speed up the process," Clarke agreed. "Bell, if you have a chance when you go inside, if you see any of the red serum they use do you think you could grab some?"

"Sure," he replied, "No problem, I'm sure if I ask nicely they'll bottle some up for me before I shut down their entire power grid."

"Bell," Clarke started before Bellamy interrupted again.

"Listen princess, I'm all for…"

"I'm going to let you guys have a moment," I butted in. I had been waiting for a good time to excuse myself and stretch my legs and this was as good as time as ever. I didn't need to listen to the children bicker. "I need to move around a bit, yell if anything changes?"

Clarke nodded before going back at it with Bellamy.

"Are you going to stay?" I asked Nyko, knowing he had to be as uncomfortable as I was crouched in the small space, if not more so due to his size, but he just shrugged me off.

"I'll stay and watch over him," he said heavily. Lincoln had been a good friend of Nyko's and despite his affair with Octavia Nyko still considered him as such. "Go while you can, we are not in the clear with him yet."

Nodding I moved towards the hatch, grabbing the rails and letting my boots skid aside the railing as I slid down. I wasn't surprised when Jaxon followed, throughout it all so far he had been nothing more than a shadow in the room. Quiet and observing.

"Is it over? Is he cured?" one of the warriors asked as I stepped into the cool night air. They had to be just as restless stuck in one spot as we had been inside.

"Not yet," I told them honestly. "We're making progress though, it shouldn't be much longer before we know if this will work or not."

"If they call for us, yell," I asked before walking off the ramp. My thoughts were racing and I just needed to move and process everything before anything else surprised us.

This process was far riskier and chancey than Clarke had let on. Giving pain relievers and wet washrags wasn't a solution, it was a shot in the dark. If Lincoln made it through the night it would be nothing short of a miracle.

"It wouldn't be the first time you have done something seemingly impossible," Jaxon spoke quietly from his position next to me. He had fallen in step beside me, listening patiently to my rambling thoughts.

"We can't keep relying on chance," I countered, still arguing with myself more than him. "There is too much uncertainty, there has to be a better way."

If I had a lab maybe I could synthesize Lincoln's blood, search for discrepancies in the tests that were a result of the serum. But even in that perfect world, creating a antidote would take years. Time we simply didn't have.

"You think the answer is in his blood?" Jaxon asked, trying to follow my verbal rambling.

"I don't know," I sighed. "I don't know and that's the problem."

"Would the sky people have a lab like you need at their base?" he prompted.

"Doubtful," I told him after thinking it over for a moment. The odds of the science lab landing in tact after a less than graceful entry into the atmosphere were not in our favor. "Even if they did, I'm not sure they would let me use it unrestricted. I don't want to tell them about the night blood until I know more about it first, I can't risk them using it against us."

"Clarke seems to trust you, I'm sure you could get her to agree to let you use testing equipment," Jaxon volleyed. Clarke probably would, but hers wasn't the only opinion that held weight at their camp.

"You think that your father would stand against you?" he asked, reading my silent tension before I ever needed to voice it.

"I know that Marcus would," I explained. "Unless he gets something out of it, he would never go for it."

"There are things the clan could use to barter with," he replied. "We have enough resources that would be useful to their camp. Enough I'm sure that would convince him to let us in."

"Us?" I asked, glancing sideways at him.

"Oh, you thought you were strolling into the enemy camp alone?" he countered with a smirk. Of course I didn't, I knew better than to assume such. I would have wagered it being Nyko or another one of the healers who would be tasked to join me, but it didn't surprise me that Jaxon would put his name on the top of the list.

"Letting me in would be a stretch in itself," I teased. "You going in as well would never happen, and you know it."

"And why not?" he shot back, his tone light though not losing its sharp timber that told me he hadn't let his guard down for a moment as we bantered in the woods.

"I don't want to hurt your feelings Jaxon," I told him seriously. "But they don't exactly like you. You kind of scare them."

"Me?" he asked incredulously. I bit back my laugh and continued to play along.

"Yeah," I replied evenly. "For some some reason the bones and war paint don't exactly make you seem inviting and friendly. Plus you always have this look on your face that doesn't exactly say 'come be my friend please'."

"What look?" he asked, semi-seriously this time, turning to face me with one eyebrow arched up waiting for my explanation.

"This look," I told him as I dropped into the most neutral leering look I could manage. I added a slight glare and a 'I could kill you with one hand tied behind my back' type of sneer and held it for a moment before Jaxon's small smile and shake of his head broke the spell.

"You must be doing it wrong," he said, moving forward as we started walking again. "That wasn't scary at all."

"I did it just fine," I huffed. "You're just immune to it. It is your look after all."

"That must be it," he teased. "Scary look or no, where you go I go Cole. If their camp has what you need to help our people, then we'll get it for you. But I'm going to be beside you the entire time."

Possessive always, I thought to myself but smiled at the sentiment anyways. "You know I wouldn't have it any other way Jaxon."

"I will have to remember to ask Clarke about their facility though," I said absentmindedly, adding it to a long list of mental tasks I was already trying to remember to get done.

"You're going to have your chance soon, they're yelling for us now," Jaxon said seriously, his posture straightening as he picked up on the faint noise from back at the drop ship that I had missed.

I had hoped that when we returned that we would be greeted with a healed and slightly less aggressive Lincoln. I was wrong and it was foolish to even think that something would work in our favor for once. Instead we returned to panic. Nyko and Bellamy were yelling harshly at each other as they both struggled against Lincoln's seizing and violent body. He had broken free from one of the restraints and looked angry, and nothing like the warrior I once met.

"This isn't working princess, do something!" Bellamy yelled to Clarke who was searching frantically through a medical kit. I was guessing that nothing like this had happened in their other trials. If they had even made it this far.

"What's happening Clarke?" I asked, keeping my voice as calm and as level as I could manage. I didn't need to add to the chaos. "How can I help?"

"I… I don't know," she admitted. "He's not responding to any of the medicine."

"Clarke!" Bellamy yelled out, but she just kept shifting through the bag.

"Maybe if we had some sort of…"

"Princess, kinda need you over here!"

"Cole!" Nyko's booming voice called out, apparently no longer willing to wait for Bellamy to catch Clarke's attention. "He stopped breathing!"

A string of curses left my mouth, in multiple languages. Clarke only half a second behind me now, abandoning the kit.

"Move," I said as I all but pushed Bellamy out of my way. Clarke had grabbed a valve mask and i interlocked my hands over Lincoln's sternum, settling into place as I started compressions.

"Nyko, watch," I instructed. "Just like with Penn, like what we talked about. I may need you to help if he doesn't respond right away."

Octavia was screaming and crying in the background, wailing for Lincoln to wake up. But as seconds turned into minutes I knew we were running out of time. My arms were burning with the strain and as I glanced up at Cole and Dr. Griffin I knew they were thinking the same thing as I was.

"Enough," Dr. Griffin called quietly, though neither me or Clarke let up. "That's enough."

Octavia screamed in protest.

"Please! Lincoln please!" Octavia cried as I hesitantly sat back on my heels. It was over. I moved to stand up, but fell backwards instead as Lincoln's body seized and his eyes shot open as he took deep, labored breaths.

I let out the breath I hadn't realized I was holding and looked up at the others, hesitantly. Alive was a good start, but it meant nothing if he was still under the control of the drugs.

"Lincoln!" Octavia called out as she rushed to kneel beside him crowding Nyko who looked suddenly very uncomfortable.

"Oct… Octavia?" Lincoln's voice called out, raspy from being unused.

My gaze met Nyko's and the other warriors who had climbed up to join the cramped room during the commotion. It had worked. Barely. But it worked. This was going to be the start of something Earth-changing for the clan, I could feel it.

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