Author's Note: Hello? Is anybody out there still reading this story? I am so sorry for the longest wait ever! I could give you a whole bunch of reasons as to why this is so late, but you guys don't care, you just want to read the chapter.

So without further ado, here's the season 2 finale! Enjoy! :)

Chapter 16: Knocking on Heaven's Door

Bellamy's POV

Bellamy stood there, staring at the empty cages in absolute shock. One part of him was waiting for the grounders to return from wherever they went, while another part of him was hoping this was just a nightmare and he would wake up with the grounder army he was supposed to have.

"Shit," he swore, turning back around to his companions. Poor Maya was sobbing hysterically over her father's dead body and Bellamy took a moment to allow himself to feel sadness seep through him. Her dad had risked so much to help them, going against his own people because it was the right thing to do. He didn't deserve to die.

Jasper was crouched down beside Maya, an arm across her shoulders as the tears streamed down her face. Bellamy and Monty glanced at each other and they both knew they couldn't stay here for much longer. Feeling like an insensitive ass, Bellamy shifted uncomfortably. "Maya… I'm sorry, but we can't stay here," he said gently, making his tone sympathetic. "I don't know where the grounders went and we need to get down to the reaper tunnels. I'm not sure what's going on outside but there was supposed to be a team getting through those doors."

Jasper sent him an indignant glare. "Bellamy, now is not – "

"No, he's right," Maya interrupted, forcing herself to stand and hastily wiping her eyes with the back of her hand. "We don't have time for this now."

"Maya – "

Maya ignored Jasper and turned towards Bellamy. "I'll lead you down to the tunnels."

Their group was quiet as they made their way through the hallways, each lost in their own thoughts. All of Mount Weather was isolated to Level 5 so they didn't have to hide or sneak around. After stopping by one of the storage rooms to pick up a radiation suit for Maya, they all hurried to the large door outside the reaper tunnels.

Bellamy slipped the gun out of the pocket of the Mount Weather guard uniform and held it down by his side, his other hand on the door handle. "Be ready for anything," Bellamy warned them in a low voice. "Three, two, one…"

He yanked the door open, gun raised as he stepped into the tunnel. He had less than half a second to register the fact that Octavia was standing in front of him before she threw her arms around his neck and hugged him tightly. His knees almost buckled in relief as he wrapped his arms around her. Almost immediately he searched over Octavia's shoulder but he only saw Clarke standing there, a lost, desperate expression on her face.

"Where is she?" Bellamy asked once Octavia had released him to greet the others. "Where's Kat?"

Clarke's eyebrows furrowed as her eyes flashed with worry. "I don't know," she admitted after a moment. "We lost contact with Raven's team a while ago, but they did their job and blew the power."

Bellamy's stomach twisted in both fear and anxiety. He had hoped that Kat would have met up with either Clarke or Octavia, but now he had no idea where she was and that scared him to no end. Realizing that there was nothing he could do about it now, he tried to focus on the matter at hand. "What happened out there?" He asked. "Where's your army?"

"Gone, just like yours," Clarke told him. She looked up at him with wide blue eyes, a pleading expression on his face that Bellamy had seldom seen there before. "Please tell me you have a plan."

"Not really. Come on, we should go talk to Dante."

"Move it," Bellamy ordered, shoving Dante slightly in the back to get him moving faster. He was furious with Clarke and the rest of their people for shutting off the power in Mount Weather and endangering his people, so now he was refusing to help them against Cage. Jasper, Maya and Octavia had split off to help Maya with her malfunctioning radiation suit and Bellamy wished that they had some way to communicate with them to make sure they were okay.

"Why aren't you with the rest of your people on level five?" Clarke asked aggressively as they stopped in front of the command center door and gave Monty time to work his magic and break in.

"After what I've done, they can be free. I can't," he said simply, resigned to his fate. "Deliverance comes at a cost. I bear it so they don't have to."

Clarke looked somewhat thoughtful at his words, as if the concept was something that she hadn't thought of before. "It wasn't Cage," Bellamy said suddenly after pondering what Dante meant about his freedom. "You were the one who made the deal with the grounders."

Dante nodded, but before Clarke or Bellamy could comment on it further, they heard a click as Monty successfully broke into the command center. Bellamy stepped forward to take the lead, lifting his gun and pushing the door open, sweeping the room. "Clear," Bellamy said, stepping to the side and allowing Monty to enter.

"Let's get the monitors up," Clarke ordered, ushering Dante into the room in order to shut and lock the door behind them.

Monty sat in front of the dozens of screens, his fingers furiously typing away at the keyboard. There were levers, buttons and flashing lights that Bellamy couldn't even begin to comprehend, but Monty didn't even hesitate. "I'm in," he declared after less than a minute.

The screens came to life and while most of them showed empty hallways, there was one that caught all of their attention on level five. It was labeled the Dorm room and it showed two doctors standing over a prone, motionless figure that lay on a table. "Is that Raven?" Bellamy asked, breaking the silence in a low, horrified voice. Kat was with Raven. "Scan the rest of the room," Bellamy told Monty, striding forward so that he was standing closer to the screen. Monty did as he was told and Bellamy's horror only grew when he saw the rest of their people lined up along the walls of the room, standing with their hands handcuffed above their heads. He saw Miller, Harper, and Kane but Kat was nowhere to be found. Where the hell is she?

"Mom," Clarke gasped, noticing her mother standing next to Kane.

Bellamy's eyes went back to Raven, desperately trying to see if her chest was still rising and falling. Clenching his jaw, Bellamy swiped a radio from a nearby table and shoved it into Dante's chest. "Tell them to stop," he barked.

Dante sent him a look of utter contempt, refusing to take it. "I won't do that."

Clarke spun around at his words, a look of determination that was so reminiscent of leader Clarke on as she marched over and snatched the radio out of Bellamy's hands. "Carl Emerson, Mount Weather security detail, come in."

Bellamy's eyes flickered from screen to screen until he found Emerson in the mess hall. He walked away from the rest of his people, lifting the radio to his mouth. "Who is this?"

"You know who this is," Clarke answered. "Give the radio to the president."

Monty made the camera swivel after Emerson as he moved his way through the throng of people, handing the radio to Cage and whispering in his ear. A grave expression crossed Cage's face as he left the mess hall and stepped outside. "This is President Wallace."

"I have your father," Clarke announced, not bothering to waste any time. "If you don't let my people go, I'll kill him."

They saw Cage's hands tighten on the radio, his jaw clenching. "How do I really know you have him?"

Bellamy shoved Dante forward a step as Clarke held the radio out to him. "Stay the course, Cage."

The atmosphere in the command center was thick with tension. It was a high-pressured situation and yet amazingly enough, Bellamy's mind began to drift to Kat. His worry for her was eating away at his insides and in the back of his mind the same questions were repeating itself over and over. Where is she? Is she somewhere within Mount Weather or is she lying injured back at the dam? He refused to entertain any other darker scenarios.

He blinked in surprise when Clarke suddenly spun around with a gun aimed at Dante and Bellamy forced himself to focus. "Clarke," he cautioned, holding his arm out to her as he took several careful steps away from Dante. "We need him alive."

Clarke didn't even spare him a glance. She had her single-minded "leader" face on and Bellamy knew that he wasn't going to be able to change her mind on anything at this point. "I need his son to believe me. Don't make me do this, Cage," she said into the radio.

Cage's eyes shone with hatred as he reconciled himself with what was happening. "I'll take care of our people, dad," he promised, his voice shaking slightly.

"None of us has a choice here, Clarke," Dante told her. "We're all just trying to do what's best for our people."

"I didn't want this," Clarke whispered, the words her own form of an apology as she pulled the trigger, the resulting gunshot loud within the confines of the small room. Bellamy saw Dante collapse to the floor out of the corner of his eye but his attention was focused on Clarke, who had the look of someone who would go to extreme lengths to save her people. She had just murdered someone, a fact that she realized if the tears welling in her eyes were any indication, but still she wouldn't back down. "Listen to me very carefully. I will not stop until my people are free. If you don't let them go… I will irradiate level five."

Cage's POV

Cage was sure the sound of his father's dead body hitting the floor was going to haunt him for the rest of his life. He and his father might not have seen eye to eye on certain things, but his loss was a painful hole in his chest. He hid the pain by turning his back to the camera, hand leaning against the wall as he hunched over slightly.

"Sir." Cage turned his head towards Emerson who leaned in close so the people from the Ark couldn't read his lips. "I just got word from Langston. They've captured one of the kids from the Ark. She's dressed as a grounder and carrying a sword. Langston says she was with Maya Vie and that Jasper boy and attacked him in order for the other two to get away. She's killed Paul, sir."

"The girl…."

Emerson nodded. "It's Octavia, sir, the one who tore my radiation suit. Her brother is the one who's been helping them from the inside. We have yet to catch him."

"It was a good idea to get the information about their people while we took their bone marrow," Cage complimented in appreciation. "Let's use this to our advantage. Clarke is in the command center and I'm sure the brother is with her. Take two guards with you and bring this girl Octavia to a room on one side of level five. When you're finished, meet me down in the basement to help bring up Katerina. Let's give this pain of the ass a choice," Cage told him, a grin beginning to spread across his face, his mood lifting at the first part of his plan for revenge. "His sister or the girl he's in love with?"

Kat's POV

The sound of the door opening slowly brought Kat back into awareness. It took her an incredible amount of strength for her to pry open her eyes. Every time she did, it became harder and harder to remember who she was. Faces flashed through her mind – a man with messy brown hair and a playful smirk, a girl with blonde hair and a bossy attitude, another girl with long brown hair and a mischievous personality. There were others as well, but they were the ones that faded first. She repeated their names over and over in her mind so she wouldn't forget. Bellamy, Clarke, Octavia, Miller, Jasper, Monty. My name is Kat Hale and I am stronger than this. Bellamy, Clarke, Octavia, Miller, Jasper, Monty…Bellamy, Clarke, Octavia, Miller, Jasper, Monty…

"How is my favorite little reaper doing?" It was a man that spoke and his voice brought out the most curious reaction in her. Dread flooded through her veins and she moaned, slowly shaking her head from side to side. Her muscles and joints ached and her stomach was cramping something terrible, but when Cage entered her line of vision, her heart broke out into a sprint and anticipation began to fill her.

"I am going…to kill you," Kat swore, forcing the words through her gritted teeth as she feebly struggled against her restraints.

"Well now, I must admit that I am impressed," Cage told her, stopping in her line of sight, putting his hand on the chair next to her head and leaning over her with a wide smile. "I knew that you were strong, but you just continue to surprise me. It's a shame that we don't have the time to do this properly. You see, your friends have been a thorn in my side for far too long, particularly that boyfriend of yours." Bellamy… Her eyes tried to focus on what Cage was saying at the mention of his name, something that didn't escape his notice. "I've come up with a fun little game. His love in one room and his sister in the other, both with guns pressed to their heads. He has the opportunity to choose one. Who does he pick?" The small burst of hope that had flared inside her at the mention of Bellamy faded. A choice between her and Octavia? She knew whom he would choose. His sister, his responsibility. "Just think about it Katerina, the next time you wake up, you'll either see a bullet speeding towards your head or your precious boyfriend. Either way, this will probably be the last time we see each other." He sighed, reaching into this pocket and pulling out another syringe filled with the red drug. She actually had to bite the inside of her cheek to stop herself from licking her lips. Every part of her screamed out for the drug and a small part of her was terrified by how much she craved it. "You won't recognize anyone after this. This will be your third and final dose, Katerina. But I'll only give it to you if you really, truly want it."

He held it out to her, just inches from her neck. Kat stared at it with wide, wild eyes. Bellamy, Clarke, Octavia, Miller, Jasper, Monty… Kat chanted in her head as she desperately fought the overwhelming need. Bellamy, Clarke, Octavia, Miller…. If she had the ability to at this moment, Kat would have cried. She didn't want this, she really didn't want it. Her people were somewhere just above her and she couldn't bring herself to care anymore. Bellamy, Clarke… Bellamy… Bellamy… Bell…

With a defeated groan and a deep feeling of loathing, Kat screwed her eyes shut against Cage's triumphant grin and turned her head to the side, exposing her neck to Cage as she waited eagerly for the rush and the high. I'm sorry…

Bellamy's POV

"Where is Cage?" Bellamy snapped, his eyes frantically flicking from one screen to another. "He can't have just disappeared!"

"I don't know!" Monty responded, sounding panicked as he fingers flew across the control panel. "He's the president, he knows where all the cameras are and how to avoid being seen!"

"What about Emerson?" Clarke asked, stepping up to Monty's other side, scanning. "What is he up to?"

"Hold on," Monty muttered, working furiously. "There! He's… oh no."

Bellamy looked to where he was pointing and he felt like he had been both punched and doused with ice-cold water. Two of Mount Weather's guards were walking down the hall, carrying a female prisoner between them. She was unconscious, her arms tied behind her back and a gag tied around her mouth. Her head lolled to the side so her hair was partially covering her face, but Bellamy had seen this girl almost every day of her life and knew each and every one of her features. It was Octavia. Emerson was leading his guards, a grave expression on his face. He looked up at a nearby camera as he passed as if he knew he was being watched and did nothing to hide what he was doing.

"Follow him," Bellamy barked, one hand clenched in a death grip on this back of Monty's chair and the other clenched into a fist at his side. He watched, his eyes glued to the screens as Emerson led the guards into a room that was empty except for a metal chair. "Where is that room?" Bellamy demanded, watching the guards tie Octavia's hands and feet to the chair. He checked the rounds on his gun, his brown eyes sparking with fury. "I'm going to get her back – "

Clarke shot him an alarmed look. "Bellamy, it's obviously some sort of trap! You can't just go rushing in there –"

"That is my sister, Clarke – " Bellamy snarled, but he broke off as Monty gasped.

"Oh god," he cried, eyes widening as one of the guards pulled out his gun and pointed it at Octavia's head, standing not even two feet away. Bellamy lost his breath as they all waited and watched, but the guard never pulled the trigger. In fact, Emerson said something to the guard and left. He went one way, the extra guard went another and still the guard with the gun stayed there, unmoving.

"Track both of them," Clarke ordered quickly. Bellamy sent another glance at his unconscious sister on the screen and literally couldn't stand seeing her vulnerable, defenseless and in danger. He was headed for the door before his brain had even told his legs to move. "Stop, Bellamy!"

Bellamy swung around, pissed. "Clarke – "

"I know that it's Octavia," Clarke told him, pleading with her eyes to listen to her. "But Cage and Emerson are obviously planning something, we need to be smart about this!"

"Uh, guys?" Monty interrupted, glancing over his shoulder at them, his eyes worried. "Emerson's disappeared just like Cage, but…." He turned back around and pointed to a screen on the left. "The other guard grabbed two of his buddies and they're setting up a table with restraints just like the one they're using in the dorm rooms."

"Do you think they're setting up another room to extract bone marrow from?" Clarke asked in concern, momentarily forgetting about her argument with Bellamy and she moved closer to the screens once more.

"It's possible," Monty answered uncertainly. "If they have another doctor or two, they can. Maybe they're trying to get as many done as quickly as possible." His face looked solemn. "Which means that our friends will die twice as quickly."

Bellamy used their conversation as an opportunity to sneak out the door again to try and rescue Octavia. He had his hand on the doorknob and was about to leave when he heard Monty speak again. "Bellamy!" His voice was a strange combination of excited and scared and it was enough to make Bellamy turn around. "I think we've just found Kat."

"What?" Bellamy snapped, hurrying to Monty's side. "Where?" His heart, which had sunk down to his stomach at the sight of Octavia, seemed to lift and beat once more. Monty wordlessly pointed to one of the screens, where he saw Emerson carrying yet another unconscious female in his arms bridal style. Cage was walking next to him and the only word that Bellamy could think to describe the look on his face was evil. "That fucking son of a bitch," Bellamy snarled, his body practically vibrating with rage as he watched them strap Kat down onto the table. "What has he done to her? Where has she been all this time?"

"Look at Cage," Clarke muttered, eyes narrowed as Monty zoomed in the screen.

Cage had walked into the hallway and stood in front of the camera, his radio held up to his mouth. "I know that you're watching and I'm speaking directly to you, Clarke, and to the young man who infiltrated my home. You've killed my father and Sergeant Lovejoy, blew up our defense systems and put all of my people in danger. So let's play a fun, little game. I'm giving you, Bellamy, a choice. You have five minutes to attempt to save either Katerina or your sister. Whoever you don't choose will be shot and killed. If I have any indication that you will split up and attempt to save both of them, or if you don't succeed within the next ten minutes, both of them will die." A wide, savage grin crossed Cage's face. "Oh, and I'll be taking out the camera's in each of the room's so your friend Monty can't help you out. It makes things more interesting, don't you think? Tick tock," he taunted.

"Bring up a map and show me where they are," Bellamy ordered immediately, adrenaline beginning to pump through his body.

"Already ahead of you," Monty confirmed, fingers typing furiously once more. "Alright, so it looks like Cage has Kat and Octavia in rooms directly opposite from each other. I don't think you'll be able to reach both of them before time runs out."

Bellamy looked away from his pitying, miserable expression. His mind was racing, his brain torturing him with images of his time with both Kat and Octavia. He loved them both more than he had thought he was capable of loving anyone and his heart was aching at the choice that he would have to make. Except, even though it killed him, he knew it wasn't a choice. While he never thought he would meet anyone quite like Kat, Octavia was his baby sister… his family. He had helped his mother deliver her, he was able to calm her crying when his mother was sleeping or working – he had raised Octavia and he could never let anything happen to her.

But his decision left an acid hole in his stomach.

"What are our options?" Clarke was asking Monty, her arms crossed and her problem solving face on. "Can we irradiate Level 5?"

"Yes, but not nearly fast enough," Monty responded, looking sick to his stomach as he swiveled in his chair to face them. "We can't split up because Cage will know and kill them both. After what just happened with his father, we have to assume that he's not bluffing." He looked between Clarke and Bellamy. "So who do we choose?"

"Octavia," Bellamy responded at the same time that Clarke said, "Kat." There was a long, tense moment of silence.

Clarke glared at him, blue eyes flashing. "Kat has been my friend for years, I can't just let her die – "

"Octavia is my sister," Bellamy interrupted, his voice final and his tone suggesting that he was not in the mood to argue. "I'm going to save Octavia first and then I'm going after Kat, Cage be damned." Bellamy's throat was burning and he swallowed harshly to get his emotions under control. "Clarke, I love Kat and you have no fucking idea how hard this is for me, but Octavia has to come first. My sister, my responsibility. So you can either help me or get out of my way."

Clarke's nostrils flared. She didn't like this plan or agree with it, but she also realized that there was no way to change his mind. "We're saving both of them," Clarke demanded, her voice strained and cracking. "There is no other option. Understood?"

"Understood," Bellamy nodded.

Monty walked over and grabbed a radio from the shelf. "The room Octavia's held in is two lefts and a right. I'll have this if you need anything. Go!" He urged.

Guns in hand, both Bellamy and Clarke slipped out the door. Trying to remain cautious but still move quickly, they jogged, hugging the wall and pausing at corners to make sure no one was there. We've wasted too much time, he raged internally, panicking slightly. How much time did they have left? Seven minutes? Five? Did Cage send more guards since they had left?

They slowed down before turning down the hallway where the room was located. "Two guards," Clarke breathed after carefully peering around the corner. "One stationed on each side of the room not counting the guard inside." She looked back at him expectantly. "What's the plan?"

"We kill them," Bellamy growled.

"Right." Clarke rolled her eyes. Leaning her back against the wall, she scuffed her boot against the floor loud enough to draw the guard's attention.

"You hear that?" One of the guards asked in a low voice.

"Yeah. I'll go check it out." The guard's footsteps approached, growing louder and Clarke nodded at Bellamy. Eager to get his hands on one of these bastards, Bellamy waited with baited breath until the guard appeared around the corner and then he attacked. The guard was completely taken by surprise and Bellamy was able to get several crucial hits in. He didn't reign in his punches, pulling his arm back all the way and getting some of his frustration out at the same time. He barely registered the few hits that the guard managed to land, and only stopped when Clarke shouted his name.

The guard beneath him was a bloody, unrecognizable mess and Bellamy's fist was scraped and bruised. Bellamy glanced around to see that Clarke had already taken out the other guard with a well-placed bullet. He was slightly gratified to see that there was no judgment in Clarke's gaze. Bellamy swept past her, picking up the gun that he had dropped on the floor in his anger.

Taking a deep breath, Bellamy quickly stepped into the room, raising his gun and lining the guard up in his sights. "Don't move," the guard ordered immediately. Bellamy's eyes flickered to Octavia who was now conscious. She struggled in her restraints when she saw Bellamy, trying to speak but her words were garbled and he couldn't understand them. "Stop where you are or I'll blow her brains out," the guard snapped, pressing the gun harder against her temple.

Swearing under his breath, Bellamy put his hands and the gun up, moving further into the room and away from the doorway. "Alright! Alright, just – just don't hurt her," he pleaded.

"Kick your gun over here." Slowly, Bellamy placed his gun on the ground, sending up a quick prayer to whatever god was out there that Clarke was paying attention and that she was ready.

"Fine! Here," Bellamy said, kicking the gun over harder than was necessary. Distracted, the guard's gaze followed the path of the gun, giving Clarke time to step into the room and let off a well-placed shot. The guard staggered and collapsed back against the wall. Bellamy was on him in an instant, wrenching the gun out of his hands and smashing him in the temple hard enough to knock him unconscious.

He slipped the gun back into his holster and hurried over to Octavia, pulling the gag down. She took in a deep breath, looking pissed. "I can't believe those fuckers beat me! If I hadn't been outnumbered two to one – "

"Hurry, Bellamy," Clarke urged, shifting anxiously on her feet and ignoring Octavia completely. "We're running out of time."

"I'm trying," Bellamy snarled, yanking and pulling at the tape around Octavia's ankles already having freed her wrists.

Octavia looked between the two of them, picking up at the tension in the room and straightening. "What?" She demanded heatedly. "What's wrong?"

"We need to get Kat," Bellamy answered, feeling relieved when he finally got the tape off. "We'll explain on the way, but we really need to move. Come on, let's go!"

Bellamy yanked Octavia to her feet, pushing her out the door. "Monty, come in," Clarke panted, raising the radio to her mouth. "What's the quickest way to get to Kat?"

The voice who answered was most certainly not Monty's. "I'm afraid that's not necessary," Cage informed them, his voice triumphant. Without being consciously aware of the decision, all three of them slowed down and gathered around the radio in Clarke's hand. "You both have made your choice. While I personally think it was the wrong one, you knew the rules and you know the consequences."

"What is he talking about?" Octavia hissed, beginning to look both alarmed and frightened. "What choice did you make? What consequences?"

"Remember this moment, you two," Cage continued, his voice haunting. "Kat's death is on your hands." The sound of a gunshot echoed through the radio and Bellamy staggered as the floor suddenly tilted. He threw out a hand to catch himself on a nearby wall, his ears ringing as he struggled to take in a deep breath.

"What the fuck is going on, Clarke?" Octavia was shouting, though her words sounded jumbled and far away. "What choice? What did he mean about Kat's death? Snap out of it Clarke, if you don't tell me what the fuck is going on – "

"Monty," Clarke gasped, looking like she was having just as hard a time breathing as Bellamy. "Did… did he – "

"The camera came back online," Monty informed them quietly. "There's so much blood, Clarke. I'm sorry, there's no way anyone can survive that."

He had failed. After everything that he and Kat had been through – the fighting, Kat getting captured by Mount Weather, her thinking he was dead, reuniting and then being separated once more – he had failed her. His mind flashed back to their last night together before he left, a night that he could easily describe as one of the best of his life. A picture of her appeared in his mind's eye, her sweaty hair plastered to her forehead, her eyes warm and content as she gazed down at him, her figure silhouetted by the moonlight. Come back to me, he heard her whisper in his ear.

"Where does he think he's going?" Clarke asked, sniffling.

A hand wrapped around his arm to try and pull him to a stop but he violently wrenched it away. "I have to see her," he murmured brokenly. "I need to see her."

"Uh, guys?" Monty's voice sounded over the radio again. "Four guards are heading in your direction as we speak. You need to move."

"We need to get back to Monty," Clarke spoke up again. "Grab an arm and help me get him back to the command center."

Bellamy allowed them to drag him in the direction of the command center. He felt as if time for him had slowed to a crawl, while everything and everyone around him was moving at the speed of light. He couldn't think properly, couldn't get his mind past the thought of Kat's body surrounded by a pool of red blood.

So when Octavia punched him in the chest with all her strength, he blinked in surprise and staggered backwards, struggling to focus and realizing they had made it back to the command center. Tears were streaming down her face, smearing the black grounder paint around her eyes. "Damn you, Bellamy, damn you!" She shouted, hitting him over and over. "Why did you save me instead of her? How am I supposed to live with that? How are you supposed to live with that? Every time you look at me – " her voice broke and she took a deep shuddering breath. "Every time you look at me, you're going to be reminded that you saved me instead of her."

"I had no choice," Bellamy murmured quietly, making no move to stop her. "You're my sister. I had no choice."

"Damn you," she spat, moving forward again but Clarke intercepted her this time, stepping between them and pushing Octavia back several steps, her own tears in her eyes.

"Enough," Clarke snapped, glaring at both of them. "We're all grieving for Kat, but now is not the time for this. She would have understood the choice that had been made and she would kick our asses if she could see us now. Raven is still being tortured on that table and our people are still in danger. She would want us to focus on what was most important."

Cage's POV

"They've made it back to the command center," Emerson informed him, both of them standing in a storage closet where they wouldn't be seen.

"Good," Cage responded, tilting his head to the side as he examined his handiwork. Katerina, still unconscious, was now tied to a wooden chair, her wrists and ankles tied to it by some rope.

"It was a brilliant move to use some of the harvested blood, sir. I think that really sold it. But I've disconnected the camera again like you asked. It won't be long before they notice."

"You've done good work, Emerson," Cage complimented, clapping him on the back. "Let's finished part two of this plan."

"What about the girl?" He asked, nodding to her.

"The sedation will wear off shortly and Katerina will wake up. With her heightened abilities it won't take long for her to break free. When we win this thing, it won't be difficult to control her," he explained, holding up a tone generator. "But if by some chance we should lose… I wonder how many people Katerina will be able to take down with her before her own people realized they have to take her out." Emerson grinned. "Now, I'm going to the dorms to show Clarke just how serious I am. I'm giving you permission to kill the others."

"Yes, sir," Emerson nodded, looking like he was going to relish the task.

He left and Cage looked at Katerina one more time, placing her sword he had retrieved from the dam against the wall before turning on his heel and leaving the storage closet. He wished that he could stay and see the chaos that she would reap when she woke up, but he had more pressing things to attend to at the moment.

Bellamy's POV

"Oh god," Monty muttered, tearing his eyes away from the arguing group to glance back at the screens. "Guys, Emerson's coming for us."

It was enough to jolt them back to the present and realize the situation that they were still in. Bellamy tore his eyes away from his sister's tear streaked gaze and joined Clarke at the monitors. "My key card…" he trailed off as his voice broke and cleared his throat. His mission wasn't finished yet. Once they saved their people, then he could beat himself up and mourn the only girl that he had ever loved. "They deactivated my key card. Can you do the same to his?"

"Easy."

"Look, there's Cage," Clarke murmured, pointing to a screen on the left. "He's heading to the dorm. Get ready to irradiate level five, Monty," Clarke told him, her blue gaze still glued to Cage. "Start working." Monty sent her a worried, lingering look but did as he was told, typing away at the keyboard so fast that the clicks all blended into one continuous sound in the background.

"Clarke," Bellamy spoke up, loud enough to get her attention and force her to look at him. "We have to think of another option. There are innocent people on level five, there are children – "

"Do you have a better idea?" Clarke demanded, eyes flashing. "I'm willing to hear it, Bellamy, I don't want to have to do this! But I'm not seeing any other choice, there's only four of us against the rest of Mount Weather. We're outnumbered, with two guns and a sword. Cage will kill our people, one by one until – "

"Clarke," Octavia interrupted urgently, staring up at the screen showing the dorm. "Clarke… it's your mom."

Clarke's head whipped around in time to see Cage's guards lifting a barely conscious Raven off the table in order to put a struggling Abby Griffin. "No," Clarke whispered, horrified. "Oh god, what have we done?"

Cage looked up at the camera in the dorm as the doctor began to drill into Abby's body in order to extract her bone marrow. They couldn't hear her, of course, but they could see Abby screw her eyes shut and scream in pain, making Clarke flinch. They could see Kane yelling and struggling to get free from his restraints while the rest of their people either yelled and cursed or turned their faces away in terror.

There was a small commotion on the screen and Octavia let out a groan. "Jasper. They've captured Jasper. Fuck!" She swore, slamming her hand down on the table. "He was supposed to get close enough to Cage to kill him."

"It doesn't matter," Bellamy answered, shaking his head. "Even if we did somehow manage to kill Cage, he still has a lot of supporters behind him and they would just step up to fill his place. We would never be safe."

The constant clicking of the keyboard suddenly went quiet. "What are you doing?" Clarke asked desperately, rounding on Monty. "Why have you stopped?"

"Because it's done," Monty informed her confidently. "All you have to do is pull this lever," he instructed them, pointing. "The hatches and vents will open, the scrubbers will reverse and it will pull in outside air."

"Whatever you're going to do, do it quickly," Octavia informed them, nodding to the screen that showed the hallway outside their door. "Emerson is about to blow the door open."

Bellamy looked back at their people, who were injured, scared and in imminent danger. He thought about Kat, Fox and all the others that they had lost to the Mountain Men and looked to Clarke, who looked back at him with a lost, hopeless expression. "We have to save them," she whispered brokenly, her trembling hand moving to grasp the lever.

"We have no other choice," Bellamy agreed, feeling a heavy, terrible weight settle on his chest as he tried not to think about all the Mountain Men who had helped them and all the children who were about to die in an extremely painful way. He placed his hand on top of Clarke's and nodded to her. "Together."

Taking a deep breath, they slowly pulled the lever back until it clicked into place and looked up at the screens. Nothing happened for a long, tense moment, but then the computers started beep and they heard the radiation alarms going off in the hallways. They watched, paralyzed, as one by one, the Mountain Men began to cough and scream in fear, blisters and burns appearing on the skin as they struggled to breathe. People in the dorms began to fall to their knees, while the people in the mess hall clawed at their chests before collapsing face first into their plates of food.

Then, less than a minute later, it was over. Dead bodies littered the floor and there was absolute silence in the command center. Shock, disbelief, disgust… all of it flooded through Bellamy, making him sick to his stomach. He swallowed violently, desperately trying not to be sick all over the floor.

"Let's go get our people," Clarke murmured. She turned to the door and Bellamy and Octavia followed, all of them looking as shell-shocked as he felt. They had won the war against the Mountain Men, they had saved their people… and yet it also felt like they had lost so much.

"I don't believe it!" Monty exclaimed, slowly beginning to stand, his eyes wide. "It's – it's Kat! She's alive, I don't freaking believe it – "

"What?" Bellamy gasped hoarsely, running back over to the monitors, his eyes frantically searching. "Where?"

Monty pointed wordlessly and there she was, striding down the hallway. An absurd amount of blood covered her shirt, but other than that she looked very much alive. "Do you think she's like a zombie or something? Cause I saw her dead body with my own eyes – well not my eyes, technically, the camera lens but still! Hey, why do you think she's got her sword – " He swiveled around in his chair to look at the others only to see an empty room, the door banging off the wall behind it. "Right," he muttered, glancing back at the screens. He watched Jasper, who was somehow no longer handcuffed to the wall, hurry over to a nearby guard, get keys and unlock Kane. He shoved the keys at Kane and sprinted off, heading to the mess hall where Maya was. Monty watched his friend fall to his knees and he knew in that moment that his friend needed him.

Bellamy heard rather than saw both Clarke and Octavia running after him. Emerson had luckily fled when he heard the alarms so there were no obstacles in their way. "It looked like she was heading for the dorms!" Clarke called from behind him, unable to keep up with his longer strides. "We can meet her there!"

Bellamy made an abrupt left turn at her words, taking a shortcut that he knew would lead them to the dorms quicker. They all skidded to a halt when they got there, taking in the scene before them. Kane was helping Abby sit up while Miller's dad and another guard were going around the room releasing the others from their handcuffs. Kids were crying as they hugged and tried to console each other.

"Clarke!" Abby cried, holding her arms out to her daughter, tears trickling down her face.

"Mom," Clarke whispered, running over to her mother and carefully hugging her, her eyes closing gratefully.

Kane, meanwhile, put one hand on Bellamy's shoulder, a proud look in his eye. "You did good," he congratulated, nodding at him as if Bellamy didn't just kill dozens of innocent people. "I'm really – "

"Have you seen Kat?" He interrupted, not really caring about what anyone had to say at the moment.

Kane frowned and shook his head. "No, she hasn't been here – "

"Did you say Kat?" Raven asked, faced etched in pain as some guy Bellamy recognized but didn't know by name carried her over. "We haven't seen her since the Dam. They took her somewhere else."

"Oh god," Octavia muttered, looking someplace over Bellamy's shoulder. "There she is."

Eyes widening, Bellamy turned and she really was there, walking in their direction. His heart leapt in his chest and a smile began to cross his face. "Kat," he breathed, starting towards her, the only thought in his mind was how good it would feel to have her in his arms again. Octavia's arm shot out to clamp on his arm, yanking him back. He looked back at her, glaring, furious that she was holding her back. "Octavia = "

She wasn't looking at him, her blue-green eyes were wide and her face was uncharacteristically pale. "Look at her, Bellamy," she whispered under her breath, her fingernails digging through his shirt and into his arm. "Something's not right. There's... is that blood on her sword?"

Bellamy felt Clarke come to his other side as they all turned to look at Kat approaching. Kat looked at him then, and Bellamy knew that Octavia was right. Kat's gray eyes, eyes that had looked at him with contempt, annoyance, warmth, lust, and love stared straight through him. There was no flicker of recognition, no sign on her face at all that she knew who he was. "Look at her eyes," Clarke murmured, sharing a look with Abby. "They're bloodshot just like Lincolns were when… when he – "

"That fucking bastard," Octavia swore, hatred leaking through her voice. "He turned her. He turned her into a goddamn reaper."

Bellamy made a strangled sound deep in his throat, feeling as if he had just been stabbed in the heart and punched in the stomach at the same time. He removed Octavia's hand, taking a few slow steps forward with his empty arms held out to the sides. His eyes were glued to Kat's as she stopped in front of him, so he didn't notice the rest of their people forming a ring around them. He didn't see Miller's dad or the other guard draw their guns and step protectively in front of the crowd. He didn't see Kane give them a look and hold up a hand. All he saw was Kat.

"Kat," he said to her, raising his voice slightly so she could hear him. "Kat, it's me, Bellamy. Look at me, Kitten," he pleaded, eyebrows rising and eyes widening. "It's me. Do you – "

He staggered back in surprise as her face abruptly changed, a snarl on her lips as she suddenly attacked, swinging her sword and aiming for his neck. Bellamy ducked and backed away quickly, but she pursued him, relentless. "Stay back!" Bellamy roared, spit flying from his mouth as he saw the guards start forward. "Do not hurt her, I said stay the fuck back!" He successfully sidestepped her next slash but missed the kick flying towards his chest and he went crashing back into the wall.

Kat was a skilled fighter, but damn she was fast. And stronger than usual, too. Bellamy staggered into a standing position, grimacing at the pain in his chest. Reaper Kat looked furious when she saw him rise to his feet and she shouted at the top of her voice, raising her sword and charging him once more.

Then suddenly Octavia was there, blocking her attack with her own sword, the sound echoing through the room. It was an uneven fight, hardly even fair. Reaper Kat was aiming to kill and Octavia was on the defensive, reluctant to even hurt her. They slashed, parried, blocked and if it weren't a life or death situation, Bellamy would have been extremely impressed.

At one point in the fight Kat had her back to Bellamy and he crept forward, conscious of the flashing blades as he tried to figure out the best way to disarm her. Unfortunately, she must have sensed him coming because she suddenly whipped her sword arm around. He tried to jump back but was too slow. The blade easily cut through the uniform he was wearing and he felt the sharp burning pain as it sliced through his skin.

"Bellamy!" Octavia cried in alarm and Kat turned back around to her, sending her flying into the crowd. Warm blood trickled down Bellamy's chest in streams and he staggered backwards, collapsing backwards. Clarke was suddenly there, catching him as he fell, her eyes wide and frightened.

Sergeant Martin stepped forward, his gun raised and his eyes narrowed in concentration. "No!" Bellamy bellowed, ignoring the pain as the gun went off. Bellamy saw Kat's body violently twist to the side as she was hit but she didn't falter as she ran right towards the guard. She rolled to avoid the bullet and came up into a crouch, swinging her sword and cutting across both his legs. Sergeant Martin crumpled to the floor with a shout of pain and Kat used the opportunity to lift her sword up and plunge it down into his heart.

Miller stepped forward this time throwing a punch towards her face but Kat ducked. "No, Miller!" His dad yelled, grabbing his arm and pulling him backwards. He was lucky he did, because it threw off Kat's aim and instead of thrusting her sword into his chest, it went through his shoulder instead. Miller roared and was pulled back so violently that Kat's sword was ripped from her hands. Sergeant Miller, Kane and the guy who had been carrying Raven all converged on her.

"No! Stop! Don't hurt her!" Bellamy gasped, struggling to shout, his wild brown gaze finding Clarke's. "Don't let them hurt her. Please," he pleaded desperately, begging. He saw flying fists and elbows, heard grunts of pain and Kat's screams of fury.

And then, over all of it, came the loud, piercing sound of the tone generator. Bellamy's eyes flickered towards the sounds to see Octavia standing off to the side, chest heaving and blood trickling down her face as she held up the tone generator in one hand and her sword in the other. She was standing next to one of the dead Mount Weather guards and must have swiped it from him. His eyes darted back to the commotion to see Kat hunched over on her knees, her face screwed up in pain and her hands clapped over her ears as she rocked back and forth.

Bellamy struggled to go to her, grimacing both at his pain and the sight of Kat's, his heart shattering into a million pieces. "Stop," he commanded hoarsely, his voice weak. "You're hurting her!"

Clarke, with a determined look on her face, left Bellamy's side with her gun in hand. She raised the butt of her gun and smashed it into Kat's temple, immediately knocking her unconscious. Octavia turned off the tone generator and the sudden silence was deafening. Blood was smeared across the floor, pooling around Sergeant Martin's body and dripping from multiple injuries.

Octavia rushed over to him, her hands fluttering above his chest, the fear bright in her eyes. "I'm okay, O," he reassured her quickly, smiling through the pain. "It's just a cut." She nodded slowly, her entire body slumping with relief.

Clarke lowered the gun and let it fall from her fingers, her face an unreadable mask. "Kane, please help my mother down from the table," Clarke ordered, taking control of the situation when everyone else seemed to be in a state of shock. "Sergeant Miller, Wick, strap Kat down on the table. Cage only had her for a few hours, there can't be that much of the red drug in her system. The rest of you," she looked around at the frightened and cowering kids as the adults followed her instructions. "Help the injured down to the medical rooms. Dr. Griffin is going to need your assistance so listen to her instructions. And Bellamy – "

"Don't even think about sending me away, Clarke," he growled, his jaw set stubbornly and his eyes alight.

Clarke's face softened slightly. "I wasn't going to. Your wound is shallow, but you still need to have that looked at."

Octavia gracefully stood. "I'll help the others get to the medical rooms and grabs some supplies," she told Clarke, moving to Raven's other side and putting her arm around her shoulder. The man named Wick went to her other side, Kane lifted Abby into his arms and Sergeant Miller began to help his son out of the room.

"Sergeant Miller," Clarke called, her expression grave. "I'm going to need your electric baton."

Bellamy felt like he was ready to crawl out of his skin. He wanted to pace up and down the room, but Clarke and Octavia had just finished stitching and bandaging his chest and he was confined to either sitting or standing still. Clarke had also taken care of the flesh wound in Kat's shoulder while she was unconscious, and Octavia was a little banged and bruised but otherwise she was uninjured.

Most of their group had left to head back towards Camp Jaha, bringing the injured with them. Abby had done her best to instruct the others on how to patch up the wounds, but she was injured herself and they all needed real doctors. All that remained behind was Clarke, Lincoln, Octavia, Monty, Harper, and himself. Miller had wanted to stay but his shoulder needed tending to. Harper had insisted on staying even after everything she had been through, but Jasper had left as well, without so much as a glance or a word to anybody.

"It's been hours, Clarke," Bellamy growled, reaching a hand up to run it through his hair in frustration and wincing in pain. Kat started to scream again at the sound of his voice and Bellamy had to raise his own in order to be heard. "She's rubbing her wrists raw from trying to escape and she's still trying eat me whenever I get too close."

Lincoln, who had arrived an hour or so ago, put a hand on Bellamy's back and guided him towards the opposite end of the room, gesturing for the others to follow so they could hear each other speak. "Whatever Cage injected Kat with," he said, glancing back at the struggling girl and shaking his head. "It's different, somehow. Cage had me down in that basement for days before I was fully turned, and you said he only had her for a few hours. There are other signs too. The light doesn't seem to affect her at all while it made my eyes burn and it sounds like she was stronger."

"Part of me hates you for killing that fucker," Bellamy raged, his muscles tense. "Don't get me wrong, I'm glad he's dead but I wish I had been the one to - "

He abruptly stopped speaking as Kat's screams were cut off by an odd, choking sound. Their heads snapped around to see Kat convulsing within the straps of the table, her eyes rolling back into her head. "Not again," Bellamy muttered in an anguished voice, rushing over to his position by Kat's head, smoothing her hair back from her face. This was the fourth time that Kat had seized in the past hour and there was nothing anyone could do but wait it out. Last time Kat's heart had stopped and Clarke had had to do chest compressions in order to bring her back.

Monty and Harper all hovered in the doorway of the dorms, watching with worried eyes. White foam began to leak out of Kat's mouth and they all watched, hardly daring to breathe. Bellamy counted to fifty-seven before her seizures subsided and her head lolled to the side, limp. Clarke stepped forward, pressing two fingers against Kat's pulse, eyebrows narrowed in concentration. "Damn it," she spat, lacing her two hands together and placing them on Kat's chest to begin compressions.

Bellamy's heart was pounding so hard in his chest that it actually hurt. "C'mon, Kat," he heard Octavia mutter beside him, Lincoln's hand clasped within hers.

"Come back to me, Kitten," Bellamy whispered, leaning over her to whisper in her ear. "You promised that you would always come back to me." A tear dripped from his face to hers, panic shining from his eyes. "You can't leave me, Kat! Don't leave me, please."

"Baton," Clarke ordered, an intense look on her face as she held her hand out. Octavia passed it to her and Clarke positioned it above Kat's chest. "Everybody take a step back." She pressed the button to turn the baton on and brought it down. Kat's body jerked as volts of electricity passed through it. When Clarke lifted the baton and Kat still wasn't breathing, she brought it down again. Three more times she did it, before she pressed two fingers to Kat's pulse.

Clarke watery blue eyes slowly raised to lock with Bellamy's defeat and hopelessness written all over her face and Bellamy grew angry. "Get out of my way," he snarled, wrenching the baton out of Clarke's hands and pushing her to the side. "Wake the fuck up, Kat!" He yelled, bringing it down causing her body to jerk violently. His eyes were crazed and the others were watching him with worried eyes. He could hear them muttering amongst themselves but he ignored them, zapping Kat over and over again.

"Bell," Octavia murmured, reaching a trembling hand out to get his attention. Tears were streaming down her face once more. "Bellamy, she's… Kat's gone – "

"No!" He snapped, shrugging her off and ripping a few of his stitches in the process. "No, I refuse to believe that! She is not allowed to die, I cannot lose her again. Wake up, Kat, please wake up – " He zapped her one last time and relief crashed over him when she gasped, her back arching and her gray eyes flying open. Bellamy threw the baton to the ground, placing his hands on either side of her face as her eyes flew around the room. "Kat?" He whispered, heart in his throat, hardly daring to believe it was true.

Her eyes landed on his and he let out a shaky laugh of relief when he saw the recognition in them. "Bellamy?" She breathed hoarsely.

"Oh, thank god," Bellamy sighed, resting his forehead against hers and closing his eyes. "Don't you ever do that to me again, do you hear me?"

Kat's POV

She tried to lift a hand to touch his face and frowned when she realized that it was restrained. "What the – Bellamy what's – " She stopped, eyes widening in horror as the memories crashed into her, leaving her breathless. "Oh no," she whimpered, quickly shaking her head from side to side. Her eyes stared up at his imploringly, tears quickly filling them. "Please tell me that I – that I didn't – shit," she swore in a high voice, looking terrified and distressed. "I almost killed you!" She gasped, flinching away from him. "I…I killed…" Her eyes darted around the room, ignoring all the faces staring down at her and gazing down at the large puddle of blood on the floor.

"Look at me, Kat, look at me!" Bellamy commanded her fiercely, brown eyes positively burning. "This was not your fault, do you hear me? Cage did this to you! You weren't in control, you didn't know what you were doing."

Kat couldn't stand the strength of his gaze and looked away, conscious of all the other eyes on her. She felt like they were silently judging her, blaming her for the lives that she had taken and the people that she had hurt. "How are you feeling?" Clarke asked, stepping forward and she sounded so much like her mother.

Kat's entire body ached. Her muscles felt tight like they were cramping, her head was pounding, the shoulder where the bullet grazed her was on fire and every time she spoke or swallowed it felt like someone shoved a torch down her throat. The worst part, though, was the ache in her chest and the guilt that was eating away at her insides. "I'm fine," she lied, just wishing they would all stop looking at her as if she were about to go crazy.

"Good," Clarke smiled, relieved as she began to undo the restraints around her wrists and ankles.

Kat winced as the restraints around her wrists were undone and the cool air hit her bleeding burns. She swung her legs over the side of the table and carefully slid down, making sure her legs would support her. "Oh!" Kat gasped as Clarke pulled her into a tight, slightly uncomfortable hug.

"We thought we lost you," Clarke murmured into her shoulder, her voice cracking. "I'm so glad that you're okay."

Octavia stepped forward and Kat was shocked to see her grounder make-up was smeared and her blue-green eyes were watery. She had obviously been crying but before Kat could comment on it, she was on the receiving end of one of the Blake's famous hugs. "Don't you ever do that again, Hale," Octavia ordered, her voice slightly muffled. "That was some seriously scary shit."

"Believe me, I don't plan on that happening ever again," she promised, attempting to disguise the small shudder that went down her back as a breathless laugh. "It's good to see you too, Octavia."

Octavia stepped back and Kat looked up, looking eyes with Lincoln. His face was serious as he tried to read her for a long moment. In the end he just nodded at her and Kat realized that he was the only other person on this planet that understood what she was going through right now. So he knew that she was lying when she said she was fine and he probably knew the battle that was raging on inside her.

Monty approached next, his arm around Harper who looked almost as bad as Kat. "I'm glad you're not dead," he smiled, hugging her gently. He glanced at the blood on Kat's shirt as Harper gave her a quick hug, surprising Kat once more - her and Harper hadn't had much interaction before this. "We saw you lying in a room, surrounded by blood and we thought…"

Kat looked down, pulling the still slightly damp bloody shirt away from her body. "This isn't mine," she explained, knowing that she had no injuries on her chest or stomach. "I don't know whose this is or what happened."

"Well, we're glad it's not yours," Harper spoke up, smiling as she stepped back to Monty's side.

Kat's eyes flickered to Bellamy's next, the only other person who hadn't spoken or hugged her yet and she found him watching her, drinking her in as if she were going to disappear. The air between them seemed to crackle with electricity and Kat knew the others could feel it when Octavia cleared her throat. "Alright!" She called loudly, ushering the others out of the room. "Let's give these two a moment, I'm pretty sure we don't want to be here to witness this."

Kat sensed the others leaving but her eyes were still on Bellamy's as he slowly approached her. He stopped just inches from her, his head titled to the side as he raised a knuckle and slowly ran it down her cheek. "Are you really okay?" He asked quietly, his brown eyes searching hers.

Kat knew she couldn't lie to him. "No," she whispered shakily, her head moving from side to side. "I don't know if I'll ever be okay, or if I'll ever be able to accept the things that I've done. I don't know how to move on from this. But…" She trailed off, looking up at him with wide eyes. "But I do know that I have missed you. No more secret undercover missions, agreed?"

Bellamy's eyes seemed to shine a little brighter at her words and the corner of his mouth lifted up into her favorite half smirk. "Agreed." His chuckled died down, and the expression on his face become serious, a haunted look in his eyes. "I thought I lost you today… twice. I can't – " he broke off as his voice became strained and looked away.

"Hey," Kat murmured softly, putting her hands on either side of his neck, ignoring the pain in her shoulder and standing on her tiptoes to get his attention. "You didn't lose me, I'm right here," she reassured him, adding a silent 'whether I deserve to be or not' in her head. "I'm right here."

Bellamy made a noise that sounded like a mixture between a sigh of relief and a groan as he finally gave in, his strong arms snaking around her waist as he pulled her to him tightly. Kat wrapped her arms around him as he buried his face in her neck, his body shuddering. She knew she was probably hurting him since she was pressed against the injury that she caused, but neither of them seemed to care in that moment. Her eyes fluttered shut wondering what she had done to be so lucky to fall in love with a man like Bellamy.

"I love you, Kitten," he whispered, pressing a kiss to the side of her neck before pulling back slightly and capturing her lips with his. Kat could have cried with relief as the realization that they were both together again began to truly sink in. All the fear, anger, frustration, relief and heartache was shared between them in that kiss and Kat wished that it never had to end. Both of them eventually had to breathe, however, and stood there for another long moment, foreheads pressed together and eyes closed.

Smiling slightly, Kat took his hand and laced their fingers together before leading him back out into the hallway where most of her friends were gathered, waiting for them. It was still odd for her to acknowledge that she had friends who cared about her for the first time in eighteen years. She looked at each of their smiling faces, feeling their love and friendship and for the moment, that overrode the guilt and fear inside of her. "Let's get out of the hellhole," she announced, smiling up at Bellamy. "Let's go home."

Bellamy filled Kat in on what went down at Mount Weather while she had been captured and turned into a reaper. He told her about what he and Clarke had to do in order to save their people and Kat could tell that he was dealing with his own guilt and his own demons. While she was sorry to hear that so many innocent people had to die, she knew this whole thing never would have ended. The Mountain Men would have always wanted to leave Mount Weather and her people were their escape.

Lexa, that sorry excuse for a Commander, was officially on Kat's shit list. She hadn't liked her much to begin with but seeing the pain and betrayal on Clarke's face when she shared what happened with her turned Kat's feelings to severe dislike bordering on hate. In Kat's book, if you hurt someone she cared about, then you were done.

As for Arian… Kat nodded and accepted his decision when Clarke told her, but on the inside it felt like she had been stabbed in the back. He had put all their people in danger when he left with his sister and while she knew that he was just doing as he was told, he made his choice and Kat didn't know if she could ever forgive that. She mourned the loss of the guy that she had considered a friend.

Lincoln had made his choice as well. He had chosen Octavia over his own people and they had basically disowned him, telling him not to come back. He had pulled Kat aside at one point during their journey back to Mount Weather. "I know you must be confused with everything that you're feeling right now," he had said in that strong, yet quiet voice of his. "But I know exactly what you're going through. I'm not saying I have the answers on how to deal with it, but if you ever need someone to talk to, someone who understands… I'm here, when you're ready."

She thanked him, incredibly touched by his offer though she wasn't ready to talk just yet, not when she wasn't sure what she was feeling in the first place.

Clarke though… she was disturbingly quiet on the way back and Kat couldn't help but glance at her unreadable face continually throughout the walk. It wasn't until they reached Camp Jaha, which Kat had never been so happy to see in her life, that she began to understand what was going on.

She watched as Clarke hugged the others before they went inside, but she hung back herself. She didn't know if Bellamy couldn't sense Clarke's mood or if he was just trying to deny it, but when they walked up to her, he attempted to joke with her. "I say we all deserve a drink."

Clarke's lips lifted into the ghost of a smile. "Have one for me," she murmured.

"Whatever you're thinking of doing, Clarke, stop fucking thinking it," Kat snapped, not sure if she could handle this on top of everything else.

Clarke didn't flinch at her words. "I'm not going inside," she told them apologetically.

Realization began to dawn on Bellamy. "Hey, if you need forgiveness, I'll give that to you," he told her urgently, dropping his voice. "You're forgiven. Please come inside, Clarke."

She shook her head, her blue eyes full of too many emotions for Kat to name. "Every time I look at them, every time I see their faces, I'm going to be reminded of what I've done… of what I had to in order to get them here. And I don't know how to live with that."

"What we did," Bellamy reminded her, his eyebrows meeting in the middle. "We made that choice together, Clarke, we're in this together! You don't have to do this alone – "

Clarke turned to face him, her eyes pleading for him to understand. "I bear it, so they don't have to."

Kat looked between Clarke and Bellamy in confusion, not comprehending the flash of understanding in Bellamy's eyes. "What does that even mean?" Kat exploded in frustration, feeling like she was missing something important. "Never mind, it doesn't even matter. You can't just leave, Clarke, you can't run away from your problems and expect them to go away – "

"I'm sorry, Kat," Clarke apologized, glancing at her. "You're not going to change my mind about this. I can't go inside, not yet, anyway."

"Where will you go?" Bellamy asked quietly.

Clarke shrugged. "I'm not sure. Take care of them for me," she told him, pressing a kiss to his cheek before giving him a quick hug. "Take care of each other." She turned to face Kat and gave her a watery smile. "I know you're going to be mad at me for a long while, Kat, but I hope one day you'll be able to understand." Kat was fuming inside, but allowed Clarke to pull her into a hug. "May we meet again," she said, looking between them one last time before turning and walking away.

Bellamy and Kat watched her go. "She'll be back," Bellamy said, sounding like he was trying to convince himself.

"Maybe," Kat answered, watching as her blonde hair disappeared into the forest. Taking a deep breath, she turned to face Camp Jaha, lacing her fingers through Bellamy's once more. The guilt and responsibility for what she had done pressed down on her shoulders until the point where she felt like the ground was trying to swallow her whole. She kept attempting to push it to the side for the moment and focus on Bellamy and the other people that she cared about in fear that otherwise she would go mad. "Come on, our friends are waiting for us."

And so they walked inside together. While Clarke's leaving had slightly dampened the effect of their homecoming, neither one of them could deny how good it felt to be home and free for the first time in a long time.

Author's Note: Raise your hand if you're as emotionally wrung out as I am! Seriously though, I was crying while re-reading Bellamy's reaction to Kat's "death" and their reunion. Those two have just been through so much! While writing this chapter, I realized how much guilt and baggage all of our favorite characters are going to be facing over the next few months. Did anybody think they picked up on some clues that I'm going to carry over to season 3?

It might take me a while to re-watch season three and begin to plan, so just be aware of that – I promise I'm not abandoning this story! If I ever was going to stop writing it, I would be sure to let you guys know. I'm just a very slow writer lol.

On a completely unrelated note, I've started a new story! It's a Draco/OC Harry Potter story called Fractured Darkness, with a main character completely unlike any other character I've ever written. So if you're a HP fan, then please go check it out, I would love to get your opinion on it!

And, as always, please leave a review. Your continued support is what keeps me writing :)

Rae - Thanks for reviewing! I know, I felt so bad for Kat too, that poor girl just can't catch a break! Hope this one made you feel a bit better!

Guest 1 - Glad you enjoyed the chapter, thank you so much for taking the time to review. I hope you enjoyed the reunion between Kat and Bellamy. It's certainly not that they envisioned and it was slightly stained with everything that they had just been through, but they're together again and that's what matters!

Guest 2 - I know, poor Kat needs all the hugs right now. She doesn't do well with emotions to begin with and now with everything else that happened... it's going to be a rough recovery for her!

Guest 3 - Thanks for your review, I'm glad you liked the chapter. Hope you enjoyed this update!

Guest 4 - You have great timing! You just reviewed and now there's finally an update, I hope you liked this one as well!