No one dared to answer me, but I'm pretty sure who had the idea to irradiate the whole bunker, by the mountain men's standards.
After a while, Clarke decided to take the blame, since it was her idea in the first place.
"I did it. So please, Leon, don't blame them. "
"C'mon princess, we both know that's not the truth. I know our friends and if I'm completely sure of one thing about them that's how they will go through hell for each other."
Clarke looked back at me with a regretful look, but instead of seeing the look of a guy that hates her or the look of someone who was disappointed about what she did, I simply let out a long sigh.
"You know, princess, sometimes there are no good sides, just survivors. We do what we have to do to keep our people alive, regardless of what we have to sacrifice or even kill to achieve that."
Rather than finding an excuse or even bluntly denying it, Clarke decided to accept what she had done. She slowly walked until she was standing in front of me, waiting for me to either hit her or yell at her. Well, to be honest, I kind of wanted to slap her for doing something like this, but thanks to the dire situation our friends were in, I believe she did the right thing. We stared at each other for a full minute before I reached out and gently brought her into a hug, holding it in a way a brother would hold her sister. Maybe it was her emotions going loose, maybe it was my hug, who knows? However, as soon as I hugged Clarke, she let her tears flow out.
"You did what you needed to do, princess. Just like, I did before and just like you did many times when I wasn't around. Between the two of us, I'm the bigger monster, so don't get your hopes high. I've done more horrible things than you Clarke."
She knew that I was referring to when I was captured, but she didn't agree with my words. She knew that compared to what the people thought I was, I was completely different, and above all those names they gave me, I was a fool who would most likely be killed because I would save someone rather than any other case. When Clarke realized that she was crying the whole time, she wiped it away quickly and shook her head.
"I'm sorry. I shouldn't be crying..."
"No, princess, it's ok to cry sometimes. Besides, don't be sorry for what you did. We are humans, after all."
Without saying anything to Clarke, I nodded at Finn, who immediately understand what I wanted, before I left the room together with Bellamy, Monty, and Raven, leaving the couple alone in the room alongside the three corpses.
When we reached the fifth level, Byrne and the guards had already released our people while at the same time, laying the people on the ground, so that we could give them a proper burial. We walked around to the mess hall looking at the consequence of our actions with a heavy heart. What we did tonight was nothing less than a massacre, yet we had to move forward, despite feeling sick when we looked at these burned people.
As we passed the piles of bodies, we came across Jasper, who was crying on the floor, holding the dead body of a girl in his arms. His eyes were red and swollen from the tears, but as soon as she saw us, he let her down before rushing towards me with a knife in his hand.
"Why did you kill it monster? Why?"
Just as he was about to stab me, Monty tackle him to the ground while Bellamy threw the knife away, making sure that our crazy junky won't kill anyone.
"Jasper…I'm sorry for your loss. I truly am, but have you ever thought that maybe, just maybe, it wasn't us who killed your girlfriend?"
All of them turned and looked at me as if I was crazy, everyone other than Jasper at least. After all, they knew who the culprit was, and yet for some reason, I wasn't telling Jasper the truth. But even though I know how the main bad girl was, I wasn't going to put the blame on a girl that almost sacrificed herself for her mother, so like any good friend, I was going to lie to him.
" No, no…you did it. You must have done it!"
"Jasper, look at me. Leon wasn't the one that killed your girlfriend."
"You always took his side, Raven! All of you did it! Every time something happened he was the hero, not me, not anyone else!"
Before Raven could continue, Jasper pushed Monty away and charge me for the second time, this time without a knife in his hand. I was thinking of lying to him, but seeing that he wasn't going to listen to anything we would say to him…I'd say it would be better to give him a wake-up call to reality. When Jasper was right in front of me ready to either hit me or grab my shirt, I grabbed him and "gently" brought him to the ground.
"Listen here, you idiot. Whether you believe it or not, we weren't the reason your little bunker-raised girlfriend died. The so-called president of the United States of America or what's left of them killed her alongside everyone in this bunker. They killed our friends, cut them alive, and took their bone marrow, everything for the greater good of the residents of this fucked up bunker. Yet, I didn't hear from or saw you, Jasper does anything then get yourself into a relationship with a girl that was raised in this kind of society. But if you still choose to believe their cheap lies rather than admit you were fooled by them, then be my guest and live in your little fantasy world.
After saying what I wanted him to hear, I walked away, trying to find Miller, Sergey, Harper, and Wells as well as anyone who was still alive.
Back inside the command center, Finn was trying his hardest to calm Clarke down, before she does something that she would regret. She tried to get on her feet and leave, but Finn wouldn't let her.
"Don't, you don't have to hide it anymore."
Finn leaned towards her wiping a tear from her eyes. She turned her cheek and tried to rid herself of the tears, but he ignored her.
"I killed people too, Clarke. You know how hard it was for me to get over that, don't you? Thanks to all of our friends, I managed to learn that what we have done here was for our survival, but there's nothing wrong with that! With survival comes bloodshed, it's inevitable. Sadly that's how we humans are. But don't forget that you tried to change that. From the second we came down here, you always choose to avoid spilling more blood, and you always tried to change how we live, but unfortunately, the grounders and neither the mountain men knew how to diplomatically talk with us. No, they choose to send soldiers and warriors after our heads. You were the one who showed me a different way. We did this together, and if you need someone to blame, you can blame me. I'll take the responsibility for what we've done."
"You didn't pull that lever alone. We all did it, because of me, not you, Finn."
"You are wrong Clarke, you didn't do it alone. We all did it, so please, don't think that you are alone in this."
"Even if you wanted to, you couldn't pass the blame to someone else, Finn. When you live as I did, everything you do is pointless because, at the end of the day, you are just the daughter of the Abigail Griffin and everything you do is wrong until your mother says otherwise. She killed my father, she put me in jail, she even sent me down here to die, and yet, I can't hate her, but I can hate myself."
"You are wrong again. You are not a monster, neither one of us is! We did everything to save our friends from a slow and painful death. Nothing you do could ever convince me of that…"
He did it again, a stupid idea, and yet he couldn't say it to her. Both of them stood there in silence for a few minutes before Finn found the courage to say it. "I love you, Clarke."
"I love you too, Finn. I…wouldn't have been alive if it weren't for you. I don't deserve you, Finn, you are too good for me."
"No, Clarke, I should have been the one who said that."
Despite how sad she was, Clarke managed to let out a chuckle when she heard Finn's words.
Meanwhile, Cage managed to run away before Clarke, Leon, and the rest of their people could get their hands on him back inside the Mountain. He managed to get a flashlight and bag of supplies that his father had prepared beforehand. Cage walked through the unfamiliar forest in the dark trying to figure out where the safest place for him would be.
Just as he walked further into the forest, he only grew more paranoid. Things seemed to be out of place, familiar faces keep appearing in front of him as if they were judging him.
"Who's there?"
More whispers and faces appeared, and he knew that he was not alone at that point.
"Show yourself! Don't you think that your little tricks can fool me?"
Suddenly Lincoln charge towards him, bellowing as he drew his sword for the kill. Cage reached into his pocket and pulled out one of his frequency toners, which had Lincoln on his knees with no strength to pull himself back up. Keeping the toner on, Cage reached into his bag and pulled out the Reaper serum. With a large grin on his face, Cage bent down next to Lincoln. "I've got something for you"
He walked closer with the needle in the air.
"This is for you!"
Just as he was about to come down and insert the serum into Lincoln's neck, Lincoln fought back the sound and he found the strength within him to grab the end of his sword and pull it out from the ground, swinging up to slice Cage's hand off with the needle inside of it. Cage screamed aloud as he felt the pain from having his hand cut off, filling the forest with his cries.
Lincoln watched as Cage fell to his knees, and slowly he bent down to grab the Reaper serum from the severed hand.
"No, no, no! Please! Don't do it!"
Lincoln looked at him and in an instant, he injected the Reaper serum into Cage's neck without batting an eye. Cage's eyes rolled back into his head as he fell over onto his back, staring up at Lincoln, who blended into the night. Lincoln stared at him from above with a vengeful glare.
"The first dose is the worst. But you won't get to know how the next one feels"