CHAPTER NINE:

"WHAT HAVE WE BECOME?"

The crickets chirped in the tall grass around Camp Jaha as small campfires could be seen around for light the civilians of the Ark that were still awake. The night sky was out, the moon hiding behind the dark black clouds that blended in with the night time. By a bar-like structure where most of the food and drinks were at, tables had been set up, chatters being heard all around as the adults of the Ark took drinks of the said liquid they had gotten from the makeshift bar. At one of those tables, Clarke and Bellamy could be seen, sitting across from one another as they discussed Mount Weather.

Walking out of where the prison cells were in the Ark, the boots on Y/n's feet meet the, now, dry ground. Finn and Murphy were soon trailing behind her. The Griffin girl looks around in hopes of seeing her sister. Ever since they had reunited, Clarke hadn't spoken to her twin and she understood why. As Murphy walked off in one direction, Finn was slowly walking towards the girl he loves, seeing her glancing around the camp with a frown, her hands in her pockets.

The cuts and injuries on them had been checked on and their faces had been cleaned from all the mud and dirt on them. Finn stops beside the girl, gently reaching for one of her hands, wrapping it around her wrist as he guides her hand out of her pocket. The girl's head snaps to him, jumping a bit at the contact. The e/c eyed girl finds herself turning to him, looking at their hands as their fingers brushed against one another's before Finn touched his palm with hers, raising her hand until it met his lips.

Y/n watches as he presses a delicate kiss to her bruised knuckles, staring into her eyes. Seeing a tear fall down her cut up cheek, he uses his free hand to softly wipe it away. Wanting to give him comfort, the girl uses her free hand to move some of the hair hanging in front of his eyes away. They both knew what they were thinking. Back at the village, they were both in shock at their own actions and guilt had been coursing through them the entire time. And it still is.

Catching sight of her sister sitting with Bellamy, Y/n looks back at Finn who gives her a nod. They slowly pull away and the Collins boy watches as she walks over to the table. Y/n could see her twin sister tense when she caught sight of her. Hoping to start a conversation, the youngest Griffin twin starts with a small 'hey', which receives one back from Bellamy. The Blake boy was soon to notice the Griffin twins staring at each other, excusing himself as he stands up and walks off. Slowly, Y/n hesitantly places herself in his seat and she takes notice of the map laying on the table.

"Mount Weather?" Y/n guesses, receiving a nod. "What's the plan?"

"Still working on it." Clarke replies, almost too quickly.

Hearing footsteps coming towards them, the Griffin twins break eye contact, seeing Murphy stopping beside the blonde, soon seating himself in the free chair beside the oldest Griffin twin. A cup of alcohol was in his hand, just like almost everyone else's cups around them.

Murphy lets out a breath after taking a gulp. "Check it out. Salvaged Monty's still from the dropship. Now, I guess, you know, if they could just salvage Monty, huh?" His words receive a look from the twins. "Easy. It was just a joke. You, uh, tell her we were cleared?"

Y/n shakes her head. "No."

"Well, it looks like our pardon for surviving includes our time on the ground. Now bigger fish to fry, I guess." Murphy explains.

"We did what we had to do." Y/n states, looking at her sister. "I gotta go."

With that, she quickly stands up and walks off, feeling her sister watch her leave. While doing so, she passes Finn along the way. The Collins boy takes a glance at his friends before looking at Y/n's retreating figure, deciding to follow in hopes of getting her to talk.

Day light was out on earth, the sun hiding beneath the clouds as a few hours had passed since Y/n had tried speaking with her sister. In the woods, a rather large group could be seen walking together. Some of the guards from the Ark, including Clarke, Abby, Y/n, Finn, Octavia, Raven and Bellamy with them. Y/n stayed close to Finn who was happy enough to stay close to her as well as she kept away from her mother and sister. Occasionally, she could see her family take glances at her but she kept her gaze trained on her feet. Both Finn and Y/n could tell that Octavia had a distaste to them at the moment after what they did at the grounder village, which only made the guilt grow even more.

After minutes and minutes, the large group had stopped and the guards stood around, keeping an eye out for anything. Just ahead of them, was Mount Weather. A large mountain being shown instead of a bunker-like place that Clarke was in. After finding out that Mount Weather had been jamming their radio system, that's how the group found themselves here. Raven handed the binoculars to Clarke when she pointed something out. Y/n and Finn listened in as Clarke stated they'd set up camp and leave at first light.

"We're missing two." Abby suddenly calls out before turning to her eldest daughter. "Where the hell are they?"

"Bellamy! Octavia!" A guard calls.

"Clarke, we're in enemy territory, and their lives are my responsibility." Abby continues.

"They went to find a way in." Clarke informs.

"A way in." Abby repeats in disbelief. "That's not what this mission is about."

"It is for them." Clarke states.

Abby turns to a guard. "Find them. Bring them back."

The guard nods. "Yes, ma'am. You two with me. Let's go."

"I'm going with them." Finn announces.

They all turn to him, Y/n included, seeing he picked up a gun, beginning to walk in the direction that the guards had ran off to in search of the Blake siblings. Taking a glance at her mother and sister, seeing them glance at her, Y/n bends down and picks up a gun, walking to go beside Finn.

"I'm going, too." Y/n tells them.

Raven steps in front of them. "We need you both here."

"Why? So you can keep an eye on us?" Finn asks.

Y/n looks right to her twin sister who avoided eye contact with her as her eyes cast down to the gun she was holding, then looking to the gun Finn was holding. It was clear that she thought they'd do something similar to what they had done just a few hours ago, and the others probably thought that as well.

"You'd have to be able to look at me to do that." Y/n adds to what Finn had said, staring right at her sister.

"Finn, Y/n--" Raven begins.

"What do you think we're gonna do?" Finn interrupts.

In frustration, Finn steps back, tossing the gun to the ground as he walks off. Looking to her family and friend with pursed lips, the youngest Griffin twin shakes her head, doing the same thing before she's going after Finn. They both needed each other right now, and the others knew that. However, not wanting either of them to go far, Clarke decided to go after them, soon seeing them back in the woods, standing in front of each other, their foreheads rested together.

"Y/n! Finn!" Clarke calls to them.

The two snap their heads over, seeing she was jogging towards them, stopping just a few feet away. Finn looks away, keeping Y/n's hands in his as the Griffin twins stare at one another, Clarke slowly taking a step forward.

"It was an accident." Y/n admits, telling her for both herself and Finn.

Suddenly, a loud high pitched sound filled their ears. Clarke spins around as Y/n and Finn look as well. Their eyes widen upon seeing acid fog starting to make their way towards them. Without a thought, Y/n grabs her sister's hand as Finn grabs hers, the three running off in the opposite direction. As they ran, Clarke brought out her walkie, shouting into it in hopes of her and Y/n's mother hearing.

"My tent! I forgot my pack!" Clarke shouts.

"It's okay! We can make it to the bunker!" Finn assures.

It only takes about two or three minutes until Finn was opening up the bunker hatch, ushering the girls in. Clarke lands on the ground, Y/n following, Finn being the last after closing the door, turning on their flashlights. Resting his hand on Y/n's wrist, Finn looks to the girl for confirmation, to which she nods. Meanwhile, Clarke stepped further into the bunker, but stopped at the sight of a dead body laying on the floor just a few feet in front of them. The other two follow her gaze, remembering what had happened in here.

Clarke raises her hand to cover her nose at the smell as she stares at the grounder her sister killed. Noticing Y/n looking down at her feet, Finn walks forward, stepping over the body and into the small bathroom behind him. Soon, he was coming back out with the shower curtain, kneeling down beside the body and placing the shower curtain over the grounder's lifeless body. Clarke takes a glance at her sister, seeing she was glancing at the body and Finn, a frown on her face with tears of guilt in her eyes.

After a couple minutes, Finn had lit up some candles before he was seating himself on a chair, resting his elbow on the top of the table as he played with his fingers. Meanwhile, Clarke was pacing back and forth and Y/n was leaning against the wall, her leg bouncing up and down, both girls worried about their friends and their mother.

"Stop." Finn suddenly demands, looking at both of them. "I'm sure they're fine. Everybody had tents."

Glancing at him, Y/n lets out a sigh beneath her breath before she was looking at Clarke, seeing the blonde already staring at her. The blue eyed girl had her eyes squinted as she stared at her twin sister, almost like a glare on her face.

"So first you can't look at me, and now you're looking at me like I'm the enemy and not your sister." Y/n points out.

Clarke shakes her head. "I'm not looking at you like that."

"Well, you don't look at me the way you used to." Y/n states, stepping to her. "I've been waiting for the right moment to give you this. It's starting to feel like that moment might not come."

After that, she brings out their father's watch that he had given to Clarke. A small smile comes onto her face as the blonde takes it from her hands, examining it.

"I just had to get it, knowing how much it means to both of us." Y/n admits.

"Where did you get this?" Clarke questions.

"It was around his neck." Y/n replies, turning to the lifeless grounder.

The blonde felt tears come to her eyes as she looks at their father's watch, then looking up at her sister, realizing that she was the one to kill the innocent grounder right in front of them underneath the shower curtain.

For a few hours, the three teenagers had been in the bunker, not saying a word. The Griffin twins sat across from one another, Y/n having her head in her hands as she sat there, knees pressed against her chest. Meanwhile, Finn was soon venturing in the direction of the ladder, climbing it before he opened up the hatch just enough to peak out. Once seeing that the acid fog wasn't there anymore, he closed up the hatch, climbing back down and venturing to the table beside Y/n, grabbing the flashlight he had.

"The fog has cleared." Finn informs.

The Collins boy looks between the two sisters before he stopped in front of Y/n, holding out his hand. Looking up from where she had been looking at the floor, her eyes meet his before she was putting her shaky hand in his, letting him pull her up to her feet, his other hand resting on the side of her waist. The e/c eyed girl gives him an assuring nod when she saw the concerned look he was giving her before she looked to her sister. The blonde hadn't been looking as her blue eyes were trained on the lifeless grounder just a few feet from her.

"They were unarmed." Clarke states, finally looking at her sister.

Finn motions to the ladder. "We have to go."

Squeezing the side of Y/n's waist, he walks off to the ladder. Finally meeting her sister's eyes, Y/n frowns even more than she had been upon seeing the tears in her blue eyes. Looking away, the Griffin girl begins to follow after Finn who also had a frown on his face.

"I don't even know who you are anymore, Y/n." Clarke calls out. "Either of you."

Turning around, Finn's eyes stop right on Y/n who stopped in her tracks at her twin's words. He watches as the girl's bottom lip quivers, a tear falling from her teary eyes and down her cheek as she lets herself slide down and onto the floor. Feeling his own lip quiver, he crouches in front of her, using his hand to wipe her tear.

"Neither do I." Y/n replies in a whisper.

Finn bows his head, sniffling. "What have we become?"

Eventually, after a couple minutes, the three were climbing out of the bunker, closing the hatch behind them before making their way back to the others. Soon, Abby and Raven came into their view. Abby and Clarke looked at one another, walking towards one another and sharing a tight hug, making Y/n frown as she stared at her family. However, what she didn't expect was for her mother to rush to her, wrapping her arms tightly around her when her and Clarke had pulled away from one another.

Still surprised, the others watch as Y/n hesitantly wraps her arms around her mother, hugging back. When they pull away, Abby cups her daughter's cheeks, moving some of her hair out of the way as she stares at her daughter with a sad smile.

"Bellamy and Octavia?" Clarke speaks up.

"They know to rendezvous here." Abby assures.

"Have you tried to radio?" Clarke asks.

"Still jammed." Raven informs.

"You didn't blow the tower." Clarke points out.

Abby smiles a bit. "Raven figured out a way that we could listen to Mount Weather. If we took out the antenna, we wouldn't be able to do that."

"What about the other Ark stations?" Y/n reminds, stepping forward.

"We don't know if they made it. What we do know is that forty-seven of our people are being held prisoner on that mountain. We're gonna get them out." Abby declares.

Grabbing both her daughters hands, Abby pulls them both into a hug, holding them close. Clarke instantly hugged back while Y/n was hesitant again. As they both had their arms around their mother's shoulders, the twins felt their hands brushed together. Just as Y/n goes to pull back, Clarke slowly grabs her hand, holding it in hers as Raven walks over to her best friend.

"I'm sorry." Finn tells her.

Raven shrugs, placing her hand on her best friend's arm and giving it a squeeze of comfort. "We all have battle scars, Finn. Suck it up... and build a brace for yours."

"Help!" A voice suddenly calls out.

The two guards of the group rush forward, instructing the others to stay back as they aimed their guns at the mysterious man. However, what they didn't expect was to see a very familiar face that they thought had stayed on the Ark. The others watch as a figure walks up the hill, stumbling a bit as he pushes down the gun when the guards realized who it was. Thelonious Jaha continued to stumble to the group before dropping to his knees in front of Abby who placed her hand on his shoulder as he stared out at Camp Jaha.

"I have a message from the commander. Leave... or die. We have two days." Jaha pants out.