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[PREVIOUSLY: Octavia and Raven exchange bitter words. In the meanwhile, Lexa comes to the kid's rescue by demanding Bellamy's release from the dungeons of Titus. Then, the unthinkable occurs; a messenger rushes forward with tragic news - Skikru has massacred the village of TonDC]!

"Skikru did this. They have betrayed us all!"

No sooner had Nyko's words of forewarning pierced through the dank, musty air when, suddenly, my knees were kicked out from beneath me.

I was tackled to the ground by someone with the strength of a damn lioness! My arms were wrenched behind my back and my face was pressed firmly against the hardened dirt of the earthen floor. My breaths came out in panicked pants and my eyes widened in shock and rage as I started to make sense of what had happened.

Had Kane, in retaliation for our disobedience, taken out his anger on the grounders? Had a few delinquents, loaded with guns, strayed from the Ark and stumbled across the little grounder village? Had a plot to avenge our friends, who were in Mount Weather, gone awry?

"I - I had no idea this was happening!" I spluttered in protest as the pressure on the back of my head began to build up. "Y-you have to believe me!"

"What do you want me to do with her, Your Highness?" the fierce voice of Indra cut through the air like a sharpened knife.

For a moment, Lexa didn't reply. When she did, however, she addressed Nyko in a harsh, condescending tone, "How many? How many of our people were slaughtered? Answer me!"

Nyko shook his head, a tear or two falling from his eyes. "When I escaped, eighteen had fallen. After that? I cannot say."

A low growl rose up in Lexa's throat as she stooped over my prone figure. "Did you know about this? Did you distract our troops, did you distract me, while your people carried out this evil deed?"

I shook my head vigorously but I was unable to answer as my mouth was full with dirt.

Lexa ground her teeth viciously together as she straightened up to her full height. "Change of plans. Put her in the cell with her brother. Titus, you are to watch over them. Either of them escape and you shall pay with your life! As for the others, hunt them down and kill them!"

As I was jerked to my feet, I spat out at Lexa, the dirt in my mouth spraying across the bodice of her royal clothing. "You know we would never do such a thing!" I screamed. "You know that we're not lying! Lexa! You know it! You can't kill them! They're innocent! They had nothing to do with this! They are as oblivious to the situation as I am! Please! Lexa! You're better than this! Don't do it! Don't do it!"

Lexa's eyes narrowed as she stepped towards me. "How dare you insult my character! First, you lie to me about Aidan being with you. Secondly, you try to break into the tower to reach me! And thirdly, you are a Skai Gada and I can no longer trust you! Your loyalty lies with your people, not Trikru. I am sick and tired of listening to you when your 'grand ideas' bring us nothing but sorrow! I'm returning to TonDC and I am going to destroy those responsible for such an atrocious act! Now, you shall pay the price for your people's foolishness. You shall be my prisoner, held for ransom! Until the offenders are turned over to me, you will not leave Polis and we will not have an alliance. Do you understand?"

I could do nothing but swallow and nod my dark head. I knew that if I pushed Lexa any further, all hopes of regaining her trust would be quickly diminished.

"Take her out of my sight!" Lexa bellowed as she pointed to the row of prison cells lining the wall behind me.

As I was dragged away, kicking and grunting, groaning and struggling, I couldn't help but wonder: who was responsible for the surprise attack on TonDC?

CLANG.

The barred door slammed shut behind me as I was shoved roughly inside one of the cells. Unable to stop myself, I tumbled to the ground, grazing my elbows and knees on the rough, hard surface of the floor.

Wincing in pain, I pushed myself up into a sitting position and glanced around the darkened room, my eyes slowly adjusting to the dim light.

There was a wash-pot in one corner and an overturned bale of hay in another. A metal bucket containing dirtied water was sitting right next to the door and ... and there was the lone figure of a boy silhouetted in the darkest shadows of the room. His knees were pulled up to his chin, his arms were wrapped tightly around his knees and the curls on his dark head were stuck up in multiple directions.

My breath caught in my throat. "Bellamy?"

"O?"

"Bellamy!" I cried out as I lurched myself towards him. "Oh my god. Oh my god. Oh my god!" When I reached my brother, I threw my arms around his neck and buried my face in his shoulder. Tears of relief streamed down my face and a few suppressed sobs forced their way through my lips. "I can't believe it. You're alive!"

"I know, O, I know. I'm okay, I'm okay," Bellamy murmured into my hair. "Oh, look at you. You've gotten so big."

I pulled away from him, forcing a short laugh up my throat. "I've missed you, big brother," I whispered, as I reached up to brush the loose strands of hair off his forehead.

"I've missed you too," he smiled at me, the dimples in his cheeks on full display. "B-but how did you get here? Are you hurt? Where are Raven and the others? Are they okay? And the Ark ... did you end up finding it? Is everyone on it still alive?"

"Shhh," I held my finger up to his lips as I grimaced. "I'll tell you everything in time but first, we need to find a way out of here. Lexa is out for blood. Our friends are in danger, Bell."

Bellamy's eyes widened in anger as he took in the situation. "Alright, we can fix this. Don't worry, O. We haven't come this far just to rot in some dingy jail cell and let our friends die by Lexa's hands! We're Blakes. We don't give up."

I smirked as I gazed at his puffy, bruised face. "That's more like it."

However, the more I thought about the dangers ahead, the more anxious and concerned I became.

In order to escape the dungeons, we had to outsmart Titus and his tribe of Flame Keepers to get through the prison door; it consisted of barred metal with a huge frame that was at least six centimetres thick. After that, we had to weave our way through a confusing maze of dusky, earthen tunnels and dodge dozens of armed guards, who knew the place like the back of their hands, in the process. If we did manage to find the entrance we could probably expect it to be locked, barred and guarded by fierce warriors who were particularly skilled in dishing out unpleasant deaths to runaways ... And all that was if, and only if, no other obstacles popped up in our path.

It wasn't going to be easy.

"Okay, here's the plan," Bellamy informed me in a hushed whisper. "We wait until meal-time, which will be about thirty minutes from now. You distract the Flame Keeper delivering the food-tray until I knock him out, but you have to catch him as he falls so he doesn't make any suspicious sounding noises and then search him for weapons, which he's bound to have. Since he won't have locked the prison door behind him, it should be easy for us to slip out unnoticed but from there, it's gonna be tricky."

"How do you mean?" I queried, my eyebrows scrunched up in curiosity.

"Well, around dusk, Titus performs this ritual and marches around the tunnels with all of his men and a bucketload of candles," he explained. "That's just the problem: with so much light illuminating every darkened corner, it's gonna be hard to go unnoticed."

I bit down on my lower lip and hummed as I considered something. "Wait ... I don't mean to shame the poor Flame Keeper but in order to go unnoticed, we're gonna have to go unnoticed."

A knowing look passed over Bellamy's face as he cocked his head to one side. "You wanna take the poor Flame Keeper's clothes? Oh O, how could you?"

I chuckled softly as I playfully punched him in the shoulder. "Shut-up. I'm trying to be serious here, okay? Those Flame Keeper cloaks are so damn huge we could both easily fit into one. All we need to do is drape it over ourselves and play along with Titus's weird candle ritual until we're close enough to the front door to make a run for it. Let's just pray that it isn't locked from the outside."

Bellamy heaved a deep sigh as he nodded. "We better pray, alright." He hesitated as he glanced back at me. Moving his calloused hand so it was sitting on top of my shoulder, he spoke again, "After we do this, O, I - I think I'm gonna have to disappear again. I don't think it'll be safe for me to return ..."

"Kane has granted you immunity, you and me both," I quickly cut him off. "Jaha is dead. Kane's in charge now. He wants you back at the Ark, not as a mere cadet, but a fellow guardsman. He needs all the help he can get if he wants to set up a treaty with Trikru. He thinks you and I can help him with that."

Bellamy's face screwed up in disgust as he spat onto the floor. "An alliance? With Trikru? You've gotta be joshing me."

I shook my head. "No, Bell, I'm not. Even Kane knows that we're no match for Mount Weather and he's only heard stories about them ... he's never seen them face-to-face. Let's put it this way, if these huge, burly, vicious-looking grounders are scared of them, then that's saying something, right? Besides, Lexa only wanted a temporary alliance of convenience. Anya's stuck in Mount Weather and Trikru is willing to do anything to get her out of there ... even if that means making an alliance with Skikru."

Bellamy huffed but he had no biting words with which to backfire because he knew, deep down, that it was the only solution.

"Fine," he muttered through gritted teeth. "I'll return with you to the Ark ... but first? Let's focus on what needs to get done: getting the hell out of here so we can go save our friends."

Gif: Octavia and Bellamy as they reunite. YAYY!! Bell's back!!

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