"They should be here by now." I exclaimed as I paced back and forth within the Drop Ship. Bellamy, Raven and I had arrived over 20 minutes ago, and there was still no sign of my brother and Clarke, "They left before us, there's no reason they shouldn't be here." I was close to tears at this point, automatically assuming the worst.

Bellamy stepped out in front of me, stopping my pacing as he placed his hands on each of my shoulders, "They'll be here." he promised.

Raven watched the two of us, letting out a small sigh before she stood up, "I'm going to check again."

The minute she exited the ship, I took a seat, shoving my face into my hands, "I shouldn't have left him. They could be dead right now for all we know."

Raven reentered the ship a few moments later, "No sign of them."

Bellamy shook his head, "Where are they?" he wondered.

Raven mimicked my regret, "We never should have split up."

The minute the words left her mouth, the sound of footsteps could be heard coming towards the ship. I perked up, standing up and joining Raven and Bellamy.

"Someone's coming." Bellamy announced as he raised his gun, aiming it towards the entrance. I stood beside him, eagerly awaiting the arrival of whoever it was, hoping it was my brother.

When the curtain  was pushed aside and the figure came into sight, I was utterly disappointed. "Murphy?" I questioned, confused as to why he was here.

Murphy held up his hands at the sight of Bellamy's gun, "Woah, woah."

Bellamy lowered his gun, giving Murphy the same confused look I was, "What are you doing here?"

Murphy let out a small laugh, "I believe I was invited..."

I scrunched up my face, "By who?"

"I thought we could use an extra gun." Raven explained, giving me a reassuring look.

Bellamy nodded, his eyes shifting from Murphy to Raven, "Might be a good idea."

Upon Bellamy's approval, Murphy made his way further into the Drop Ship. "Did you see Finn? They should have been right behind you." I questioned, turning to allow my eyes to follow him.

"Don't worry," he brushed off my concerns as he walked away from me, "Spacewalker will be fine."

I rolled my eyes as I turned back to the door, "Useless." I grumbled, focusing my attention back on the hopeful return of my brother. Raven stood beside me, the same worried expression on her face.

I looked over at her through the corner of my eye, eventually reaching down and taking her hand in mine. I gave it a small squeeze as she looked over to me with a small smile. Through everything, I knew I always had Raven. I felt like she was the one person who truly understood what I was going through when it came to Finn.

---

Another 10 minutes had passed by the time more footsteps were heard from outside of the Drop Ship. I instantly stood from when I had been sitting, making my way towards the door. In a hurry, Finn came rushing into the ship, an unconscious Clarke in his arms.

I let out a sigh of relief at the sight of my brother before instantly turning my attention to Clarke. "What happened?" Bellamy asked, concern in his voice.

"Hit over the head by a Grounder." Finn explained.

"Here, put her here." Murphy mumbled as he moved some things aside to allow my brother to set Clarke down. I was surprised to see him helping for once.

As Finn set her down, I knelt beside her as did the others. My eyes moved to her head which was soaked in blood, "I need some sort of bandage, a rag or something." I instructed as I moved her hair out of the way.

"Got it!" Murphy exclaimed as he passed me a cloth. I reached out a took it from him, holding it firmly on her head.

Bellamy sat beside me, Clarke's head in his hands, "Clarke...Clarke can you hear me?"

At the sound of her voice being called, Clarke let out a small groan. Relief washed over me as she let out another groan. "She's conscious," I observed,  "That's good."

Bellamy nodded as he leaned his face closer to Clarke's, "You're going to be alright," he promised, "You just need to rest."

Suddenly, Finn who had been in conversation with Raven, went storming out of the ship. "Finn!" I called, unable to follow after due to my task of holding the cloth to Clarke's head.

Raven went to follow after him, "I've got it, Avery." she promised before disappearing after my brother.

I let out a sad sigh as I brought one of my hands up to push the hair from my face, "He blames himself." I explained, already knowing why Finn was so upset.

Bellamy, and surprisingly Murphy, were both watching me with sad looks, "It'll be okay, Avery. We'll get everything figured out." Bellamy promised.

I put on a fake smile as I nodded, "Yeah, I'm sure you're right." But deep down, I knew that Bellamy wasn't right. I had a strong feeling that everything wasn't going to be okay.

---

Clarke had made no progress in the last little bit, and Raven had offered to take over sitting with her. I had decided to get some fresh air, and let Raven and Finn be alone for a while. So, now here I was, positioned outside of the Drop Ship with Murphy and Bellamy, a gun in my hand. I was still horrible at shooting, but it was better than being unarmed.

The perimeter of what used to be our home had been quiet since I had gotten out there, no sign of anyone. However, within 5 minutes of my scouring the tree line, something caught my eye.

"Do you guys see that?" I asked, my voice quiet as I stared through the scope of my gun, "Someone's out there."

Both of the boys followed my line of vision, however, that proved unnecessary as another figure came into view, and then another.

"They found us." I whispered, my voice lacing with fear.

Bellamy nodded as he turned his head towards the Drop Ship where the others were,  "We have company! Get out here!"

Within seconds, Finn, Raven and Clarke, who must have just awoken, came running out of the Drop Ship, guns in hand. Fear was pumping through my body as my shaky hands held onto my gun.

"Get down." Bellamy quietly instructed the three of them, "Grounders." he explained.

I could feel my heart beating rapidly as I let out quick uneven breaths. The few Grounders had now turned into well over ten, and they were all over. Everywhere I looked there were Grounders.

"Okay," Bellamy announced, pushing himself up into a crouching position, "Everyone back in the Drop Ship, now."

No one argued as we all did as he said. One by one we stayed low, making our way back into the safety of the ship.

"What do we do now?" I asked once all of us had made it inside. Everyone was pacing back and forth with the exception of Murphy and Bellamy who were looking beyond the curtain to check what was happening outside.

"Well, they're not moving any closer." Murphy observed, bringing his head back inside.

Bellamy nodded, doing the same thing, "They're staying out of range...probably waiting until it's dark."

An exasperated sigh escaped my lips as I pressed the bottom of my hands into my eyes, "That doesn't make any of this any better."

"Well if we attack now, at least we'd take 'em by surprise." Murphy pointed out.

I removed my hands from my face as I shook my head, "There's only 6 of us, and we don't know how many of them are out there."

Murphy shook his head with a humourless laugh, "I'm not hearing any better ideas, Avery."

Raven, who had been mostly quiet for the last little while, spoke up, "We'll give them something."

"All they want is Finn." Bellamy countered.

Raven pursed her lips, an unnerving look coming to cover her face, "Finn wasn't the only one at the village."

The minute all of us clued into what she was insinuating, our eyes grew wide, "What are you talking about?" Clarke questioned.

Bellamy, who was never Murphy's biggest fan, instantly shut her down, "Raven hold on."

Murphy was in a state of shock, "Woah, woah, woah. Raven, I came here to protect him. You were the one who wanted me to come, you-" he cut himself off as he clued into Raven's little plan. "That's why you wanted me to come isn't it?"

Raven had a stone cold expression on her face, "Enough Grounders saw him at the village, they'd believe he was the shooter."

I shook my head, giving Raven a disapproving look, "Raven, no. We're not doing this."

Murphy was sharing her down, "You sick bitch."

"You know what they do to people!" Bellamy reminded.

Raven ignored every word that was being said to her, "They want a murdered," she mumbled, pointing her gun towards Murphy, "We'll give them one...drop your gun!"

Now, as I have said before, I was far from Murphy's biggest fan, but there was no way I was going to let Raven go through with this.

"Raven," I snapped, stepping in between her and Murphy, "Put your gun down right now." I ordered.

She just stared back at me, tears in her eyes as she gritted her teeth, "Avery, move."

Murphy moved closer to me, lightly moving me aside so he could come face to face with Raven. He was so close, the barrel of her gun was pressed to his chest. "Go to hell Raven."

Clarke was watching the scene unfold, worry in her eyes. "Put the gun down right now, Raven. Like it or not he's one of us."

Raven pushed the gun further into Murphy's chest, "I said drop it." she growled.

"Stop!" Finn yelled, pushing Raven's gun away from Murphy. He stepped in between the two of them, "We're not doing this. They've got us surrounded. The only thing we can do is stay and defend this place. " he explained softly, looking around at each of us.

"I'm with you." Bellamy promised. Finn then looked to the rest of us who simply nodded as a way to show we were on board with his plan.

Once Finn had this confirmation, he continued, "Murphy, go upstairs, watch the rear. I'll watch the lower level. You four," he said, looking at the rest of us, "take the front gate. That's the plan...alright?"

The remaining 5 of us nodded. The nerves were bubbling in my stomach as Murphy began to make his way towards the upper level. This was it, it was time to protect my brother at whatever cost necessary.

---

Soon enough, everyone else had positioned themselves at their posts except for me. I remained in the Drop Ship with Finn, wanting to spend a few more minutes with him before I potentially walked into my death by Grounders.

I was loading my gun, clearly stalling. If Finn noticed the fact that I was taking unusually long to load a mostly loaded gun, he didn't say anything about it.

"He loves you, you know that right?" Finn mumbled, breaking the silence.

I turned to him in confusion, 'What?"

Finn gave me a small smile, "Bellamy, he loves you. I can tell."

I felt my cheeks heat up as I shook my head, "Love is a strong word, Finn. Besides, you really don't have to talk about your sister's love life with her."

He nodded, deciding to ignore the latter part of my sentence, "I know, but the way he looks at you, the way he cares for you, he really loves you. So, let him love you okay? Don't push him away. Bellamy, Octavia, Raven, Clarke, they're all your family, and you need to let them help you sometimes."

I brushed him off, "You're my family."

He nodded, a look of sadness covering his face, "I am, and being your brother is the best thing that has ever happened to me, I just want you to know that. And I want you to realize how amazing and strong you are."

"Finn stop. Stop talking like you're going to die." I demanded, tears already filling my eyes. "We're going to protect you."

He ignored me as he kept going, "If anyone can conquer this world it's you Aves. You just have to keep fighting, no matter what happens, always keep going. Be the Avery that I've always admired, the person I always wanted to be-"

"Stop!" I cried, standing up and marching over to him, 'You're not dying okay?" I said, lowering my voice, "You don't need to say all of this stuff because you're not dying, do you understand me?"

Staring up at me for a moment, Finn finally nodded, "Yeah, you're right, I'm sorry." he stood up and pulled me into a tight hug, "I love you Avery, to the Earth and back."

I cracked a teary smile at his joke as I hugged him back, "I love you too, Finn."

Pulling away, I gave him a tight smile, "Now, I have to get out there. Don't worry okay? You'll be safe in here. Do not come out unless one of us comes to get you, got it?"

My brother gave me a small nod, before quickly pulling me back into a hug. Finn never hugged me this much, ever. It was always me torturing him with hugs, not the other way around.

"Okay, go." he muttered, shoving me lightly towards the door, "Be safe out there."

I gave him one last smile as I turned towards the exit, "I always am."

The tears were still fresh in my eyes as took my position outside beside Bellamy. The Grounders were still surrounding our walls, but were making no further efforts to move in, at least not yet.

"See anything?" Clarke questioned as we all looked around, trying to find something that would signal an attack.

All of us responded with small "noes" However, just seconds later, the sounds of movement was heard from the edge of the camp.

"Someone's coming." Raven announced.

All of our eyes moved towards where the noise had come from. I had expected to see Grounder coming towards us, or best case scenario an animal passing through. But what I didn't expect to see was my brother, standing in the open with his arms up in surrender.

My heart dropped to my stomach at the sight of him. My gun fell out of my hands as I sprung to my feet, as did Clarke, "Finn!" she screamed.

I felt like I was going to be sick as dozens of Grounders jumped on him.

"No!" I screamed, trying to rush forward after him. Bellamy bolted towards me, pulling me into his arms and back down onto the ground.

"Finn!" I screamed, trying to push against Bellamy, "Let me go!" tears were streaming down my face as Bellamy kept me pinned down.

It all made sense now. Why Finn had said all of those things to me only minutes ago. If I had been more intuitive, I would have known why he was acting like that. I should have know. If I had of just paid attention, I could have kept him safe. I let him down, and now he was going to die.

-an-

guys I cried writing the final interaction between the twins. I am honestly already so sad for the next chapter.

please vote/comment your thoughts on this chapter and how sad you already are on a scale of 1-10

ps. every time i hear the song I linked, I think of Finn and Avery for some reason and it makes me want to cry

okay bye

love you all

-maddy xoxo