KING, the hundred

forty-three: the alliance

"murder lives forever and so does war.
it's survival of the fittest, rich against the poor."

savages by MARINA

"Who would want Lexa dead?"

"Too many to count." Lincoln answered immediately to Avery's question from his place beside Octavia. "Taking the alliance with you was a risk, the Commander knew that."

"It couldn't be the Mountain Men, could it?" Bellamy asked from beside them. Avery shook her head in response.

"They'll probably attack at some point if what Clarke said is true, but it won't be like this." Avery said.

"How do you know?" Marcus asked from beside them. Avery turned to him, her expression level and eyebrows raised.

"Because... how could they?" Avery spoke quickly. "They have no way of getting here from their mountain. They're safe, why wouldn't they just attack, why would they do it like this?"

Avery was obviously challenging the people around her as she spoke, looking all the way around the room as if daring the others to question her. No one did.

"Alright, it wasn't the Mountain Men." Marcus conceded. "But we know that the Commander needs this alliance as much as we do."

"She thinks we tried to kill her!" Clarke's outburst drew the attention of the room to her. Avery almost responded, before Marcus' calm voice interrupted her.

"But we know we didn't." He said, looking around the room as Avery had, addressing each person in it. "So let's find out who did without tearing each other to pieces." His last comment was specifically directed at Avery, who scoffed the notion away. Marcus could not be the one to tell her how to deal with shit. He didn't have that right yet.

Avery almost picked another fight before she felt a hand make its way around her back and settle right next to her left hip. Looking to her right, Avery noticed Bellamy, who was still watching the conversation with his usual closed-off observational look. He'd made his way closer to her without anyone else in the room noticing.

They thought Avery King was crazy. Or at the very least they thought Avery was actually angry at them for some reason.

But Bellamy knew the truth. Avery was grieving Finn's death by trying to avenge it. And she was likely outright terrified that Clarke was going to get herself killed doing the same thing. Bellamy had seen it happen. It happened to Finn. Grief consumed him, and was ultimately the reason why he died. Avery wanted to stop that from happening. And it was better for Clarke to hate the King and not get herself killed than the alternative.

Avery and Bellamy made eye contact as the rest of the room moved around them. Avery felt her knees go weak and her heart give a little jolt.

"Ava, you'll know, baby. You'll know."

She knew. As she leaned a little bit more into Bellamy's side, she knew.

Avery was so tired. She was so tired. But she would rather be tired and alive than asleep and dead.

So she stood up straight, bared her teeth a little bit, and raised her voice.

"We are not dying here." She spoke clearly. "We are not dying anytime soon. We will find a way out of this." She paused, letting her words soak through the room. She took a deep breath, and lowered the volume and strength of her voice. "Marcus is right, we can't tear each other apart. But we will need to defend ourselves somehow, because it's only a matter of time before they come back in here."