Becoming Air (The 100)

Chapter Ten

Bellamy made sure Octavia was safe, sleeping in a shelter with some other girls nearby. Nearly the entire camp was asleep as Bellamy made his way to the place he knew Arlean would be in.

He wove between the trees just outside the camp until he saw Arlean's figure sitting on a rock, protruding from a cliff.

He climbed onto the rock, picking his way across and sitting quietly down beside Arlean.

They sat for a few minutes, listening to the forest and watching the clear moon rise.

"I shot Chancellor Jaha." Bellamy began quietly. "I told myself it was for Octavia. I had to get on the ship to make sure she was going to be safe. But I was only trying to justify it to myself. I wanted to shoot the Chancellor for what he'd done to my family. To Octavia."

Arlean didn't say anything as he sighed and looked at the sky. "Where did it get me, though? A place down here in a world destroyed, where nobody knows what I've done? And what happens when the rest of them come down? When they condemn me for what I've done?"

He lowered his head in his hands.

"They killed my boyfriend."

Bellamy slowly raised his head from his hands to look at Arlean.

She was staring up at the stars. "They didn't even let me see him one last time."

Bellamy swallowed, wanting to ask so many questions. Why? What had he done? What had she done?

Arlean absentmindedly reached into her jacket and pulled out a knife, spinning it in her hand. Bellamy realized she could have easily killed Clark with it, back in the drop ship if she'd wanted to. But she hadn't. Nobody else might agree with him, but Bellamy thought this spoke volumes about her and her self control, especially if she was confined for murder.

"What I wouldn't have given to have been in your place." She suddenly grabbed the knife, stopping its rotation on her hand. She gripped the blade in a closed fist. "To have shot the Chancellor."

Bellamy was taken aback by the venom in her voice, and the ice cold edge that made her tone deadly. He understood her thought process, the Chancellor had basically forced Octavia to live underground for nearly her whole life.

Finally Bellamy spoke up. "But I still don't understand why Clark hates you. Or what the problem with Wells is."

Arlean turned her brown eyes on him for a moment and something flashed behind them. And for the briefest moment, Bellamy was staring into her heart, seeing regret, grief, betrayal and hatred.

And then as soon as it came it was gone.

"We should go back." Arlean said abruptly, standing up quickly. She pushed the knife back into her jacket and shoved her hands into her pocket.

But not before Bellamy saw the blood covering her palm from where she'd gripped the blade of the knife tightly.