He looked up to see Clarke approaching. She eyed him suspiciously, but her question was sharp: "The radio, Jason? Did you come for the radio?"
Jason sighed, already knowing where this was going. "No," he said simply. ?'There was no radio when I got here.'
Raven didn't even seem to hear him. She rushed over to Finn, who had appeared, and the two locked eyes. They embraced tightly, their lips meeting in a kiss. Jason stood back, watching as Clarke's face fell. A cold knot twisted in his stomach. He couldn't help but watch, feeling a bit satisfied, before quickly shaking off the thought.
Clarke looked at him, her face unreadable, and Jason knew she was feeling something, something he couldn't quite place. Without realizing it, he stepped closer and gently punched her shoulder.
"Don't worry," he said softly. "You'll be fine."
Jason's mind wandered as he thought back to his ex, remembering the pain of something lost. It's time to forget.
The rain started to fall harder, and Jason let it wash over him, trying to drown out the voices in his head. Clarke, however, looked at him oddly.
He turned back to the two lovers in front of him. Finn and Raven. There was something about their happiness, something so pure. Yet Jason couldn't shake the feeling that it was fleeting, 'Probably because he just fucked another woman'.
When Finn came over to Clarke, he immediately stepped back, apologizing. Jason shook his head, and as Finn left, Jason couldn't help but shake his head at him and Clarke.
Later, as Clarke cleaned Raven's wound, Jason stood back and watched, letting her focus.
Raven finally looked up. "Clarke? This is all because of your mom."
Clarke's face stiffened. "My mom?"
Raven's gaze shifted between Jason, Finn, and Clarke. "This was all her plan. We were supposed to come down together. But we couldn't wait because the Council was deciding whether to kill 300 people to save air."
"When?" Clarke asked, her voice barely a whisper.
"Today," Raven said simply.
Jason's mind felt like it was on the edge of something breaking, but the anger simmering beneath the surface wasn't the only thing that bothered him. His memories were a mess, and everything felt like a blur. The more he tried to focus on what had happened, the harder it became to separate his emotions from the twisted recollections. It was like someone else was pulling the strings.
He threw his bag down on the ground, startling the others around him.
Raven's voice, full of distress, cut through his frustration. "We have to tell them you're alive."
Jason exhaled slowly, his breath shaky as he forced himself to focus. He couldn't ignore what was at stake. They had to keep pushing forward, even if the weight of everything was too much.
He followed the group to the crashed pod, Raven's frustration palpable. "The radio's gone." Her voice cracked. "It must have gotten loose during reentry. I should've strapped it to the A-Strut. Stupid!" Raven slammed her fist against the ship, her anger directed inward.
Raven's self-blame only amplified the weight in the air.
"No, no… this is my fault. Someone got here before us," she muttered.
Finn turned to Jason, eyes filled with barely contained hope. "Did you take it?"
Jason shook his head, but his suspicion was clear. "No. But I suspect that Bellamy, being Bellamy, probably took it. I knew what he would do. I snuck out to try and catch up with him. I wanted to get here before he did, but…" He paused, the weight of the ambush still fresh in his memory. "I was ambushed by grounders. Different kinds. More... rabid."
Clarke's voice was firm, unwavering. "We've got to find him now."
Without a word, Jason bolted into the trees. The wind whipped through his hair as his feet hit the earth, pushing him faster. The sound of footsteps behind him told him the others were trying to keep up, but he wouldn't slow down. Not for anything.
He pushed harder through the underbrush, eyes darting in every direction until he saw Bellamy, barely visible ahead. He wasn't going to let him get away.
Jason leaped ahead, cutting off Bellamy's path. Bellamy stopped in his tracks, and they stared at each other for a moment, tension thick in the air.
"Jason," Bellamy said, his voice a mix of frustration and surprise.
Clarke caught up quickly, stepping in front of Jason. "Where is it?" she demanded.
Bellamy shot her a quick, mocking glance. "Hey, princess. You taking a walk in the woods?"
Jason's eyes narrowed. "As if you don't know already," he muttered.
Clarke looked slightly annoyed at Bellamy's nickname for her. Finn caught up and stepped in, getting right in Bellamy's face. "Where's the radio?"
Bellamy shook his head dismissively. "I have no idea what you're talking about."
"Bellamy Blake?" Raven growled. "They're looking everywhere for you."
Jason raised an eyebrow. "Looking for him why?" He asked even though he already knew why.
Raven answered quickly, with a cold voice. "He shot Chancellor Jaha."
The group went silent, staring at Bellamy in shock. Jason leaned back, feeling a small amount of satisfaction creep up his spine. The truth was out in the open now.
Jason's voice broke the silence, sarcasm dripping from his words. "That's why you took the wristbands. Needed everyone to think we're dead."
Clarke's voice was sharp, her eyes trained on Bellamy. "And all that 'whatever the hell we want'? You just care about saving your own skin?"
Bellamy turned, his back to them, and walked away. Raven was quick to follow. "Hey! Shooter! Where's my radio?" she snapped.
"Get out of my way," Bellamy growled.
"Where is it?" Raven demanded, her anger rising again.
Bellamy grabbed Raven by the throat, spinning her and pinning her against the tree. Raven immediately whipped out a knife, holding it threateningly at his neck.
"Where's my radio?" she spat.
Jason didn't hesitate. "Alright, that's enough."
Bellamy paused for a moment, then released his grip on Raven, stepping back. The silence that followed was heavy.
"Jaha deserved to die," Bellamy said calmly, his voice low. "You all know that."
Raven scoffed, not letting Bellamy off the hook. "Yeah, he's not my favorite person, either. But he isn't dead."
Bellamy froze, the guilt momentarily flashing across his face. "What?"
"You're a lousy shot," Raven said, her tone biting.
Clarke took a step closer to Bellamy, her voice filled with determination. "Bellamy, don't you see what this means? You're not a murderer. You always did what you had to do to protect your sister. That's who you are. And you can do it again by protecting 300 of your people. Where's the radio?"
Clarke's eyes were pleading now, a quiet desperation in them. Bellamy's gaze softened for a moment, and Jason could see the internal battle raging inside him. But finally, Bellamy spoke.
"It's too late."
Clarke's heart sank. Her gaze lingered on him, filled with disappointment, before she stepped away, her resolve faltering for just a second.
Jason broke the silence with a quick exhale. "Well, then let's get to it," he said firmly, already moving. "Let's get some of our guys down to the river and start searching now."
"Oh, but first…" Jason suddenly turned around to Bellamy and drove a hard punch to his stomach forcing the boy to fall over in pain, throw up his breakfast due to the brutal force of the punch.
Jason looked down at him and said "That's for being stupid."
——————-
Back at Camp
Raven was surrounded by the group as Jason immediately started organizing a team to search for the radio. Bellamy led them toward where he had tossed it, and Jason walked alongside him.
"Bellamy," Jason said, breaking the silence. "Care to enlighten me why you keep trying your damn hardest to paint yourself as a bad guy? You, like the rest of us, are scared of a fate we don't know if we can escape. Doing this is a good thing. Maybe we really can live new. I can only hope the Chancellor wasn't lying about wiping our records."
Bellamy looked at him in confusion, his brow furrowing. "Why do you want to know that? We're enemies."
Jason shook his head, his eyes sharp. "Are you stupid, or something? We aren't enemies, you idiot. We are two individuals trying to keep our people alive and breathing."
Bellamy sighed heavily, staring ahead. The ground crunched beneath their feet as they moved forward.
"You know," Bellamy said after a moment, his voice almost quiet, "I wasn't expecting that from you. You usually are cold, annoying and can be so..."
Jason chuckled cutting him off from what he was about to say. "Oh, that's funny. Well, stop trying to be an idiot."
They kept moving, the rushing sound of the river growing louder as they approached.
Jason, who had been silent after the first exchange, finally spoke again, his voice quieter but full of conviction.
"You want to know what it means to lead people?" Jason said, pausing as the others came closer. "It means you don't just survive for yourself. You make the hard choices, the sacrifices. You look up at the sky and you remember why we fight. Why we do all this. We do it for our people. For our future."
Clarke, Finn, Raven, and the others were quiet as they listened, the weight of his words sinking in. Even Raven gave him a small smile, moved by the sincerity behind his speech.
The river came into view, and Jason waded into the water, feeling it soak into his boots and climb up to his knees. He felt around in the water, searching for any sign of the radio.
The minutes stretched on in silence, broken only by the sound of rushing water.
Finally, a voice called out, "I found it!"
Jason trudged through the water, making his way to the guy who had found the broken device. He stared down at it with a grim look on his face. Raven pushed her way over, carefully taking the radio from the guy.
She examined it, pushing aside wires and components, her hands moving quickly. "Maybe I can fix it. But it'll take half a day just to dry out the components and see what's broken," she said, her voice full of frustration.
"Like I said, it's too late," Bellamy added, his words almost robotic.
Clarke turned toward him, her eyes filled with anger. "Do you have any idea what you've done? Do you even care?"
Bellamy's eyes met Clarke's, and for a moment, it seemed like he was going to say something. Instead, he turned away.
Clarke's voice shook with disappointment. "You asked me to help you. I helped", Bellamy defended himself".
"But 300 people are going to die because of you."
Jason stepped forward, trying to break the tension. "Hold up. We don't have to talk to the Ark. We just have to let them know we're down here, right?" he asked, looking at Raven.
Finn nodded. "Yeah, but how do we do that with no radio?"
Clarke frowned as a thought occurred to her. "We'll figure it out."
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