For The Greater Good

[Bellamy Blake]

Tag: Echo

whatever

THE HELL WE WANT

There was some balance on faction Alpha. Jackson and Wick were two individuals that Bellamy trusted emphatically. He wasn't sure if the feeling was mutual after everything he'd done . . . but he trusted them. They were exceptionally skilled in their fields and he was relieved to have them with him. The same could not be said for the other two -- Roan and Echo. Particularly the latter. Echo had directly betrayed him, resulting in the death of Gena and so many more of their people. He had trusted her, just like he had in Mount Weather. Her recent manipulation was far worse than her abandonment in the mountain. He wanted to believe that she would do something to help them, but she hadn't. Grounders priorities would always be their own. Which was why he didn't trust them.

The fact that they had agreed to this mission was enough to leave him wary of their presence. Just because Roan agreed to help them destroy ALIE, didn't mean he could suddenly be trusted now. The only positive way Bellamy could look at this, was that if they were with him, they were not a threat to the others. And he would damn well make sure they didn't lay a hand on Wick or Jackson. Bellamy was just stepping out to meet his group so that they could set off. The others were ready, he just had a final meeting with Kane. Once he walked outside, he noticed Echo approaching him. He wasn't sure he could forgive her . . . but he was willing to put his feelings aside, for the greater good. "Ready?" He asked, his tone and demeanour entirely stoic.

[Echo]

Echo slowly approached Bellamy and he asked her if she was ready. That surprised her but she didn't let it show. She was surprised that he was willing to speak to her after what she had done. Echo hadn't liked it, and she had made sure that he and his sister had been out of their before it blew up. They had been the cost that she wasn't willing to have on her. Him for her debt to him, and his sister because of who she was to him. If Nia knew she had deliberately saved them, she would have been in a rage.

"I would speak with you before we go." She knew she had asked this of him last time they'd met too. This time her words where her own, and not an order given. "About why I betrayed you." She had reasons, and she believed in them. She stood by them even. She couldn't have refused to do it. Nia would have had her killed, or taken noticed of her loyalty--and either way she would have made someone else do it, and they might have not kept him alive. She had to be the one, and she had to see it done.

[Bellamy Blake]

Tag: Echo

whatever

THE HELL WE WANT

She wanted to speak to him, and Bellamy would have assumed it to be about their mission . . . until she added the next part. Reasons, as to why she betrayed him. He clenched his jaw, trying to fight back the emotion that it brought up. Seeing her was difficult enough. Speaking to her about it . . . threatened to unleash all those pent up emotions he had shunned away so that he could function. Just as he had done after committing genocide at Mount Weather: he needed to put his personal feelings aside . . . for the betterment of his people. He wasn't even sure he cared about the reasons she did it. Though, he knew that it was hypocritical of him. For he too had betrayed people who entrusted him. Those in Mount Weather who trusted him. He had killed them all, for the sake of his people.

He imagined Echo's actions were similar to that . . . though he supposed there was one significant difference. It wasn't a matter of life or death for her and her people. It was an act of war. An attack. His mind worked quickly, trying to respond in some way; trying to maintain some semblance of composure when the woman before him threatened to undo everything he had tried to keep hidden. He had let himself be emotionally vulnerable with her; and he paid the price for it. They all did. "Does it matter?" He asked bitterly, his question rhetorically blunt. "Whatever you have to say, say it now. Because I'm not going to drag the others into it." A revelation, that he wasn't going to tell Jackson or Wick about what she had done. That he wans't going to bring this up again during their mission. Not in effort to protect her, but because he wasn't going to air any misdeeds. No good would come of it. And if they were going to be successful in a faction together . . . then perhaps it was just better to have this conversation now, rather than later.

[Echo]

He wasn't going to tell the others. That was a surprise, though she didn't show it. They would be more likely to trust her if they didn't know her part in their friend's deaths. She wondered if he expected a thank you for that. She wouldn't offer it right now, as things were too high stakes for them. Perhaps when things were more settled. For now she would only accept it.

"I would have you understand, for my part." Why she'd done it. "Nia coveted Lexa's power, so once years ago, she kidnapped Lexa's lover and tortured her for information on Lexa. To make Nia submit, Lexa faught a war and won. She banished Roan to punish Nia." That was the backstory. Echo shifted her weight, a small sign that this wasn't comfortable for her. "Nia was angry, and curl in her ruling. There were some that worked to undermined her. I was one of them. My loyal reminded to my price, and I was his spy by his mother's side." Something she had never said allowed to anyone, but she needed him to understand--she had tried to save him.

"She wanted the alliance broken between Skikru and the Commander. When you kept it, even after The Commander betrayed you, Nia was furious. Her plan was to make you turn on each other. If I hadn't gone, she'd had sent someone else, and you'd all would have died anyway. I did it to make sure I got you and your sister out. I owed you that." The others had to die however. They had long fought Ice Nation, and if she failed then Nia would have known Echo to have betrayed her. She would have been ruthless in her revenge.

[Bellamy Blake]

Tag: Echo

whatever

THE HELL WE WANT

Understand her part. He wasn't sure he even wanted to. But he didn't object. She started explaining the history of Nia and Lexa. He was listening, but had nothing to comment on it. What was it Kane had called them . . . collateral in a war against Lexa. As if that someone justified the killing. As if it appeased it. They weren't even given justice for all those that were murdered. But when the situation was reversed, they would give in to the Grounders demands.

Or, a select few would. "I don't give a damn about your Grounder politics," he said, his tone leveled, though was clearly uncaring of the history. Whether it was difficult for her to admit or not. She had been the one Grounder -- apart from Lincoln -- that he felt he could trust. And had trusted. Even her being a spy for a man who kidnapped Clarke, stabbed him, and would have done who knows what . . . well, that didn't give Bellamy any reassurance. The bottom line was that they would only protect their own. Which was also why Bellamy was highly wary of both Echo and Roan being in this faction with him. Bellamy clenched his jaw, hearing her explain that she did what she had . . . to get him and his sister out.

A part of him would always relieved that his sister was alive, but he couldn't condone Echo's actions. "I trusted you, twice." His tone was starting to become more hurt than angry, but he still managed to keep it relatively composed. "And both times, you betrayed that." He had lost too many people. Gena. One of the many among the group that had died. "You could have done more. We could have found a way." Gena had not died in the explosion. She had found the assassin. Who's to say that they couldn't have stopped it? But they had been robbed of that choice.

"The blood of those people, my people, is on my hands. Because I trusted you. That has always been my mistake." Something that he would not do again. He turned to look at her, unsure what expression was even on his gaze. "So if that is how you repay a debt, then don't let me do you any more favors. " His words were sarcastic of course. Whether she used that to rationalize her decision or not, Bellamy was too hurt by her actions. The wounds still fresh of losing everyone, including the woman he loved. "Because for a people who like to talk a lot about honor, you have none."