What only started out as a friendly arm wrestling competition - of which Winnie won all but three games - turned into something a lot bigger than most of the company had planned.

By nightfall Winnie had helped most of them carve their own knives out of metal and after Millers bright suggestion, ten trees had targets painted on them however that didn't mean that any of them had actually been hit.

"My grandmother throws better than you McIntyre." Winnie said as Harper's knife hit a tree dive foot behind her original target.

"And I bet she could beat you at arm wrestling too then." Harper was one of the three out of the seventy five who would have an advantage over Winnie; she beat her at arm wrestling.

"Won't be so funny when you kill one of us instead of them because of your bad aim."

The absence of Jasper Jordan had been the elephant in the camp and Winnie's comment reminded them the seriousness of their situation. They weren't alone, no longer were knives just to intimidate others on the Ark, they might be used to kill.

"You can be a bit of a downer can't you?" Monty commented.

"It's called being a realist, I try optimism occasionally but obviously," She paused mid sentence and threw her own knife which lodged itself in the bulldoze of the furthest away target, "Oh hey," Winnie cracked a smile, "It actually worked that time."

Nobody knew how to react except Octavia, "Please try it more often."

"I promise." And for once Winnie meant it.

--

"Did you fucking see her? I mean did you really see that throw, that was impossible." Atom ran his hands through his hair, he couldn't comprehend his  hatred of Winnie.

"Everything she does is fucking impossible," Connor shouted and walked away in circles in his frustration, he wanted to hit something so badly, but every time he stretched his fist he was painfully reminded of Winnie, "She broke my arm. She fucking broke it!"

The newest meeting of Bellamy's Angels lacked their founder but was greeting strong, fifteen of the hundred found reason to form their own mafia. This meeting was taking place in response to the knife training and the fact that they believed Winnie was walking around like she owned the place; which at that moment, she did. 

"You're all just jealous of her." A voice that had not been prominent before rose up.

"What did you just say? I'm jealous of that witch. Oh you got it wrong sunshine." Dax was a silent but deadly predator and he was posing himself to strike.

"No, you're frightened of her, all of you are." Zoe Munroe had felt the same and joined the militia as she knew Bellamy Blake from living down the hall from him all her life. She had seen the witch come and go and connected dots when the witch was thrown in jail.

"Take that back. Now." Atom demanded.

"Take it back? What are we - five? You've got to be kidding me." Monroe was not impressed, she had made the wrong judgement about Winnie at first but she couldn't deny that like most of the camp, she knew Winnie was one of them.

"You heard what he said, do it. Or get out of my face." Connor added to the threatening and Munroe had to admit to herself that for the first time she realised the true potential of the people around her. They would do anything and that wasn't a good thing.

It was an invitation to a brawl and one would have occurred if they had not been stunned into silence by two voices, equally raised to their level, coming from the nearby forest.

"Oh come on! Just tell me." A scoff was the response and the speaker didn't seem too pleased, "Tell me why you hate me so much!"

"I think you're a loose wire Murphy." Bellamy Blake tried to control his temper but it was hard when being confronted. There's was one main reason, one that he knew he would never tell anyone. Let alone Bellamy Blake.

"A loose wire! No that's not it, you just hate the fact that Winnie is here. You always need someone to hate even if it's for mo goddamn reason." Murphy thought he had figured the Blake out but he couldn't really be further from the truth. Bellamy disliked Murphy for only one reason; his intuition told him to.

"I don't hate Winnie. I could never truly hate her. And you don't know anything Murphy remember that, you don't know what her life was like before the Skybox. You don't know shit my life either."

Neither of the pair knew how the argument would have continued as it was cut short by Bellamy Blake stumbling upon his own gang. Whose own views were being questioned by the Blake's revelations.

"You should hate her." Atom told him to break the state off between them all.

"About fucking time," Connor acted like nothing had changed, he carried on like he was still talking to a man all of the gang still trusted, "You have got to go sort her out, that psycho bitch-" Connor stopped the moment he saw Murphy following Bellamy with a beast upon his back.

Atom thought he had seen Winnie when she was angry but that had nothing on the silent death stare Murphy wore as he threw his trophy onto the ground.

"Now I don't think there is a right answer to who that psycho bitch is so I advise you to shut the hell up." Murphy was so tired of holding his hands behind his back and taking the higher road but he had to.

"He's right," Bellamy agreed, "And maybe Munroe is as well. But either way the person you are talking about is not your concern Connor, and that goes for the rest of you as well."

"Bellamy," Atom lowered his voice and moved forward to have a private conversation with the man, "Things have changed since you left, a lot. I don't know how it happened but it has."

The words Winnie had said still rung in his ear as they had been doing all afternoon. He turned to everyone, "Do whatever you want, I've got more important things to sort out. Like my man Atom here. If anybody wants to help and stay in the good - and right - books, then please come along."

If Bellamy had seriously listened to the advice, if he had thought more about how the camp had changed; he wouldn't have taken this option. He wouldn't have risked his position.

"What?" Atom's defence was poor and for some reason he lacked all of his energy. He couldn't fight the people choosing to ally with Bellamy who started to drag him away, following his one pointed finger, "Bellamy, please. Don't do this. I haven't done anything."

"I don't like lies Atom," Bellamy responded, but none of the hundred could ever say that without being a hypocrite, "And I don't change my mind." Except he looked at Murphy when he said this as he walked away.

Murphy swallowed a small lump in his throat, two people had remained with him.

"You want some help with that?" Munroe asked. Murphy hadn't seen her before and was pleasantly surprised at her remaining.

"Yeah I could actually."

—

Meanwhile the other part of the rescue team came into camp, the weight of Jasper's body and his injury dampening their mood and that of the camp itself.

"Is he going to be alright?" Monty asked, he grabbed his best friends hand and held it close.

Octavia searched the tree line for her brother and was surprised that Winnie wasn't stood next to her searching for Murphy.

Instead Winnie gravitated towards the injured boy, ignoring the fact she vowed never to come this close to Wells ever again.

She placed the back of her palm on his forehead and felt the coating of a pore-closing sweat. She traced a small circle and line down his nose. Finn watched with a sort of mesmerising tint to his eyes but Wells only sped up his pace.

"He's going to be alright." Clarke tried to reassured him, sneakily turning her body to push Winnie to the sidelines.

"He'll survive." Winnie affirmed and the camp relaxed ever so slightly.

Clarke narrowed her eyes, it's wasn't Winnie's place to make promises.

Murphy finally emerged with Munroe, hauling their kill trophy with utter satisfaction on their lips into the light of the camp fire.

Winnie licked her own, blood. She could smell it and then her taste buds sprung into life, giving her the slightly metallic taste of blood. She was starving

"Anyone hungry?" Murphy shouted as he uncovered the beast that lay dead from a bullet room.

None of them had seen an animal so close in person before. Winnie took a moment to marvel at it, to appreciate Mother Nature. It's piercing eyes burrowed deep in its dark fur, it's size was breathtaking and in moment Winnie pondered how it might be wrong to eat it, "Who shot it?" She asked.

"Good to see you too," Murphy responded only to her as a crowd gathered, "Wells. He practically saved Bellamy's life."

"That's karma for you." Winnie softly laughed at the circumstances, Wells being the hero yet Murphy getting the fame. Winnie thought she best get used to that.

"It's a bitch." Murphy sighed and his reply came out louder than he intended as he stretched.

His arms rose above his head and brought his shirt with him, flashing an inch of his midriff. Winnie tried to cover her staring or the tenseness yet warmth she felt when his arms brushed against her back.

She had never liked some one before and this feeling was all knew to her. She realised she had missed Murphy when he was gone. But then people started to stare at the pair.

"The jaguar," She blurted out, "It's a girl."

"Is it then?" Murphy whispered in her ear, "She certainly fought like one."

"And what's that supposed to mean?"

Murphy smiled and decided to test his luck, he pulled a strand of Winnie's frizzy locks behind her ear, "She was fierce, determined. What I think you would be like in a fight."

"There's one key difference Johnny Boy," Winnie had to keep herself still because she didn't actually know what would happen if she focused on Murphy's finger trailing her neck, "I wouldn't loose."

----

If Winnie had thought she was popular before today then she was wrong, handing out their first meal on the ground made her and John Murphy Gods.

At first people who hadn't taken off wristbands did so for meat but then Winnie couldn't stand by and see some of her favourite people in camp starve.

"Harper, come here," She ushered the girl over to her, "You too Munroe. I heard you hauled this into camp, so both of you pick your jaguar bodypart. Sorry I have no idea which part is best."

The two girls would not have spoken to each other on other day but together they came up and left talking as if they were old school friends.

"I like them." Murphy told his partner.

And for once Winnie found that she didn't want to be cryptic, didn't want to be a book filled with symbolic ideas and metaphors,

"I like you." Winnie confessed.

Murphy didn't have time to respond before Bellamy Blake and his angels made their grand entrance.

"What the hell is going on here?" He demanded to know.

Winnie couldn't help but give off an audible sigh along with a roll of her eyes, "Here we go again."

"Would you kill me if I was to say 'whatever the hell we want'? Asking for a friend."

Winnie couldn't help but think how much she fancied John Murphy today. How much he had changed.

"I should have been involved in this," Bellamy pointed firmly at the corpse in front of him before turning to have a more private conversation with Winnie, "This wasn't yours to do Winnie."

"Oh so you wanted Wells to do it then?" She rose her voice, "I mean you all know that he was the one who shot this beast saving Blake's life,"

Whispers spread as fast as lightning and Winnie couldn't have wished for a better reaction.

"I'm very sorry Bellamy but that was not happening." Winnie laughed and ran her tongue over her teeth, she was on top and Bellamy's new found attitude wasn't going to stop her.

"You know what I meant. We could be in this together Win, it's what's best for this camp."

And for the first time since landing on the ground Winnie Scarfone felt an emotion she hadn't experienced for years. One that sunk to the pit of her stomach as she locked eyes with Bellamy and saw a person she thought she could trust but then realising that there was something hidden there. He was hiding something from her.

Winnie and Bellamy. She thought about it and then she realised this flood of emotion which could have sparked tears in her eyes was wasted.

No. Bellamy had made his choice. Murphy had told her about what had happened before they entered camp. Bellamy and his Angels. He had chosen, he couldn't have both.

All Winnie had to do was remember the touch of Murphy's skin on hers and the sickly poison of his voice to know that she has made one too.

"I almost thought so too," Winnie sounded like she had no regrets.

"Here's the thing Bellamy Blake," She addresses the crowd as she began to play with the knife still in her hand. She swirled it between her fingers and used it to point at the camp, "I think this is a classic case of 'Finders Keepers' and you," She paused for a moment, "From what I heard - wait, what was the exact words Munroe?"

Munroe locked eyes with Bellamy and almost thought about keeping her mouth shut but seeing the gang behind him only made her certain of her decisions, "He had 'more important things to do'."

Bellamy didn't show it outwardly but Winnie could sense him squirming under the spotlight. This was not going the way he planned, not at all. He opened his mouth to protest but Winnie base him silent with a threatening flick of the knife in her hand.

"More important things to do. Well for me and Murphy, feeding the camp and making sure Jasper is safe, well, there's nothing really more important than that,

"So why don't you and your little fan club go wait over there so the important people of the hundred can eat. You can get the scraps because that's what you seem to think we are."

Bellamy didn't stick around to hear the girls speech and Winnie for once in her life didn't notice.

One thing came out of that meeting; the arm wrestling competitors knew it, Bellamy's Angels knew it and even Clarke Griffin sitting besides Wells Jaha in the shadows couldn't deny it.

The throne had been claimed. The pecking order was established and Winnie and Murphy were at the top.

-

a/n so, i just want to take the time to mention how this story may not be perfect, by far but it means a lot to me to see all of you that consistently read my updates and i actually love seeing the same people leave votes. It honestly fills me with such love that you turn up whenever you get that little notification and just, thank you from the bottom of my heart.

sophs, x