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Italics are flashbacks.
The Arrangement, Chapter One: New Beginnings.
Clarke's eyes flit around her, skimming over Kane, then her mother, then Miller and Monty who stand behind them, and the rest of what's left of the hundred who watch with wide eyes from further away. She'd made them promise her that they would not make a scene, so she expects their silent grimaces to continue. Her mother had gotten her into this, and until this moment, some part of her thought she'd get her out of it as well. But, her eyes won't meet Clarke's now, and that's how she knows now that this is actually happening.
Raven had fallen from the sky in a small craft, calling it a ship would be generous, but she makes it. She runs to Finn, who went with her and Monty to find the thing that fell out of the sky, and kisses him soundly. Clarke makes a small pained noise form the back of her throat, but no one is close enough to her to hear. Raven brings a radio with her, from the Ark, and they're able to use it to stop hundreds of people from being killed to free up air and time for the rest. She speaks to her mother after, short and quiet. Her mother is so happy to hear from her, but she can't bring herself to share in that enthusiasm, not knowing what she does now. Later, Wells makes a face at her from across the fire, telling her to be nice. She rolls her eyes and shakes her head 'no'.
His fingers flex a little against hers and on reflex hers do as well. It hurts a little, stings, where their palms are cut open and pressed together. Her fingers try to curl in protectively, but their hands are bound by loosely looped rope that reminds her that she is supposed to stay, with her hand raised, outstretched and bound to his, blood dripping down both of their wrists, while a man speaks in a language she doesn't understand in front of her. She tries to force her eyes up to meet his, but loses her courage mid-way and ends up staring at the freckles on his cheeks.
The Ark comes down not long after Raven, on Unity Day, the symbolism is not lost on her. There are some issues with the exodus ship and in the end, they have to bring the whole Ark to the ground. It splits apart on entry and the stations end up far away from one another – she's not sure they'll ever find everyone, or even all the chunks of the space ship she called home for most of her life. Her alliance with the Grounders might help them find all the people and pieces they are missing, Clarke thinks, will defiantly keep them alive if the Grounders are the ones to stumble across them.
In contrast to the Sky People who stand behind Clarke, the Grounders behind her almost-husband seem board and uninterested. She's sure they've seen the marriage ceremony before, and maybe knowing that this marriage is not for love makes it of little concern to them. Clarke wonders, almost idly, if she would have fallen in love on Earth, had she been given the chance. She knows it doesn't matter now and she's not sure how that should make her feel – is kind of afraid to feel anything at all at the moment. She knows she has to do this, and she mostly feels solid in that resolve, but a growing fear bubbles just below the surface of that, at being married off and sent to live with people she doesn't know.
Their first encounters with the Grounders were terrible, filled with blood and spears and knives, and more screaming than Clarke thinks she will ever be able to erase from her mind. But Finn had been able to talk to them, arrange a meeting. She shook hands with Anya on a bridge and while they're not friends, and tension is still (always) high between the Sky People and the Grounders, there is relative peace. Days later, a group from each the Hundred and the Grounders, willing to learn from each other, meet in a clearing near where the Trikru clan lives. Clarke watches from a relative distance, and thinks that the two groups could come together, given time and the willingness to do so. She sees it in the encouraging nods that Lincoln gives Monty while teaching him how to preserve fruits and vegetables, in the way Octavia shows Miller how to sharpen a sword on rocks while asking him endless questions about living in the stars, in the way that Harper shows a Grounder girl how to sew repairs into her clothes. Guards from both people surround the group, but even they seem relaxed; she sees a few of them chatting as their paths cross. Anya comes and finds her, they spend some time exchanging information about each other and their people. It's when Clarke learns of the twelve allied clans, their commander, and their enemies.
When the Ark comes down, it takes less than a fortnight for the Council to take away any power or control the Hundred that came down on the drop ship thought they had. Clarke begged with her mother, told her how much they needed the Grounders, how far their relationship had come, and how much they had already helped each other…how much potential they had to keep helping each other. Kane is the only one to even hear her out, and before she turns to leave she steps up to be face to face with her mother, "I should have never expected anything better" she lets it hang in the air a little while, "from you". She turns on her heel and runs out. The only clan she can find without help is Trikru, so that's where she goes. Lincoln is guarding the gate that evening, so he makes pleasant conversation with her while someone goes to fetch Anya for her, she's not allowed in the village. She warns Anya that the alliance might not hold, apologizes for not being able to keep it together. Anya lunges for her, Clarke knew there was a chance that she'd be kept as a prisoner of war when she came, but Lincoln grabs Anya's arm and nods at Clarke before looking out into the woods. Clarke smiles gratefully and runs back to Arkadia.
The man in front of her stops talking and she glances around, not knowing what to do. So far, she'd just followed the lead of the man across from her. She looks up at him and he pauses for a moment before leaning down and kissing her cheek quickly. Some of his people in the crowd jeer good-naturally but he pays them no mind, lowering their joined hands, to stick out towards the man in front of them. He speaks again, more words she can't make sense of, before removing the rope that holds their hands together and handing something to the man she's just been freed from. It's a small piece of cloth, to clean up the blood on his hand and wrist, she realizes this when he tears it in half and offers her a piece. She musters up a half smile to give him in return, but she shouldn't have bothered – he's not looking at her anyway. She has to remind herself; this was no more his idea than it was hers. They've both been forced into this.
The Sky People attack Trikru about a week later. At first it resembles a fair fight. Clarke even thinks that the guns give them an advantage. But the Grounders know this land and use all of that knowledge to their advantage. None of the original hundred fight – Clarke doesn't exactly forbid it, she doesn't have any actual authority anymore, but they ask her opinion, and she gives it, they just happen to follow. Most of them had been looking for an out anyway – they'd made an uneasy truce with the Grounders, a begrudging respect, and something that had the potential to become friendships had formed. No one wanted to fight the people they were almost friends with, especially when they had done nothing to provoke the violence and could have killed them easily before the Ark fell. The rest of the twelve clans in the alliance unify behind Trikru pretty quickly and when some badly prepared meat made its way through Arkadia one day and the Grounders gift wrap a non-lethal plague for them a week later, the Council finally learns what Clarke had been trying to tell them all along; they could align with the Grounders and get the help to survive they so desperately need.
Kane and Abby go to meet Anya and the Commander, Lexa, who'd come in when the fighting started, on the same bridge Clarkes first shook Anya's hand. The irony is not lost on her. Anya and Lexa are not particularly forgiving leaders, and won't fall into the alliance quite so easily this time. The demands; technology, allegiance to the allied Clans, and the right to dictate territories are all things they have no choice but to agree to. The last demand is Lexa's; a guarantee that this alliance won't be broken as easily as the last. "A marriage would do fine" she says so casually that the Kane and Abby look between each other, sure that they misunderstood. "We would accept Clarke" Anya adds and Kane feels Abby lean her weight against him a bit, though she stays silent. They try to offer the Grounders other things, but in the end, they tire of the conversation, "The alliance is in your hands" Lexa says, her voice indifferent and walks away, her guards following her.
Clarke watches Bellamy carefully, she'd only met him two hours ago, though she had seen him standing guard at various times before that. He'd never spoken to her, or any of the other Sky People. He is so new to her that she worries that she will forget his name, and that should be funny; the threat of forgetting your husband's name should be funny, but Clarke can't bring herself to recognize the humor.
Octavia, a Trikru girl who had always been pretty nice to her, and curious about the Sky People walks towards them and at first Clarke is gratefully for the semi-friendly face, but before she gets to Clarke she turns and hugs Bellamy tightly. They exchange words that Clarke doesn't understand while Clarke shifts her eyes uncomfortably. She wonders idly if the two are in a relationship, wonders what her reaction to that should be; do you get to be upset if the entire thing is fake, would this make her the unwitting other woman again? They pull back and Octavia turns towards her, whatever warmth that had been present between them before is gone when she says, "I just don't understand why it had to be my brother" to Clarke.
Clarke blinks a few times and looks at Octavia in shock; she had no idea that Octavia had a brother, or that Bellamy had a sister. She has never seen actual siblings before. Clarke swallows hard when she realizes that it was an actual question that she is actually expected to answer, "Octavia, I didn't have anything to do with any of this". Octavia studies her, her mouth in a thin line, before turning back to Bellamy, saying something else that Clarke can't understand and pulling her brother away. Clarke looks around, very alone for the first time since she was told about the marriage. She closes her eyes, but doesn't have much time to think as the rest of the hundred surround her.
They ask her why she'd do this, why she'd agree to it and she only sighs. She didn't really agree to it – her mother told her that everyone she knew would die without it and basically handed her to the Grounders. She can't tell the Hundred that though, knows that they would fight for her freedom. It warms her a little, that someone would – when even her mother would not. She placates them with the promise that everything will be fine. That she will see them all the time, which Anya assured her is true; with winter coming part of the alliance is the promise that the Grounders will help ready Arkadia for winter, a season that it is woefully unprepared for, and Anya had promised her that she could be a part of that.
Jasper brings her a mug of moonshine and she rolls her eyes, but takes a sip. When she tries to lower the mug, he raises his hand and tilts it back again, forcing her to drink more. She's laughing and sputtering a little when he finally lets her lower it. For a moment, she thinks she sees Bellamy watching her out of the corner of her eye, but when she looks over at him, he is in conversation with Octavia and Lincoln.
Nyko passes by and says a quiet, awkward 'congratulations' to her. He means well, so she smiles and nods a little, even though she doesn't feel like congratulations are in order. She likes Nyko fine, he was the only one who seemed to want to help Wells when he was dying, even though his people forbid it…even though their people were at war. She doesn't know what she'll be expected, or allowed, to do in the Trikru village once she lives there, but she would like to help Nyko as a Healer. She thinks that if it's up to him, he'll let her.
Anya raises a glass and makes a short speech about 'this momentous occasion' and the 'newly formed alliance, forged after battle, and sealed in family'. She toasts to Clarke and Bellamy and Clarke wonders idly if it's odd that they are not together for this part. Monty bumps her shoulder lightly when she starts to feel self-conscious under the stares of the people around her. Anya wraps it up by announcing that they must take their leave, and that they will reconvene soon so that each side can start fulfilling their sides of the agreement.
Clarke glances around a little, tears springing to her eyes, unexpected and sharp, the idea that she will be walking away with the Grounders and not the Sky People settling in. Jasper hugs her first, and then Monty who whispers 'see you soon' in her ear and squeezes her tight. Raven hugs her, light and unsure, things between them still painfully unsettled. It's a bit of a blur after that, her mother tries to talk to her at one point, but Clarke shakes her off. Finn hugs her, quick and light, Clarke backing away before his arms are even really around her. When she's said her goodbyes, she looks around the clearing, people are taking what they brought, leaving the area looking untouched as they walk back to their camps. She sighs, turns to leave and sees that Bellamy is standing a few feet from her, having hung back from his group to walk with her. She starts to go to him and he starts to walk, so he's about a foot in front of her and she's following. He doesn't speak her to her the whole walk back to the village, just turns his head occasionally to make sure she is still there.
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