Twisted Steel

Okay, so, this is my first story I've ever really written for fun…and then proceeded to publish. All others I've honestly never had the guts too. We'll see how this goes I guess, hopefully it goes well. But on another note, please be patient with me as I am in college so writing this story for fun will admittedly take a back seat to my education. Well, without further ado, lets get right into it.

I don't own the 100, all rights go to Kass Morgan and Jason Rothenburg

Chapter 1: mistakes and consequences

It was like any other day on the ark with her best friend Wells Jaha. Except, today was Clarke Griffins fifteenth birthday and she was excited. Her parents, Abby and Jake, had been teasing her mercilessly about the gift they had found for her. And apparently Wells was in on it because he would tease her every now and again as well. She supposed that might have been his job today, distracting her from going back to her living quarters as her parents set up whatever surprise they had in store. She and Wells passed by her only other friend. None other than the seventeen-year-old genius, Raven Reyes. A badass mechanic from Mecha station who didn't take any shit and always backed up her bravado with an in your face attitude that was considered aggressive even on the best of days. despite it being a recently developed friendship, the two hit it off quite quickly, with Clarke being one of the few people who could keep up with Raven's personality.

"Hey Raven! How's it going today?" Clarke asked. She hadn't talked too her yet today or at all in the last few days due to Ravens studying. Even though it only had been a few days, she missed her friend.

"I'm alright. Happy birthday, Clarke!" Raven replied with a tight smile. It was a tight smile, and she looked about ready to cry. Clarke knew something was wrong right away, And being her friend, Clarke pulled the Latina into a tight hug

"What has you down in the dumps, Rae. Talk to your ol' pal clarkey." A nickname that raven had come up with soon after their first meeting. A nickname that usually got Raven to smile, although this time it was just a small watery smirk as the tears started to fall.

"I did a preliminary physical for my Zero-G Mechanic qualifications." Raven looked down at the ground, not wanting to appear weak in front of Clarke. "and they…they found that I had a heart murmur." she finished bitterly, trying to pull away from the hug the small fifteen-year-old had trapped her in. But Clarke held firm. Clarke was worried for her friend, she knew that ZGM's had to be in the best physical shape to handle the stresses of working in space. She also knew however that this was Ravens biggest dream. One that had just been snatched from her after all the hard work and years she had put into studying and training.

"Raven," she started "I'm sorry…I'm so sorry this happened." She told the young woman she had grown to respect. "If you want, I can have my mom look at it. Probably not right now but I do happen to know that, from working with my mom in the med-bay, that heart murmurs have a good chance of going away on their own as you age. You're young! You still have a chance! Maybe next year, to give this murmur some time, I can put in a good word. This was only a preliminary exam, so you still have time anyway." Clarke said to her friend, hope in her voice and full of passion.

"You're right Clarke, I shouldn't despair about this. This was only a prelim. There's still a chance. So I'll keep working on this." She looked Clarke in the eyes, her own still puffy from crying. "You're a great friend clarke….thank you." She said with a wide, toothy grin.

At that moment they heard heavy footsteps. And around the corner came one Finn Collins, boyfriend of Raven Reyes, and the class clown in the grade above Clarke.

"Hey babe, hey Clarke, Wells. Whatcha doing here?" he asked with a grin after he kissed Raven on the cheek, a grin settling on her face. Clarke liked Finn, she really did, but she just didn't think he was right for Raven. He was too opposite to her. Sure, they both loved to goof off at times, and both were smart in there own right, Finn just couldn't apply himself. He just, in Clarkes opinion, that he was all that and a bag of chips. But, as the saying goes, opposites attract.

"Oh nothing much honestly." Wells started. "We were just walking around Alpha station, somehow wound up here in Mecha, ran into Raven, and just started talking." He said, sounding a tad too much like his father giving a speech.

"oh cool! Happy birthday by the way Clarke!" Finn said with that smile on his face. "Thank you." Clarke replied politely. Then Finn turned his attention to Raven.

"I've got a surprise for you. I heard about your prelim exam from one the apprentices I'm friends with." Finn said with a sad smile on his face.

"Alright, lets go see whatever surprise you have in store. Is it my favorite kind." Raven said with a sly smile.

"Eww gross guys, get a room. Preferably sound proofed." Clarke said laughing.

"Oh ha ha Clarke. Anyways, I guess I'll see you later. Lets go finn, lets see what this surprise you've got is." She smirked as she grabbed finn by the arm and he lead her away towards an old control room.

"Well….that was….interesting." Wells said laughing to himself. "Yeah but, it is raven and Finn, did you expect anything less." Clarke responded with a goofy grin.

Clarke and Wells walked for another hour, talking about nothing, and occasionally, when clarke thought Wells wasn't paying attention, she tried to get out of him what he and her parents had come up with too surprise her. She ALMOST succeeded once. But Wells wasn't just some ordinary boy, he was the chancellor's son, groomed since he could walk to be able to navigate politics. And Clarke asking half-hearted questions to discern the truth was childs play to him.

They had walked a few more feet when a safety hazard alarm started blaring and the spinning lights flashed orange. Not red, or green. Orange. Fire in the station. Clarke and Wells ran for their lives trying to find a way out of the station. Wells was ahead by a few feet when an explosion from below the floor ripped them apart, sending Wells towards the door they were trying to reach, and Clarke back a few feet. Wells was on the other side of the raging fire calling her name. She could feel something wet running down her face and when she drew back the hand after trying to wipe it off, it came back with blood. A lot of blood. Wells shouted that he was going to get help, but that she should try to find another exit. There was one a few hallways down, he shouted.

She ran for her life, stumbling through the hallways as the fires raced after her, consuming the oxygen as she went. She could see the emergency door at the end of the hallway and with a surge of adrenaline, she ran for it. She was halfway down the hall when another explosion to the left and right of her ripped through the pipes sending shrapnel at her. In that moment, reality seemed to slow down. She put her hands in front of her face as the shrapnel flew at her. She felt the fire as it burned her right hand up to her forearm. Strangely she felt a searing pain in her shoulder, but nothing below that. Time sped up and she was thrown from the left side of the hall into the door frame at the end of the hall. She hit her head on the cold steel floor and was unconscious in seconds.

Abby was sitting on the couch watching TV with her husband waiting for Clarke and Wells to get back for the small party they were having. Thelonius was on his way, he said, when she got an alert on her pager. She looked at it and her mind started racing

**EXPLOSION. MECHA STATION. ONE IN CRITICAL CONDITION. CHANCELLORS SON IN NEED OF ATTENTION**

Abby sprang up from her seat and grabbing her lab coat and heading for the door when Jakes voice stopped her. "Abby what's going on! What happened!" he tried to ask.

"I don't know!" she responded quickly. "There's been an explosion in mecha and the message said there was one critical and that Wells was in need of medical!" she stopped when she thought harder about the message, and then paled when it hit her. She brought both her hands to her face.

"Oh god! You don't think-" and then there was a knock on the door.

Abby ran to the door and opened it so fast she almost tore it off its hinges. Standing there panting and sweating, was Jackson, her new apprentice.

"Abby! Thank god you're here! There was an alert and then they brought in the critical patient and Wells was right behind the medics, coherent and I thought you might like to know before you walk into the med bay so you know what's wrong but-" he said in a rush before Abby cut him off by grabbing his shoulders.

"Jackson, get it together, breathe, and tell me who the critical patient is." She said urgently. She needed to know for sure. she had to know.

Jackson took a breath, and spoke, and she nearly collapsed. "It's Clarke." He said simply, and she felt her legs go limp, but Jake was right behind her and caught her in his arms. She took a moment to regain herself.

"okay, tell me on the way. Jake, you can come but you have to stay out of the way." She told her beloved urgently. "Okay, lets go" he said shortly. His baby was hurt, and he needed to be with her, no matter what.

As they ran to the med bay, Jackson just kept listing injuries. From least to worst, he had said. A minor concussion, two broken ribs, a broken clavicle, burns on her legs and back, a deep wound on her face that stretched from an inch above her eyebrow across her cheek to a half inch below her lower lip, a small cut from shrapnel lightly imbedded in her skull, a piece of shrapnel imbedded into her right forearm crushing the bone and constricting the blood vessels, and an amputation by shrapnel to her entire left arm. Jake and Abby both paused at that and had to steady each other as they made it to the med bay. Abby washed her hands and headed into the surgical suite where Clarke was.

Jake, looking around, saw Wells sitting off to the side looing at the door to the room abby had disappeared into. He was crying, and Thelonious was just walking in and sat by Wells. He walked over wearily towards his close friend. The Chancellor, seeing his best friend who's daughter was lying in a hospital bed having emergency surgery being performed on her to try save her life.

"Thelonious…how could this happen…what went wrong…I…I just checked that section last week…it was totally secure." Jake said as he started to break down. He thought it was his fault. He was responsible for the maintenance of the ark. And he was certain that the section 4 had been structurally sound when he inspected it.

Thelonious looked at his best friend and gripped him in a tight hug and tried to explain everything he had found as he walked through the still smoldering ruins of the section with several other engineers. It had been Jacopo Sinclair who discovered hat happened. And he relayed that to his friend.

"It appears that there was an airlock malfunction in the control room from section 2. Its inner emergency locks had locked shut with a girl, Raven Reyes inside. Her boyfriend, Finn had used the emergency prying jaws sitting nearby to force the door open, it caused a spark which fell down into the piping that provides air for the Zero G mechs when they come in through the door. The spark it seems, fell down into another pipe which was pumping oxygen to section 4, and vented right under the floor boards to the normal exit. Wells tells me that he and Clarke were separated when the small explosion happened under their feet and they were blown opposite directions." Thelonious finished what came to be the running theory of the accident and watched as his friends' eyes were filled with anger at the situation.

"Raven Reyes and Finn Collins, where are they…"he asked quietly. But Thelonious could hear the anger and pain in his voice. "I cant tell you that, jake." He spoke in an even tone

Jake looked at him with such anger it startled him, but he stood his ground. "And why. Not." Jake said, the fury plain in his voice "Because," Thelonious said in calm voice, "if I allow you to know where they are, in the state your in, you might do something you will regret, both of them are under eighteen and will be in lock up until they are of age and then we will see if you can talk to them." Right now he was just trying to keep his friend safe. If he hit one of them, in lock up or not, it would be assaulting a minor, and He'd have to have his friend arrested, and the ark has a zero tolerance, even for distraught parents.

Jake broke down crying in his best friends arms. On the floor, Thelonious held Jake as he cried.

"It's not fair!" he cried "It's not fair that they're in lockup safe and sound and MY BABY GIRL IS UNCONCIOUS ON A GURNEY!" he shouted.

It was nearly 15 hours later, and almost over the legal limit of medicine for her daughter when Abby walked out of the med bay, tired, and crying. Jake looked up into his wifes eyes and nudged Wells who had fallen asleep a few hours ago due to the medication for the pain in his system. He woke up with a start as his father stood to hug Abby as she hugged Jake, wrapping all of them in a group hug as Wells joined them a few seconds later.

"So," Wells and Jake spoke at the same time, but Wells let the older man continue "how did it go, how is she….will she live." He asked his wife desperately, gripping her hands like his life depended on it. Because it did. Clarke was his life. His baby girl. And he couldn't go on without her.

"She's breathing, but she's in a medically induced coma."

And his heart sank into his stomach