Disclaimer: The 100 belongs to Kass Morgan, I do not own any of her characters.

The Descent

Clarke

The first thing Clarke became aware of was a deep thrumming that reverberated around inside of her. That wasn't unusual- the whole Ark was a vibrating hunk of metal. Clarke -everyone- had grown up with it. Everyone for the past couple of centuries that was. But this vibration (if you could call it that) felt… wrong. The ground felt as if it was tearing itself apart beneath her. Clarke felt groggy, as though she was struggling through something viscous, like honey. The engineers will fix it, she thought. They always do. Blearily, she opened her eyes. Everything spun around her. She could just make out a row of people strapped to seats in front of her. What on Earth? Clarke's sluggish brain struggled to make sense of it all. She squeezed her eyes shut. Pops of colour burst beneath her eyelids like the firecrackers children used to light centuries ago, each bringing a snapshot of memory. Charcoal, rubbing her fingers black… the guards… her mother… her mother telling her she was going to… that she was going to…

Clarke's eyes snapped open as she gasped.

"Back, are you?"

Clarke's stomach became leaden before he could finish his sentence. She would know that voice anywhere. The voice that had stalked her in her dreams for the past six months, once so comforting, now made her feel as though an ice cube had just slipped down her throat.

Turning, she saw a dark-skinned boy staring at her with apprehension. "Wells? What are you doing here?"

He rushed to explain, tripping over his words. "I couldn't let you go alone! If we were going to die I at least needed to know you didn't hate me!"

"You killed my father, Wells! I do hate you!" Clarke spat, before turning away and closing her eyes again. She'd dreamed of this moment for her entire life. Of course Wells would be here to wreck it all. Ironic that she'd once hoped they'd land together, dreamed of it even…

Of course, she thought, there's the most likely chance that we will all burn up in a big wave of radiation as soon as we get out of the drop ship. They all knew the effects of radiation extremely well. Blistering skin and bloody vomiting before the radiation began to destroy your cells… And everyone knew that Earth was soaked in it. But here they were, hurtling toward it in a scrap of metal, and she was excited.

Earth.

She opened her eyes as a cheer want around the drop ship. It was hard to hear over the bangs that had gotten louder as they neared the Earth's atmosphere. One of the boys across from her had cut his belt and was floating through the zero-g atmosphere. He propelled himself over until he was level with her face. "So you're the one they kept in solitary for a month. What have you possibly got to hide?"

"And you're the idiot who wasted a month's worth of oxygen on an illegal spacewalk," Clarke said coldly, ignoring the question.

"But it was fun," the boy replied mockingly, dark brown eyes wide. "I'm Finn."

Eyes rolling at the hoots and whooping that proceeded his remark, Clarke sat up as straight as she could against her belt. "You need to get back in your seat before the parachutes deploy," she said loudly over the sound of metal scraping on metal and the laughs of 99 other juvenile delinquents. Well. 98. From the quick glance she snuck, Wells' face could have been carved from stone. Finn ignored her and instead flipped to the other side of the ship. Frustrated, Clarke yelled out, "Seriously! You're going to be killed!" Finn paid no attention, and to Clarke's horror, two more boys were sawing through their seat belts.

A crackling noise drowned out her shouts as an automated message from the chancellor began to play. They were packed together so closely, she felt Wells stiffen beside her. She couldn't hear much, but she caught the words "one hundred," "ground," and "expendable."

"Your dad's a dick, Wells!" someone yelled.

Clarke couldn't agree more.

People started cheering again, drowning out the chancellors words completely as the two other boys rose out of their seats and floated towards the ceiling…

A mighty wrenching noise ripped through the air as Finn and the two other boys smashed into the drop ship wall. "The parachutes!" she heard Wells yell, and felt his hand on hers. She yanked it away and gripped her armrests, focussing instead on her breathing. Any minute now…

The drop ship slammed to a halt with such force, Clarke's head smacked against the metal headrest. There was a final loud bang, and then silence.

No one spoke. Clarke hardly dared hope. If they really were on Earth, chances were they were all going to be dead from radiation in the next 10 minutes.

"Listen," someone said. "No machine buzz…"

A murmuring filled the ship as people begun unbuckling their belts and moving towards the door. Clarke hastened to unclip herself, fingers fumbling. Finn was crouched in the corner, over the two boys who had tried to follow him out of their seats. "Finn… are they breathing?" she asked urgently. Slowly, Finn shook his head. Clarke let out a slow breath. Two down already…

A harsh voice distracted her and she climbed down the ladder towards the door. "Back up everyone," a boy was saying brusquely. He was wearing a dishevelled guard's uniform but Clarke would have bet he wasn't a guard at all. His dark hair was slicked back against his head in an effort to look more professional, but his jacket was ill fitting and looked awkward. He looked familiar. "I said back up. I didn't come down to Earth to have to deal with some idiot like you. Now are you going to move or do I have to make you?"

"Bellamy?" a disbelieving voice sounded from near Clarke's head. A pretty dark- haired girl jumped off the ladder and started shoving people away.

"Octavia?" the boy in the uniform had frozen with his hand gripping some boy's collar.

"Bell!" the girl reached him and threw her arms around his neck.

"O," the boy smiled in relief. "Look how big you've gotten!"

"Can we hurry this up?" someone shouted. "I didn't come down here to watch your little love-fest." Bellamy threw himself at the person who yelled out so violently that Octavia had to leap out to restrain him. "Do you mind?" she said, venomously, while Bellamy fumed. "I haven't seen my brother in a year."

Mutterings filled the drop ship, and Clarke suddenly knew why the boy seemed familiar. Bellamy and Octavia Blake. The only siblings in the universe. Octavia Blake had hid under the floor for nearly 16 years. The Ark's one- child policy was very strict. It had been all over the comms when she was found. Clarke felt a wave of sympathy for how hellish Octavia's life must have been. That sympathy evaporated as Octavia made a move to open the drop ship door. "Stop!" Clarke let out a cry. Every head turned to her. She elbowed her way to the front of the crowd. "The air could be toxic!"

"If the air's toxic, we're all dead anyway," Bellamy said dryly, and pulled the lever before Clarke could protest any more. Slowly, the door dropped open.

The group drew a collective breath as first the sky, then the trees came into focus. Clarke gasped as the first rays of sunlight splintered onto the ship. She couldn't tear her eyes away from the endless blue that stretched out in above her, and the deep, deep green of the trees swaying in the gentle breeze. And the breeze… Clarke closed her eyes and drew a deep breath. The stench of oil and filtered air was gone. Instead, the air smelled… sweet. Clarke found she was grinning. At this moment, she had even forgotten that this sweet smelling air could be frying her lungs. Octavia slowly stepped out onto the lowered drop ship door and jumped to the ground, drawing in a deep breath. Raising her head to the sky, Octavia screamed out, her voice sending thrills of exhilaration through Clarke.

"We're back, bitches!"

And everyone aboard the ship rushed out in one fluid motion, whooping and cheering, buffeting Clarke along in their midst, out into the bright rays of sun, and the fresh air.

Out onto Earth.