With My Head
"If you ever come near me, near Bellamy, near my people, I will kill you." Clarke realized that she can't live with the people who have no hearts.
As soon as Clarke realized what Lexa had done, she was crushed. So much for not all grounders being the same.
Lincoln had been taken forcefully to the clans camp, and Clarke knew that no one would stand on her side. Not anymore.
She was a useless leader. She couldn't even save her friends or keep the girl who felt something for her from ruining her only chance at redemption. The missile deaths were because she was weak, and her friends are now going to die for the same reason
There was a loud rustling in the bushes worried Clarke, in a detached sort of way. She couldn't care less about what happened to herself any more.
"Clarke!" A female voice, angry but distraught, called out to her. Octavia came racing out to stand in front of her friend. "What the hell happened!" There was a small silence before Clarke looked the brunette in her eyes instead of staring at the door.
"I got them killed."
Octavia stood shell shocked at what the girl had said.
"What do you mean? Why would you do that? You got Bellamy killed!" Octavia's voice rose over the course of her statement until she was yelling.
"I couldn't save them. I had it all planned. I have sacrificed so much more than her without even meaning to. And I'm the one who gets to sit back and watch her make a deal that gets them tortured. I never had power, I'm just a kid," calcareous rambled, going back to staring at the door.
Octavia slowly digested the words, and then figured out who she was.
"Lexa made a deal." A nod. "Did you know about it?" A shake of the head. "What do we do?"
"I kill them all."
Octavia lead her down the mine tunnels, remembering from her teams journey in. Behind her, Clarke trudged along. Her face was slightly puffy, tear tracks on her cheeks and red eyes. She wasn't taking this well.
Octavia knew that she was hard on the blonde about the bomb. She now knew that once Lexa made a decision, no matter how morally wrong, there was nothing to do but watch.
"It's just past here. Jackson left me the pack with the map and blueprints along with some guns and tools. This should get us in, but we need a plan to get out."
"We can figure it out later," Clarke muttered, grabbing the lock and roughly turning it with more force than necessary. The two walked inside, Octavia shocked at how... Non ark like the mountain was. She had been expecting a metal cage like in space, not the white, sterile place they were standing in.
Pulling their weapons, Octavia with her sword and Clarke with a gun, they made their way to the stairs. Since the power was out, they couldn't use the elevators.
They slowly ascended to mountain fort. By the time they made it to level four with every room empty and abandoned, Clarke had gotten restless.
"Level five is where they were held before and I bet this is where they'll be held now," the leader bit out, pointing to the door two flights of stairs above where the two stood.
Octavia nodded, and went up the stairs. The warrior approached the door, peering inside to see an empty hall. A gesture let Clarke know it was clear.
They sped down the hall, not wanting to be caught in a place with no doors and no way out. The large hatch ahead looked familiar to Clarke, and she rushed ahead.
"Clarke, don't be stupid, you'll get yourself killed!" There was no reply. Clarke had already made it to the door and slammed her hand against the door, banging against the glass window.
A face appeared in the dirty window, a pale and tired Jasper was staring back at them. He started yelling, or what Octavia assumed was yelling as she watched him mouth words.
The door was opened quickly, and voices and bodies spilled out, grabbing and embracing Clarke. Octavia soon realized it was her brother gripping the girl, and he was just holding her.
"You got us, Princess."
The remaining arkers explained the situation. Clarke was sitting and listening with a stony expression on, and after a while, she stood.
"The grounders sacrificed you." Gasps went through the room. "The commander made a deal for her people, but that was her, not me. I'm getting you out. I'm just missing one thing."
Clarke walked out of the room, obviously not afraid of seeing any guards since the mountain men were focusing their efforts on the civilians. She stormed down the halls, maneuvering expertly until she reached the place she had stayed in for a while. Her hunch was correct.
President Wallace, or just Wallace senior now, was sitting in the corner of her old decontamination cell.
"You're coming with me."
"Put me on with your leader," Clarke commanded through the Wilkie talkie Bellamy had managed to get a hold of. There was static on the other side, but she knew someone would hear.
"Clarke Griffin. What an unpleasant surprise. I thought we made a deal with you. We keep the 48 and you get the others," Cage spoke.
"You made a deal with the commander. Not me. But now it's time for you to appease me. In front of me, I have your father. In my hand, I have a gun. If you don't listen to me, the bullets in the gun will be in your fathers head. Clear?"
The static came back for a long time. That wasn't the part that made Clarke nervous. It was the looks she was getting from her friends, from Jasper and Monty, from Bellamy.
"What do you want?" Cage sighed, obviously already knowing.
"My friends are going to walk out of here. They are going to go down the stairs, they are going to leave through the front doors, and they are going to go home. Clear?"
Static.
"Go. Now before I change my mind."
Bellamy jumped into action. He rounded everyone up, and started to usher them out the doors and soon the room was empty aside from Wallace, Clarke and him.
"Coming Clarke? We gotta go now their starting to come," Bellamy called from the door. Clarke just stood there.
"If I don't stay here and hold this gun to his head, they're all dead. I said I'd get my friends out. That was the deal. My friends would get to leave."
Bellamy was dumbfounded.
"What?" His face showed the hurt that he was feeling as if it was a mirror reflecting his feelings. Clarke, his Princess, was just going to get them out and then... No, this can't happen.
"You better listen boy, or you won't get out either." Cage had come with a platoon of guards flanking him, their guns hanging threateningly at their sides.
"Leave Bellamy, do it for the others. Do this for me."
Bellamy turned and ran. All he heard on the way down the stairs was gun shots.
It had been three days since Clarke had gotten them out of mount weather, and the camp had finally pulled together to host a ceremony in her honour. Many grounders, Lincoln, Lexa, even Nyko had come to pay their respects.
Bellamy was standing off to the side with the leaders of huge camp. During those few days of chaos after the battle, the only thing that they had decided on was that Bellamy would take Clarke's place and he felt just dirty standing there knowing he could have done something.
Lexa looked as cool as ever, but if you looked in her eyes, you could see she was grieving. Bellamy heard about the deal, and how the Commander had come onto Clarke. This is all your fault, he thought, she is gone because of you.
During the lighting of the large Bon fire, a symbol in the grounder community to let people know that the person had died an honourable death and that the sparks would help guide their soul to the after life, Lexa stalked over to Bellamy.
"This is all your fault. If you didn't go into that mountain, Clarke wouldn't have cared so damn much. She would have used her head," Lexa seethed.
"You're the one that made the deal, you're the one that almost got me killed. She died for all of use, so don't even ray playing the blame game here, Commander," Bellamy spat.
The guard accompanying Lexa turned, sword hand on his weapon when a voice shouted out.
"If you draw your blade, I will kill you."
The crowd parted, creating a large isle to see who had said those threatening words. Clarke. She was soaked in blood, limping, and dirty, but she alive.
The grounder automatically stepped back, moving his hand.
"Clarke," Lexa whispered, moving towards the blonde. Cracker et raised her hand, stopping the commander in her tracks.
"If you ever come near me, near Bellamy, near my people, I will kill you." Lexa stepped back, her eyes wide.
"I'm telling you this once. You are no friend to the Skye people. You could have gotten fifty of us killed because you were a coward. We will trade with you, we may fight alongside you, but if you try to make a deal without my knowing ever again, I will put this in your head," Clarke snarled, throwing a bullet on the ground.
Even though Lexa had been threatened, the grounders made no move to disarm Clarke. She had proved herself a worthy ally, a worthy opponent, and a worthy warrior, but their leader had stabbed her in the back.
"Leave this camp, and don't come back."
Later that night, Bellamy was sitting in the med bay with Clarke. Clarke had two broken ribs, multiple lacerations, and a busted lip, but she was alive.
"How'd you get out Clarke? There is no way they just let you go," Bellamy asked her, taking her hand in his.
"I'll tell you someday. I don't want to even think of that retched mountain again for a long while."
Clarke used her thumb to rub comforting circles on Bellamy's hand, and then slowly brought it to her lips.
"I'll tell you someday."