Bellamy leaned against the wall at the very edge of the room, watching Clarke and Madi say their goodbyes while Shaw was getting the pod ready for their departure. He saw Clarke whispering into the young brunette and stroke her hair soothingly, making him remember when he used to do that to Octavia when she was little. Just as Madi gave her another quick hug and left, he walked up to her.
"Are you sure you want to do this?" He asked quietly, eyeing her warily.
"This needs to be done. Besides, this is our best bet." She shrugged, grabbing her pack from the floor and throwing it over her shoulder.
"You could get killed Clarke." He whispered, searching her eyes for any hesitation.
"I bear it so they don't have to." He hears her mutter under her breath, causing him to stiffen.
"Not all the time. You don't have to sacrifice yourself every time we face a problem. Stop being a martyr." He sighed, running his fingers through his hair in frustration.
"I was on the wrong side of the war on Earth, and I had to pay the price. Now let me make things right. We all have to do better."
"I can't lose you Clarke. Not again. Not after Monty and Harper." He rasped out as his voice wavered.
"I'll be okay. Just watch out for her. She needs you, even if she's too stubborn to admit it." She grabbed his hand softly to give it a gentle squeeze. "May we meet again." Clarke whispered underneath her breath and walked away, leaving him alone with his thoughts.
Bellamy paced in front of the doors, thinking about the girl he had left behind all those years ago to die. Who now faced that same risk of dying. He was angry at his friends for cornering her, even though they had their reasons for being mad at her. But he was most angered with Clarke, who was, once again, willing to sacrifice herself without thinking rationally. Sure, he survived 6 years without her on the ring, but that was because he didn't have a choice. But now Clarke was willingly putting herself in danger and Bellamy just couldn't wrap his head around it. He knew that she was doing the smart thing, risking only 1 life in return for more, and thinking with her head. But how could she possibly expect Bellamy to use his head in this situation, where she was putting herself in danger, making both Bellamy's head and heart shout at himself to stop her. Deciding he couldn't do anything by worrying about Clarke, Bellamy started walking to the bridge to help his friends. Just as he was entering the bridge, he could hear Jordan and Raven going over the schematics of the new planet. The Eligius files were displayed on the screen with the coordinates of the pod Shaw was piloting.
"Any news?" Bellamy asked, placing a hand behind Raven's seat.
"No. They'll be on the ground soon so we should hear from them in a few minutes." Raven sighed beside Bellamy and turned around to face him. "So, what's the plan?"
"Jordan, how long can we stay up here? Did your dad leave any further instructions?" Bellamy asked.
"Not really, he just said to wake you and Clarke first. But based on my calculations we should have enough algae for 2 weeks with just us. Waking up others would shorten the timespan of course." Jordan explained, offering a small smile to the group.
"Are we even planning on waking up anyone else?" Emori chimed in from the side.
"Any suggestions Madi?" Bellamy questioned, looking at the small girl observing the group from the back of the room with her adopted grandmother.
"I want to wake up Gaia. She should be able to teach me more about the flame. But other than her, I don't think we should wake anyone else before we know more from Clarke, especially since we have limited food." Bellamy winced slightly hearing Madi's voice, stripped from her usual childlike tone as she addressed the group as the commander and not Clarke's child.
"I agree with heda. We don't know who we can trust anymore. There are many people loyal to Octavia." Echo added, walking towards Bellamy and placing her hand on his shoulder.
"Okay, good. We'll wake Gaia and check with Clarke and Shaw afterwards. Abby, do you have the supplies to deal with Gaia's wounds?"
"Yes, there was a lot of medicine left in the med bay. And we already did surgery on Gaia's leg before we went into cryo sleep so it won't be a problem." Abby said.
"Alright then we should all head out and meet back here in an hour. Raven you'll let us know when they make contact?" Bellamy questioned, furrowing his eyebrows at his friend.
"Yeah, don't worry." Bellamy nodded and led Echo and the others out of the bridge to the mess hall to get some food. 125 years after a war without any food and all they had was algae. This should be great.
—
"Okay, just keep your radio with you and check in with us every 10 minutes okay? I don't need Bellamy chewing my head off when we get back because I couldn't keep a closer eye on you." Shaw joked, handing the pack over to Clarke. "The probe is pretty straight forward, just walk around with it and it should detect the radiation levels."
"I've got it Shaw, stop worrying so much."Clarke rolled her eyes and nodded, grabbing the pack from Shaw and closing the airlock doors.
"Okay, okay. Good luck out there." Shaw grinned, opening the pod doors from behind the airlock as he watched the sunlight slipping through from the opening doors.
"See you in a few hours." Clarke yelled, stepping off the ramp as she looked around her surrounding. The sun, or suns as she noted, was shining and the green plants around her caused a wave of nostalgia to hit her right in the chest as it reminded her of Earth. There were purple and yellow flowers surrounding the area, and trees as tall as she could see. The fresh air was so refreshing, and Clarke couldn't help but grin. "We made it." She whispered to herself, as she walked away from the pod and further into the clearing.
She took note of the lack of wildlife and checked the probe she brought with her. Yellow to green. It's safe for them to come down. Clarke sighed in relief as she put the probe back into her pack and pulled out her radio. "Hey, are you getting the readings?" She talked into the radio, looking at the pod from a distance.
"Yep. It's a bit high but we should all be able to handle it." Shaw answered, causing Clarke to grin. "Hey Raven, did you catch that?" Shaw's voice came out again.
"Yeah, copy that. We'll prep the others for further exploring when you guys get back." Clarke hears Raven say, and nods. Just as she was about to reply, she hears the grass rustle from behind the tree line as 4 figures came to her peripheral.
"Clarke, do you copy?" Bellamy's voice echoed from the radio. She stiffened at the 4 men walking from the tree line towards her. The men surrounded her, guns aimed at her head as she raised her hands in surrender, one still clutched to the radio.
"Clarke?"
"Don't move." One of the men said. He was a tall man, with broad shoulders and brown hair. He walked closer to her, clearly showing Clarke that he was their leader. He searched Clarke's body with his eyes, and when he saw no weapons he lowered his gun. "Who are you and how are you here?"
"I'm Clarke and I come from Earth." Clarke mentioned, eyeing the man warily. "And you are?"
"Dean. Captain of the guard." He said gruffly. "So Clarke, why have you come here?" He questioned, his stance relaxing as he figured that Clarke wasn't hostile and fully aware of his comrades on alert behind him.
"Earth is gone so we've come here to seek refuge." She said matter of factly, deciding it was best for her to keep quiet before she could discuss this with the others.
"Well I'm assuming you're coming in peace from the lack of weapons, but I can't be too sure on what to do until you talk to our leader." Dean muttered, raising his eyebrows.
"We've come in peace, that I can assure you. We've all dealt with war too many times on Earth and we've come searching for somewhere to rebuild." She informed them, watching the men behind Dean share looks of disbelief amongst themselves.
"We'll it looks like you'll have to talk to our leader before you and your people can do anything else." Dean said, glancing at his men to lower their weapons. "We'll take you to him."
Just as he was about to lead her towards the forest, the radio came on with some static. "Clarke, come in. Are you there?" Bellamy's voice broke the tension, causing Clarke to avert her gaze and bring the radio to her mouth.
"I'm fine Bellamy. I ran into some people." She said cautiously, eyeing her companions on the ground. "I'm here with the captain of the guard. They're leading me to speak to their leader."
"What? No. We should discuss this first and go together as a group." He said, his angry tone causing Clarke to sigh.
"Bellamy, there isn't time."
"Come back to the ship with Shaw and we'll talk to the leader together." He argued. Clarke shook her head and turned to Dean, who was looking curiously at her.
"Is it possible that I can go back to the ship?" Clarke asked, fully knowing that she wouldn't be allowed out of their sight.
"Unlikely." Dean muttered.
"Can I at least have my friends come with me to speak to your leader?" She retorted, furrowing her brows. She saw Dean think this through, and finally sighed as he reached his decision.
"Fine, but you're staying with us. And let's hope your friends don't get any ideas, because as of now, you're our hostage." He said, nodding to his comrades. Clarke nodded, and turned away as she spoke into the radio.
"Shaw can you hear me?"
"Yeah, I heard everything." Shaw answered.
"I need you to go back to the ship without me."
"What? Clarke, what are you doing?" Bellamy growled.
"Look, they won't let me leave. So Shaw will have to leave without me to get you and the others. Everything will be fine. We have to trust them and try not to meet everything with violence. Monty told us to do better right? Well, I'm trying to live up to that."
"Are you sure you're okay?" Shaw asked, concerned.
"I'll be fine. And Bellamy? Don't bring Madi yet." She said into the radio before she turned it off and walked back to the group of soldiers.