Chapter 2

That was yesterday, and looking back on it, Clarke realized that she probably should have paid more attention to why Mel was hanging around outside her tent. She was slipping, and not just physically as she clumsily rappelled down this cliff, but also as a leader. She couldn't let distractions get in the way, and yet she'd found herself acting more on emotion than reason lately.

Over the past month, her life had fallen into a disarray of feelings, both highs and lows, as she was constantly fighting against dangers. But that was how entropy worked, right? A gradual decline into disorder, and she felt a victim to that as she thought about recent events.

There was some good, sure. She remembered with a smile small victories they had shared, how the 100 had celebrated Unity Day down on Earth, how Jasper's moonshine had let them have a brief respite from the dangers lurking around them. In just a few weeks, those she'd once considered delinquents and criminals were now friends – no, family… And she had to get them back.

But first, she had promised Bellamy she would help, and she would. Yesterday, she had followed him out of camp, through the woods, as they jogged at a steady pace toward what she finally recognized as the dropship. When they reached the clearing, Clarke couldn't help but take in the scorched Earth and torched trees, knowing that many Grounders had died in the fallout here.

She glanced over to Bellamy and stopped. He took a few more steps, but stopped when he realized she was no longer following. Then, gently, "Princess, I already told you, you did what you had to do."

"I know. It's not that, it's just… How did we get to where we are now?"

"What do you mean?" he asked.

She shook her head. Maybe this was dumb. "Never mind. I just can't help thinking, maybe if we had done some things differently, had tried harder to make peace with the Grounders, or made stricter rules from the beginning… Maybe things would be different and our people wouldn't be stuck underground at the mercy of psychopaths who want to use them as blood bags to cure radiation poisoning."

Bellamy didn't respond at first, just looked at her with those dark eyes, and she couldn't tell what he was thinking. She could never tell what he was thinking.

She started walking past him, toward the dropship, when he caught her by the elbow. His grip wasn't overwhelming, but it was firm, as if he could make her see what he was thinking through touch alone. "We can't change the past, Clarke. We did the best damn job we could, and don't think otherwise. And we'll get through this too. We'll get our people out of there. The mountain men can't stop us. If you think that, then you're underestimating yourself. Our Princess is a force to be reckoned with."

"You haven't seen what it's like in there, Bellamy." Clarke wanted to tell him that she was scared, but that's not how a leader was supposed to act, and they were leaders, she and him. "And if we can't get the Grounders to fight with us, then I don't know if we can take them. I mean, it helps that we can now listen in."

"What?" She remembered that he hadn't been downloaded on what they had learned when Raven tapped into Mt. Weather's radio frequency.

"Raven figured out a way to commandeer their frequency. We've basically got an ear in the enemy's camp, and we can listen to whatever they're broadcasting."

Bellamy released her arm. His eyebrows drew together, deep in thought, and somewhere in the recesses of her mind, Clarke thought that in another world, at another time, she might have found his pondering face rather cute. But they weren't in another world at another time. They were here, and they were on a mission, and she had no time for distracting thoughts like that.

She was jarred from her reflections with Bellamy's next words, though. "What if it's a trap, Clarke?"

"It couldn't be. I mean, we're the ones onto them –"

"Think about it. They could feed us any type of information, anything at all, and they'd have us exactly where they wanted us. You said it yourself – these people aren't playing around. They're liars, and they've got resources."

The more Clarke thought about it, the more she realized that this was possible, and if that was the case… "We have to go back and talk to my mom and the Council, if that's even a small possibility. Nobody can act on that information."

"And we will tell them, but first, I need your help. You trust me, right?"

Ah, yes, the secret mission. Did she trust him? She did, maybe more than anyone. He wasn't outright sweet, like Finn was, or had been, but he was loyal and devoted when it came down to it. He wasn't as approachable as Jasper or Monty, but he was charismatic, and almost magnetic, when you needed him to be. When had Bellamy Blake become one of her most trusted people?

"I do."

"Then time's wasting, Princess."

Without further ado, he stepped up to the dropship, Clarke in his wake. He pushed through the curtain at the front, using a flashlight to shine through the darkness. Finally, a beam landed on Octavia, who looked exhausting. Her eyes were puffy, like she'd been crying.

"O, we're back. I have Clarke." Bellamy put a reassuring hand on Octavia's shoulder, and she seemed to fold into him, looking more like a little sister than she ever had before. Clarke heard a scuffling to her left, the flashlight beam panning as she turned and came face-to-face with a Reaper.