I do not own The 100 or any of its characters. All rights go to Kass Morgan and Jason Rothenburg
Twisted Steel
Chapter 3: Of Hearts and Minds
Walking into the drop ship loading zone calmly and most importantly, willingly, Clarke saw the one, make that two faces she never wanted to see again, Wells Jaha and Finn Collins. She could practically feel the surprise coming from Ravens body behind her at seeing Wells on the ship, and the burning anger at seeing her ex-boyfriend Finn. They were in the middle of the line for the delinquents selected to go on this suicide mission for earth. 'Not a suicide mission' Clarke thought. 'There has to be a reason why they're sending us down to Earth now. Maybe dad found something on the Earth scans.'
Taking their seats, away from Finn and Wells, they chose one near a girl neither had seen before. A dark haired girl who was tall and thin, who looked at everything with childlike curiosity. Staring curiously at the scar that went down the side of Clarkes face, she spoke to blonde when they sat down.
"hey…I uhh…I like your jacket and gloves, my names Octavia." The girl introduced herself with a hand out for the blonde too shake, which was ignored by Clarke but accepted by Raven instead. "where'd you get them?" she continued.
"My father gave them to me after my fifteenth birthday." Clarke said, tensing up a little at the thought of her fifteenth birthday. Raven brought her hand to Clarkes right shoulder to help her calm down. She knew that Clarke sometimes needed grounding if she ever thought about that day.
"Cool." Octavia said, sensing the tension that had come up on Clarke. "What's your name?" she asked towards the Latina. "My names Raven Reyes, biggest badass you'll ever meet!" the girl exclaimed proudly. "So, how'd you two both wind up here on this suicide mission?" Octavia asked.
"I knocked out three teeth from a guardsman's mouth when I lost my temper." Clarke said, the anger slight, but still clear in her voice. Raven hesitated for a second before she spoke up. "I volunteered." She said hesitantly, and then in a rush added "because you kids need at least some adult supervision, and a mechanic at the very least if anything goes wrong down there." That seemed to be the end of the conversation when a voice on the intercom spoke.
"Tee minus five minutes to launch, I repeat, five minutes to launch. Please get into your seats and strap in."
Clarke reached up too attempt to grab the nylon seat restraints. She managed to grab the right side just fine and brought it down too lock it in place, but her left side didn't have enough room for movement, at least not without hitting Octavia in the forehead with her elbow, so she looked at Raven for help. Raven, looking at Clarke and understanding, got unbuckled herself and got up and around to Clarkes left side and buckled her in, making sure everything was secure, and moved back to her own seat. Clarke grabbed Ravens right hand with her own lightly and mumbled, "Thanks Rae" and gave a small smile. Raven looked down at the woman who had become her best and only friend and gave a slight quirk of her lips and a nod before sitting back down and buckling herself in. Octavia, having watched the whole thing, could only smile at the tenderness of the interaction but also with a bit of confusion, as she could've sworn she'd heard a slight whirring and clicking sound coming form the blonde, but she chalked that up to the machine hum of the dropship.
"okay," came a voice from the intercoms "All passengers secure, releasing locking clamps, in 3, 2, 1. And dropship away." They all felt a lurching and heard a loud creaking as the dropship shook from a less then stellar detachment from the ark. It was only a matter of time now before they hit the atmosphere, and then the real test for this bucket of bolts would begin.
"Rae,'' Clarke said, "I love you and all, but if we die, I'm kicking your ass." The blonde told her best friend, who only looked at Clarke with her trademark grin.
They heard a voice from one of the decks below theirs, the voice, which belonged to Wells, was telling Finn to get back in his seat. But Finn only replied that it was fun, so why should he. Two other boys followed him out of the seat, only to be thrown into a wall of piping as the dropship hit the atmosphere. Clarke could only grip the left-hand arm rest in terror as her right hand was being held by Raven, and she didn't want to crush the mechanics hand in her titanium grip, as they were the only two hands that could fix her arms if anything went wrong, and because she would feel awful if she hurt Raven. She didn't realize that she was crushing the arm rest with her left hand with how hard she was gripping it. None of the girls paying any real attention to the Chancellor telling them about a stupid mountain.
They felt the parachutes deploy, but a snide comment from raven told Clarke that 'some idiot did their basic re-entry science wrong.' Clarke had a feeling it was not in fact, basic science. They heard a loud crash as the two boys smacked headfirst into the solid steel floor from the force of the deceleration of the dropship. And then, they felt nothing. There was no more shaking, the steel stopped creaking and there was no machine hum, which another boy pointed out, conveniently. Monty if she remembered the boys name correctly. She liked Monty, Monty helped put her back together. What the hell was he doing here?
Everyone slowly started too unbuckle, and again Clarke managed on her right side just fine, and was about to attempt to get to her left side, when a thin pale arm reached over and unclipped the belt for her. She looked up and saw Octavia standing there with a sheepish smile on her face.
"Sorry." She said quietly. "I just remember that you had a difficult time getting the buckle done before this all started and Raven was still Unbuckling and so-" she was cut off from her rambling when Clarke held up her left hand, and again Octavia heard a slight whirring coming from the blonde but thought that it might just be her imagination.
"It's fine actually. Thank you." Clarke said. Then she got a determined look on her face.
"We have to get out of here. We got just sit around in the dropship forever." She stated.
"I think the main hatch door is downstairs actually. Let's go see what fresh hell the council dropped us into." Octavia said sarcastically. All three girls made their way down the ladder to the main door of the dropship. Octavia had her hand on the lever to open to open the door when she heard a hesitant voice in the crowd call out to her. "O?" only one person alive would know that nickname, but how? "Bellamy?" she asked into the crowd. And none other than her big brother walked out to envelope her in a tight hug. "Look how grown up you are." He whispered into her ear. And then another voice came out of the crowd.
"God, just open the damn door already!" came from the crowd. Seeing no one in particular, she spoke back. "Hey! I haven't seen my brother in a year, gimme a minute okay!" And then a cacophony of voices, shouting that nobody had a brother, and that she was Octavia Blake, the girl under the floor. At that she looked at the blonde and Latina, both of whom she had guessed had never heard of her. The blonde only shrugged her right shoulder, like she didn't care who or what Octavia's reputation was, and the Latina looked at her like she was a badass. Seeing this she felt better, but still angry at whoever had shouted out the moniker she had gained in the skybox. She took a deep breath, and turned back to her brother, who said "Lets give them something else to remember you by." She was confused "like what" she asked. Her brothers simple but powerful reply. "Like being the first person on the earth in ninety-seven years." He said with a gleam in his eyes as he put her hand back on the release lever.
She pushed down and suddenly warm, yellow light broke through the cracks of the opening door, immediately setting the interior of the dropship ablaze with the power of the sun. She took hesitant steps out onto the lowered platform door and jumped down into the awaiting grass. She took a long breath and exhaled in one long shout of joy
"We're back, bitches!" and that was the switch that everyone needed to be flipped to run out of the dropship screaming like hooligans, attracting all kind of unknown attention.
Clarke and Raven walked out of the dropship side by side and jumped down off the platform near Octavia.
"Soooo" Clarke started awkwardly "You're the infamous Octavia Blake, huh." Feeling like she knew where this was going, she looked down at her feet out of shame. But a cold, leather clad hand forced her to look into sea blue eyes. "You're a misfit too then, aren't you?" The blonde said with a slight smile.
Octavia was surprised. Nobody was ever this gentle or talkative with her, not even in the skybox. She nodded her head as Clarke lowered her right hand. Before she could answer a boy came up behind Clarke. The Chancellors son. And her mood plummeted like a rock and her face got a bit darker. Clarke saw the girl, who she considered a tentative friend, look past her at someone behind her and watched her mood darken. Turning around she saw the one person she really didn't care to see. But she ignored him until her laid his hand on her right shoulder, that way she would have to acknowledge that he was trying to get her attention, but she was having none of that.
She continued to be angry and tried talking to Octavia some more when she felt the skin around her left, and still somewhat sensitive, shoulder being pulled, and that only happened when she moved her arm the wrong way. Wells was grabbing her left arm to turn her around towards him. Big mistake. She whirled around towards him, left fist in the air, servos and motors straining all the way up her arm at how hard she was clenching her hand into a fist. Octavia heard this and caught a glimpse of the Blondes titanium wrist as the sunlight reflected off it when her leather sleeve pulled up. But she said nothing and kept it to herself. She didn't want to make the now scary blonde any angrier than she already was.
"What the hell do you want Wells, can't you see I don't want to talk to you!" Clarke shouted in his face, lowering her fist slightly. "Look I'm sorry okay. I never meant to stay away, my father wouldn't allow me to see you, said it would look bad if I associated with anyone in the skybox." He pleaded with her, hoping she would understand. "He even went so far as to have the guards turn me away whenever I got close!" He hoped she would understand. He knew she was angry. Clarke got very spiteful when she felt like she had been betrayed. Clarke lowered her fist all the way, the whirring and the sounds of strained pistons quieting down to an almost imperceptible level, except to Clarke. "Thank you." He breathed with a sigh of relief
"It doesn't mean I forgive you, I'm still pissed." She really was
"I understand, but you can be pissed at me while we're walking. We need to go if we're gonna make it to Mount Weather for those supplies!" where the hell did that come from? That was a complete turnaround from their previous topic. And supplies? What the hell was Wells going on about, the council dumped them here with nothing but themselves and Raven.
"Wells what the hell are you going on about. Look around you, the nearest mountain is over there!" A crowd had formed around them at the start of their argument, probably hoping for a fist fight, which Clarke would win easily. At the mention of the mountain and Clarke pointing out the direction of the nearest one, all heads turned east to see a tall majestic lone mountain range. "Do you know how far that is, Wells?! Do you have any idea what's between us and that stupid mountain your father decided to dump us on but obviously failed?!" she shouted in his face. But Wells didn't seem to be getting the message. And Clarkes temper was rising by the second. Wells tried again in one last attempt. "but my Fath-" he was cut of from Clarke getting in his face and grabbing his collar in her right hand.
"SCREW. YOUR. FATHER!" she shouted at him. She punched the hardened steel wall next to her with her titanium arm and put a sizeable dent in it. Everyone backed away, except for raven who had been trying to get through the crowd of people. She had been distracted by the forest around them when she turned around and saw Wells trying to talk to Clarke, and then the crowd had formed around them, blocking her from getting to the blonde. She pushed through after Clarke had dented the steel and put her arm the blonde trying too calm her down. But luck was not on there side. Because Finn decided to try be the hero and jumped down in between Clarke and Wells as raven pulled them apart.
"Hey, ease up he was just trying to talk to you." He tried to appease the irate blonde.
He didn't remember who Clarke was, as he had never really paid her any mind on the ark before he was in lockup. And she had grown up quite a bit. But Clarke sure as hell remembered him, and Raven had to really strain to hold back the blonde as she tried to reach for Finn with her left arm and crush his windpipe with it. The damage was already done unfortunately, as her jacket coat sleeve had again ridden up her arm, this time revealing it for the camp to see, plus the fist sized dent in the wall was a big clue. Murmurs went around the delinquents like wildfire. All of them remembering the rumors of the fire on mecha station and the girl that was caught up in it that had been seriously injured.
Clarke saw the realization on the delinquents faces, and heard the murmurs of 'freak,' and 'Frankenstein,' and 'monster.' She panicked and stormed into the dropship wiping tears from her eyes as raven followed her in. Octavia, not really knowing what to do decided quickly to go after her new friend. Bellamy grabbed her arm, telling her that Clarke was dangerous. Octavia replied, "Anyone can be dangerous Bell, but I think she's just scared."
The brunette walked into the dropship, and heard crying and sniffling, and whispers of comfort coming from upstairs. She grabbed onto the ladder and started up, pushing open the hatch door that lead to the second floor. When she got up past the door seal, she saw Raven, glaring at her with murderous intent, with a sobbing blonde leaning into her shoulder and she saw Clarke, curled up with her knees to her chest and metal arms exposed for the world to see. Her jacket and gloves discarded on the floor in front of her. Clarke hadn't heard Octavia coming because she could barely concentrate with all the sounds around her and emotions in her head. She panicked when she finally realized Octavia was staring at her arms and scrambled for her jacket, but Octavia stopped her.
"Don't!" she said in a rush. "It's okay, I don't mind your arms at all. I think they're kinda cool actually, if that's alright to say." She finished nervously. Clarke looked up into the brunette's eyes, trying to find the lie. She saw none, and relaxed a little, slowly setting her jacket and gloves back on the floor. Octavia, taking it as permission to come up all the way, closed the hatch door and knelt down in front of the blonde.
"Don't listen to those kids out there. They're stupid." She said with a small smile. Clarke gave her a watery laugh and nodded her head. "Yeah they are" she agreed. "I just always hated the looks of pity and fear. I'm still human, mostly. I just have cybernetic prosthetics to replace the arms I lost." She said while moving her arms around in different ways. Raven, Octavia noticed, looked down as Clarke talked about her arms and the strengths and weaknesses of each, the biggest weakness being water unfortunately.
"I took an illegal spacewalk which Finn helped me perform. There was an accidental fire that spread to section four causing n explosion. That's how Clarke lost her arms." Raven said, shame easily heard in her voice. "is that why you're here?" Octavia questioned.
"no, I'm here because I was the only mechanic who knew the ins and out of Clarkes arms besides her dad, so I heard about this and I volunteered so that Clarke wouldn't have any problems down here." She said, looking at Clarke the entire time. The connection between the two was undeniable, and she didn't want to question how if the accident was Ravens fault how she and Clarke were best friends. She supposed that some things just are the way they are.
Clarke got to her feet, extending both of her arms out to Raven and Octavia, both of which took them and she pulled them up easily, given how strong they were.
"So!" she started "Who wants to go exploring though a radioactive forest with me, because there has to be something out there." She said with a grin, which both girls copied. This was a new chance at life. No council or ark to keep them confined. All three girls climbed down the ladder, Clarkes fingers scraping and clinking against it. All three jogged out the door and picked a random direction to walk in. North-East seemed to be a pretty good direction. Yeah it was towards the mountain, but nobody really cared. On the way out of camp they had a few stragglers join. Monty and his friend Jasper, Wells, and unfortunately Finn. Clarke stayed well away from him, with the help of raven and Octavia, who they told the story of Finns role in Clarkes accident. All in all, it was shaping up to be a pretty okay day so far.
But, life being what it was, it wouldn't stay that way forever
