Disclaimer: i own nothing but my own characters and creativity. And there it is i'd like to thank "XRubbySlippersX" for the help.
Two days later…
Ten minutes in the infirmary and my mother still haven't said a word to me. She is still mad that I left camp with the others against her will. Raven told me my mother had confronted her and while doing it she slapped Raven when she denied any involvement.
"You are still mad." I say to her when she finished changing the bandage covering my shoulder.
"I'm not mad." She answer not looking at me.
"That wasn't a question. I know you are still mad, mom, but I had to do it. I hope you of all people can understand that."
My mom shook her head. "I understand that my daughter went behind my back when I specifically told her not to."
"I was right, you are still mad." I smirk and she sighs rubbing her forehead with one hand.
"Clarke, you are my daughter and I'm not just your mother but also the chancellor too, what do you think will happen if all of the sudden people stop following the rules around here? We would have anarchy and we cannot afford to have that." She scolds being very serious. I sigh deeply and look down. She comes to me and gently raises my chin with one finger.
"I know you miss your friends and desperately want them back but we need to think this through. I expect retaliation for what Finn did. We are all fighting for survival down here just like we were up there on the Ark, the difference is that we are not alone anymore. There are others here, others with their own rules and laws."
"I just want them back." I whisper and she hugged me rubbing my back.
"I know baby I know, we will get them back don't worry." She comforts and I hug her back.
"Are you going to Finn's hearing?" She hands me my jacket and my blood turns cold. She notices my hesitation, I just take my jacket and put it on, still not answering.
"I thought it was a private hearing."
"It is." Her eyes narrow at me.
"Then why are you asking me?" I ask suspiciously
"No reason." She turns and walks to her desk.
I've just spent the last 6 hours filing reports, checking inventory, moving crates with supplies, hell my back is needing some time to relax. I make my way to our improvised outdoors bar sit on a chair and order a drink. "Man that hit the spot." I almost choke when Bellamy squeezes my shoulder and sit across from me.
"Easy princess, it's just me." He raises both his hands up in surrender.
"Shit Bellamy, I thought you were my mother." He chuckles and I smirk. "She grounded me can you believe that?"
"The nerve on that woman, so that's why you are all worked up." He chuckled folding his arms across his chest.
"Not funny Bell, I can't turn my neck on the opposite direction because of how stiff it is." We both laughed. "Well she had to find a worthy punishment for me, I left camp without her permission, and she couldn't let other people think that just because I'm the chancellor's daughter I get special treatment when it comes to punishments." His face turns serious.
"If it makes you feel better I'm on guard duty"
"But you are not a soldier." I answer back
"No, but it gives the real guards a chance to keep an eye on me." True
"I'm getting a really bad feeling Bell, like something really bad is about to happen." He nods sitting on the chair in front of me and leans in.
"I hear you Clarke." I unzip my jacket and remove a piece of paper with the map I drew of Mount Weather.
"That looks complex, no wonder no one can get in." He tells me with a frown.
"It's a labyrinth. We got to the dam through this tunnel, and it's all connected to the riper tunnels, that's our way in."
"Sure, if we can get pass the mountain men and reapers." He is right, it is easier said than done. "I swear to god, if your mother doesn't sanction the mission soon I'm going by myself." He informs leaning back on the chair.
"You won't be by yourself, I'm going with you." He nods. I hear voices coming from behind Bellamy and when I look, Finn is coming out from his hearing. He looks behind him and also sees Finn. My jaw tightens and Bell notices.
"I guess the Inquisition is over." Bellamy mutters ironically. "How is Finn doing anyway?" Bell asks me
"I have no idea, I haven't spoken to him since we got back." The boy in front of me raises his eyebrow. "I don't know what to say." I hurry and he looks away. "He just kept shooting those people." Bellamy sighs
"We are at war Clarke. We've all done bad things." I stiff at those words.
"There is a difference between war and murder." I growl leaning close to Bell and he scratches his neck.
"Hey." Finn greets looking at me and Bell
"Hey" Bell greets back, words refuse to leave my mouth. Bellamy looks between me and Finn for a few seconds before deciding to pay us a round of drinks. I could feel the tension raising and just wanted a whole to crawl into. Anywhere other than here would be fine right now.
"Mount Weather?" he asks looking at the map on the table and I nod "So what's the plan?"
"I'm still working on it." I answer quickly not looking at him. He realizes I'm avoiding him, I see the hurt look on his face. Murphy comes to our table telling a weird joke about Monty or whatever.
"Have you told her we were cleared?" Murphy asks sipping on his drink looking between me and Finn.
"No" Finn looks at me in the eye rubbing his palms together. I shift on my seat and look away.
"Well looks like our pardon for survival includes our time on the ground, er. bigger fish to fry I guess." He continues.
"We did what we had to do..." Finn added gazing at me and when he realized I wasn't looking at him he sit up and walked away.
"Whooo, trouble in paradise." Murphy joked and it ticked me off.
"Just because they pardoned you doesn't me I have."
"Clarke. Beat it Murphy." Raven showed up from the left with a concerned look on her face, once Murphy was at a distance she continued. "I know why we haven't heard from the others Ark stations."Ooohhh this gotta be good. "Mount Weather is jamming us…"
"Show me." I follow her to her work station and she shows me what she's been working on with the radio.
"I tweak the resonator and got this." some weird static came on. "It's on every frequency, long range communications are totally screwed it's also why the range on our walkies sucks, it's the same signal Monty heard on the black box at the Exodus ship."
"Mount Weather crashed the Exodus ship." I concluded and she nodded. "Can you get around the signal?" I circle around the table and get close to Raven.
"Around it? No, but if I can get close enough to the tower that broadcast it…..i can make it go Boom…" she smirks, be both do.
"No one I going anywhere…" I hear my mother coming through the door. Fuck me. She has that weird look in her eyes, angry weird, crazy look in her eye. Byrne is with her.
"Mom, listen to me …" I hurry approaching her.
"What do I have to do to get through to you? Do I have to ground you again? Harder this time? You and your friends are not soldiers, and continuing to act like you are puts lives at risk." She scolds.
"Y-you don't understand, Raven found something, mount weather is jamming our communications..."
"It's true there could be other ark stations in the ground." Raven reassures.
"And more guards you said we don't have enough people to fight a two front war. Mom, we are already fighting one."
"The grounder retaliation for the massacre can happen at any minute and when it does we are going to need every available man to defend this camp."
"So let us go." I try settling this dispute.
"You are not going to stop are you?" my mother eyes me with a small grin.
"No, not until I have my friends back, here, safe."
"Okay, but I'm going with you…" WhAT?
"Ma'am, I just…" Byrne tries to intervene but is cut off by my mother.
"It' been quiet for two days, maybe Kane is making headway with the grounders commander…"
"Or maybe he is already dead and they are massing against us as we speak…" the lieutenant warned.
"Maybe, which is why we need more guards…" Byrne shifted from foot to foot and sighed
"Then it settled, we are going back to Mount Weather…." I conclude.
"Yes, prepare for the trip, I'm going to gather some guards and we will be on our way as soon as possible, meet me in the front gate in 30 minutes."
"Mom, bring a tent, tell to do the same…"
"Shelter for the acid fog?" she asks and I nod. My mother leaves Raven's shop accompanied by the lieutenant.
"I'll meet you in 30, I need to talk to Bellamy and Octavia." I glance at Raven and we both nod.
After preparing myself for the trip I leave my room and look around camp for Bellamy and Octavia. I find them near the bar.
"Hey guys we ar-…"
"We already know…" Octavia interrupted showing me her pack.
"No you don't…" I smirk at her raised eyebrow. I pull them both to the side away from prying eyes.
"I need you two to sneak out and look for a way in into mount weather once no one is looking." Bellamy chuckles and I folded my arms across my chest defiantly.
"What's so funny?" I ask annoyed.
"What does your mother say about that?" his smirk grew when I lacked the words to answer back.
"She doesn't know does she?" This time was Octavia mocking me.
"What do you think?" I answer half laughing
"Relax princess, we're on it." I growl at the nickname and Octavia chuckles.
"Be careful." They both nod and I walk away.
30 minutes later
We were all at the gate ready to leave, a few guards, my mother, Raven, Octavia, Bellamy, Finn and I. "Okay, let's move." My mother orders and we are on our way.
"I can't believe they let Finn come." Octavia muttered as we get further into the thick forest.
"He is the best tracker we've got. Don't forget to look up the grounders use the trees, that's how we lost John Mbenge." Bellamy warns and I see some guards start to worry and looking up searching for any type of threat.
"You were right, it was a good thing we brought them." My mother talking about the guards. "I know you are worried about Finn."
"Thank you for voting to clear him."
"I thought he was rescuing his friends, the thing is will he be capable of clearing himself?" How about me? Ever since Finn came from that hearing I haven't been able to look at him in the eye, he killed all those people while looking for me. We keep walking another hour before we reach a clearing, Raven starts to look around with her binoculars looking for those towers.
"Up there I see them." She takes a step back and hands me the object.
"I see them but it will be dark soon so we will not spot the traps we should set up camp and leave at first light." I inform handing my mother the binoculars and she takes a look too.
"We are missing two." she glances at me disapprovingly already knowing I had something' to do with it.
"Where the hell are they?" she asks taking a few steps towards me and when I don't answer she continues.
"Clarke we are in enemy territory and their lives are my responsibility."
"They went to find a way in."
"A way in? That's not what this mission is about."
"It is for them."
"Find them." she orders Scott.
"Yes, ma'am, you two with me." the other two follow.
"I'm going with them." Finn informs grabbing a rifle. I admit the second he does that I hold my breath.
"Finn don't-" I start but Raven cuts me off.
"Finn we need you here." Raven reaches for him trying to make him stay but he snaps pulling away.
"Why? So can keep an eye on me? You'll be able to look me in the eye to do that." He walks away throwing the rifle to the ground.
"I'll go get him." I reach for Raven's arm and squeeze a little and she nods. I run after him it took me only a few seconds to reach him, his pace was long I could see the stiffness on his movements.
"Finn wait." he turns quickly at the sound of my voice.
"It was an accident." the sorrow in his eyes was evident, I take a few steps closer and we hear a distant boom and then a weird sound started closing in.
"What is that sound?" I ask worried about his mental state.
"Acid fog." Fuck
"Run." We both start running through the woods. I grab my walkie and hope the others can hear me.
"Acid fog take cover if you can hear me use the tents."
"My tent, I forgot my pack." My heart was racing, we were running from the fog like our lives depended on it, they kinda did.
"It's okay we can make it to the bunker." Finn hurried and took point.
"You okay?" he asked breathless after closing the hatch.
"Yeah, I'm good." my throat was burning I take a look around the bunker with my flashlight and see a dead body on the floor, it looked grounder, it was the grounder Bell said Finn executed. His hands were tied behind his back there was a pool of blood coming out of his head I could see pieces of brain matter and bone scattered on the floor and nearby wall. Finn notices were my eyes were and rushed to cover the body the second he looks at me I look away. The stench was starting to cause nausea, the corpse was already decomposing.
Finn gets up and starts looking around for some candles and matches, a few minutes later the small bunker was no longer the dark refuge we first came into. He sat down on a chair to my left, and just sat there holding a piece of folded paper. I soon realized that I hadn't moved an inch since I saw the dead body on the ground. I just stood there looking at it now covered by a curtain. I start passing back and forth wondering if my mother, Raven, Bell, Octavia found some shelter, wondering if they went into cover in time.
"Stop, I'm sure they are fine." Finn finally breaks the long silence between us. My back is still turned my body froze at the sound of his voice. His sweet and gentle voice I once thought.
"So first you can't even look at me," I turn and look at him in the eye. "and now you are looking at me like I'm the enemy."
"I'm not looking at you like that." I say in a almost whisper
"Well you don't look at me the way you used to." He whispered back hurt. I look down not daring to say anything else. He sits up and inhales deeply.
"I've been waiting for the right moment to give you this, I'm starting to feel like the right moment will never come…" he reaches for his jacket pocket and hands me my father's watch. I gasp at the sight I thought I would never see that again, the mountain men took it from me after taking us into the mountain.
"I know how much it mean to you."
"Where did you get this?" I ask my fingers brushing the item, images of my father filled my head and heart and a tear drops from my eyes. Finn takes a step closer to me and brushes away the tear from my face, his hand was warm, he pulls his hand away and turns.
"It was around his neck." That grounder held his death sentence around his neck, once Finn saw my father's watch around his neck, the grounder was marked to die. His death was on me, just like all the others he killed from that village, he did it for me. I hold the watch with both hands, tears flowing out of me.
"They were unarmed." I whisper remembering Finn shooting all those people.
"Clarke we hav- have to go." He walks away from my gaze.
"I d-don't even know who you are anymore." He stops close to the closed hatch. I hear him sigh, his shoulders were down, and so was his head.
"Neither do I." He breaks down to his knees.
"What have we become?" I ask gazing into the candle light in front of me.
"Clarke we should go it will be dark soon we have to meet the others at the rendezvous point, your mother is probably worried." He sits up and climbs the metal stairs opening the hatch.
"It's clear." I hear him say from the outside. I wipe the tears from my eyes on my sleeve and climb out of the bunker, Finn was already a few feet away. I close the hatch and follow Finn to the rendezvous. Once there I see my mother and Raven. I hug her fiercely.
"Bellamy and Octavia?" I ask looking around and not finding them.
"They know the rendezvous is here." She smiles reassuring me.
"Have you tried the radio?" I ask eager to know if the plan worked.
"Still Jammed." Raven said.
"You didn't blow up the tower?" I ask confused.
"Raven figured out a way that we could listen to Mount Weather…if we took out the antenna we wouldn't be able to do that." She smirks and so I do.
"What about the other Ark stations?"
"We don't know if they made it but what we do know is that 47 of our people are being held prisoner inside Mount Weather and we need to get them back." she smiles warningly and we hug again. I sigh contended that mom and Raven are okay.
Suddenly a small group of grounders swoop down on us from all angles. "Ma'am get behind us." One of the guards warns but the grounders had us outnumbered. Mother grabbed me and pulled me behind her, Finn did the same with Raven. Our two guards had their guns pointed at them but there were seven of them and only two of us had guns, on our hands I mean. The grounders surrounded us aiming their arrows and swords at us, their body language meant business.
"What are they doing this close to the mountain?" I hear Finn mutter.
"Chil yu daun!" (Stand down) I hear from behind a tree and the grounders eased their aggression. The voice was calm and authoritarian, it sounded familiar. Finally a face to match the voice. It was Anya.
"Anya?" I gasp and my mother looks back at me surprised.
"That's Anya?" She asks, both Finn and Raven glance towards us. Anya smirks.
"What do you want?" Raven asks angrily but Finn pulls her back towards him. If Anya realized her presence she didn't show it, the grounders still surrounded us.
"I came to deliver a massage." She eyed me, she was wearing typical grounder clothes, close to the ones she had the first time we've met at that bridge and her war paint, black circles around her eyes.
"From the commander?" I ask curious taking a step from behind my mother towards Anya.
"In a sense." She smirked looking to the side. He glances to her right and signals one of the men behind her and he leaves his position and went into the woods, returning a few seconds later with a man…a tall, beaten black man. The grounder that went back to fetch him held a knife to his throat, Jaha was on his knees, he had several cut and bruises all over his face and body.
"Jaha..." My mother gasps and steps forward. The grounder group raise their weapons at my mother and she steps back. Anya signals them to stand down again.
"What have you done to him, you monsters?" My mother growls and Anya laughs.
"Not me Skaikru, the commander. She knows about the massacre and she's here for retribution." Anya grabs the hilt of her sword I swear I could hear her knuckles snap.
"We had nothing to do with that…" My mother hurries, I see her swallow hard.
"That's what the other one said…"
"Marcus? He's alive?" mom asked
"It doesn't matter, the commander wants justice and she will have it…" Anya's gaze turns serious and the grounders get agitated. I look to the side, to Finn I could tell he was nervous he looked back at me and then back at Anya.
"We will find the culprit and he…or she will pay for it, grounder justice demands it...jus drein jus daun." She growls stepping forward towards me.
"You have two days, leave this place or all of you will die." She eyeballs me and then signals the grounders to leave and they disperse. The grounder that held Jaha leaves last. My mother runs to Jaha and holds him, he welcomes her embrace gasping for air.
