Disclaimer: I do not own the 100 or any of its characters. I have not read the books, so this story is based on the show.

The grumpy guard brought her to one of the Ark's dropships. He led her inside, where a couple of dozen kids were seated and buckled in. There were still many seats available, and and behind her, more guards piled in with more kids. Most of them looked younger than her, and she noticed one girl from Alpha who had been in the year below her. She was knocked out, like most of the other kids who were already strapped in.

The guard led her to the ladder in the middle of the room.

"Climb, don't stop until you get to the third level."

She got a hold of the ladder and started climbing. The second level was almost empty, but she kept going until she reached the top. By the time she got up there, she was exhausted. One year of very little physical activity, only a few sit ups every once in a while, did not prepare her for the ground.

A guard was waiting for her, and there were only a few seats available. He grabbed her elbow like the grumpy guard from her cell did, and moved her to a bench with four seats, only one of them was filled. The guard guided her into a seat next to a boy with almost short, messy, blonde hair. He was pale, and like her, out of breath.

"Buckle up," said the guard, and Anora did as she was told. The guard checked the straps, before walking over to the hatch to help another of the kids into the seat next to her. This one was a girl, with long and dark auburn hair. Like the boy, she was also fair skinned. Once she was strapped in, another boy, with dark hair and dark skin, was strapped into the seat next to the girl. The guard then climbed down the ladder and closed the hatch. The level was full of teenagers, yet the only sound was the ever constant humming of the Ark, and the humming of the ship.

"So," said the boy on Anora's right. "Anyone know what the hell is going on?"

"Mass floating?" said a voice behind her.

"Wish they knocked me out like they did the others if we're about to be floated," said another.

"Would have liked to have seen them get all of us up here if we were knocked out," said the boy beside her. He looked at Anora and shot her a playful smile.

"I'm Drew," he said, holding out a hand for her to take. Anora shook it, but hesitated to tell him her name. Her dad told her not to speak her last name, but she didn't know of anyone else named Anora on the Ark.

"Not gonna tell me your name?" he asked, his smile faltering slightly.

But then it was gonna get out anyway. Her father had told her Clarke and Nathan would be here. They both knew who she was. She was bound to run into someone who would out her eventually.

"I'm Anora," she said, giving him a smile. She turned to the girl next to her. "What's yours?"

The girl, still breathing heavily, even more so than Anora had when she first got through the hatch, looked at her with wide eyes.

"Roma," she said. Anora leaned forward to look at the boy next to Roma.

"Connor."

"Nice to meet-" she was interrupted by the dropship lurching into space, away from the Ark. Many of the delinquents started screaming.

"We're gonna die!" Roma screamed and started sobbing, and she wasn't the only one. By now several of the others were crying.

"They're really floating us?" said Drew, voice filled with worry and disbelief.

Trying to stay strong, Anora shook her head and grabbed one of Roma's hands in an attempt to calm her down.

"We're not being floated!" she yelled so everyone would hear her. "They're sending us to the ground!"

Her words started a commotion, and on each side of her, Roma and Drew looked at her in almost wonder. Their eyes filled with hope.

"I'm not sure it's much better, though," she whispered, so only they could hear her, letting her fear betray her. Roma squeezed her hand in reassurance, and on the other side Drew caught the other one.

The dropship lurched again and started shaking. Anora lost her grip on Drew, but on her left Roma had her hand in an iron grip, and she let out another screech.

"What was that?"

"I think it was the atmosphere," said Drew calmly. "Don't worry, Roma. They wouldn't send us down there without a reason. They need us, which means we'll get down safely."

"Perhaps," said Anora. "Then all we have to worry about is radiation."

Two video screens turned on, and an image of the Chancellor appeared.

"Prisoners of The Ark, hear me now-

"Ah, and there's my favorite person," muttered Drew.

" -as your Chancellor, it is my hope that you see this as not just a chance for you, but a chance for all of us, indeed for mankind itself. We have no idea what is waiting for you down there. If the odds of survival were better, we would've sent others. Frankly, we're sending you because your crimes have made you expendable-"

"Can you believe my mom voted for this guy?" shouted Connor, and some of the kids started booing the Chancellor. A few hushed them, trying to hear what Jaha said.

"-crimes will be forgiven, your records wiped clean."

"That's the least you could do!" someone shouted, receiving various responses in agreement.

"Quiet!"

"-last war, Mount Weather was a military base built within a mountain. It was to be stocked with enough non-perishables to sustain three hundred people for up to two years. Mount Weather is life. You must locate those supplies immediately."

"Sure, like we're gonna do what Jaha tells us!" shouted a guy in the corner. He was one of the older kids, with slicked back hair and an angry look. "The guy's a dick!"

"Don't be an idiot!" shouted Anora in return. "If we want to survive, finding supplies is our best bet. I for one refuse to die just because you think Jaha's a dick!"

The guy glared at her, but he didn't say anything. The glare faded after a few seconds, but Anora wasn't inclined to think that meant he agreed with her.

"You tell him," whispered Drew beside her. He leaned in close, and a smirk danced on his lips. She couldn't help but grin back.

"Your one responsibility is to stay alive."

"He is a dick, though," said Drew, a scowl appearing on his face. Anora turned back to the guy in the corner. Their eyes met, and he rolled his and shrugged.

The dropship lurched violently once more, and more people screamed, Anora being one of them. From down below on the lower levels she could hear someone yelling. Roma let go of Anora's hand, and brought them up to protect her head. Drew nodded at Anora to do the same, and assumed the same position as Roma.

Anora threw a worried look to the guy in the corner. For the first time she noticed he looked frightened, and did not wear the arrogant look on his face like before. He was strapped to the wall along with a few others, and not in a seat like she was. She couldn't help but think it didn't look nearly as safe as being strapped to a seat, but could do nothing but hope for the best as she brought up her own hands to her head. A few seconds later they crashed to the ground. The impact caused Roma's elbow to fly into Anora's hand, which had covered her ear, making her wince in pain.

Then there was silence.

She lifted her head to see the damage, but found that most people looked fine. The guy in the corner was already fumbling with the straps to get loose. Roma was shaking, and Drew was grinning, but she could see no injuries on them.

"Is everyone okay? Anyone injured?" she called out. She heard various replies in affirmation, and the sound of seat belts clicking open sounded through the level. They were okay, she thought, they had made it to the ground.

"Now we worry about radiation," said Drew, sarcasm lacing his words. He looked confident, not worried. Already he was out of his seat, offering Roma a hand with her straps, who was shaking too hard to get the buckle open.

Anora reached for her own buckle, finding no problems to get it open. She stood from her seat, seeing the guy in the corner opening the hatch, and swinging a leg onto the ladder and climbing down. All the kids on their level pooled around the ladder, waiting for their turn to get down, but it took forever.

"What's taking so long?" asked Connor one of the guys near the ladder.

"There's too many people down there. I don't think they've opened the doors yet."

Drew grinned. "I guess you're not the only one worried about radiation."

Anora gave him a little shove, but smiled, and wondered how she had gotten so comfortable with someone she just met.

"I've never been good at waiting. But waiting to see if I live or die takes the cake," said Roma, trying to get closer to Anora and Drew. Anora gave her a reassuring smile, and Drew pulled her into a side hug to comfort.

"They've opened the doors!"

The light on the first level nearly blinded her. Looking towards the entrance was painful, but not as painful as the sharp pain she felt as one of the kids kicked her in the head trying to climb down the ladder.

"Sorry," he offered. Anora shook her head, making it worse, and blinked a few times.

"Not your fault," she muttered. "Should have moved."

Roma and Drew had climbed down before her, and were not in the dropship. They probably ran outside as fast as they could, she figured. She couldn't blame them. Even inside the ship, she could still smell the sweet scent of the air from the outside that filled it once the doors opened. It reminded her of how her grandmother smelled, and from the time she tended the Tree when she was little.

She waited a few seconds to let her eyes adjust to the bright light, before walking to the entrance. They were lucky to have landed on a sunny day, so they could really appreciate the beauty of the ground. Because it was beautiful. The colors were rarely seen on the ark, the bright green of the grass, the darker green of the trees, even the browns of the dirt. And the blue sky, bright and beautiful and so different from the black, starry space she was used to seeing outside the windows on the Ark.

And the kids were loving it. Some of the girls were dancing around in the tall grass, hugging each other and laughing. A few boys had started climbing the trees. No matter where she looked, she saw a happy and carefree face. Teenagers who had been locked up, most of them would have been floated and never lived past their eighteenth birthday, celebrating a wonderful new found freedom. Anora could not help but smile as she took her first steps on the ground.

It didn't feel much different from the floor on the Ark, and she felt foolish for thinking that it would. Her feet were planted firmly, even if she was standing on grass and dirt instead of metal. She took a long breath, and released it slowly. The air felt wonderful. She could get used to the air on the ground.

Find water. Find food. Find Nate.

To hell with what her father said, Nathan was her first priority. Took a few steps away from the dropship, looking around, trying to find a familiar face. The guy from the corner was hanging near the trees with a group of other kids. They were laughing, having a good time, but they had found sticks she assumed they wanted to use as weapons. The type of boys her father had warned her about, thecrowd she was meant to avoid.

Roma and Drew were nowhere to be seen, neither were Clarke or Nathan, but she did find a familiar face.

"Hey," said a voice, approaching her from her left.

"You aren't supposed to be here, Wells."

Wells snorted. "Yeah, well, Clarke is here so I have to be here, too."

"Treason?"

"No."

"Too bad. We could have been 'the Traitorous Three'."

Wells laughed, and Anora couldn't remember if she'd ever made him laugh before. Polite small talk when they were teamed up for a project in class rarely evoked laughter. Of course, they had never been friends, but she knew him better than most of the others down here. He was Clarke's friend, and the two kept to themselves, never bothering with others.

"So what did you do?"

Wells looked down at his feet. Anora narrowed her eyes at him. All he would have to do was steal something.

"I damaged the Tree."

She felt her blood go cold, and not even the sun on her neck could warm her.

"What the hell, Wells!" she shouted. She noticed that she was drawing attention to them, but she really didn't care. That wasn't just any tree, it was the last one on the Ark. It was the tree she tended as a child, the tree her father had tended to. It was her grandmother's life, and it was her grandmother's hope to one day make the journey to the ground, so that their people could make it to the ground.

"What do you mean, damaged? Is it okay? What did you do?"

"I set fire to it."

She wanted to punch him. Make him hurt, because she felt a pain in her chest and she wanted to make him feel it, too. However she couldn't, because she slumped down to the grass floor. She sat there, not crying, not doing anything, just trying to breathe evenly. Wells sat down too, leaning over to catch her gaze.

"I'm sorry, but I had to. The Tree is fine, I think. I was arrested before I could do serious harm. They put out the fire."

She refused to look at him, and when he put his hand on her arm, she recoiled from his touch. Like her father did with his father.

"Anora, I'm sorry."

"Hey, is this kid bothering you?" said a new voice approaching, and she could see two pairs of feet in her peripheral vision.

"You had to, huh?" she asked Wells, as she tried to get on her feet. She stumbled a little, but the girl who had approached them grabbed a hold of her arm and steadied her. Anora would have thanked her, but she was too busy glaring a hole in Wells' skull, who had also gotten to his feet.

"You made a selfish choice to disregard the feelings of others. If you wanted on the dropship, I'm sure all you had to do was ask your father nicely. Or, I don't know, you could have tried treason. I know from experience that it works!"

Wells turned around to move into the dropship, but after a second, he turned back around with narrowed eyes and anger written on his face.

"I thought you of all people would understand!" he said, raising his voice. "After all, you got yourself arrested for Nathan!"

"Of course, you're right, Wells. You've seen right through me," she spat. "Yes, I discovered that the Council voted to halve the rations on Factory Station, then threatened to go public about it and let myself get locked up in solitary because I missed my friend. You've got me all figured out."

"Wait," said the voice from before "The Council voted for what?"

She felt a hand grip her arm, turning her around to face the boy, only to discover that he wasn't a boy at all. Anora hadn't really noticed him before, but he made her notice him now. He was clearly older than her, and she was likely one of the oldest of the hundred sent down, being only nine days from her review. Her eyes widened in surprise when she saw he was wearing an old guard uniform. As she studied the uniform, she noticed he swallowed uncomfortably, like he was hiding something, but he stared her down nonetheless.

"What did they do to Factory Station?" asked the girl with him. Anora looked over to see her standing next to the guy. They had matching dark hair, but where his eyes were a deep brown, hers were green.

"Rations were halved to save food, they claimed they needed more for the other stations. Sky Box, I think, and Alpha."

The guy let go of her arm. "How did you know about this?"

"I worked in the kitchens. I was never meant to find out, but I was looking for something else for the Chef and I found a memo from Go-Sci telling the kitchen to restrict rations on Factory by 50%. I'm guessing as punishment for last years riots."

"They were protests, not riots," said Wells. "Why would they punish people for protesting? There must have been another reason."

"24 people were injured, Wells. I think it's safe to say the protests turned into riots."

"We're from Factory Station," said the girl. "Bellamy, I never noticed smaller rations."

The guy, Bellamy, turned to the girl and said, "It happened after you were arrested. They told us they were cutting rations on all the stations with 20%, not 50."

"Perhaps they changed their minds," said Wells, his voice hopeful. He looked directly at Anora. "Perhaps they decided to only cut 20%."

"And then lie about cutting rations on all stations?" said Bellamy, voice thick with disbelief. Wells looked to Anora for help or support. She was from Alpha after all, and Alpha kids always stuck together. A year ago, she would have supported him. Even if they weren't friends, even if she didn't quite believe him. The privileged were the few. They had to support each other. Otherwise the privileged joined the many, and others rose to privilege.

But Anora hadn't been locked up for a year to let go of all her principles now.

"Even 20% would be too much for a station that already had smaller rations. If they didn't mean to punish people, if they truly didn't have enough food for everybody, they would have cut from Alpha."

Wells looked at her in disbelief. He shook his head, turned around and walked into the dropship, leaving the other three behind.

"Hey, what's your name?" asked the girl suddenly, punching Anora gently in the arm. It wasn't even a punch, more of a one-sided fist bump.

"Anora," she said, smiling a little.

"I'm Octavia. This is my brother, Bellamy. So, what was that about?" she asked, sounding really curious. Bellamy raised his eyebrows, clearly interested as well.

"Nothing, really. Just a tree, and there are lots of those around."

Octavia looked confused, looked at Bellamy to see if he understood what she was on about. Anora couldn't read him, but looking between the two, something in her mind clicked. She said he was her brother?

"You're the girl from the dance."

Octavia looked at her with hurt written across her face. Anora immediately regretted saying anything.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to... It's just, I was there that night. And it wasn't fair. They shouldn't have punished you for something you had no control over."

"Not your fault." Octavia shrugged, but looked down at her boots, not meeting her gaze.

"Still. The law sucks," said Anora. She wanted to leave, to escape the awkward situation she had cause. However, she didn't want to seem as if she was running away, even if that was exactly what she was doing. Without looking at either of them, she hurried away, mumbling an excuse as she did.

"I'm gonna go see if I can find my friend."

So we've finally reached the ground! And we've met some of the delinquents. We'll meet up with the rest of them in the next one. And once again, thank you all for reading, following, favoriting and reviewing!