"I knew I would find you here." Lincoln said, appearing in the tree next to her. "You know me well." Clarke answered, not taking her eyes off the persons beneath her. The Skaikru, they could have been her people if things had gone differently.
"You didn't get your answers, did you?" Lincoln asked and she looked at him with sad eyes, it had passed hardly a few days since they saw the ball of fire falling down, since the Skaikru made it to the ground.
Lexa had been too busy in Polis dealing with The Alliance to pay attention to them, but Clarke knew better than to think she would forget about it. She would have every single one of them killed, and her only chance of knowing where she came from wiped.
The closer she had been to one of them was the time she spent healing Jasper -she learnt his name the day he was rescued- and although she would have loved to ask him about the Ark, he had been drifting in and out of consciousness, always too weak to talk or even to open his eyes.
"I didn't." she confirmed. She didn't ask Wells either, she had been too shocked and scared to say anything. She couldn't figure out what he was doing here anyway, she remembered him, she remembered his father and he was an important person, what had happened that got his son sent down here?
He hadn't recognized her, she could tell, and she wasn't surprised. She had changed in the last 12 years, and with half of her face covered in war paint only those that knew her well would recognize her. Wells wasn't on that list, she was a stranger to him as much as he was a stranger to her.
"There are 101 of them." Lincoln informed her, his own eyes fixed on the small camp too. "You have been observing them." she said, it wasn't a question. "Them…and you." he said, the last two words in a mere whisper.
"I'll not forget where my loyalty lies, Lincoln. They sent me down here to die while you took me in, raised me as one of your own, you took care of me." she said, her blue eyes fixed on his brown ones and he could feel a hint of rage in her tone.
"Not them." Lincoln said simply, she knew he was referring to the kids down there, none of them was to blame. In fact, she was just like them, sent down to die by the hand of those once could have been her own.
"I heard them talk, they're all carrying wristbands that send information to those up there. They're just…an experiment, and if it succeeds, the rest will come down. An invasion by all means. Some of them are taking the wristbands off, but most of them still have them on." Clarke sighed sadly looking down, her dislike for The Ark growing by the second.
"But what should I do?" Clarke asked, meeting his eyes "Step back and let them die? I can't do that, not if there's something -anything- I can do about it." the blonde grounder suddenly realized Lincoln's eyes were fixed in the sky rather than her or on the ground as she would've expected.
Following his gaze she met what at first it seemed like a shooting star, but she knew better. "More of them." she whispered, the capsule wouldn't land far from here, she was sure. "It's way too small to carry people, one or two persons maybe." she observed, still not taking her eyes off the celestial object.
"We should head back to the village, I'm sure we're not the only ones to see it. Most people will be nervous about it, not a good time to disappear." Lincoln said but she found herself not quite agreeing "Alright, I can wait til tomorrow." she answered as they climbed to the next tree, how easily the lie had slipped out of her lips surprising her.
The grounders weren't in fact the only ones to notice it. Down in the small camp the delinquents had managed to build, people was gathering to make wishes to the shooting star, just like they had read people used to do.
"Bell! You need to see this!" Octavia exclaimed, bursting into Bellamy's tent just to find him between a blonde and a brunette, but at this point that was a sight she was more than used to, surely much more than she'd like.
"Wait a second, O." Bellamy said as he reached for his pants and barely clothed the both girls went outside too, clearly upset at the interruption. "It's a shooting star." Octavia said smiling, back in the Ark everyone had seen one once or twice, everyone except Octavia, he thought painfully.
"I'm coming, I'm coming." he said, exiting the tent without bothering to put a shirt on and Octavia dragged him to the middle of the crowd "It's beautiful." she sighed, with a wide smile and eyes fixed in the sky.
But Bellamy was too engaged in watching his sister happy, something he had rarely seen since she was a child, than in their first shooting star in the ground. Despite all the danger it carried, life on the ground was paradise compared to life in the Ark.
If the others came down, he knew it'd be exactly like the Ark again…but he wouldn't be here to see it. "That's not a shooting star." a voice next to him pulled him rudely out of his thoughts, Fox.
"It's heading to the ground." another voice, that turned out to be Wells' said. And fixing his gaze on the possibly-not-a-shooting-star Bellamy observed Chancellor Jr. was right.
"It's a dropship." Bellamy said, fear sinking in. It couldn't be…the others wouldn't come down this soon. "Could we go?" Octavia asked excitedly, but just by watching her brother's face she knew what the answer was going to be.
"No, it's too dangerous now. We'll check it out in the morning." Bellamy said, although his plans were quite different. If there were supplies, he would let them be to be found in the morning…if it was something else, he wasn't sure what he would have to do.
Bellamy, being as impatient as usual, barked out a few orders and in a few minutes he had everyone in their tents. He had gone to his alone, refusing an offer from one of the girls.
Just to be sure he wouldn't get caught, he waited approximately an hour before gathering food and water and sneaking out, he would be back before sunrise.
He moved silently, aware that grounders might be nearby till he found the capsule in the middle of a dark circle. It was smaller than he had expected, and luckily all it'd have were a few supplies.
Just when he was about to walk to it, someone beat him up to it. He watched carefully as the grounder girl moved to the capsule, looking behind her every few seconds, he guessed she was probably on her own.
Clarke, unaware she was being watched, opened the capsule and inside found an unconscious girl with a pretty bad looking cut in her forehead. "Am I dead?" the girl muttered, it was clear she had no idea where she was. Just when she was about to answer, Clarke felt a sharp pain in the back of her head, then everything turned black.
As the grounder girl fell knocked out on his feet, Bellamy looked inside of the capsule. His eyes first fell over the girl in the spacesuit, who slowly was regaining awareness.
Then he noticed the radio in the ship, it was right there, in front of him…he could grab it and then just- "Who the hell are you?" the girl asked, still a bit out but aware enough to speak.
"Bellamy, what's your name?" he asked, he would have to destroy the damn radio later. "Raven. Wait, I know you! You shot Chancellor Jaha." Raven said, this time more awake. "Let's get you out of this before it blows up." Bellamy said, holding out his hands to her.
Once outside, she took off the spacesuit and started to look around her in delight, with a wide smile. "It's beautiful." she said, walking over to a plant and touching it carefully, like it would break with a mere touch.
"Give it a few days." Bellamy muttered under his breath, his eyes drifted towards the blonde grounder, he had no idea what he would do with her...he could simply leave her here, she would eventually wake up and go home or he could bring her back to the camp to know more about these grounders.
After all that people had attacked them unprovoked, the more he knew about the enemy, the better. "Who's that?" Raven asked, standing up beside him looking at the girl down with curiosity. "A grounder." Bellamy answered simply and Raven turned towards him with wide eyes.
"She lives down here? That means...it's survivable, Earth it's survivable!" she exclaimed happily, she had to tell the others as soon as possible. After all, that was what she was sent here for, she had been the one to find out they were taking the wristbands and with the Council's approval, she had been sent down here to find out if The Hundred were truly alive or not. She had her own reasons too, with Finn down here...she truly had no reason to stay up there.
"Where's my radio?" she exclaimed, ready to grab it when Bellamy stood up between her and the spaceship "We should head for the camp, it's not really safe here...and someone has to take a look at that cut." he said, pointing towards her forehead.
She narrowed her eyes at him, suspicious his reasons for wanting to get back were more than the ones he listed. But against her best judgment, probably because she still wasn't thinking too straight and because she wanted to see Finn as soon as possible, she decided to listen to him.
"Alright, we'll come back for it in a few hours." she said, not quite convinced. Bellamy pulled the grounder girl over his shoulders and they went back to the camp, Raven wandering off every few minutes at the sight of some flower or bird.
When they got back, all the camp was over them. Half of them excited by the prospect of having one more of their own and the other half scared by the fact there was a grounder in their camp. "We'll lock her up in the dropship." Bellamy said and carried the girl till the last floor of the dropship.
"What's going on?" Octavia, who was in the same last floor taking care of Jasper, asked. "I think we're finally getting some answers from these people." Bellamy said, tying the grounder hands behind her back as she continued to sleep peacefully.
Raven quickly found Finn in the crowd that had formed to receive her, and without a second thought she ran to him, wrapping her arms firmly around his neck "Wh-what are you doing here?" he asked shocked, wrapping his arms around her as well.
"You're my family, I couldn't stay up there without knowing if you were safe." she answered, pulling away just enough to crash her lips down into his, and he just as eagerly kissed her back. "You could have died." he whispered, letting his forehead rest against hers.
"Please...I practically rebuilt that capsule, my baby wasn't going to blow me up." she joked, kissing him again, this time not so urgently but slower and passionate "I missed you." she whispered softly, it had been hard just seeing him once every month, knowing he might get floated...but now, now they were on the ground and they had all the time in the world.
"I missed you too." he whispered back, caressing her cheek sweetly "Let's take a look at that cut." he said once they pulled away, placing a hand in her lower back as he guided her to his tent.
"Are you ok?" Wells asked to Nike, who had witnessed the whole exchange between the couple "What do you think?" she snapped with a mix of sadness and anger in her tone "Sorry for asking." he muttered, walking away but her hand in his forearm stopped him "I'm sorry, you've been nothing but a great friend...and I'm a terrible person, I just...God, I wish there were drinks on the ground." she said and despite everything, Wells smiled a little.
A few hours later Miller informed Bellamy the grounder girl was awake and dropping his tasks he quickly made his way to the dropship. "Is she saying anything?" he asked before walking in "Not yet." Miller said and with a small nod he got the last floor.
He stared at the grounder girl, sitting on the ground with her hands tied behind her back and glaring at him. "Let's start with something easy, what's your name?" he asked calmly, there was no reason to scare her as long as he didn't have to.
He wasn't sure what he was expecting, maybe an answer or some name he couldn't even pronounce but he was met with a stunning silence. "I don't think she understands you." Octavia said from the other side of the room, watching the exchange with curiosity and a hint of amusement.
"Bellamy." he said pointing towards himself and Octavia tried her best to not to laugh. "What do your people want?" he tried asking another question, as long as he got answers he couldn't care less about her name. "Why do you attack us?" he inquired, but she still wasn't saying a word.
"Any news?" Nike asked, walking in and Bellamy shook his head, his already short patience was growing shorter by the second "You're being too soft." Murphy said, if it was in his hands he was sure he would have gotten answers by now. "Maybe you need to be more persuasive." he suggested and Octavia glared at him with pure hate.
"Bell don't." the younger Blake warned, despite her feelings towards the people who hurt Jasper, she would not stand her brother torturing someone. "O, get out." Bellamy said, determination in his tone. "No!" Octavia protested standing up "Miller, get her out." Bellamy ordered, not even looking at his sister.
"Octavia please.." Miller tried to reason with her but she shoved him away "That's what you're gonna do now? Torture or kill anyone who doesn't listens to you? From someone who hates the Council that much, right now you remind me a lot of them." Octavia hissed before storming out angrily.
Bellamy let go a deep sigh, hating how hurt his sister sounded. "Get me that belt." he ordered to Murphy, who happily complied. "Something to say?" he turned towards Monty, who was still next to Jasper and the poor guy shook is head, after raising his eyes from the ground.
"You?" he asked to Nike, who didn't seem tense at all. "They almost got one of us killed, do whatever you have to do." she said, with a serious look and Bellamy gave her a small nod, his grasp on the belt tightening.
"Great." he said, turning back to the grounder girl. He was pretty sure she knew what was happening, but yet she didn't show fear instead she was giving him a defiant look. Clarke wasn't that surprised about how this was turning out, what else could she expect from the people who sent children to their deaths?
Bellamy was clearly older than the others, and from what it seemed, he also happened to be their leader. She would rather go under torture than have them know her people understood them, she had been trained for this like any other valuable member of her community.
Right before Bellamy was ready to begin Wells walked in, with a angry look. "What are you doing?!" he exclaimed, taking the belt away from Bellamy and throwing it away, without caring where it landed. "I'm getting answers! Now get out of here!" Bellamy yelled, angrily as well.
"Look at her! No armor, no weapons...what do you expect her to tell you? What do you expect her to answer when she can't even understand the questions?" Wells ranted as Bellamy huffed in annoyance. "Let us a minute!" he ordered to Murphy and Miller.
"You can't really be considering Chancellor Jr. opini-" Murphy was protesting when Bellamy cut him off "I said leave!" he yelled louder and the two boys left without further complain. "What do you suggest, huh? We invite them over to pastries and we all become friends?" Bellamy mocked, passing a hand through his hair.
"Wells?" Bellamy asked, watching carefully the men in front of him that seemed to be in some sort of shock. "Are you okay?" he asked, although he didn't really care what the answer was. Wells suddenly moved towards the grounder girl, examining something in her wrist.
"What's that?" Bellamy asked, moving next to him. "She's not a grounder." Wells stated simply and Bellamy wondered if Chancellor Jr. had gone mad. "What do you mean? Of course she is!" the dark-haired exclaimed.
"This watch, I know it! Mrs Griffin has the same one, my father had it made for her after her husband and daughter disappeared." Wells said and Bellamy vaguely recalled the incident, how two persons could disappear from the Ark just like that still was beyond him.
"You're telling me, she is..." Nike said, looking at the grounder girl with new eyes "Clarke, it's me Wells. Do you remember me?" Wells asked her, and deep down she was debating whatever answer or not.
They knew about her and her father and most importantly, they had talked about her mother. As much as she wanted to talk to them, to ask them about the Ark, about how their life was...she couldn't. She couldn't let her people down.
So she stayed silent, with her facade right on, pretending she couldn't understand a word of what they were saying. "I don't think she does." Bellamy finally said and sadness invaded Wells "I guess we were too young." he sighed, stepping back.
Clarke fought back the tears threatening to fall down her eyes, if only she could tell him she did remember him, she remembered how close they were, all the times they would watch old football games or sneak out to the library.
"You still can't torture her, she knew English once...she could learn it again with some help, maybe then she'll give us some answers." Wells said and Bellamy gave him a small nod. It would have been easier to torture her if he hadn't known who she was, her name and her history.
To think she had ended up in the ground, clearly not by choice, just like them. Maybe she wasn't even connected to the grounders, maybe she had been at her own all along. "Clarke, right?" he said, hoping she would answer, but she remained impassive.
"Do you even remember the Ark?" he asked, his eyes meeting hers. But she gave no signs of understanding "Maybe is better this way, there's nothing good from that place to remember." he muttered, before he, Wells and Nike left.
What she calculated to be a half hour later, Octavia climbed in. "Hey." the dark-haired girl greeted her with a smile. "My brother can be an ass sometimes." she continued and Clarke found herself wanting to smile. "How's Jasper?" she asked, walking over to Monty.
"Stable, for now. Although if we could get something to cool him down it'd help." he sighed, cleaning the sweat out of his friend's forehead. "If we knew what this is made out of." Octavia said, examining the rare paste in Jasper's chest.
Clarke considered telling them, if Jasper's state got worse, she would. She wouldn't let him die when she could save his life with a few words, although she would consider who she would talk too, no way she was going to say a word in front of Bellamy.
Even if he spared her the torture, he had decided somehow she could magically survive without food or water, his reasoning being they had enough mouths to feed to add hers. Luckily, Octavia would sneak out something to eat or to drink as often as she could.
The dark-haired girl had tried talking to her repeatedly, making small talk when Jasper was sleeping, even if she never got an answer. That was until one night Jasper started screaming in pain, his wound clearly infected at this point.
"Make him shut up or I will!" Bellamy threatened, seriously pissed. "We're trying!" Octavia protested, trying to feed Jasper some water. "He's keeping the whole camp awake! If in three days he doesn't get better, I'm putting him out of his misery!" Bellamy yelled, right before storming out.
