I do not own The 100. All rights go to Kass Morgan and Jason Rothenburg.

okay so I overestimated the time in which it would take me to do my project. so i'm back early. Yay me. :)

Twisted Steel

Chapter 10: All That Glitters

It was several days later when Clarke woke up, still light on her left side and she was starting to get antsy. She had never gone this long without one of her arms, and the ache in her heart when she thought of Raven. Had she been taken as well? Was she alive? These thoughts had been running through her head for the past few days. Deciding to get up and try to communicate with Monty again, she walked towards the window. In shock, she watched as someone in a blue hazmat suit, moved throughout the room, no Monty in sight. Panicking, thinking something had happened to Monty, she punched through the layered glass in the door. Cutting her bicep on the loose class around the edge, she grit her teeth and forced herself to probe around for a door handle. It was hard since she couldn't feel anything, but she eventually felt her arm bump against something and grabbing it, she turned it quickly, ignoring her black blood flowing down the outside of the door.

Sneaking across the hall, she reached out her right hand and slowly turned the handle into Monty's room. Surprisingly the faceless person in hazmat gear didn't hear her. looking around the room and seeing no sign of Monty she feared the worst. These people had taken sweet, innocent Monty, and done god knows what with him. Angry, she dove at the mystery person, tackling them to the ground. Grappling for a few second, Clarke was able to pin the person to the ground, straddling the person with her full body weight, she used her hand to grab the hazmat helmet, careful not to grab to forcefully.

Pulling the mask off, she was surprised to see the face of a girl no older than herself.

"Easy. Please don't kill me." The girl begged. Her eyes widened. "Oh god I'm probably already contaminated." She said, tears in her eyes.

"I'm not gonna kill you, not unless you take me to Monty." Clarke said lowly. Grabbing the girl by the collar, she pulled her up. It was harder since she felt so off balance without her left arm, and other muscles protested their use as she struggled with the girl. Getting her into a standing position, she turned the girl around and grabbed the back of her neck before dragging her closer.

"You try anything, anything at all, and this hand starts squeezing with about three hundred pounds of pressure. Enough to break your neck." Clarke whispered darkly. The girl nodded her head as much as she could with the steel appendage wrapped around it. "Now, you're going to lead me to Monty, and anyone else you took, right now." Her voice was low, the promise of death in it if the girl didn't do it.

Walking down the halls of mount Weather, a girl in her vice grip, and clean clothes minus the blood on them, gave her an eerie feeling. After being in the forest for so long without the humming of machines, it was weird hearing them again. This whole place felt wrong to her, like it was sick and dying. She was broken out of her thoughts when the girl spoke.

"You know, if you would just let me-" she winced as the hand clamped down. Punching in the button for level five.

"What's your name." Clarke asked

"Maya." She answered

"Shut up, Maya." Was all Clarke said.

Stepping out of the elevator, Maya lead Clarke down a series of corridors before coming up to the mess hall. Looking in, all Clarke saw was people at peace. Eating vegetables and ration packs. Bread, cake, and other kinds of sweets. A woman saw Clarke holding Maya and screamed. Good lord, for an old lady it sure was loud. What was she screaming about anyway? Contamination breach?! She was not a contamination.

Several minutes later, after she had been detained and guards had taken her down to the medical ward, she was sitting on a bed with her arm handcuffed to the frame. God what she wouldn't give for her left arm. With it, she could've torn right out of here and escaped, but, even pulling with all her might, her right bicep was still human, and therefore not strong enough. The servos and pistons in her arm quieting as she relaxed. The door to medical opened, and Maya, with a few other people from Mount Weather walked in. An older gentleman, with a pin of the old flag of The United States, stepped forward.

"Maya has something she would like to say to you." He said, a shake in his voice as he spoke.

"I wont press charges against you." She says with her head down, before looking Clarke in the eye. "but if you'd waited just a few more minutes-" she was cut off by the older man

"That's enough Maya. Now, uncuff her. We have much too discuss." He said, a smile on his face. It creeped her out.

The guards moved to uncuff her and she stood up, moving her wrist around and making sure it hadn't been damaged in her struggling. There was only the barest sign of a scratch, right under her thumb. She looked up and saw the old man staring at her.

"My name is Dante Wallace. I'm the President of the United States of America. You must be Clarke Griffin." She only nodded at him. "I've brought clothes for you to wear. When you're done, I'll take you too your friends. I also have something for you in my office if you'd join me when you're done." Again, with that creepy smile. He left her alone to look through the clothes where she even picked out a pink undershirt, a light blue hoodie without a hood funnily enough, and a pair of light pants. With a bit of difficulty, she managed to get the hoodie on and zipped up. At least this way she could cover up her missing arm somewhat better in a mountain full of strangers. Not that it really mattered since she had shown both her arm and stump for all to see during lunchtime.

Feeling satisfied with her clothing, she walked out of the medical ward with as much confidence as she could muster. She still felt naked without her other arm and anxious without Raven by her side. She walked up to Dante who was in front of an elevator along with several of the soldiers. She was just about to step on when she felt a hand gently on her shoulder.

"You're in no danger here Clarke," she heard his slow shaky drawl as she turned around. "and you're not a prisoner either." He said. "So you can unclench your fist and relax your stance. Nobody is going to fight you here. Besides, it can't be good for the servos and pistons to be constantly tensed up like that."

It was true she had been tense, but she hadn't realized she was clenching her fist. Sometimes the AI tried to interpret her feelings into actions for her hand to take, and sometimes it was wrong. Consciously relaxing, she watched as her hand slowly but surely relaxed, and listened to the to her 'joints' wind down and ease back on their pressure. Dante gave her a kind smile, not creepy this time, and led her onto the elevator. She didn't like being led around, but in order to get into these peoples' good graces, she had to play along.

She was taken to the delinquents, all forty-seven of them. She internally cried when she realized that she had failed fifty-three of the other hundred.

"Guys! I'm so glad you're okay!" she pulled Jasper and Monty into an awkward one-armed hug, but they took it in stride and hugged her back.

They explained that the hundred had been rescued, but the only way was to knock out the grounders, which in turn knocked them out. That was confusing, since she remembered being hit over the head, but she didn't say anything about that. They explained that President Wallace had said they needed to be decontaminated individually, which was why Clarke had taken the longest because the doctor was unsure about her blood, when Clarke asked how long they had been here and why it had taken a few days to be released. Looking around the room she realized that some were missing.

"Guys, where are Raven and Bellamy?" she noticed that Wells, Murphy, and Finn weren't around either, but right now that wasn't the main concern.

"Raven and Bellamy didn't make it. I'm so sorry Clarke." Monty said. she didn't even hear the regret in his voice as her mind just went numb. What was she going to do without Raven? Raven had been by her side since before the accident and remained by it after. She'd taken care of Clarke when she had her bad days and screamed and ranted about how much she hated her arms. She stayed by her side even when Clarke had shouted in a fit of rage that it was Ravens fault after someone had called her a freak. Suddenly she couldn't breathe, and the thought of Raven being gone hurt more than the early days of getting used to the sensations around the connections of her stumps and connector plates.

Monty held onto her as she cried and screamed and begged for Raven to be alive out there somewhere and continued to hold onto her when she had practically gone catatonic for about an hour. She only moved when she heard a voice that sounded suspiciously like the Latinas telling her to get her ass in gear and get out there to face the world head on. She joined the remaining delinquents for lunch even though she wasn't all that hungry. She looks over a map of Mount Weather too get a better sense of how big this compound is only to come to a startling realization. There are no exits listed anywhere on this map. Trusting her instincts, she brings her fears to Monty and Jasper, the latter of whom tells her that she's 'just being paranoid, and not to ruin a good thing.' She's trusted her instincts before, and they haven't been wrong yet. Quickly forming a plan, she walks up to Maya to apologize.

Maya accepts the apology easily and doesn't even notice that Clarke had stolen her access card with a little bit of misdirection. She makes it to the stairs where she saw on the map that there was an access stairway. Figuring that the only way to go is up, she begins sprinting up the stairs after she smashes the lock with her fist. She'd gotten to a massive metal door before she hears Jasper telling her to stop. 'She's saved lives by pulling the lever at the dropship, but don't take them by pulling this one.' He pleads with her. Behind him, Maya has a gun leveled at her head. Jasper explains that the people in the mountain aren't immune to the radiation like them, and that opening the door will kill them all.

She lets her hand slide of the lever and gets taken into custody. Her hand is handcuffed to her belt loop and she is taken to the Presidents office.

"I had hoped we'd meet in my office under better circumstances Clarke." He says in his annoyingly slow drawl. Honestly, did this guy have a stroke earlier or something. He was painting a scene from the outside, of the flowers that were found all over the forest. He stopped painting to study Clarke for a moment and motioned for the guard to uncuff her. He offered her a seat in front of his desk, where a few cases were sitting on top. A long and thick wooden case rested on the very top.

"When we found you Clarke, one of my soldiers had to knock you unconscious after he saw that the gas had no effect on you. In doing so, he clipped your left shoulder which jarred loose one of the kinetic batteries, which powered the 'triceps' of your arm." She nodded, although she knew all this as her dad and Raven explained how her arms worked dozens of times. The kinetic batteries, which powered different parts of each arm and recharged as she moved, were crucial pieces to her arms. Without them, in certain spots, her arms were only useful as dead weight. She heard Dante continue.

"One of our engineers was able to reverse engineer the battery and finally finished the copy an hour ago." He said, pointing to the case on the table. "We noticed that there was also a hidden blade inside the forearm. On my orders, I told them to leave it in." He said with a knowing smile. Lowering his voice, he said "I hope one day you can trust us to the point where you feel you don't need it." He finished.

"Thank you Mr. President. You didn't have to do that but…thank you." She said sincerely. If Raven really was gone, these arms were the last link she had to her best friend. Clutching both cases in her arm, which was difficult, she was walking out of the office when a thought occurred to her.

"Were there any survivors from the ark landing?" she asked.

"No, but I'll have my men continue to look." He said. She knew he was lying.

Walking back to the mess hall, she quickly spotted Monty and asked for only him to come with her. He offered to carry one of the cases for her, which she accepted, but not the one with her arm and followed her back to the dorm. Looking into the room, she made sure that they were alone before pulling Monty into her bunk area. She sat on the bed, and motioned for Monty to do the same.

"I didn't ask you here to convince you I'm right about Mount Weather but I do need your help." She said, Monty nodded along, so she continued. "Sometimes I need help putting my arms back on. My old arms I had no problem with because they were easy for me and I knew how to do it. Raven, when she made my new ones before coming to earth, changed the lock and release mechanisms on them and I'm unfamiliar with them. It also doesn't help that I have no sensation in the fingers, so I don't know what they are in contact with unless I'm looking at the object." His eyes widened when he realized what Clarke was asking him to do, but he stayed quiet as she kept talking. "Raven would normally be the one to do this but since she's not here, and you're the only one around with mechanical expertise that I trust….I need your help. Will you help me, Monty?" she asked. He was Blown away at the emotions on her face and the trust she was placing in him.

Slowly unclasping the case with her cold fingers, she opened the lid and saw that her arm was laying on the inside, supported by blocks of wood under it. She gripped her arm at the elbow and lifted it out of the case. 'Damn' she thought as she struggled to pick it up. 'A few days without it and the weight is already unfamiliar.' Handing the arm slowly to Monty, he handled it carefully as Clarke unzipped her jacket and exposed the connector plate. It took a minute for him to figure out the connection process, but once he did, he pushed the arm into the socket, twisted, and hit the retaining latch by Clarkes armpit. Clarke saw him blush as his hand came within six inches of her breast. She laughed, and he blushed harder.

Standing up, she moved away from Monty and did her standard ROM tests. Her Arm was sluggish at first, which bothered her, before the battery for her 'triceps' charged enough to finally kick in. Slipping her arm into the formerly empty left sleeve of the jacket, she smiled at Monty and quietly thanked him for his help. He was happy to oblige. They both left, and forgot the case on Clarkes bed

What followed over the next few days was honestly the most bizarre series of events. First, was the fact that Clarke had discovered that the case Dante had given her was full of pencils. That was cool she guessed. Next, Jasper and Maya became a thing? Also cool she supposed. A man was brought into medical with an 'arrow wound' but she knew a bullet hole when she saw one, and another one with radiation burns. The next day she saw him, he was almost completely healed. Confronting Dante about the corpse, he showed her the body with the wound altered to look more like and arrow. Bringing her evidence to the remaining delinquents, she is brushed off made to be the bad guy in this situation. Miller even calls her crazy. After overhearing that the man with the burns needs one more treatment, she opens a wound on her bicep, claiming it happened as she was getting out of bed that morning. Finally ending up in medical, she begins to look for evidence to prove her instincts right.

Getting into a standing position easily, and inspecting the work Doctor Tsing had done on her fleshy bicep, she was pleased to discover that it had already healed, however she felt the evidence of a needle having been inserted into her shoulder. 'They must have taken my blood.' She thought. Not like they'd discover much. The nanites died quickly without a host.

Studying the man, whose name tag read sergeant Langston, she discovered that he was hooked up to a series of tubes, pumping blood in and out of him. Blood dialysis, maybe?

But where was the other blood coming from? Following the tubes, she came up to a locked door, where the tubes disappeared behind. She pulled a vent from the wall, her left arm barely struggling to pull. It felt good to have her strong arm back. Crawling through the vent and replacing it, she crawled through the ventilation tube before coming up to another vent. Pushing this one out, she hopped down and then looked around the room.

She wanted to vomit when she saw the hundreds upon hundreds of grounders stuffed into tiny cramped cages, all looking at her with weary eyes. She saw two grounders hanging upside down by their ankles with their blood flowing into the man in the opposite room through tubes. What in the actual hell was happening here?! The mountain were kidnapping grounders and using their blood to heal themselves. That must be what the 'good doctor' took her blood for. If the mountain realized that the delinquents likely had better radiation resistance due to constant exposure up in space, the remaing hundred were goners.

She saw Anya in one of the cages and moved to break her out. Thinking 'screw it' she grabbed hold of the lock on the door and pulled it off easily with her left arm. Damn she loved this thing. Anya's eyes widened. She had no idea that Clarkes arms were this powerful. Fate decided to be an ass, and the door on the side of the room opened, and doctor Tsing walked in. Clarke jumped into the cage quickly, pressing herself as much as she could before closing the door. Anya shivered as her thigh made contact with Clarkes cold upper left arm. Both blondes held their breath as the doctor stood facing away from the lock Clarke had left on the floor. Silently thanking anybody when the doctor started to get nervous being by herself in the room and left.

Waiting a few seconds after hearing the door close, Clarke pulled Anya out of the cage. Wishing she could help more of these people, she had to come up with an escape plan before the mountain realized Clarke was missing. She dragged Anya away from her trapped people and towards a trash chute, praying it led out of the mountain. Pushing the button, and watching the door slam closed, she panicked for a second as the room went dark, then an alarm blared, and both blondes dropped into the unknown.