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

Twisted Steel

Chapter eleven: Die Another Day

Plummeting down the disposal chute, Clarke and Anya landed into a bin. Anya landed first, and Clarke landed on top of her before rolling off. Getting out of the bin, Clarke quickly potted clothes in a pile. Some of them were bloody, and she shuddered as she thought about what happened to the previous owners. Anya didn't seem to have any problems whatsoever apparently as she casually sifted through them, and found a leather jacket with animal tails hanging off of the shoulder pads. Pulling it on and wrapping it around herself she looked at Clarke with amused eyes.

"What?" she said "I was cold. And now I'm not." The cold part Clarke could understand. All Anya had on was some netting for holding some bandages, and underwear. Clarke walked over and picked up another jacket, thankfully blood free, and tried to force her arms through the sleeves before she heard a ripping sound.

"God damnit." She mumbled under her breath, reaching up on either side, she ripped the sleeves from the decent stitch work and pulled the useless pieces of cloth from her arms, balling them up, and throwing them in frustration. Sometimes she just wished her arms were a bit smaller. But this was the smallest they could be, so she sucked it up, and pretended not to notice Anya staring at her with something in her eyes. She couldn't figure it out as Anya looked away and started heading down the tunnel when they saw a torch light and heard whooping noises. She didn't need her hearing to know it was reapers, neither did Anya. Grabbing the tall blondes wrist, she dragged her towards the bin they had fallen into. Thinking Anya wouldn't be able to get in quick enough, she groaned as she awkwardly picked the woman up and put her into the bin before jumping in herself.

Holding there breath, Clarke winced as several dead bodies were dropped on top of them, one in particular was still alive, but barely. They started moving along what Clarke assumed were a series of old tracks, like the old mines she had read about in history class. Feeling the bin coming to a stop after a few twists and turns, she held her breath again as some of the weight was taken off of her but wanted to vomit after she heard the sounds of tearing flesh and breaking bone a few seconds later. With not much time to spare, she jumped out of the bin and held her hand out to Anya, who was gently cradling the head of someone Clarke assumed the warrior knew. With her good hearing, she heard the woman mutter a phrase "Yu gonplei ste odon" before her eyes heardened and she snapped the mans' neck, like it was nothing, before taking Clarkes hand and allowing herself to be helped out of the bin.

"Come on," Clarke whispered, "we don't have much time to waste and we should work together to get out of here." She continued, looking at Anya, who looked at her with angry eyes. Did she have any other look but angry, honestly?

"There is no 'we' skai girl." She starts walking away before Clarke grabs her again with her left hand, making sure not to crush Anya's wrist, and holds on as tight as she dares. Anya whips back around to look at her, her hair flying wild.

"Unhand me skai girl, before I remove it." Anya growls.

Letting go slowly, Clarke taps her right hand against her left forearm, making a small clanging sound of metal on metal, looking at her with a deadpan expression and reminding Anya that her arms aren't human. Anya only looks away awkwardly, not sure how to retort. Clarke speaks up again.

"Look Anya, I know you don't like me, and I can at least respect you." Clarke says as she sees Anya's eyes go wide, not having expected those words to leave the skai girls' mouth. "But if we want to survive we are going to have to work together. You know this. So please, work with me." She see's Anya hesitate for a minute, before finally nodding that she is willing to try.

"Okay, good, do you have any suggestions at all on how to get out of here." Clarke asked, since she had no clue the first thing about getting out of a cave you were lost in. Anya nodded, before closing her eyes and focusing on the sensations she was feeling and hearing around her as they echoed through the cave. Clarke heard a whooshing sound and thought it might have been the reapers until she realized Anya hadn't even reacted. Opening her eyes, the warrior stood up before walking towards one of the tunnels that Clarke had heard the noise from.

"How do you know it's not the reapers?" Clarke asked. Anya rolled her eyes, thinking the girl had the curiosity of a child. "The sound is to regular, and it howls every now and again. It is the wind flowing through the tunnel entrance and moving through the caves. Can you not feel it every now and again on your arms as it moves?" The older woman asked curiously. Clarke was defensive immediately, before remembering that Anya's people had most likely never seen anything like Clarkes prosthetics. Taking a deep breath, she looked at Anya with a careful expression.

"You know my arms aren't like yours right?" She asked, the woman nodded but didn't look back as she led them through the tunnels. "My arms are completely metal. My 'bones' are metal, my 'muscles' are metal, and the 'skin' covering them is metal. I have absolutely no feeling in my arms. Haven't since the accident where I lost them. Every time I move I have to remind myself to do it slowly, to handle fragile objects like they were thin glass plates, every time I hug someone I have to constantly think 'don't squeeze, don't squeeze.'" Anya was looking at her now, a tenderness in her eyes she had never seen before. It was so much better than the sympathetic looks she used to receive on the ark. Anya hesitated to ask her a question, she could see it in her eyes, but she stopped her when she heard a roaring sound.

"What the hell is that noise." She asked, walking forward and listening, it was getting louder, and then she nearly facepalmed when she realized that Anya likely couldn't hear it. Not wanting to explain her nightblood and the advantages it offered, she simply said, "I have better hearing then most people do. So, what the hell is that roaring noise?" Anya didn't offer any explanation as she started walking faster, pulling Clarke along, who followed willingly. Soon enough, Anya could hear it too. It was at that moment when they rounded the corner that several reapers ambushed them.

They didn't even have time to do anything as a banging noise echoed and a high-pitched noise sounded all around them. The reapers whimpered in fear and backed away from Clarke and Anya. Mountain men came around the corner holding some sort of glowing device and surrounding the two blondes except for behind them. Turning around, they quickly saw that the roaring noise, was actually a waterfall, and Clarke cursed her luck.

"Anya," she said over the waterfall, "I can't, my arms wont work and they'll drag me to the bottom of the lake." Anya nodded, and with a look in her eyes that somehow translated to 'trust me' she jumped over the edge and into the lake below. Clarke had three guns pointed at her when one of the mountain men spoke.

"Clarke Griffin, surrender yourself and come with us." He said.

"I know what your doing to the Grounders! I'm going to tell the hundred and then we're going to leave!" she shouted back at them.

He chuckled at her. "That's why you'll be in quarantine. Besides, doctor Tsing has some questions she'd like to ask you about your blood." Her eyes widened. She knew her blood was powerful, especially against radiation for some reason, and if they took her and reverse engineered it somehow, the mountain men would come above ground, and she had a feeling that that was the worst thing for everybody else.

Not seeing any other option, she turned around and booked it, praying to any god who would listen that she somehow wouldn't drown. It felt like floating, she thought briefly, and then gravity kicked in and she was falling. She felt like she left her organs at the top of the dam as she plummeted into the water below. As soon as she hit the water, she could tell her arms were immediately lost power. Kicking up with everything she had, she knew she was going to drown as she felt her lungs burning and she wasn't making enough progress to get to the surface. Then she felt something pulling her up.

Being pulled to shore felt odd, as she was the one who usually did the pulling or carrying. Being tossed onto the rocks with no way to protect her head also sucked. She was turned over and laid down as she coughed up water and looked into the eyes of Anya.

"You are a terrible swimmer." She said matter of factly. Clarke rolled her eyes and tried to shimmy herself into a sitting position. Anya took pity on her, and dragged her over to a log nearby for her to sit against.

"Thank you." She mumbled. Anya nodded towards her, before studying her arms. Clarke looked down as well and saw the water leaking out of them slowly. Cursing herself for the string of bad luck she knew what she had to do and hated that she was even asking it in front of someone as strong as Anya. The warrior seemed to read her mind.

"Clarke," the warrior waited for the younger blonde to look at her, when she finally did she spoke "There is no shame in asking for help. Even a warrior acknowledges this from time to time." She stated. Anya watched as Clarke finally relented, and taking her right arm in between her legs, feeling like she could retain at least some of her pride before swallowing it, she twisted and pulled the appendage free from the socket. Anya watched with curiosity, before asking, "Is it the same method for your other arm?" the young blonde, who the warrior could see was looking more vulnerable, only shook he head.

"There's…there's a lever that needs to be pulled first before you can take the arm off." Clarke said, and Anya noticed that the arms had gone from a part of her, to being objects. Interesting. The girl spoke again, "Find the lever, it should be near my armpit, pull it, then you have to rotate the arm to the left in a circular motion, lift slightly, then pull." She said, her voice detached, like she didn't even want to think that she was asking someone besides Raven, again, for help with her arms. Anya wasn't exactly a person she trusted with her life, and being without either of her arms felt extremely wrong to Clarke. Anya took it all in stride though, crouching down and taking a minute to slowly twist the arm off before setting it aside gently. Kneeling next to Clarke, she noticed the girl would not look her in the eye, seemingly ashamed of being seen in the state she was in.

"Thank you Clarke." The warrior said honestly. The girl looked at her in surprise, unshed tears in her eyes as she struggled to figure out what she was feeling about the situation. A few tears slipped out, which Anya wiped away with the pad of her thumb. "It takes a lot of courage to ask another person for help, let alone someone who was previously an enemy. I thank you for the honor and trust you have bestowed upon me." Clarke only cried more, in relief, embarrassment, or something else.

Sitting like that for another minute, Clarke whipped her head around when she heard a branch crack a long distance away. not taking any chances, she grabbed Anya's attention to get her moving. Anya grabbed the arms that were still drying, and they were up quickly and into the forest before whatever made that noise got to the rocky shoreline.

It was hard for Clarke to run without one arm, let alone both. Anya supported her on her right side, where Clarke could at least use the remains of her 'good arm' to support herself against Anya as they ran. Running for a few minutes, they both stopped, out of breath and tired and cold, they rested for a few minutes before Clarke heard something crashing through the forest. They got up again and helped each other as much as they could by pushing the other to keep going. They ran for a mile before they stopped on a hill to breath.

"How are they still following us? I've been as quiet as you and moving like you the best I can. There is no way they should've found us this fast." She said as a dart whizzed by her head. Anya had to agree, the blonde was a quick learner, and moved quietly through the forest as they ran. Another mile, and she stopped behind a brush line, kneeling down, Clarke thought about the situation.

"They're tracking us." She whispered in realization. "Anya, I need you to feel yourself, around your arms and shoulders for a small bump, anything that wasn't there a few days ago." Anya quickly pat herself down, and found a lump in her forearm.

"This is going to hurt a lot Anya, but you need to do what I say. I don't have any tools or arms so you have to trust me. Please?" she asked the grounder. Anya nodded, giving Clarke the same trust she had shown her earlier. "Okay, pinch the skin around the tracker," she waited for Anya to do that before swallowing and saying, "and now I want you to bite into you arm, as close as you can get to tracker." She said. Anya nodded again, and bit down as hard as she could. Blood started leaking out immediately and Anya quickly spit out the tracker and her flesh, before tearing off a piece of her jacket and tying it around her arm. Clarke had to admit it was pretty badass.

"I am not going back to that place." She said, and Clarke believed it, because neither was she. Standing up, Clarke asked Anya to hold out her metal right arm. Inspecting it and seeing the no water was leaking out of it, she asked Anya to shake it, and she listened for water that may have been trapped. Hearing none, she asked the warrior if she would hold it out for her, so she could put it on.

Hearing the pistons and servos whir to life in the quiet forest was weird. The sound was loud to her ears honestly, but Anya just stared with wide eyes. Clarke gave her a small smirk before doing the usual ROM tests. Completing those, the two women walked on further, before coming up to the crispy walls of the dropship. Walking to the dropship, she moved aside the parachute curtain and nearly cried when her eyes landed on the floor. A large pool of blood, right where Raven had been when they'd laid her down before going outside to see the carnage. Kneeling, she prayed that whatever had happened to Raven, she was alive out there somewhere. Anya walked up behind her, but she didn't really care until the woman spoke.

"I have made a fire, Clarke, if you would like to join me. And then I think we should talk." She said before walking out of the dropship. It was a minute before Clarke got up to join her.

Sitting beside the fire, on a pile of wet branches, lay Clarkes left arm, slightly steaming as the water evaporated from it. Clarke wasn't worried, as all the wires and other electronics were located closer to the shoulder, and therefore at no risk of heat damage. She sat down beside Anya and waited for the woman to talk about whatever she needed to talk about.

"You were very brave today Clarke. You should be proud of that." Anya said simply.

Clarke was at a loss for words, she never expected to hear such kid words from the woman beside her. "Thank you." Was the only reply she could come up with.

"As my honor dictates, you rescued me and helped me back into trikru territory. I am grateful, and therefore it would be my honor to escort you to wherever you wish to go. As you have no home here," she gestured towards too the burned out camp, "I would do my best upon my return to TonDC to convince the current chief to accept take you into the village." Clarke's eyes were wide as she considered the offer. Dante had said that her people had died in the ark crashing, she didn't believe him, but there was still the possibility. But then something hit her.

"But wait," and Anya looked at her "why would you not be the chief anymore, I thought you were. You've only been gone for a few days, and you're a general."

"You still do not understand the world, Clarke." Anya said slowly. "My village needs a leader, and once my people had learned that the army was decimated, and I was last seen inside the camp before the fire, they will have assumed I'm dead, and put someone else in charge. There is also something I would like to offer you." She explained. She wasn't upset at all it seemed. She was rather okay with it actually. Clarke was about to ask her about the offer, when a glare shone off an object from something behind her, she looked around at a giant golden balloon, and immediately heard a gunshot. Watching the balloon deflate and lose altitude, she put two and two together before Anya could ask what was happening.

"What's over in that area?" she asked Anya quickly. Anya thought about for a minute before she spoke. "Nothing but a small hill without trees and a grass plain, why?" she asked.

"Because that has to be my people over there. I'm sure of it." She said. Getting up, she grabbed her arm and handed it to Anya, who took it without a word and put it on correctly. Clarke gave her a nod in thanks.

They walked for a few miles towards the place where Clarke had seen the balloon. Coming up to a clearing, Clarke realized that it might not be a good idea to walk directly towards camp. So, after convincing Anya, they both walked up to camp with their arms held above their heads and hoped for the best. A spotlight was on them immediately and several guards came running out, guns raised. She was honestly annoyed with the shout of 'grounders' because really? Who the hell else did they possibly know of that had metal arms. Especially when they were glinting in the spotlight that was on them.

A woman came out to take them into custody, who she recognized as Major Byrne, when Abby and Jake came running out. Grabbing hold of Clarke, Abby and Jake held on tight, though Clarke kept her arms to her sides for fear she might hurt them in her emotional state. Soon enough, after all the hugs and kisses are exchanged, Clarke realizes that all the guns are trained solely on Anya. Walking in front of her and hearing the guards readying their guns in case the woman tries anything, she takes Anya by the hand and leads her to the camp.

All the people and guards are trying to stop her, but she deploys her hidden blade and starts threatening anyone that tries to get to Anya. "Mom," she calls out "where's the med bay?" she asks, and her mom and dad start leading her to it, with Anya in tow. Getting to the med-bay and strong arming the annoyingly persistent major out, she gets Anya onto a bed and starts treating the superficial wounds. Thank goodness they were alone, it was so much easier without anyone breathing down her neck.

"Why are you doing this, defying the people that so clearly hate me, willingly putting yourself at risk to help me?" Anya questions.

"Weren't you going to do the same back at the drop ship?" she fires back. Anya nods in understanding at the situation now. The younger blonde was returning the favor it would seem. This made Anya's next question all the easier to ask.

"What I was offering to you back at the dropship, I have only done with few others." She stopped to make sure she had Clarkes attention. She did, but the girl continued to work on the wound Anya's arm, nodding that she was listening.

"It is considered a high honor, though I am not sure it means much with my current standing, and ordinarily I would never offer this to someone not of my clan, but you are an exception." She said, Clarke had stopped and was giving the warrior her full attention now.

"I suppose what I am asking is," she stopped for a pause, gauging the young girl for her reaction

"Will you become my second, Clarke kom Skaikru?"