Episode: Rubicon

Recently, Octavia has been spending so much time with Indra that I barely have had anytime to talk to her. After we let Emerson go, Indra immediately took her away to work on her training. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy for Octavia and that she's found a place where she feels that she belongs, but I also miss hanging out with my best friend.

Because Octavia has been so busy, I've been spending most of my time with Raven helping her as best as I can with the tone generators while staring at the radio waiting for Bellamy's voice to come out of it.

"He's alright," Raven says, glancing over her shoulder at me. Currently, she is looking over her notes that she's written on a board with some markers. I tried to understand it but there were way too many math equations.

"He should have checked in by now," I sigh and slump in one of the metal stools. "Clarke's gonna be pissed."

"Clarke needs to take a chill pill," Raven says.

"You're telling me," I roll my eyes and swirl around. "I wish Clarke and I had that same relationship that Bellamy and Octavia do. You know?"

"Well Octavia and Bellamy lived together all their lives…you and Clarke only found out about each other when you guys hit the ground. Ever since, you've been dealing with so much shit that you guys never had time to just sit, relax, and get to know each other."

I've always wanted Clarke and I to be closer. Although she's been protective of me like Bellamy is with Octavia, I've never felt that click with her like Bellamy has with Octavia and to me, that kind of sucks. I have a sister and I'm not taking advantage of it. Especially now, Clarke is changing into a whole different person and drifting further apart from me.

As if on cue, Clarke walks through the door with a Grounder behind her. By the look of her face, you can tell Clarke isn't here to chat. She's here strictly for business.

"Has he checked in yet?" Clarke asks, referring to Bellamy.

"No," Raven shakes her head.

"Worried someone's gonna try and take a shot at you inside the Ark?" I ask, directly my eyes at the big Grounder behind her who looks ready to take on Raven and I if he has to.

Clarke hesitates to turn around, but she does and she tells the Grounder to wait for her outside. She shrugs at Raven and I. "Lexa's orders."

"Whatever, Clarke," Raven turns around.

Clarke licks her lips, not really appreciating the attitude coming from either Raven or I. She walks towards the radio, standing next to me. "He's late. What if something's happened to him?"

"He'll be fine," I say. Raven looks at me. Her eyes slightly grow at my optimism. I shrug my shoulders. "He hasn't let me down yet, and he's not about to start."

Clarke glances once at me and then at the Raven's equations. "You've been busy." Her eyes narrow as she analyzes more of Raven's work. "Why are you focusing on the dam? I told you acid fog was our priority."

"Until Bellamy get's eyes on the dispersal system, there's only so much I can do." Raven replies, crossing her hands over her chest.

"Fine. Tell me about the dam. Can we cut off their power?"

"Maybe. I'm still playing with a few things."

Then Clarke walks over to the tone generators. She turns it on. A loud pitch tone comes out of it. I cringe at the sound. "How many of these have you made?"

"Only two so far—"

"Two? That's not enough," Clarke places the tone generator down aggressively and walks over to Raven. "There will be Reapers everywhere."

"High-frequency tone generators don't grow on trees, Clarke," Raven says through clenched teeth. "Wick is scrounging for parts." Wick is another engineer from the Ark helping Raven with her workload. I think they like each other, but everytime I bring it up, Raven calls me crazy. But I know I'm not crazy. I called it with Finn and Clarke and now I'm calling it with Raven and Wick.

"Raven, I am about to leave for Tondc, where Lexa and the heads of all twelve Grounder clans are waiting for me to tell them we're a go, only we're not a go because they still have acid fog, and we only have two tone generators," Clarke sighs.

I glance at Raven. I could sense the stress in Clarke's voice. It makes me feel a little bad for her.

"Hey," Raven eases up. "We'll be ready." She walks over and embraces Clarke in a hug.

"Ark Station, do you read me? Anybody there?" Bellamy's voice statics through the radio. I breathe out a sigh of relief at the fact that he is actually okay and that he is a distraction for me to not participate in this chick-flick moment Clarke and Raven got going on.

I take hold of the radio and sigh, "Hey. I knew you would come through eventually."

"What? You think I would miss out on talking to my favorite girl?" Bellamy answers. His reply makes me blush and I suddenly feel Raven and Clarke's eyes staring down at me. I miss him. I miss him so much. Hearing him call me his favorite girl has my heart melt but also break. I want to feel his touch, hear his voice in person and not through a crappy radio, and smell the scent of sweat and pine waft through the air when he brings me into a bone crushing hug. Bellamy coughs into radio, bringing me out of my thoughts. "Uh, Octavia isn't there, is she?"

I laugh. He's referring to the "favorite girl" comment he made. "No she's not. But I'll be sure to tell her I won this battle."

"Good thing I'm miles away then," I can sense Bellamy's smirk on his face as he speaks.

"Bellamy," Clarke speaks up. I mentally roll my eyes at her bossy tone. "Hate to break up this lovey-dovey chit chat, but we don't have time. You're late. Every three hours means every three hours."

There's a pause. I pass a look to Clarke that tells her to take it down a notch. We don't know what he's dealing with over there.

"Are you through?" Bellamy responds to Clarke's bitching. His response puts a smile on my face.

Clarke sighs, "Have you found the source of the acid fog?"

"No. That's gonna have to wait."

"What? No. Nothing is more important than that."

"Our friends are," Bellamy says. "They've started taking them from the dorm one at a time every few hours."

My heart stops in my chest. I can picture the dorm now. Small rectangular room with bunk beds set up around it. I can see my friends…46 of them…pressed up against a wall fearing for their live as the Mountain Men pick and choose like it's a trip to the grocery store.

I know what Bellamy is going to say is going to be important, but my mind is too preoccupied with the violent thoughts of what my friends are going through. The anxiety builds in my stomach and I suddenly feel nauseous.

I excuse myself and rush out of the room, not even saying a final goodbye to Bellamy.

"Casady!" Raven calls after me. I ignore her and push through the doors. I hear Bellamy ask where I was going but after that, the room is dead silent.

I feel the sweat begin to build on my forehead and I know it's not there from running down the halls. I find the nearest trashcan and vomit. I think about Jasper, Monty, Harper, and Miller. I think back to how I left them behind when Clarke found Anya and the other Grounders in cages. Maybe if I had run back to tell them, they would be safe on the Ark. Or maybe if I had stayed at Mount Weather I could be helping them from the inside. I'm a good fighter, I could fight off some of their soldiers.

What felt like hours but was really only minutes, I finally feel my stomach begin to settle down. That's when I feel someone rubbing my back, asking if I was okay. When I turned around to acknowledge the person, I never expected to be face to face with Marcus Kane. He has a look of understanding written across his face.

"Are you okay?" He asks, but he already knows the answer. He knows this isn't a case of the stomach bug.

"I think Mount Weather is killing my friends," I admit. I wipe my mouth with the back of my hand and spit one last time in the trash can. I feel embarrassed under the eyes of Kane. But what for?

Kane smirks down at me. "You really are your mother's child."

"What do you mean?" I ask. That was so not what I was expecting to hear. I was expecting 'Don't worry everything's going to be fine' or 'We're one day closer to getting your friends back. Keep up the good work'. Something encouraging to keep me going. This was not that.

"You've got a heart of gold, Casady. You're overwhelmed with trying to help your friends from Mount Weather. That's why you were throwing up right? Let me guess. You were blaming yourself for their suffering. Maybe you shouldn't have escaped? Or maybe you're not doing enough here at camp? Am I anywhere close to right?" I don't answer. Instead, I look to the ground ashamed. "Your mother would be doing the same thing. In fact, she's been beating herself up about the choices she's made since she's been Chancellor. I'm surprised how I have never put two and two together on the Ark. It's nothing to be ashamed of. In fact, you should feel the complete opposite. You're an incredible human being, Casady. Hell, you're only 18 years old and have accomplished more in your life than half of this camp. Your friends will be saved in due time. It may not seem like it, but we're working our hardest to make sure those kids come back home safely and soon."

"It just seems like everything we do just isn't enough." I say.

"I know," Kane says glumly. "But hopefully all of our efforts will be rewarded in the end."

I nod and find myself surprisingly curious about my mom's secret back on the Ark. "So you really had no idea I existed on the Ark?"

Kane's eyes glow at the thought of me wanting to talk about my childhood. I haven't really asked many questions about my childhood despite all the secrets, and people knew that I didn't like talking about it. So Kane is probably just surprised to hear me asking questions.

"Ah, well. Yes, I did know about you because of Rick, your adopted father. I just had no idea you weren't biologically his."

The name of my father has my hands curl up in fists and my breathing become heavier. "I didn't do it ya know." Kane gives me a confused look. "I didn't kill Andrea. I loved her. She was the good one."

Kane sighs, "You know, if we were back on the Ark and you told me this, I would have never believed you. But now that I have gotten to know you and grow closer to you both professionally and in a friendly way, I do believe you. It's made me think about the choices I have made back on the Ark—how I treated people based on their reputation or from what past crimes they've committed. I'm happy I didn't know about you and Abby's secret. If I did, I don't know if I would be standing here having a conversation with you on the ground. And that is why I want to change my whole perspective on people and not be so quick to judge."

I grin, happy to hear that the asshole Marcus Kane from the Ark is finally turning into a human being people feel that they can approach. "I would say you have almost reached your goal."

Our moment is interrupted when Clarke and her Grounder body guard come jogging down the hallway to meet with Kane.

Kane scrunches his eyebrows, confused as to what Clarke was still doing at Camp. "The commander's expecting you."

Clarke shakes her head. "Our people inside Mount Weather are in trouble. I'm not going anywhere until I know they're okay."

"And what can you do for them from here?"

Clarke hesitates. "You'll go to Tondc in my place with Casady. Lexa respects you both. I'll get there as soon as I can."

Clarke turns around to walk away but Kane call out to her and lightly grabs her arm to turn her around. It was nothing threatening in the least, but the Grounder behind Clarke rips out his sword from it's sheath. I quickly move to stand next to Kane who stays frozen in his track. I place my hand on my own knife and stare into the Grounder's eyes.

Clarke slowly turns to the Grounder, "Put it away."

Kane lets go of Clarke, "Clarke, being a good leader means knowing which battles to fight."

"And which to delegate. I know. Please, I need you to go to Tondc."

"Fine. We'll go," Kane nods.

Abby turns the corner and comes walking down the hallway towards us.

"Thank you," Clarke says, turning around only to stop dead in her tracks when she sees our mother.

"What is it?" Abby asks, glancing between the three of us.

Clarke moves past her mother mumbling, "Kane will explain."

"Perhaps your mother should go," Kane suggests, causing Clarke to turn around and give a look of disapproval. "She is still the Chancellor after all."

Clarke pauses to spare a look at her mother who looks conflicted and confused. "Which is why she is needed here." With that, her and her new Grounder buddy take off.

"Heavy lies the crown," Kane comments when Clarke is out of sight.

"She shouldn't be wearing the crown," Abby says and points a finger at Kane. "And you shouldn't be backing her up."

"With all due respect Mom, but even if Clarke didn't have backup, she would be acting the same way. When we first landed on the Ground, Clarke only had the support of five out of one hundred kids when she took the liberty to walk dozens of miles to find food at Mount Weather for all of us. Now look where she is. She's going to do her own thing no matter what."

There's silence as we reminisce to the early days of the first one hundred being sent to the Ground. Crazy to think that those were the simpler days!

"What is that?" Kane asks referring to the piece of paper Abby holds.

"A note. Thelonious is gone. He told Sinclair to wait two days before giving that to us."

"The City of Light. He says he's coming back to save us again," Kane reads over it.

"He took twelve people. Twelve guns."

"That's probably where Murphy ran off to." I say. "I haven't seen him in a couple days."

"We can't go after him. We can't spare the men," Kane says.

Abby scoffs. "Oh, don't worry about it. Clarke wouldn't let me even if I wanted to." Abby turns around to walk way, looking up the sky and saying, "Godspeed, Thelonious."

THIRD PERSON POV:

Casady and Kane set off on foot to Tondc behind Octavia, the Grounders, and their horses. Casady didn't like that Clarke wasn't going to be apart of this meeting and felt the heavy pressure on her shoulders to not mess it up for Clarke. Her biggest worry wasn't even messing up the peace treaty with Lexa and her people. It was coming back with news that might possibly disappoint her sister.

Raven stayed behind because of her injured leg and her duties that were needed at camp. Wick would pop his head in occasionally to talk to her, but for the most part she was working alone. Right about the time when Bellamy was supposed to check in, Clarke walked in.

Raven was able to make Bellamy's radio mobile with help from Maya. Now, Bellamy was traveling through Mount Weather's air vents looking for the lab.

"Okay, so tell us where you're at now," Raven says into the radio.

"I'm at an intersection," Bellamy says. "Which way do I go from here?"

Raven looks over at Clarke, "Okay. He just passed the air filtration system on this floor, which puts him about here." Raven points to the west side of her map of Mount Weather.

Clarke takes the radio, "Bellamy, we think you're close. The lab should be up ahead."

"Any chance you could be more specific?" Bellamy replies and then pauses. During that pause, there was a sound of drilling in the distance. "Never mind. I got this."

"Is that a drill?" Raven asks.

"Bone marrow extraction," Clarke comes to the realization.

"You ready for the last treatment you'll ever need, Lieutenant." Clarke's eyes grow wide when she hears Dr. Tsing's voice.

"You have no idea. I've waited my whole life to breathe fresh air," Emerson's voice responds to Tsing.

Clarke looks surprised. She really didn't think he was going to make it back alive. "That's Emerson."

Cage is the next one to talk. That sneaky bastard. "Let's get back to this secret army that she claims to have. She tell you anything that might help us find it?" The drilling continues, making it hard to hear Emerson's reply. Apparently is was hard to hear over there too because Cage says, "Stop drilling, please."

"The window for extraction after death is incredibly short," Dr. Tsing responds.

Clarke, Raven, and Bellamy freeze in their spots. They stop breathing and feel their heart race speed up. Dead? Mount Weather is actually killing their friends off one by one. What if this one was Jasper or Monty?

"I only need a minute," Cage says like its nothings.

"No, sir. Nothing about the army. She did say she was coming for you and that if we let her people go she'll let our people live." Emerson says.

"It's a little late for that," Cage sounds frustrated.

"I'm sorry I failed, sir."

"No, it's okay. We'll finish the job tonight. Whitman just radioed in. Apparently, there's a war council meeting happening tonight in one of their villages, and all the leaders are gonna be there."

"Sir, I feel good. Let me take a team out and support Whitman."

Cage was quick to respond, "No. He has less chance of being spotted if he's alone."

"Sir, Whitman's good, but he can't take out that many targets alone."

What Cage said next send shivers down their spines, paralyzing them with even greater fear. "Which is why we're gonna use a missile. This time, we're not gonna miss."

Clarke's mind immediately traces back to Casady who was probably arriving to Tondc any minute now—and she sent her. If something were to happen to her because of this missile, Clarke would never forgive herself—and frankly, neither would Bellamy.

"Please tell me you heard all that," Bellamy says, meaning he's stepped away after hearing too much.

"We heard it," Clarke says slowly. Every time she opens her mouth to speak she feels like she's going to vomit.

"We have to warn them," Raven says, thinking the same thing as Clarke.

"Did Kane take a radio?" Clarke asks.

"No. This is the only unjammed frequency. We have to keep it open for Bellamy," Raven shakes her head.

Clarke nods, trying to think of something quick. "If I leave now, I can make it there in time."

"In time to be blown up, you mean," Raven says, hating the idea of sending Clarke out there by herself.

"When I get back, I want to know our friends are safe and the acid fog is down. Can you handle that?"

Raven nods, "Yeah we can handle that. Go."

"Clarke, wait." Bellamy speaks up. "Octavia was in Tondc when I left. Is—is she, um…"

Another wave of guilt courses in Clarke's veins. She takes a deep breath to try and calm her shaking voice. "She's here. She's safe."

"And Cass?"

"Helping my mom in medical," Clarke lies. She bites her lip. "They're fine."

"Okay. Good." You could hear the relief wash through his voice. "Be safe, too."

"I will," Clarke nods, shutting off the radio.

"Both Octavia and Casady are in Tondc for the meeting," Raven narrows her eyes and shakes her head. "Why did you lie?"

Clarke moves to leave, "Bellamy can't get distracted. It helps no one."

"Hey!" Raven calls out to her. Clarke reluctantly turns around. "Don't get blown up."

CASADY'S POV:

Tondc was filled with stressed out looking Grounders. There was not one Grounder that didn't have a job to do. The women who weren't primary soldiers were taking care of their children. The other men were creating small fires for food preparation, sharpening knives, and training to fight.

Luckily, it doesn't take me long to find Octavia. When I do spot her in the crowd, she looks to be having an intense conversation with Indra. I don't approach her until Indra leaves.

"Hey," I say. Some look of relief washes through her eyes when she sees me. "Everything okay?"

Octavia offers a weak smile. "Yeah, we were just talking about Lincoln." I nod. I kind of understood what Octavia was going through. Both of our boyfriends headed into the direction of Mount Weather together. However, she had it harder because I knew where Bellamy was because of Raven's radio. Octavia was left in the dark about Lincoln's whereabouts. "Where's Clarke? I thought she was supposed to be coming with you."

"Change of plans. Mount Weather is starting to make their moves on our friends. She wants to stay at Camp until she knows they're okay."

"Did you come here alone?"

"No, Kane's with me." I say, nodding in the other direction. "Surprisingly, he's a really chill guy. The ground changed him I guess."

"Yeah, well the ground has changed pretty much all of us. I mean, look at me." Octavia smirks down at her outfit. "Listen, I have to be on lookout with the other seconds, but promise me you'll be safe in that meeting."

"Yeah of course. Don't worry. I won't do anything stupid."

"All right. I love you. See you later."

"Love you too!" I call after her. She disappears behind the trees.

THIRD PERSON POV:

Casady walks up to Kane who was talking to Lexa and her guards. The looks on their faces was calm, meaning they haven't started to discuss anything important without her.

"Hey, you ready to do this thing?" She asks. Lexa wasn't her favorite person from the Grounder clan. She couldn't shake off the feeling that Lexa might be hiding something. But she knew she had to act respectful towards the Grounders' leader for Clarke and for their treaty. So, she didn't question it.

"Where's Clarke?" Lexa asks, not bothering with a greeting.

"Kane didn't tell you? She stayed back at camp to hear more about our friends at Mount Weather. The Mountain Men are starting to make advances towards our people. She couldn't leave knowing they were getting hurt. Looks like your stuck with me." Casady couldn't help the sarcastic smirk that pulled on her lips when she noticed Lexa's annoyed expression.

Meanwhile, in the woods Octavia was dealing with the other Grounders' seconds taunting her, telling her she's not as qualified as they are because she's one of the sky people. A couple of minutes later, she was shocked to see Clarke riding into camp on horseback.

"Clarke, you made it." Octavia says. "Casady said you weren't coming."

"I need you to take me to Lexa," Clarke says immediately.

Octavia could sense panic in Clarke's voice. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," Clarke says, but Octavia knew she was lying, and Clarke knew she didn't sound too convincing either.

"Is Bellamy okay? Did he get the acid fog down?" Octavia starts to walk Clarke to where Lexa, Kane, and Casady were standing.

"He's working on it."

They approach the trio. Casady and Kane look confused to see her, but Lexa looks pleased. Clarke tries her best to keep her face calm but she felt like she may explode any second. Her time limit was running low and fast.

"Clarke of the Sky People has honored us with her presence," Lexa nods.

Casady turns to look at Lexa, "How come I didn't get that honorable announcement."

Lexa doesn't say anything. She just looks at the young girl with narrowed eyes.

"I'm sorry I'm late commander," Clarke says, which confuses Casady even more because Clarke was never even planning to appear.

"You made good time," Kane nods, finding nothing unusual with Clarke's presence. "I assume the kids at Mount Weather are okay?"

"For now," Clarke nods and turns towards Lexa. "Can we talk in private?"

Lexa glances at her body guards and nods. "Yes. This way."

Lexa leads Clarke into the dining room the two groups used after Finn's death to celebrate their alliance. Of course, the dinner didn't end up happening, but instead Raven was almost murdered and the alliance had almost gone up in flames…which is what's going to happen to Tondc if Clarke doesn't do something quick.

Clarke tries to quickly explain what she, Raven, and Bellamy had overheard from Mount Weather. She skipped the part about the bone marrow extraction and went straight towards the missile, saying how they didn't have much time until the rocket hit the ground.

"A missile? Your're sure?" Lexa questions.

"Yes. We have to start evacuating now," Clarke demands.

"No," Lexa says, making Clarke's eyes go wide and her heart skip a beat.

"What do you mean no, Lexa?"

"If we evacuate, they'll know we have a spy inside their walls," Lexa explains, making a point, but not valid enough for everyone to stay at camp.

"Not necessarily," Clarke argues.

"We can't risk it," Lexa turns around to pace the room and think of something else.

"What's the point of having an inside man if we can't act on what he tells us?"

"Is the acid fog disabled? Is our sleeping army uncaged?" Clarke doesn't answer, which gives Lexa her answer. "Then Bellamy's job is not done. Without him, we can't win this war."

"So what are you saying? We just do nothing, let them bomb us?"

"It will be a blow, but our army will be safe inside the woods, and it will inspire them."

"And what about us?" Clarke questions.

Lexa knew that Clarke wasn't going to like her answer, but her idea was their best solution. "We slip away right now." Lexa hands Clarke a dark green scarf. "Put this on."

"Lexa, wait. You don't understand. I provoked Mount Weather. I sent a message to distract them from Bellamy."

"Clarke, sometimes, you have to concede a battle to win a war."

Clarke shakes her head in denial that this was their best plan. "No. We can inform the leaders of the clans, pick a rendezvous point in the woods. Each of them can slip out separately."

"And how many more people will they tell? Where do we draw the line?" Lexa questions, knowing Clarke's plan wouldn't work.

"Well, then cancel the meeting, start a fire, something!" Clarke yells in full on panic mode.

"Clarke, we don't have time for this!"

"No, no! This is wrong!" Clarke fights. She was fighting so hard because she knew she was going to lose this battle with herself and end up following Lexa.

"It's also our only choice, and you know it. You could have warned everyone up there, but you didn't. You said nothing, not even to your own people—your own sister. This is war, Clarke. People die. You showed true strength today. Don't let emotions stop you now. It's time to go."

"My sister is out there!" Clarke whimpers.

"I'm sorry, Clarke. But we need to go now."

Clarke turns around to glance one last time at the door where Kane and Casady were standing, waiting. She had a silent battle in her mind on whether to listen to Lexa or listen to her heart. Unfortunately, she followed Lexa out the back door, wrapping the scarf around her head.

Back at Camp Jaha, Bellamy had called into Raven again. Raven couldn't keep still knowing that her friends were standing around in the area where Mount Weather planned on bombing. If Clarke doesn't get there on time, her friends were as good as dead.

"Talk to me. What do you see?" Raven asks through the radio.

"Close your eyes. Imagine a bottomless pit." Bellamy answers, walking through Mount Weather's tunnels.

"Just stick with it. According to Dante's coordinates, you're almost there."

"What's happening on your end? Did they evacuate Tondc?"

"Don't know yet, but it's Clarke. She'll get it done. Just concentrate on squeezing your ass through that vent and stop worrying about your girls." As soon as Raven said it, she regretted opening her mouth on that last sentence, giving away Clarke's secret.

Bellamy catches it and stops where he is. "My girls?" He repeats. "They're in Tondc? They're there?" Raven doesn't answer, and she can sense the panic rising in Bellamy's voice. She mentally face palms. "Raven."

"They're gonna be okay. Clarke fired out of here. She's gonna get there on time."

"How could you keep this from me?" Bellamy felt betrayed and lied to. And he was pissed that it was about Octavia and Casady—the two people he should never be in the dark about.

"Clarke was trying to protect you. Listen. You still have a job to do. I know you're worried about Octavia and Cass, but you have to focus."

Now annoyed with nothing else on his mind but his girls, Bellamy rolls his eyes and mutters, "Let's just get this done."

As Clarke and Lexa travel deeper into the woods and further away from Tondc, Clarke can't stop herself from looking back at the camp and letting the guilt course through her.

"Clarke, we have to keep moving. We're not far enough away. The last time they used a missile, it was before I was born. According to legend, it left a hole in the woods you could not see across. Now let's go."

"What if we made them miss?" Clarke asks as a final try to dissuade Lexa from escaping.

"You're not listening," Lexa steps closer to Clarke. "With a weapon like that, you can't miss."

"Yes, you can. I heard them talking about a spotter, someone in the field to aim the missile. If we could just find him…" Clarke stops talking as she spots her mother walking through Tondc. "No. What's she doing here?"

Clarke starts running back to Tondc, ignoring Lexa's calls for her to stop.

When Clarke reaches Tondc again, she grabs her mother's arm forcefully and shoves her up against a wall. Luckily, no one has spotted either of them. Clarke looks at her mother with panic in her eyes.

"Mom, what are you doing here? I told you to stay back at camp."

"Enough, Clarke." Abby snaps, having enough of Clarke bossing her around. "I'm the Chancellor. I don't need your permission to go—"

"No," Clarke cuts her off, pulling her mother off the wall. "We have to leave now."

"What is going on?" Abby says, trying to shrug her daughter off of her arm.

"We can't be here. Mom, I am begging you. Please. Come on."

Abby senses the panic in Clarke's expressions and reluctantly follows Clarke into the woods.

Back in Tondc, Kane, Casady, and Indra walk into the dining station where Clarke and Lexa had gone to have their private talk. The three of them and some other Grounder guards decided to check in on Lexa and Clarke after thinking their private meeting had gone on for too long. They wanted to make sure they were okay.

To their surprise, Clarke and Lexa were nowhere to be found.

"Where's the Commander?" Indra turns to look at Kane and Casady as if their disappearance was their fault. "Where's Clarke?"

"I don't know," Kane answers calmly, after watching Casady's eyes narrow and her mind rake for a sarcastic response. "Last time I saw them, they were heading downstairs."

"They're not there now," Indra points out.

"Thank you Captain—"

"We should search the woods," Kane cuts Casady off and gives her a warning look.

"I agree," Indra nods.

"I'll tell the others," Kane says. "Casady, follow me."

Casady silently groans, preparing herself for the short lecture Kane was going to give her about respect. But her biggest worry was Clarke somewhere out there with Lexa all alone. She quietly followed Kane and anxiously waited to search the woods for her sister.

After running about a mile away from Tondc, Abby had enough of the running and secrets and pulled herself to a stop.

"Wait!" Abby calls out to Clarke.

Clarke turns around frantically, "No. We can't stop. There's no time!"

"I am not taking a step further until you tell me what is happening," Abby demands.

Clarke doesn't have time to respond. Above them and through the trees, the missile swooshes past them. They duck at the loud noise and turn their heads to follow the rocket hit the middle of Tondc.

The ground below them shakes and the heat from the explosion rushes past them. Clarke and Abby tumble to the ground. Their ears ring with a deafening high pitch tone from the trauma of the blast. Soon, the ringing fades away and is replaced with the muffled screaming and moaning of the people in Tondc.

Abby feels frozen in her spot on the ground, coming to the realization that Clarke was well aware of the missile and left her people in Tondc without any warning. She was terrified of who her daughter had become.

"Mom. Mom, are you okay?" Clarke says faintly. "Oh my god. Come on. We can't be here. We—we have to go."

"You knew," Abby says slowly, pulling herself up. "You knew and you let this happen?"

"We had no choice," Clarke cries.

"So many people. Our people—" Abby's eyes go wide at the thought of Casady and Kane being in the middle of the blast. "Your sister!"

Abby quickly moves to run back into Tondc. Her mind racked with all the terrible images of Casady after the explosion. Tears began to gather in her eyes as she thought of losing her daughter forever. There were so many things Abby wanted to say to Casady. She just never had the time. She wanted a relationship with Casady like the one Abby had with Clarke back on the Ark. She felt like she had missed out on an opportunity to be close with Casady, her second daughter, and she hated it.

"We had to protect Bellamy!" Clarke calls after her. "Without him—"

Abby whips around, "Oh, stop it! I don't want to hear it!"

"Mom…"

"Tell me this was Lexa. Please, Clarke. Please tell me this wasn't you."

"I wish I could. You can't tell anyone about this. If anyone finds out that we knew, the alliance of the twelve clans will break. We'll lose the war."

"You crossed the line."

"Mom!"

"Their blood is on your hands, and even if we win, I'm afraid you won't be able to wash it off this time. Don't worry. Your secret is safe with me." Abby's tone was filled with hatred and disappointment.

Octavia was with Lincoln when the missile hit Tondc. She found him hunched over one of the seconds looking Reaperlike. Octavia was fearful to approach him, but she did and explained to Lincoln that Bellamy was safe after Lincoln admitted it was his fault Bellamy was captured.

Octavia and Lincoln sprinted back to camp after the explosion. Their hearts raced as they climbed the rubble and look over the debris of what used to be Tondc. There were no signs of homes. The only sounds that could be heard were of people's cries, moans, and screams. Several fires illuminated the scene. Blood, bones, and body parts were scattered across the ground. They couldn't seem to find one person unharmed. Never had they ever seen anything like it. They were frozen in place, terrified to move. Mount Weather was brutal, and they had no issue proving it.