AN: Okay guys, I've put the song Stronger by Kelly Clarkson in here, but I've changed some of the words to make it fit with the sentiments of how the hundred feel. I don't generally like songfics, but this time I couldn't resist! Samdagger.
xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx
Chapter 61
After consulting with the Commander and Clarke, Adara decided to take Jaha and his people up to the mountain and shove them in cages until they decided when to execute them. They knew that if they exiled them, then they would try something else and maybe try to capture a boat from the Floukru when they went to check on them. She gathered her people together and marched the prisoners to the mountain. When they got to the doors, Adara noticed Jaha looking around with curiosity.
"This is where we would have been taken, Jaha. Inside here, is a death sentence for anyone not born of this mountain. This is where we would have died, in agony, from blood loss. They don't use sedatives or pain relief on those that were just going to die anyway, so it would have been exteremely painful." Jaha looked at her. "We are not bloodbags, Jaha, we are human beings and as such, we should have been accorded at least a little respect, but no, YOU decided our lives weren't worth anything. Our lives were expendable. We decided differently. You were given a second chance by Kane and you still believe you have the right to take what's not yours and to kill whomever you like."
"I did what was necessary."
"No, you did what was wrong. You did what was unforgivable. You threw our lives away like we were animals to be slaughtered. So now, you get to know what that's like, Jaha. You will live in the very cages the clans were put in - and the ones we'd have been put in until we were killed." Adara and the rest of the Skaikru marched them down to the harvest chamber, stripped them down to their underwear and dragged them to the cages before shoving them inside and locking the doors.
"This is insane!" shouted one guard.
"This isn't right!" shouted another.
"No, it isn't, is it?" said Adara, folding her arms across her chest. "This is what the clans were subjected to. Each time the mountain men needed clean blood, a clansman would be stunned with a shockstick, injected with a sedative, dragged out of their cage, had cuffs placed around their ANKLES and then strung upside down and tubes shoved into them. Does that sound like something you'd like to have happen to you? Does that sound like the RIGHT thing to do?" Most of the people in the cages were subdued and looked ashamed, but several were like Jaha - unrepentant.
"We needed a place to live," he said, unapologetically.
"You were going to have 100 CHILDREN killed just so you could feel safer on the ground!" Adara yelled at him. "That is the delusion of a deranged man."
"You killed my son!" jaha yelled.
"He didn't want to be your son, so he changed his name and took off his bracelet, Jaha. Only the name Wells Jaha died. I told you this when it happened."
"You said that Wells didn't want to be my son anymore and then he died!"
"He took his bracelet off, Jaha. No vital signs. That didn't mean he died. He just changed his name!" Jaha thought about that. Adara watched as a small glimmer of sanity entered his eyes.
"Who is he now?"
"He is his mother's son. He changed his name to David Stevens."
"My wife's maiden name was Stevens - and she wanted to call him David," he said, comprehension dawning on him.
"My son's still alive?"
"No, but your wife's son is. He wants nothing to do with you Jaha. You screwed up and caused all this."
"We did nothing wrong!" yelled another guard. Adara watched as the madness returned to Jaha.
"We did what was right for the rest of us!" he said.
"And we didn't count because we were underage and therefore not considered people?" Adara asked.
"Yes. You would have died anyway when you turned 18. You were weak."
"Our lives are not yours to decide if we live or die. We are stronger than you thought we were. We became stronger when you sent us down here to die. We don't need the Ark, but the Ark needs us, so who's the stronger one now?"
"Strong? How can you be strong? You were suposed to die."
"But we didn't want to die, Jaha. We have this thing called free will. That means we get to decide if we should die or not and we decided we would fight back and evade the mountain men whenever we could. And we did it, Jaha, we were stonger than the mountain men, we were stronger than the Ark and we became the people we weren't allowed to be on the Ark. We are strong!" The rest of the kids that were with her cheered.
Adara started to hum a song and then she started to sing.
You know the bed feels warmer, sleeping here alone
You know we dream in colour and do the things we want
You think you got the best of us, think you had the last laugh
Bet you think that everything good is gone
Think you left us broken down, think that we'd come running back
Jaha, you don't know us, 'cause you're dead wrong
What doesn't kill us makes us stronger, stand a little taller
Doesn't mean we're lonely when we're alone
What doesn't kill us makes a fighter, footsteps even lighter
Doesn't mean we're over 'cause you're gone
What doesn't kill us makes us stronger, stronger
Just we, ourselves and us
What doesn't kill us makes us stronger, stand a little taller
Doesn't mean we're lonely when we're alone.
You heard that we were starting over with the Trikru
But told you we were moving on, over you
"We are so over you, Jaha."
You didn't think that we'd come back, we'd come back swinging
You tried to break us but you see
The rest of the Skaikru joined in with the chorus.
What doesn't kill us makes us stronger, stand a little taller
Doesn't mean we're lonely when we're alone
What doesn't kill us makes a fighter, footsteps even lighter
Doesn't mean we're over 'cause you're gone
What doesn't kill us makes us stronger, stronger
Just we, ourselves and us
What doesn't kill us makes us stronger, stand a little taller
Doesn't mean we're lonely wnen we're alone
Thanks to you we got a new thing started
Thanks to you we're not the broken-hearted
Thanks to you we're finally thinking 'bout us
You know in the end the day we dropped was our beginning
In the end
What doesn't kill us makes us stronger, stronger
Just we, ourselves and us
What doesn't kill us made us stronger, stand a little taller
Doesn't mean we're lonely when we're alone
We're not alone.
The last line was sung by Adara alone.
"You see, Jaha, we don't need you. We never did. You'll be executed at dawn tomorrow." With that she turned and left the chamber.
xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx
The following morning at dawn, they were taken back out of the mountain and Adara pulled Jaha aside and whispered in his ear.
"Gromyo." Jaha reared back and the madness left his eyes as the realisation of what he'd done - again - came to him.
"Wells- David is safe?"
"He is."
"You'll look after him?"
"We will. We all will, it's what we do." Jaha nodded. "We still need to deal with ALIE, any ideas?"
"No. Once I took that chip, I became hers. I didn't have any free will, but I didn't realise that. I'm sorry, I'm sorry for what I did both times, but I have no idea how to stop her." Adara nodded and sighed. She had hoped he had some inclination in that regard.
"Thank you," Adara said.
"You'll look after David? That's all I care about now."
"Yes we will. We look after each other down here."
Jaha nodded and stood back, standing tall. He realised how much he had screwed up and how much he hated himself. For what he did, he didn't deserve to live and he was in accord with Adara about his punishment. Adara nodded to him, stepped back and gave each one of them the deathstroke. Pyres were built and Adara lit them herself and watched as they were burned down to the ground and their souls released. She turned away and looked at the Skaikru that had assembled and at several of the former mountain people who had come out to watch the ceremony. Jasper and Maya had told them what had happened, but didn't let them watch the executions. They showed them the funeral ceremony instead. Adara looked at them as saw understanding on their faces and not a little sympathy as well. She turned and headed back to the mountain to gather her things before setting off back toward the Alpha site.
xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx
Adara had given Kane one more chance to lead his people in her stead. If he screwed up again. She would have to put one of the Skaikru in charge. Adara couldn't do it, she was needed back at the bunker to figure out where to put them. Roma was doing a good job of leading the exploration team and they had checked out several places up and down the river, now Roma had been asked to search south of Tondc. Adara herself was leaving in a few minutes to return home. Octavia would be staying along with a few Skaikru to help the Arkers figure out what they can eat and what was poisonous. They would be taught how to hunt and how to use the environment to their advantage.
Atom would return with her. He was eager to go back to exploring. He's done what Adara had asked of him, but he knew that he rather enjoyed being outside and looking around. He never knew he had something Kane had called wanderlust. On the Ark, there was no exploring except in the tunnels and everyplace on the Ark had been explored before. There was no place where you could go and be the only one who had been there. Down on Earth, though, since the war the landscape was now different. No cities stood, only small bits of them. He was excited by the possibility that he would be the first to go somewhere.
Adara said goodbye to Kane, Abby and Jake. Clarke would go back to Polis with the Commander. Sterling would stay in the mountain for now until the mountain citizens had all been given bone marrow and then would accompany them to wherever it was that Luna's ships picked them up. While in the mountain, the clans would help them learn how to take care of themselves.
Adara and Atom made their way back to the bunker. Miller was on duty again. Was the man ever off duty? He seemed to be up a tree on sentry duty every time Adara left the bunker or came back to it. They entered the hatch and saw several people moving about in the corridor.
"Hey, Guys," Adara said.
"Heda!" several of them called. Heda? That was new.
"Hey, I want to get a shower, clean clothes and a sleep. After that, I want to get with the cabinet. Shoana, can you tell Raven I'll talk tomorrow morning? I don't think I can keep awake much longer."
"Yeah, no problem, Heda."
"Who told you to call me that?"
"One of the grounders came around to trade and he explained that the leader of each clan was called Heda. We decided to call you that, too. After all, we're trying to fit in with them, what better way than to use their words too?" Shoana shrugged. She had a small case of hero worship where Adara was concerned. At 17 she knew her time on the Ark was short. She was due to be floated a few weeks after the dropship was sent down. She knew that Adara was the one who saved them. After she saw the recordings, she was as incensed about the betrayal as anyone else. If they had not overheard - and have the forethought to record all the meetings - then she would be dead. It was scary to realise that she was supposed to die 3 days ago. In fact, the Skaikru had a little party each time someone turned 18. They called it 'not dead day'. Shoana had hers three days ago and was still recovering from it. Yeah, Adara had saved them all.