This is the follow on story about Adara. I won't be putting these chapters out as fast because I'm still editing them. Please bear with me. Thank you, Samdagger.

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Chapter 1

Raven stood up and put her hands on the small of her back to stretch out her muscles after bending down, working on the foundations of the new school. It was back-breaking work as everything was being done by hand. She was proud of the way that most of the Arkers were settling into their new jobs. Most of them had taken to life on the ground with aplomb. Those that hadn't had been given a one-way trip to Bermuda. Those that stayed had no problem with Adara being in charge - if they did, they hid it well. They were starting to experiment with new working practices within their new jobs. Those who worked on machines or only on metal working, were the ones who had the hardest time as their jobs were no longer needed very much on the ground. Jake had turned his hand to carpentry instead, Wick was trying his hand at finding ways to make things like cement or some kind of mortar and working on how to make bricks. Sinclair had taken on the job of blacksmith. He was learning from some of the Trikru people who would come to the village twice a week to teach whomever wanted to learn. One of the hundred who had asked to learn was Blake. His hair had now grown back and he had no intention of getting it shaved off again!

Raven looked up towards the cabinet offices where Adara's quarters were. Today was Adara's day off and she was sitting in her comfy chair on the small balcony they had built for her. Raven watched as Adara picked up her cup and took a drink without looking away from the book she was reading. Raven looked closer at the book and realised it was one she had recommended to Adara. It was about dragons from a world called Pern. Raven had recommended it for pure escapism. She had told Adara that on her day off she needed to do something not related to working and showed her the book. Adara was apparently loving it. Good, there were about thirty books from that world and Raven was determined that Adara take time to read them all.

Raven took a drink from the water bucket at the side of the new building. She sat on the wooden support beams that were waiting to be erected once the foundations were laid. She looked around her and saw the differences from the first buildings they had erected. It was spring of the following year and they had been on the ground for approximately ten months and their village was growing. The first child born on the ground to a Skaikru member was a month early and had arrived only the day before. Both mother and son were good. Abby had checked the baby boy out and had determined that his lungs were sufficiently matured to be able to breathe on his own. Both mother and child were to stay inside for a few weeks but were going to be okay.

The village was also growing with buildings. Some of them had been taken down and bigger and better buildings had been put up in their place. As people got better at their jobs, they found better ways of building and making things. She watched as people moved around with their heads held up. Adara had also promoted some of the Arkers into positions of leadership. Those people had taken the challenge and were pleased that they had been given the chance to show their qualities. They remembered on the Ark they weren't allowed to, so down here they were determined to make their leader proud of them. She saw the worth of a person - no matter what job they had done in the past. Adara was waiting for permission from the Commander to welcome the Arkers into the Skaikru clan. They had discussed it and decided on one year after they came down as the date to convert them.

The cooperation with the Trikru was also on the up. With Clarke now ensconced in Polis as both the Skaikru ambassador and the Commander's beloved, and with Anya slowly coming to terms with her feelings for Adara, the Trikru were becoming almost like a sister tribe. Raven wondered how long it would be before they all were just one big clan. Raven herself was slowly courting Luna - even though Luna didn't know it. She was still with her mate, but she was coming around to the village more and more. Adara had let Raven deal with Luna in her own way. The only involvement Adara had was when she was greeting and making trade deals with her. Luna was now a welcomed friend to the clan and even the Arkers welcomed her as she brought goods with her.

A few of the hundred were thinking of leaving the village - either temporarily or permanently - for various reasons. Raven knew when Luna finally realised who her soulmate was, she would leave the Skaikru to join the Floukru as Luna's wife. Octavia had already left and joined the Trikru, though Bellamy was unhappy about it. Turns out that without Octavia to take care of, he didn't know what to do. He had spent his life making sure that Octavia was safe. Now though, she was living a life he had no clue how to be a part of. He had not wanted to leave the only people he had ever known to go to a place he had no idea how to fit in. He knew no-one but Octavia, he didn't know their customs or culture and he didn't really want to live the life of a warrior. He stayed with the Arkers and was a bit lost as to what to do. Adara had put him on the hunting teams at first, but he didn't really want to replace his sister. He then asked if he could help on the exploring teams, so Adara and Atom got together and placed him on Atom's team. Atom didn't want the Bellamy he remembered from the first life to assert himself on Harper's team. He had no doubt that Harper and Roma could deal with him, but with the pair of them leading their own team, it was decided Bellamy would stay with Atom. Bellamy was settling in nicely and enjoyed exploring.

Murphy was waiting for Emori to come back towards Polis to trade before he left to find her. Murphy didn't want to go back to that island and deal with ALIE, so he was waiting for Emori to come to him. He had discussed the idea of waking Emori up with Adara and she had been amenable to it. If Murphy could get Emori to the village, then Adara would wake her up. What happened after that, Murphy didn't know, so he was training up Miller as his replacement just in case.

Monroe had been making some enquiries into going to either Trikru or the Plains Riders to learn horsemanship. She wanted to learn how to look after the animals as well as ride them and fight on horseback. She was always coming back to Skaikru as this was where her life was and she had no inclination to leave it for good. Drew had started seeing a Trikru woman and was thinking of leaving to live with the Trikru. As the woman was from Tondc, he knew he would have Octavia for company when he was feeling overwhelmed by everything.

All in all, Raven thought, everyone was settling into life on the ground just fine.

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Harper and Roma were searching an area to the north of Tondc. They were exploring the town of White Oak. Anya and Indra were curious as to what would be found in their territory so they had given them permission to look. Harper pulled out the old map they had from the Ark. On it there should be a shopping centre to the east or north east, depending which part of town you were in. Roma had a map from the station they had dug out when they first got to the DC area. Union station - which had been renamed Washington Station - was still only half dug out, but Atom's teams had been able to use it to get into the metro system. Roma took out her newer map and they compared them. On Harper's map, the shopping complex wasn't all that large. There were two big buildings and three small ones with many parking bays painted onto the concrete between them. Behind that complex, there seemed to be very small buildings that may have been houses and then a sort of community centre. South east of the complex and just below it, was a government building - something to do with food and drugs, but neither of them knew what that was for.

On Roma's map, however, that had all changed and the small shopping complex had been torn down along with all the housing at the back and it, plus the food and drug building. In its place, a huge shopping mall had been built with at least three floors and many, many large stores. Both Harper and Roma decided to investigate that. If it had been covered over like all the buildings around Tondc seemed to have been, then the stores inside may be intact and have goods they could use.

Checking the newer map, they looked for the biggest mound and upon finding it, they set out to climb it. Once at the top, Roma used her binoculars to search the surrounding area. She could make out the flat roofs of three t shaped buildings that still stood across what had once been a road, but was now - as with everything else - woods. She could make out some clearings dotted about here and there, but it was mostly trees. Yep, a hundred years without human interference and nature would find a way to reassert itself. Some of the woods could be used for building and firewood, but most would be left to grow. More trees meant more places for nature to live and hide.

"Think we could dig through this?" asked Roma, gesturing to the ground.

"I hope so," said Harper, looking around. "Diggs, fetch those probes up here. We're going to probe this area and see how deep it goes." Diggs nodded and started toward them.

"Hope we find a way in, I could use some more shampoo about now," said Roma. Harper burst out laughing.

"Maybe you should just cut your hair," she said. Roma gasped and put her hands to her hair.

"No way! It took ages to grow it to this length!" Harper chuckled.

"Blake didn't want to cut his hair either when we went to Tondc with Adara. Seth and I had our hair braided, but his hair was too short so he had to go bald to look like Trikru. I had to smack him upside his head when he didn't want to. I pointed out that Adara had gotten a tattoo to fit in and that was permanent, his hair would grow back."

"Blake is still being a dick, then," said Roma.

"He's starting to grow up. At least I didn't have to tell him that sticking your hand into a dark hole was a bad idea because you didn't know what was in there."

"Who did that?" asked Roma.

"Jason."

"Which one is that?"

"He was on Octavia's crew. One of the foragers. In the previous life, he suicided when Jasper did," Harper whispered to Roma, as Diggs came closer.

Roma thought about that, but she had died early on and she wasn't sure what he looked like. She moved to Diggs to help him probe the mound as Harper moved off to the north east side of it to see if she could see anything down on the ground. All she saw were trees and a few scattered clearings. She looked more closely. The clearings seemed to be in a pattern but she couldn't discern what pattern. Maybe it was just random, but it may be where someone had dug after the bombs. Small holes in the ground instead of clearings maybe? Harper called Roma over to check it out. Roma looked through her binoculars.

"It definitely looks like something was deliberately disturbed there, Harper. We'd need to get down there for a better look. If they are holes, then we'd better be careful or we'll find ourselves in one of them."

Harper nodded.

"I've hit something!" shouted Diggs. Both girls ran over. Diggs pushed the probe into the ground until it hit something hard. He probed again a few inches away. He did that several times and hit something hard each time at the same depth. Roma and Harper grinned at each other. The probe only went into the ground half way. That made it about three feet below the ground. Harper called the others up to the top and had them start digging a six foot wide section.

After an hour, the entire six foot by six foot area was uncovered. Roma got into the hole and gently probed with her shovel around the edge to see if she could find an edge. She probed each side with no edge detected. They decided that since the front of the complex faced the road, they would dig towards that side of the mound. Eventually, just before nightfall, Harper's shovel began to go deeper than before. She probed around and some of the soil fell forward revealing an edge.

"Here!" Harper yelled. "Got an edge!" Roma came over and slowly leaned out over the edge to get a look at where they were.

"We're only about ten foot down from that crossroads," she said. Harper consulted the newer map and realised that they were near the corner.

"All right, we stop for the night and start again in the morning. I want this corner dug out and then we go along the edges until we find the other corners. That will give us the size of this building. From the plans, it's huge. I think we need to figure out how much of this needs to be removed before we can get inside. The front doors aren't shown on this map. I think we may have to call in Adara to find the entrance."

"Okay. Tomorrow we'll get back to it, in the meantime, we need to set up a camp. Diggs, Angela, get those tents up. Peter, Mac, start a fire for cooking the food. Josh, Kathy, you got sentry duty. Harper and I'll go hunt some food, alright?" Roma asked. Everyone nodded and started to do their assigned chores.

After a nice meal of rabbit and squirrel and a few greens, they bedded down for the night. Two people would be on sentry duty at all times and they had a four hour shift. Everyone not on sentry duty was asleep almost as soon as their head hit the sleeping bag.

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The next morning, Adara was going over the plans for expanding the town to make room for some more individual units for families and married couples. They would build two storey buildings. Each building had housing for four families. Each apartment would be built exactly the same. Two rooms on the ground floor and two rooms upstairs as bedrooms. A communal toilet would be built into the building as well. They had found a large hardware store and picked up a lot of stuff including sewer pipes. They didn't have the facilities to build sewerage works, so they built the pipework to go a half mile away to a leach field. It was far enough away so they didn't smell it. They had also found some insulation so they were using that as well. During the winter they had found that they needed to start building peaked roofs instead of a flat one when one of the buildings collapsed with the weight of the snow. After that, whenever it snowed, someone was up on the roofs shoveling snow off them to make sure they didn't collapse as well. Now with spring here and summer approaching, they had time to replace the roofs.

The problem they had was where to expand. It seemed that no matter what direction they took, they would be building on top of houses. The north was out as that was where cats lived. Good job it was across a river and the cats didn't seem to like the water. East was toward the water, west was on top of houses and even though they could build there, they couldn't make big buildings as the bigger the building, the more foundation you needed and digging into someone's home was not nice. It was the same with the south. There were less houses there though, so it may be a good place to expand into. They also needed to get the Commander's permission as they were still technically on Trikru lands and were still the Arkers and Skaikru. Adara was hoping that when the Arkers became Skaikru in a few months, the Commander would consider making them Trikru in a few more months or even years. It may take time, but Adara wanted to think that eventually they would become Trikru.

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They had their meeting to suggest names for their village. Lake Town was only supposed to be temporary but some preferred to just keep calling it that. Others suggested their names. Eventually twenty names were put forward. Adara's cabinet - which now included several Arkers - sat down to pare the list down to ten. Each member voted yes or no to each suggestion and the majority of yeses were passed and the no's were dismissed. It took several hours as each suggestion was debated first and in the end they ended up with eleven.

That list was then posted for everyone to see and a vote was called for two weeks after the list was posted. Everyone over the age of six had the chance to vote. Eventually after the votes had been counted, the name of the town was declared and Adara had gotten up onto a stool to announce it. Adara remembered when she had said the new name. Everyone cheered and Sinclair and Jake decided to make a nameplate with the name of their town on it. Looking up at the sign as it was hoisted into place brought tears to the eyes of almost everyone. It was a fitting tribute to a fallen comrade. The town was called Connor Town.

Even now, Adara teared up at the thought of her lost friend. He and Myles had both died when they went to see the cats across the river. Paul had survived but had several claw marks permanently scarred on his torso and across his face. Trikru warriors who knew the story welcomed him to their ranks. He had been caught by a cat and survived. Paul said that he didn't want to celebrate the fact that two of his friends died that day.

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In the bunker, Monty was digging through the records on the Ark. He was trying to find how many of the prisoners were actually innocent. Shumway had been fitting people up and he knew that it was their word against his, and as a guard, he would be believed over a child. So far, Monty had found that John Mbege had not in fact attacked a guard, but the guard had attacked him. That guard had been one of Jaha's people that had taken over Alpha station on the ground. That guard had been killed along with the others who helped Jaha in his coup. Monty downloaded all the information about it to give to Adara. He was going to look up Pascal next as Charlotte or Charlie as she was known now, had said that he was innocent too. Monty had already done the same for Charlie and was busily downloading all the information he could about Pascal's so-called crime. He knew he couldn't go through each person, but he wanted to start on a few he could prove, to show the Arkers that some of the kids were framed. He would do the same for each of the delinquents he considered friends. If he could prove the innocence of a few, it was better than nothing.

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Roma was on watch. Harper and Roma thought that it would be better for four people to watch, two people to dig and two people on rest. They would rotate every two hours. Harper and Roma both had wristwatches that had been found in one of the stores Adara had found. These watches were wind up watches and didn't need a battery so they would never need to replace them, they just needed to remember to wind them up. At the moment, Harper and Diggs were digging and Angela and Mac were on a rest period. The rest were on watch. Two on each side of the corner they were excavating. Roma was looking out towards the North. All she saw was trees, trees and more trees. She often wondered how nature could repopulate the area with trees so quickly. She had read that it took about twenty years for a tree to grow large - depending on the tree - but as she looked around, she noticed that most of the trees seemed to be of a uniform size. She didn't know what type of tree these were nor if they had reached the maximum size they could be, but she knew that all those trees meant most of the people in the area must have died in the war. She felt sad for the people who had no idea of what was coming, but then again, Harper and Clarke had both told her about the second deathwave and the fact that even though they knew it was coming, they still were not prepared for it. Maybe it was nature's way of taking back what man had destroyed in their greed.

Harper dug the corner out and Diggs was digging to the North side of it. They were both going slowly, remembering what happened to Union Station. They hoped that they didn't have any soil fall into the area directly below them, but at the same time, they knew if it did, there would be less digging to do. Carefully, they uncovered the corner and about three feet along each side of it. At changeover they took their break - each pair took a break after doing the digging - Harper and Diggs lay down on the top of the mound breathing hard. Roma handed each of them a drinks bottle - another item they had found and utilised - and left them to it. Both of them actually took a nap after their hard work.

Josh and Kathy had digging duties this time and they carried on digging along the edge. They carried on like this for the entire day. By the end of it, they had uncovered the entire length and breadth of the building. Standing near the corner, Harper looked along the edges of the building, not believing how big it was. If they could dig it out, it would be big enough for the entire clan to live in and probably add Tondc in there as well and still have room left over. It was huge. Harper couldn't conceive of a building that large dedicated to stores!

She was debating whether to get Adara over here. They could do with the help to locate stuff, but that would mean packing up and going back to Connor Town, which was a three day trek. It would take another three days back. It would take almost a week and that was if Adara could come immediately. She sighed. She wished they had a quicker way to communicate with each team and the village. Walking all the time had its drawbacks. She had forgotten about the earbuds and throat mics they used when bringing down the mountain.

That night she talked to Roma about it and agreed to pack up and go home. The team had been out for three weeks exploring different areas and it was now time to go home for a rest.

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Monty got back to Connor Town at the same time as Harper's team. Monty went straight to Adara with his findings. He discussed each case he had searched for and given the names of the guards involved. Adara had immediately called in Raven and Murphy to go through the evidence. She would need their help in sorting things out and deciding punishments for the misdeeds of the guards. Down here, it was a fresh start, but she knew the Arkers still looked at some of the Skybox prisoners with distaste. Those Monty had been able to prove were innocent would have their records expunged by Monty and a public apology from the guards involved. They couldn't really punish the guards any further than that otherwise the adults would be up in arms about Adara's policy of a new world, a new beginning. They would wonder how long before they themselves would be held accountable for things that happened on the Ark.

The next day was a rest day, so it would be done then in the main square with attendance mandatory for those who weren't in the hospital. Raven and Murphy would make sure that everyone was informed and that no-one left the camp until the meeting was over. Murphy had his teams ready to go and cover the area - just in case. Raven had sent a messenger to Tondc to ask Octavia to be there as well. Clarke was too far away, but she still had the field radio so Adara contacted her and told her what was going to happen the next day. Clarke was disappointed not to be there, but she knew that righting the wrong done to those kids was more important than waiting a few days until she could get there. She was glad that those kids were getting justice - even if it was a little too late.

The next morning Adara got up and found herself with a renewed sense of vigour. She hoped that it was a good portent of things to come and that the newly exonerated would be able to hold their heads up because they had been proven innocent of the crimes they were incarcerated for.

At the appointed hour Adara, Raven and Murphy took to the stage built by the side of the square for just such meetings.

"Okay, everyone, settle down. I'd like John Mbege, Charlie, Pascal and Octavia to come up here please," she started off. Mbege went up reluctantly and the other three went up warily. None had been told of the reason they were up there. Indra had come with Octavia and she stood at the side of the crowd, just watching what was happening.

When the four of them were on the stage, Adara addressed the crowd again.

"Octavia Blake was put in prison for no reason. She never committed a crime by Ark laws, but she was punished anyway. She is a second child and as such Jaha put her in prison, not because she committed a crime but because she WAS the crime. She should have been allowed to live freely on the Ark upon discovery." Octavia looked shocked and the crowd began to whisper.

"The laws of the Ark state that if a person had a second child, that person would be floated. That part of the law was used to imprison her, but there is more to that sentence and Jaha deliberately ignored it. The full sentence is 'If a person has a second child, that person is floated and the CHILD is allowed to live and take that parents place on the Ark'. That part should have been considered for Octavia Blake, but Jaha didn't want anyone else to breathe his air." Octavia looked absolutely livid. Adara held up a hand to her.

"This is an unconscionable act and one I am going to put right." Adara turned to Octavia. "Octavia Blake, your record will be expunged and this will be put on record that you are innocent of any crime on the Ark." Adara turned back to the crowd. "If any of you have a problem with that, then come to me with it, not Okteivia kom Trikru. I will not have our allies be the subject of harassment because of previous arguments."

Octavia was stunned, but Bellamy ran up to her and hugged her tight.

"Why was she put in lock-up if she didn't do anything?" asked one man.

"Because she was an extra mouth to feed and breathing air. Jaha was paranoid about too many people on the Ark and had drawn up plans to have a certain number of people 'accidentally' blown into space when parts of the stations 'malfunctioned'. There were plans to float 320 people in section 17 by this method. He hadn't implemented it yet, but it would have only been a matter of time until he did." The crowd was shocked. They had no clue just how ruthless Jaha and his cronies were. They were all wondering if they would have been next.

"Charlie, step forward, please," Adara asked of the youngest member of the hundred. "Charlie here, or Charlotte as she was called on the Ark, watched her parents be floated. She was devastated. At the age of just twelve, she had been made an orphan. She went back to her quarters only to find guards pawing through everything in there and taking things that belonged to Charlotte's parents. She snatched her mother's favourite blouse out of the hands of the guard who had picked it up. He snatched it back and pushed her to the ground as he continued to search for things to take. He then later accused her of attacking him. Bear in mind, this was only twenty minutes after her parents were floated. How would you react if that had happened to you as an adult? I know if it had happened to me, I would have decked the guy and be damned if I was floated for it. Charlotte was twelve and just had her family killed and the rug pulled out from under her. The guard who did that, died with Jaha after his coup attempt was stopped." Adara turned to Charlotte.

"Charlotte, on behalf of the adults on the Ark, I would like to formally apologise to you for this horrendous act. I find you not guilty of any crime and you acted in the same manner of anyone who would go through the same ordeal. You are a free person who has committed no crime on the Ark. Your record will be expunged to reflect this." Charlie hugged Adara tightly.

"Thank you," she said with a big smile on her face.

"Anytime, Charlie, anytime." They parted and Charlie stood back, still grinning. Octavia gave her a high five as she returned to Octavia's side.

"Pascal, you're next." Pascal stepped up beside Adara.

"Pascal was accused of assault by a guard. That guard is also dead, but the guard did not know that the cameras were slowly being fixed or replaced in corridors long without sight or sound. The corridor that the assault took place in was one of these. Monty, if you will?" called Adara. Monty nodded and pressed play on the tablet he had downloaded the records to. It was set to projection mode and had been placed on a tripod. The images from the tablet were being shown on the side of the building for all to see and hear. It showed Pascal walking along on his own when a guard walked up behind him and shoved him. Pascal went sprawling to the ground. When he got up, the guard punched him in the face and then the stomach. After that, the guard watched as Pascal looked up at him. The guard then banged his own head against the wall until it bled. The guard then accused Pascal of assault and arrested him. The people of Connor Town watched in horror as Pascal was cuffed and led off protesting his innocence. Another guard was seen wiping the blood off the walls to cover up the crime.

"That guard was one of Jaha's people. Jaha turned a blind eye to anything his guards did. He also made sure that Kane did not get one sniff of any wrongdoing by Jaha's guards. Don't blame him or the council for the actions of Jaha and his cronies." Adara turned to Pascal.

"Pascal, on behalf of the adults of the Ark, I officially declare that you are innocent of any crime on the Ark. Your record will be expunged too. You are a free person who has committed no crime." Pascal was stunned. His protestations had gone unheard on the Ark, but now he had been proved right. He held his head up and looked out over the crowd, daring anyone to dispute his version of events. He nodded to Adara and stepped back.

"John Mbege, step up, please," asked Adara. She turned back to the crowd. "John was accused of assault, too. The guard who arrested him is here. This guard did not accuse him of the crime, but he did arrest him on the authority of Commander Shumway. It was one of Shumway's guards who falsely accused him of assault, directed by Shumway. This too took place in a newly fixed corridor. Please watch this," she said, as she pointed to Monty to start the recording.

Mbege was talking to a guard and laughing with him when Shumway walked up to them. He appeared to act as if everything was okay and was just talking to the guard. Mbege leaned against the wall as the two guards talked. Then Shumway walked off and when he had turned the corner, the guard struck Mbege in the side of his head. Mbege stumbled and he blocked the next punch aimed at him. After that, he defended himself, but never attacked. The guard eventually turned around and left leaving Mbege bruised and bewildered. They all heard Mbege say "What the fuck was that about?" The recording then cut to a few hours later in the same corridor. The arresting guard caught up with Mbege and cuffed him as he read Mbege his rights. John, too, protested his innocence, but the guard didn't want to hear it. The last image was of Mbege being led down the corridor in cuffs.

"These recordings are proof that guards were being manipulated along with innocent civilians. John Mbege did nothing wrong. He committed no crime. Guard Wynn, come forward." The guard in question, came up onto the stage and walked over the Mbege.

"I apologise for arresting you when you had done nothing wrong. The reason for it was my commanding officer telling me to and I believed his version of events instead of yours. I'm sorry." The guard looked contrite before he lowered his head and looked at the stage beneath his feet. Wynn was red faced with embarrassment. Mbege looked at him for a few seconds then looked at Adara. Adara shrugged her shoulders at him. It was up to Mbege to decide what to do.

"I think that in future, you should always check the story of the person you arrest and not just take the word of someone else. A lot of kids have died because no-one believed their side of the story. I was nearly one of them. I had six months before I turned 18. Six months of lock-up for a crime I didn't commit before I would have been floated. Does that seem right to you?" The guard looked at Mbege.

"No, it doesn't," Wynn said. Mbege nodded to him and stepped back. Adara nodded to the guard to return to the crowd.

"John Mbege, you are innocent of any wrongdoing. Your record wil be expunged to show this. You are a free person who did not commit a crime on the Ark," Adara said, before stepping close to him so only he would hear. "That we know of," she whispered to him. She stepped back and looked Mbege in the eye. He got the message that she would be watching him. He nodded. It was true that he had not been caught committing a crime, but a lot of people knew he had a temper. He often took it out on items, but sometimes those items got destroyed. It was a crime to destroy useful items and thus he could have been arrested for that. He was found not guilty for the crime he had been accused of, but he was guilty of other crimes for which he had not been arrested for. He knew it was a fine line that he trod and he knew that Adara knew it.

"These four people are now innocent of the crimes they were arrested for. I don't want you to accuse them of those crimes. You've seen for yourselves what happened to Mbege and Pascal. You've been told about the non-crime that Octavia was imprisoned for and you've also been told about what happened to Charlie. Any one of you could have been next. Any one of you could have lost innocent family members because Shumway and his guards were thugs in uniforms and Jaha protected them. Do not attack the guards here or anyone who was a guard up on the Ark. These people are the innocent dupes Shumway used to arrest people. They are innocent of the crimes Shumway and his guards committed. Not all guards were in on this treachery, and those here are the innocent ones." Adara waited until everyone calmed down.

"Now we know some of the kids in lock-up did actually commit crimes. I'm not sure who did and who didn't, so down here, we give them the benefit of the doubt. I myself am guilty of my crime. I killed Shumway. I'm not proud of it, but he needed to go and that was the only way I could think of. Remember, he was protected by Jaha so no matter what I said, Jaha would side with Shumway. Several of my people who came down in the dropship, deliberately committed a small act to make sure they were arrested and sent to the Skybox. We found out about the treachery of Jaha and his cronies and we planned to do something about it. We knew what he planned for us, so we planned to go to the ground and make sure that Jaha's plans never happened. I led the people, because Clarke didn't want to. I led them to safety because they let me. Ask anyone of the hundred and they'll tell you that getting sent down here was the best thing to happen to them. They have proved to themselves and each other that they can survive without adult supervision. They have seen that adults do not value the kids on the Ark, but down here, they have been shown that age is just a number, not an indication of ability.

"We KIDS have proved we can take care of ourselves and from this moment on, I don't want to hear the adults complaining about having to learn from kids. Those kids were fighting for their lives long before you got here. Those kids have hunted, foraged, built, dug, and used muscles they never knew they had to keep all of us alive. They came together as a unit. One hundred kids doing something that Jaha thought was impossible - survive. Every one of us, Arker and Skaikru have proved over the last nine months that we can survive too. Soon you will be formally asked to become Skaikru instead of Arker. When you do, you'll be seen as no different from us and the Trikru will welcome you."

The crowd erupted into cheers. Those parents of kids sent down were proud of their kids. They had done something that the adults would have baulked at. They overcame the betrayal by the leader of the Ark, they organised an underground organisation to combat Jaha, quietly moved people and items around without the guards knowing, got themselves arrested just so they could keep the kids out of the hands of a group of people who wanted to kill them for their bone marrow. The adults knew that if it was them, they would not have been able to organise. They were too institutionalised to fight back, these kids were more flexible than that and they have proven themselves to be able and productive PEOPLE. They truly were the future of the earth.