Sorry about taking so long to update this story.

I have been a little busy with other projects, books, and producing radio programming.

I know that it has been close to a year since my last posting, but I have been pounding on this off and on. Given that this chapter had blown into a huge 88-page monster, I decided to split the chapter into two sections so that you all can have something.

Also, I am laying some Easter eggs throughout this chapter and the next one to set the stage for three other stories I am working on. One I am three chapters in. One is a short one off, and- well... a sort of sequel to this work.

I hope that you will enjoy this.


Chapter 15 - Paths to one's new home – Part 1 - Discovery of Motherhood


Octavia rode through the forest. It had been a long few days, but having some people with her on her journey helped.

Indra was going to be heading back to the lands of the Skaikru soon to sort out the punishments for those who murdered the warriors under her command. Octavia felt a twinge of sadness for those responsible because her brother had been part of Pike's group. Mostly she felt for the families such as Niylah's who had lost a family member due to Pike's overstimulated fears. Ontari had done the right thing in stating that she was going to punish them. The severity- being shock lashed a few dozen times wasn't blood must have blood, but it would do as a stern reminder to those to come.

Octavia was done with being Skaikru… no Arker. There was a difference, and it was being known that Skaikru was far different than being Arker.

Arkers were the ones who floated her mother.

Skaikru were the ones of the Ground. The sky had once been their home. Now they were among the mortals below.

Maybe like her, others of the Hundred had decided that the Arker ways needed to die. Olivia, Liam, Clarke, Shailene, Phoenix, even Murphy agreed with her.

Each had their reason.

Olivia: she never had a stable home because of her need to steal to stay alive.

Liam: was lost till he discovered his skills for healing.

Clarke: she found love and a home here.

Shailene: a culture that accepted her.

Phoenix: safety for her newborn daughter Fox.

Then there was Murphy: love, a life, and there was even a rumor that he was going to be a father soon with his Grounder girlfriend, Emori.

Who knew how many others from that lot she had landed with had discovered: To live on the ground. You had to become Grounder in your ways.

At this rate, the Arkers and their ways would be gone.

Like the body of her floated mother. Ashes in the winds floating down to the Earth.

Niylah had said something before the final battle with Alie at her trading post.

From the Ashes, we rise.

Octavia had risen from her ashes to become someone else. She was no longer Octavia Blake, nor was she Octavia Kom Skaikru, Skairipa. She was Octavia of the Hundred.

She was a Grounder, a child of Mother Earth now. That couldn't be taken from her even if one took her life. She was like what Monty said: She would always be a member of the Hundred.

Maybe cutting free from the pains of her past, she could start clean. Find a way through to a future where she could be happy. Not Lincoln by her side happy, but a content she could live with the rest of her days.

Her vision of Lincoln had pointed her path here. Her companions were part of that journey, and she was glad that they were there.

One of them seemed to have been walking the same path as her.

For Octavia, meeting Ilian of the Trishanakru was like a breath of fresh air. She sensed that he had a story to tell, given how he held himself. The smell of tragedy hung on him like morning fog. Kindness and sadness at the same time. If it was about Pike's actions, she could understand why he was so hesitant to speak about it. He was hurt by this world, and some part of him just wanted to move past that pain and find a place where he could find a sliver of happiness.

Something she fully understood.

Looking at the others that were riding with her to the remains of Mount Weather. She sensed had been dispatched by Indra to keep an eye on her. For the most part, she understood why. Indra had become her mother figure in her life. And like any mother... she worried about her daughter. For a girl who had grown up hiding under the floor. Indra had taken that scared girl and turned her into a warrior.

Though two of her fellow Hundred were riding with her. Not so much about their concern about her. More out of understanding that she had needed time to grieve over her loss of Lincoln. She had been a confused adolescent, but now... Octavia started to see the balance of maturity she needed to gain to become an adult.

Olivia from the Hundred had changed in her time on the Ground. Somehow, she had decided to go native over the last few weeks. Maybe it was because of Pike and Alie that she wanted to distance herself from her fellow Arkers.

Liam, who was also of the Hundred, seemed to have wanted to make sure under Indra's orders that Octavia was going to be all right. Liam needed to travel around to make sure that word got out about swath of destruction Alie had unleashed before her "death." Getting the message out about Alie The setting ablaze buildings full of toxins in the local area that was making the black acid rain.

The fact that these buildings were spitting out smoke that was forming the base of toxic acid rain. The best translation of what a melting down nuclear reactor was for these people.

It worked.

Finishing out their group was Caris of Sankru... who had been looking for Octavia for weeks after word had gotten out about Lincoln's death. But hearing about the radiation poisoned Nightblood Caris had found, Octavia figured that she just wanted to be near her friend after seeing something that horrific.

Octavia didn't blame her,

Octavia had seen the damage of Alie's influence upon those she had affected. Families decimated by their own kin. Communities were torn apart.

The dark monsters that people had locked within them all unleashed at once.

Inhumanity at its ugliest laid forth before all as these beasts.

But from that darkness arose a sort of hope.

Octavia was doing her best to find that light, but there were glimmers of it as she and the others rode through the villages back to Mount Weather.

Somehow Clarke had been able to organize the people into a coherent workforce to take on the problem at hand. Maybe after all of the Crap that Alie had done to save Humanity in her view by dumping them into a computer hard drive. Clarke showed what people could do to overcome a crisis. That this was a battle where survival was a victory. Clarke wanted to ensure Lexa's legacy held in the years to come by using what had made the leader great and focused it with microscopic precision to attack the problems before them. There would be sacrifices, but also there would be growth as well.

Lexa had planted the seeds, it was their role to ensure that the crops came to fruition.

In those terms, people could understand what was needed of them. If a tool was required to be crafted, it was done so. If seedlings were needed for one of the shelters, then they were transplanted there.

Several villages had been abandoned so that people could migrate to the various shelters so that they could be safe from the storms that were coming. Some were gathering up their things to leave, while others... Well, death was coming for them, and it wasn't Clarke alter ego.

Octavia had left Polis right after she had impaled Pike in the gut.

That had been weeks ago. Octavia had been in do much pain that becoming Skairipa was her way of coping. How many others were regressing because of the losses they had endured under those like Pike, Nia, and Alie?

Become more monster than a person.

Now... Maybe her vision from Lincoln had given her hope and provided direction in her life.

She had been feral when Indra had found her. But through those nights of screaming, seeing Lincoln shot by Pike over and over again. That small vision had helped her through some of that emotional roughness as she made her way thought to a future she needed to live in. It wouldn't be the one she wanted, but it would be one she would be comfortable with the loss and be able to handle it for the years to come.

"Skygirl..." Caris rode up beside her. "So... did you have any other visions last night?" Caris spoke. Her blonde hair waving in the wind. Octavia grinned.

"No... But no nightmares either. I am taking that to be a good sign." Caris rode her steed slowly by her.

"I heard that Skaikru is going to plant a field of wheat near the foot of the Mountain soon. To act as a doorway for the dead to cross through to the other world." Caris changed the subject, but also like Octavia, she had terrible memories of this place.

People around here for generations would be avoiding this place for a long time. Hearing Caris's question about Skaikru rituals about cleansing a site of the spirits of the dead made Octavia think. The Skaikru traditions that were taking root here on the ground. They Skaikru were changing as well as the Grounders in new and some unforeseen ways.

"It's an Ancient Greek and Roman tradition Caris. Wheat was a crop that is shared by both the realm of the dead as well as the living. If a spirit got lost in our world, if they found a field of wheat, they could get home because the Queen of the underworld's mother was the goddess of the harvest. Each spring, she would visit her mother to help bring forth the crops and life to the land, and in the winter, she would return to her husband's side." Octavia spoke as she reached out to her friend. "I heard about what happened to that Nightblood that you found." Caris seemed to realize that Octavia was concerned too. Maybe this question about death and the mountain was Caris's way of coping with getting close to this place. Then she got her answer, and Caris let go of what was worrying her.

"It feels like the gods have decided to punish us for things that others did in their name." Octavia sensed that Caris's body language was concealing her more significant fears about what she had seen. "Octavia is the sickness that I saw that boy die of... Is it similar to the toxic flares that I heard your people talk about while we were planning to attack the mountain?"

Octavia had heard the stories that some of the Arkers had told about. It was a little hard not to know of those stories. Her brother Bellamy would occasionally not be able to make it back from a shift when one of these flares happened. Also, it was the reason that she had lost her mother that due to one of them taking place and her getting caught without an ID. She hated those damn things. Caris started to sense it. Still, Octavia was rescued from explaining when Olivia spoke up to take over and tell what the flares were in simple terms.

"The solar flares were made of the same type of radiation that penetrated his body. But their sources are different. It just comes down to concentration and duration. On the stations, they rolled in waves of eleven-year cycles when they erupted from the sun. Some years the flares were higher in number than others. But you were lucky down here given that Mother Earth's upper atmosphere and magnetic field spun off the radiation of Praimfaya to safe amounts over the years. That is why the ground was able to recover in such a short time. Instead of the century, we in the thought it would." Caris seemed to understand that Skaikru was doing their best to come to terms with the situation they were in. "So, taking shelter in the bunkers like your ancestors did. Or some of the sections of the Ark that we have been working on should help. In light of the current toxic storms that are heading our way. This is why we are working on getting the Alpha and Garden station fixed to hold folks in the areas they came down in." This was when Caris decided to speak up.

"Why not fix the rest of your sky villages and get the people into them? I saw many come down several moons back." The other members of the hundred decided to ride closer, and Olivia got the chance to add what she knew of the situation to Caris's knowledge base. Ilian seemed to have hung back, sensing that soothing Caris's fears took precedence over him, adding his two coins to the conversation.

Octavia listened to Olivia speak. It was strange to hear the details about one of the cosmic events that got her sent to the ground. Solar storms given how Olivia was describing them were not something that one hid for long from. But they were short and nasty events to go through.

"Some of the space stations that we came down in were so badly damaged when they landed that they're nothing more than scrap metal." Olivia's words echoed in the back in Octavia's mind.

Scrap metal.

A good fate for the tin can that had been her prison.

"Then, you are attempting to forge your home back from the scraps of your other stations so that you can keep the ones that can shelter people functional?" Caris spoke as she and Olivia just kept talking and learning about the threat that everyone would soon be facing.

Seeing Ilian looking about, she hung back to see what was happening with him.

"Octavia," Ilian spoke, taking note if the fact that the birds had started to migrate in ever-growing numbers. Other than domesticated animals and fowl, everything that knew that there was something terrible coming.

"Ilian." Octavia relaxed as she moved with him. "Thank you for coming with me." Octavia expressed.

"I heard about the journey you are making to get the remains of the one you love from the mountain." He spoke. "Your friend Caris seemed to have witnessed something horrific." He added as they rode down the trail.

"She did," Octavia spoke carefully before she continued. "She saw a Nightblood that had been poisoned while on his way to Polis. Alie's followers had set fire to an old reactor as part of her let the world burn if I lose failsafe." The look in his eyes spoke of some horror that Alie, too, had done to those he loved. "I take it that she hurt people you loved?"

"Father and my brother she had under her spell before she was defeated. My mother- She held out in the grace of the Gods of the Thirteen Clans until I came to her side and held her in her last moments."

Octavia nodded at this solemnly. "Alie left a mess for everyone to clean up." Ilian sensed that this journey was a form of closure for her. Maybe after this, she would help him on his trip to give him closure.

"Octavia of Skaikru, I do not know the name of your Gods..."

"Goddess, Gaia... Terra... The Earth Mother. Despite all of the horseshit I have been tossed in my life, I don't know..." Octavia winced. "I think she embraced me. The sky was never my home. Down here... This is my home."

Ilian tilted his head as they watched as more birds start heading deeper inland. Then off in the distance, a two-headed deer began to run. Then the bushes shifted as several deer, regular and mutated appeared and started to run off following the one they had seen.

"I guess that the deer got the message that the storms are coming in," Liam spoke as he slowed his horse down.

"Shit." Olivia noticed that several more deer started head along a trail they were on. Taking a cue, everyone started to head off to the edges of the path so that the animals could get by.

"The storm must be bad. I haven't seen a fleeing of deer like this since the harsh winter back when I was a child." Cares called out.

"Well, hopefully, when we get to the ruins of Elysium, this should thin out," Octavia called out.

"Well, here is to getting that damn place," Liam called out as the line of deer was followed by a string of wolves that looked plain worried.

Everyone sensed that this migration wasn't going to be standard as the wolves and deer were making a run for the old railroad lines that they had passed earlier that day. This storm was the type that scared animals along the lines of a forest fire. These storms were worse. Octavia had heard stories Bellamy had told her about the eruption at Pompeii. This was the only reference Octavia had of what was coming, and for the people here, it was Praimfaya.

Everyone knew the clock was ticking, now for this group. For Octavia, especially, the race was on to save that sample that held the last living tissue of her love and the child she wished to have.

Octavia so wanted her vision to come true and give her hope of a life she would cherish.


Jack and Hailey were heading to Arkadia to see their friend Niylah. It had been weeks since the strangeness that had descended the land. Stories had started to circle that a Witch Dressed in Red was using her powers to possess people and turn them into an army to expand her influence. Besides, there had been tales of families fighting to keep the cursed spirits from wreaking Havoc within their loved ones. The possessed attempted to do unspeakable things to themselves and others if their loved ones didn't take in the demon spirits too.

It came down to a battle of wills and flesh with the possessed.

Then like a fearful force, Wanheda and some Mage or Wod-Witch named Raven struck the evil witch down using her own power against her.

There had been a rumor floating about that Niylah had been present at one of these exorcisms. That the person who had helped remove the cursed possessive spirit from a Skaikru girl was her friend Puana.

Hailey had seen Niylah's lover Puana sneaking out of the back of the trading post before the Niylah's father returned home.

Hailey had seen that the woman prepping for some sort of spirit quest given the amount of supplies she was binging with her.

A Walkabout as she called it.

A purification ritual she needed to do to get back into the good graces of the Gods for some action she had committed against them.

Puana seemed haunted by some action she had done. Something that breaking an oath to gods she had taken would have been equivalent to being banished for life from her people.

As they approached the Shakira village, Hailey pondered why Puana spoke so little. Most of her dialect was Trikru, but there were hints of Gonasleng to it. Like she was trying her best to conceal her true origins.

Then she heard a child calling out in that same dialect. A girl in a Sankru headscarf and a mixture of clothing that was made up from other lands was playing with some other children playing some game with a ball.

"Flora... This isn't Ark Rules, we are playing Delinquents Style." The sound of the Trigedasleng was the same. The girl called out to her friend. The soft light and dark blues of her dress stated she was of an unknown Kru.

"So," blue dress, Flora called out. "The Nightbloods we are playing against don't mind."

"I am content with the rules as they are." The Nightblood called out. "It is forcing me to use your tongue as you are being forced to use mine and the others."

"Not helping Luther." Sankru headscarf called out.

"How about we split the rules. Play a match in the Ark style, then we play Quents style." A girl with blonde hair called out. "I mean... it works for me, and we get to see the differences in play." One of the other children shrugged.

"Yeah... Cut them some slack Paige... This isn't the Ark where, after a certain age, they float your ass for breaking the rules." Paige threw the ball at the group and started to run off.

"Oh... Float..." Flora sprinted after her friend along with the blonde girl.

Hailey watched as the girl started to run away.

The Nightbloods moved to watch the situation unfold like Hailey was.

"What happened?" Hailey spoke up as the three slowly came to a stop a reasonable distance away.

"Paige had a member of her family floated. Not a pleasant way to die."

"What is floating?" Hailey sensed that this punishment wasn't something that she wanted to experience. This is when the Nightbloods came up and spoke. One of them, a boy from Delphi, spoke.

"Skaikru traditions followed a code of law similar to that of the ancient Floukru on their sailing vessels. What if one were derelict in their duties or committed a severe crime, they would be thrown off the ship. If they were at sea, they would be made to walk a plank off of the boat and made to jump into the sea without any means of survival. It was a death sentence if they were in a spot without any land in sight."

"Then... Skaikru lived in the sky. To be made to walk off one of their Skyships would mean that they-" Hailey stopped cold at the realization of what the conversation these children were having meant. Skaikru punishment for some crimes when they still lived in the sky meant a long fall to their deaths to the ground.

Float meant death.

Literally falling to one's death.

Pull one's weight in their duties or face death.

What had this girl's family member had done to warrant such a fate?

Then the Blonde Floukru girl who had run off after Paige returned.

"Paige is going to be alight, but I guess playing Delinquents style might make her feel better." There was a long pause. "I never thought being Floukru would come in handy."

"It's alright, Adria." One of the children spoke in Gonasleng. "None of us understood the pain of that Floating reference that was made."

"Well, it hurt her. That and she was in the Skaibox and was set free a few days before the Hundred got sent down. The pain of remembering that a member of your family was sentenced to death by floating. Just for getting in a fight over food."

"Crap... No wonder Paige took it hard."

"Wait... she was nearly a member of Wanheda's-" the youth in the Blue and black clothing Hailey now recognized as being of the Skaikru. The girl was almost part of the individuals Clarke of Skaikru had turned into the most feared warriors of these lands.

Hailey also started to realize that their ways of punishment were such that she shuddered to think what was in store for the Azgeda woman. Who had killed nearly fifty Skaikru.

After a moment to recover, Hailey saw the young child approaching. The distinct image of drying tears tore at her heart. Seeing that her fellow Skaikru were approaching the child with compassion helped lessen the emotional blow she had endured.

"Hey, Draven kon Nalblada... If you want to-"

"The game is still on. The rules are one of the Ground. Speak in my tongue Skaikru, we will see if you are worthy of fighting alongside me. You have mourned your loss. Find strength within it." This was when the ball was tossed at the girl who caught it.

"I Paige, Daughter of Molly O'Brian and Miles Diesel of the Sky Clan; will use that pain as my fire to protect my brothers and my sisters of my clan. And furthermore, other clans who are our allies from whatever threats present themselves." This was when the girl shifted back to the Warrior Tongue. "Now, let's play this game. Boys on one team, girls on the other."

"Let the battle begin!" The eldest of the Male Nightbloods spoke.

Then the Floukru Nightblood turned to look at Hailey and Jack as she raised a hand to halt the events. If learning that the Floukru were not always the pacifists that everyone thought them to be made, Hailey and Jack a bit worried.

"You looking for someone?" The girl stated. "You only stopped when you heard Flora and Paige speak and not about the game."

"I stopped when I heard them speak in the Tree Tongue." The girl nodded.

"They tend to delve into accenting certain phrases. But that comes from the fact they use 'Kanic words so often. So, you are looking for someone, or are you heading there to see one of their healers?"

"Niylah of-"

"Trikru." The girl finished before grinning. "She is here, look for one of the Griffins, they are the Healers here, and she is friendly with the younger of the two. Niylah has been helping out treating the injured and sick."

"Thank you," Hailey spoke as the children returned to their game. Seeing how the children were adapting to communicating their goals, she started to understand why they were playing. The Nightbloods were learning to speak the Skaikru variant of Gonaslang, and the Skaikru were learning to speak the tree language.

The game's tactics were aggressive, but the rhythm made sense as two guards were protecting a single player with the ball as it was moved forward with the other team guarding a hoop on a pole. Some were in place to block, while others were chasing. When the ball made its way through the hoop by one team. It was handed off to the other. If the opposing team intercepted the ball and made the hoop, then they got to place it through the hoop again.

The purpose wasn't getting the ball through the hoop, it was ensuring that the team kept making hoops in sequence in both defense and offense from the other team. If one could shift tactics in a battle that quickly from fight to defense in mere moments showed why Wanheda had been feared.

Wanheda had been known to attack without remorse. But she also showed compassion to those who had been in need. Maybe it was why the Commander of Death, Klark Kom Skaikru, had earned that title. She knew when to unleash death like a hound or bring it back to rest on her lap as her loyal friend.

Seeing Niylah again would be good. Maybe Pauna was here too, with a bit less dirt on her.

Several warriors at the gates of the Skaikru village were standing guard. A massive Trikru woman with dark dreadlock hair stood next to a toned Skaikru warrior woman with her blonde hair tied into a Milk braid.

"Hold!" The Skaikru woman spoke as she raised a hand. "State your intentions." She was formal and protective of her home.

Hailey and Jake stopped as several warriors from the Plains Riders moved by through the gates before they got the chance to answer.

"Harper, may we meet again after storms." One of the warrior's called out.

"Same here, Kiwi. Make sure that little one of yours stays safe."

"I will. May your sky ship's last voyage guide your people to their future." Kiwi spoke to the woman warrior.

"Have a safe ride home, see you in an about Thousand or so moons." The Blonde warrior woman called out as the rider waved before riding off into the hills out to the west.

Looking at the scene unfold and realizing that there was something more going on, Jake moved to speak.

"You said that there is a storm coming! What type of storm?"

"A Bad one." the Trikru woman spoke. She seemed concerned that whatever was taking place was known, but to speak, it would mean bad things. This was when Hailey decided to state why they were here.

"We are here to find our friend Niylah of Trikru. We heard that she was here." The Blonde, known as Harper, responded.

"Niylah's here. She is helping us prep for the long winter ahead." Off in the distance, Niylah could be seen exiting the main structure of the Skaikru village. She seemed relaxed but a bit worn, this is when Harper called out and waved her to come to the gate that Hailey saw how much her friend had changed, well felt comfortable among these people.

"Hailey... Jake, it is good to see you." Niylah's words seemed happy though she looked tired.

"It is good to see you," Hailey spoke as Harper let them enter.

"Same here... so, is Pauna here?" Niylah's look and laugh stated that the Red-Haired woman was here.

"She is... just that she has gone back to using her Skaikru name."

"Oh..." Hailey had suspected Pauna was called something else but to learn that the young woman's real name was now openly known to Niylah, which proved that she had been welcomed.

This was when a tall warrior came limping over to them.

"Hey, Niylah. Have you seen Griffin around?"

"Mother or Daughter?" Niylah grinned. The Skaikru seemed to get the joke.

"You know which one." He joked back. Niylah's relationship with the red-haired woman was known here. Given the blush, openly as well.

"In the bathhouse, cleaning up from pulling a long healers shift. Before you ask. The elder she was treating is going to be alright and will recover enough to proceed with the marriage blessing for you and your husband in the next couple of days." The sense of relief could be seen on the young man's face.

"That is good to know."

"Don't worry... Emma of Skaikru is still by her side. She dyed her hair green and has started the prayers for your union."

"Wait... Emma has taken the oath of the Dyads?"

"Taking..." Niylah clarified.

"Oh..." The Skaikru sighed.

"Is that a good thing, or is it a bad thing?" Hailey expressed.

"A mix. Emma never really wanted to be a Dyad priestess like her mother. She, out of anger, decided to desecrate the temple of the Last Tree because she wanted to live her life on her terms." There was a weight to his presence. "That got her sentenced to the Skaibox. Which got her chosen to be sent to the ground because of that rebelliousness and knowledge of the Dyads."

Stories were floating around about the Skaikru youth. That the ones that had been with Wanheda had been troubled. Thus, they had been set down to prove themselves to their people. But to hear it first hand from a Skaikru only made Wanheda's legend greater.

The woman has transformed a group of angry, rebellious youth into a group of feared warriors. These warriors, who were able to fight off multiple attacks from the strongest of foes until they have been captured by the Mountain Men. The only reason that happened was that Wanheda's forces had been taxed out by the battle with Anya's troops when they had been attacked with the sleep fog.

This was when a woman with the palest skin Hailey and Jake had ever seen came up to them. If this was Emma the Dyad priestess of the Skaikru then Hailey would choose to speak with this woman carefully.

"Nate... Niylah..." The woman declared.

"Emma, it is okay." The woman seemed to have been crying.

"I am so sorry for yelling... and..."

"Your mother fell while helping to get Arkadia ready from the Storms that Alie created with the last of her magic on before her defeat," Niylah spoke, calming the young woman.

"Em... you don't have to answer. You were scared. Your Mom is the head priestess of the Dyads... one of the few left and given what Alie did to mind whammy you, who wouldn't be scared. Toss in this entire second attempted Praimfaya mess- Shit- Emma, understand that this is going to be like the Solar Storms we went through as kids." Nate reached out to Emma and drew her close. "You have never been through a winter, same as me. We have only seen it from above. So, it is alright to be afraid."

"I am not scared for myself-" Emma pulled closer to Nate. This was when she looked up. "Nate, I missed my period."

"Wait, you are looking for Clarke to-"

"Yeah-" Nate sighed.

"I'll get Clarke." Niylah Spoke as she started to head off in a direction to get the warrior leader.

"Why is she heading off to find Wanheda? Wouldn't your people's healer be-" Jake spoke when Nate interrupted.

"Clarke is one of our healers." Jake and Hailey just blinked.

The rumors were true.

Wanheda wasn't just a mighty warrior, but a trained healer as well.

A moment later, Niylah returned with a blonde woman. It took a second for Hailey to recognize the person with her.

"Pauna?" Hailey spoke as the lion-maned woman looked at her then at the distraught priestess. Pauna took the priestess as the priority.

"Emma, Ny told me-" Pauna- no Griffin started talking with the young woman. Symptoms were talked about, and the more Hailey listened to the realization that this woman was experiencing the same symptoms she was.

This was when Emma added: "Does your mouth taste like you have been sucking on a metal spoon?"

Both healer and priestess looked at her.

"How do you know?" The priestess looked worried.

"I have the same symptoms as well," Hailey spoke.

Griffin looked at her.

"Alright, I need to test the urine from the both of you," Griffin spoke.

"Do you know what is wrong with both of us?" Hailey looked concerned.

"Yeah. But I want to confirm it first." Griffin expressed. "Niylah, you better get Marko." Emma looked scared.

"Is Marko a healer?" Jake voiced.

"No. Marko is Emma's lover," Nate spoke. "Hey, if you don't want to-" Nate was cut off mid-sentence by Emma.

"If it is-" Emma seemed to gain strength from her friend as she worked up her courage. "I want him there."

"Alright, I'll walk with you to medical."

Hailey sensed that though this girl was scared, not being alone is what gave her strength as they made their way into the Village's sizeable main structure.


Clarke sensed that whatever Alie had done in her last days must have caused people to leave their inhibitions behind. Shit, between all of the death, that Artificial Intelligent bitch had left in her wake. Clarke had lost track of the mass suicides after sex orgies in the areas Alie had gained a strong foothold in.

When Clarke had pulled the plug on Alie, well, the poison had been knocked over, but the baby batter- well, that found its mark.

Clarke and the rest of the healers in the nearby area had told the people that the spell had been lifted. But, the repercussions were going to last for years.

Shit, Clarke had to do an abortion on a twelve-year-old to save her life from the severe tissue starvation the eventual pregnancy would take on the child. Though to keep the girl's father from killing the child or finding out, Clarke quickly made the girl a member of the Hundred. The story which was close to the truth was that the girl wanted to be trained under Wanheda and the forces she was assembling to face a threat ahead.

Shucking her birth name the girl had taken up the following name:

Seventy of the Hundred.

The girl wanted to go by that name, not her own, and Seven was an old girl's name from the Twentieth Century.

A lie; in truth, the girl wanted to fight the demon that had forced her to nearly bare its spawn. Clarke understood the shamefully that the girl was doing her best to avoid bringing shame to her clan.

Clarke had put the girl with Harper in expanding her skills as a warrior. Part of this was to give the girl a way to recover emotionally from the procedure.

So far, Seventy had been able to start understanding that what had happened wasn't all her fault, but she had to accept the fact the event had happened and use it to gain strength from it. Something that Harper had done with her own recent traumatic pain.

Why Niylah had found her in the showers after treating the fall injury of Emma's mom. Clarke needed the water, not to so much bathe, but to decompress and find her center. Finding that place, she started to recite the oath of fealty to the ones she had gone through her walkabout purification to appease.

Clarke knelt to the shower floor and started to speak the oath of old:

"I swear by Apollo the Healer, by Asclepius, by Hygieia, by Panacea, and by all the gods and goddesses, making them my witnesses. That I will carry out, according to my ability and judgment, this oath and this indenture."

Before Clarke could continue, Niylah walked in and grabbed her. Clarke quickly dressed upon hearing that Emma... one of her fellow Delinquents was scared because she had missed her menstrual cycle.

As Clarke ran through the medical questions, Hailey seemed to almost be describing the same symptoms.

But Clarke needed to be sure... with a urine test.

Marko came in from working on setting up a smaller airlock so that it could handle the radioactive decontamination from the upcoming storms in case they needed to work outside. The main hatchway would have to be shut tight to ensure that the entire settlement wouldn't be flooded with radiation. Thus, the smaller hatches

Emma rushed over to him. Clarke had been reading up on the local medical lore. She had discovered a way that with a minimum of effort to determine the sex of a child. By using the mother's urine as well as determining the health of the child.

Now... most of it was folk fable stuff, but with a little digging, some of it was very practical. Even more effective than what could be done in Arkadia.

The pregnancy test was an easy one to do. Mostly it was a chemical reaction that Clarke was going to be testing for. But gender identification... That was something she wanted to test.

There was some truth to the stories she had learned in Polis, but she wanted to see if it would work in a laboratory setting.

Emma was being calmed down by Marko as some warm tea was being brewed.

Hailey, who was looking at Clarke work, came over and talked.

"Pauna-" Hailey seemed a bit worried that she was interrupting Clarke as she worked. Clarke grinned.

"Hailey... thank you for the blanket?" Clarke said to the woman. "I was in a rough place. The mountain... the mountain changed me. I needed some distance from my people. I just needed to connect with Mother Earth."

"I sensed that. Pauna... Griffin." Hailey was doing her best to sort out this new name. "Griffin of Skaikru."

Clarke decided to switch tongues.

"Hailey... you Niylah, Jake, and a few others gave me the space I needed." Hailey was a bit shocked at hearing Clarke not speaking in the warrior's tongue, but there was an understanding.

"I sensed that you needed it," Hailey spoke as she looked at the brew of the tea that was being heated. "That is Claw tea." Clarke nodded.

"Yes... it was a gift that one of the people that I helped treat during the entire streets of blood mess in Polis."

"Was it as bad as I have heard?" Hailey spoke cautiously.

"Polis or the Mountain?"

"Which one was worse?"

"Physically Polis... Emotionally... The Mountain." Clarke told the truth about that.

"Oh," Hailey stated worriedly.

"Polis it was saving people from themselves. The Mountain..."

"Lexa should have never retreated from Wanheda's side!" Hailey spoke frankly.

"Emerson of the Mountain Men had people Lexa cared about. He was going to release them so that they could have their prize: my people's blood. I understand why Lexa did it. Emerson had members of her extended family. My people and I were unknown factors. In the end, Lexa regretted what she had done to myself and the others." Clarke paused. "I don't hate her for that."

"That is good, Griffin." Then Hailey moved to speak. "The Mountain men wished to have your people's power. I have heard of what your people's blood did for the new Commander. She seems to be more understanding, more compassionate. The violence is there that she needs, but it has been tempered like the steel of a fine worthy blade." This was when Ontari came into the room. Her hair had been pulled back into a ponytail, and the clear signs of the scar on the left side of her head could be clearly seen. "Commander!" Hailey moved to kneel before Ontari. Ontari moved to stop her.

"You don't need to kneel before me, a good leader is a servant of their people. It is a leader's fealty to their people that gives them the strength to fight. If it is reversed as I have seen with Queen Nia... then they are weak and will fall when the people come to remove them." Ontari spoke to Hailey before she turned to Clarke. "I got word over the radio from Azgeda, your mother Abbi has arrived there safely with the test samples of the Nightblood inoculate. Roan is lining up several test subjects in the kingdom to demonstrate it, so it is going to be a while." Ontari looked over to look at Emma. "Emma, your mother, is going to be all right. Her leg is going to heal from the fall she had."

"Ontari... Emma isn't here about her mother." Clarke gestured to the test she was setting up. Ontari started to recognize what was being set up and the worry on Emma's face.

"That is a test for-" Ontari's eyes went wide when she saw the grains Clarke was putting into the Petri dishes. "Oh..." Emma looked worried.

"Yeah..." Clarke responded.

"Barley for boy, wheat for women, germination in a day," Ontari spoke as she saw four trays being laid out. "Emma... it is going to be alright. You and Emori are going to be great moms." Hailey looked down to realize that Clarke was setting up a test for her too. Clarke's wanted to see if Hailey was with a child.

"Wait... you mean..." Hailey realized that Clarke was testing her for being pregnant.

"I am running this test to confirm it." Jake was in shock as he realized that he was going to be a father.

Clarke watched as Nate moved to help Jake over to the bed where Emma was sitting and plopped him down.

"If you need help here..." Ontari offered as Hailey looked at the worried woman who was on the bed.

"Ontari... could you stay?" Emma croaked out.

"I would be honored," Ontari moved to Emma's side. "Emma, Initiate Priestess of the Dyads. Guess that Bekka's tree will have another guardian soon." Maybe that little bit of connecting is what calmed Emma down. Ontari had grown from being a violent woman to- well-being tempered. Clarke didn't know if that was because of Sinclaire's last act of rebooting the Flame back to its default mode. But as a result of that action, Ontari could now speak with her predecessors. Between that and the current crisis they were now facing. Ontari was now was forced into a position to undo the damage she had done while under Alie's influence. That had helped the young woman grow into the leadership role she was growing into. Clarke didn't know if that was because of Sinclaire's last act of rebooting the Flame back to its default mode. But as a result of that action. Ontari could speak with her predecessors. But that part of Bekka's (Rebekka's) tree is maybe what connected her to the other members of the Hundred.

Discovering that these people she had so once so hated- had a connection to her ancestor. Emma started to become less scared of becoming a mother of another protector of the Last Tree as Ontari held her hand.

Ontari. Who knew that the person that nearly destroyed everything that Clarke had held dear had grown to become a decent Second.

Maybe when it came to the politics they were now facing, Ontari being in the room seemed to be less of a sticking point. Between the blood transfusion that Clarke had given to save her life. The lifesaving surgery to remove the bone fragments from her head injury. Having the chip in Ontari's head repurposed to restore higher brain function- Clarke just grinned as she set up another pair of Petri dishes. Ontari was growing into her Commander role a whole lot better than most expected.

She was no longer someone's puppet.

She was a developing leader.

Hailey moved to talk with the young Commander and started to realize that Ontari was Wanheda's second. Ontari was learning to use skills that many had seen a detrimental and were being repurposed into being helpful under Clarke's guidance. Yes, that was a lot of information to take in, but in the end, Ontari had found her place.

Maybe it was Bekka's influence in talking with her that illustrated that this path of being a Commander was more than leading. It was about looking out for others, not yourself.

Ontari sensed that she was more like Bekka than she ever realized in her life.

Then Hailey had to say about what it was like to work alongside Pauna. This was when Clarke had to come clean about being Wanheda.

Maybe she should have asked Ontari where Jasper kept his stash of Shine- Because Clarke was going to need it after running these tests.

Though Hailey now just realized that she had become part of the story of Wanheda during her times on her spiritual quest. Clarke just wondered what stories would be emerging about that time in her life that would be told for generations to come.

Whatever they were Clarke decided that she might as well have a say in their direction as she moved to serve up the warm tea to the woman. Maybe talking about this chapter in her life was important as Clarke decided to start telling her story to the group around her.

It would take some time for the tea to take effect, but like all things, time was needed to heal some wounds and also to find out if these two women would become mothers to be.


George Port sat on a log near one of the surviving bunkers that survived the last planetary cataclysm. Raven's Rock. The inhabitants had survived when a Nightblood had found this place and inoculated them against the radiation. Strange knowing that this place was one of the few that the monsters of Mount Weather took great effort in attacking. A little bit of that advanced Black blood in these people's veins, and they had become a target for culling. That and given the history of the administration at the time. These were the people that had a clear voice that opposed those within the mountain. These people had a clear idea of what the future should be.

Well, the mountain was dead now, and these people were alive. That was something to say about how fate worked things out. In another century, if everyone survived, then maybe the world would be better off with the views that Becca and those here had worked so hard to make flourish.

Maybe that was a cause that he could relate to. But on a personal front, he needed to patch things up with his daughter. In the City of Light, they had an understanding, but now...

His daughter Shailene had yelled at him for all sorts of crap that had been out of his control.

She had found a home here, and he out of his stubborn views of what she could be... she rebelled. First, the fight that landed her in the Sky Box, then... Down here, she had worked hard to build ties with the locals.

But the rift kept growing when he had seen tattoos.

Shaie had been upset about his views on her body art when he had called the primitive stuff. George had walked in as she was getting another set of tattoos added to her naked chest. His explosion of anger to her-. Every word he had spoken... He wished to take back.

To say they did not see eye to eye was an understatement. This is when someone came up to him and spoke.

"Guessed that you would be out here." It was the Grounder that had been tattooing his daughter. With a deep breath, the man turned and sat down. There was something about this warrior's body language that spoke that he to was a father. Maybe the reason that Shaie had gone to him was probably the father of one of her Grounder Friends.

"I feel like I am losing my daughter," George spoke as he looked out at the bunker.

"Your daughter is a member of Wanheda's Hundred. Don't you think she is afraid of losing you too?" There was a pause. "I lost my wife in the City of light and trust me... we all have darkness in us. Your daughter is doing her best to cope with finding her own light forward. Fear of losing you is what caused her to fight so hard with you. She wants you to understand, but like all fathers and lovers... at times, we fight the hardest with those we love. My wife wanted more to life. Maybe that is why she tried to force me to take the chip. What she did to persuade me to shed my bonds of mortal flesh quickly came to an end when Klark slew that witch. Maybe seeing that she saw all the damage she had done in her last moments maybe had saved her soul. I am glad that she died free."

"I'm sorry," George spoke as the man sat next to him.

"I am happy that she is now at rest. She had so much pain in her life." There was a sigh. "Your daughter spoke of you during our session." Great... the guy who tattooed his daughter's naked chest wanted to talk.

"What did she say?" George expressed. Maybe a comment about taking his daughter as a lover still stuck in the back of his mind.

"Well... first after some harsh words about you... mostly she was hurt that you didn't understand her... that she wasn't getting her marking become what you call a Grounder. She was already one. The only reason she was getting the markings as her way to make up for all of the rites of passage she wasn't able to go through while she was locked up in the Skai box." The father declared. "I believe that she sees the ways of the ground as being more honest to her beliefs than what she had been raised under."

"Wait... you mean..." George was processing this. He had assumed that the symbols the Arker youth were getting were Grounder... not... what the Grounder's called Skaikru. Then seeing the man pick up a stick, he started to sketch out a few symbols on the ground. Most of what George had seen parts of, but to see the complete pattern, things started to make sense.

Then he saw the drawings of birds that he had seen on Shaie's chest along with a symbol that made him stop cold.

The Last Tree.

"I have tattooed more of that damn tree on your youth along with those ravens to the point that I can do them in my sleep."

"Wait... those symbols are not..."

"Trikru... No... They all have been Skaikru with a few variants on some Trikru symbols that have a close association to yours."

"Which ones." George wondered as the man drew them on the ground.

Biohazard... with a circle around it.

A long arrow... Which looked to be... no, that looked like the ones that friendly Grounder Lincoln wore on his forehead. Another set looked to be the upside "L"s that that man had on his chest.

Then the last set wasn't so much an item, but it looked to be a wolf face.

The offset oval at the top.

Ontari... Ice Wolf...

"Between the Trees and the Ravens, this Wolf symbol has been appearing a lot on your youth. That and this one:" The Grounder etched out the last set of symbols. Or, more precisely, a number.

100

"This symbol has shown up the most." The man paused. "Some of my Kru think it is a bastardization of the symbol of the Heda, while others think that it means something else?"

"It means Hundred... the number hundred. The number of youths we sent down to find out if the ground was habitable again." The grounder tattooist closed his eyes, realizing what the symbol meant.

"Wanheda's Hundred." the sigh from the man spoke volumes. "Figures why so few have gotten that symbol."

"Not many of those original children are left," George stated. "Less than half are still alive after all of the fighting and the mountain."

"No wonder it has such meaning to those who have it. Especially your daughter." George understood some. "The sign of great warriors."

"Sort of guessed why many of the youths have decided to go native. Maybe it is their way of coping that this is their world and not ours. They see us the ones who screwed up things for them when it came to Pike's policies." The tattoo artist sighed.

"I have heard the stories of what he went through and what he did to Indra's forces, but also the events that shaped that man. It is understandable when one knows that that poor soul was once a farmer and for them... the land is sacred. To have that stolen time after time after time... No wonder he lashed out the way he did." George looked at the man and sighed.

"Yeah... all he wanted was a small piece of land to plant his crops, be left alone in peace, and watch over those he had been charged to protect," George spoke with heaviness in his voice.

"You speak like you knew the man." The tattooist expressed.

"Yes and No... I knew of him and the stories of him teaching the Delinquents Earth Skills to survive on the ground. But personally, the man was an enigma to me. Maybe he wanted something of the old times for the world to make sense to him. I guess that Clarke and the rest of those kids knew that they had to change to live here."

"Understood. Youth always have a better time at adapting to changing situations. Still, they always do lean back upon their elders to help guide them as they make their way forward."

"All too true," George said as he looked back at the gate of the old government facility. "I feel like Mother Earth is testing them and forcing us, their elders, to come to terms that our time is passing."

"As it should be." The tattooist declared. A moment later, the man spoke to George. "Your daughter is with child." George froze.

"What!"

"She has a fresh scar by her breast. At first, I thought it was a reference to her kills. When I inquired, she stated that it wasn't a kill mark, it was the mark of motherhood. Wanheda and Ontari performed the ritual themselves." The tattooist seemed almost respectful of Shailene. "A blood offering from one's own flesh to the two leaders of these lands for the protection of one not born yet. That child will be protected from all harm by order of Heda Ontari and Wanheda herself."

George now understood his daughter more now.

"Wait... The tattoos are not for herself, but as a protection, notice to leave her child alone." George, out of his stubbornness, hadn't asked what the symbols meant, now- he felt like sloshed algae slime on the bottom of one's shoe from Farm Station.

"Yes." George was processing this.

He was going to be a Grandfather.

Shailene was doing all of this to ensure that the locals left her child alone.

Then who was the child's father?

"Um. as she said anything about who the-"

"If you are asking, the boy is of your clan." George exhaled. "He is here, and I also have given him several tattoos as well."

"He is..."

"Theo... kom Skaikru."

"Theo... Wait... Theo!" George was processing this new information.

"Yes, him. Warrior from a farming family. Racked up many kills battling the Mountain Men. Those Marks I gave. That and Shai of Skaikru helped aid in giving the marking to two of your warriors: Suki and Roza. Whom are her sisters of Wanheda's warrior kin."

"Suki and Roza... wait..." George was now processing the situation. Suki and Shai had been close since they were kids. Roza... she was the most visible Skaikru that had gone Grounder and... all three were Hundred.

Skaikru Hundred.

This was when Theo approached.

"Sir..." Theo's long frame that was common to those who had lived on Farm station towered over him. This was his future son-in-law.

"Ah, Theo..." The young man seemed concerned. The Tattoo artist seemed to gesture for him to join them. "Shai's father was asking about you." There was a sense of worry on the young man's face. "I have been telling him tales about the battles in which you have gotten your kill markings."

"Theo... I know about you and Shailene " George could have pulled gun on the kid and not have gotten as loud as a gulp from Theo than he did at that moment.

"Sir..." George motioned for the young man who was going to be his future son-in-law to sit by him.

"Theo..." George worked hard to phrase the words he was going to say next. "I know that you are the father of my grandchild." George paused. "Is my daughter happy with you?"

"She is," Theo spoke uncomfortably.

George sighed.

"Theo... why is my daughter angry at me?"

What was spoken next changed George's world?

"She is not angry at you. She is angry at the crap that you and the other Arkers have done to threaten the life she and... Well, those who have come down with Clarke have made."

"Like what?" George felt that this was going to be deep.

"There are good people down here. Yeah, there is shit that happens, but you have to know the people first before you start causing problems. Finn paid for his actions with his life." Theo sighed. "Pike fucked things up. I was in the process of trading some of our crops for supplies. Winter gear, harden pots, some cloth. Stuff we need in the next few months."

"You were trading?"

"With TonDC mostly. Crafted a prosthetic leg for a girl who lost her own when Mount Weather attacked. It wasn't much, but she can play with her friends again."

"Wait... you are the one who crafted that strange leg for Gunter's daughter!" The Tattooist spoke up.

"I did, amazing what one can do with a board of broken carbon fiber and a little bit of blacksmith forge heat. I am planning on talking with Wick on making a more human-looking leg when the girl gets older. But with what Pike did- it might be difficult."

"You work on the leg, I'll smooth things over with Gunter." The tattooist communicated.

"How will you do that?" Theo commented. The tattooist just grinned.

"I am Gunter's brother and that girl's uncle."

George now was understanding a little more about how things worked down here.

The trading wasn't for supplies, it was to form alliances. A barter here, a trade there greased the political wheels around here.

Theo and Shailene, along with the other youth that had been sent down. They were in the process of getting political capital to secure their future.

Pike had trashed those gains in one night with his murder of those three hundred peacekeepers.

George now understood why Shailene had been pissed when he had voted for Pike for the chancellorship.

George and those who had voted had done so out if the fear of these people. But for Shailene, it was only through understanding them that they were going to have a chance to survive here.

"Theo-" George worked through his actions. "Could you walk me through what I need to learn to-"

"Sir-" Theo nodded, "I know where you are going with this- First off, this is not the Ark," Theo spoke as he raised his hand. "Second, the Grounders, including myself and the Hundred live by a code. Follow that code, and things go smoothly."

"What is the Code?" George stated.

"It is the following: -" Theo spoke as George soaked it in. In the next few moments, all of the stupid things he had been doing wrong without knowing it came to the forefront. He bit the preferable bullet and committed them to his memory for the sake of his grandchild.

Four little rules, and he had been fucking things up that badly.

The cardinal one of the sections about trade was: "Leave things so that you can return!"

If you hurt people, then they don't want you back.

All of the conflict that the Arkers had done had put any future trade and friendships in danger.

Shaie had wanted a better life, and looking back, all of the crap that he and the other adults had done was to jeopardize everything they were building.

Their children had grown up. Now they were fighting to ensure the children they were now having would be able to have a safe life here on the ground.

This wasn't the Ark. This was the Ground. To survive, you had to become a Grounder.

Kane's gear-shaped brand started now to make sense.

Even more so now.

Even after Niylah Clarke's grounder friend had helped complete the image by placing the symbols of the twelve-, no thirteen stars around it.

"Looks like I am getting a tattoo," George stated as he looked at the Tattooist.

"Good. I suggest that you write your daughter's name out." The tattooist spoke. "Because you are not the only one who I have helped come to terms with their children getting these tattoos. Having their name on their skin helps rebuild the bond between parent and child, "our

"Heaven Help me." George, though aloud. "Shailene,"

Within the hour, George had his daughter's name tattooed on his arm.


Roan was sitting in the royal chambers, getting updates on the situation. The situation was one where the war chiefs were not fighting battles for war, but one of survival.

Roan looked at the map of the various lands. He saw that the storm maps which the Skaikru had made pointed out the lasting impact of this weather crisis. Alliances would be changed forever as a result. The ones that were coming out the strongest were Rockline, Delphi, and the Blue Cliff lands.

Northern Azgeda would be well off for the time being as it would be outside some of the harsh weather events, but the winter they would be facing was a force that would change them all. The Woods Clan and Skaikru. Along with Azgeda. Though the strongest now, they would have to work together after the storms to just feed their people.

Broadleaf would be shifting their domain south to the Cuba islands after the storm as the warmer lands. Though occasionally devastated by weather events, it would provide a decent crop flow. All one needed was to construct bunker-like cities inside of the mountains so that they could weather these Hurry Cane storms. But that was in the future.

This storm of ice and death would forge a stronger people afterward, but to survive, they needed to end many of the grudges that had been around for years. Many of these were just continuation of feuds that were long since settled or just moot in light of recent events.

The politics were shifting. After hearing reports of the Floukru and Skaikru forces working together after their leader Luna had been saved. It illustrated that these new alliances had started to form in the here and now. There were hints that though the two groups had once been part of the same clan at one time. But they had broken off due to some sort of internal matter. Whatever it was- these clans were now the keystone for everyone's survival.

Then the doors swung open as several guards dragged in a prisoner before tossing them to the floor before him.

"My King... this individual was caught plotting to kill you!" Before him was a young woman from the Desert clan. The strong tans and yellows of her garments spoke so.

Walking over, he pulled his sword and drew it. The young woman moved to look up at him with defiant eyes. So, Brown... so primal. If not her garments and skin tone, she would be seen as a fellow Azgedan citizen.

"What is your name?" Roan spoke, looking at the young woman. If it weren't for the fact she was budding breasts on her small frame, he would have taken her shortcut black hair as being a young boy.

"I have none..."

"So, you are a nameless assassin." Roan walked around the young woman. "So how old are you?" Roan noticed that though she was young, she seemed to be no younger than some of the younger Skaikru warriors he had seen as part of Wanheda's lot.

"Why should I tell you... your kind kills and slay all that is before you! Telling you my name gets you nothing other than stating you killed the daughter of some warrior or innocent of my clan." She spat.

"Then whom did I kill that would bring one so young before me for my blood," Roan spoke sensing this would-be assassin out.

"My father." The girl hissed. This girl has a spirit.

"His Name," Roan ordered.

"My Father." Roan gruffed. Had she not sought to kill him, she would make a warrior that even Wanheda would have wanted to join the ranks of her Hundred Warriors.

"So... does your mother know you are here?" Roan mocked. This girl probably hadn't even had her first womanly bleed yet.

"She is dead because of the black rainstorms." Roan stopped insulting the young woman. This was news.

Sankru had been hit by the storms of the Black Rain that Clarke had warned him about. The same Black Rain that had so devastated Luna's old Oil Rig home.

The horrors this girl must have seen. The reports that he had gotten from Ontari about what had happened to Floukru echoed in this girl's eyes. To see people that you loved die from a poison that tore through even the strongest bodies- even that of the Nightbloods- children of Pramheda Bekka's bloodline.

"What was her name?" Roan spoke with command in his presence. "You are going to die! So... it is up to you of the events to come. You are the daughter of..." Roan needed more information on the storms that had hit this girl's homeland. Knowledge was power, and that power led to survival.

The girl was defiant.

"You are the Daughter of..." Roan forced the matter with his sword as he approached.

The girl was defiant again.

A different tactic was needed to get the information out that he needed.

"Cup your hands," Roan ordered.

The girl was again, defiant. This was when he motioned for the guards to move.

"Cup her hands." The girl tried to sprint away to a better fighting position, but she was stopped by one of the guards who had rushed up behind her. Between her screams, the guards dragged the young woman back before him. The warriors moved to tie her wrists together and force her to cup them. Then Roan did something that shocked the girl.

He cut the palm of his hand and let the blood drip into her bound cupped hands.

"You wanted my blood, you now have it in your hands." The girl was trying her best to process what had happened to her. "What was your mother's name?"

Blood must have blood, well she had his blood on her hands. He needed that information.

"Speak..." a sizeable female guard prodded into the young woman. This was enough to push the girl out of her shock. That and the sloshing of Roan's own blood in her hands drove home the point that he wanted that information from her.

"Rosabell." The girl spoke, realizing that her death was coming, but he wanted to make sure that if she died, it was for the right reason.

Rosabell? Roan knew the name, then the girl's age was... Shit...

Shit, shit, shit, shit...

Rosabell kon Sankru's daughter.

A woman who had been one of the few people during his exile that had offered him a safe place to stay. Much like that trading post woman Niylah Wanheda had spent her nights with.

"Zaya kon Sankru."

"You know my name... slay me and send me to my mother who died saving and my father whom you-"

"Your father is alive." Roan hissed. "That man saved my life. I am honor-bound to protect his family. My mother put a bounty on my head and those who aided me. Your father, Vane, risked all to ensure that I lived." Roan moved the dragged the girl from the guard's and threw her to the floor. "You have my blood on your hands. I will punish you for your attempt on my life, but I will not order it to be taken. But you must survive to earn your freedom. There are fates far worse than death." The girl rolled over to see a person entering the room. Roan turned to look at the woman who came. Abbi had stated that she needed several test subjects to demonstrate that this inoculate would work. Well... he had a person on which it could be tested. "Ah... Abbi of Skaikru. I found your test subject." Abbi was taken back by the situation she had walked in on.

"King Roan... I..." Roan raised a hand to stop the Skaikru healer from her leaving. One thing about the Skaikru they were considerate when it came to internal formal matters. Though those like Pike... had no sense of political actions have consequences.

"The inoculate potion that you and your people were able to work on based on Bekka's formula that is to protect us against the Plague Alie unleashed into the storms that are coming. This woman attempted to take my life. I know that you have taken an oath not to take a life unless it is in self-defense. I am granting this girl her life on terms that she survives the treatment. If she lives, she leaves with you. If not- the laws of my people are maintained, and this would be assassin goes to her death." Abbi looked at Zaya. "You came to inoculate my people. They will not take the potion without a test. I am giving you that test."

"Roan... I cannot force treatment on someone without their consent." Abbi declared.

Zaya looked scared.

"Wait... I will have my freedom if I take the treatment?" Zaya moved to rise up.

"Yes..." Zaya licked her lips to ponder her decision.

"I will take the treatment under terms that you tell me about my father Vane, if I survive." The girl looked at Abbi. "Is that consent enough Skaikru?"

"Yes... but..."

"Give me the damn potion!" Zaya moved forward. Roan grinned. Vane's wife, Rosabell, would be proud of this girl.

Abbi looked concerned, then realizing that she was in a situation where she needed to treat this girl.

Slowly nodding Abbi complied.

"Roan... I will need other individuals for the demonstration." Abbi expressed.

"I concur." He added. "I will present more subjects for you to perform your tests upon." Roan continued. "After it is done. Take this girl back to your lands and ensure that she receives an education among your people. She at least deserves that as repayment for all she has lost." Abbi looked perplexed but understood something else was going on.

It was.

He didn't want it known that Zaya was his own daughter.

Not yet, at least.

Keeping this girl was outside of the Azgedan politics during this time of crisis, the better.

She deserved a life. Seeing what they had done with Ontari in such a short time. They might be a way to undo the in-ground hate, fear, and terror that his late mother used as part of her rule that nearly took Ontari away. A young girl whom he saw as a sister and less than a puppet for a throne.

For Azgeda to survive- they needed to change.

And that change started with him the day he was banished and found Zaya's mother.

Zaya kon Azgeda would one day be queen, but he hoped that would be many years away, and she would be a calmer gentler ruler than those before her.


Bellamy sat by Echo's cell. Between Echo being relieved at seeing her sister free and by her side. Echo looked to be borderline suicidal.

"Bellamy." Echo seemed like something was wrong. "Could you get me some white war paint?"

"Echo," Bellamy was slowly learning the nuances of Grounder Culture and some of the aspects of it.

"I betrayed you." Echo declared.

"Under an order by your Queen."

"it is betrayal nonetheless." Echo's sense of honor was strong.

"Echo…"

"Bellamy, do you think I need to be saved? I am a warrior. I would rather die on my feet than-" Bellamy moved over and took note of the knife she had been able to improvise.

"Blood must have blood... right." Bellamy sensed that something more was up.

"I took blood... Blood must be taken."

"Or given," Bellamy spoke, pointing to the knife that Echo had crudely improvised from breaking off a section of wall material by her bedding.

"You know what I am planning."

"Death by Skaikru." Echo moved and quickly snatched up the knife. "That image is enough to scare anyone shitless." Echo had the same fear in her eyes when the guards in Mount Weather had come into their cell block. "Stay the blade Echo. I will get you your war paint." Bellamy stated. Echo's body tensed less as she looked over at Bellamy. The knife more as a defensive barrier than one of attack between the two of them.

"Why are you doing this?" Echo expressed. Her confusion evident in her voice.

"I will tell you later. But you are stronger than you think." Bellamy spoke, and he grinned. "That is what I respect about you." Echo lowered her blade, and Bellamy moved to leave the cell.

Echo had this fire in her eyes that made him care about her.

The irony that the girl that he risked his life to save had the name of a Mountain Nymph that got cursed with shit that wasn't all her fault: Echo.

As Bellamy headed out to find Sennia. Now Sennia was an individual who had taken up to develop a kind of Grounder aesthetic for the surviving Arkers. But the war paint that she had created was close enough to what Azgeda used that it would work for Echo.

Sennia was sorting through items that needed to be stored for the long-term ahead of them when Bellamy approached.

"Sennia." Sennia looked at him. She was not happy.

"Oh, it's Mr. a killed three hundred grounders because some a-hole queen killed the girl I was in love with. What the fuck do you want?" Sennia vented. Bellamy deserved the insults. Maybe after all of the crap he had done, it was earned.

"Can I borrow some of your war paint?" Bellamy spoke as Sennia looked like she was about to slug him.

"No... You Cannot Borrow some of my fucking war paint." Yeah... he needed to apologize.

"You can hit me."

"What?" Sennia spoke, surprised.

"You can haul off and hit me. Hard as you want. In exchange, I get some of your war paint." Sennia seemed to chew on this. Then she hauled off and punched him in the gut before kneeing him in the groin several times.

"Okay." then Bellamy was down coughing through the assault he had endured. Then a moment later, a jar with a screw-on top was placed before him.

Bellamy looked up.

Sennia towered over him.

"There is your warpaint. Tell that Grounder Ice Nation Whore that she will be forgiven in time, but we will never forget what she did."

That was when Sennia kicked Bellamy in the stomach.

"Hope that Ice Nation- shits herself when she is struck with the—" Bellamy didn't need to fill in the missing words as he was being hit. Sennia had made her point... with her foot and her knee and her fist. "For my father."

Bellamy groaned as his body processed that he was hurting. It would be nothing compared to the shock lashing that he and the others were going to receive. For Echo, she would need every ounce of emotional strength she needed not to pass out.

"Will I never regret doing this," Bellamy spoke as he slowly got up and picked up the small jar of white war paint and started to limp his way back to the brig.

Upon returning, Echo looked up to see Bellamy standing before her.

The look of shock spoke volumes.

Echo talked with Bellamy over the last few days. She was coming to terms with her actions. It wasn't her fear of death that scared her. It was the vengeance of the people whose family members she had murdered.

Now seeing Bellamy before her wounded as he came through the cell door, she quickly moved to hold Bellamy up as she walked him over to the bench/bed in the room.

"Bellamy, who hurt..." Echo's concern spoke volumes as she realized that he had been harmed by his own people. "It was your people, wasn't it?" Bellamy reached up to touch Echo's face.

The long, Almond-shaped face. That smooth chin that looked like a feminine man in the moon. That brown hair and those eyes that so reminded him of his mother's. Warrior's eyes.

Eyes that made him put his life on the line to save her from being drained of blood.

"Echo... I give you the war paint so that you may have courage in the fight to come."

"I don't derive it." Echo pushed it away.

"You are a warrior like me."

"Some warrior. I was used by my leaders to kill innocents." Echo seemed to sense that she wanted to bear this shame of her actions. Luna had told him about the knife as well a little about some of the rituals about war paint.

"Your sister- your responsibility," Bellamy stated. Echo seemed ashamed.

"You saved my sister. An act I was unable to do." Echo was crying. "I see how she looks up at you."

"You are not the only one who had taken that oath." Bellamy expressed to Echo.

"What do you mean?" Bellamy moved to gently raise up Echo's face.

"I will tell you the story of one like yourself who too was bound by that same oath."

Echo tried to pull away. Then Kore showed up. Amazing what happens when someone finds a box full of Octavia's old clothing that she had outgrown and had given it to Bellamy to cheer him up. A group of Clothing that his mother had sewn for Octavia as she was growing up had found a new home on someone who needed it. Somehow it had been found via a Grounder scavenger in the ruins of the section that had crashed on the ground. Considering that after what Finn had done when he found scavenged clothing that he had thought belonged to his friends. Bellamy was lucky that they weren't burned because of that.

Maybe seeing that all of the Arkers had been in Polis during the City of Light mess. The clothes had been returned to them.

If it was the fates or not, Octavia's old clothes fit Kore like a glove. Seeing the young girl standing outside of the cell of the Brig next to Bryan stated that she had come in not to so much break her sister out. In truth, to convince her that there was another way out. Even the few Azgeda tattoos Kore had on her only spoke to who she was, not where she was from.

Bellamy was now figuring out Echo and realized why they had been thrown together back in the Mountain. They were bonded in many ways by purpose and choices. And those decisions were coming to a head here at this moment.

"Listen to him, sister," Kore spoke as she reached out to take the war paint from Bellamy. Kore covered her face in a rough Azgeda style before handing back to Bellamy as he adopted the painting style that Sennia had chosen as well as others of the hundred.

Two large white swaths of paint that ran from his forehead down the sides of his neck.

Echo blinked a few times, realizing that these two wanted her to hear their words.

"There is much you need to know." Kore words echoed in Echo's ears as she reached down, realizing that if this was a battle, she would listen to learn what the plan of attack was.

"Back on the Ark, there was a woman named Aurora who bore a son and later a daughter-"

Echo listened, and her world was changed. Bellamy told the story of what had happened in his past. The events of the Skaikru and himself. And the events that had transpired since their last meeting.

The gods had chosen her to be here, and she would obey.

Echo was subject to "Right of the Kill," not "Blood must have Blood."

The gods had placed them together for a reason, and she understood why now.

The Pain she would endure would be short as the punishment for the crimes she had committed, but her redemption would be a tale for the ages.

She would face it as a true Azgeda warrior... war paint and all.

She pledged her Loyalty and fealty to Wanheda and the warriors of the Thirteen Clans she commanded called the Hundred.


Bree woke up naked in bed. Looking at a note written in black marker on her arm, which said:

The ointment for your hurt neck is on the bed stand next to you.

Feeling her neck hurt, Bree rolled over to see where her ointment was that she was supposed to use to tend for the pain she was having and saw that she wasn't alone.

There was a man in her bed.

He looked vaguely familiar to her. Something about her and horses.

"Um... did we?" Bree looked a bit confused as the man spoke to her as he seemed to be in the same situation as her. Bree had grown up on the low gravity sections of the Ark. Nudity wasn't a taboo for her. Here on the Ground, her feet hurt, and her clothing pressed a little too hard on her skin. But naked, she felt normal. In the water, she felt great.

If she could move throughout these lands without a stitch of clothing covering her body, she would.

Over the last few days, her memory was foggy in a few places since her neck got hurt from the medicine she was taking. Her mind would return at times in flashes, but from what she remembered that she would have a full recollection in a few hours. If Bree had taken the medication before sleeping with this attractive man... Well, she needed to confirm if they did the deed. Bree reached between her naked legs to check for the stickiness of post-sexual body fluids.

"No..." Bree pondered for a second. "Um... Listen... my memory is a little foggy, did we share warmth?" The man looked confused as Bree took note of some of the details of the man with her.

Given how he was acting meant that they had been together when she had taken her medication spoke, they had been together at the time, and the lack of body fluids stated that either this was a prank or... she liked this guy.

Grounder Pounder like Octavia.

What was the Grounder Version for doing the deed with an Arker?

"You have memory loss too?" There was tension in the man's body. Handsome young man's body.

Please, Mother Gaia, let him be naked.

Bree checked under the sheets to confirm her own nudity as well as his.

"Yes..." an image... them kissing, her being topless then more with Janus in the stables with them. "Wait, I know you... you are one of the riders?" Bree's memories were returning. Check the damn note you left yourself to remember what you did last night. Bree's mind screamed at her.

"Texas of the Ingranronakru." Bree got a name...Which was good for she wanted to know who she had slept with.

"Bree of Skaikru." Bree fell back into the bed and looked down as she realized her breasts were exposed. Then looking over at the young man with her, she picked up the sheet again.

Yeah, the guy was naked, and he had a... Oh Shit! Big... fat... Man...

Bree Squealed as she pulled the sheet back down. She was like a child getting a new toy, and she had just got to sneak a peek at it.

Texas looked a bit concerned, but seeing that this girl was impressed with what she had seen now lying beside her had Bree thinking what to do next. Bree started to picture the ways she would enjoy that man's meat with her very naked body in various carnal ways.

"Yesss..." Well, even with memory loss, she had an excellent choice of what she liked and shit... No wonder Octavia loved Lincoln that much. "Well, at least I chose well with whom I wanted to share my body warmth." Bree checked again to confirm what she had seen. Given how Texas was looking at her, he hadn't realized that she might have been interested in sleeping in bed with him too.

"Is this sharing of warmth what we did?" Bree looked over at the man with her. His own memories were returning, and the apparent reference to the stuff that Ice Wolf Tari did with Jasper had gotten around. Bree decided to clarify what they had been doing.

"It is a relationship thing... Guess what we are steady." This brought about a look of confusion.

"And us... being naked in bed together is..." Bree sighed.

"... to see if we don't take advantage of the other while naked or vulnerable. It started out as a tradition back on the stations when a couple wanted to express their affection for one another." Bree was biting her lip to the point of it almost bleeding.

"Oh..." The young man seemed that he was expecting something more.

"Also... It means that we get to have really raunchy sex afterward." Bree motioned as she pulled the sheets off of herself. Bree's nakedness allowed her to proceed to snake her way over to the man with her. This was when there was a knock on the door. Bree was inches away from her goal of having her feel of raunchy morning sex as a voice rang through the air.

"Bree... Tex... You better be under the sheets or clothed, because I am coming in." This was when Mel came into the room. Bree was sitting on the bed fully nude, and well, "Tex" was still under the sheets.

Mel just stopped.

"Crap... Niylah was right... both of you got hit with that memory stuff last night when you started drinking from each other's cups."

"Memory stuff?" Tex was speaking.

"Yeah... that memory fade stuff that Niylah was giving to Bree to help with her trauma from her injury and you leaving without telling her." Mel marched over and proceeded to glare at the man in bed.

"You were planning on leaving me?" Bree spoke concerned, she was being dumped... Deep sadness and her being left hanging there without a reason why. Bree swallowed, feeling the pain in her throat. This was when Mel interrupted.

"No... He wasn't... given the hard humping taking place when he returned to the stables... stated that two of you made up. Shit girl, he practically proposed to your topless form and was about to offer up her personal possessions to keep you." Mel spoke, approaching the bed.

"Then..." Bree reached up to touch her neck and felt the edges of a scar there.

"Bree... you took it hard... I mean, really hard. If it weren't for Niylah and Ontari finding you when they did... you would be dead."

"What do you mean?" Bree spoke concerned, sensing that the neck scar had a more in-depth story behind it than what she was feeling with her fingers.

"Look at your wrists, Bree." Bree looked down at the bandages on her wrists. Pulling one back made Bree jump. The number of stitches on her flesh spoke volumes of how far down it went.

Her wrists were stitched up in a straight line right across the veins on her arms. Bree gulped. Bree had done a severe job at slitting at her wrists like she wanted to end it all.

"Bree... me and Harper had to scrub blood off of the floor from your trifecta hanging, slit wrist, and drinking poison run." This was when Mel marched over to toss over an extra-large shirt to Bree. "Bellamy sat by your side while you were being patched up... Float... You destroyed all of your clothes in the process with the blood loss you did to them, not to mention how you tore them up to make that damn noose." Mel looked more upset at telling Bree this. "And you..." Mel vented to the young man in bed. "... You better treat my friend right or-." Mel reached into the pocket of her jacket and pulled out a pair of locking pliers and flicked them open before she reached down upon the sheets of the bed Tex was under and grabbed a handful of... healthy manhood and paused for a second as she realized the size of foresaid body part. "Yeah... I am going to need a larger pair of these. I should have gone with the five or eight with the clamps instead of the three." The gulp from Tex needed no translation of the point Mel was getting to. But hearing Mel comment the size of Tex's male genitalia stated that the term: Grounder Pounder just took on a whole new meaning for her and Mel.

Bree thought that she must have been serious about being with this man in her bed.

Severe enough that thought of living a life without him by her side... well... a death trifecta... Bree must have been hurt. Jasper, after Maya's death bad...

Wait... She knew a boy named Jasper that went through this... but his poison... pardon the term was Shine...

Shine must not have cut it for her.

Mel was on the verge of clamping this guy's man junk for the crap he had pulled.

Bree must have been a severe mess about meeting this guy.

"I will treat your friend well." The cracking of the voice was enough to snap Bree back to the present. Bits of memories were coming back. Drop Ship... Monsters in the Mountain... them making laws... Noose... Right of the kill... Don't hang someone unless you have the full story... Echo... Protect Ontari's power to punish or pardon Echo...

"Mel..." Bree looked worried. "Did you claim a right of the kill on him for what happened?" Maybe Mel wanted to punish this man: Tex for what he had done to Bree. Mel rolled her eyes. "My Claim on my right of the Kill was so I could ensure Ontari could give a proper trial..." Bree spilled out what she was putting together. Mel cut her off.

"Bree stop! I know why you did what you did for political reasons. What is happening here and now is with your slab of man meat here. What if I did do the Right... Bree... with everything that has happened and is happening. I am glad that you picked a monogamous guy to be with." Mel seemed a little worried. This was when Mel sat on the bed. "If we get through this... I want to start a family. Maybe with one of the Arkers based out of Raven's Rock. I have had it with this place and the damn politics here." Mel looked like she had been through Hell a few times. "Fuck Pike to Hell. We are Grounders, I am going to live as a Grounder."

"Mel... I know that I sucked as a roommate." Bree spoke as she moved to put the shirt on.

"Bree... just stop... I could live with your music, you sleeping nude, fuck... your need to fuck some guy in your bed every other night. But you are that friend that took care of me when I had a broken arm. Helped me when I learned my family died and gave me the shine I needed right after I had my birth control implant ripped out by Abby at my request." Mel looked at the couple.

"Mel..." Bree spoke as she moved to hug her friend. "... I didn't know." Bree hadn't known that she had folks that cared about her that much.

"Now, you do... Listen... Tex's old man is looking for the both of you and is willing to give you a little while to finish up your..." Mel cleared her throat, motioning to the couple. "So..." with a gesture of her hands imitating the male and female body parts in copulation. "I leave you be." With that, Mel moved to walk out the door and picked up a backpack by the door. "Tex... treat my friend right. I expect to be made the godmother of any little one that comes out from between her legs."

"Mel..." Bree got up out of bed and rushed to her friend and hugged her. "Thanks..." Mel moved her arms around her friend.

"You too... if I don't see you before the storms hit. Have a great life together out on those Plains." Mel spoke as she headed out the door.

Bree looked at the door.

Life should be more than surviving... it should be about living.

A blonde woman named Clarke spoke those words.

Bree needed to live.

With her memory as foggy as it was. Bree wanted to live her life.

Turning to see the naked man in her bed Bree took a deep breath and pulled off the shirt she was wearing and jumped into bed with him.

"I want to live... I want to live with you. I want to live with you by my side and..." Bree moved to straddle the man. "Inside of me." Tex didn't argue as he inserted himself in as the sheets were pulled away from his body.

For the next little while, the two-people started to remember the events that brought them together and realized that no matter what happened. This moment... And the ones that followed, they were not going to be afraid of what was to come. They had faced the darkness. Now it was a race to the light of their future.

As lovers... and more... together.


Roya of the Plains Riders was standing next to the group of riders gathered around their chieftain. Roya was looking over at the Skaikru girl that had been... well having casual sex with her brother. Shit, this blonde whore had made love to him in public by the damn stables without a care about who had seen them get naked. This was when her lover Sabine walked over.

"Guess... they are serious about this?" Roya glared at the Skaikru.

"His cock isn't even dry, and they are close to making out again." Sabine punched Roya in the arm.

"Not your brother and the girl he is with... this... the ride." Sabine got Roya's attention. "So many Kru are going to be involved." Sabine's Soft rounded face glanced at her.

"Yeah... but to bring that... that Skai whore with him..." Roya fumed.

"Actually... the sex she does is her coping mechanism," Sabine added. "Most of her friends I have spoken to is that she is a Maenad... a type of female warrior. She lost one of her fellow Maenad brethren due to Mountkru Acid fog, then to the Mountain and several of her friends though battles with others."

"But she is doing it with my brother!"

"Roya... she has been doing it less since she met your brother." Sabine stood between her and this wench. "Take a look at the scars on her neck and wrists... this girl has been a victim of the Mountain and add the weight of Praimfaya she tried to drown herself in wine and ale either not trying to feel or trying to feel something else other than pain."

"I don't trust her," Roya spoke as she wanted to smash her fist into the girls' stomach.

"ROYA... LISTEN UP!" The Plains Rider elder spoke up in her direction. Roya turned to see that the elder wasn't happy with her. "I know that you do not like Skaikru, I understand. I barely trust some of them given the crap some of them pulled... But for now, stuff it! If you want to string the girl up and drain her blood into a bucket like the Mountkru did. Then after that, leave her corpse for the animals to feast upon. I would not mind if you did it, but right now... Shut your lips and silence your tongue till I am done talking."

The Elder seemed to understand Roya's feelings, but she glared at the Blonde's long lion mane of hair and wished to hang the whore by it.

"Floukru has looked at several of the storm maps that Skaikru and the Podakru have kept over the century. They found that at the given rate of the storms, we will have to reach the remote part of our lands to get out of the range of the falling poison ash Alie has unleashed upon our homes." The Elder looked at the riders. "You are the best animal speakers of your people. Our job is to ensure that whatever livestock we are not able to place into the bunkers with us are taken to safety." There was a pause before the elder continued. "Ontari has spoken with her ancestors as well as those who have become trapped in the City of Light. She has learned that there is a natural barrier that will keep you and the animals safe." The Elder pointed at the photograph that Skaikru had taken from their place high in the heavens. What caught her attention was the fact that there was another coastline on the far western part of the lands. There had been stories about there being a western sea, but to see it as an actual image made it hit home. To know that there were more lands out to the West probably meant that there were people there too.

Unknown Clans and unknown Kru to deal with.

"There is a line of mountains here." The elder pointed out. "Given that there are also winds coming from that direction from the western sea. Knowing that, those winds should provide you some natural protection from the weather as most of the burning structures that Alie set ablaze are along this part of the lands here on the east." Several points of the map had been marked to signify the sites as the origins of the toxic smoke.

"So, we are to ride west till we reach safety." One of the Riders spoke up.

"Yes, but we can only move the animals, moving that many people would take too long." The elder spoke. "The only advantage we have is that this poison rain stinks so badly that moving our livestock won't be a problem. The only problem we have is that we need to keep them together."

"That is why you need animal whispers like me," The Skai whore spoke.

Roya pictured the slow dismemberment she would do this small breasted whore. But the elder moved in to speak, and her chain of fantastic horrors were halted.

"Yes, and you and the others." Several of the group looked at the golden-haired Skai whore. There was something different about her when another animal whisper moved over to her.

"I heard about the Maenads. You are more animal than human." The whore blushed.

"Not more animal than human- just that they are less complicated around us. We are tuned into nature. They like us as we act like them at times." Then she sniffed the air like a wolf. "Aggression. Serious territorial issues," She paused. "That is not about me." She started to look around at the group. Then she stopped and looked at Roya directly. With a tilted head, she continued. "Wow... if you want my blood, I'll offer if it will satiate you."

"From your slit neck Skai-whore." Roya spat back. No wonder she fucked like an animal, she thought she was one. Roya screamed at the Skaikru whore.

"You have no honor when it comes to your lovers. You would fuck a horse given half a chance."

This was when the elder moved between the two of them.

"Silence, you two or I swear, I will chain you together…"

Then an Azgedan rider moved behind her and grabbed her arms, and tied her wrists. The next thing she knew, she had been gagged.

"Tork, I will keep this one quiet so that you can tell the group about what they are to do."

"Wait." The Skai whore moved to Roya. "I caused this. I will put this right." With a smooth action, she sniffed Roya neck. "You are a member of Texas's family. You are angry at me for reasons that..." Roya spat on the Skai whore's shirt through the gag.

What happened next shocked everyone present.

The Skai whore took off her shirt to reveal her naked chest and wiped Roya's face.

"What is your problem? Me and Texas started our serious relationship this morning. I like him, and he likes me." Roya lunged at the wench. The Azgeda applied all the strength to keep Roya from kicking the blonde to death.

"Bree, she's my sister. Roya."

"Roya the Destroyer. Wait, the one who acted like my fellow Maenads in battle." Then the details clicked.

"She is pissed, thinking that I offered up my body to get a taste for your man junk."

This is when the whore pulled a knife out from her leggings and kicked Roya to the floor. Then Bree moved like a beast and was upon her, by running on all fours as she pounced to pin Roya down.

Once Roya was in the ground, the Whore sat upon her chest.

"Alright, I will ask you a set of questions answer by nodding for yes and shaking your head for no."

Roya glared daggers through the Skaikru. That stopped when the whore put the knife to her neck.

"I am Bree, a Maenad. A creature whose body craved to be primal. The only way I and those like me could cope with being trapped in those damn tin cans was to go nude, get drunk, and have sex at times." Bree pressed the knife to Roya's neck. "Many of those who you call Skaikru saw us as easy marks. As Sluts and Whores to shive their cocks or press their womanly lower lips upon. Very few of us lived past the age of thirty." Bree leaned into her. "I was almost one of them."

Bree was looking at her, crying. Not crying out anger at Roya, but at the fate that she and her fellow Maenad brethren had to endure. That she survived and would go on to lead knowing the fate of her brethren, and she would not allow the same fate befall her kin in the future.

"I have had it with your shit. Answer me, is you turf issue over the fact I am fucking your brother." Roya gritted her teeth and growled a nod. "Shit, I only did your Brother this morning."

"What!" the whore had to be lying. "Did... Morning" as in the woman only had copulated with Roya's bother just today?

"Fuck, everyone thinks I did the deed with him in the stables." Bree moved the knife's edge from Roya's neck and drew it over her breastbone. "We didn't." Bree seemed to not want to hurt her.

"We kicked the wall of the stable, and I moaned to the point of being hoarse just so my friends could protect Ontari's freaking right of the mutherfucking kill. Fuck- to punish Echo Kom Azagedy, I am from the mutherfucking Ice Nation. I serve my lying bitch of a queen because she can find out where my missing sister is at. But oh, after I get caught by my newly imposed King and questioned by an Ocean Clan mystic only to find out that the guy whose cage sat next to mine happens to find my missing sister who had been in a slavers camp that he liberated. But Nooooo. He finds the fuck out that my Late Queen lied to me because she has been taking a cut of the funds the Slavers. The damn bitch had been getting from the raids of various villages. Learning that your queen had been supporting raid in and outside of the Ice Nation for years, is a scandal of epic proportions. Fuck- the Queen even was the one who paid the bastards to steal Ontari from her parent's arms. So many nations that there is a line to watch the event and see the Ice Queen's body be burned to ash. But that isn't the reason you hate my guts. It is because you think I am a sex-crazed, pleasure-seeking, fuck harlot."

Bree held the knife over Roya's heart.

"I'm a nudist, not a cock slut, you bitch! I suffer from Gravity sickness. Me, I miss being clothing optional at times helps with the symptoms. That and being a little horny is my body's way of coping with the biological urges that have been cranked up to eleven." That was when Bree started to unlace her boots, pull them off with a freehand. Then standing up, Bree dropped her leggings and undergarments and moved to kick them off.

"Shit… you do an orgy once… and everyone and their damn sister think you are a whore. Crap being a polyamorous free lover who does her best to find the ones who won't be Scrub asses when I need to hormone fuck to keep sane. My list of people I do it with is short. Shit… Your brother is the first really serious… emotionally connected, long-term relationship I have had. He isn't in it for the damn sex. He likes me… for me… and not for the fucking perfect naked ass and breasts I have. You BITCH."

Folding up the clothing she had been wearing, Bree knelt down and helped Roya up.

Bree was naked as the day she had been born, and for her, it seemed completely natural.

Bree looked at Roya.

"What about the stables?"

"Animals don't mind the nudity. They open up to me. Guess that after Ontari saved me from my suicide attempt that I found my place." Bree sniffed her and sighed. "I Bree of the Sky Clan offer up my blood, sweat, and tears to my sister within the Plains Riders, Roya."

Freeing Roya's hands, Bree moved and made a blood offering to her.

Roya was in shock.

Bree wasn't a whore.

Bree was a child of nature who happens to be suffering an illness. An Illness that the woman wished as gone as the dawn of the previous day.

Being naked and having sex with people she trusted was her short-term way to alleviate the symptoms. Like a fool, Roya had thought that this woman was a whore.

Calling Bree that, must have been a level of emotional harm that the young Skaikru had done her best to cope with.

Maenads must have been a type of savage hunter flower child the Skaikru had to deal with. And Bree was doing her best to not start a fight with her.

Bree rolled her shoulders as she did her best to control her breathing.

How many times had this girl sought out her brother to find safety and compassion within his loving arms?

Not to have sex… but to open up. Retain her humanity from an ailment that tore at the most primal, most bestial parts of her body and mind.

But now- Bree had reached her limit with this conflict with her. She wanted it to end these days of this false blood feud.

Bree's blood was warm. Soft. Then the Skaikru let out a wolf-like howl as she pulled a piece of cloth from Roya's personage to wrap the wound.

"Bree, are you a wolf in human form?" Roya then realized Bree was channeling that animal side of herself to achieve victory. But accepting a wound was the animal's way of showing fealty to Roya and her "Pack."

Bree just grinned. The spirit had communicated to her, and right now, it moved into her flesh to let Roya know that it was going to protect this human flesh from any aggression against it.

"On this journey, we are going to take. You will find out." Bree spoke as the animal spirit compelled her to lean to her base animal instincts. "In my view- Being a little savage and primal helps keep me sane." Bree leaned in and rubbed her cheeks across Roya's face. The smeared Skaikru blood on both of their faces stated that they had connected, and the animal had marked her as being a member of Bree's pack. Rising up and moving away with clothing in hand, Roya started to understand why her brother Texas spent so much time with this girl. Bree was compassionate. Funny, read people.

But this connection to the animals and the spirits of this world stated that this woman was something not to be trifled with.

Bree had this comfort in her own skin.

Maybe it was the reason why the animals were so comfortable with her.

She was more like them that she really wanted to let on.

As the Skaikru stood there naked. The stitched flesh of her wrists and the apparent noose wound spoke to someone who had been near death, and some of the stories that Bree had been close with Texas beforehand stated how fragile she was too.

This girl had been a caged animal, and death had almost been a way out for her.

Now, as Bree stood next to her brother Texas, there was a tameness about the woman. It was like she knew that there was a fighting chance for both of them. These Maenads- this sub-group of Skaikru was something that she needed to understand.

Roya got up and moved towards the group. Taking off her jacket Roya covered Bree.

This little offering communicated that she was showing compassion.

"Just cover yourself up, so the others are not distracted by your body as the elder gives his speech. But we are talking after this." Bree nodded at this.

"Understood." then Bree sniffed the air. "Your aggression has gone down." Then there was a wrinkle from her nose. "Jeremy. Stay. Away. From. Cordy." Bree turned her glaring eyes to a young boy who was speaking with a young girl who had recently budded into early womanhood. The way the girl was acting was almost lethargic as she was fighting through something in her system.

The girl looked to be wearing as little clothing as she could as if any more on her would hurt her.

Roya started to understand the sickness that Bree had was also in possession of this young girl.

If this girl was another Maenad, Bree was sensing it, and keeping the girl out of trouble and possibly still clothed was her best course of action. Bree and this girl were dealing with some ailment that being undressed helped keep them alert, but while clothed... Roya felt her stomach crash. They seemed drunk.

Bree wasn't naked for sex- she was being naked so that she could get to know Texas.

One of the Coywolves that had been hanging around the camp started acting like Bree. "Bullworth- get Jeremy out! Protect Cordy." Bree ordered to the animal in clear Gonaslang.

The animal obeyed and started to bark and chase the boy away from the girl. The girl came and joined the group standing next to Bree.

Cordy was fighting to stay awake. The smell of ale could be smelled on the girl's breath. But it wasn't... it was something else... the scent was more along the lines of Pond scum or ruminate from beer or winemaking.

Was this sickness such that self-medicating with ale, wine, mead, and beer was the only way not to feel ill?

Roya headed over to the girl and stood next to her. This close Roya could see the hives on the girl's skin where the clothing was touching. Looking at Bree, she could see the same hive marks on her shoulders and waist where her clothing had clung to where she was wearing it.

"It's alright, you will be safe with us." Bree nodded. The girl relaxed. "Maenad?" The girl nodded. "Just keep your clothes on, and things will be alright for now. If you need some rest, come with Bree and me, and I'll get you a blanket."

The girl sniffed her and stuck near her like a loyal hound. Roya had a lot to learn about the Skaikru, but for now, she wasn't angry at them too much. Bree seemed to want to bury the hatchet. Well, Roya would bring a shovel for the burial.

Bree may have looked like a whore, but given who she and this girl were acting pointed that they had an ailment that forced them to be comfortable with being naked as it was probably the only relief they could have. Some like her had thought them as being sexually loose. No! They weren't. If you wanted to make love to one like her brother had with Bree, you had to pass some strict codes of conduct to get there. After a while, Bree put her pants on again.

Roya grinned when she saw the Coywolf return with blood along its mouth.

After this meeting, she was going to help Bree nurse this girl back to health.

It might be exciting, but learning about this sickness might provide some insight into what Skaikru must have endured while living up in the heavens.

For now, the group listened about the long journey they would take across the Great Plains of the West to a place called Delos.

Hopefully, the cattle and other farm animals they were moving with them could survive the journey out past the realm of the deadly storms.


Riley's head was spinning as he saw the number of Grounders walking around. He was still jumpy but seeing the rack that had been set up for the shock lashing. But the feeling wasn't for blood. It was for closure.

Hearing what Pike had done with the locals, both Arkers and Grounders. Shit. Bellamy was lucky that Ontari had pulled her clout in getting him off with this punishment and not a flat-out execution.

But Kore's older sister Echo was going to be lashed too.

Nia had caused so much harm that her funeral fire would bring about cheers from both sides.

These people looked like they had been burned out from all of the violence. Given the number of injured walking around spoke to the level of intensity that had happened while he was gone.

This Alie person looked to have caused more harm that Pike and Queen Nia had done together before Clarke put her down.

The number of people moving about was a little disconcerting for him.

Then he bumped into a Grounder girl as he was turning around.

Anya. Riley jumped in defense. Seeing that, unlike the hardened warrior queen that the rest of the Hundred had fought in the past. The girl jumped too at his reaction as well.

She said something in that strange Grounder tongue that didn't make sense but only stated that she was scared.

"Sorry," Riley stated to the girl. The girl nervously looked away.

Please do not be Anya's kid sister.

"You a Hundred?" The girl pointed to his wrist.

Ever since he had been back. Several of the original Hundred along with several Grounders that Clarke had befriended had started to wear their tracking bracelets again. But this time, Raven had rigged them so that they could transmit more information to the network. Each tablet could receive the status of where the other bracelets wearers were at, and present it to the users in real-time.

Maybe the fact that Clarke was working hard to build a lasting peace spoke much to what she was trying to accomplish. But there was another thing about these bracelets now. They now illustrated that they were warriors.

"Yes." The girl pulled her hair back behind one of her ears.

"Melody..." she spoke. Those brown eyes had seen much. Much like his. She said something in Grounder. People... Water.

Water People. Title... Crap. Clan name. Melody of the Water People. No... not water. Ocean. Floukru- Floukru- Floukru-, wait. Floukru- Lincoln's friends on the Ocean. The people to the Far East beyond the desert.

Melody seemed concerned.

Wait... she was asking his name. Like an idiot, he was standing there as he was translating what she had said moments ago.

"Riley," he called out so quickly and loudly that Melody jumped back some when he spoke, shit nearly yelled it at her. "Sorry... I know... enough of your language." Riley decided to muddle through what he had overheard during his imprisonment. "You are lovely." Melody blinked a few times. Maybe he had said it wrong.

"You speak rough... but your use of the word was for an item, not for person," Melody said in her native tongue. She blushed some. "I got what you mean." Then in perfect English, she said: "Sorry." It took him a moment to realize that she was deciding to speak in his language.

"You stared in your language then moved to-" Riley spoke.

"Yours. It has been our way. For protection against the Mountain men. Now they are gone because of Wanheda. Klark of the Sky People. Your people." This now started to make sense.

"Yeah, I heard the story. Clarke racked up quite a body count."

"Clarke tries peace first, violence as a last resort," Melody spoke as she looked over at the stands being erected. "Though she doing her best so that the punishment matches the crime along with the intent."

"The laws here are strict, but I guess that this is better than being floated for the crap they did."

"Floated?" guess the term was an alien one to these people. Maybe he needed to explain the word and the context it was being used in.

"Long ago when Skaikru's ancestor once operated on the seas. They operated under laws where if there were a crime committed on a ship, the punishment would match the crime. But the more severe the crime, the more severe the punishment." Melody started to nod at this. "Well-" Riley tried to put this into context. "Crimes of murder, mutiny."

"Starting a war without your elder's approval." Melody's words hit home. Finn and him hurting the village of innocent Grounders.

"Yeah... stuff like that were met with the punishment of walking the plank," Riley stated what it meant. "They were thrown off of the vessel in the middle of the sea."

"To Float." Melody's words hit home.

"To their deaths." Melody moved to sense that what was going to happen wasn't a plank walk. "Lesser crimes- being lashed."

"They will live, but blood will be had." Melody took his hand and walked with him to a place between buildings. There she hiked up her dress to show her naked body. She turned to show her back and the three lash marks on her flesh. "I got these for disobeying my General for not killing a baby belonging to my enemy." Riley moved to touch her back. "I was ten at the time. After that, I fled to join Luna and her people."

Melody let the dress fall down.

Riley moved to turn Melody around.

"You survived Hell as I," Riley spoke, sensing that maybe he needed to be by this girl. "Do you want to walk for a little while?" She nodded. "Okay." They moved to walk, just knowing that they were not alone felt good. With that Riley moved and picked up the dress and helped the Floukru maiden get dessed before they got into the more populated areas.

A bit of his heart knowing that he just had found his soulmate.


Julia kom Trikru watched as a small group of riders came into her village. Among them were several Skaikru.

Julia hated Skaikru for what had happened to her parents and her young friend Tris.

She lost her mother and friend Tris at the bridge that thundered because of Skaikru.

She lost her father when Anya attempted to storm that accursed longhouse that Wanheda had come down in. Death via wall of fire.

The worse part of it was that her parents didn't really have a grudge with Skaikru.

All her parents wanted was to get her free of the fucking damn mountain.

Tris... her sister- all she wanted to be a leader.

Wanheda... Slayer of the mountain.

Wanheda... Slayer of her parents.

Wanheda... The monster who had killed her friends.

Wanheda- The healer who failed to help her sister in her moment of dire need.

Julia swore that she would send a message to Wanheda for the blood she had spilled in taking her parents away. Granting her freedom from the mountain to find out she was alone.

Wanheda would learn what pain was by her hands. To see her family burned to death. Like Julia's had been when Anya had ordered that attack on the Golden Wolf herself.

No... She needed to bury that anger for now.

Then she saw her chance. There was a young male Skaikru with them.

The group seemed to be made up of mostly women as she moved to catch their attention.

"Greetings, Travelers. I see that you are heading to Trikru lands. Would you mind that I join you?" Julia declared to the group. Julia hoped that the skimpy top that she was wearing would get the Skaikru boy's attention. If not, then one of the women.

"We are, but we are heading to the Mountain." The Dark haired Trikru- no Skaikru woman called out.

What if the rest of the group was Skaikru- the gods were grinning on her this day?

"Why are you heading there?" Julia stated,

"To retrieve some remains of one of our friends who died." The young man spoke. Then he turned back to look at the girl, "Wait, I know you."

Damnnit... her guise was up.

"You know her?" The Blonde Skaikru called out.

"Yeah, she was a prisoner of the mountain. I got dragged by her cell when we were about to be drained." Julia stopped her movement to the blade she had.

There was a pause among the group.

Julia realized that they were not worried that she was a threat but knew her story.

"Listen, if you are heading to Arkadia or TonDC it will take a little while to get there." The blonde girl of the group called out as she moved her horse over to Julia.

"Olivia?" The Dark-haired woman called out.

"Listen, you know that the rains of coming, and it will not be safe to be out here when they start coming down," Olivia stated. "If she is with us, then she can be safe."

"Safe from the rain?" Julia laughed.

"This is no laughing matter. Alie lit several buildings on fire full of poison and used the smoke to poison the upcoming storm clouds. Trust me, this is not the stuff you want to be caught in." The plains rider woman spoke.

"You want us to fear the rain now. You makers of shit and blood." Julia spat. Her anger flowed from her in waves. "Skaikru killed my sister: Tris kom Trikru, second to Anya Kom Trikru." The response was far different than she respected.

"Krap- nabnit." The Blonde Skaikru spoke. "The girl Clarke couldn't save because of the injuries she sustained."

"She was my sister. My blood. She was a warrior who died by the hands of your people, and I will have my handful of your blood." Julia demanded from the group as she drew out her blade. "If you are still alive, then I will burn you alive like you did with my parents."

"What?" The dark-haired one on the horse called out.

The sound of thunder out in the distance rung out, stating that the gods agreed with her anger.

Tris would have her life avenged alongside that of her parents.

This was when Julia lunged at the blond Skaikru woman on the horse.

The horse jumped backward, but if one knew that if a horse was going to rear up like that, then with enough speed and action, one could knock the horse down.

You had to get beside the reared-up animal and shove it off to the side. After that, the animal would come down, then would stumble before it fell over.

This is what Julia did. What she didn't expect was for the rider to lunge off of the animal in her direction.

The horse fell down off to the side, but the rider was landing on top of her.

Shit, this was one of the feared warriors of Wanheda. She must have anticipated the attack.

The woman's weight knocked the wind out of her.

A fist came into Julia's stomach. Julia tried to roll onto her side. She needed to reach the blade concealed by her waist- that wasn't happening.

Wanheda's warrior had it in her hand and had placed it at Julia's throat.

"What the Float is wrong with you?" The warrior declared.

Julia wanted to scream.

"You took everything from me." The warrior rolled her eyes, which was an insult to Julia's suffering.

"Crap, fucking warrior pride." The blonde warrior grabbed Julia by the front of her dress and slapped her across the face. "You have a right to be angry. What is that saying you guys have; get knocked down-"

"-get up again." Julia croaked out.

"Good, because I am tired of being mistaken for someone else, mountain man, Arker, I know you blame us for the death of your sister and parents. What about the father, my friend Fe' Nix's daughter will never get to know. Her father died in that same flaming mess that took your parents. What about Atom? Roma? My fucking mother!" The Skaikru screamed the names at her. "When will you get through that stubborn head that you are trying to settle a score that is already settled?"

"Blood must have-"

"Blood- girlfriend, you want what vengeance for a child who Clarke grieves for still for. For parents who were drawn into a personal vendetta that wasn't theirs." The warrior reached for a blade she had sleeved in a scabbard attached to the back of her jacket. "You want your damn blood sacrifice." The warrior slapped Julia across the face. "The Blood of Skaikru." Julia was growling. "Listen up, you Grounder bitch-" the warrior placed a tomahawk by Julia's neck and pressed hard enough for Julia to realize that this warrior could end her life with the drag of her wrist. "You want blood. Then have mine!" The tomahawk was removed from her neck. Julia felt something wet and warm slowly hit her face.

It took a moment for Julia to realize what was coming down her cheek.

"I give my blood to this warrior who lost her kin to mine and my kin to hers." Julia started to feel water hit her face. It stung. "I- shit!"

"Black Rain." One of the group called out.

Before Julia could protest, she was being pulled up as the burning rain started to come down harder.

Julia had thought the statement mentioned earlier was a joke, but as they rode, the comment from earlier now started to make sense. The Warrior who had fallen upon her was quickly moving to help get her horse up. The warrior shoved Julia upon the back of the beast before climbing alongside with Julia. Still in shock heard one of the riders, the Black leather garbed woman of the group yell out, she knew of a nearby cave for them to take shelter in.

The burning rain made her flesh fell like it was preserving fat being melted off for a winter's meal. Was this what the Acid fog was like that the Mountain Men had used to attack trespassers to their lands?

That thought was put aside as she did the best to shield her face and eyes with her arms.

Then the dark-haired rider led the group to a set of trees, and they rode through until they and the horses were inside of the cave.

One of the group produced some sort of strange light and flicked it to life as Julia was grabbed and had her clothing quickly pulled off and was splashed with water till she was soaking wet, but the burning had stopped. As the other riders of the group promptly raced to wash down the horses as well, Julia just sat in the sand of the cave as she turned to see that there were several other people there with them.

Julia's naked skin felt the coldness and fear in the air.

Three families, a merchant whose cart looked to be pretty bad off as a pile of smoking clothing, lay near the water.

A young girl named Madi was hiding under a blanket as her mother did her best to wipe at a very black and blue bruise that the girl had gotten on her leg with a healing salve. The family looked to be from the Shallow Valley. The others seemed to have been from- Delphi, Trikru. As a blanket was laid over her shoulders, Julia realized that the Skaikru had been telling the truth.

Julia walked over to see the Blonde Skaikru girl how had offered up her blood sacrifice to her having her hand bandaged by her friend.

"Tell me the truth of that day- the day my sister Tris died." Julia realized as the female warrior grinned that what was going to be heard was hard, but it wasn't going to be coated in the taste of sweet revenge she had once craved.

"Anya thought we had started a war- we didn't, but we caused the destruction in our attempts to signal our people back in the sky. The rockets we used in an attempt to signal came down and set several villages on fire. That was our fault, but it was a mistake. Anya saw it as a sign of war and our landing location as a scouting location for attack troops. Shit, even the search party sent out to find Octavia, there was seen as a raiding party." Octavia came over and presented herself.

"Jasper, my friend, had days earlier- he was run through with a spear and lift to die. It left him damaged after Clarke treated him for his wounds. When he saw Anya's men in the trees, he started shooting. Setting off the bomb on the bridge was to act as a diversion- not an assault." The truth was coming forth.

"My sister was caught in the explosion."

"She was- Anya sent to get our chief healer, who happened to have been Clarke, and when Clarke got there, she saw that Anya's second Tris. She was septic and suffering the effects of being hit by a pressure wave."

"The injuries were treatable, but you have to do a transfusion. That is, put clean blood into someone to help heal them. Sepsis is caused when the toxins the body naturally produces and flushes out get pushed into parts of the body where they shouldn't be. It makes them very sick."

Julia started to realize some of what had been happening with Anya.

"Clarke needed someone compatible, her friend Finn was fetched, he was a universal donor. His blood was such that it could be given to anyone without rejection." The blonde winced at the images that would follow. "Till he showed up, all Clarke could do to help was to ease her suffering."

"Your sister died when the warrior was returning with Finn," Octavia replied.

"My sister would have had your friend's blood within her if she lived." Julia closed her eyes.

"She would have."

"Tris would have had the blood of Skaikru, she would have been of your Kru and mine?"

There was a nod from this from the Skaikru there.

"Anya wanted her war."

"Clarke was pulled away from Tris's body before she could call the time of death."

"Clarke was denied the summoning of Death?" Julia was processing this. "Why would she do this?"

"When you call time of Death, it is saying to the dead that Death has come to ease their suffering, to take them to the other side with care and compassion."

Now the reason for Clarke's morning Tris's death started to make sense.

Clarke hadn't been able to summon Death to come to protect the one who had died and guide her into the next world.

Julia looked at the wound on the Skaikru's hand.

"What does Clarke need to summon Death to take my sister to the next world?" Julia declared.

"The chance to say the prayer and call the time." The woman answered.

"I will grant her that," Julia spoke as she looked at the group present.

All of the blood and loss was caused due to a misunderstanding.

But the other stuff- The tings Julia was now seeing.

"How bad are these storms going to get?" Julia stated as she looked at the people around them.

"Bad, and that is before the winter storms start coming, which will make what we just were in look like a sunny summer day compared to that."

Julia realized that whatever journey was taking place, she was now a part of it.

Her fate was now tied to that of the Skaikru.


John Murphy was sitting around the set of books that he had been able to score from Polis. There was a lot of politics within those pages, but also a lot of history. Off in the corner, Emori was sleeping in one of the old sleeping bags that had been part of the survival gear the Hundred had when they touched down.

Emori had taped her fused fingers together to make them look like she had a hand injury from a distance, but in truth, she was scared of being sent out to die when the storm approached. Many of her old clothes had gradually been replaced with items she had been able to trade to look more Skaikru. Between learning that she was going to be a mother only forced her to obey the rules more as she feared being floated.

Now Clarke and herself had been working hard on crafting a new set of laws... well a combination of old and new that would meet with the Grounder view of things. So far, Clarke's coverage of some of what she had learned being Lexa's student had provided an excellent start for her to begin with.

Some laws had to be kept... while others... well... needed to be floated.

So far, he had worked out a decent part of a legal code that would work for the time being that matched up with Grounder societal norms and was workable for Skaikru.

Blood must have blood was in there. But it had been clarified along with some of the Charter and Ark laws. But throw in some of the Murphy Laws... John laughed at the irony at the reference.

Murphy's Laws.

Murphy's Law - if it can go wrong, it can go wrong.

Too True.

Then as he worked his way, covering most of the international maritime law traditions, he started to highlight what was needed when events such as what Pike had done could have been prevented. That section was placed in. Then Murphy followed it with coverage of Mei Li and the events he had gone through with Finn to ensure that blind punishment could be stopped.

As Murphy worked through looking at some of the naval texts Clarke had been able to score from Polis. He found a section that could help deal with those who had been duped by Pike.

There was a sub-clause in some eighteenth-century traditional law that stated, that if a sailor who had been part of a mutiny. (i.e., Bellamy and the rest of the Pike dupes). Then imprisonment by the authorities that caught them (I.e., the Coalition) could press charges for any acts of piracy they committed. Thus, the leader of the mutiny (Pike) would be executed by the government from whom he had harmed, and the soldiers who had been ordered to commit the act would be tried for assault. Incarceration would be preferred.

Given that these deadly storms were approaching, he had to ensure that there was a punishment that wouldn't get these bastards killed flat out.

Then the situation with Echo gave him an idea, but he would have to clear it with Clarke and Ontari first.

Banishment- spend time with the people you hurt. See them as something more than your foe. Yeah, you could leave, but it would be a death sentence. No, serve "x" amount of time, earn your penitence, maybe if the families of the folks you hurt didn't stab you- then you got the chance to go home. But you wouldn't be a slave.

A royal prisoner like Clarke had been with Lexa, restricted to the village or clan area. You could travel to different regions with the clan you had hurt, but you had to return with them.

The idea of Bellamy spending time with Indra's clan and being smacked around by the guy's sister- Murphy grinned. Sweet revenge for being blamed for crap he didn't do.

This was good.

This when Emori rolled over.

Murphy watched as she moved to scratch at her breasts with her 'badass hand.'

That was one little cute things about her that melted Murphy's heart.

Murphy got up and walked over to Emori.

Emori was saying something in Grounder most of it was concealed under half-awake mumbles. But one of the words spoken made him hug her to make her feel safe.

Emori shuddered awake.

"John."

"Em, it is going to be alight." Emori twitched some as Murphy kissed her on her forehead.

"John, I had a dream-" Emori stuttered the word for nightmare in Grounder "about the day me and Otan were banished."

"It is going to be alright." John did his best not to lie to her. It was hard, but Emori was his life. "Scared about the baby?" Emori nodded.

"When Praimfaya comes, what if the baby and I get-" Murphy pulled out his knife.

"Emori. I will hack through anyone who tries to harm you or our child." Murphy scratched his nose with the back of his hand, holding the foresaid knife.

"But that would mean-" John moved and took Emori's deformed hand up with his free hand and kissed the fused fingers.

"Fuck banishment. My Dad got floated for saving my ass. I never really understood what he was thinking until now. Little baby Ten here. He or she is Skaikru."

"Ten?" Emori hadn't realized that Murphy had thought up the name.

"Ten- like Otan, but Ten can also be a girl's name. That and I cleared with the rest of the Hundred to."

"Ten is- our child is-" Emori started to realize what Murphy had done.

"Hundred. Honet-kru." Murphy cleared his voice as Emori moved and kissed him.

"John," Emori spoke as she quickly started to pull at the bottom of his shirt. "I so want to rip your clothes off and fuck you till dawn," Emori stated as John moved to put the knife down and started to pull on Emori's clothes to get at her very naked breasts.

As clothes were kicked, pulled, yanked, and one garment getting slightly torn off in their passion. The two young adults started to find a bit of peace in each other's arms as they made love.

Then John learned that he was going to be having a daughter.

Images of a child with Emori's brown eyes looked into his soul.

Ten Murphy of the Sky Clan.

It didn't matter how shit his life became- No one was messing with his girls.

They didn't make love till dawn, but that didn't mean they tried.

Well, a quickie around morning twilight did technically count in Emori's eyes.

For John, her being happy is what mattered, and for the first time in his life, he truly understood his father's actions entirely for the first time.

You would do anything for those you love.

He would write a set of laws that would give his "wife"- Yeah. Emori Murphy that was a good name, and his child Ten Murphy a chance at a life that he had braved through 81 levels of shitty Hell through to get to them.

He was the Keeper of the Flame of knowledge, and he would ensure that it would be passed to this next generation with all of his hard to kill Cockroach abilities at his disposal.


Emma sat on one of the many steps in Arkadia.

She was going to be a mother.

The world was ending, and she was going to be a mother.

The Urine test, the blood test, fuck even the freaking grounder pregnancy ritual screamed yes.

Persephone, the daughter of her goddess, was probably laughing her ass off at this.

Then Emma's mother approached the two, moving with a pair of crutches under her arms. Full concern could be seen on the older woman's face.

"By the mother Goddess, I found you." Emma moved from her spot on the stairs.

"Mother, you should be resting." Her mother came closer to the stairs with staggered steps.

"As should you." Her mother reached out. "I heard about your pregnancy." Emma looked down.

"Mom, I-"

"I forced you into this life, I didn't know that you wanted your own."

Emma saw Luna nearby.

"I wasn't angry at the faith mother, you just-" Emma didn't get the chance to finish before her mother finished her sentence.

"Preached more than I should have." There was a shame on her mother's face. "I heard the stories that the locals have been telling about you and your friends."

"What have you heard?" Emma spoke concerned about the wild bonfire she and her friends had gotten drunk around celebrating the time they tossed their bracelets into the fire. The night she had lost her virginity. The crack in the woods that might have been from the local Grounders scouting out the camp.

"That you are Brave, Strong, diligent, when faced with odds so great against you- You don't just fight- you survive." Emma sighed.

"Oh..." Emma looked relieved.

"That and there was some reference to a bonfire that you youths had." Emma winced. "Dear- I was young too." Her mother commented. "I lost my virginity in zero-g." This had Emma's attention.

"Wha...-" Her mother was grinning as she moved to sit down.

"Guess that the women of our family always will be wild." Then as a group of Arkers and Grounders moved by Emma's mother grew concerned. "Kane made a deal with the locals to provide a few places on the Ark for them. - with TonDC."

"Mom..." Emma felt concerned.

"These are good people and Arkadia is going to be somewhat empty and making up for the crap that Pike did-"

"Mom..." Emma saw that something was up.

"Emma, I want you to be in Polis when they find the Shelter. I will help out here- Patch up things with the locals."

"Mom... I am pregnant, and I am scared that I going to be like you!" Emma's words took a moment for her mother to realize that she was going to be a Grandmother.

"You are-" Emma watched Luna blush some.

"She is with child," Luna spoke. That messing mane of brown hair of a Grounder was a godsend. "Word pasted around some of the locals. Emma of Honetkru is going to have a child. I have had to break up a few fights of warriors and a group of Wod-Witches who wish to be the child's faerie guardian." The leader of the Ocean based Grounder spoke.

"Wod-witches?" Emma had heard the term, but it was a reference to healers and shamans. Well, that was the context she had learned from Lincoln. Faerie Guardian, Emma knew of the term Fairy God Parent, was the more translated term of it. But the witches fighting over who would protect her child, she needed to hear out.

"They are much like your daughter and her friend Raven."

"Oh... Like Flame Keepers?" the term brought a glare from Luna on the scale that being floated would have been seen as a merciful death compared to what the Nightblood could do to you. The verbiage that followed well- the swearing wasn't the term she wanted to use. It took a moment for Luna to calm down before she continued.

That and the possible translation of how much disdain Luna had for the Flame Keepers. The Very Flame Keepers that had so ruined her life.

"No- they are not-" Luna's phrasing of something in grounder illustrated that the relation of the two was FAR something different than they were to be referenced by.

Emma only caught a reference to where Luna wanted to shove the head of Titus into; the image wasn't one that she would wish repeated in front of her child.

Till she was at least sixty.

"Wod-Witches are the shamans, the spirit leaders, guides of the faith, and keepers of lost knowledge. A few Flamekeepers are Wod-Witches, but not all Wod-Witches are Flamekeepers. Your friend Murphy is a Flamekeeper, but he isn't a Wod-Witch. Nameless, my mentor was a Wod-Witch. Clarke of the Sky People - was on a spirit quest to become a Wod-Witch. I practice their ways, but I am still an apprentice, Wod-Witch. I know their magics, I know some of the old ways. But my taint of bloodlust- my blood sins."

Luna's eyes looked through into Emma's soul.

There was a darkness there-

If Clarke was the Commander of Death- before Emma right here, right now- this woman was Death incarnate.

"Luna-" Emma reached out.

"I heard the rumor. The City of Light intel on you." Luna just conceded.

"What I did. The stain on my soul." Luna' let tears move from her eyes as it stated that the topic was still very raw with her.

"May the Goddesses of Earth and Sea soothe your pain." Emma's mother reached out to sooth the woman.

"The pain I can live with," Luna stated. Yeah, this was not the path towards healing Luna needed.

Luna didn't need to be saved- she just needed to be understood.

"Death is part of us, Luna," Emma spoke. "Some have made peace with the Wolf of Pain and the Wolf of Power. It comes down to which wolf to feed. Pain is the history we learn from. Power gives us strength. One of your wolves have been overfed. Now it is angry and is fighting your other wolf for the scraps."

"How long will it last?" Luna spoke. "I am starting to lose track of the winters since the loss of my brother."

"Till both wolves become healthy again, and they have moved through the point of knowing that to survive, they need each other," Emma stated, and Luna reached out to touch her face.

"You answered the Question. That all Wod-Witches are asked about how to understand the pain of loss and what needs to come." Luna seemed to understand that she had an ear that would listen to her. That and would speak when the time was right and let the silence or its distance dictate what needed to be said back.

"Then-" Emma sensed that her mother was confused. "Emma, what is going on?"

"There are nuances about Grounder culture Mom, that-" Emma decided to take her time to word it right. "They don't see death as an end. Just another part of a journey."

"Till we meet again," Luna said the words in English.

"So…"

"You don't save souls, Mom. You help heal the soul."

"Oh." Emma's mother started to realize that she was out of her element.

"Mom... Marko... he is the baby's father." Emma just needed to get that out. "I am not an Arker or Sky Crew. I am Hundred. I am a Grounder. Me and the others declared that a few days after we landed." Emma felt like she just had spit in her mother's face. "My child will be a Grounder. I make peace with these people. I have to- for the sake of my child. I am scared, there is a storm coming. And I am scared. Not for the fact that I am going to make it, but for my child not knowing where they came from."

"Wait… you mean-"

"I am not a priestess. I probably won't be. But I want to keep the faith, the ways, and the traditions. To pray to the Goddess. Bless plants, pray to trees. I want to live in a forest. Surrounded by the arms of the Goddess." Emma reached out to Luna. "If the Grounders see me as a Wod-Witch, then so be it. I am not some copy of you. I am myself. The Ground is alive and it is going to be my home. There are good people here." Luna's hand grasping her's stated that she had made her peace. "You have to see them like I do. You have to become what they need. Not what some faith or book says. But what the community needs. This is how they survived the fires here on the ground. They needed each other to survive. Not some blind faith, but in themselves. Compassion is key. Listening to the silence and letting it speak what is unspoken is the guide to healing and understanding that your path is than the one that is lost. Death comes for us all in the end. But the destination there. The stories of this world and the next are just as important for the living as well as the dead. The dead are just as present in this world as the living. Though they are unseen, the dead still miss their loved ones. Conversely according to the Grounder beliefs, the dead miss the living too. She just wants to know through my connections to both worlds that her loved ones can hear her and they her." Luna grinned at this.

"We change and grow. Loss, Love, Pain, Pleasure, Happiness, and Sadness. Emma knows of this. That is why she is scared that the old ways you are part of will cause you to become stuck in a place where she nor her child can find their way to if you die and journey into the next world."

Emma's mother started to understand that her daughter wasn't afraid of losing her, but worried that she wouldn't bend like the branches of the willow.

"Become the Willow tree mom, not the Oak."

"I don't think that I will become a full Willow, but I will try." Luna grinned.

"I am water from the sea. But like the heat it gains from the sun, it becomes a cloud, goes to shore, falls on top of the mountain, becomes snow, melts, becomes the river before it journeys back to the sea. My waters are part of your roots. Drink. Gain strength. Water is part of everything, even the trees. Understanding that it is connected, you cannot be far apart despite the distance." Emma grinned.

"May my branches supply shade for that river as it journeys back to the sea."

"Okay… so allegory and journey themes are key parts of Grounder culture." Emma's mother nodded. "I have a lot to learn." Emma reached out to her mother and brought her mother's hand to her belly.

"You do." Emma breathed in slowly, "I was thinking of the name Rory for either a boy or girl."

"Why?" Emma's mother sensed the worry, but seeing Luna here, she sort of understood.

"It was Octavia's Mom's name," Luna spoke. "I learned it from Clarke. She trained her child to be without fear. To be fearless. Something that made Octavia into The Skairipa. Though her pain will be healed. I understand that now. Making your offering of the name is your way to help bridge thing back between you and the rest of the Honetkru."

"It is, and I hope that she returns to the person she was. I know she has grown dark, but there was a light to her. I hope that I can guide her back to it." Luna grinned.

"I hope so too. For all of our sakes. Octavia had been enveloped with darkness, I believe that someone like you might be able to succeed where I failed."

"I understand." Emma looked at her mother as the elder priestess came to understand that this was a far different world than she expected. That the rules were not so much different, but the conditions needed to fulfill one's role were much more intimate than the old ways understood them to be.


TBC:

Chapter 16 – Paths to one's new home – Part 2 - Motherly Advice


Thanks for reading this chapter.

The next one should be up soon.

Hearns