Chapter 13 - And I Keep Falling For You Every Night, Over and Over again


When they reach the camp, Bellamy pulls her into his bunker. He calls to Indra to gather the rest of his generals. She moves quickly out of the room so it's just Bellamy and Clarke for the moment. He turns to her and only then does he realize her hand is still in his, so he drops it.

He steps away from her just as the generals enter the room. He clears his throat and drags his eyes away from her blue depths. "We are going to give Wells some more time to enter the mountain." He holds up a hand to stall the arguments he sees are about to fall from their lips. His tone turns excited. "We have an army in that mountain already. If Wells can breach the mountain and free them, we can take the mountain without them being any the wiser until it's too late."

A smirk pulls the corners of his lips up as he watches his generals start to weigh and accept that plan. Their excitement growing to match his. He turns to look at the Clarke who's staring at him with soft eyes. He feels his smirk turn into a genuine smile without his permission, which keeps happening around her.

"Okay, we are going to send the Sky people back to their camp, I want a group of our warriors to go with Clarke. Once Wells has contacted us, or three days passed we will meet here to discuss next steps. Indra, please get a small team together who will be willing to take orders from her. I want you to escort her then return."

They all nod as they head back out of the bunker, and he can hear them volleying ideas back and forth about where they think they should focus once their people inside are out of cages. His eyes turn back to Clarke who whispers a thank you to him as she tucks her hair behind her ear. His hand twitches at his side, wanting to mimic her actions.

"You're welcome, Clarke." He steps back from her and turns towards the map on his table. "You should prepare to leave with the rest of your people. The others who left the day before should already be back at your camp. We need to move quickly."

He can see her nod out of the corner of his eye before she turns to walk away.

XXXXXXXXXX

It takes only thirty minutes before Indra and her team are ready to move out. A horse is presented to her, it's a beautiful grey creature that has a noble air to it. The others are given horses as well. One of the grounders helps her up into the saddle before they take off out of camp at a swift walk.

They'd been traveling roughly two hours when her mother suddenly pulled her horse up to a stop and dismounted. She pulled off her water skein to drink some water. Clarke called out to her mother. "Mom, why are we stopping?"

Her mother sighed as Clarke dismounted as well walking towards her. "You need to drink, too."

"I'm fine. We're almost home." Clarke waved her away, she turned back to the grounders who'd pulled bows out and nocked arrows as when they stopped. "Our scouts patrol these woods. Be careful where you shoot."

"The Grounders listen to you." Her mother said as they nodded to her.

"Bellamy told them to" She shrugged. "We shouldn't have stopped. Mount up!"

Abby's exasperated voice called out her name, but Clarke cut her off before she could say anymore. "Mom, I need to get back to that radio to see if Wells has made contact."

"Listen to me." Abby grabbed her shoulders before she could move any further. "I know you don't think you need my protection anymore, but you do. You have to trust that I know what's right for us."

Clarke pulled away from her with an empty look on her face as she shook her head. "Let's move out!" Right as Clarke put her foot in the stirrup to bounce herself back into the saddle like she'd seen the Grounders do, a shot rang out and one of her guards fell from the back of his horse.

"Mountain men." Clarke yelled as she kicked her horse into a quick gallop toward where the shot rang out with. Her mother's voice yelling to the guards to go with her.

When Clarke arrived to where the shot had come from Indra had her second, a moment away from killing the man in hazmat suit as he pleaded for his life. The other mountain man dead beside them. "Finish it!" She heard Indra say.

"No!" She cried out. "He's from Mount Weather. We need to keep him alive. Check to see if he's got a patch kit. We've got to get him back to camp."

She moved forward to search his pack not finding anything before moving on to the other man's pack a couple pictures fell out, but she ignored them for a moment as her hands latched onto the patch kit. She quickly helped Indra's second to patch the hole as he screamed about the burning.

Her head turned back to Indra who had picked up the pictures she had hastily discarded. "What is that?"

"Clarke, you and Bellamy were the targets." Indra said before turning to the warriors around her. "We have to warn the commander."

Clarke nodded at her. "Yes, warn him. You need to get back to him."

"No, the commander said I was to escort you so I will." Indra shook her head. "Get this man back to the horses and let's move. The quicker we get these people back to their camp the quicker I can return to the commander's side.

Within the hour they finally reach Camp Jaha the grounders quickly pull the injured off of the horses and hand them off to the Arkers who have gathered around. She hands the reins off her horse off to one of the grounders who stands next to her as she watches her mother hurry off behind the injured.

When she finally gets into the med bay, she hears her mother telling Jackson that she will take the gunshot wound and for him to take the mountain man's radiation burns. He nods telling the people carrying him to set him down.

As the people back away from Jackson and his patient she moves in closer. "This guy is from Mount Weather. We need to keep him alive."

Jackson's face is startled as he looks down at the damage on the man in front of him. "There was a tear in his suit, but we fixed it in the field." She says to him as he nods. Raven's presence pulls Clarke's focus for a moment as she spares a look at her. "Anything from Wells?"

"No." Raven's tone is clear that she still doesn't forgive Clarke.

Clarke rounds on her, something desperate claws at her chest. "Then why aren't you at the radio?"

"Sinclair just took my place." Raven says. "How about you back off?"

"No." Clarke says, Raven's eyebrows shoot up to her hairline, before Clarke turns back towards Jackson as he is about to cut off the hazmat suit. "Leave it on. It's the only thing keeping him alive."

Jackson's face looks lost. "Well, how can we treat a guy if we can't touch him?"

"I can rig up some scrubbers in the airlock. Give me twenty minutes." Raven says, already moving off towards engineering. Clarke watches Raven exit the tent as she hears her mother's voice saying the grounder who has been sent to protect Clark is dead the table.

"Yu gonplei ste odon." Indra says closing his eyes, before she rounds on Clarke. "A killer life while a warrior dies? This is your way?"

"I'm sorry, Indra, but he can help us beat Mount Weather." Clarke's eyes close before she turns away from the dead man. Another person dead because of her.

Indra grabs her shoulder. "Then let me make him talk."

"No." Clarke shakes her head. "We're not torturing him."

Abby's voice pipes up and Clarke groans under her breath. "Clarke's right. He might just talk because we saved his life."

"You people are so weak." Indra whisks out of the tent without another look back.

"Are you okay?" Abby asks and Clarke can tell her eyes are tracing her face without having to look.

"He's gonna need a transfusion with our blood." Clarke says, her tone dulling by the second. Jackson agrees to type him as soon as he can treat him.

Abby's arm grips Clarke's as she pulls her around to look at her. "Someone tried to kill you today. It's okay if you're upset."

"Just another day on the ground." Clarke says with a blank stare at her mother. She pulls her arm out of her mother's and turns towards the door, her voice intended for Jackson says, "I'll be in engineering waiting for Wells to radio. Let me know when he wakes up."

Clarke heads to engineering to check in with Sinclair taking the mountain man's pack with her. She's barely had time to start to rifle through his stuff and chat briefly with Sinclair about other options they might have if Wells fails; if she sent him in there to die, before Raven comes in telling her that the scrubbers are working and her mother and Jackson have treated him and he was waking as she left.

When Clarke enters the hall outside the airlock, she can hear Kane asking the man for information and his response is a preplanned one, with his name and job.

"He's not gonna talk." Clarke says to Kane as his voice hardens with frustration.

"He will if we open the door." Her mother's response to that is cutting and he turns on her. "We need to know what he knows; vulnerabilities, troop numbers."

"She's right." Clarke says as she eyes Carl Emerson, Mount Weather security detail. "Torture doesn't work."

Her mother and Kane begin to argue about things she doesn't have time to worry about. She is really the one in charge and she knows it. She hates it. She turns to leave she hears her mother's voice all but shouting at the guards. "I want this man under twenty-four-hour guard. Is that clear?"

XXXXXXXXXX

Bellamy is sitting in his bunker in TonDC reviewing the terrain with his generals who had remained in camp, when one of the people he'd sent off with Clarke returns sooner than he would have expected. They are allowed to enter the room and after a quick bow in his direction they quickly spin a tail of what happened.

His heart clenched when he learned that Clarke and himself a target. He dismissed the man and turned to his generals. "They know we have made an alliance. I want everyone to clear out of TonDC quietly. I don't want our people to gather in large groups. I want the innocents to be moved to safer locations."

"But Heda, how are we to plan a war if we are not centralized." Someone asks.

"You're right." He sighs. "Okay then, I still want the non-warriors moved away from this camp and any camp that we have a large group of warriors at. If they have the same technology as the Sky People, I want our noncombatants to have a chance to escape."

They nodded as they moved quickly out of the bunker to distribute his orders.

XXXXXXXXXX

Clarke has her head in her hands as she sits waiting for Raven to look at the tone generator she'd found in Emerson's pack. Jasper's voice still looping on the radio behind them "This is Jasper Jordan. We need help. Forty-seven of us are trapped inside Mount Weather."

"Yeah. I can totally replicate this frequency." Raven says as she clicks on the tone generator again.

"Good." She says, pulling her hands off her head and looking up at the mechanic. "If we can neutralize the Reapers, the tunnels are an option. Get on it."

"You don't need to give me orders, Clarke. I got this." Raven bites out.

Suddenly the dark head of warrior braids pops into engineering. "Raven, any word from Wells?" Raven shakes her head no and Octavia's face pinch in worry. "Lincoln is still missing, too. He should be back by now."

"They'll be okay." Clarke says, her tone not sounding very confident.

"They better be." Raven says, her angry eyes glaring at Clarke. "Your whole plan rests on Wells getting in."

"He will." Clarke nods, her shoulders drooping. Raven face softens and she looks like she's about to say something when suddenly Clarke and Kane are being paged to the airlock. "We'll finish this later. Have you seen Murphy in the last little while?"

"Last I saw he was headed somewhere with Jaha. Why?"

"No reason, if you see him can you tell him I need to talk to him?" She says before turning to exit, not waiting for a response.

Kane, who is slightly ahead of her as they walk up the corridor asks if Emerson said anything as soon as he sees Abby.

"No," Shakes her head but holds up a tablet for them to look at. "but his blood did. Jackson found genetic marker anomalies that can only come from someone who was born on the Ark."

"It's started." Her voice is stunned and all she wants to do is sit down and grieve for the loss of everything; Finn, for her friend's safety, the other deaths that sit on her young shoulders. Abby and Kane pass words back and forth a couple more minutes before Clarke can refocus and say. "They're bleeding my friends."

Kane turns gentle eyes on her. "We don't know that."

"Yes, we do. We were genetically engineered." She says, her anger licking up her spine at his naive way of looking at this. "They weren't."

Kane grabs her as she starts to stalk toward the door that is keeping Emerson alive; asking her what she is thinking of doing. "Killing him. Get out of my way, Kane."

She tries to rip her arm out from his grip, but he is too strong. His other hand coming up to grip the other shoulder. "Calm down"

"Clarke," Abby's voice is angry as she says, "You are not in charge here. We do things my way."

A humorless chuckle leaves her as she finally manages to pull away from Kane and stalks away from the two adults who have no idea what game they are playing.

"We're too late." She says as she enters engineering. She leans against the only empty wall by the radio and slides down to the ground. Her knees coming up in of her as her arms wrap around her legs and her head bends to rest on them. "They're already bleeding them. It's over."

"No!" Raven's voice wavers as she kneels in front of Clarke. With anger or tears, she isn't sure because her head doesn't rise, but her shoulders start to shake as silent tears fall from her eyes. "You don't get to give up, Clarke. You killed Finn, and I didn't give up. I'm building a damn tone generator. You do your job!"

"What is my job?" She cries as she lifts her head.

Raven shakes her head, "I don't know, to come up with something."

"I have tried bu-" Her voice is cut off by a crackle on the radio.

"Camp Jaha, this is Mount Weather. Can anyone read me?" It's Wells voice. Raven's jaw drops open as Wells repeats himself. It takes her until the end of his sentence for Clarke to jump to her feet and rush to the radio.

"Wells?" Clarke knows he can probably hear the tears in her voice. She shakes her head even though he can't see it when he calls her name with a question buried deep in his tone. "Are you all right?"

"I'm fine. That's it for the good news." He starts, knowing this isn't the time to unpack anything. "We have to talk fast. Something has changed. Jasper, Monty, everyone, they just locked them in the dorm."

"But they're alive, all of them?" She wipes at her face.

"I think so, for now." She slumps into the chair with relief. "Maya says that they're already using their blood, and things are gonna get ugly in here real fast."

"Maya is with you?" Clarke wishes she could hug the girl who she'd been so derisive to while in mount weather.

"She helped me escape. If not for her, I'd be dead." Clarke can hear the fear in his tone as he talks. "And, Clarke, there are kids in here. We need a plan that doesn't kill everyone. Please tell me we have one."

She closes her eyes, she knew that, of course she knew but somehow that never figured into her plans. "I hear you, but we can't do anything until you disable the acid fog. Raven is gonna help you."

He tells her he understands. "You have to figure out a way to free the Grounder prisoners. There is a whole army inside that mountain, and they don't even realize it."

He pauses at her words for a moment before he says. "Trojan horse. Good plan." there is a smile in his voice for a moment before he turns serious again. "Clarke, if I'm gonna pull this off, I need you to buy me some time. It won't be long before they realize I don't belong here, and if that happens-"

"That can't happen." She cuts him off. "I'll come up with something."

He tells her to come up with something quick and her brain starts to whirl. She calls out to him as soon she can tell he's about to draw away from the radio. When he responds she tells him, "You came through. I knew you would."

He laughs quietly as he says, "All I've done so far is not get killed."

A small smile peeks at her face. "Keep doing that." She hands the radio to Raven. "You're up."

Raven's voice startles her as she walks away. "What are you gonna do?"

"I'm gonna keep them looking outside instead of in." She says as she keeps heading for the door.

XXXXXXXXXX

"Where are we at with moving the people out of TonDC?" Bellamy asks Roma who stands in the spot Gustus used to. Her presence is hardly a comfort to him like the giant of a man used to be.

"They are moving still; most will be out by the end of three days' time." She meets his eye.

"Roma, we need them to move faster." He can feel the anxiety in his chest. The other commanders had not been able to loosen the grip on it earlier either. "This war approaches swiftly, and I don't want them in the cross hairs."

"Yes Heda." She nods before exiting the room to hurry them about.

XXXXXXXXXX

When Clarke is stopped by the Ark guards the grounders behind her start to pull their swords from their sheaths. She holds her hand up to stop them. "Don't." She moves past the guards and walks up the airlock. "Get dressed. You're coming with me."

She's halfway to the gate when Kane and her mother come running up to her asking her what she's doing; telling her to stop.

"No. I'm letting the prisoner go." She tells them as they continue to move forward. Abby tells her that there is no way she's letting him go and Kane's concern is for the fact that he hasn't told them anything. "He doesn't have to. He's gonna tell them something."

"Get the prisoner back to the airlock. Now." Abby says and the guards start to move towards Clarke, the grounders unsheathe their swords hand drop into a defensive stance around Clarke and Emerson.

Clarke steps through them towards her mother. Her anger with her mother for slowing this down is clear. "You may be the Chancellor, but I'm in charge."

Abby turns to Indra. "Indra, tell your people to stand down before this gets out of hand." Indra's returned "No" rocks Abby back on her heels. "People could get hurt."

"Not if you get out of my way." Clarke says before throwing her mother's words back at her. "You need to trust that I know what's right for us."

Kane's hand lands on Abby's shoulder as he tells her that the grounders trust Clarke and maybe they should too. Abby's shoulders slump in defeat as she tells the guard to stand down.

Clarke turns to the guard at the gate and tells him to open it now before turning to Emerson. "Can you hear me alright? Because I need to make sure you get this."

He nods as he says, "Loud and clear."

"I have a message for your leader." She leans into him as she drops her voice. "We're coming for him. You're watching us, but you haven't seen a thing. The Grounder army is bigger than you think, and even if you could find it, your acid fog can't hurt them, and now, thanks to you" She waves the tone generator at him. "Neither can the Reapers. So, you have one last chance. Let our people go, and we'll let you live. It's just that simple."

"I got it." He says, his attempts to stand are fruitless as the Grounders press him down by his shoulders.

"It's an eight-hour walk back to Mount Weather." She grabs the oxygen regulator and starts to release some air. "You're gonna do it in six."

"Six hours? That's not enough." His voice is outraged. "How am I supposed to deliver your message?"

"That's your problem." She shrugs. She tilts her head at the grounders who release him and allow him to stand up. "Now go."

She is watching him run away from camp when Abby walks up and asks her to explain to her how that helps Wells. "I just told him we have a secret army to worry about. The more they're looking at us, the less they're looking at him. Wells is the key to everything, Mom. If he dies, we die."

XXXXXXXXXX

Bellamy stands around the table with an excited buzz running through the room. They had their inside man. He was working to lower the acid fog and soon they would be able to rid the world of the mountain men.

He should not have doubted the Sky Princess. She kept doing things that he would have thought impossible just months ago. A smirk lit his face up. "Okay, we have our first real opportunity to get the mountain men. Talk me through your ideas."

He nodded to the first man on his right who launched into his idea about how to defeat the mountain.

XXXXXXXXXX

Clarke walked into engineering as the hulking grounder shadowed her. "Has he checked in yet?"

Raven turned to look at Clarke briefly before she responded. "No. You worried someone's gonna try and take a shot at you inside the Ark?"

Clarke turned to Ryder and told him to wait outside; watching him exit before she turned back to Raven. "Bell's orders."

"Bell?" She raised her eyebrow. "Whatever, Clarke."

"He's late." Clarke paced around the room once before stopping in front of Raven's board. "What if something's happened to him?"

"He'll be fine." She said as she continued to tinker with the tone generator in her hand.

"You've been busy." Clarke said as she reviewed the board. Some of what Raven had there made sense if she remembered her father's lessons correct. "Why are you focusing on the dam? I told you acid fog was our priority."

"Until Wells gets eyes on their dispersal system, there's only so much I can do."

"Okay." She nodded and turned to face Raven. "Tell me about the dam. Can we cut off their power?"

"Maybe." Raven shrugged as she stood to move towards Clarke. "I'm still playing with a few things."

"How many of those have you made?" Clarke asked.

"Only two so far, but-" Raven started to answer before Clarke cut her off.

"Two? That's not enough." Clarke started to panic. Her stomach jumping to her throat. "There will be Reapers everywhere."

"High-frequency tone generators don't grow on trees, Clarke." Raven said defensively. "Wick is scrounging for parts."

"Raven, I am about to leave for TonDC, where Bellamy and the heads of all twelve Grounder clans are waiting for me to tell them we're a go," She gripped her hair in her hands and tugged harshly on it as her fearful eyes meet Raven's. "only we're not a go because they still have acid fog, and we only have two tone generators."

A shuddering breath escaped Clarke as Raven moved in on her. "Hey. We'll be ready. We will." Raven's arms came up to wrap Clarke in a hug she wasn't aware she needed until it was already happening.

The crackle of Wells on the radio had Clarke pulling away from Raven and rushing to it. "Wells, you're late. Every three hours means every three hours."

"Are you through?" He sounded exhausted.

She quirked her lips slightly before she asked, "Have you found the source of the acid fog?"

"No." His voice sounded muffled for a moment and she could imagine him running his hands over his face. "That's gonna have to wait."

"What? No." She clutched the receiver tighter. Nothing was going the way she needed it to. "Nothing is more important than that."

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

"Taking them where?" She slumped down into the chair behind her. Her one hand coming up to rub at her face.

"I don't know." She could hear him saying something to what she assumed was Maya before he turned back to the mic of his radio. "We tried to follow them, but they went to a classified level. Maya borrowed the schematics of the vent system from her boss, and I'm still trying to find a way in."

Maya's muffled voice floated quietly across the radio as she said. "I think I found a path, but it's gonna be tight. Here's the walkie Raven asked for and the earbud."

Raven turned to Clarke and gripped her shoulder in support. "We're going to make him mobile so he can talk to us from anywhere."

"Wells, you have to find them." She begged him. Her fear for her friends strangling the breath from her chest. Her conscious yelling at her for leaving them behind.

"That's the plan." he said gently.

"If you don't, all of this is for nothing." She reminded him as if he didn't already know. She almost missed his quiet reply in agreement as she turned to Raven. "I'll be right back."

"I thought you were going to TonDC?" Raven asked.

She shook her head. "Plans have changed. I'm staying here."

Clarke walked outside leaving Raven to explain how to set up the device to be mobile to Wells and Maya. Ryder followed her as she set out to find Kane. She rounded the corner only to bump into him. When she told him, she needed him to go to TonDC in her stead he reminded her that the commander was expecting her.

"Our people inside Mount Weather are in trouble." She looked up at him pleading for him to understand. "I'm not going anywhere until I know they're okay."

"And what can you do for them from here?" He asked, crossing his arms over his chest.

"You'll go to TonDC in my place. Bellamy respects you. I'll get there soon as I can." Clarke turned from him to head back towards engineering.

"Clarke, wait." Ryder pulled his sword as Kane rushed to follow her.

"Put it away." She said as she turned to Kane and nodded for him to continue.

"Clarke, being a good leader means knowing which battles to fight." His voice trailed off for a moment.

"And which to delegate." She finished for him, not giving him the opportunity to. "I know. Please, I need you to go to TonDC."

He nodded at her. "Fine. I'll go."

She thanked him and turned back to head towards engineering. Stopping outside the doors she told Ryder he could wait outside again or he could head to get something to eat that she would remain there for the foreseeable future. He only left when she promised to not leave until he returned.

When she entered the room, Raven and Sinclair had pulled up some schematics that must have been on the Ark server before the bombs that wiped out civilization. Raven held the receiver in one hand as the other traced the lines on the paper.

When Raven asked Wells where he was, he told her he was at an intersection. "Which way?" He asked and Clarke looked over Raven's shoulder.

Raven handed Clarke the radio as she scooted in closer to the schematic. "Okay. He just passed the air filtration system on this floor, which puts him about here."

"Wells, we think you're close. The lab should be up ahead." Clarke told him as she watched Raven's fingers tracing the lines on the paper in front of her.

As Wells was asking them to be more specific the sound of a drill met Clarkes ears. She closed her eyes as he started moving again. The sound of the drill got louder, and her heart dropped. When Raven asked if that was a drill in the background. Clarke looked at her and nodded. "Bone marrow extraction."

She thought she was going to be sick when the voice of the snake of a doctor came across the radio. When Emerson's voice came back in reply to Dr. Tsing, a fire started to rawr at the back of her mind.

The next voice she heard was one that she was unfamiliar with, asking about the secret army that Clarke had alluded to. Her only thought was at least something had worked. The drill started back up again and when she didn't hear a scream accompany it, she knew at least one of her friends is dead. Dr. Tsing's voice confirmed it for her after the unknown man asked her to stop drilling.

Raven's movement stopped when she heard the man say it was a little too late to let their people live after Emerson finished repeating her demands. The tears started to fall at that. She couldn't help but blame herself for those deaths.

"No, it's okay." The other man comforted Emerson who had just apologized for failing. Clarke wished she would have given him less than 6 hours air when she let him go. Then he really would have failed. "We'll finish the job tonight. Whitman just radioed in. Apparently, there's a war council meeting happening tonight in one of their villages, and all the leaders are gonna be there. We're gonna use a missile. This time, we're not gonna miss."

"Please tell me you heard all that." Wells whispered.

Clarke confirmed that they had, and her mind started to race until Raven said that they needed to warn them. When Raven told her that they didn't have a radio in TonDC because they had to keep that line open for Wells she turned to Raven and said, "If I leave now, I can make it there in time."

"In time to be blown up, you mean." Raven snorted.

"When I get back, I want to know our friends are safe and the acid fog is down. Can you handle that?" She started to head out of the room before Raven had a chance to confirm that she could handle it.

"Hey," Raven's voice stopping her was closer than she expected it to be. When she turned to look at Raven over her shoulder she saw why. "Don't get blown up."

Clarke nodded to her before she turned and fled the area, heading to grab the grey mount that had gotten her there. Hoisting herself up she took off in a mad dash, pushing the animal to run for as long as he could. His swift, strong strides thundered below her, and she fought to keep the panic from overwhelming her.

XXXXXXXXXX

Bellamy was disappointed when Kane arrived without a certain blonde, begging off for her due to something going on with the delinquents in the mountain. They'd just barely begun to discuss matters when a scout came in announcing that Clarke had made for the meeting.

When he saw her blonde head descending the steps into the meeting room, he felt his heart rate spike as he said. "Clarke of the Sky People has honored us with her presence." His lips turning up into a smirk.

"I'm sorry I'm late, Commander." She sounded unfazed but her eyes were a little frantic.

Kane turned to her with a suspicious glare. "You made good time. I assume the kids at Mount Weather are okay?"

"For now." She nodded but didn't take her eyes off of his face. "Can we talk in private?"

He nodded "Yes. This way." When they had retreated to a back room, she spun a tail of terrifying intrigue ending with a missile dropping on them. This boy, Wells, was proving very useful. "A missile? You're sure?"

"Yes. We have to start evacuating now." She started to move back towards the meeting room.

He grabbed her arm to stop her. "No."

"What do you mean no, Bellamy?" She said, her face narrowing in confusion.

"If we evacuate," He started slowly, his hand trailing down to hold her hand. The other commanders yelling at him loudly. "they'll know we have a spy inside their walls."

"Not necessarily." She argued. Her face slowly losing composure.

He ran thumb across the back of the hand he still held. "We can't risk it."

"What's the point of having an inside man if we can't act on what he tells us?" She whispered as her face tilted up towards his, begging him to save his people.

"Is the acid fog disabled?" His own voice lowering to match her tone. "Is our sleeping army uncaged?" She shook her head at him, her eyes welling with tears. "Then Wells' job is not done. Without him, we can't win this war."

"So, what are you saying? We just do nothing, let them bomb us?" She slowly pulled her hand out of his.

"It will be a blow, but our army will be safe inside the woods, we've already emptied as much of the village as we could, in case of just such an event. This will inspire them." He let his hands flap heavy against his sides, just as frustrated with the counsel the other commanders were offering, no matter how much he understood what they were saying.

"And what about us?" She turned away; arms crossed over her chest as her fingers drummed against her biceps.

"We slip away right now." He dropped a shawl over her shoulders. "Put this on."

"Bell, wait. You don't understand." She pulled the shawl tighter around her shoulders, her eyes guilty as they stared up at him. "I provoked Mount Weather. I sent a message to distract them from Wells."

"Clarke, sometimes, you have to concede a battle to win a war." He worked his jaw as he stared down at her. His hands itching to pull her into his chest to comfort her.

"No." She shook her head. Her pleading eyes begging him for something he couldn't provide. "We can inform the leaders of the clans, pick a rendezvous point in the woods. Each of them can slip out separately."

"And how many more people will they tell?" He asked. "Where do we draw the line?"

Her voice raised in desperation as she shouted at him, "Well, then cancel the meeting, start a fire, something!"

"Clarke, we don't have time for this." He begged her to understand with his eyes.

"No, no! This is wrong!" The tears that had welled in her eyes started to slowly trail down her face as she attempted to blink them away.

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

He grabbed her hand again, smoothing his thumb over her hand one more time before pulling her towards the back exit. When he got to the stairs, he pushed her up ahead of him, grabbing a torch on his way out. As they fled the camp, he tossed it onto the back of one of the huts. Starting that fire was hopefully enough to move some people out of the line of fire.

XXXXXXXXXX

She'd seen him drop the torch on the way out, she'd heard the dry wood lick with flames as it raced up its sides, but she was still mad for the fact that he kept tugging her along, further and further away from camp. "Clarke, we have to keep moving. We're not far enough away. The last time they used a missile, it was before I was born. According to legend, it left a hole in the woods you could not see across. Now let's go."

"What if we made them miss?" She begged. If they could find the spotter, they would be able to take him out before he gave the coordinates.

"You're not listening. With a weapon like that, you can't miss." He said without looking at her, his hand just tugging her along.

"Yes, you can." She stopped, digging her heels into the ground. "I heard them talking about a spotter, someone in the field to aim the missile. If we could just find him." Clarke turned her head to look back at the camp, the fire starting to pick up as the wind shifted it towards another building. Suddenly her mom's profile came into view around the flames. "No. What's she doing here?"

"Clarke, you can't go back. Clarke!" He yelled at her as she took off, tearing her fingers from his.

She paused only a moment to say. "Your sister is safe in Camp Jaha. My mother is not."

She raced down the hill and grabbed her mother's arm. "Mom, what are you doing here? I told you to stay back at camp."

Abby's frustrated face turned to hers. "Enough, Clarke. I'm the Chancellor. I don't need your permission to go-"

"No." Clarke cut her mother off. "We have to leave now."

Abby's expression turned confused. "What is going on?"

"We can't be here." She tugged at her mother's hand, just as Bellamy had done to her. "Please, Bellamy and I were in the woods, we saw the fire. Please, mom, I am begging you. Please. Come on."

Abby asked her to wait but Clarke turned frantic eyes on her. "No. We can't stop. There's no time."

They'd only barely made it into the forest when her mother pulled up to a stop. "I am not taking a step further until you tell me what is happening."

The thundering of the missile's kept her from needing to answer. Her heart started to race; they were too close. The pulled on her mother's hands, urging her to move further. They broke off into a run. When the missile landed, they were thrown from their feet. The ringing in her ears told her that she'd had some damage to them, which she only hoped was only temporary.

She turned to look for her mother, only to see her laying face down on the ground. She rushed over to her and started to turn her over. "Mom, are you okay? Oh, my God. Come on. We can't be here. W-we have to go."

Abby's face turned cold with disbelief as she looked up at Clarke. "You knew. You knew, and you let this happen?"

"We had no choice." She whispered, tears welling in her eyes as she helped her mother to her feet.

"So many people. Our people." Abby's voice was stunned.

"No." She shook her head. "Bellamy started a fire. We had to protect Wells. Without him-"

"Tell me this was Bellamy. Please, Clarke. Please tell me this wasn't you." Clarke looked up to see the tears in her mother's eyes.

"I wish I could." She said as the tears fell from her eyes. Her voice turned pleading as she realized what could happen if her mother told anyone. "You can't tell anyone about this. If anyone finds out that we knew, the alliance of the twelve clans will break. We'll lose the war."

"You crossed the line." Abby told Clarke as she called for her mom. "Their blood is on your hands, and even if we win, I'm afraid you won't be able to wash it off this time. Don't worry. Your secret is safe with me."

Clarke called after her mom again as Abby turned to walk away. When her mom didn't look back, Clarke fell to her knees and cried. The guilt trying to consume her. A large hand came down to rest on her hand and her blue eyes turned up to mean the sad, dark eyes of the Commander.

"I could've warned them." She whispered, pleading with him. "I could've saved them."

"Come on." He helped her to her feet, pulling further into the woods. "If they see us, they'll strike again. Victory stands on the back of sacrifice."

"I want the Mountain Men dead, all of them." She said as she followed him blankly, her body feeling hollowed out.