"You are letting her cloud your judgment-" Titus argued. His tense posture leaning towards Bellamy
"Well she is about to be my wife," he said cutting him off before Titus could finish his sentence. He leaned into Titus, his words a harsh whisper in the silent room. "or did you forget that we need her for that. That to fix the power imbalance I need her and that it was her idea as well. I thought you were supposed to be loyal!"
"I am, but you are too personally in-" Titus's words were once again cut off as Clarke joined the two of them in the throne room. "Here she is."
Clarke nodded and gave a small bow to Bellamy. "You wanted to see me, Commander?"
He moved towards her. "Yes. I need to discuss the fate of the last Mountain Man."
"I believe he deserves death." Titus said sounding smug at the prospect of her proving him right.
"She can speak for herself, Titus." Bellamy bit back. He turned back towards Clarke.
Clarke's emotions played on her face and Bellamy's eyes took in every one of them. Her grief and anger outweighing the regret for her actions. "Titus is right."
"You see?" Titus's face turned gleeful. "It is human nature to need vengeance. Only once satiated can there be peace. That is our way."
"That was our way." He said. Closing his eyes for a moment before looking at Clarke. He understood why she felt that way. He'd only hoped that the peaceful life they had talked about on their way back from Arkadia could have already started. She was once again making the power balance look off to his people.
"He was gifted to you." Titus said. "The crime he stands charged with is against your people."
"Leave us Titus." Bellamy said before turning to Clarke again. His hand reaching out to her only when the door had closed behind Titus. "You have options, Clarke. Banishment from our land forever or death by 49 cuts from your hand? You have until sundown to decide. Let our legacy be one of peace. My people will have to learn to forgive the sins of the past as much as yours do."
He turned to leave her to her thoughts. Praying that she would make the right call, or he would have to find some way to smooth this over with his people who still called for Skaikru to be taken out.
XXXXXXXXXX
She had only hours to decide what to do with Emerson. She moved towards the throne room where she knew he had been brought in under the watchful eye of many guards. "Give us a minute." She said when she entered.
They all moved to stand at the back of the room allowing her a modicum of privacy with him. She pulled the blindfold off his face as she stared him down. "Carl Emerson, Mount Weather security detail."
"I've heard what they call you now." He spit out. His anger warping his face. "Wanheda, commander of death."
"I should've known it was you who told them how to destroy the Mountain." She said.
"I didn't destroy Mount Weather, you did. 381 people. 182 men, 173 women, 26 children. Two of them were mine." He said, his hands fighting the restraints that bound him to the post. Her eyes dropped to the floor for a moment before meeting his grief filled ones.
"Your president gave us no choice." She reminded him. He screamed in her face and she flinched away from him. The guards started to move forward to restrain him again before she held up her hand.
"What's the matter?" He taunted. "You don't like to be faced with your demons?"
"If you want mercy, you're gonna have to ask me for it." She raised her head to stare him in the face. Not willing to look weak in front of him.
"I don't want mercy," he laughed. "I want revenge. I want you to suffer the same way that I've suffered."
Her heart clenched at his words. She turned away from him to escape back to her room. As she moved toward the door and the guards moved back to Emerson, he shouted to her. "You can kill me, Clarke, but you can never escape what you did. My pain ends today. Yours has just begun."
Her mind wandered as her feet took her around the floor, she would be sharing with Bellamy in less than a week. It would be their home, yet it still felt hostile. Turning away from the room she knew he was in preparing for the meeting, she retreated to her room. There would be people to prepare her, waiting on her. She had to start presenting herself as his intended and she knew that meant sitting through getting her hair braided and then stuffed into a leather outfit to match him.
As she expected there was the gentle old woman who had helped prepare her for the assembly meeting when her people became the 13th clan, was waiting. A surprisingly fabric-based outfit laying on the bed. Though it was still dark in color she was pleased. Sighing she offered a polite smile and sat in the chair that stood before the woman.
XXXXXXXXXX
The drums beat rhythmically as he approached the hall, his guards sweeping out behind him. He adjusted the sign of the commander between his brows one last time before moving through the doors that were being pulled open for him.
He could see Clarke in her place near his throne. He made a mental note to have a permanent chair made for her after the wedding. One she would find more comfortable. She looked lost in thought, her blue eyes focused more inward than he would have expected in a room full of people.
He moved towards the throne and lifted his hand to stop the drums before he said to the room. "We come together tonight as we have countless times before to watch a man die." He pulled a knife from the hand that offered it to him. He lifted it for the room to see before turning to Clarke. His eyes met her's and he felt her begging him for an answer he couldn't provide. "Wanheda. Vengeance is yours."
She moved towards Emerson and studied his face. He could see her trying to find a way to do this with a clear conscious. "No." She said to the room. Handing the knife back to the guard. Bellamy took a moment to allow his heart to unclench. "I don't know if your death would bring me peace. I just know I don't deserve it. I wouldn't be killing you for what you've done. I'd be killing you for what I've done. I give this man his life. Blood must not have blood."
"Silence!" He yelled as the crowd started to murmur. "The crimes of the Mountain cannot be answered by one man. Wanheda knows this. Her actions show us a promise for a new future. A world in which violence does not always answer violence. A world in which our children can flourish without the shadow of death. This prisoner is banished from my land. He will live, but he will live with the ghosts of those he has lost. Haunted until the end of his days by the knowledge that he is the last of his kind."
"May you live forever." Clarke said to Emerson as she moved back to his side. He gave her a small smile as she passed him. They could lead their people to peace. They escorted Emerson out of Polis together at the head of their people. The guards that would escort him off their lands moved to take him past the gates of his city as Bellamy ghosted his hand over Clarke's lower back, turning them back towards home.
They moved back towards their rooms slowly after reaching the tower. His eyes following the lines of her face as she took in the new artwork, he'd had them place in his hall. "Would you join me for dinner?" He asked her as they neared her room.
She ducked her head as a blush rose on her cheeks. "I would like that." She said tipping her head up to look at him again.
He reached out a hand to her and laced their fingers together as he pulled her towards his room. As they passed a guard, he asked them to have them send Clarke's food to his room and that they would be ready for it at any time.
They ate in comfortable silence before retiring to the sofa. He turned to her. "Can I ask you something?"
Her eyes met his with a muttered, "Hmm?" falling off her lips.
"Can you tell me about your family?" He asked. "I feel like I know so little about you."
She looked surprised by the question. "Well, what would you like to know?"
"I know your mother is Abby and she is a doctor, but I don't know much else about you. Tell me about your father. I'm curious after Pike's words the other day." He admitted. Turning to look at her, neatly folding a leg up on the couch, tucking his foot under the leg that still hung from the couch. "Did he die in the crash to Earth or in a skirmish with my people?"
Her face had a quiet sadness on it as she hesitated to answer. He was about to retract his question when she opened her mouth. "He died a year before we came down, the first of us anyway. He was trying to protect everyone." Her mouth twitched up into a smile as she leaned back into the couch, closer to him than she had been. Her eyes still projected the loss as they met his. He reached his hand out to grasp hers. She looked down at their joined hands before lacing her fingers with his.
"There was a fault with our life support systems, he was the engineer that found it. He wanted to tell everyone. 'The more minds on the problem, the more likely we are to come up with a solution,' he had said. But the council disagreed. They didn't want people to panic." She sighed, shifting closer to him as her sad eyes traced their linked hands.
"He was going to do it anyway." A rueful smile graced her lips as she turned to meet his stare. "He thought they had a right to know. See, at the time we thought it would be another 100 years before we could safely come to Earth. He was killed because he wouldn't let it go. I was locked up for a year because I knew, I would have been killed on my eighteenth birthday if we had lived that long. I watched as they put my father in the airlock and floated him and I was arrested immediately after, dragged away to solitary confinement."
A rush a breath left him at her words. The arm that had rested against the back of the couch, moved to circle her, pulling her to his chest. "I'm so sorry, Clarke."
She shook her head. "It's okay. I mean it's not, but it's not your fault. He was a great man. I just wish I could be half as good as he was."
"You already are." He let go of her hand, using his free hand to tilt her head up to look at him. "You saved all your people, at great expense to yourself. I am in awe of you. I've never known someone as frustrating difficult to kill."
They both chuckled. She rested her hand on the one that still cupped her jaw. "Thanks, I know you mean that as a compliment."
He leaned towards her, resting his forehead against hers. "You have led a difficult life, Clarke. And you are so strong, you deserved so much better." He whispered as his nose traced hers.
"You do too, you know. Deserve better." She whispered back; her blue eyes hidden behind her closed lids. He pressed his lips to hers, lightly at first but when she turned in his arms to straddle his lap, he let himself pour more passion into the kiss. His tongue sliding against the seam of her lips, she opened to him without hesitation. His hands moving down to her waist, fingers pushing her shirt up to allow his to touch her bare skin. Her own hands running through the soft curls at the back of his head.
When he pulled away to catch his breath, he didn't move far from her. He let his head drop to her shoulder as he mouthed at her neck, hands snaking up her back under the soft fabric of her shirt. Her head falling back as he did, a gasp falling from her lips. Her hands moved down from his hair to his jaw, pulling him back up to meet her lips again.
Their kiss felt endless as their hands wandered over each other. After what had felt like hours and yet, still only moments, she reached down and pulled her shirt over her head. He drank in the sight of her creamy flesh as he asked. "You sure?"
She nodded, reaching around her back to unhook her bra. He sucked a breath in as she revealed the pale blush of her pebbled nipples. His hands ran gently up her sides to brush lightly over the peaks, her breath catching at every pass. He brought her back to him with a kiss as he palmed at her heavy breasts, thumbs flicking ever so gently against the sensitive tissue. She rocked her hips into him, his hands dropping to her hips to stop the movement before banding around her back. He pulled away from the kiss and trailed his lips down her neck. He lightly nibbled against her collarbone as he bent her further backwards, his strong arms supporting her.
She gasped and writhed for a moment when his mouth moved over her breast. Another rock of her hips against his when he gently lapped at her nipple before sucking softly. Her hands started to scrabble at his back as he moved to the other side. She pulled his head back with a sharp tug of his hair as she surged forward to press her lips back to his. Her hands reaching down to pull at the intricate laces and buckles on his jacket. Her nimble fingers making short work of it before pushing it off his shoulders and reaching down to pull the soft t-shirt off him.
Her small hands running over his overheated skin sent shivers running down his spine. Her fingers tracing the muscles on his back. She pulled back, looking into his eyes as her hands came back up to cup his face. "So handsome." She whispered before lightly pressing her lips back to his. His own hands crawled back up her sides as she pulled back again.
"The bed?" She asked. He didn't have any words as he moved back to meet her lips. His hands found the back of her thighs and grabbed tight, he stood, lifting her with him. Her legs wrapped around his waist as he walked towards the bed.
He set her gently against the soft sheets; set her down at the edge before laying her back. He stood back up his hand rubbing at the legs that still circled his hips. "So beautiful" He said. One hand reaching out to trail down her torso, brushing softly against her breast as it traveled south from her collarbone. Goosebumps rose on her skin with his soft touch. His hands met at the waistband of the leggings she was wearing. He looked at her face again, fingers hesitating as the brushed over the skin at the top of her pants.
She nodded again and his fingers disappeared under the soft fabric. Her head tossed back and her back arching as he traveled through the curls and met her wet heat. His thumb brushed against the nub of her clit quickly before pulling back out of her pants. He pulled her legs from his waist before his fingers hooked into her waistband and he dragged them off her. He kneeled before her has his hands lifted to peel her underwear off her. She propped herself up on her elbows as she watched him for a moment. Her blue eyes blown wide. "You don't have to do that." She said as she reached out for him with one hand.
He shied away from the hand that was intending to pull him back over her, pressing his cheek to her thigh. A soft gasp pulled from between her teeth as he grazed his lips over the soft skin there. His own eyes looking back up to meet hers as he nuzzled against her leg. "You deserve to be worshiped." his voice sounding wrecked as he whispered to her. "Let me worship you."
She nodded before leaning back on her elbows. He pressed forward. His lips trailing up the soft skin to just shy of her heat before mimicking the same on the other leg. She let her head drop back between her shoulders as she gasped. He let his fingers spread her before him before he moved his face towards the warmth in front of him. His mouth worked her clit as his snuck his fingers into her, one at first, then two more. As he worked her higher her arms gave out and her hips began to writhe. He draped her legs over his shoulders before banding his arm over her hips to keep her from moving away from him.
He looked up as he worked her, the skin on her chest and face flushed with pleasure. Her eyes clenched shut tightly, her hands gripping the soft curls on his head as she pulled him closer to her. "Please." She cried out. "More." He picked up the pace as her cries echoed around him. She froze a moment before he felt her walls fluttering against his fingers, a silent scream falling from her lips as she clung to the hair still in her hands.
He lapped at her, fingers still moved slowly in and out until he felt her relax. He pulled back from her before standing and moving next to her on the bed. Her soft expression looked tired as she stared up a him from hooded eyes. Her hand coming up to wipe at the fluid that still coated his chin. He grinned at her before turning his face to wipe it on the bed spread. She giggled softly before pressing her lips back to his. She sat up slightly before moving back towards the pillows at the top of the bed, his body chasing hers to keep from pulling away from her.
When they stopped moving backwards, she flipped him over to his back before straddling him again. She pulled back from his lips sitting up over him, she moved his hands up to her breast before rocking her hips gently against his for a moment. He watched her scoot back down to sit on his thighs before she reached up to the tie at the waist of his pants, her eyes meeting his in question. He smiled at her before nodding, allowing her to unlace his pants and lifting his hips to help her pull them down. He pulled her back over him when they reached his ankles, his own feet kicking the pants the rest of the way off. He gasped, head falling against the pillows, when her soft wet heat sat down over his throbbing cock.
She rocked over him for a moment before sitting back and reaching her hand out to grasp him, standing him up to line up with her entrance. They both moaned as she sank down on him, her hands bracing on his chest, his own hands coming to rest atop hers. She rocked over him slowly for a moment before he reached out to run his hands over her. Her tempo picked up as she threw her head back, pushing her chest into his hands.
"So good," she said with her wrecked voice before leaning forward to kiss him. He banded his arms over her back as she kissed him. Lifting their hips off the bed to pound up into her. When he stopped to readjust his hold, she rolled her hips forward rocking against him. He reached down between them to thumb at her clit again and she keened at the sensation. He drove himself hard up into her again, one arm still holding her to him.
She started to shake against him as he felt her walls clenching down hard. Her body seizing up for a moment before she was swept away with her orgasm. He thrust into her shaking body a few more times before a cry tore from his lips and he spilled up into her.
They laid like that as they recovered, their chests heaving. She was draped over him as his hands rested lightly on her waist. She moaned when he softened enough to slip from her body without pulling away.
Eventually he turned them on their sides and pulled the blankets over them. Her arms tracing the designs of the tattoos on his shoulders until they dropped over his shoulder. His eyes slid shut at the soft feel of her hands on him. He pressed a light kiss to her shoulder.
The next time he opened his eyes, the sun was starting to peak over the horizon outside his room. He rolled over onto his stomach as he watched her sleep for a moment before his eyes closed again.
He woke up some time later to the feel of her hands tracing the tattoos on his back, the soft sunlight of morning in full swing as it haloed her blonde head. When his eyes met hers from the cradle of his arms, she smiled, whispering "This is beautiful." to him as her nails scraped lightly over the dark lines.
"I got it on my Ascension Day," He whispered back. "a circle for every Natblida that died when the Commander chose me."
"7 circles," the question clear in her voice. "I thought you said there were 9 novitiates at your conclave."
He nodded. "There were."
"What happened to number 8?" She asked, her nails biting harder into his back sending a shiver down his spine.
"Luna did not wish to fight. She fled instead." He said before lifting himself up on his elbows. Her eyes darkening as she watched him. "Can we talk about something else?" He asked in a husky voice.
"We don't have to talk at all." She said breathily before she leaned down to kiss him again. He turned in her arms and they were lost in a tangle of limbs again.
XXXXXXXXXX
Murphy could feel the blood crusting on his face, his eye swollen as Titus leered at him. "Please, listen to me, OK? I don't know anything more about Clarke, alright? Listen, I don't know anything." He pleaded. "She is just a girl. I don't know what you want me to tell you. We didn't have spies in space."
"She must have something, some special training if she is turning the commander from the path." He argued, chest heaving with frustration
"I promise you. She's just a girl." He begged. As the crazed man raised his staff to lay into Murphy again.
The next time Murphy woke Titus was kneeling in front of him. The chip held out in front of him. "Tell me about this, again."
"I already told you everything I know the first 10 times you asked me." He said, a tear leaking from his swollen eye.
"What you told me doesn't make any sense." He said standing. "How did a Sky Person come to be in possession of our most holy symbol?"
"Holy? It's a corporate logo. I told you!" Murphy cried.
Titus brought his staff down into Murphy's side again. "Wrong. This is the sacred symbol of the commander to whom I've dedicated my life. Now, how did you get it?"
Murphy hunched over trying to catch his breath. Wanting to cradle his ribs but unable to because he was still chained to the floor. "Again, Jaha gave it to me."
"This would be Chancellor Jaha." Titus questioned.
"Yes." Murphy nodded. "He told me it was the key to the City of Light and that if I swallowed it, the woman in red would take me there."
"The woman who's not a woman." Titus questioned again, his tone disbelieving.
"Yeah. That's right." He nodded again. "She's a computer program, but I get that's hard for you to grasp, considering you pray to garbage, no offense, obviously."
"Tell me more about this computer program that ended the world." Titus said walking away from Murphy before turning sharply back to him.
"Come on. I don't have any details, Ok? On the Ark, they just told us it was countries, politics. Big surprise, they were wrong." Murphy begged. "Please. I don't know any more."
"Wrong." Titus said before swinging the staff down again.
XXXXXXXXXX
Clarke gave Bellamy one last kiss before she pulled away from him with a soft smile on her lips. She headed back down to her room with a swing in her step, she was deliciously sore from the night before and this morning.
The sight that met her when she entered her room sobered her quickly. Murphy was tied up, leaning heavily against the side of her bed, bruised and bloody. "Murphy?" she said as she moved towards him. His one good eye wide as he looked over her shoulder.
"He's alive." Titus startled her and she whirled around to look at him.
"What did you do to my friend?" She glared at him.
"Your friend was caught stealing from people on their way to the Polis market." He said matter of factly.
Clarke turned away from Titus and moved to start untying the man in front of her. "Hey, you're okay." She soothed.
She had barely gotten one of his hands untied when, Titus said "Please don't do that." in a voice that crawled over her. She turned slowly to meet his vicious stare. Titus had a pistol in his hand.
"Titus," She raised her hands as she stood. "What is this about?"
"I'm sorry it had to come to this Clarke. Truly I am." He said, almost sounding as if he truly believed that. "Bellamy will never execute his duty if you live."
"Hey! Titus think." She begged as she backed to stand in front of Murphy. "He is gonna know it was you."
"He'll think it was him. Skaikru weapon in the hands of a Skaikru thief." He said, eyes wild as he pointed the gun at her with a steady hand. "He might be angry enough to declare war!"
He pulled the trigger a couple times and Clarke was thankful he had never shot a gun before, the kickback pulling his aim away from her. She hissed when one grazed her shoulder as she dropped to the ground, covering Murphy with her body.
The sound must have drawn Bellamy from his room because he strode in shirtless, she could still see the marks from her nails on his shoulder. The sound of the door bouncing off the wall pulled Titus around as his finger was pulling the trigger and Clarke watched with horrified eyes as a bullet tore through his shoulder. "Bellamy!" She screamed.
Titus dropped the gun in a daze as he called out softly. "Heda." as Bellamy fell to the ground.
"No, no!" She cried as she moved towards him quickly. Pressing her hand to his shoulder as he hissed from the pain. Clarke turned to Titus. "Help me get him to the bed!"
Titus moved to help her lift him off the ground. He gently placed him on the bed and Clarke's hands fluttered uselessly over him. She clenched her eyes shut before opening them and turning to Titus. "Okay, I need something to stop the bleeding!" She turned back to Bellamy. "You'll be okay. Just lie still, okay. Lie still."
"Don't be afraid." He said as he lifted a hand to brush the hair off her face.
"You're gonna be fine. Just stay still." She promised. Before she rounded on Titus. "Untie him and then I need suture and bring me one of the novitiates and, and, um, a needle and some tubing."
Titus turned to untie Murphy who stood up and looked at Clarke helplessly. She moved to make room for Murphy to press his hand where hers had been. She moved over to the radio that her mother had left her. She noted that Titus had moved out of the room and she only hoped that he was doing as she asked. Her hand shook as she called out to her mother.
"Arkadia, This is Clarke Griffin. I need to speak with my mother now. Please, Please, put Abby Griffin on the radio now." She repeated herself two more times before Raven came over the radio. Her voice sounding pleasant as if they were about to be discussing the weather and not the terror at which she felt. "Raven, please get my mother, fast. Bellamy's been shot and I need her to talk me through this."
"Yeah, sure." The next 10 minutes were the most painful of her life. Clarke moved back to the bed sitting down and combing the hair off his forehead. Right as Abby came on the radio sounding confused, Titus returned with Aden.
"Mom?" Clarke said with tears in her voice as he closed her eyes pushing the tears back from her eyes. "Bellamy has been shot."
"Where?" Her mother's voice gave her strength as she described the injury. Murphy helped her to roll him up to see if there was an exit wound, when Clarke said that there was her mom reassured her that was a good thing.
"Mom, He's losing too much blood." Clarke said before turning to him. "Stay with me, please, Bellamy, just hold on. I will fix you, just stay with me."
"You need to get the bleeding under control first. Then we can worry about the volume. You need to reach in and make sure you don't feel a torn artery." Abby coached her. "You've done this before. You can do this."
Clarke nodded before she took a deep breath, apologizing to Bellamy before driving her finger into his wound. His cry of pain made her heart clench. "I don't think there is any, but I can't tell."
"Okay good, if you don't think there is one then there probably isn't. Okay you need to close the wound with sutures. And then you will need to get some blood in him. I'm going to go find Kane and we will head your way. We were planning on being there for the wedding anyway, but we will just come early. I'll be there by morning, be strong baby girl."
Abby clicked off before Clarke turned to Murphy and hugged him tightly. "You are going to have to hold him down while I do this. It's going to hurt him." Clarke pulled back. "Aden, Titus. I need you to hold his legs down." They nodded and moved to hold him down.
Clarke took a deep breath and just as she was about to drive the needle in Titus's voice startled her. "Forgive me, Heda."
"You will never again attempt to harm Clarke." He said firmly to Titus. "Swear it."
"I swear it." Titus promised.
Bellamy nodded. "Then do your job. Serve the next as you have served me, Flame keeper."
"Hey," Clarke rounded on him. "don't you dare give up."
"I'm not. My spirit will live on." He said, closing his eyes.
"No." she cried. "I'm not letting you die."
"The next Commander will protect you." He promised.
She shook her head, wiping the tears from her face. "I don't want the next Commander. I want you." She said as she leaned down to press a kiss to his lips. "Okay, hold him." She turned to start the sutures and a scream tore from his throat, before he passed out.
Her eyes kept track of the slow pace of his breathing while she worked. His breath stuttering as they flipped him caused her heart to clench. By the time she had finished working on closing up the hole in him his pulse was thready from the lost blood. She turned back to Titus and Aden. "You may need to get another night blood. He may need more than I can safely take from Aden."
Titus nodded before leaving. Clarke sat Aden down and started working on pulling blood from him. She pulled as much as she felt comfortable from him before moving to put it into Bellamy. By the time the blood was all in Bellamy, Titus had returned with another novitiate and Clarke repeated the procedure. After the second transfusion he looked to be much more stable. Clarke told Titus to clear the room and feed the kids who would be woozy from giving blood and that he was to wait at the gates of Polis for her mother to arrive and bring her straight here.
Clarke hugged Murphy one last time before telling him to crash on the couch. She crawled up to the bed and laid down next to him, her hand clutching his. Her eye tracing his pale face and hoping that he survived long enough for her mother to get here.
