Disclaimer: Do not own Marvel or The 100
Warnings for child abuse, homelessness, captivity, very, very dubious consent, controlling behavior and all around creepiness, since Clarke doesn't have a choice in this series.
A lot of this segment is inspired by WolfHowlRunner61's vampire stories.
Biding her time
Natasha, Laura, Clint and Yelena got out of the house and went through the many different streets, eventually reaching the sewer where they had first grabbed Clarke. They found the sewer storm drain easily enough. And even if it hadn't been easy to find, Clarke's scent was entrenched in Clarke's scent.
They looked around and when they saw that no one was around, they each slipped into the storm drain.
They dropped down onto the platform below, they walked along and followed Clarke's scent.
Eventually, they found a small alcove, where there was some sort of barricade of stones and bricks set up. Stepping over the stones and bricks, getting into the alcoves, the vampires found where Clarke had been living for the past few years. And yes, there was a big pile of clothes strewn all over the ground in the form of a bed.
Seeing it made all four vampires growl. Laura leaned down and picked up the watch that was on top of the stack of photographs with a rubber band binding the pictures together. And she picked the pile of pictures up too.
"What's that?" Yelena asked, narrowing her eyes and going to a spot in the pocket of the wall, where there was a rectangular black object. She leaned down and picked it up. "Hey," she said, startled, "It's a Walkman." She held the Walkman and the headphones in her hands.
Clint eyed the Walkman, confused. "Don't kids these days usually have things like iPods?" He asked.
"We're assuming that Clarke would be able to get her hands on one of those," Natasha said, her eyes still on the old-fashioned piece of machinery Yelena had discovered. Her eyes then traveled down to the area where it had been kept and found several cassette tapes stored away there.
"Hmm," Natasha continued, "There must be a reason why Clarke didn't mention these. And why she kept them this far back in her home. Probably trying to keep it safe. The Walkman and the cassettes must mean a lot to her."
Yelena nodded, understanding. "We should grab the tapes too?" She asked.
"I'll get them," Natasha said, swooping down and scooping up the tapes.
The vampires got what they suspected Clarke would find important and took off and started going back to the safehouse.
Back at the safehouse, Clarke had learned several of the vampires' stories.
Hela and Thor both were the biological children of one of the first kings of the Viking land, Odin. They had commanded armies and invaded different countries and were both considered terrors. Odin had adopted two children from one of the more "savage" cultures-or rather, "savage," in the eyes of the Vikings, anyway. Those two children were Loki and Sylvie.
The four of them eventually were turned into vampires. Hela was turned by a vampire called a "draugr." And she had turned all three of her siblings. They had killed their father when he had tried to burn them, after discovering what they had turned into.
Hela had also turned one of her most trusted warriors, Brunnhilde. They were the oldest and had been around for centuries.
Melina was a strigoi and was turned by a member of the fascist and extreme political faction in Russia during the time of the Tsars, and she had been trained by them. And when Natasha had been old enough, Melina had turned her. Natasha had freed herself from the regime and had tracked down her adoptive sister, Yelena and had turned Yelena.
Steve was a strigoi, was well. He'd been an experiment by some American vampires to help fight against the Nazis and their vampires.
All four Frank, Jessica, Bruce and Carol were vrykolakas.
Carol had been sired by a member of a vrykolakas army, and she defected, when she discovered what that army was doing to citizens of a Greek village.
Frank had been born a vampire and his family had been killed by a rival vampire coven. So he had gone off to kill that coven and had wiped that coven out.
Jessica had also been born a vampire. Her family died in an accident. And Jessica was severely abused by one of her mother's rivals. Till Jessica killed him.
Bruce was betrayed by someone, a general and had been turned against his will. It was a fact that made him extremely angry.
Clarke was startled by all these stories and when she heard Jessica's story, she was unable to help but look at the vampire as if she had a great deal in common with the black-haired vampire.
Before they got to Tony and Pepper's stories, Natasha, Clint, Laura and Yelena came in, bearing most of the things from Clarke's place.
"Your father's watch," Laura said, smiling gently as she offered up the items, "And all the photos."
Clarke reached out and took the photos and the watch. "Thank you," she said to the older woman.
Laura smiled at her, happy to hear Clarke address her.
"We were just telling Clarke about our lives, before we were turned and when were turned or born," Pepper explained, smiling.
"Oh," Clint said, snickering, nodding to Laura, "She turned me. She was born a vampire."
Clarke looked at Laura. Laura nodded. "I'm what's called a 'moroi.' We're some of the more dangerous ones. Like the strigoi and the vrykolakos." Laura stated.
Yelena then walked up with something in her hands and seeing the items in Yelena's hands, Clarke froze, her eyes wide.
Her Walkman. And in Natasha's arms? Were the cassettes.
Seeing Clarke's alarms at the Walkman and the cassette tapes? Natasha realized that she'd been right. Clarke hadn't wanted anyone to find the Walkman or the cassettes. But why?
"You didn't mention the cassette tapes or the Walkman to us," Natasha said softly, no accusation in her voice, "You didn't want us to find them. Why not, love?"
Clarke glared at Natasha and she reached out and almost viciously, snatched the Walkman from Yelena, causing the older blond to widen her eyes. Clarke backed away with the Walkman protectively, the stack of photos under her left arm, her father's watch in her left hand and the Walkman in her right hand, the headphones hanging from the Walkman as she backed up.
"We're sorry, Clarke," Natasha said, voice again soft, "We didn't want to offend you or upset you."
Clarke shook her head, looking down at the Walkman. "It's not that," she snapped, "It belonged to my father."
"I see," Natasha said, and she and Laura and Clint shared a look, and they all shared a look of understanding with Pepper, Tony, Jessica, Frank and the others.
Whenever Clarke talked about her mother? She always talked about how she had been thrown out of her house.
But whenever Clarke talked about her father? Clarke's voice and words changed. She talked about her father with affection. Love.
Something had to have happened to Clarke's father, clearly. Because if Clarke's father was as good to Clarke as Clarke appeared to believe, he never would have allowed her to be thrown out on the streets.
The vampires knew they'd need to ask more. But they doubted Clarke would be forthcoming anytime soon about what had happened before she was thrown out of her home.
Clarke went to a sofa chair up against the wall, next to several of the stacked bookshelves and put the items down on a table next to the sofa chair.
"We brought you something else," Clint said and Clarke whirled around, looking at him, startled and Clint stretched his arms out. In his hands, he was holding a rectangular, white box with a flat top.
Approaching cautiously, Clarke looked at the box. There was a plastic, see-through panel on top of the box and Clarke almost laughed, but felt her mouth watering again. Cookies. Just like the vampires had promised.
Large, soft looking, very likely recently fresh baked cookies looked up at Clarke through the plastic.
Clarke was unable to help herself and licked her lips.
She heard chuckles around her at her reaction.
Clint said, "Here, go on." Clarke lifted her head and looked at Clint suspiciously, and reached out, grabbing the box from him, almost angrily and moved back, closer to the sofa chair and pulled the box on her lap as she sat down, holding the box protectively.
Natasha chuckled as she walked over and leaned down and placed the cassettes down onto some other tables. She said, "You don't need to worry, Clarke. We're not going to take the cookies from you."
Clarke eyed the redhead. She'd been too used to people trying to take the few bits of food she'd been able to steal or scavenge for from her to be in any way trusting.
"You guys don't need to eat?" She asked, "I mean, besides blood?"
Natasha shook her head. "We don't need to," she said, "But we still can. It's not like eating food or drinking stuff that isn't blood, makes us sick or anything. We just don't actually need it. It sustains us for a while. But it's not as effective as blood."
Clarke nodded.
When Natasha had backed away from the sofa chair where Clarke was seated, only then did Clarke tear open the box and begin to grab at the freshly baked morsels in the package.
Clarke glanced at the group of vampires as she started gnawing at one chocolate chip cookie, "You guys don't age, right? Well, I hate pointing this out, but I'm human. If I'm supposedly your 'mate,' there's a problem. You guys don't age, I do."
"Oh, that's easily fixed," Laura said, smiling, "Remember, we can sire people and make them like us. Turn them into vampires. All we'll have to do is wait till you're completely healthy and happy, then we'll turn you into a vampire, and you'll be with us forever."
Clarke froze mid-bite, shocked. To a certain extent, she realized she shouldn't have been shocked.
Because wasn't that obvious? The moment you brought the whole idea of "vampires" into the picture, it was only one more step till there was the "vampires can turn humans into vampires" factor.
Clarke honestly wasn't sure why she'd been so surprised.
And after the initial shock? There was refusal. And horror.
Clarke bit off a piece of the cookie and begrudgingly ate it, dropping the rest into the box.
She was not going to become a vampire. She refused. She doubted that these vampires would listen to her. But she was not going to let them turn her. That sort of made the decision for her, if she had any doubts. She had to escape.
Before the vampires decided that she was "ready" to be turned.
And in the meantime, she would have to pretend to go along with everything they wanted.
So, she forced herself to pick up the rest of the cookie, stuffing it into her mouth.
She heard Melina say gently, "Clarke, be careful, you'll make yourself sick or choke."
This time, Clarke hesitated in biting, not out of shock, but in realization that Melina had a point.
Clarke could very well make herself sick or choke. And if she made herself choke? Then she probably would become sick.
Unfortunately, Clarke knew this for a fact from personal experience.
One time, when Clarke had gotten her hands on half of a sandwich, and she'd been so hungry that she almost ate all of the large half of the sandwich in only a few bites. Because she had eaten too quickly, much of the food had gone down the wrong tube. As a result, Clarke had coughed. And coughed. And coughed and coughed and coughed.
And it had led Clarke to her body…..um, "evicting" all of her hard earned sandwich out onto the pavement under her. Her throat had burned and she had felt miserable for hours and hours.
She'd had to drink lots of water, to make herself feel better. It made her glad that she almost always would steal packages of bottled water from trucks, when the trucks were open and the people moving the cargo out, were busy. Because she knew water was the one thing that was the most necessary. Even more so than food.
She had gone a few days without food several times. Longer than a few days. But no human could go more than a day without water.
Sure, it took three or four days till someone died of dehydration. But after a day? A person was likely already going to be sickly and tired and weak. Again, Clarke unfortunately, had learned this from personal experience.
It hadn't happened to her specifically, however, she had seen a few people on the streets focusing on food or booze or hard drugs, rather than grabbing water, and she had ended up witnessing the results of dehydration. None of those results had been pleasant to see.
Clarke slowed her eating of the cookies and glared at Melina, but nodded, in response.
She kept eating, because there was no way she was going to be parted from these cookies anytime soon, but she slowed her eating.
After several seconds, she realized that she probably should do the polite thing. She glanced at Clint and Laura and Yelena and Natasha grumbled out, "Thank you for my stuff. And for the cookies."
"You're very welcome, Clarke," Laura said, smiling.
After Clarke was satisfied, after she finished off almost the whole box of cookies, she panted, closing the box and placing it onto the table next to the items that had been brought back from her home in the storm drain and she looked back to the vampires.
"What now?" She asked hesitantly. While she didn't want to deal with any other ideas they had, she figured she might as well play along, as long as they thought that she was obeying them. Then she'd find a way of escaping.
"What now?" Laura asked, smiling and she and the other vampires looked amused, "Now, anything you want. As long as you don't try to leave."
"Fine," Clarke said, anger getting into her voice at the reminder that she couldn't leave, "What do you have to do around here? Books, clearly," she gestured to the shelves of books, "But anything else?"
"Sure," Tony said, grinning, "We have TV. Also, a game room."
"A game room?" Clarke asked, unable to help her curiosity, "What's that?"
A good deal of the vampires appeared startled by Clarke's question. Then Tony, Steve and Natasha grinned.
"Hoo," Tony practically whistled, "We'll show you."
"If you want," Steve added.
At Clarke's suspicious look, Jessica chuckled, grinning, "It's not an innuendo, Clarke. There's just a room with a lot of boardgames and tabletop things. Nothing sexual."
Yet.
Jessica hadn't said, "yet," but Clarke heard the word, anyway.
Deciding that since she was "playing along" with all of them, she might as well see what they were offering in the game room. Besides, she was likely going to be here for a while, till she figured out how to escape. So, might as well, right?
So, she sighed and got up off of the chair and nodded to them. "Alright," she said, rolling her eyes, "Show me the game room. Why not?"
The vampires smiled and walked out of the room, leading Clarke through the hall and down the next hall to a room around the corner.
The first thing Clarke saw, was a flat screen TV lodged into the wall. With a DVD player and a cable box stacked on top of each other, right next to the TV. There were several remote controls on a small table next to the DVD player and cable box.
The room was well lit and carpeted with a light green carpet that looked fuzzy. There were several tables with games around the room. A ping pong table with paddles on the table. A pool table with pool cues in a holster against the wall. A couple of other tables with games Clarke didn't recognize. There was a dartboard hanging from the wall with darts sticking out of it. There were several stacked up board games against the wall. There were a lot of boardgames.
"There are things in the backyard that you can use too," Wanda said, smiling.
Clarke looked at the dark-haired vampire, startled. "You guys would let me outside?" She asked, confused.
"Of course," Laura snorted, as if Clarke thinking that she was confined only to this house, "You can go out and go wherever you want. But you have to have one of us with you."
Clarke nodded, realization hitting her and making her teeth clench. Ah, so, there was the catch.
"Right," Clarke sneered, "To make sure I can't get away."
Laura nodded. "That's right," she said, "I'm sorry that you are having trouble here and that we met under these circumstances. But yes. We can't let you escape."
Clarke snorted, "Then what good are you offers of compassion and occasional outings, when I can't go anywhere."
"After we turn you," Pietro said, "You'll feel the bond with us, like we feel it with you. So, after that? You won't want to leave us. After that and after we teach you how to control yourself around humans, you can go where you want, without one of us shadowing you the whole time. Because we'll know that you'll come back to us, always, as long as you're a vampire and can feel the bond too."
Clarke glared at the white-haired vampire. She knew she needed to play along, to make them think that she wouldn't run, until she found a way of getting away. But Clarke couldn't help the acid in her glare that she threw at Pietro.
Clarke forced herself to turn away and glare at some of the other things in the room. She mumbled, "So, there are games outside?"
"Yep," Clint said, "We put a bunch of them out there for the kids."
Clarke frowned, looking to Clint, startled. "Kids?" She asked, confused.
Clint nodded and Clarke noticed Laura smiling. "We have several children," Clint said, smiling as well, "Laura and me. Vampires can have children. We're not sterile or infertile or anything. Laura and I have six children."
Clarke snorted out quietly, "Okay, where the hell are these children?"
Laura chuckled, "They're with the rest of our coven. Our oldest children, Jillian, Cooper and Lila can take care of themselves. And will look after the younger kids, Zachary, Jessie and Nathaniel, even if the rest of the coven isn't protecting them."
Clarke nodded.
She didn't want to think about what that meant. That Clint and Laura had children. That they were claiming that she was their mate, and they had multiple children. She didn't want to think about it.
Laura watched Clarke, and she could tell that the younger woman was thinking about the implications.
Any implications that Clarke was thinking about Laura and Clint having children and Clarke being their mate, was most likely true. Laura and Clint wanted Clarke to be involved with their children's lives. They wanted Clarke to be the children's mother, as much as Laura was the children's mother.
However, Laura and Clint both knew that that was asking too much of Clarke right now. Clarke had just been taken off of the streets. And she was clearly very, very young.
Mathematically? If Clarke had been thrown out onto the streets at the age of fourteen? And it had been six years since then? Then, logically, Clarke was only twenty. And asking her to be another parent to several children, after years and years of being on the street and having to survive, would just be too much to ask.
Laura and Clint wouldn't bring this issue to Clarke. Not till she was ready to be turned and even after that, likely not after about a couple of years of Clarke being a vampire and enjoying her power as a vampire.
However, Laura and Clint did want to discuss it.
Laura glanced back at the other vampires. She knew that there was another issue that they'd need to bring to Clarke. Vampires that were biologically female, could impregnate other cis women-and trans men, with magic.
Basically, if there was a human being with a uterus? A biologically female vampire could impregnate that person, using magic, just like any biologically male vampire, could.
And Laura knew that several of the women in this group, wanted to impregnate Clarke. Laura didn't even need to hear them say it, to know. Because she wanted to get Clarke pregnant too. She wouldn't bring it up till Clarke was a vampire and had spent a few years as a vampire. But she did.
And she knew that Natasha, Melina, Yelena, Wanda and the other women were all thinking it.
And no, she didn't have to ask the males in the group to know that they did too. But that would be asking Clarke too much.
They'd have to talk with her about it after a lot of time had passed.