'Shit shit shit shit shit shit-' Reigna's mind was running rampant as she frantically glanced around the blindingly white room. It was almost becoming constricting, the white of the room giving little to no contrast against her white clothes. Whipping her head around, Reigna searched her room for some kind of object to break open the window on her door so she could escape. There were no chairs or tables she could use, so the next best thing was the IV stand she had previously been hooked up to. Reigna quickly picked up the stand and used the base to break open the window, carefully knocking out some of the extra glass so as to not cut herself when she reached through to unlock the door. Reigna huffed as her fingers grazed against the handle of the door, but she wasn't tall enough to reach it. Swiftly spinning on her heels, Reigna unlocked the wheels on the bottom of the cot she had been laying on and moved it up to the door. Kneeling on the bed gave Reigna the extra height she needed to unlock the door. Kicking the bed away, she carefully opened the door, bending over to grab one of the larger pieces of glass to use as a weapon since all of her knives had gone missing. Reigna tip toed her bare feet around the mess of glass on the floor and began to creep down the hallway. She hesitated as she saw an open doorway down the hallway and jumped as she saw another IV stand burst through the window on the opposite side of the hall.
'Clarke' Reigna thought, picking up her pace while attempting to make the least amount of noise with her bare feet against the linoleum floor. She was near silent as she crept closer to Clarke's door, watching her arm swing out of the window, cutting her arm in the process. Reigna sped up her pace, looking over her shoulder as she saw someone in a hazmat suit cleaning out the room across from Clarke's. Reigna silently slid in front of the door, making Clarke flinch and pull her arm back into the room. She quickly unlocked and opened the door, grabbing Clarke's hands and squeezing them tightly for a moment before letting go.
"We need that person. We need a hostage and maybe someone will tell us where everyone else is or just let us go." Reigna rationalized, speaking quietly.
"Finding the rest of us is the priority, but I agree. We need a hostage." Clarke whispered, nodding along with Reigna's idea, "That was Monty's room. I saw him in there. Maybe they know where he is."
"Time to find out." Reigna murmured, spinning on her heel and storming into the room with the person in the hazmat suit. Without waiting for Clarke, Reigna stormed forward and ripped the helmet off the hazmat suit, making the girl in the sut turn on her heel only to be greeted with a shard of glass pressing into her throat.
"Where's Monty." Reigna asked, digging the shard ever so slightly deeper into the girls throat as fear consumed her features.
"He's fine! You have the wrong idea, he's-" Reigna silenced her ramblings with slight pressure to her neck.
"Take us to him." Clarke spoke up from behind Reigna. The girl's eyes flashed over to Clarke, looking her up and down.
"Clarke You're bleeding." She spoke, making both Reigna and Clarke look upon her with suspicion.
"How do you know my name." Clarke asked with hostility.
"It was on your chart. Same as you," She looked over at Reigna, "You're Reigna Kane."
"Okay," Reigna narrowed her eyes, "How do they know our names?" Reigna asked, digging the tip of the shard of glass into the skin under the girl's chin.
"I- I don't know! Please don't hurt me," The girl cowered beneath Clarke and Reigna's gaze.
"You want to live? Then you'll do what I tell you." Reigna hissed before turning the girl around and wrapping her arm around her throat, keeping the shard of glass pressed tightly against her throat. Reigna motioned with her head for Clarke to lead. She gave a curt nod before turning on her heel and leading the three out of the room at a brisk pace. As the three approached the elevator Reigna noticed the girl begin to reach for chest pocket. Reigna slammed the girl against the wall and dug the tip of the glass into her chin.
"I don't fucking think so." Reigna practically growled, her glare causing the girl to shrink.
"My keycard, I'm just getting my keycard." She said, her voice trembling with fear as her shaky, bloodied hand pulled a red keycard from the pocket. Reigna maneuvered the girl so she could scan her card against the card reader before shoving her into the elevator as soon as the doors opened.
"Which level," Reigna asked, keeping the glass to her throat. The girl didn't answer.
"Who are you people," Clarke stepped forward, growing angrier when she didn't respond again. "Answer me. How many of us are here? Where are they? Say something!" Clarke began yelling just as the doors to the elevator swung open with a chime, announcing they had arrived on level 5. Reigna wrangles her arm back around the girl's throat, pressing the glass against the side of her throat against her artery. Clarke leads the way as they round a corner. Both Reigna and Clarke are stunned into silence. A full room of people sitting at long rows of tables all chatting and eating like they didn't have a care in the world. Before Reigna could find any words to speak, a middle aged woman happened to look in their direction and stood with a horrified look on her face.
"Containment breach!" she yelled pointing an accusatory finger over at Reigna and Clarke. This shock gave the girl just enough time to shove Reigna's arm away from her and flee into the now panicking crowds. A loud alarm began to blare as a group of guards dressed in white started quickly making their way towards where Clarke and Reigna were still frozen.
"Where the hell are we?" Clarke asked mostly to herself. Reigna finally snapped out of her stupor as a guard attempted to grab her by the arms.
"Don't you dare touch me! Who the hell are you!" Reigna began to struggle, swinging out with her small piece of glass hoping to catch someone's skin.
"Reigna, just let them take you." Clarke tried to appeal but Reigna continued to struggle. A guard got behind Reigna and seized her by both the arms, forcing her head to the side as another guard approached and stabbed her with a small syringe. As she faded out of consciousness she could vaguely hear Clarke continuing to call her name
-0-
"Restraints won't be necessary. Let Miss Reigna sit up as well." Reigna heard a voice to her left speak. At the word 'restraints' she immediately began to tug on her arms and ankles, feeling them unable to move, her eyes snapped open.
"Reigna calm down. They're handling it." Clarke's voice soothed her nerves slightly as two men came over to her bed after releasing both of Clarke's wrists. The men unclasped the restraints around her hands and ankles and allowed her to sit up. One of the men walked away while one stayed nearby, as if waiting for her to pounce.
"Who are you." Reigna said without a tone of friendliness to her voice.
"Dante Wallace," He said with a hint of a smile, stepping over to shake Reigna's hand. She stared down his offer before glaring back up at his face. With a subtle nod he moved and offered the same hand to Clarke who hesitantly took it. Clarke's brows furrowed as she turned over his hand to inspect a smattering of dark blobs on Dante's hand.
"Oil paints," He answered her unspoken question, "That's right, you're an artist too."
"Who told you that?" Clarke's tone was accusatory as she let go of Dante's hand like it was burning her.
"Your people. They also told me that you two were their leaders. Looks like we all have a bit in common." He smiled over at Reigna then back at Clarke. She finally stood to look up at him.
"Where's my watch," Clarke asked.
"And my knives," Reigna continued, moving to stand beside Clarke.
"I'm sorry, but we can't let contaminated items inside Mount Weather. We couldn't risk it. Our protocol is very strict, Clarke. We prioritize safety over sentimentality." Dante sounded sincere as he spoke but Reigna couldn't bring herself to believe it.
"How many of us did you capture?" Reigna asked, taking a moment to glance around the room as she spoke.
"Forty-eight but you two have it all wrong. You aren't prisoners, we saved you." Dante explained.
"So we can leave," Reigna responded quickly, making Clarke glance at her out of the corner of her eye, "We have forty-eight people plus however many survived the ark crash. We still have plenty of people out there waiting and looking for us." she reasoned.
"If our patrols find anyone at the sites I swear we will bring them in to you. You both have my word." Dante explained. Reigna was beginning to grow tense. She didn't want anyone else brought in, she wanted to be let out. Before Reigna could get anymore tense and snap at the man before her, Clarke tightly grabbed her hand.
"We want to see our people." Clarke spoke up.
"Of course you do, I would too." Dante said with a faint smile before motioning with his hand behind him. A wooden chest is wheeled towards them and opened up to reveal fresh new clothing for them to choose from.
"Change and meet me in the hall," Dante turned towards all his armed guards in the room, "Come, let's give them some privacy." he said before everyone vacated the room. Reigna didn't budge until the door was firmly closed behind them.
"Clarke, i can't do this. I will not live in a cage for the rest of my life." Reigna began to panic and pace back and forth in front of her.
"And you won't. None of us will. We'll figure something out, i swear." Clarke stopped Reigna's pacing by grabbing the older girl's cheeks and forcing her to look her in the eyes.
"Figure something out… Okay." Reigna repeated Clarke's words before ripping her head out of her hands, the feeling making her uncomfortable.
"You need to change, You're clothes are covered in blood." Clarke managed to joke, making Reigna scoff.
"At least I didn't rip my damn arm open while I was escaping." Reigna replied, turning to the chest of clothing and finding a long sleeved shirt that was very similar in color to her old tank top. She grabbed that and a pair of tighter fitting jeans with minimal holes and a black zip up hoodie. Clarke's outfit was similar but she traded the jeans for a comfier looking pair of knee length sweatpants. Reigna turned her back to Clarke and threw off her offensively white clothes, not caring where in the room they landed. Slipping the shirt on over her head was easy, the sleeves were longer than she thought and hung down to the first joint of her fingers. The jeans, however, were a different story. Reigna slipped her feet into the holes and slid the jeans up her legs until they reached her mid thigh. From then on she started jumping, slowly bringing the jeans higher and higher up on her legs until they passed the apex of her hips and easily slid to her waist. Behind her, Reigna could hear Clarke holding back a laugh.
"Hey, shut the hell up. I forget not everything fits like clothes on the ark." Reigna managed a small laugh. Safety they both had finished dressing, Clarke halted her walk to the door. Holding up a high heeled shoe Clarke snapped off the heel and silently passed it to Reigna who quickly hit it up her sleeve. Clarke followed suit and the two finally walked towards the door to meet back up with Dante Wallace. As the two walked down the hall, their surroundings got progressively louder.
"Sorry about the noise. Hydroelectric power from the Philpott Dam. Fresh water from our underground reservoir. Fresh food from our hydroponic farm." Dante gestured around them at the gathering of machinery.
"I don't understand why you all would stay here. The ground is survivable. It's been survivable for a long time. So why stay locked away in a mountain." Reigna said with a strong furrow to her brow.
"It's not survivable for us." Dante started to explain.
"The grounders seem to have done just fine." Reigna countered and Dante nodded in agreement.
"Natural selection works wonders. The grounders who couldn't survive the radiation didn't. The ones who did passed down their DNA. For better or worse, we never went through that process."
"We didn't either," Reigna shrugged, "We've only been on the ground for-"
"Solar radiation," Clarke interrupted, a look of realization plastered on her features.
"Exactly," Dante praised Clarke, "Your DNA ran the same gauntlet as the grounders. Only because radiation levels in space are even higher, your ability to metabolize that radiation is even stronger. Truth be told, our scientists were blown away by the efficiency of your systems. If not for that, your friends would still be upstairs in quarantine. Please." Their walk came to an end and Dante gestured them towards the elevator.
Clarke and Reigna gave each other a brief look before hesitantly walking into the elevator. The elevator door begins to close but Dante intercedes, holding his hand in the small space between the doors. As they slide slowly back open Clarke and Reigna are met with Dante's disappointed face.
"But first, the heels." He says with a stern voice, holding out his hand expectantly. Reigna's grip on the heel tightens beneath her sleeve as she watches Clarke slowly places hers in Dante's hand.
"Hand it over, Reign." Clarke mumbles to the older girl, and with a huff she drops it in Dante's hand. He gives the two a small smile as he passes the heels off to a guard behind him.
"You two aren't fighting for your lives anymore. Please, you've made it. Welcome to Mount Weather." He says and the door is allowed to completely slide shut.
The ride is short, it felt longer when Reigna was threatening another girl's life with a shard of glass, but when faced with a calmer reality the ride was seconds short. When the doors slid open once more to the 5th level, Clarke and Reigna stepped out and were escorted to the corner by the two guards that were in the elevator with them. Reigna cautiously peaked her head around the corner and saw a few gatherings of people in the room they had been in earlier. Reigna could hear a woman talking to a large group of people as they approached. As they got closer a head poked out of the crowd. Monty.
"Clarke! Reigna!" Monty exclaimed, pushing quickly through the crowd of leftover delinquents and immediately wrapping them both in bone crushing hugs. The entire group crowded around them as Reigna finally managed to unwrap Monty's arms from around her but was quickly replaced with Jasper, and after Jasper came Fox.
"Some breathing room please, guys?" Reigna said sheepishly, becoming quickly overwhelmed by the amount of people and attention she was getting.
"You guys are okay." Jasper smiled with a small nod of his head.
"Perfectly fine. Is Bellamy here?" Reigna quickly asked, scanning around the group as best she could, making a mental list of all the delinquents she still had and the ones that were missing.
No Bellamy
No Murphy
No Finn.
"Or Finn. Are either of them here?"
"Or Murphy?" Reigna asked inaudibly as Monty and Jasper looked to each other with pitiful looks on their faces.
"They- They didn't make it, guys." Jasper said softly and Reigna immediately bristled at his words paired with that tone. She hated that tone.
"You don't know that." Her tone was harsh and Jasper flinched.
"Raven?" Clarke asked, taking some of the attention away from Reigna in order to let her settle. Monty and Jasper both gave subtle shakes of their heads and Reigna looked away, clenching her fists tightly.
"Clarke? Reigna? Welcome," A blonde woman broke into the tightly woven circle of delinquents, handing Reigna and Clarke blue binders, "If either of you have any questions, I'm Keenan." She smiled and quickly made her way out of the circle. Gripping the binder tightly Reigna began pushing her way out of the group.
"I need a minute." She mumbled to Clarke before stalking off into the hallway.
-0-
"I gave you 30 minutes, you calmed down at all?" Reigna looked up from reading at the sound of Clarke's voice.
"Ehh," Reigna shrugged. After she walked out of the main hall, Reigna had taken a few turns and found a nice secluded corner next to an air vent. She had almost been tempted to rip the grate off and hide out inside the vent like she had when she was a child on the ark but quickly decided against it. "Have you had the time to look over this shit at all? All these rules and regulations. Don't even get me started on the map." Reigna hissed, quickly flipping back to the front page.
"No exits whatsoever." Clarke spoke, crouching down beside Reigna with her own binder open, full of different markings of different colors already.
"If we're so welcome to be here, then why don't they show us how to leave. Any why offer to bring our other people in here instead of just directing us to where they are. I'm not living underground for the rest of my life. I'm already pale, I don't want to be translucent." Reigna mumbled the last part.
"I've been thinking of an idea to get us out. If we can steal someone's keycard we can find the exit, get out, find Belamy and the others and come back for everyone else." Clarke whispered her plan as she glanced around the hallway for any evesdroppers.
"You think we could find them by ourselves?" Reigna asked.
"Quite frankly, i don't think it would be that hard to find everyone, it's just the staying alive part that's a bit daunting but i don't think you would have any problems keeping us alive." Clarke smiled over at Reigna as she raised her brows skeptically.
"Are you serious?"
"Deathly," Clarke confirmed.
"I don't even have my knives anymore," Reigna tried to reason.
"We can work something out. I know you're just as desperate as I am to get out of here." Clarke argued back and Reigna sighed.
"Whose key card are we snatching then.
"Maya's. That girl we tried to maim," Clarke explained, "She said she wouldn't press charges against us but i figured if you tried to apologize during dinner you could grab her card and we can get out."
"But I would never-" Reigna started.
"She doesn't know that. She doesn't know you so she doesn't know how much of a hardass you are just yet. And hopefully she never will if this plan works." Clarke explained quickly and Reigna nodded, getting to her knees before standing and offering Clarke her hand.
"Okay, let's do it then." Reigna agreed. Clarke nodded once before taking Reigna's hand and allowing her to help her off the ground. They both quickly dusted off their pants before grabbing their binders and making their way towards the main hall. Once they were in the doorway, Reigna motioned with her head to where Monty and Jasper were sitting.
"Clarke. Reigna." Jasper greeted them as Clarke sat beside him, Reigna walking around the table to sit by Monty.
"Act like you two are happy to see us." Clarke said emotionlessly as she sat down.
"We are happy to see you guys?" Jasper said, confused, looking quickly between the two.
"You two have got to try the chocolate cake," Monty said excitedly as Jasper sent him a glare. Reigna pushed the plate away with the back of her hand.
"I'm not eating their food. Look. They gave us a map with no exits. I need you to tell me everything you've seen. Every room, every hallway, every way out." Clarke explained, showing the two her color coordinated map.
"Way out? Why are you looking for a way out. There's no one hunting us here. We aren't starving. Why would you want to leave?" Jasper asked, sounding aggravated and Reigna glared across the table at him.
"Better question is why won't they let us if we want to? We have people out there looking for us." Reigna argued back and Jasper rolled his eyes.
"They have people scouting for our people to bring them back here safely. They're much better equipped than us."
"But what if they don't want to be here, Jasper. What if everyone doesn't want to be stuck in a mountain without sunlight for the rest of our lives just because they're too lazy to learn how to fight or make peace," Reigna slammed her hand on the table, making Clarke whisper her name in an attempt to calm her down to no avail, "Did you ever think about that? Did you ever think about how they didn't ask us if we wanted to come here in the first place? I don't give a shit how welcoming they are. If they don't give me an option to leave whenever i want then there's ulterior motives i'm not being told about." Reigna finished, crossing her arms over her chest and leaning back in her chair. Jasper glared back at her before standing, claiming Reigna was bumming him out and walking away.
"Really, Reign?" Clarke asked exasperatedly.
""Shut the fuck up, I wan't out of this hell hole. I haven't felt this claustrophobic since my first two months in isolation on the ark." Reigna grumbled, letting her eyes scan the main hall before stopping on Jasper who was talking to a suspiciously familiar figure.
"Clarke," Regina motioned with her head. Clarke turned slightly and nodded.
"Now."
Reigna stood, grabbing her binder and making her way over to Jasper and Maya. Plastering the most genuine fake smile on her face she could, Reigna walked over to the two.
"Hey, Maya, right?" Reigna did her best to take the harsh edge off her voice, spotting a red card on the table, Reigna sat her binder on top of it inconspicuously and clasped her hands together in front of her, "Listen, I uh… I just wanted to apologize for what happened earlier. I don't deal with fear very well. Trauma and all. I was just worried about my friend's safety. I hope you can understand." She smiled as Maya gave her a curt nod and Reigna moved to pick her binder back up, feeling the smooth plastic of the keycard under her fingers as she picked it up. As Reigna walked to the exit of the main hall, she looked over and gave a small nod to Clarke who quickly stood and followed after her. As soon as Clarke caught up, Reigna dropped her binder and passed the card off to Clarke. The two quickly walked down the hallway but soon after broke into a run as the emergency lights and alarm rang to life.
"Not a prisoner, my ass." Reigna commented, running behind Clarke but quickly skidding to a stop as she spies a group of guards rushing towards them.
"Straight. Keep going straight." Reigna ran in front of Clarke who quickly followed her lead. The two weaved in and out of machinery and down a side hallway only to be greeted by a locked stairwell.
"The card, Clarke." Reigna rushed. Clarke stepped forward and swiped the card, bouncing on the balls of her feet as the light finally changed from red to green. The two finally swung the heavy door open just enough for them to squeeze in and were met with a seemingly endless staircase.
"We go up." Reigna confirmed for Clarke as she turned and ripped the wires out of the door, shutting off the card reader. "Come on!" Reigna urged, grabbing Clarke's hand and racing up the stairs. The girls finally reached the apex of the stairs where the alarms were significantly louder, skidding to a stop at a fork in their paths, Reigna saw a large circular door.
"That's it!" Clarke exclaimed, racing towards the door with Reigna in tow. The alarms were deafening as they approached. Reigna attempted to pull the lever adjacent to the door, going as far as to put her foot on the wall for leverage, but it wouldn't budge.
"Backup backup backup." Clarke held her arm out for Reigna as she moved to the door and began slowly turning the wheel attached to the front. After hearing the door disengage, Clarke and Reigna looked to each other for a brief moment before Reigna grabbed onto the lever again.
"Reigna ,no! If you pull that lever, these people will die. Even a little radiation can kill them" Jasper exclaimed. Maya ran from his side around the corner and returned in moments with a gun armed right at her.
"Don't make me shoot you." She threatened. Reigna glanced over her shoulder at the two before turning back to look at Clarke. She had her eyes trained on Jasper.
"Wait, wait," Reigna heard Jasper speak before turning her head to see him approaching them, "You don't have to do this."
"I don't believe them." Clarke spoke, sounding close to tears.
"Why would they lie? Listen to me. We are safe here because of you. We're safe." Jasper tried to reason.
"Not all of us." Turned away, keeping her hands firmly placed on the lever.
"Reigna, I'm the one that fired the rockets. Should I not have done that?" Jasper asked, Reigna didn't turn to look at him, she could hear the tears in his voice.
"I begged you not to. And you still did. You should have waited. Just a little bit longer and Bellamy-"
"There they are! Hands up off the lever!" A guard yelled. When she didn't move, Reigna felt a body slam her into the wall next to the lever. Attempting to look over her shoulder, Reigna saw Clarke being pinned to the floor. Reigna felt cuffs being locked around her wrists as she finally gave up and rested her forehead against the wall. She was beginning to think she would never see the sky again.
-0-
"Lose the handcuffs," Dante sighed as Reigna and Clarke were brought to his office. The cuffs were taken off their wrists and the guards left the room.
" There's a blank canvas if you'd like. I used to paint the ground, too. It's not just the ground. It's a memory. I'm sorry, Reigna. I'm not quite sure if you're the artsy type."
"You've been to the ground?" Reigna asked, completely bypassing his statement.
"Yes. Fifty-six years ago. For five minutes. I was seven when the first of what we call the outsiders appeared. Before that, we thought we were all there was. Imagine our surprise."
"We don't have to," Clarke mumbled her response. Reigna remembers all too well the day everything went to shit after they arrived on Earth.
"My father, this was his office at the time, believed it meant that the Earth was survivable again, and so, he opened the doors. Within a week, fifty-four people were dead from the exposure. My mother and sister among them. Loss, pain, regret. Time eases these things, Clarke, but the only time it's ever truly gone is when I'm painting."
"I'm really hoping you didn't bring us here to talk about paint." Reigna hopefully stopped his rambling as she glanced around his office, eyes lingering on a painting of a cluster of purple flowers.
"I'm afraid I have bad news. Our patrols have swept the area and found no evidence of survivors, either at your camp or from the Ark." Dante sighed, placing down his brushes. This caught Reigna's attention.
"You can't be sure of that," She rushed out her words.
"We aren't. I've ordered them to keep searching." Dante said and Reigna's tension eased slightly.
"I need to see for myself." Reigna urged.
"Reign-" Clarke tried to calm her.
"I'm sorry. I can't allow that. I'm doing this for your own good. It's not safe out there." Dante argued.
"Radiation doesn't affect us. And I'm not scared of grounders. I know how to defend myself. I want out!" Reigna's voice grew louder the longer she went on. Her skin felt like it was burning and her ears were ringing. Suddenly Reigna felt Clarke's cold hand on her wrist.
"It's not the radiation I'm concerned about. You both need time to grieve. These men will show you to your room." Dante gestured to the two men who had just entered.
"And what if we try to leave," Clarke spoke for her.
"Please, don't test me. Either of you." And just like that Dante shut them out and all Reigna was left with was burning rage and confusion.