Pilot
On the Ground
Ontari's blade neared my face and I ducked and took a swing at her and she ducked avoiding every move I made at her. With our training we had we were just about evenly matched but I had a bit more than she had. I quickened my pattern as the adrenaline of the fight began to kick in, it was like a high that you could not get enough of. I knocked her blade out of her hand and kicked her in the chest, sending her to the ground and I held my sword at her throat, cutting it slightly drawing a bit of blood.
"Ai win, Ontari." (I win, Ontari) It to my blade away from her throat and helped her up off the ground.
"Yo seintaim grenplei kom gona warmona, Kassandra. Nia don sad yu gonplei disha wor. Yu gon daun mou kamp raun ai daun kes Mikal." (You also train with the warchiefs, Kassandra. Nia made you fight in the war. You were also a bigger part and fought more than I did because of Mikal.) I quickly turned to her and she backed up, even with her having backed up I was able to get a good punch in on her that knocked her to the ground.
"Do not talk about him Ontari, I swear to god I will kill you even if it means my death at the hand of our Queen." I threatened her reverting back to English and made my way over to the stairs, I closed my eyes and took a few deep breaths trying to calm down and I felt a hand placed on my shoulder. I looked behind me to see Ontari looking at me with a sympathetic face.
"I'm sorry Kassandra. I know you loved him." I shrugged her hand off and headed down the stairs. "Teik in hon in bida dina. (Let's gets some food.) I told her pushing what just happened to the back of my mind and we raced down the stairs, heading out into the densely populated part of our village. We both went over and grabbed food, I grabbed a piece of rabbit and Ontari did the same. I went over to the ledge of the old building that was used as the throne room.
From my spot on the ledge I looked out into the village that was full of life, the ground was covered in a light coating of snow and a crisp breeze blew the snow that we did have around causing how far we could see to be quite limited.
It had taken me a while after I landed on Earth to get used to the frosty weather, nut I had adapted. It helped with the fur clothes that I had received from my clan the day I had landed.
"Osir beda odon sanch en ge kom daun kom granplei. Ai dula op vout in biliak ai mebi nodotaim disha aftaim." (We should finish lunch and return to training. I do think I may win this time.) Ontari said and I shook my head smirking.
"Ai laik mou beda gon gonen." (I am better at fighting.) I took the last bite if rabbit and I waited for Ontari to finish up eating and once she was done we both jumped off the ledge landing in the light and fluffy snow beneath us. We walked back through the village back to where we had been training.
A noise echoed through the sky causing everyone to go quiet and look up, It was hard to see with the blowing snow, but I made out what looked like a quite large dropship hurtling through the sky toward the ground landing in Trikru's territory.
"Kassandra, ste biliak a Skaikru fludon?" (Kassandra, is that a sky person ship?) Ontari asked glancing over to me.
"Sha Ontari, Skaikru ste sen op kru. ( Yes Ontari, The Sky People have sent people down.) We watched as the parachutes deployed and they rand a bit roughly in the distance. Maybe about fifty miles more or less away from out village. I turned away, I felt numb inside. I never believed that I would see anyone from the Ark ever again. My mother. My father. Bellamy and Clarke. I quickly pushed through the crowd. I need air, I felt like I couldn't breathe. This was all too much, hearing everyone talking about the ship that landed in Trikru's land.
I stumbled over to a building and collapsed to my knees into the cold snow taking deep breaths, the shock still very real. There was Skaikru on the ground. The questions were endless that I had, I knew the only way to get the answers I wanted was to go after them and to also protect them. Trikru was known to be ruthless to outsiders of the were provoked by anyone.
I took a few more deep breaths, "Ge smak daun, gyon op nodotaim." (Get knocked down, get back up." I mumbled to myself and pushed myself up off the ground.
Despite the hate I held towards some of the leaders aboard the Ark for sending me down here it gave me a new life, and new purpose. Up on the Ark I was seen as a freak of nature. Down here, on the ground, I was royalty and it was because of my blood, I one day would be able to rule the twelve clans if I won the Conclave, and I would win.
I looked into the distance from where I saw the dropship fall and lose sight of it and I knew I needed to find them. I ran off to my quarters to gather up some supplies I would need for the trip into enemy territory to the dropship.
"Kassandra, weron laik yu gon we?" (Kassandra where are you going?) Ontrai yelled but I didn't look back as I answered her.
"Get daun hashta you, Ontari. Ai laik Hainofi gon Azgeda. En biliak floudon, em Trikru's tof. AI don lottau, emo nou na bei az lottau." (Worry about you, Ontari. I am Princess of Azgeda. And that ship it landed in Trikru's land. I was lucky, they won't be as lucky.) I quickened my pace and I jogged through the crowds and I slowed to a fast walk as I reached the stairs of the building.
The top floor of the building was where my chambers were located, the guards saw me approach and they opened the doors for me and then closed them behind me. I grabbed a bag that hung off one of the posts on my bed and started grabbing items from around my room that I would need or wanted such as warpaint, Mud Mixture to hide my markings, my sketchbook and in between the pages held some of the photos I deeply cherished from aboard the ark. After than I grabbed my knife from my table. It had been a gift from Roan from the anniversary of when I came to Earth and I shoved in the sheath I had in the inner part of my boot, I strapped another one to my leg and one on my side, and throwing knifes in the pockets of my sleeve that we used it help conceal out weapons in battle for surprise or if we did lose our weapon or even if it broke. I grabbed my sword that I had mounted on the wall and my black cloak that had been trapped across my bed. I grabbed my bag that I had left on the table from when I grabbed my cloak and I exited the room without the guards questioning me.
When I made it to the bottom of the stairs outside I pulled up my hood and kept my head down. I needed to get out of camp quickly before someone spotted me trying to sneak out and told Queen Nia, and then I would suffer her wrath and Ontari the same for letting me go.
I ducked into an abandoned alleyway that would lead me directly into the woods. Ahead I saw a few warriors making bets on if they could or couldnt take each other out in a fight. And an actual fight to figure that out that question.
I kept my head down, gripping my bag tightly. One of the warriors grabbed my arm and I turned around grabbing his other arm and I twisted his arm till he let go of mine and I flung him head first into the wall knocking him unconscious. The other warriors looked at me surprised and not sure what to do next. "Chon neson?" (Who's next?) I asked them and they all backed off slowly and ran out of the alley and I shook my head at their cowardness for a fight even though they had been looking for someone to fight. I turned back to the open woods and took off into the snow coated woods. Hoping that what I was just about to do would not cause the next war, there had been enough death.
On The Ark
Callie walked into Earth Monitoring to monitor the progress of the 100's journey to the ground and see of it was actually survivable so they could all go home, back to the ground.
Sending the 100 prisoners to the ground, unsure if the Earth was survivable was bring up memories of her and Marcus sending their daughter down to Earth 14 years ago. Ahead she Marcus and went over to talk to him. "Not now." he told her putting his hand up to stop her from continuing as he stopped in front of Sinclair.
"Total system failure, that's what we're looking at. All we know for sure is that they were off course when we lost contact, so..." Sinclair informed them glancing from the screens, Kane and Callie, and also the tablet in front of him.
"Tell me about communications." Kane asked and Sinclair motioned up to the board with the vitals of the 100 all up on the monitoring screens.
"Other than the telemetry from their wristbands, we got nothing... No audio, no video, no computer link. Everything we programmed in to help them is gone. They're on their own." Sinclair said and Callie looked over to Kane's face who had been hopeful but felt like this news had been a punch to the gut. Kane felt helpless, unable to do anything to help the kids on the ground, just as the both of them had felt like when they sent Kassandra down to the ground.
On the Ground
Hours it had been, Azgeda territory was quite big especially after the war when we claimed some more land from one of the other clans. The border was well guarded. Nia didn't trust anyone and knew that one day Heda would launch an attack on us one day to wipe us out because of our ways that we had with dealing with betrayal and enemies.
I mean I wouldn't be surprised if an attack was launched, Nia was ruthless and I had been on the receiving end of her hurtful torturous words and the physical pain she caused when she trained us. My body was littered with scars I had received from Nia, Echo, or Ontari and accidently by Roan once when Nia forced him to hurt me in training to teach me a lesson. Never love anything that can be destroyed because love is a weakness and I would not let love be the cause of my pain anymore.
That had been the lesson that Nia had wanted to teach Heda when she rose to power. She had believed since Lexa was in love with Costia that she may know Lexa's secrets and could use them to throw her off the throne after she had only been on the throne for then, I believe it had been almost two weeks since her ascension that Nia had ordered Echo to retrieve Costaia and tortured her for weeks even after she knew that Costia didn't know anything.
That what had sparked the war. That what had caused so much death. Along with my betrayal, falling in love with a Trikru warrior. Nia in the end of the war knew there would be consequences. She allowed Roan to be banished, he protected me a lot from Nia because she knew how severe her beating would be so he ended up taking the punishment for me despite my wishes. After he was gone she beat me senseless and still made me work on training and she pushed me harder and harder. Several times I thought that would be it, that I was going to die but I didn't. She always made sure I lived. She couldnt lose a Nightblood that someday when Lexa fell from power, Azgeda would be able to rise.
Out of my bag I took a vial of a mud mixture that some spies that had markings when they went into other clans territory had used to cover up their marking that they had to hide that they were Azgeda. Only if you looked closely enough would you be able to see the markings on our faces with the mixture.
I rubbed the mixture on my face making sure I covered all my markings and that my cloak also covered up my clothes, my furs would give me away as Azgeda.
If I was spotted over the border by a scout I could start another war. For now, everyone was at peace thanks to Heda's coalition that united us to fight the Mounon and Reapers.
I didn't see any archers in the trees or any scouts so I took a chance and ran fast across the clearing into the treeline with my sword at hand unless I was wrong and there was someone at the border that I happen to not see. From the distance that where I saw the dropship land I knew it would be about a several hours till I reached the dropship, unless I found a horse then I'd be there by the time dinner came around or later.
If the Ark did send people down, and I'm guessing they did with a dropship that size that there was enough people that they could get themselves into trouble down here if they wandered too far from their ship.
The Trikru checkpoints were a pain to get past but I managed to successfully get through them with little trouble. I heard horses up ahead and I hid behind a tree and waited for the group to pass. I looked to get a count on how large the group was and I saw seven people traveling together, two men, three women and two children. I stepped on a branch causing a loud snap to echo through the woods.
I quickly turned back around to hide behind the tree. I heard one of them tell them that were going to scout the area and told the others to keep watch. I grabbed my knife from my boot, the group was big, there was no where I could run or hide from them. My only solution was to kill them all, even the children. I knew they were innocent, but I needed to make sure whoever that Ark sent down were safe and not put them in danger but in another way than me crossing into Triku's land.
Knife ready at hand I turned around when I heard them approach me, I stabbed him in the heart and used his body as a shield when the group started shooting arrows at me. I threw the body aside and tossed knifes at the other warriors except one that vanished. I took the knives out of the body's and took out my sword and approached the children whom I could see hiding behind a tree.
I kept my eyes open for the other warrior and I branch snapped behind me and I was kicked in the back and I landed face first into a creek and someone pulled back my hood and grabbed my hair and a cold blade was placed on my throat.
"Chon yu bilaik?"(Who are you) I felt the blade be pushed against my throat harder and blood drip down my neck.
"Nontu, em a Natblida." (Father, she is a Nightblood.) the girl cried out and the man let go of me and threw me to the ground.
The man hesitated and he froze. "Azgeda." He said and his kids ran off into the woods away from me. "Hakom yu hir az gada." (Why are you here Ice Girl.) He asked me his knife still raised.
"Skai floudon toff." (Sky ship fell.) I grabbed a knife from my sleeve and I closed my eyes and threw the knife into his chest. "I am so sorry." I headed over to the clearing and I saw both of the kids running away. A knife ready at hand, I wavered on my morals. Was killing these kids worth it really, two innocent lives lost to save whoever the Ark had sent down. It took me a moment but I knew it had to be done. I threw the knife and it hit the boy straight in the back and he fell to the ground and the girl turned around to try and help her fallen friend up but then she saw me coming toward her and she started to run but I threw another knife and it cut the side of her throat and she fell back into a tree and I ran up to her and took her dying body into my arms.
"Why?" She asked tears forming in her eyes choking on her blood as she bled to death in my arms. I put my hand over the wound.
"I'm sorry, I didn't want to kill you or your friend. That ship that fell from the sky, there are people from my home on that ship and I need to protect them." I explained to her and I knew that it didn't rectify for killing them but this was in prevention of a war starting that alot more people would die in.
The girl took her last breath and the life left her eyes. "Yu gonplei ste oden. In peace, may you leave the shore. In love, may you find the next. Safe passage on your travels. Until our final journey to the ground. May we meet again." I said closing my eyes reciting the Ark prayer to the girl and I closed her reyes and laid her on the ground and I took the knife off the ground and wiped the blood off the knife and collected all the others bodies and I went over to one of the horses and I mounted up and turned around and headed toward the right direction of the dropship site.
I continued riding for what felt like hours when I heard a bunch of people who sounded like they were partying. I jumped off the horse and I brought her into a cave and tied her harness onto a tree branch that extended into the cave in the back and once I knew she was secured I took off my bow and quiver and his them under a log in the back and I set down my bag in the far back corner.
I walked over to the edge of the cave and I saw a fire in the distance from the camp and I slowly wandered up to the treeline, knowing very well that their was probably some people from the ship that were wandering the woods.
On a rock near the fire I saw the people leaned down and it seemed like they were trying to get something off their wrist and I realized it was wristbands. The group was pretty large and they were all cheering as they took them off. They wanted the Ark to think they were dead, but why would they want to do that. What happened up there for them to send down a bunch of kids to the ground.
Flashback
I held my wrist up to my chest, trembling. I was scared of opening the door of the pod, I was alone of this irradiated planet.
I heard some noise from outside the pod and the noise got closer and I backed up to the opposite side of the pod and I watched scared as the door opened to reveal a boy that looked about 12 and cold air flowed into the pod and I shivered from the crisp air
"Chon yu bilaik, laik yu Skaikru?" (Who are you, are you a Sky person.) They asked me and I looked at him confused.
"I don't understand what you're saying." I told him. How was there someone alive on Earth, it wasn't supposed to be survivable for another 100 years but then again I was still alive. "Why is it so cold?" I asked him shivering and he stood aside to reveal snow. Actual real snow, on the Ark I had dreamed about this sort of thing, like rain. I never imagined that I'd actually see it.
"You're a Nightblood from the Sky, how is that?' He asked me and I looked at him surprised.
"You speak English? What's Nightblood? How do you know I'm from the Sky?" I asked him and he moved towards me but I backed up as far as I could still wary of this stranger in front of me.
"Hey, it's ok, I'm not going to hurt you." He said and he held out his hand, "I'll make you a deal, you climb out of this... ship, and I'll answer all your questions. How does that sound?"
I nodded and I took his hand with my good hand and climbed out of the pod and I looked around. The ground was beautiful, it was covered in snow and the trees were so green and tall and the sky, it looked beautiful.
"The ground is so pretty." I said out loud and the boy chuckled.
"I guess so, not so pretty up in space?" He asked and I looked over to him smiling for what was the first time in this last few days since my blood color had been revealed to everyone else on the Ark.
"Space sucks." I told him and he smiled, I walked out further a little bit through the cold snow and I tripped on a tree branch and fell face first into the snow and I landed on my bad wrist.
I cried out and the boy came over to me as I sat up in the snow holding my injured wrist. "How, did you hurt your wrist" he asked me taking my wrist gently and examining it carefully.
"When I landed, my wrist hit the control panel. I think it's broken." I told him as he pressed down lightly on part of my wrist and I cried out and drew my wrist back and held it to my chest.
"Sorry, it's definitely broken. I can bring you back to my village and the healer can help you, but first I'd have to bring you to my mother. But before that would you like to ask me a few questions?" he asked and I nodded.
"What's Nightblood and why were you so surprised I came from the Sky, and also how'd ya know I came from the sky?" I asked him quickly.
He pulled off a shawl sort of thing that he had on and handed it to me. "You must be cold, put this on." I pulled it around my shoulders and looked back up to him. "Nightblood is black blood like you have, it's very special and rare. It's the blood of the first commander, Becca Pramheda. I knew you were from the sky because I saw your ship come down and also I heard a story of a man who fell from the sky and died in Trikru territory. And the reason I was surprised that you were a Skaikru Natblida was because that we only thought people on the ground could have the blood of the first commander. Are there any more of you up in space with Nightblood?" He asked and I shook my head.
"On the Ark, when I was born my parents found that I had black blood and them and a friend of theirs Dr. Abby Griffin, they worked together to hide it from the Council because we were scared about what they'd do to me if they found out because Dad and Mom both said the Chancellor was a crazy bitch that would have me floated if they found out. When they did find out my Dad managed to get me a way to give me a chance at survival, instead of floating me they agreed to send me to the ground to see if it was surviv..." I froze and remembered about the radio and I sat up and went over to the pod and I looked for the radio, I picked it up and I took the walkies part and pushed the button.
"Calling Ark Station, can anyone hear me? This is Kassandra Kane, please come in." I said and I stopped and let off the button and that's when I realized the radio wasn't working, it must have gotten damaged in the crash somehow.
I collapsed into the snow, there was no way for me to contact the Ark, my wristband and the radio were broken. The Ark now thought I was dead and I could do nothing to stop that, I would never see my parents again. I let out a scream and I felt two arms wrap around me and I turned around and I buried my head into his chest and began to cry. Never again I'd see my parent's. They had promised me if I survived they'd come down. And now that I was on the ground and alive I had no way to contact them.
After a while I wiped my eyes and stood up, I was still trembling and holding the shawl around me tightly. "Do you have anything in the ship?" He asked and I shrugged my shoulders I crawled into the ship and began looking around and I stopped when I saw in between part of the seat I saw envelope taped to the back of the seat that I had missed seeing when I landed. Carefully I took the envelope out of the pod and I sat on the seat and I opened the envelope and out fell a necklace. I pickled it up and looked at it and then took out the letter and opened it and out fell some photos.
Dear Kassandra,
You Mother and I are so sorry for sending you to the ground, but we knew it was the best chance at survivable. If you're reading this, please do everything you can to survive. We can't lose you, As soon as it's been a month of you living on the ground with no problem Chancellor Sydney will start project Exodus and we will be on the first drop ship down and be reunited with you. We love you so much.
In peace, may you leave the shore. In love, may you find the next. Safe passage on your travels until our final journey to the ground. May we meet again.
-Mom and Dad
I picked up the several photos and looked through them to see pictures of Bellamy, Clarke, Mom, Dad and a group shot of all our families together but not with Bellamy's mom. She hadn't been able to come for some reason to our get together that we had once a month on Saturday evenings. I organised all the photos and put them and the letter back into the envelope. I took a bit a closer look at the silver necklace and saw I could open it and when I did I was greeted with pictures of Mom and Dad, and another one of us all together.
I pulled it around my neck and wiped my eyes and turned back around to the boy and I started walking and he followed me.
"What's your name?" I asked.
"Roan, Prince of Ice Nation" He answered after a moment, he led me through the woods to his village.
My parents weren't coming down, I had to start a new life. On the ground, where there were probably plenty of threats I would face in the upcoming years but I would face them with Roan, together.