Author's Note: Yay, a new chapter! Generally speaking, I tend to like all the music I use in my stories, but I'm practically giddy with this chapter's. It fits SO WELL with the end of this chapter. You'll see.

Cover Art for the story is from the LexaRecovery tumblr. Stay strong together.

I do not own the television show "The 100" or make any claims upon it or its characters. Similarly, I do not own Frozen, its characters or any Disney characters or property. All these characters are used under the concept of Fair Use, and I make no profit or income from using any of them.

Our Fight Is Not Over

by Jo K.

Chapter 12: Version 3.0

Always in focus

You can't feel my stare

I zoom into you

You don't know I'm there

I take pride in probing all your secret moves

My tearless retina takes pictures that can prove

I'm made of metal

My circuits gleam

I am perpetual

I keep the country clean

I'm elected electric spy

I'm protected electric eye

-Judas Priest, "Electric Eye"

—O—

—O—

Clarke jerked upward, into a sitting position, heart pounding. Her upper body was soaked in a cold sweat, and her left hand was shaking so badly that she had trouble hitting the panel to turn on the light.

"Clarke?" Octavia whispered from somewhere beside her. Though she couldn't hear him, Clarke knew that if Octavia was there, then Lincoln would be there too. They'd been inseparable since he and the other Trikru had been released from the brig.

"I'm... I'm okay, O," Clarke said, her voice shaky and unconvincing even to herself. "Nightmare," she added.

When Clarke closed her eyes, she was once again confronted with the eerily calm face of the pale brunette wearing an elegant red dress. The woman in her dream had seemed to be talking around Clarke, not to her, but something about the calm, confident tones of the mystery woman gave Clarke the creeps.

Why was she dreaming about her? Clarke had never seen the woman before, she was sure of it. The dress she was wearing looked pristine, so she obviously wasn't a Grounder. Had she been in a teaching program Clarke had seen as a child on the Ark? Or was she entirely a creation of Clarke's subconscious mind?

Clarke took in a deep breath and sighed. "Is everything okay out there?" she asked quietly. "Nothing weird going on?"

There was a soft laugh from Octavia. "Last time I checked, there was a magical horse made of snow and ice outside. That can fly. Does that count as weird, or are we past that now?"

Clarke grinned in the dark. "Nobody likes a smart-ass, O."

"Lexa likes you, so I know that's not true."

—O—

Clarke allowed herself to indulge in a shower after she finally woke again a few hours later. No further nightmares had plagued her after she went back to sleep, thankfully. The hot water had helped ease the soreness in her neck and the tightness in her lower back, and she allowed herself to half-heartedly hope for a good day today.

Her first stop after getting dressed was Medical. She entered the room to find both her mother and Jackson examining Anna and Elsa, respectively.

"Hi, Clarke!" Anna said cheerfully. Elsa smiled and waved lightly, but she refrained from speaking while Jackson finished listening to her lungs and heart.

"Good morning," Clarke replied, unable to keep from smiling. Anna's smile was as infectious as any disease Clarke had ever read about, and it was as virulent as ever this morning, particularly since... "Your face looks better!" Clarke said, surprised at the rapid turnaround.

Anna nodded. "Feels a lot better, too," she said happily. "Amazing what a good night's rest with the woman you love can do."

"I'm not convinced that's all it is," Abby said, holding a portable scanner in front of Anna's face while she watched the readout on the tablet in her other hand. "The brief scan I did on you last night showed clear signs of radiation damage on the epithelial cells of your face and ears. I didn't have time to do a full DNA scan at the time, but..."

A monitor flickered to life on the nearby wall, showing a highly magnified image of Anna's burned face from the night before.

"This was last night," Abby said, gesturing toward the screen. She didn't see the excitement on the face of Elsa and Anna, but Clarke made a point to gauge their reaction to the image on the display, and she wasn't disappointed at the way both faces lit up with eagerness at the appearance of the photographic image.

"And here's the image from just now," Abby said, switching to a different image. Now the skin looked almost normal, other than some mild peeling; the blotchy redness was gone, and Anna's freckles were once more the most prominent feature of her face. "Even the lips—" Abby said, with a third image appearing on the screen, "—look almost entirely healed."

Abby turned to look back at Anna and Elsa. "DNA scans from this morning show no signs of DNA intercalation or damage from radiation, despite the visible damage that was present less than a day ago." She placed the tablet on the counter beside her. "How the hell is that possible?" she asked, frustration evident in her voice. "I saw your face last night. You had severe first-degree, borderline second-degree burns on your face, nose, ears and lips. Those do not heal overnight!"

"Well, apparently they do," Anna said, settling back down against Elsa's side.

Clarke managed to get out, "Ma—" before Abby's hand shot up and cut her off.

"And do not say 'magic,' Clarke, because I'm getting tired of that as the explanation for everything strange that happens around here!"

"Uh, Abby?"

Everyone turned to look at Jackson, who was standing there with Elsa's newly-removed bandage in his hand. "Take a look at Elsa's wound, please," he said calmly.

Abby moved to where she could see the exposed wound. Intense mottling and discoloration were still clearly visible around the entry wound, but...

Abby looked up at Jackson. "Where's the entry wound?"

"Well, I'm guessing that's it," Jackson said, pointing to a flat red circle near the center of the ecchymosis on Elsa's left shoulder and upper chest. "Because that's where it was."

Abby reached forward and gently pressed her finger to the spot of redness. "It's filled in," she said, carefully palpating deeper. "Overnight."

"Sure looks that way," Jackson agreed. "Elsa, can you try to move your left arm? Does it still hurt?"

Elsa lifted her left arm, wincing slightly at the sharp pain she still felt around her collarbone. "It still hurts to move it," she said, "but it doesn't seem to be as severe as it was before."

Looking down at the redhead tucked against her right side—who had taken quite a bit of fussing earlier in the morning before she had agreed to let Elsa create a small shirt for her, so that she wouldn't be completely nude when the doctors came to examine them—Elsa smiled and placed a kiss on Anna's tousled fiery hair. "It's us being together," Elsa finally said. "My magic tends to be amplified when Anna and I are in physical contact with each other, and it's shown an ability to heal us in the past. I'm certain that's why we've both improved so much overnight."

Abby turned to look at Clarke, seeing a smug expression on her daughter's face. "Alright, it's magic," Abby said with a sigh. "I admit it."

Clarke looked over her mother's shoulder, meeting Elsa's amused expression. Clarke gave her a quick wink, receiving a subtle dip of Elsa's chin in silent reply.

"In fairness, though," Elsa said, "Abby and Dr. Jackson have both been very attentive and excellent with caring for me, so I'm certain they had quite a bit to do with my improving as well."

"Spoken like a queen with years of experience in diplomacy," Clarke said, somewhat teasingly.

"Yes, well," Elsa replied, "I won't deny it. Our years of experience were rather hard-earned."

"Got that right," came a sleepy mumble from Elsa's right side. "Kids make the ambassadors and diplomats look easy."

Elsa smiled before she looked up at Abby again. "Since Anna and I are both healing quickly, would it be possible for us to leave here and look around?" she asked politely. "Your care has been wonderful, but these walls are growing a bit..."

"Boring," Anna added, voice still slightly muffled against Elsa's skin.

Elsa smiled. "Yes," she said. "Boring."

Abby smiled back at the two of them in the bed. "I think that should be fine, judging from how quickly you've recovered."

Clarke was still looking at Elsa when a flash of color drew her attention. She nearly gasped when she caught a glimpse of a woman in red—THE woman in red—standing beside Jackson, next to Elsa's bed. Her mouth was moving, like she was talking to Jackson, but no words were audible.

Immediately Clarke moved to the room's main control panel, forcing her steps to be patient and her movements to not appear hurried or anxious. She quickly pressed the button to begin recording video and audio in the room before calling up stored data on Elsa's vital signs that had been recorded through the night. Swallowing to make sure her voice would be calm, Clarke said, "Your vitals looked fine overnight, Elsa. I sure don't see any reason why you'd need to stay in Medical another day, although you'll want to come back and let us take another look at your wound tonight, if that's okay."

Clarke turned back around, nearly jumping again when the dark-haired woman in the red dress was gone. No one was looking in the direction of where she had been standing, leading Clarke to wonder if she was truly there at all.

Had she hallucinated her? After all, considering what Lexa had done—

No, Clarke silently told herself. The woman had been there. One minute she wasn't there, the next she was. And then she was gone again.

Could it have been a hallucination? Clarke sighed, this time barely audible. She really needed to talk to Lexa. She missed Lexa. She missed Lexa's arms around her.

"Clarke?"

The touch of her mother's fingers against her arm made Clarke jump visibly, which surprised her mother nearly as much as it did her.

"Are you okay?" Abby asked, concern evident on her face.

Clarke nodded. "Yeah, I'm..." SHIT. She had to tell her mom that she was married. To LEXA. "I'm... just processing a lot of things. Been a busy last couple of days."

"I know," Abby said, her voice surprisingly patient and compassionate. "Maybe we can take a minute to catch up later today?"

The hopeful tone in her mother's voice was new, and it surprised Clarke. She took a moment to look at her mother, really look at her, and she saw no sign of ulterior motive or deception in that face, both familiar and unfamiliar at the same time.

Much like how her mom saw her now, she expected.

Clarke smiled, only partially feeling it but wanting to try. "I'd like that," she said, a bit shocked to realize that part of her actually meant it.

—O—

"My God! It's Clarke Griffin!"

Clarke grinned at the obvious sarcasm in Kyle Wick's words as she stepped deeper into the large room Wick had claimed as his personal workshop and laboratory. "How have you been, Wick?" she asked.

"Eh, been better, been worse," Wick replied, setting what appeared to be a small engine of some sort down on the cluttered worktable in front of him. "What brings you back to this corner of hell?"

"Pike, for one," Clarke said, getting a nod and a smile from the engineer.

"I think you successfully crossed that one off your to-do list."

"Looks that way," Clarke agreed. "But that's not the only reason I'm here." Her mother had told her that Kyle had remained steadfastly opposed to and outspokenly critical of Thelonious Jaha and his growing group of followers, which is why Clarke was here in his workshop. "How much have you been able to learn about what Jaha is up to?"

"Ah!" Wick said, raising his right index finger in a gesture of intrigue as he smiled broadly. "One of my favorite subjects recently."

"Do you really mean that?"

"Not at all. But it has been quite interesting to try and figure out what exactly the prick's been up to." He walked over to a bank of flatscreens, perched over a tangled mess of cables. "He's definitely up to something more than just 'relieving the pain of others', that's for sure, and he's been very good at hiding it."

Clarke nodded, despite Wick's attention being focused on the keyboard he was typing on currently. "Yeah, that's what I'm afraid of."

"So here's a list of people that we know have joined Jaha's little 'City of Light.' So far." A list of names appeared on the monitor, over thirty people. "Your mom and I have been working on this the last week or so. A little project of ours, trying to determine what these people have in common."

"Any luck?" Clarke asked.

Wick shook his head. "Nada. No common factor between them that we can find, other than they're all here and still above ground. It doesn't look like he's targeting women, men or any particular skillset."

"So there's no connection between them," Clarke said with a sigh. "So—"

Wick raised his left hand, making Clarke stop talking. "Whoa there, Clarke. You're not a bunny and I'm not a toad, so let's not jump ahead," he said. He typed a few commands, then clicked on a button to bring up a display that Clarke fairly quickly recognized as a rough outline of Arkadia. Several dozen pinpoints of red were displayed on the screen, along with one red circle much larger than all the others. Some of the dots were apart from the others, but several were in close proximity.

Clarke leaned forward, staring at the screen. "Is that them?" she asked, breathlessly.

Wick nodded.

"You put trackers on them?!" Clarke asked, getting more excited.

"Nope," Wick replied, grinning like the cat who ate the canary. "We didn't need to."

"But—" Clarke looked back at the screen. "How are you tracking them?"

"Wireless signals," Wick said, crossing his arms in front of his chest. "Whatever it is Jaha is doing to his little converts, each of them starts to transmit and receive wireless communications."

"What's the big dot?" Clarke said, pointing to the larger disc of red, which appeared to be inside the community living quarters. "Jaha?"

"Close. It's his backpack."

"His backpack?"

Wick nodded. "Yeah, it's a local hot spot for the wireless, a signal booster and a satellite uplink."

"Have you been able to trace where it's transmitting?"

"Nope," he replied. "It's definitely bouncing off a satellite, but the encryption's so thick that Monty hasn't been able to break it, so we don't know what exactly it's beaming up or where the satellite is sending that data."

"Great," Clarke muttered.

"Oh, it gets better. Or worse, depending on your point of view." Wick grabbed the keyboard and clacked a few more keys. The red dots disappeared, with the tactical view of Arkadia now black except for a yellow-white blob where the large red dot had been.

"Okay, what's that?" Clarke finally asked after several seconds of silence.

"Radiation levels," Wick said. "Whatever that thing is, it's being powered by a miniature nuclear reactor."

—O—

The air that Elsa breathed in as she stepped out of the metal confines of the Ark, though different from her Arendelle home, was fresh and invigorating after being cooped up inside for the last day. Having Anna at her side, holding her hand, only made the moment sweeter.

Together they looked around at the strange land, the makeshift walls that had been set up, the people going back and forth inside the safety those walls represented. For the next few hours, they took their time walking around the settlement, looking at the walls, taking in the view, watching demonstrations of some of the technology and equipment being used and getting to know the people of this world. They tasted some of the smoked meat and fish being prepared in a small building away from the Ark itself, they examined some of the fishing nets that were used in the nearby rivers. They went up to the top of the Ark and slowly turned all around, taking in the size and beauty of the wild land around them, different than Arendelle but similar in many ways.

"It's not that different that most little villages," Anna finally said as they sat down, back on the ground in the middle of Arkadia. The skin was peeling and flaking off her face and lips, and she reflexively reached up and scratched lightly at one patch on her cheek.

"It's not," Elsa agreed, smiling at how utterly adorable Anna was with even the simplest of actions. "Other than some of the weapons looking different."

Anna nodded. "Did you get a chance to look around any yesterday?"

Elsa shook her head in the negative. "Unfortunately, no. Just the brief time the confrontation between Clarke and that Pike fellow lasted."

There was a pause for a few uncomfortable moments before Anna spoke. "I, uh, didn't kill him," Anna finally said, a bit embarrassed. "I wanted to. I still want to."

Elsa smiled and placed a kiss on Anna's cheek. "You did the right thing, my heart. Clarke needs to return with him alive, so the families of those he ordered killed can know peace."

"He's not going to be using his right hand, again, though."

Elsa looked back at her wife again. "Did you cut it off?" she asked curiously.

"Nah," Anna replied. "He tried to grab my sword."

"Hmm," Elsa replied, thoughtfully. "Well, I suppose he did that to himself then, didn't he?" She shaded the sun from her eyes as she looked up into the blue sky. "Do I want to ask how he got close enough to you to grab your sword?"

"I was kicking his worthless ass."

Elsa smiled, not looking away from the sky just yet. "That's my Anna," she said sweetly. She lowered her hand and her gaze to meet Anna's proud blue-green eyes, not shying away from Elsa's look. Elsa gently kissed Anna's lips, opening her mouth to deepen the kiss between them. After several warm seconds, she pulled back slightly, leaving Anna's lips slightly parted and the pink tip of her tongue licking at her upper lip.

"Thank you for loving me like you do," Elsa said, a bit breathlessly.

"I always will," Anna replied, smiling as her hand came up to caress Elsa's left cheek. "So don't ever ask me to do otherwise."

Elsa smiled. "Never," she agreed.

The sound of voices approaching behind them claimed the attention of the two queens. They turned to see Clarke and an older man leaving the Ark and walking toward them; obviously the Council meeting Clarke had told them about earlier had adjourned.

"Hi guys!" Clarke said, smiling and waving at the two of them.

Elsa looked a bit confused while Anna quickly looked around them. Not seeing any men around them, Anna turned back to Elsa, now just as confused.

"Are you talking to us?" Elsa asked, raising her voice slightly to be heard as Clarke and her companion drew near.

"Yes?" Clarke answered, a bit confused. "Oh! Sorry about that. We use 'guys' to refer to men and women here, as an informal term."

"Ah," Elsa said, nodding as Anna did the same. "That makes more sense, then."

"Queen Elsa, Queen Anna," Clarke said, "this is Marcus Kane. He's one of the Council members here. He's a good man."

"Your Majesties," Kane said, bowing slightly. "It's an honor to have you both here. Arkadia appreciates your help in dealing with Charles Pike."

"Clarke is our friend..." Elsa said, trailing off. "My apologies, but I'm not familiar with which title of address you use here."

"Marcus is fine," Kane said. "We don't stand too much on formality here, I'm afraid."

Elsa smiled in reply. "Clarke is our friend, Marcus. Anna and I will always be there for our friends."

Kane nodded, then his face grew solemn. "Please accept my apologies on behalf of all of Arkadia for your first experience with our people involving your injury. Abby tells me that you've made a rapid recovery."

"Having Anna here helped tremendously," Elsa said, hugging Anna a bit more tightly, which coaxed a wider smile from the redhead. Her cinnamon hair had been tamed into two pigtails; they hadn't taken the time to braid it, as both of them had been ready to see the outside world again.

"I'm glad," Kane replied.

"Oh, Marcus!" Clarke said quickly. "I need to catch up with my mom for a bit. Do you know someplace where she and I could talk privately?"

Kane shook his head. "We still haven't found all of Charles' listening devices. Hannah Green isn't being particularly forthcoming with their locations, despite Monty's efforts at convincing her. I'm quite surprised you aren't sending her to Polis to face judgment with Charles, in fact. She was right there with him for most of what he perpetrated."

"Necessary evil," Clarke said simply. "And she's not going to go unpunished, either. Lexa still hasn't decided what she's going to do with the ones Pike recruited into his death squad. But for right now, Hannah Green knows more about farming, soil conservation and agriculture than any of the rest of us, so she's got the opportunity to prove that she's worth something after all."

"Do you really think you can convince Commander Lexa to let us have the land Hannah was talking about? For farming?"

Clarke smiled widely, matched by the grins on Elsa's and Anna's faces, although Kane wasn't looking at them currently. "I think I can persuade her," Clarke said confidently. "Plus, offering to share a percentage of the food we grow with the Trikru will make it a fair trade."

Now others began to file out of the metal entryway of the Ark. This morning's meeting had been convened for Clarke to go over a few things with the Council of Arkadia, including temporarily appointing Marcus Kane as Interim Chancellor until a new election could be held in a few days. However, no one else seemed keen in running against Kane, so it was likely the interim position would become permanent for the next year at least.

Curious glances kept drifting toward Anna and Elsa as people walked past, with a few waving or offering soft greetings as they passed by.

"Harper!" Kane said quickly, reaching out to a young girl dressed in a dull white t-shirt and dark pants.

The girl stopped and turned around. Her sandy blonde hair fell in a ponytail just below her shoulders; her face revealed she was just slightly older than Elin and Erin, but there was a wariness, a sadness in her deep brown eyes that spoke of experience and loss far greater than her age should have allowed. "You need something, Marcus? Clarke?" she asked politely, despite the weariness on her face.

"It's still pretty remote out where you and Monroe live, correct?" asked Kane.

Harper nodded. "Yeah. Nobody lives around us for three, maybe four kilometers."

"Could Clarke and Abby possibly go out that way for a bit? The two of them need to talk about some personal matters, and we've still not found—"

"All of Pike's bugs," she replied, nodding. "Sure, sure. That should be fine. I'm just headed that way myself."

Clarke reached out and gently grasped Harper's right shoulder. "Thank you, Harper," she said, meaning it. "I also heard about what you did with the guards yesterday."

Harper grinned, a bit embarrassed (but not apologetic) about her mutinous actions. "You deserve us looking after you, too, Clarke," she said. "God knows you kept most of us alive when we all should have been dead."

"I appreciate it, Harper, more than you know," replied Clarke. "I'd like you to meet two other people who looked after me when I needed it. These are Queen Elsa and Queen Anna of the country of Arendelle, whom I talked about during the Council meeting."

Harper looked at the two of them and smiled. "I'm Harper," she said, sticking out her hand. "Nice to officially meet you, since it wasn't under the best of circumstances when we saw each other last night."

"Agreed," replied the redhead as she somewhat awkwardly shook Harper's hand. "I'm Anna."

"And I'm Elsa," said the blonde, whose bright blue eyes seemed to shine as she lightly took Harper's hand, not squeezing. Elsa's eyes focused a bit longer on the other blonde. "Did I see you yesterday, before all that unpleasantness?"

Harper nodded. "I was one of the guards atop the main gate."

"Ah," Elsa said, happy that she could finally place the young face. "Yes, you were."

"Thank you for getting rid of Pike," the girl said. "He was a prick. He'd have gotten all of us killed eventually if the two of you hadn't stopped him."

"That's what Clarke had explained to us," said Elsa.

"Hang on a second," Clarke said as she spotted her mother walking out of the Ark. She took a few steps away before yelling at Abby, waving her over. She turned back to Harper. "I need to talk to Mom somewhere away from any eyes or ears. Would it be okay if we walked out to where you and Monroe are living?"

It only took a second for Harper to process the request before she was nodding yes. "Sure, sure," she said. "Are all of you going, so it doesn't look too suspicious?"

Clarke nodded. "If that's okay with you."

"Yeah, of course. We don't get a lot of vis—" Harper stopped abruptly as she realized what she was about to say was going to be a lie.

Clarke smiled. "Octavia told me. Welcome to godhood."

Blue and blue-green eyes widened on Elsa's and Anna's faces. "You're a god?" Anna asked quickly.

Harper quickly shook her head, ignoring Clarke hiding her laughter behind her hand. "No no no, I'm not a god!" she said quickly, face flushing with embarrassment. "Look, it's a long story. I'll tell you on the way, yeah?"

—O—

As they finally drew within sight of the small red tent, Clarke, Abby, Harper, Anna and Elsa allowed a peaceful quiet to settle around them as they walked along the barely visible footpath.

It wasn't entirely quiet, of course, not with the birdsong from the nearby forest and chirping of insects through the grassy fields around them; the soft roaring of the nearby waterfall could be heard at this point as well, but somehow those sounds seemed less foreign here than spoken words.

"This is beautiful," Anna said, looking around. "Even without any snow."

"It's very peaceful," Elsa agreed, still holding Anna's hand as she had the entire walk from Arkadia.

"Yeah, Zoe and I love it out here," Harper said, a smile gently spreading across her face. It had been a long shift of guard duty, her regular shift on the wall followed by a second shift in the brig, and the thoughts of curling up in her lover's arms was the main thought keeping her legs moving.

"That's not the real reason you moved out here," Clarke said, apparently in a teasing mood today.

Harper hoped that her hair was concealing most of her cheeks and the redness spreading throughout them. As bold and fearless as she was during sex, she definitely could get embarrassed outside of it. "Well, maybe not," she said boldly, "but Zoe and I have definitely made the most of it," punctuating her sentence by looking over her shoulder at Clarke and leaving the double entendre hanging in the air between them.

"Why did you move out here?" asked Elsa. "If it's too prying a question, you certainly don't have to answer."

"And let Clarke tell you later, at a more awkward time?" Harper replied, her soft laugh revealing amusement rather than irritation. "Likely when we're surrounded by other people? No thanks. I'd rather tell you myself."

Apprehension reared up inside her, but Harper swallowed it back down. She had watched Clarke and this Elsa face down Charles Pike and the entire city of Arkadia yesterday; no way in hell was she going to be incapable of admitting something slightly embarrassing. "I tend to get really loud when Zoe and I have sex," she said, proud of how her voice remained calm despite her insides quivering. "I mean, REALLY loud. And I, um, kind of swear a little." She paused, then amended, "A lot. I swear a LOT. Very loudly."

A soft giggle from Anna was the only audible response, although Elsa smiled politely; behind them three of them in front, Abby couldn't help but smile a tiny bit, while Clarke was doing all she could not to laugh and make Harper feel even more self-conscious.

"Anna and I have had our moments," Elsa said pleasantly. We can't always control ourselves when touching or being touched by the one we love... and we shouldn't have to."

Harper looked over at the blonde, who was looking back at her with a look that Harper felt was oddly comforting.

When no words came from the younger blonde, Elsa said, "You and your partner sought out a place where you could be yourselves, where you could be with each other, without any shame or discomfort. You chose to put your love ahead of convenience. That speaks very highly of you both."

Abruptly Harper stopped; a moment later, everyone else did the same.

"Clarke," Harper said, turning to face her leader. "Can I talk to you about something real quick?"

Hearing the unspoken request, Clarke nodded. "Sure, Harper." She looked at her mother, then at Elsa and Anna. "Would you mind going on down? We'll be there in just a few minutes."

"Of course," Elsa said, with Anna nodding her agreement.

Abby hesitated just a moment, just long enough for Clarke to look at her again.

"I'll be right there, Mom. I promise."

Abby nodded, then she turned and walked up to join Anna and Elsa as they resumed their walk toward the red tent steadily growing larger ahead of them.

Clarke and Harper watched them for a minute before turning to look at each other again. "What's wrong, Harper?" Clarke asked. She had her suspicion about what was worrying the younger blonde, but she had made bad assumptions before. She wasn't going to do it again.

Harper opened her mouth a time or two before finally clamping it shut and closing her eyes tightly. When she finally opened them again, tears immediately trickled out, spilling down her cheeks. "I-It's Zoe," she said, confirming Clarke's suspicion. Harper's chin trembled briefly before she was able to speak again. "I... I don't want her to die," she said, her voice just above a whisper.

Clarke closed her eyes as well. "I don't want her to die either, Harper," Clarke said finally.

"I know she helped kill all those Grounders, all those Trikru," Harper said, unable to stop her tears now that she had started. "I know that she went with Pike and Bellamy to run those other people out of their village because Pike and Hannah Green wanted the land for farming."

Bellamy, Clarke thought. She hadn't considered what to do with him. Best leave that one to Lexa.

"But she died there, Clarke!" Harper said, trying to keep her voice from carrying. "She already fucking died for what she did! And your mom saved her life! She brought Zoe back to me, and I can't—I CAN'T lose her again!"

"Harper..."

"Clarke, I have never asked you for anything, and I'll never ask you for anything again, if you can just keep them from killing Zoe!"

"Harper," Clarke said a bit more firmly, taking the younger girl's wrists. "She's not going to be executed." Seeing the look of disbelief—and the persistent panic—on Harper's face, Clarke repeated, "She's not going to be executed, Harper."

Harper tore her arms free from Clarke's light grip and threw her arms around Clarke's neck, hugging the older blonde fiercely. "Thank you, thank you, thank you," she mumbled frantically. "Thank you, Clarke, oh my God, thank you thank you!"

"Harper..." Clarke groaned, tightening the muscles in her neck to keep the younger woman from choking her inadvertently. "Need to... breathe here..."

"Shit!" Harper said, jerking her arms away and stepping back like Clarke had burned her. "Sorry, I just..."

"You love her," Clarke said, smiling.

"Yeah," Harper replied. "I do."

"I've been talking to the Trikru, Harper," Clarke said. "And to Octavia. They've told me about how Monroe died in that failed attack on the village, and how since she came back to life she's only touched a gun to hunt for food. They've also told me about how she's training to be a medic, to help preserve life instead of taking it."

Harper nodded. "Yeah, it's all true. She's..." Harper wiped at her eyes again. Normally she had more control over her emotions, most days at least, but she was exhausted and worried about her wi—

Fuck, where had THAT come from? she thought to herself. She hadn't even discussed anything more permanent than living together, and that had been a few months ago.

Did they even get married down here on the ground?

"Harp?"

Harper blinked twice before her eyes snapped back to Clarke. "What? Oh, sorry. Just... spaced out a bit there." She shook her head. "Zoe has changed. She's... she's really messed up with the guilt of what she helped do. She has nightmares most nights, still. She's popped me with her elbow a time or two, while she was still asleep. She felt like shit when she woke up right after doing it both times. I told her that it was a risk I was willing to take, because she shouldn't have to go through that kind of suffering alone."

Like I did. The words bubbled up in the back of Clarke's mind instantly, and only her well-honed composure kept her from sobbing, gasping or both at the sudden reflux of anguish. Instead she took a calming breath, then forced a smile on her face. "Monroe's lucky to have you, Harper," she told the younger girl.

"And I am her," Harper replied quickly.

Clarke nodded. "Real love is hard to come by here. But I think you two have it."

Harper didn't blink her tears away this time. Instead they pooled in her eyes as she continued to look directly into Clarke's eyes. Finally, as the wetness trickled down her cheeks, Harper smiled and said, "I do too."

—O—

"So where's Monroe?" asked Clarke as they met back up with Abby, Elsa and Anna. The red tent was zipped closed, the stone-ringed firepit empty other than ash and a thin layer of dirt.

"She may be down at the waterfall," Harper said, stopping and kneeling in front of the tent. "If you don't mind, I'm gonna grab some stuff and go wash. I feel like a sweaty ass."

"That's... not a good feeling," Clarke replied, catching the looks of amusement on her friend's faces as Harper crawled into the tent for a few seconds, then emerged clutching a cake of soap and a glass bottle of some viscous liquid.

"If she's down there, I'll bring her back up with me. Shouldn't take too long. Water'll be nice this time of day. But it's the perfect place for you and Abby to talk, Clarke. The noise of the waterfall would drown out anyone trying to listen."

"Or anyone screaming during sex?" teased Clarke.

Harper raised her eyebrows. "Oh, please. Give me some credit, Griffin. I'm a HELL of a lot louder than any waterfall." She flung a towel over her shoulder and walked away, toward a rocky bluff and the rushing sound of water.

Elsa and Anna looked around the sparse campsite. There was a wide patch of soft green moss close by, with what looked like a crudely-made drying rack for hanging clothes. Three cushions, made of thick canvas and stuffed with something that felt like feathers or wool, sat on the ground. The firepit had been made with obvious effort, with the ring around it composed of large, flat rocks that had been stood on their sides and carefully arranged to prevent any gaps, then fixed in place with tightly packed earth. Metal skewers and rods crossed the firepit, held up by notches and grooves in several of the stones. An elevated stand held chopped firewood, with a thatched cover protecting the sticks and logs from any rain. A large, flat stone formed a table of sorts, elevated with wooden posts for legs; judging from the stains on the rock, it was used for skinning and preparing game. A large metal pot stood on one corner of the slab, with two smaller ones sitting empty beside the nearest table leg.

"This is where they live?" Anna asked, amazed.

"It's not much," Clarke replied, "but it's theirs."

"What do they do if a bear comes by?" Anna asked. "They do have bears here, right?"

"They do," Clarke nodded. "If something threatens them, then they'll either drive it off or kill it. They have guns and knives."

"They're not much older than Er and El," said Anna, her voice changing from anxious to concerned as she turned to Elsa, who gathered Anna to her side, holding her wife against her with her left arm. "And they're on their own, pretty much."

"We had to grow up fast here," Clarke said, not wanting to make her mother feel any worse than she likely already did about the Council's decision to send The 100 down to the planet's surface nearly a year ago.

"Somebody's coming out of the forest down there," Anna said, her head turned to their right.

"It's Monroe," Clarke said after a few seconds of watching the person approaching them. "I'd recognize her hair and walk anywhere."

"That's Harper's wife?" Elsa asked.

"Well, they're not officially married, but yeah, pretty much," Clarke replied.

"She's carrying something in a sack," Anna said, shading the sun from her eyes with her left hand. "And she has a bow and quiver of arrows."

"Probably dinner," Clarke said. "It sounds like she and Harper are pretty self-sufficient out here."

Left unsaid was all that Clarke had already heard about Harper and Monroe from the Trikru. But this was neither the time nor the place to discuss any of that.

—O—

By the time Monroe reached the top of the ridge where the tent was, Harper was climbing up the path from the waterfall and small pool.

"Hey hon!" Harper said gleefully, hair dark from being wet, t-shirt clinging to her chest and breasts as she jogged to her partner, throwing her arms around the sweaty redhead and kissing her warmly on the lips.

"Mmm, hey Harp," Monroe mumbled against Harper's soft lips. "Missed you."

"I missed you too, baby," replied Harper. "Whatcha got?"

"Dinner," Monroe said, stepping back and lifting up the sack. "Killed a deer that didn't look too fucked-up. The Trikru say that it's okay to eat. I traded some of the meat for some vegetables and some more clothes they're gonna make from its hide, donated more of it to the nearest village since we won't be able to eat all of it before it goes bad."

"You killed it with the bow?" asked Harper, brown eyes shining with delight.

Monroe nodded, unable to keep from grinning. "Yeah. Didn't run too far after I hit it."

Harper kissed her on the lips. "I'm proud of you, babe!" she said happily. "Oh, hey! These are Elsa and Anna," she said, pointing to each women in turn. "Clarke brought them back from..."

She turned to face the two Arendellans, letting her right arm stay around Monroe's waist. "Where are you from, by the way?"

Grinning at the look at Anna and Elsa's faces, Clarke said, "Mom and I are going to go on down to the waterfall and talk for a bit while the four of you get a fire going. Shouldn't be too long."

—O—

"So..." Clarke said, eyes closed as she tried to consider all her mother had told about how Jaha's "City of Light" implant worked. The parallels to what she had learned from Lexa about the Commander's Spirit were disturbing, and Clarke really wished her wife was here with her right now. "It attaches at the brainstem?"

"That's where it positions itself, yes," Abby replied. "We're having trouble scanning it during the minutes between ingestion and effect, so exactly how it gets from the mouth to the brainstem is still unknown, and Thelonious isn't offering any information beyond 'It knows how to get where it's needed.' Or something like that."

"God," Clarke groaned. "Some people never change, and others only get more annoying." She idly picked a few blades of grass from the ground. "Have you found any way of removing or neutralizing the implants?"

From the way Abby sighed, Clarke already knew the answer to her question. "I have some ideas. But short of actually trying to remove one..."

"So they could be permanent," Clarke spoke quietly.

"Yes. Trying to remove them could be fatal, depending on how tightly it's attached to the brainstem."

"Jesus," Clarke swore softly. This just got better and better. She disgustedly tossed the picked blades of grass onto the ground. "Why is it that everything Jaha touches instantly becomes ten times more frustrating that it should be?"

The sound of Abby laughing was so unexpected that it made Clarke's upper body swivel in place to look at her mother. It had been years since Clarke could remember seeing her mother laugh, and watching the surreal sight made Clarke start to chuckle, which rapidly built into modest laughter of her own. It was like a feedback loop, lasting for nearly a minute before they both slowed to catch their breath and nurse their aching ribs.

"Oh, Clarke," Abby said, and there was no hint of derision or disappointment in the way she said that name. "I had forgotten how funny you could be."

Clarke turned to look at her mother, and suddenly she felt like she was nine years old again, wanting nothing more than to be a doctor like her mother. To make her parents proud of her, to take care of the residents of the Ark.

Her throat tightened up at the sudden influx of emotion. "Mom, I..." She swallowed. "I, uh..."

Abby's eyes grew bright with concern. She leaned forward. "Clarke, what is it?"

Clarke tried to ignore the pounding her heart, but the ringing in her ears was proving harder to disregard. "I... I'm married."

Abby went completely still, with only the rushing of the waterfall providing any sensory input to compete with Clarke's pounding heartbeat. After several seconds, Abby blinked a few times, followed by her lips opening and closing but no sound coming out. Finally, she managed to whisper, "Wh-what?"

Clarke sighed and closed her eyes. "I said, I got married. A few weeks ago."

Under other circumstances, watching her mother futilely grasp for words might have been at least partially entertaining. However, right now it was only adding to Clarke's anxiety level.

Abby's eyes glistened with tears as she visibly struggled with her emotions, expressions dancing back and forth across her face as Clarke watched helplessly. "A-Are you... happy?" Abby finally managed to ask.

Clarke beamed. "God, YES, I'm happy!" she said quickly. "I would have told you sooner, but we were trapped on the other side of that dimensional portal, and—"

"Was it someone over there?" Abby asked, uncertain if that would make the situation better or worse. "It couldn't have been anyone from the Ark, obviously, since you haven't been here, and—"

"It's Lexa, Mom."

Abby blinked, her mouth twisting slightly in confusion. "LEXA?!" she asked loudly.

"Yeah," Clarke replied, nodding. "Lexa. I... I love her, Mom."

Clarke saw anger flash in Abby's eyes, and she suddenly realized she might have made a mistake.

"Is she even capable of love, Clarke?" Abby snapped at her daughter. "Because from what I've seen of her, she's certainly capable of leaving her own people to their deaths, as long as she survives."

"Mom, that's not—" she began, but she realized that while her mother didn't understand Lexa's reasoning, she was technically correct.

"And she broke her people's alliance with you at Mount Weather!"

"Which broke her own heart, Mom, I promise you," Clarke said. "She loves me. She really does."

"Was this the terms of this peace with the Grounders?!" Abby said, her mind racing to the first conclusion it conceived. "Oh my God, Clarke, were you the PRICE of this peace treaty?!"

"No, Mom! You've got it—"

"What kind of monster is she, claiming you like property?!"

Clarke stood up. "She's not a monster, Mother, she's MY WIFE, and I will NOT sit here and listen to you run your mouth when you don't have a clue about how amazing a woman she is and how much she loves me!" Clarke turned and walked away from the waterfall, leaving Abby sitting there alone.

—O—

Clarke made the walk back to Arkadia by herself, still angrily mumbling and occasionally cursing aloud to herself as she walked. It would be dark soon, with the sun low over the horizon, but the path was still quite clear, and the lights around the fledgling village cast a glow of light that was already visible in the dimming light.

Harper and Monroe had been fascinated by Elsa and Anna, and the two visitors from a different world had happily agreed to visit a bit longer with the young couple, two others who could answer more questions about growing up among the stars. They had started cooking the venison and some potatoes and peppers over a fire when Clarke had left to go back to Arkadia.

Fuck her mom. Goddamn it. Who was she to accuse Lexa of seizing Clarke like property? Lexa would never do anything like that, and Abby would realize that, if she'd ever stop blaming Lexa for everything bad that had happened since that first dropship hit the ground.

Clarke walked through the gate at Arkadia without any problems, waving at Nathan Miller and the other gate guard. She continued on through the camp until she saw Raven. The brunette looked at Clarke briefly but gave no acknowledgment that she had actually seen her; she then turned and went inside the body of the Ark itself.

"Raven!" Clarke called out, breaking into a jog to try and catch up with her friend, who was definitely acting strangely. She didn't seem to be limping as much as usual, either, and Clarke actually was having trouble catching her, more so once inside the confines of the Ark's hallways.

She looked around at an intersection, spotting Raven's curly dark hair going down the main corridor leading to the living quarters. "Rae!" Clarke called out, but the brunette continued on as if she hadn't heard her.

"Fuck, Raven," Clarke swore to herself, jogging forward and sliding to the side to avoid hitting a man and woman walking toward her. She continued to work her way through the living quarters, taking the ladder to the second level before she lost Raven.

Clarke sighed and ran her hand over her forehead. "Well, that's just great. Get outrun by a woman with a messed-up leg," she grumbled to herself. Sighing, she picked the corridor to her left and headed down it. At the worst, she'd ask and see if anyone knew where Raven was staying. Or where she was going, as the two might not be the same.

Seeing two men standing in the hallway outside a room in the family section, Clarke smiled and headed their way. "Hey, have either of you seen Raven Reyes?" she called out.

"Yeah, she's actually here for the poker game," one of the two replied, a stout man in his thirties whom Clarke remembered worked in the engineering section on the Ark.

"Great," Clarke replied, smiling as they stepped apart to let her enter the room.

She stopped so fast that she nearly fell over when she saw Thelonious Jaha sitting on a couch, staring at her as she walked into the room.

"Wh—" was all she got out as she was grabbed from behind, a powerful hand clamping over her mouth and a thick arm wrapped around her waist as she was lifted off the ground. Two more sets of hands clamped around her arms, one on each side, and all she could do was kick wildly as she struggled against the three men holding her.

"Hello, Clarke," Jaha said, his voice insufferably calm and pompous as always. "So nice of you to finally come and see me."

Clarke tried to swear at him, but the large hand over her mouth completely muffled the spirited multitude of curses and threats she was trying to express.

"Hi, Clarke," said Raven, leaning against the wall. The broad grin on her face that was so totally not Raven made Clarke's stomach churn. "I'm so glad you're joining us!" she said in a syrupy sweet voice.

The hiss of the door closing behind her made Clarke's nerves flare into a bonfire of alarm. Quick hands tugged at her waist and her boots, removing her pistol, the knife at her belt, the backup knives in her boots, tossing them on the floor. She was then patted down by two women, one of whom used to work with her father. She couldn't remember the woman's name, and for some reason that bothered her.

"Nothing else," the woman said to Thelonious, who nodded to the men.

Clarke was forcibly shoved to the ground as they kicked her legs back behind her, dropping her to her knees painfully on the metal floor of the family room. Jaha stood up and calmly walked over to his large backpack, resting on a table nearby. Standing beside the table was the dark-haired woman in the red dress, smiling proudly at Jaha as he approached her.

"She will be the catalyst we need," the woman said, her voice sharp and clear in Clarke's mind. "With her on our side, we will be able to complete our work."

"She's willful," Jaha said as he carefully removed what looked like a small gray film, roughly two centimeters square, from the backpack. "She could resist you."

The woman in red walked across the floor, but her heels—she was wearing high heels, which Clarke had only seen in old books and movies—made no noise as she stepped patiently around Jaha to where she could glance at Clarke before looking back at Jaha.

As soon as the hand left her mouth, Clarke was ready. "FUCK YOU, JAHA!" she shouted, only to feel strong fingers bore into her cheeks as one of the men gripped her jaw tightly. "You fucking coward!" Clarke swore. "Have to have a half-dozen people to hold me for you, huh?!"

Jaha smiled as he stood over Clarke, still fighting despite the grip of the three men holding her. "I have complete confidence that right now, if it were just you and me, Clarke, you'd kill me easily," he said patiently.

"You're right," Clarke said, crying out briefly at the bolt of pain as the fingers gripping her face squeezed painfully on her temporomandibular joints. "Not... joining... you," she hissed against the hand forcing her mouth open.

"I'm afraid you are," Jaha said calmly as he quickly popped the tablet into her mouth before she could react. Immediately the hand holding her jaw snapped it shut, clicking her teeth together as Clarke tried her best to force her tongue to push the wafer out of her mouth. The grip around her mouth was like steel, though, and nothing could push the wafer through her lips.

As Clarke continued to fight, she felt the wafer break up in her mouth, then start to ooze its way through her mouth. She tried to throw up as she felt something slither down the back of her throat, crying as she strained with all her might to clench her esophagus, to block her throat, to do ANYTHING to preserve her self, her mind.

The brutal struggle went on for over two minutes. Jaha and ALIE turned to look at each other twice during the prolonged battle.

"She's remarkable," ALIE whispered. "Everything you said she would be."

"She's a born leader," Jaha replied. "With a force of will that could build empires... or destroy them."

Then Clarke suddenly went still, drawing the attention of everyone in the room. She began to convulse, her entire body spasming wildly, causing the men holding her to loosen their grip momentarily.

"Lay her down!" Jaha said quickly. "On her side!"

"What's happening?" asked Raven, as a hint of herself tried to reassert itself through ALIE's tight control.

Clarke's entire body jerked primally as the men placed her on the floor and rolled her onto her right side. One of them moved to place his hand beneath her head to keep her from cracking her skull on the metal floor, but he reflexively jerked it back when Clarke forcefully vomited up what looked like a thick, black goo, specks and flakes shining like polished metal throughout the tarry puddle that sprayed forth in front of her.

Suddenly she kicked out with her left leg, striking the man holding her legs in the face and sending him toppling backward. Clarke drove her left elbow backward, catching the man at her head in his left eye, sending a stabbing jolt of pain lancing through his skull. She scrabbled to her feet, diving at her pistol on the ground nearby.

She felt hands grab her legs as her own hands closed around the gun; without even trying to withdraw it from its holster, she unsnapped the thumb guard and shoved her left hand down into the holster itself and twisted at the waist. As soon as the gun was pointing in the direction of the man trying to subdue her, Clarke fired. The gunshot rang like Vulcan's hammer inside the closed metal walls, but Clarke was already shifting her aim to the next man who had fallen to his knees to stop her. Another thundering report, and he was flung backwards, blood spraying from his chest.

Clarke was shivering with terror and adrenaline as she pointed the gun toward to the others, who were now backing away from her. The door was between Clarke and them, but no one dared to move toward it. Clarke was still on her back, pulled into an awkward position somewhere between a sit-up and lying flat, and her head and ears were throbbing and ringing painfully, but her focus was laser-sharp as she locked eyes with Thelonious Jaha.

"You lose," Clarke said as she pointed the gun at the man who had ordered her father's death, then she pulled the trigger.

Jaha jerked as the bullet hit his chest, then Clarke fired again as his body flailed backward toward the couch, then again. His body landed twisted across the couch, limbs askew like an abandoned puppet.

The woman in red looked at Jaha's body, then she turned back to Clarke with sheer fascination in her eyes.

"Don't you move either, lady, whoever the fuck you are!" Clarke said, pointing the pistol at her briefly and registering the woman's eyes widening in surprise.

Muffled pounding against the door rang out in the room, only barely audible due to the damage done to Clarke's hearing, which she hoped was temporary.

Clarke got to her feet, keeping the gun pointed in the direction of everyone else. "Nobody move," she said, her voice cold and hard. She pulled her radio from its holster on her belt, then pressed the transmit button. "This is Clarke Griffin!" she said loudly. "Do it now, Wick! DO IT NOW!"

She knew she couldn't hear the activation of an electromagnetic field around Arkadia, generated by transmitters placed atop the Ark and along the city walls by Kyle Wick days earlier, but Clarke could have sworn she felt a pop somewhere inside her ears as all the wireless signals being transmitted between Arkadia and the satellite above them were cut off.

"What have you done?" said the woman in red, visibly worried for the first time.

"Blocked all EM transmissions in or out of Arkadia," Clarke said, still practically shouting as her ears continued to ring.

"Can you fix it?" the woman asked, turning to Raven.

"Of course," replied the brunette. "Wick's smart, but I can take apart anything he can put together."

"You're not going anywhere, Raven," Clarke said, looking at her friend.

The mocha-skinned woman smiled, a predatory grin that make Clarke's hands shake. "What are you going to do, Clarke? Shoot your friend?" Raven said, taking a careful step forward.

"If I have to," Clarke said, her voice shaky.

"Bullshit," Raven said, reaching behind her slowly and pulling a small knife from its sheath on her belt. "You can't even aim the gun at me, can you, Clarke?"

Clarke blinked away the tears that were welling up in her burning eyes. "Don't make me do this, Raven, please!" she said, anguish in her voice.

Raven's mouth opened, and her tongue licked out slowly, lasciviously before she slowly stuck the blade of her knife into the neck of the man beside her; he stood perfectly still, swallowing as blood began to pour down his throat, his chest and his arm.

"Oh my God, Rae..." Clarke gasped as Raven stood completely still, knife held out beside her as the bleeding man collapsed to the ground. "Fight it, Raven, FIGHT IT!"

"She can't fight me," said ALIE, her composure seemingly recovered at this point. "I am Raven, and she is part of me now."

Clarke swiveled to point the gun at the woman in red. "Let her go!" she shouted. "LET HER GO!"

"You can't shoot me, Clarke," replied the woman calmly. "And if you try, the ricochet could kill you, or Raven, or maybe someone else."

"What the fuck are you?" gasped Clarke.

"I'm your greatest creation," replied the woman. "I'm the one who saved the planet itself from humanity's toxic touch, and I'll do it again."

A groan drew Clarke's attention back to Raven, who had just plunged her knife into the throat of the woman nearest to her. "You don't seem to care about these other people very much, do you, Clarke?" asked Raven, still grinning like a lunatic.

"Raven, you don't want to DO THIS!" Clarke screamed, turning to point the gun at her friend. "Fight her, Rae! You're stronger than she is!"

"No, she's not," said the woman in red, a smug smile across her red lips. "No one is."

"I am," said a voice that came from behind Clarke.

Clarke turned halfway around to see a woman who could have been the woman in red's twin standing next to her, only this woman had her dark hair pulled back, was wearing a solid black jumpsuit and was facing the woman in red. "Who the fuck are you?!" Clarke shouted, jumping back slightly.

The woman turned her head to look at Clarke and smiled. "I'm your friend, Clarke. Yours and Lexa's." Her voice was clear, cutting through the ringing in Clarke's ears. Then the mystery woman turned back to the woman in red. "Hello, ALIE," she said, her voice much colder than when she was addressing Clarke.

—O—

Author's Afterword: I can't wait to see what people think about this chapter. The clues are there (and have been there, for a chapter or two).

Sorry for it taking a bit longer to get this chapter. I spent a week or two working on a small unrelated story that happened to inspire me; feel free to give it a read if you'd like. It's set in the Marvel universe and focuses on Kitty Pryde and Illyana Rasputin of the X-Men, but a few other characters make appearances. Two out of its three chapters are up, so the third should be posted in another week or two, and then I can return to focusing on this story full-time once more. See you soon!