Clarke couldn't believe it. What she anticipated to be her execution was actually a second chance. She had been chosen among ninety-nine other inmates to recolonize Earth. By risking her life for the Ark, she could earn all her privileges as a free citizen again. All she had to do was prove that Earth was no radioactive threat and she could have a life again. She stood side by side with the rest of the hundred inmates, feeling the guards place slim metallic bracelets on everyone's wrist.
"These bracelets cannot be removed!" Instructed a guard who walked up and down the line of criminals. "They record your vitals and transmit them to the Ark. This is the key to your freedom. Without the knowledge it transmits, you all have no chance of redemption. Using the Earth Skills and other miscellaneous classes you attended during your freedom in the Ark, you are tasked with building shelter, finding food in the form of plants and animals, drinkable water, and survival of the weather. We will be able to track you via satellite as well in terms of what kind of environment you will experience. The faster you accomplish your mission, the sooner you will have your freedom, as the rest of the Ark will join you in your victory."
Clarke turned her head to look at the other inmates. They all had different expressions playing on their faces, and Clarke knew that not everyone was planning on doing the right thing with this mission. But Clarke was more concerned with the actual probability to survive Earth before thinking about running away from the responsibility of saving the human race.
"You will receive further instruction on your drop ship. Make way down the platform to prepare for launch!"
The line of criminals obeyed, and Clarke followed suit. Curiously, she looked down at the incomplete message she had written to her soul mate over an hour ago and there was no reply yet. Trying not to feel hurt by the silence of her soulmate, Clarke tried to focus on the line in front of her. As they all shifted into the drop-ship, one by one, Clarke heard someone shouting in the distance. Turning around before being led into the threshold of the ship, she saw her mother being held back by guards in the distance.
"Clarke!" She shouted, a broken smile gracing her face. This was the first time they had seen each other in months, and it was another goodbye. "Clarke! I'll be watching you! Your bracelet! I'll be monitoring them! Clarke!"
With that, Clarke was pushed in by a guard, and the sight of her mother and the Ark was closed off to her.
Clarke couldn't remember the launch. In fact, most of the travel was a blur. The turbulence had shaken her spirits and her equilibrium, making her mind spin and her heart send herself into a panic attack, causing her to pass out for the duration of the entrance into Earth's atmosphere. In her loss of consciousness, she began to suffer from a dream, which wasn't any less frightening than this voyage back to earth.
She saw herself standing in the forest, the scenery most likely provided by her recollection of wildlife from the libraries of the Ark. The sky was bright, and the sun shone on her face, feeling a sense of warmth she had never experienced. The pleasure of the sun was cut short as Clarke started to feel the ground beneath her rumble. Anxious, she surveyed the ground, trying to understand these tremors, when instantly hands started to break through the dirt, revealing arms and shoulders disturbingly pushing from the Earth. Clarke stumbled as she attempted to run away, falling to the ground herself. The bodies continued to emerge all around her, revealing haunting faces. The further they continued being birthed from the ground, they attempted to crawl towards Clarke, gripping onto the trees and swimming through the loose gravel. She wanted to scream for help, but her voice was trapped in her throat. She began to feel hands slid up behind her arms and rest on her shoulders. Instead of panicking, she surrendered to the grasp, leaning her head back to rest on the body coming up behind her. Sheepishly, she tried to see who held her in place, noticing the other earthly bodies crawl past her, but could only make out one thing- green eyes.
Shaken awake, Clarke moaned in her fastened seat, hearing the other passengers of the 100 murmur in excitement. Had they landed? The sickening movement of the travel was absent. Her brain was no longer swimming in her skull, and her heart beat at a mellow pace. Taking a deep breath, she did what all the others were still afraid to do. She pressed the button of her seatbelt, and freed herself from her chair. Taking weak steps across the platforms, everyone watched her in silence, as Clarke Griffin made her way to the airlock door and slammed her fist on the release button. The goliath door of the drop ship broke free, and the air from the world rushed into the ship, flooding the 100 with the scent of dirt, pine, smoke, and summer wind. Clarke's lungs felt ethereal as she breathed it in and her eyes squinted upon instinct as true sunlight pieced her sight. In this brief moment of having her body bathe in all that Earth had to offer as a greeting, Clarke felt true freedom. She was experiencing something even the most elite citizens of the Ark never got to relish in: fresh, not recycled air, and light so bright and pleasant that no UV lamp could ever produce. This redemption mission was the greatest privilege of any Arkers' life, and the Ark did not truly understand what they had set free…
Sometime later
Lexa had often dreamt of the woods. The forest was her home, and the expanse of the wild was her rightful domain. But this dream was different. It started off with her watching herself lying in a field, contently stargazing, alone- which was rare, as the Heda always had a guard or two nearby in her waking life. She stared at the sky, smiling at how some stars had faint hues of red or orange, and how a shooting star had appeared, with the brightest and strongest streak across the night sky that Lexa had ever witnessed. Her dreaming must have exaggerated it. As dreams often do, the setting changed and Lexa was now experiencing the dream in first person- and she was flying. Or so it seemed. As she paid more attention to the feeling of the dream, she sensed that she was falling, and that this dream was not from her perspective at all. Her mind began to tell her that she was seeing through someone else's eyes, and that they were falling from the highest point in the sky. The person, this vessel- that she was witnessing this from was screaming erratically, being tossed and flipped in the air as she continued to drop from the sky. From her peripheral vision, she could also see others falling from the sky all around her, all terrified and hopelessly being carried by the wind and gravity. Soon a forest began to become clear below them, and the girl who hosted this vision crossed her arms in front of her face to prepare herself for the impact and came crashing down against the giant trees of the forest; branches and spruce needles snapping and scraping her face, flesh breaking and specs of blood flying out- and soon, the ground.
Lexa jolted awake before the impact, her subconscious terrified of the deathly blow, and found herself at her desk, safe in the Grounder capital of Polis. She must have fallen asleep reading the numerous correspondence reports that flooded in daily. As the Commander, her subconscious was always full of bizarre dreams, but this one was beyond enigmatic. Looking on her arm, she studied the word faintly left by her soulmate the night before: goodby.
She hadn't responded as fast as she used to in the past because it simply made her uneasy. During these past two years both Lexa and her soulmate had communicated with art, sending each other sentimental symbols, but never with words. Lexa had often sent the symbols of the various twelve clans, trying to see if her soulmate would respond in a particular way to identify with. She wanted to know where her soulmate hailed from. Yet now, with this word, she feared that her soulmate was not a member of any clan. While the many Grounders clans were familiar with English, it was not the first language for any of them. In fact, Lexa didn't know anyone who chose to write or speak in English by default, it was always Trigedasleng. Seeing this English word on her arm filled her with a sickening feeling that perhaps her soul mate lived among the Mountain Men. They had abducted her people for years, and if the missing persons ever resurfaced, it was as monsters. Lexa wouldn't know what to do with herself- and what her people would do, if they knew that her soul mate was one of their greatest enemies. She wanted to test this theory and write a word back in Trigedasleng, but her heart did not want to accept the fact that this person she was developing an incredible bond to was someone who belonged to a group she wanted to fiercely destroy in battle.
"Heda!"
Lexa spun around in her chair, alarmed by the abrupt invasion of privacy. A lieutenant stood breathlessly by her door, huffing for air. The Commander raised her eyebrow, not bothering to speak to him, but waited.
"Heda," he repeated, placing his hand over his chest, perhaps to calm his lungs, "There has been an explosion south of Ton DC, eyewitness reports claim that something fell from the sky at sunrise. Their rider has only just arrived. They believe it is the Mountain sending missiles."
Lexa contemplated this report quickly, finding it bizarre that the Mountain Men would do any kind of missile testing or any acts of war. They had been content with stealing her people, and she didn't dare send her warriors to storm the fortress.
"Send a rider of our own to clarify and assess the impact location," was all Lexa had said, "We need a verified account, not eyewitness assumptions. In order to know what we're facing we must know the truth."
"Yes, Heda," The Scout quickly bowed his head and left the room.
Lexa turned back to her arm, and frowned at the word yet again. Reaching for a pen, thought of what to send back. At a loss, she drew the symbol of Trigeda, a biohazard. She didn't want to lose contract, and she didn't want to lose her soulmate in general. Feeling a bout of selfishness, Lexa swore she would stay faithful to her soulmate until any negative suspicions were confirmed. If her soulmate was from the Mountain, they would recognize the Trigeda symbol.
She leaned back and watched, waiting for a response.
Nothing.
Maybe her soul mate was angry at her lack of response from last night. Or maybe- Lexa felt like a fool at not noticing the obvious- maybe something had happened to her soulmate. Panicking slightly, she gave in and scribbled the word: Mountain? This would do it. This would confirm everything she was fearing. Perhaps her soulmate was from the mountain, and had said goodbye because they had figured out that she was a Grounder, and that there was no hope for them ever being together.
And then- Lexa held her breath and her heart beat feebly as she read the words bleeding with ink forming next to her message: Come with me to Mount Weather?