Clarke had sacrificed the luxury of sleeping in the newly furnished longhouses that first night for someone else to have that privilege, and slept in the drop ship like she had ever since the 100 first landed on Earth. She said she would sleep in the longhouses when all of them were complete, as making sure everyone had shelter first was her top priority. This inspired the delinquents to put Clarke on a reputational pedestal higher than Bellamy, which obviously irked the stowaway. What put even more salt in that wound was the fact that Octavia eagerly supported Clarke's humbleness, and decided to sacrifice her own spot in their new shelter as well. Bellamy tried to follow suit, but it took some threatening to get Murphy, Miller, and Atom to leave the longhouses too.
While Clarke did believe in tending to others before herself, a part of her knew there was an underlying benefit from sleeping in the new houses: separating herself from Bellamy and whatever plan it was he was brewing regarding Lexa being her soulmate. All this tension was probably encouraging him to make his plan even worse.
The next morning, many of the Arkers were awake before the Grounders made their way from their distant field back to the Skaikru camp. Bellamy seized this opportunity of an absent Lexa to grab Clarke by the arm, and drag her to the top level of the drop ship, which he ordered his thugs to keep guarded as they spoke in private.
"What do you want, Bellamy?" Clarke asked, jerking her arm free from his grasp. Bellamy furrowed his eyebrows and crossed his arms, his body language communicating an attempt at authority.
"How long have you known that Lexa was your soulmate?" He asked, getting straight to it.
"Yesterday, when she showed up at the river to discuss terms," Clarke replied firmly, standing her ground by not cowering to his aura.
"Impossible, you two knew about it for longer than that. That's why she offered us so much," Bellamy continued, his voice getting a little louder.
"It's not impossible, Bellamy, I've only known her since the day she kidnaped me, and then I didn't speak to her for three days after that. I had no idea."
"Oh really?" Bellamy asked, raising his eyebrow, "So you're saying that you two weren't communicating through marks during those past three days?"
"We didn't," Clarke defended, "In fact, she didn't write back to me at all during those three days." She was lying of course, but telling Bellamy that Lexa had called her beautiful was really not relevant to the conversation. "I asked to meet who ever my soulmate was, but she never replied."
"Did she find out the same day you did? Did she do all this for you?"
Clarke was silent, fighting with her pride which wanted to gloat in Lexa's devotion to her, but knew where Bellamy was about to go with this.
"She did, didn't she?" Bellamy asked, again. "I don't know how, but she did. God knows what they did to you when they kidnapped you- maybe she saw a mark. But she knew, and you can't tell me she didn't. All this was just to win you over… and to keep us from being a threat."
Clarke rolled her eyes, "Bellamy, she showed us how to build shelter, and any minute now they're going to show us how to hunt, fish, and forage safe plants. Are you really still paranoid about this?"
"Clarke, you don't see it because you're blinded by your bond. This was just convenience for her. She probably would've slaughtered us had it not been for you-"
"Wrong," Clarke interrupted, "You may be afraid of other people in power, but I know she's not a murderer. She told me she didn't know until after she had set me free. Before she cut my bonds she had already deemed us not a threat, which is the only reason why she let me go."
"So she did know," Bellamy said, returning to his original inquiry. "Clarke, you may see it as an attempt at peace, but it's really just an opportunity for her to develop free labor. You can't look me in the eye and tell me that there is no other ulterior motive than just keeping you in her good graces. Do you really think she has no enemies? We're probably producing labor that she doesn't have to pay for, retrieving goods to help her fight those in her way. You think she's just helping us out, but how do you know that when she was discussing this with her advisors that she didn't sell the idea to them by mentioning that we were just a source of profit? You say she built shelter and is teaching us trades so we can thrive. We can't even leave a five mile radius! She built us a labor camp. That's all this is."
"Bellamy, that's enough, you're thinking too much into this," Clarke said, really getting tired of Bellamy's twisted thinking. "She said we can petition for more land, we just can't freely take it whenever we feel like it. Besides, she has to make sure that we're not dangerous-"
"You said she already determined that when she held you hostage," Bellamy aggressively pointed out. "You think she's so safe and full of good intentions- not only are you blinded by soul-bond, you're sick with Stockholm syndrome. So devoted, like she's such a trust worthy person, when she interrogated you! Only thinking of yourself, and not your people!"
"Stop!" Clarke shouted, her brain pounding behind her eyes. "Bellamy, what is wrong with you? Why are you so scared? You act like we were going to thrive all on our own, without shelter, food, a system, and Mount Weather. We have to make due until the Ark joins us, if they ever join us. I secured protection and trade, how have I not taken care of everyone?"
"I'm scared," Bellamy seethed, putting emphasis on the word, "because I know what the Ark is capable of. You really think that we're going to be greeted with open arms and… and, medals- for setting up a camp? That we're actually going to be granted freedom and a clean record on the spot? And you know that the second the Ark finds out that we're under someone else's government that there's going to be significant consequences. You would think the girl condemned for treason would've figured that out."
The level of the drop ship was getting warmer and warmer as each second of their rage continued.
"The Ark will understand. Lexa is promising peace and protection-"
"And she'll hand us over, trading post, goods, and everything the second the Ark arrives? She'll probably enslave the others once they arrive." His sarcasm was bitter, and he leaned closer to Clarke for emphasis. "The best deal you could've done for your people was to have her leave us alone."
"I've had enough," Clarke said, shaking her head and turning to leave.
"You sold everyone. You sold everyone for your soulmate! I hope you realize how despicable that is," Bellamy continued, watching her walk away to the hatch. "And I'm going to tell everyone."
This froze Clarke in her tracks, her hand stuck to the handle of the door, remembering Lexa's request to keep their soul-bond a secret.
"Why?" Clarke asked turning around, not wanting to be seen as desperate and beg for Bellamy's silence.
"Our people have a right to know why they now owe their life to the Commander, they need to know the truth."
"But they're happy, Bellamy," Clarke said, working on some kind of manipulation quickly forming in her head. "You think they're just going to stop enjoying this because Lexa and I are destined for each other? You think they're going to be mad that I found a way to keep them fed with real meat and grains, keep them sheltered and protected?"
Clarke watched Bellamy's face as he looked down, considered her words, hoping that was enough to disarm his threat.
He looked back up with her, disgruntled, and said, "They're happy with it for now. While it's still new and fun. But when they have quotas to meet and working for hours on end, not being allowed to be free… that's when they'll realize the truth and hate this."
"I'm done with this," Clarke said, content with the small victory. She pulled the hatch open and began to climb the ladder down. Feeling a bit uncomfortable as Bellamy's thugs watched her make her way down, she decided to skip the last handful of rungs by jumping off the ladder.
"All finished?" asked Murphy, who was sitting against the wall instead of standing like a true guard like Miller and Atom.
"Completely," Clarke replied with spite, thinking about Bellamy. But her anger was quickly dissipated, as she realized what Murphy was doing- lazily sitting against the wall and writing on his forearm. There was something about remembering that everyone else had a soulmate that made Clarke grounded again. She wondered briefly who was destined for Murphy- if they were still on the Ark or not, who was destined for Bellamy, and Octavia, Jasper, Finn, even Wells. Biology couldn't stop most people from having partners before meeting their soulmate, if they ever did, but remembering that these partners were meant for someone else was always such a bizarre realization.
Coming back to reality, Clarke stepped out of the drop ship, hearing Bellamy start to climb down the ladder after her. As she walked past the parachute curtain of the entrance, she saw that the camp was already in a hustle and bustle, and surprisingly, Octavia was carrying a dead dear with a Grounder.
"Did you hunt that?" Clarke asked in astonishment, stopping the two in their tracks.
"Sure did," Octavia replied proudly. "Took me two hours to find this guy. Hit him once… incorrectly. So Lincoln here told me that it was only right to find him and end his misery. Let me tell you, tracking is challenging and hunting takes a lot of patience." The Grounder helping Octavia carry the game smiled politely at Clarke.
"The camp was calm only thirty minutes ago, how did it take you two hours to get this?"
"Well I couldn't sleep last night. I was too restless, so I went for a walk , stumbled upon the Grounder camp not too far from here, and signed up to help Lincoln and Indra, I'm sure you met her already- go for a hunt." Octavia was all smiles, and Clarke believed she had never seen such an expression of pride in one's work and accomplishment during her days in the Ark. "In fact, Indra said that I'm probably the only Skai person with the patience needed to hunt. I don't think she likes us all very much yet."
"She will get used to you all if you continue to show promise," Lincoln assured. "Excuse us," he said to Clarke, "But we need to take care of this deer as soon as we can."
Clarke nodded in understanding and let the two continue their walk to wherever they planned on skinning and gutting the animal.
"Clarke!"
Clarke's heart surged as she recognized the voice, and saw Lexa (guarded as usual), making her way down the field to the drop ship. Waking towards her a little too quickly, Clake met her halfway, and instinctually held out a hand. She wanted to touch Lexa, but knew she would have to start out slow, and there was nothing suspicious about a handshake. Lexa took her hand and shook it firmly, a warm smile on her face. When she let go of her hand, Lexa looked over Clarke's shoulder and addressed:
"Bellamy…"
Clarke turned around quickly to see that the young man was indeed near her, and she began to wonder just how long he had been outside of the drop ship. Clarke looked up to Lexa, trying to read her intention through her eyes, but instead of looking back at her soulmate, Lexa extended her arm to Bellamy.
He looked at it for just a fraction of a second, and then grasped her hand in return, giving her a vigorous shake. "Commander," he returned.
"My people are already on their way to divide everyone into groups to learn the trades they are interested in. Some of my people have actually already taken some of yours on hunts, which I'm sure you're aware of. We intend to leave by noon, so that gives us only five hours left to instruct your people," Lexa could see the uneasiness behind Clarke's eyes, but the Commander knew what she was doing in involving Bellamy. "Since you two seem to be the most prominent Skaikru members, especially when it comes to leading and caring for your people, it is only good manners that we discuss our people's future together."
"I thought this had already been discussed," Bellamy said, his voice rough. Clarke prayed that he wouldn't go on the tangent he did in the drop ship. "We work, stick to our boundaries, and you keep us safe."
"That is correct," Lexa nodded, "However, this alliance will go a lot smoother if my people can recognize the Skaikru population altogether. Come, let us discuss in private how you plan to develop a sense of internal government. Who will be your leaders? Ambassadors? Etcetera. While I command that your people do not break the five mile radius, I will grant a few Skaikru members the privilege of leaving the boundaries due to titles."
Bellamy's ears must have perked at this. "Let's," and he ushered his arm in the direction leading back to the drop ship.