Abby Griffin had spent the majority of her supervision obsessing over Clarke's vitals. It surprised her that out of all the hundred inmates on her board, her vitals were the best. She would witness flutters in heart rates every now and then, and wondered what could be the cause. She often brushed it aside, associating it to young people just being… young and irresponsible. Clarke was on the verge of adulthood, it was no longer Abby's place to have a say in her daughter's growth. Today however, she had to be separated from the survey room and assigned to one of the many operating dropships to prepare for land. Being connected to the council, she was a priority on the list of travels to Earth. After numerous culling incidents and people causing rackets and riots, the Ark population had dropped 20%. There was now conveniently enough room for everyone on the dropships, where extra makeshift seats were added for maximum capacity. While the doctor was nervous about the journey, she was more concerned about seeing Clarke again for the first time since her imprisonment. She wondered if things would be okay between them. As the dropships set their courses for the vicinity of the delinquents, they finally separated from the Ark, and when they passed through the atmosphere of Earth, the turbulence was too much for Abby to handle, and she slipped into unconsciousness.
On Earth, all the delinquent population was ambivalent, not knowing whether they should be excited for their promised pardon, or suspicious of the return of their wardens. Both Bellamy and Clarke knew of this, since they practically represented both sides of the conflict. However, productivity was still a necessity, and Clarke made sure that everyone was working in the camp. She believed having something to work on would help everyone ease their anxiety. Monty kept to his small plots of crops, with his miniscule team. Wells tended a bookkeeping stall to keep track of traders entering and leaving the camp, Jasper oddly took to fashioning weapons to trade, and Finn spent time in the game hut hanging all types and parts of meat to smoke, salt, or dry. Octavia took to hunting with a regular grounder named Lincoln. On any other day, Bellamy and his militia did rounds patrolling the inner grounds for crime and the outer limits for any potential threats. Today, however, they had worked hard on scavenging bullets and gunpowder, preparing for any revolt the Ark might bring. Clarke thought it was unnecessary, since the remaining ninety or so inmates wouldn't stand a chance fighting the Ark with handmade weapons while Bellamy and his crew had the only firearms.
In terms of love, Clarke hadn't seen Lexa since that day she communicated with the Ark, and it broke her heart to be so far away from Lexa for so long. They had resorted to their old form of communication though, sending each other symbols of all cultures, which had brought some comfort. Clarke wondered if Lexa had been nervous for the arrival of the Ark, and if her people were preparing for the worst, out of precaution.
The longer Clarke and Lexa were separated, the more the universe tormented them to be together. Dreams were endless and torturous, filled with images of passionate kisses, bodies pressed together, and love making. Clarke knew the lore. At first the universe would provide dreams to hint that your soulmate was in the same environment, but she had never heard of the part where after meeting them separation would cause dreams urging them to come back together. She knew how she handled waking from these dreams, and she would often blush wondering if Lexa was using the same remedy of self-pleasuring. The concept of the dreams had often made Clarke curious about soulmates in general, and how other people must be handling things. Bellamy, for example, was completely unaware of Murphy being his. That pairing baffled her, they were so different, but the universe was about balance, and attaining peace through this balance. Bellamy was hotheaded and Murphy was aggressive, maybe their pairing was meant to bring them humbleness. What were their dreams like?
Soon there was commotion in the camp, and Clarke looked up to the sky and saw the streaks in the sky of dropships entering the atmosphere. Her heart surged, thinking of nothing but everyone's hard-earned pardons. Everyone was ordered to stay inside the long houses for protection, just in case. The buildings were full of nervous and excited chatter, the wooden shutters of each long house closed shut. The impact of the drop ships vibrated in the dirt beneath their feet and shook the very foundation of the longhouses. When the world stopped shaking, Clarke was the first one to open a door and step outside. There was smoke in the air from a ship somewhere nearby.
"Let's go check it out!" Clarke said aloud, jogging away towards the suspected location of the ships. Bellamy swallowed hard as he watched her disappear into the tree lines.
"You heard her," he chimed in. "Militia, to arms and with me." He shouldered his rifle protectively and began to take after her, with Murphy, Atom, and Miller on his heels, the remaining camp gathering courage to follow as well.
It was a stampede of Skaikru, all running like a flock towards the dropship that seemed to be at least two miles away. However it didn't take the hundred long to make it to the scene, as they were over-energized with excitement. The grounders left in the camp were curious, and wanted to see these new-coming Skaikru, but knew that they had to report to their Heda and immediately galloped away.
The drop ship closest to them left a trail of flame from their rough landing, but the vessel was open and people were exiting drowsily. The hundred continued to run down the fields to greet their comrades, who were frightened to see them.
"Where's Jaha? Or Kane?" Clarke asked the shaken Arkers.
"Right here," spoke the voice of Jaha, who had stepped out of the dropship. Following close behind him was Abby and a young woman.
"Clarke!" Abby couldn't contain the cry as she reached out to embrace Clarke in a hug, who reciprocated routinely. "I'm so happy to see you."
Clarke nodded to her mother's words, yet did not give any back.
"Has the entire camp come to see us?" Jaha chuckled, looking behind Clarke to see the rest of the inmates watching anxiously.
"Well yes, we wanted to help and welcome you all to Earth," Clarke smiled. "I can't wait for you to see the camp."
"Of course, Clarke, we will. I would like to see if we can gather all the landed dropships, though," Jaha said. "We need to make sure everyone is okay first. I know you're probably eager to be finally processed as pardoned."
"You have no idea," answered someone else for her. Jaha looked around for the source of the voice and saw his son emerge from the crowd of delinquents. "It's good to see you again, dad."
In this moment, the always professional and political Thelonious couldn't help himself and briskly stepped forward to grip his son into a tight hug.
"Come, let's go find everyone else." Wells said, patting his father's back.
As they searched the five mile radius, they found five of the six drop ships sent down, and everyone was sent to the camp. The sixth was outside the five mile radius, a total of seven miles out, and Clarke and Bellamy insisted that they be the only ones to look for them, to respect Lexa's request somehow, since the five-mile radius rule was technically broken.
They had taken their horses, which astonished all the new-coming Arkers, who wanted nothing but to touch the beasts. Clarke had explained that they were one of the countless gifts from Heda Lexa, and Jaha watched the young woman fervently explain to the crowd just how benevolent and epic this Grounder Commander was. It made him uneasy. It made him feel threatened.
When Clarke and Bellamy made it to the last dropship, they found Kane amongst the group and had escorted everyone, belongings and all, with Clarke leading in front and Bellamy keeping an eye on the tail end.
When they were close to the trading post, Bellamy quickly trotted up to Clarke and made a tsk sound towards her. Curious, Clarke turned to face the man riding beside her and gave him a questioning look. Bothered, Bellamy rolled up his jacket sleeve to reveal words on his wrists: don't come back.
"What do you think it means?" Clarke whispered, knowing deep in her mind what it most likely meant, but hoped for an alternative.
"My soulmate is in the camp," Bellamy reviewed, "I've known this for some time, but both of us have agreed not to reveal ourselves until we were both ready for that confrontation. Apparently my soulmate knows more about me than I do them, and this for sure is a warning. It's not like I pissed them off and they just don't want to see my face, they're looking out for me."
"We can't just leave everyone," Clake said.
Bellamy scoffed. "Listen, everything keeps pointing to the fact that I was right. You know, honor to you for having faith in the system, but our system is broken. I can't believe you've forgotten that, since you were the one who blew the whistle back on the Ark. I'm not going."
"So you're just gonna leave your soulmate there to whatever may be happening?"
Bellamy shot her an angry look. "My soulmate wants me out of this, can't you see? Why else would they warn me?"
"You're just gonna leave Octavia?"
That got him. He snarled his lips and then kicked the sides of his horse to trot ahead of her. "You're blind, Clarke. Say goodbye to Lexa."
When they made it to the camp, Grounders were nowhere to be seen, it was just overpopulated with Arkers. There were already armed Ark guards patrolling the area, and tons of single-filed lines leading to multiple re-purposed stalls. It looked like a government invasion.
"Everyone's accounted for," Clarke said, as she found Jaha, Wells, and Abby in the midst of it all. Wells looked at her regretfully and Abby looked distraught. "What's wrong?"
"It's just time to get everything under Council control, Clarke, that's all. This is going to be a rough transition, but I promise it will all work out in the end," said Jaha with a smile.
"What do you mean?" Clarke asked.
"Take the original hundred into custody," Jaha said, projecting his voice. "They need to be taken in for questioning and processing."
"Wait, what?" baffled Clarke.
"Processing, Clarke, like I promised," Jaha answered, with his fake political smile. Her arms were brought behind her back and shackles pinched her wrists. "There are just some new crimes to account for now."
"Are you kidding me?" Clarke shouted with building rage, as all the other delinquents became violently handcuffed. "Our orders were to make sure that Earth was survivable and that we secured shelter. Mission accomplished!"
"Well you also surrendered yourself to the authority to another government. That's treason, Clarke. Twice for you. Everyone will be questioned to understand the severity of each individual's part in this."
"This is ridiculous! We invaded a land that wasn't ours! How else was this mission supposed to be secured? Through war? Lexa will be on her way soon, please don't undo everything we've worked for," Clarke pleaded, as she was dragged away towards the dropship with all the others, including Bellamy, who had be arrested trying to subtly leave with Octavia.
"Oh trust me," Jaha said, folding his hands behind his back nonchalantly. "We'll be waiting for her…"