Not much to reply to specifically in ANs for the reviews, so I will thank you all for your support and ask you to continue doing so!
######################################
Nothing Is True (Save For the Blood We've Shed)
Chapter Three
Grounders
######################################
"Are your wounds being aggravated by this pace, SkaiPrisa?" Lexa's warm breath on her neck, and the soft whisper of her voice in her ear, did nothing to help mitigate the hot blush that had been present on her face from the moment she felt Lexa's muscled body and soft breasts press into her back, one arm circling her waist almost possessively.
"Not really, most of my injuries are simply scratches, nothing more. The only other thing is my left wrist, and that's badly sprained at best. But, since I'm not using it at the moment…" she trailed off, and heard Lexa give a low hum of acknowledgement. They continued to ride in semi-comfortable silence before Clarke spoke again. "I'm sorry for nearly killing you back there. We didn't expect anyone to still be alive down here, never mind as many of you as there seem to be."
"I can imagine. Why is it that you decided to return now, Clarke? Especially if you thought everyone here on the ground was dead?" Lexa asked, fishing for information as calmly and subtly as she could manage. She had no interest in giving Clarke a reason to distrust her, and asking questions that she might perceive as endangering to her people was sure to do that. Her companion was silent for long enough that Lexa feared she had done so anyway, or that they had somehow missed a significant wound.
"The Ark, where I lived, is dying. After one hundred years of constant use and half-assed repairs, the machines that give us air and food are falling apart." She said at last, voice so sad that Lexa reflexively tightened her grip comfortingly, and felt Clarke squeeze it in response. Still, the brunette was glad that the blonde couldn't see the incredulous look on her face. She could hardly believe that the Chosen had anything less than perfection, but perhaps it did make sense that their machines would break eventually. Or, perhaps it was some sort of cover story, to keep her people from growing to alarmed? No, she decided, that was too bizarre and inefficient.
Musing silently, she began to compile a list of (polite) questions to pose to the Skai Prisa during the feast and, perhaps after. Her grip shifted absently as she noticed Clarke had fallen asleep, likely exhausted from everything that had happened to her today. She would have Nyko triple check her once they got back to TonDC.
#####################################
"IDIOTS!" Abby Griffin roared at the Command Center staff, who wilted before her fury as she paced before them. Behind their huddled forms was a massive bank of screens and consoles, all of which were showing either static or nothing at all. "You incompetent pack of feckless ingrates! How did you manage to not only miss the primary drop zone by a dozen miles, but the secondary by over twice that? It's not like the target was a fucking mountain!"
"Doctor Griffin, could I perhaps talk to you for a moment? Please?" Marcus Kane asked politely from his new vulture-like position at the door. She leveled a truly fearsome glare at him for interrupting her lecture, but he was able to remain unmoved and simply gestured to the door. Growling, Abby turned back to the staff.
"Get back to work! I had better get some good news when I come back in here, or the lot of you will be begging me to float you by the time I'm through!" she snarled, before turning on her heel and just about stomping towards the door. Once they were outside, she returned to leveling a dark look at the Head of Security. "What the hell do you want, Kane?"
"Aren't you being a little harsh, Abby?" he asked carefully, and received a harsh glare and a sneer in response for his trouble.
"Harsh? Kane, not only did those fools manage to drop her on the wrong damn mountain but also, God only knows how, lose every radio and satellite feed we had left! At the same time!" she hissed back at him, fortunately mindful enough in her anger to keep her voice down. The general population didn't know about Clarke's mission and they fully intended to keep it that way until it bore fruit. Or, as the case may be, didn't.
"And both those mistakes are horrific, yes, but bear in mind that they have never done anything more than monitor the movement of weather systems. They have no idea how to do anything else and," he held up a finger to stop her as she opened her mouth to speak. "And neither do you. Or I, for that matter."
"I don't particularly care whether or not they can't tell their asses from their elbows if it might mean my daughter is dead!" Abby shot back sharply, and Kane grimaced slightly. Further disagreement would simply redirect her ire onto him directly as opposed to only peripherally, something he wasn't too eager to experience. Especially because he understood, intellectually, how she must be feeling right now
"Abby, you know as well as I do, better even, that Clarke is no pushover. She has technology, training, smarts, and a stubborn streak wider than a planet. One that she inherited in full from a certain couple that I know." He said gently, with a pointed look at the brunette, garnering a wry and reluctant, but honest, laugh from her. Emboldened, he pressed on. "Clarke is going to be fine, because anything less would be failure. And Clarke doesn't fail. Have some faith in her, hmm?"
"Yeah…yeah, you're right Marcus. Screaming at people won't do much good. I'm going to go apologize to them and see what I can do. Take care of yourself, Kane." She sighed after a long minute, turning around and reentering the Command Center as purposefully as she had left it, but with none of the rage.
Smiling slightly to himself, Kane turned and walked away, confident that he had settled the situation down. It was about lunchtime anyway, and he was feeling a bit peckish.
#################################################
"So, those idiots in Command managed to fuck up pretty badly. They dropped her almost twenty miles from where she was supposed to be." Raven sneered in disgusted contempt, having heard the entire debacle from her favorite place to spy on the Command Center, a large ventilation shaft that broke down so often no one even bother to pay attention to it anymore. The minute Doctor Griffin had left the room to talk to Marshall Kane, she had retreated to the room belonging to the Blake siblings, wanting to ensure that they (but really, she was here to tell Octavia, Bellamy was kind of…irrelevant these days) knew what had happened. Fortunately, she had managed to avoid Finn whilst enroute.
Finn. Her lip curled into a sneer at the thought of him. While they had been friends since childhood, Finn had started to change once they hit puberty, always noticing other girls a little bit too much. Even when they were truly dating, she knew he had started sniffing after other girls, even cheating on her, when she refused to have sex with him before she felt ready. Hell, once Clarke had started training for her mission (and even before, if she was going to be honest), he had started panting after her, the 'Ice Queen of The Ark'. Every boy and young man on the station had wanted to bag the gorgeous blonde, daughter of one of the most powerful people on The Ark. Oh, how she had wanted to hate Clarke for drawing his attention, for being more than some nameless ass he played around with, but she couldn't. Clarke was too loyal, too kind, too honest for her to hate her, and so the pair had quickly become fast friends.
Now, she was really only still 'with' Finn out of respect for their many years of friendship, her hopes that continued exposure to Clarke's group would straighten him back out, and because having a preference for girls (even if one was bisexual) was illegal on the Ark. To do anything but help create and care for the next generation was a crime, a heinous one, as if severity mattered when all crimes had the same punishment. Raven could understand, intellectually, that given such a small population it couldn't be afforded for people to flout their 'duties', but she just hoped they got back to Earth before she was 'encouraged' to 'get married' to a 'suitable canidate'.
"Fucking pathetic." Octavia spat from next to her. The two girls were both laying down on Octavia's bed, cuddled up to one another due to the less-than-large amount of room that said bed possessed, not that either girl minded particularly. Thanks to Clarke, they were fairly close friends now, bound first through their loyalty to the blonde, and second through their strengthening ties to one another. Raven, of course, knew about Octavia's infatuation with their friend (one that Raven had started to feel as well, to be honest, though not as strongly. After all, Clarke hadn't swept in, forced the Council into submission, and saved her from execution!), as the younger girl had told her not long after the Unity Day Dance, when Raven had dropped by and found her practicing an exercise from one of the books Clarke had left her.
Though Raven still preferred verbal solutions (if necessary) and technical solutions (whenever possible) to her problems, she had no problem with being fit enough to be able to survive on the ground and help Clarke when they arrived. Naturally, increasing her own physical appeal had nothing to do with the decision.
"Listen, O." she said seriously after a minute of silence, using the nickname that Clarke had coined not long before she had left. "Some of the older mechanics have been working on the big drop-ship in block fifty-four. The Council is keeping it quiet, and it will take a couple of years to fix up enough for reentry, but…" she trailed off, and Octavia looked at her, eyes bright. Both knew that the only reason a full-size drop ship would be getting repaired was if they planned on sending more people to the ground to test it.
"We had best figure out how to get ourselves on board when the time comes then, hadn't we?" she said, smiling slowly as her mind raced through the implications, and Raven grinned in response.
Their comradely moment was ruined when the door opened abruptly, a dirty and scowling Bellamy Blake coming in and just about slamming it behind himself. After Octavia had been revealed, as well as Bellamy's part in hiding her and sneaking her into the dance, he had been kicked out of ArkSec and assigned to janitorial duty. Since then, he had a tendency to scowl constantly and act childishly whenever remotely possible. As much as Octavia loved her brother, it was starting to get really old really fast. It wasn't like he was the one who almost got condemned to years of imprisonment before execution. She just hoped he grew up and realized that there was more to life than moping about missed opportunities.
Totally ignoring the two girls, he slipped into the small attached bathroom, not doubt to take a 'refreshing' sonic shower. Not particularly interested in dealing with Bellamy and, probably, another bitter rant about how unfair life was and how much he hated the Council, the two girls quickly pulled on their shoes and departed, electing to go hang out at The Skylight. Officially known as the Starboard Observatory, it was the only place on The Ark that the kids and teens of the population could hang out and cut loose. The Skylight was a massive room, large enough for a couple hundred people, with the huge banks of windows that had given the room its name constantly looking down upon Earth. Finding some empty seats away from the main clusters of kids, the pair returned to their previous discussion in low voices.
"So, the Council isn't going to send anyone useful or important down on that dropship, so it seems pretty obvious to me that they are going to send kids from the Skybox." Raven reasoned, and Octavia sneered in agreement. Of course the Council would send 'the delinquents' down to the homeworld. It wasn't like their lives mattered or anything, right?
"So then, all we have to do is get ourselves locked up in a year and ten months. We can easily convince the Council that your technical know-how would come in handy on the ground to make them send you down instead of floating you." Octavia said with a nonchalant shrug of her shoulders, and Raven rolled her eyes in fond exasperation. Only Octavia (and Clarke, now that she thought about it) would act so utterly unconcerned about getting locked up in a 100 year-old piece of scrap metal and launched at a most-likely hostile and fatally dangerous planet.
"It's a plan, or at least the start of one." Was all she said out loud, and Octavia smirked slightly at the trace of weariness in her tone, knowing full well why it was there and feeling endlessly amused her by it. She liked being difficult and playful, like messing with her friends, simply because every time she did she reveled in actually having friends, and she would remember the person who made that possible.
"Hey guys!" a cheerful voice said from beside them, and both looked up to see Fox standing there. The five foot nine, hazel-eyed ginger was one of the sweetest people that they knew, and one of Clarke's closest friends outside of themselves.
"Hey, Fox, long time no see!" Octavia smiled warmly at the other girl, exaggerating somewhat. They had seen each other a couple of days ago in this very room, but she didn't quibble over the little details. Still, her sudden appearance was shocking and potentially worrisome, based on what she might have overheard.
"Well, me and the others were wondering if, since we're all friends or at least friendly with Clarke, you wouldn't mind joining us? We've all got to stick together, after all, now more than ever." Fox said with an equally warm smile, though her tone was deliberately bland, and both Raven and Octavia couldn't help but narrow their eyes slightly at the implications.
"Sure." Octavia said instantly, getting an incredulous look from Raven while Fox beamed happily. Standing as the auburnette turned and headed back towards a particular table (which the pair saw had a half dozen girls their age looking at them with interest) the pair slowly began to follow. Fox had barely sat back down when they all leaned towards her, chatting together before she responded, which resulted in even more excited chatter and eager looks being thrown their way.
"And you did that...why, exactly? She already sounds like she knows a bit too much than she should." Raven asked in a low voice as they approached the group at a languid pace. Octavia smirked at her again (she was spending way too much time with that expression, Raven grumbled mentally) before responding.
"Allies, my dear Raven. Allies that either have a deep infatuation with Clarke, or at the very least admire her for her strength and charisma. Either way, they can provide a great deal of support to us, and to Clarke when we meet up with her on the ground." Octavia explained, rather smugly in her opinion, and Raven raised her eyebrows in response.
"You seem quite sure that they have a thing for Clarke, O. To one degree or another, anyway." She observed mildly, and Octavia shrugged again (something else she seemed to do a lot) with a small, soft smile full of emotions.
"Well, it takes one to know one, doesn't it?" was all she said in response, though she did shoot a knowing look at her, one whose implications Raven was too uncomfortable with contemplating right now, even in the privacy of her own mind.
"Hey guys, thanks for joining us!" Fox said cheerfully as they took seats at the table. "That's Mel," here she pointed to a brunette with a somewhat stern and serious disposition. "That's Roma, Munroe, and Harper." She indicated another brunette and a pair of blondes in turn. "Guys, Raven and Octavia, two of Clarke's other friends."
"So, did Clarke make it to the ground okay?" Harper asked almost breathlessly, though at least she had enough sense to keep her voice down, leaning across the table to make sure she was heard despite that. Still, her 'precautions' weren't enough to keep the rest of the table from flinching rather badly and looking around for prying ears.
"Are you a total idiot?! Don't mention any specifics in public, how many times do I need to remind you?!" Fox snarled softly at the sometimes foolish and brash blonde, who looked sufficiently scolded.
"Sorry, Foxy." Harper blushed, getting a shaken head in response, before looking back at the pair and whispering. "Seriously, can you tell us, though?"
"Her pod made it down fine, but the geniuses topside managed to drop her almost twenty miles from the food and shelter she was supposed to be able to reach by nightfall." Raven answered shortly, feeling rather miffed with Harper blurting out decidedly sensitive information.
"Clarke won't let adult stupidity slow her down or stop her." Monroe said with a gleam of admiration in her eyes and expression, and the table nodded together, though all looked concerned to some degree. While they had faith in Clarke, there was a difference between faith and self-delusion, and unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your point of view) they hadn't crossed that particular line yet.
"Listen, my brother is working a twelve hour shift tomorrow, nine to nine. Come by my room around one, we all need to talk about what's what." Octavia instructed the group, having come to a snap decision in that moment. If they knew about Clarke, that meant they could be trusted, which meant she could try to get them in on the plan she and Raven were concocting. Many hands make light the work, and the more hands Clarke had ready to help her, the better. Gesturing to Raven, she pushed back from the table and strode away.
######################################################
"It's confirmed, Clarke Griffin reached Earth alive." Security Commander Shumay, Marshal Kane's second in command, reported. Somewhat on the short side, the middle-aged Asian man had spent his entire life as a member of the Ark Security forces, carrying out his duties with precision and excellence that quickly saw him elevated to his current rank, the trusted right hand of the Head of Security.
Unfortunately, that trust was horribly misplaced.
"Good, well done Commander. Once the second dropship is sent to the ground, we will make our move. In the meanwhile, keep quietly feeling out Security staff. My people are loyal to me, but without any additional security forces, accomplishing our goals will be impossible." Diane Sydney, ousted predecessor of Thelonius Jaha for the position of Chancellor, responded with a carefully crafted expression of praise and warmth.
Shumay visibly swelled with obvious pride at both the 'compliment' and the 'trust' that the former Chancellor placed in him. To wouldn't stop him from betraying her to take power for himself, of course, but it was still nice to be appreciated.
"I understand, but I will have to be cautious. I talk to the wrong person..." he trailed off, the implications obvious, and Diana nodded once before dismissing him.
The moment he left, her expression changed to one of amused contempt. It was blatantly obvious that he planned to betray her at the most profitable opportunity. Anyone so easily tempted into betraying both an oath and people who thought of you as family, all for nebulous promises of sated lusts and power, was someone who would betray you just as easily for even greater power.
He would be disposed of once he had done his part to her satisfaction. In the meantime, however, she had work to do. Coups to plan, spying to arrange, treachery to plot...
#############################################################
TonDC
Earth
"Lexa, what are the odds of your people deciding I am some sort of threat, or demon, or something else that will most likely result in a painful and messily permanent end for me?" Clarke asked the brunette warrior nervously, immensely aware of not only the eyes and whispers focused on her, but also the fairly significant eyes and whispers that were focused on how close she and Lexa were, as well as Lexa's arm tightly curled around her waist.
At the slow and gentle pace of their mount, it had taken a good two hours for them to finally reach what Lexa had called TonDC, a nearby village that she and a portion of her army were billeted, and from whence they had come to find herself and Lincoln. The village was fairly large, with a wooden palisade wall around the perimeter and guards patrolling both below and on the ramparts, and she glanced back at the large, slowly moving cart that held her drop pod. Lexa had been deliberately vague about why they were bringing it, but she was too tired, too uncomfortable, and too out of her comfort zone to make much of a protest or inquiry. It had been fascinating to watch a dozen strong, massive warriors from what Lexa called the Stone Clan simply dead-lift it into the cart, but then she supposed that radiation exposure made them stronger than humans before the war would be. She knew that she was.
"From my clans, minimal at worst. They will be uncomfortable at first, you are so very different from what they are used to, but in time they will grow to accept you. Especially given the fact that you saved Lincoln's life and slew a yong pauna, a young gorilla. This has never been done before, and my people will respect your prowess." Lexa responded, deciding not to mention the likes of the Azgeda or the tribes more sympathetic to them then to herself. They wouldn't dare act so openly against her, not with the SkaiPrisa and a slain pauna, even a yong one.
Only partially reassured by her words, Clarke held back any further questions as Lexa's warm body vanished from behind her, the brunette lithely dismounting before holding her hands up in offering. Blushing heavily once more, Clarke swung her (better) leg over the horse's broad back before sliding off completely, landing in Lexa's strong arms. She whimpers softly as the movement jostles her damaged wrist and legs, and Lexa steadies her, touch lingering gently before pulling away.
"I cannot help you walk now, Clarke. You must show them the strength that let you slay the pauna, else my people will doubt you and hold you in contempt. Once you have shown that you have the strength to carry on despite injuries, to press forward despite your pain, we can call the healers without concern." She explained in a soft voice, an undercurrent of worry and regret in her voice. Clarke's gnaws on her lip slightly, knowing that if she tries to move under her own power to much her injuries will be exacerbated greatly, but trusts Lexa's judgment. Not that she has much of a choice but to do so. She meets Lexa's eyes and nods, the other girl nodding back and stepping further away, a stoic mask sliding into place. Giving Clarke a look that clearly said 'follow my lead', she headed for an elevated platform that looked out over the center of the village.
Squaring her shoulders (and wincing ever so slightly as her barely-scabbed-over wounds split open again), Clarke strode after her, proud to be displaying only the slightest of limps to uncountable eyes staring at her unceasingly. Only the smallest of tics at the corner at her mouth and slightly narrowed eyes betrayed the immense pain that was lashing at her with every movement of her body. She didn't even know how she was still upright. Genetically modified and mutated by radiation or not, her studies on human anatomy and health told her that she should be dead, or at the very least bedridden for months. She was glad neither was the case, of course, but damnit if being in this much pain didn't suck!
"I have returned victorious. Six Mountain Men lie dead, their danger to our people that much weaker. But that is not all, for the Skai Prisa has appeared at long last." She stepped to the side, gesturing to Clarke, who took the hint and ascended the few stairs to stand at her side. The Gathered people murmured to one another at the sight of the battered and bleeding blond, clad in armor unlike any they had ever seen. With streaks of blood and dirt on her face, hair untamed and wild, she cut an image of primal, warlike-beauty that none of them would ever forget.
Still, they seemed to be regarding her with something other than fear or hostility, so she wasn't going to complain about a few strange looks and mutterings in a language she didn't understand. Now that she thought about it, why was Lexa speaking English and they weren't? Was it for her benefit? Were her people all polylingual? Did it really matter right now? No, she decided, it didn't.
Seeing the carcass of the yong pauna she had slain approaching the gate of the village, being dragged by several mounted warriors, she found herself shutting down her mental rambling and, against what most would call wisdom or common sense, spoke aloud as she gestured to her prize.
"As a gift to your leader and you, the people of the land, I offer you this. The body of the yong pauna," she is proud that she manages to say the foreign words with little difficulty. Whatever language it was, that part at least was partially bastardized english. "that I slew not hours ago." She announced, causing the crowd to turn and face the direction indicated, with much louder chatter and more excited movement. The chatter turned into baying howls of triumph, and a very primal part of her exulted in the sound, knowing it was praise of something she had accomplished.
###############################################
Lexa watched as her future queen earned the positive regard of hundreds with a few simple words and one simple gift. While they weren't going to throw themselves at her feet (just like she wasn't going to simply bend over and let herself be taken), killing a pauna and giving it to them as a gift had proven her merit and strength, or at least started to.
She also saw the sense of power and pleasure that gleamed in her eyes, a smirk spreading across her lips as she regarded the cheering crowd with obvious satisfaction. It seemed she was rather pleased with her opening move to fulfil her destiny, currently unaware though she may be. Good. She would still need to prove herself worthy of it, however, no matter how beautiful and strong she was. Physical features and strength were only two facets of a good leader. Their true worth was determined with how they treated their people, and their enemies.
Lifting her own voice over the noise, she announced that there would be a feast in Clarke's honour, with the pauna as the main dish, three days hence in Polis. Commands were given for the beast to be skinned and prepared to be taken to the Coalition's capitol in the morning with the announcement. More riders were ordered to travel to each of the tribes' capitols and inform them of the event.
As the village's inhabitants dispersed, Lexa led Clarke down from the podium and through the door into her throne room. The instant the door shut behind them, Lexa had to scramble to catch the blonde, who collapsed almost instantly. Fear gripped her heart as Clarke was barely responsive, shaking badly and mumbling nonsense that she didn't understand. A snarled order to Gustus had her trusted guard and friend scrambling from the room for Nyko. Powerful arms scooped the badly injured sky girl into a bridal carry, and Lexa kicked the door to her personal quarters open as she carefully rushed to place her burden as gently as possible onto her bed. Still, it wasn't gentle enough, as her damaged wrist flopped down and struck one of the chairs at Lexa's table as they passed, wrenching agonized scream from the blonde, shocking her out of her stupor and into full wakefulness again.
"Maker Clarke, I'm so sorry!" Lexa cried apologetically, trying to settle her charge as comfortably on the bed as she could.
"A'hm fyne…" came the slurred reply as her eyes closed, and Lexa cursed to herself. She knew she had to keep Clarke awake, otherwise she might never wake up again. "Did I do good? Was'h I shtrong enough, Leksha? All I wanted to do was'h reach Mount Weather and save my peoplsh, not run into a demon monkey and real live Xena…"
"Clarke, you were amazing, you were so strong. Come on now, stay with me. Who is Xena, Clarke?" Lexa coaxed, getting a bleary blink from the injured girl, as if she couldn't believe someone was asking that question.
"Xena was'h a warrior princesh, Leksha. She had brown hair and eyesh like you, and you both sho pretty and shtrong." Clarke drawled, attempting to sound chastising and instead sounding petulant. Pushing aside the flutter in her stomach at Clarke calling her pretty, Lexa looked up with relief palpable in her eyes as Nyko flew into the room, already unslinging his medical supply pouch as he rushed to kneel beside her. Clarke blinked at him in confusion before rolling her head limply to look over at Lexa again. "Whosh dish, Leksha?"
"This is Nyko, Clarke, he's a healer. He's going to help you, okay?" Lexa said softly, pulling away as much as she felt comfortable doing so in order to give him more room to work.
############################################
Three hours later, Nyko was packing up his supplies, a much more coherent (though still drowsy) and freshly stitched and bandaged Clarke now sitting up and leaning against the wall beside the bed, naked save for her bra and panties. A pink-cheeked Lexa was fastidiously looking at anything but her, though if one watched carefully enough one might see that she kept shooting small, admiring glances at her guest. Mostly Naked Clarke was everything Lexa had thought she would be and more, powerful muscles rippling beneath smooth skin. Of course, now her body was covered in ointment and bandages, but they detracted nothing from her beauty. Indeed, they seemed to enhance it. Still, she needed Naked Clarke to make sure her wounds weren't aggravated, according to Nyko.
"Clarke, you're going to need to take the rest of your clothes off, understand?" she said stoically after Nyko had left, and Clarke gaped at her slightly, a bright blush working its way from her face down to her…shoulders, yes those are what Lexa was looking at, certainly not anything softer and…lower.
"Is that what you say to all of the girls, Lexa?" she said finally, and Lexa frowned slightly at her tone of voice. It was…off. She couldn't think of any other way to describe it. Any response she might have made, however, was lost as a voice from the door spoke.
"No, just you and me right now, but I'm sure that circumstances will change…deliciously. Not that I blame her in either case, of course. People as utterly gorgeous as you and I should flaunt it when we can." Lexa and Clarke both turned their gazes towards the door, in which stood a green-eyed, red-haired beauty dressed in loose clothing that did nothing to hide her impressive bust or her excellent figure, nro was she trying to hide the broad smirk on her face as she eyed Clarke lustfully. "Costia, Lexa's partner and the only red-head in TonDC, at your service. But you, you can call me lover."
####################################################
So…yeah… Obviously, we have no idea what Costia looks like or how she acted, so I decided to make her a generally playful red-head to offset Lexa's more serious nature. As this is two years before canon starts, she is still alive and kicking. Or flirting, as the case may be.
In my opinion, Finn had to be on some level unfaithful even before going to the ground. He didn't waste any time whatsoever trying to impress Clarke and get into her pants on the ground. Hell, he started flirting with her on the drop-ship for God's sake! So, it's not a big stretch for me to imagine him cheating on Raven on The Ark. Plus, I really kinda hate him, so I'm removing him from the romantic scene early. At least, the requited romantic scene, he will still try later on. Finn bashing will be rather prominent in this story, to be honest.
As for my law on sexuality on the Ark, like the story says, it really only makes sense for marriage and children to be compulsory. In an environment like that, laws like that are inevitable even if only to help keep the population up.
Finally, I am going to continue making clear in this story that the Arkers and the Grounders will be much stronger, faster, etc than a normal human would be, due to radiation-born mutation. Clarke will be on another level entirely due to…well, you'll find out! This is somewhat hinted at with her durability and charisma during this chapter.
