"I can't believe I said I'd lay our love on the ground/

But it doesn't matter because I made it up—forgive me now/

Every day I spend away my soul's inside out…" – Nickelback.

Chapter 5:

There was no way in hell that Clarke was going to ask the council for a damn thing—never again. She would never bring matters for her people to them. Imagine her shock when she found a highly intoxicated Octavia in the middle of her group of misfits with a jar up in the air—a position called "speech-mode." Everyone's eyes were on her as if she were the next Bellamy Blake—as if everything that made Bellamy would be passed on through DNA.

As much as Clarke admired his younger sister, she knew that Octavia was not Bellamy even with their sickening similar mannerisms and attitude problems. "Rest in peace to my older brother…" She said quietly, "He was the best person I knew and this-"

Clarke's loud voice interrupted Octavia's seemingly heart-felt speech. "He's not dead!" She claimed, causing the attention to focus on her. "He's not dead—at least not yet." She corrected herself and walked into the center of the crowd. "We can save him."

"We're tired of fighting…" Monty said, "We can't keep doing this. We deserve happiness…we deserve to mourn our friends and move on." He received claps for his statement. He was right—sure. She could give him that but he was also wrong. Because he wasn't thinking like a person that was strong and capable…he was thinking like a teenager.

She realized they were all teenagers—long ago had they ripped off their armor and turned it over to the Ark. "We fight for our people." Clarke told them, "And if the people have forgotten that, then the leader must fight for verification of that belief."

"So, you're going to go out there and risk your life for one person?" Someone questioned her, "You? Clarke Griffin—the ice bitch? Please—you just want us to go out there and die for you like always. You're no better than the council. Our lives mean nothing to you."

"That's exactly what I'm going to do." Clarke said, "I'm going to bring him back with or without the help of the people he's dedicated his life to protect."

"I'll go with you." Nathan raised his hand in the back, "God knows I owe Bellamy my life. I haven't forgotten."

"Neither have I." Harper volunteered with her hand raised. She was pretty beaten up still—just like Clarke. She wasn't sure she wanted Harper with her because she could quickly turn into a liability… still, she appreciated her enthusiasm.

No one else volunteered—maybe they assumed Bellamy was already dead, maybe they were scared. Either way, Clarke knew there was going to be a struggle to save him.

XXX

The war was caused by one simple action—disregarding the orders of the Ark and rescuing their people. The Ark said "causalities of a cruel planet"—Bellamy said, "Fuck you." So, when they stormed the mountain and rescued the teenagers he'd grown to care for…a war started. A war the Ark had to back up because of the teenagers would rebel if they knew they were going to leave them to die. Of course, this was when Clarke fell for Bellamy.

The reapers would attack them, fog would flood their camp every now and again (but that had stopped for the most part.) People would go missing—assumed to be prisoners of war—and occasionally they would lead exhibitions to the mountain to take out the guards and destroy their technology. The Ark would barely spare anyone for the cause. They just laid down and took it.

Bellamy once said, "We should leave—forget these idiots. They don't want us. They would never die for us." And she told him that they needed the Ark for survival—as if she hadn't learned her lesson when it came to the politics of their post-apocalyptic world.

Once Clarke caught her breath and started to form a plan, she knew that it was only going to be Miller and her on the rescue mission. She couldn't have Harper's injuries impair their judgment or be a liability if they were attacked by more reapers. Her main focus was getting Bellamy back alive. She wasn't confident in her ability to do so with Harper. After she established that, she told Miller to prepare himself.

She told him to say his goodbyes in case he never made it back—

Let's be real, this was a suicide mission and if she were at all confident that Miller wouldn't follow her she would go by herself. She'd rather die than face a day knowing that there was a possibility he was alive and she didn't do anything to save his life.

Clarke didn't say goodbye to anyone. There wasn't a single person worth saying goodbye to in the crowd. Sure, maybe Octavia—Finn possibly but what use was a goodbye when they would just try to stop her? Or if they were going to try to tell her Bellamy was done for?

Goodbyes were unnecessary.