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Clarke turned to where Monty sat at one of the computers in the control panel. He had been typing furiously, bent over the keyboard, trying to learn the system in the limited time that they had. Her expression was grim having watched Cage enter the room holding their friends on one of the screens. 'Can you do it Monty?' She asked, her voice desperate. 'Can you irradiate level five?'
Monty blinked but quickly recovered. He nodded, not trusting his voice to carry the words that would turn him into a killer.
Clarke could feel Bellamy looking at her so she turned back to him a little unwillingly, knowing what he would say, how he would try to protect her.
'Clarke,' he started, his voice serious, 'just hold on a second, we need to think about this.' He looked at her pleadingly, begging her not to make this decision, but deep down even he knew that they were running out of options. Cage wasn't giving up their people peacefully, no matter how many times they asked him to, and the longer they waited the more of their friends would die, and he couldn't let that happen, he wouldn't. Those kids depended on him, and they'd accepted him despite all his flaws, he wasn't about to let them down now – not after coming so far.
A loud banging on the command centre door interrupted his train of thought. 'Emerson's outside.' Clarke muttered, but he didn't look, taking her word for it unquestioningly.
It came down to him having to decide whether he could let Clarke lose a bit more of herself and irradiate a level full of people, or whether he could let their friends die, in which case Clarke would lose even more of herself, and there would be less people there to pick her up afterwards. 'Dante was right' he thought bitterly, 'we don't have a choice.'
'We have to trust that Jasper, Octavia and Maya got enough of the innocent people somewhere safe.' Clarke's voice wavered with emotion.
'And if they haven't?' Bellamy asked lowly.
'Then please, give me a better idea.' Her words were harsh but they both knew that it was only because she was scared, although you'd never tell, looking at his brave princess.
Bellamy turned to look back at the screen, begging his brain to give him something, anything, but all he could do was keep going round in circles. This was about to be one the biggest gambles they would ever take. He heard Clarke pick up the radio from the table again. 'Jasper, come in.'
There was a pause. Then, 'Clarke, thank god, are you ok?'
'We're fine Jasper, we don't have long,' there was another round of banging on the door as she spoke, 'tell me, how many people do you have with you?'
Another pause whilst Jasper counted and then the radio crackled once more. 'Eighteen children and twenty-one adults.'
Clarke allowed a small amount of relief to fill her, they had done something at least. At the last minute she lifted the radio again. 'Is Octavia still with you?'
'Yeah she's fine.' Octavia's voice came on the line and Bellamy smiled briefly, his heart lifting at the thought of the two most important people in his life looking out for each other.
'Good job.' Clarke said quietly before turning the radio off again.
Raven still lay on the table and even on the slightly blurry screen they could see she was struggling to stay conscious whilst a non-descript man in a bloodstained white lab coat drilled into her thigh. As they watched, Cage stepped into the room and barked orders, waving his arm around, before the 'doctor', if you could even call him that, was unstrapping Raven and pushing her aside, towards some other guards. Then he was releasing Abby Griffin from the handcuffs that held her to the wall, and Bellamy felt himself go cold as Clarke's mother took Raven's place.
Clarke felt ice in her veins as she watched her mother being strapped to the bed under Cage's instructions. 'What have I done?' She breathed, and Bellamy was by her side in an instant. But before he could utter a word there was furious banging on the door to the command centre once more. Bellamy's eyes shot to the screens, searching until they found the right one. Emerson stood outside the door again, still armed with a rifle, but now he had explosives with him as well.
They were out of time.
Cage would kill every single one of their people inside the mountain no matter what, but he wouldn't stand by and let Clarke watch Abby die. He wouldn't let Octavia and the others get captured. He wouldn't let everybody he knew and everybody he loved die. He knew what they had to do. 'Clarke,' she dragged her eyes from the screen and Bellamy's heart ached at the fear he saw in them, 'if we do this, there is no going back.'
She blinked and her eyes were determined once more. Suddenly Monty's rapid tapping that had been the backdrop to all over this silenced.
'Why are you stopping?' Clarke asked him desperately.
'Because I did it. All we have to do is pull this.' Monty pointed to a dull looking metal lever next to him with shaking fingers. 'Hatches and vents will open and the scrub is reversed, pulling in outside air.'
Clarke took a deep breath and time stood still. If she didn't do this then everybody she loved – Bellamy, her mother, Octavia, Monty, Jasper, Harper, Miller, Monroe, and countless other friends – they would all die, along with her, and it would be her fault. But if she did do this, then hundreds of deaths would be on conscious, even with the people that Jasper, Octavia and Maya had managed to move from the mess hall.
Bellamy's sudden movement drew her focus again as he lifted his handgun up. 'He's gonna blow the door.' He said quickly, and Clarke's eyes found Emerson on the screen and saw that Bellamy was right, whilst she had been distracted Emerson had set up explosives around the door to the command centre.
It was Monty who spoke first. 'Clarke, we're out of time.' She turned numbly to meet his eyes and she saw an unwavering acceptance in them. He trusted her and Bellamy to make the right decision, and to him that meant rescuing their friends from the people responsible for capturing, torturing and killing them. And he was right – they were out of time. Her people were dying, Emerson was preparing to blow the door down in order to get into the command centre and kill them.
She distantly heard Bellamy whisper 'my sister, my responsibility' to himself, and just like that the few doubts she had left vanished. Octavia. She couldn't let Bellamy lose Octavia, she wouldn't.
Reaching for the lever was like walking up to Finn in the grounder camp all over again. She knew that she was ultimately making the right decision for her people, but still she felt her heart break just a little bit more under the knowledge that she was commanding death. The metal was cold under her fingers and she shuddered unconsciously, but before she could make another movement a large, warm, slightly calloused hand closed over hers. She looked up into Bellamy's dark brown eyes and saw the understanding in them. She saw every emotion she was feeling mirrored in him and she had to close her eyes to stop tears from falling down her face. Somewhere in the back of her mind she thought that she had cried too much today.
His fingers squeezed hers lightly. 'Together' he said softly, his voice rough and raw, and Clarke realised that she would truly never love anyone else the way she loved him.
They pulled the lever towards them and for a moment nothing happened. They glanced at each other, unsure, but then a groaning, creaking sound reached their ears, even with them buried so deep inside the mountain, and they knew that the huge vents responsible for keeping the irradiated air out were reversing, sucking it in instead.
Clarke felt an overwhelming mixture of relief and horror as she turned to the screens, feeling Bellamy's arm slip around her back, pulling her against his side – comforting him as much as it was comforting her. Reluctantly, they watched the results of their actions, Clarke's eyes filled with unshed tears. In the room where their friends were held, they watched as the guards dropped to the floor, gasping for breath as their skin broke out in blisters. In the mess hall, they watched as the people realised something was wrong and began to claw at their throats and at their faces as the radiation took effect.
Back on the first screen Cage turned to look at the camera, knowing that Clarke and Bellamy would be watching. His face was furious as he stood above his dying guards, but Clarke barely glanced at him, instead she looked at the image of her mother on the screen and she willed her to hang on for a few more minutes, just until they could reach her.
On another screen they watched as Emerson fled from outside the room, finally, and Clarke tugged on Bellamy's sleeve, indicating for them to leave the control room behind and focus on finding their friends. With one last look at the screens which showed every last person that they had killed, they headed to the door, together with Monty.
'Let's go get our people.' Clarke said softly, and Bellamy and Monty nodded solemnly.
Jasper, Octavia and Maya stood with the rest of the suited mountain men when the alarms began to sound.
'It signals a radiation leak.' Maya explained, her voice both excited and regretful.
The rest of the room connected their oxygen tanks to their suits so they could breathe, before looking to Jasper and Octavia for instruction. Turning to Octavia, Jasper saw the fire in her eyes, seeing her itching to leave, and he knew what she had to do. He nodded once and she turned immediately, leaving the room and heading for where their friends were held. Even though he hadn't heard anything over the radio from Clarke since their last conversation he reasoned that this counted as a sign. He and Maya would stay with the people who had helped them until Octavia came back for them, preferably with Clarke, Bellamy and Monty too. Watching Octavia disappear into the corridor Jasper knew that his part was done for the time being, now he had to make sure that the people with him stayed safe until they could rejoin his friends and they could finally go home.
Octavia burst into the room, immediately wrinkling her face at the nauseating smell of blood and sweat that filled the room. Forcing herself not to look at the dead body of yet another young boy that was lying in the corner of the room, she turned her attention to the nearest person to her – Kane.
'Get the keys from the guards.' He urged.
Within minutes she had freed everyone from the handcuffs that held them against the walls and together with Kane she was helping Abby up from the bed she was strapped to.
Clarke and Bellamy walked slowly through the mountain, Monty trailing behind. They knew they would have to face it eventually, so they chose to walk through the mess hall to get to their friends. As they neared the doorway Clarke found her fingers entwined with Bellamy's and she gripped them tighter desperately grateful. They walked through the room together, taking in the hundred or so bodies that lay scattered around, slumped over unfinished food, lying on the ground next to the grand piano in the corner, curled around each other, desperate to protect friends and loved ones from the toxic air. Despite the knowledge that these people had no qualms with draining grounders, and eventually her own people, in order to survive, Clarke couldn't fight the rising disparaging guilt that racked her body. She was a mass murderer, there was no way around it.
As though he sensed her thoughts, and honestly she wouldn't be surprised, Bellamy squeezed her hand. 'We had no choice.' He said lowly, his voice gravelly, and she knew that he understood because he was fighting the same feelings.
The rest of the walk through the mountain was a blur, a distant, silent blur, and before she knew it, Clarke was standing just inside the entrance to the room where their friends were held prisoner. The scene in front of her was different to the one she was expecting, for everyone was free from their handcuffs already, but then she saw Octavia and everything made sense. Groups of teenagers stood together, holding each other, comforting each other. Raven lay in Wick's arms, Miller hugged his dad tightly, and in the centre of the room her mother was sat on the bed. Clarke's legs moved to her automatically. She threw her arms around her and was relieved when her mother squeezed back weakly.
'I tried,' Clarke said, her voice breaking, 'I tried to be the good guy.'
Bellamy's heart dropped and he felt his blood chill at the words he didn't think he was supposed to hear, and the broken way she spoke them. She was hurting, and there was nothing he could about it for now. The thought almost killed him.
'Maybe there are no good guys.' Whispered Abby, and he wanted to scream. Clarke was the good guy. She was the best person he knew and being around her made him want to be a better person. Hell, it was because of her that he was still here. But he stayed silent, knowing that these were thoughts for Clarke, and Clarke alone, to be whispered in the early hours of morning, to brush against tears and to stitch up wounds that no one else could see. So he stayed silent, and he watched the woman he loved cry in her mother's arms, and he knew that later, she would cry in his arms, and then he would whisper his every thought to her.
A blur of brown snagged his attention and he felt relief flood his body as arms wrapped tightly around him. 'Octavia.' He breathed. Of course his fierce little sister would have got here first, would have freed the rest of the 100. Of course. He held her tightly for a few more moments before letting her step back from him. He took her in, so strong and fierce, and he couldn't help but reach out and tuck a long strand of hair behind her ear. 'I'm so proud of you little sister'. He whispered.
'And I'm so proud of you big brother.' She whispered back. 'We did it.' Her voice was free of the guilt and regret that he knew his would hold, so he stayed quiet once more, merely nodding sadly instead.
Before Octavia could do anything to wipe the sadness from his face, Kane stood in front of him.
'You did good.' He said assuredly, a hand gripping Bellamy's shoulder, and he wished that he could agree with the man in front of him, staring so clearly at him. 'Let's get these people home.'
'Yes sir.' Bellamy replied and for the first time since they had pulled that lever, Bellamy felt the magnitude of what they had done wash over him. They had saved their friends, him and Clarke, together, and they would deal with what came next, together.