Chapter 15: Bigger Problems

A/N: Here's the deal. I am currently finishing my Master's degree by the end of October. Things have been crazy and I have been extremely overworked. So I haven't been writing…but I will finish this story…but the next few chapters may be far away.

Clarke stood with her arms crossed over her chest and resisted the urge to roll her eyes. In front of her, John Murphy was tied to a chair surrounded by Lexa, Titus, Indra, and Clarke herself. The teenager's hair was matted with dirt, blood, and sweat, but he wore a confident smirk. Titus was holding the silicon chip in his hand as if it were the Holy Grail itself. Clarke had never seen anything like it before on the Ark and although Titus and Lexa seemed to recognize it, they were just as baffled as she was.

"It's just some AI," muttered Murphy as he pulled against his bindings. Indra glared at him from her silent position by the door, but it didn't seem to faze him. Instead, he was ignoring the grounders altogether, keeping his focus on Clarke. "Jaha has been passing them out like candy."

Clarke turned her back on Murphy and asked Lexa, "I don't understand- what is this symbol?"

Titus barely glanced up from his examination of the little chip. He had a small black book in his hands and was flipping rapidly through the pages. "This symbol is of the first commander. I have only seen something like this once before: the flame."

Lexa saw Clarke's confusion and frustration at Titus' lack of an answer. Turning her back slightly, she moved her long dark hair to the side to show the symbol on the back of her neck. Clarke had seen it before, and gently brushed her fingertips over the mark. She pulled back when she felt the scar that the ink had been hiding. When Lexa turned back around she said, "The flame holds the spirit of all of the Commanders before me. All the way back to the first. During my ascension, Titus inserted the flame into me."

Behind them Murphy started laughing. "Are you serious? This whole time, you've just had a computer in your head!"

Clarke had to resist the urge to slap him when she saw the look of hurt and betrayal on Lexa's face. It was only there for a moment and then the Heda's mask fell back into place. Clarke brushed up against Lexa's shoulder as an attempt to comfort her, but Lexa was distracted by the chip. Deciding to focus on getting to the bottom of this, she finally looked at Murphy. "Start from the beginning- how did Jaha get this?"

"It was at that house…Jaha took a bunch of us to look for the City of Light. Everyone died…I almost died. I was stuck in this lighthouse and then Jaha showed up talking about some chick and the stupid City of Light."

"A woman? Wasn't there a woman with the group that had been floated? Astrid Rolston?"

"Nah, wasn't her. The AI was like in his head or something. That's what the chip is. Jaha calls it a key…like the key to the City of Light."

"So that thing is an artificial intelligence? A woman who Jaha is working for?" Murphy just shrugged at Clarke's questions. Clarke rolled her eyes and turned back to Lexa and Titus. "So I guess the real question is, is Murphy's chip the same as the flame that's in your head?"

"It is not!" protested Titus. Straightening his back proudly, Titus declared, "This is nothing but a fake. The Flame is a precious part of our culture and has been delicately passed down from fleimkepa to fleimkepa. This is a fake created by the Sky People to create disorder within the coalition."

Murphy let out a mocking laugh. "Who is this guy? Trust me, Jaha is worshiping the AI."

Titus hissed under his breath and Lexa was glaring daggers at her prisoner. Clarke caught Lexa's hand to stop her from doing whatever she had thought up in her head to do to Murphy. Clarke asked calmly, "So the Flame is the only one of its kind? You have never seen anything like this 'key' before?"

"Never," murmured Titus as he turned the chip over and over in his hand. "In all my reading, I never found any mention of a second key."

Murphy cocked his head to the side in confusion and asked, "Reading? You mean there are books on this AI? You realize that the AI caused the destruction of Earth?"

"What?"

Murphy tried to explain, "When I was locked away in that lighthouse, some guy left a video about how this AI had gone rogue and nuked the entire planet."

"Bekka Pramheda came from the skies and brought our people together. She is the reason the human race has survived and she was human," spoke Lexa defensively. Clarke darted her eyes between Lexa and Murphy. Both believed what they were saying. Clarke couldn't believe that after everything they had been through, there was another piece to the puzzle of Earth. And this piece didn't seem to fit with any of the others.

Clarke searched mind for some sort of clue to what could be going on. This original Heda, Becca, had come from the skies with the flame. But that didn't explain how Jaha was suddenly in possession of more of these chips or keys. With a shrug, she murmured, "Maybe Jaha found part of the Ark that crashed. Maybe these keys came from the Ark itself. If this Becca person somehow survived the nukes originally, maybe it was because she had one of the keys…"

"No," stated Titus flatly. "Pramheda came to our people after the destruction of Earth. We have the vessel she came to us in."

"Wait, that means this person came from the Ark," reasoned Murphy, looking at Clarke curiously. "The only people who survived, or were presumed survived, were in the space stations."

Eyes widening, Clarke began to make the connection. "The thirteenth station!"

Murphy sat up straighter, with an eagerness he hadn't shown since he had been sent to Earth. "Of course, no one really knows what happened to the thirteenth station…"

Turning sharply to Lexa, Clarke practically shouted, "Can we see the vessel?"

-BREAK-BREAK-

The walk down to the underground temple of the fleimkepa was done in silence, everyone lost in their own thoughts about what was transpiring. Titus had complained to Lexa in their native language that these unbelievers should not be privy to the Pramheda's vessel or the sacred room of his, but she had waved him off. Lexa didn't protest, however, when Indra threatened to remove Murphy's tongue if he continued to talk. And when Clarke didn't take up for him either, Murphy resigned himself to join their silence.

If they hadn't been silent when they entered the temple, a hush would have surely fallen over them. The numerous candles illuminated the great room and the chalked drawings on the wall. It was awe inspiring and Clarke knew why Titus had been hesitant to bring the Sky People here. This was a treasured place. And a beautiful one. Clarke walked along the wall that documented Pramheda's fall to earth and the Hedas that followed. Lexa trailed behind her, shadowing her every move, as if eager to answer any questions Clarke may have.

Murphy, on the other hand, took one look around the room and started immediately to the metal pod that had been draped in linen finery. Titus scolded, but seeing that Lexa's attention was solely focused on Clarke, moved after Murphy. Indra kept watch at the door.

"She's beautiful," murmured Clarke for Lexa's benefit. This was Lexa's history; her entire being. After seeing how Murphy's comments had hurt her earlier, Clarke wanted Lexa to know that she cherished her heritage.

"Bekka brought us life," whispered Lexa into her ear and Clarke shivered.

With hooded eyes, she turned back to Lexa and moved in closer. But the moment was ruined when Murphy shouted, "Clarke! You'll never believe this!"

Lexa turned away from Clarke quickly and Clarke could feel the magic of last night wearing off. Why couldn't she catch a break for once? Every time Clarke felt her heart settling, some bigger problem always came up. Clarke followed Lexa to where Titus was hovering around Murphy and what appeared to be an escape pod, presumably from the thirteenth station.

Murphy was rubbing the seared metal with his dirty jacket over dark lettering, barely visible against the dark steel of the ship. He pulled back, his eyes gleaming, to allow Clarke to get a closer look. She could just make out the letters: S. Between the 'L' and 'S' was a smudged space that Murphy had been trying to clear up.

"Polis," read Lexa, clearly not impressed with Murpy's find, but Clarke realized what he was excited about.

"There are letters missing," she said. "It should read: POLARIS."

"The thirteenth station," finished Murphy. His eyes were bright with whirling thoughts. "Do you know what this means? It all fits together: the legend of the commander, the thirteenth station, the destruction of Earth. I bet you that whatever or whoever Jaha is following is somehow connected to this ship and the chip that the grounders have been moving from person to person."

"But how?" asked Clarke, still not convinced. They didn't even know what was going on with Jaha and his AI. Or even what the Flame really was. She remembered Lexa telling her about the nightbloods and added, "But the Flame can't be given to just anyone, right?"

Titus stepped forward, saying, "Only a natblida can accept the Flame. Otherwise, the Flame will consume them."

At his words, Murphy frowned. "Jaha and the others took the chips without any problems. I mean, besides being crazy in the first place, there was nothing special about them."

"But you said that that AI had to do with the original destruction of the Earth. So, in theory, that chip outdates the one that Lexa has right now," reasoned Clarke and Murphy shrugged in confusion.

"We need to compare them."

"No!" shouted Titus, his voice echoing through the chamber. "Only upon the Heda's death shall the Flame be removed."

"And that won't happen for a long time," murmured Clarke, her eyes darting to the dark haired Heda, but Lexa wasn't giving away a single thought.

Instead, Lexa said, "We should focus our effort first to discover more about this new chip. Your people have that capability, correct?"

Clarke nodded, thinking immediately of Raven. "We can try talking with Jaha."

"Good luck," spat Murphy bitterly.

-BREAK-BREAK-

With a deep sigh, Clarke pushed open the door to her rooms to grab a change of clothes for dinner. Thoughts of artificial intelligences, chips, keys, and flames fluttered around in her brain. She was so distracted that she didn't notice another person into the room until a male voice filled the room.

"You left without saying goodbye."

Clarke whirled around and pulled a knife from her sleeve. The knife lowered when she saw who was sitting in a chair next to the door of her room. Bellamy was slumped down, his face dirty and hair disheveled. Her heartbeat slowly returned to normal and she slipped the knife back into her wrist band. It had been over two weeks since they had seen each other.

"I was in a hurry and I thought you would try and stop me," she answered honestly with a shrug. When he didn't respond, Clarke lowered herself into the overstuffed chair across the room and waited. Clarke wasn't sure what she was waiting for- an apology? Or should she be the one who is apologizing? Stubbornly, Clarke crossed her arms and stared at him.

Bellamy had a similar battle going on in his own head. What did he say to her? What was left to say? Part of him wanted to yell at her for leaving again, but after all that had happened in the last few days, Bellamy wasn't sure what he was angry for. But he was still angry. He stared back at her, taking in her new grounder clothes and the braids in her dirty blonde hair. Her eyes were even different. She looked…well, she looked almost happy.

"Well?" asked Clarke pointedly. "If you've got something to say, say it!"

With a deep breath, he finally said what was on his mind, "How can you trust them?"

"It's not about trust…"

His eyes narrowed and he responded flatly, "Then what is it about?"

"I don't know how to explain it…Lexa was just doing what she thought was right for her people."

"So was Pike," argued Bellamy.

Clarke uncrossed her arms and rested her elbows on her knees in a more submissive stance. Normally, Clarke would be willing to fight with him on the matter, but today was not that day. Even though Pike was currently sitting in a cell guarded heavily, there was something ominous going on. The vessel that was hidden in the catacombs of Polis had definitely come from the thirteenth station that had once orbited Earth. But she wasn't sure how it was all connected.

"I don't have time for this," she muttered and seeing the look of aggravation on Bellamy's face, immediately regretted it. She hadn't meant to dismiss him like that, but they had bigger problems. "I'm sorry, Bellamy. It's just…other things have come up."

Throwing his arms up in the air, Bellamy exclaimed, "What could be more important than the future of Arkadia?!"

"This is about the future of Arkadia. There is something else going on here. Something bigger than Lexa or Pike. If you would quit moping around maybe you could help us figure it out!" cried Clarke. "And ever since you got here, we haven't heard word from Kane or Monty since they left for Arkadia."

"What?" asked Bellamy in concern, obviously not what he had expected.

"Octavia and Lincoln left about an hour ago to find out what's going on," filled in Clarke. A breath that she hadn't realized she had been holding was finally released. She needed Bellamy. They were a team; from the moment they had fallen to Earth, they had always gotten things done together. Being at odds like this was killing her. He was her best friend. She needed to talk this through with him.

Bellamy seemed to be having another internal battle. Despite his problems with Lexa and the Grounders, he believed Clarke when she said they had bigger problems. Clearing his throat, he murmured, "Tell me everything."