Chapter 21:

Clarke could only make out part of what they were saying. There were about 20 clan leaders and representatives in the living room of their small house. Lexa had opened the meeting by telling them about Carolina's plan. Then, all hell broke loose. Clarke heard her name and Sky Girl several times over for the past 20 minutes. She understood their angry tone without understanding all of their words. It was just after dawn and Clarke was still exhausted. She'd gotten no sleep and only part of that was because Lexa wanted to make sure they took advantage of their last night before going back into yet another battle. It was nice though to take her mind off of things and she suspected that was Lexa's main motivation behind it. The other part of her sleepless night was due to her not being able to turn off her brain. Even having Lexa draped over her was not enough to comfort her and get her to sleep. She took solace in the fact that Lexa was asleep though. She was apparently confident enough in their plan to sleep for a few hours.

"We should kill them all if we wish to take the town." A representative from one of the clans told the group. Clarke didn't recognize him so he was not a clan leader. Many of the leaders remained behind with their people including the dreaded Ice Queen. Clarke suspected she didn't want to be here with Lexa until she could find a way to really move on after all these years.

"We will not kill anyone unless we have too." Clarke finally said something.

"And if they attack back?"

"They won't." Clarke stated. "We don't expect any kind of defense. These people aren't soldiers. They're just citizens. Some of them are children."

"Report back to me when it is done." Lexa ordered.

"What happens after that? Do we return home?"

"We make this our home." Clarke stood in the small, packed space and walked to stand next to Lexa. "We'll find out what the people here knew of the president's plan. We'll lock up those we deem threats after we do our due diligence. Everyone else will receive a pardon."

"Pardon? No!" Came from the crowd.

"Silence!" Lexa ordered. "Innocents will be pardoned. Those guilty of this conspiracy will be punished in accordance with our laws."

"We can still make this our home. We can still bring everyone else here. There is space, there is work to be done and there is a common goal. The alliance can survive if we do what we need to do today." Clarke asserted.

It took some more convincing, but finally the clans responded positively and began to take their posts. Lexa was right. The city was easy enough to take. The police force was really only 15 strong and they were all locked into the jail without issue. No injuries were reported. The school was taken and message was received that all the children were fine. They were scared though at the people with knives and guns so Clarke gave the order to locate their parents and have them delivered to them and be locked up.

The representatives were in a meeting at the time so they were easy to take. No one even realized the weapons were missing. When Clarke and Lexa took the hospital with just a few people with them, Dr. Harker admitted to not even checking the weapons the previous night as he was ordered too.

"Yes, she told me about the plan, but you don't understand." He started.

"We don't understand what?" Clarke asked him. They had him tied to a chair in his hospital office. Everyone else was already locked inside a room.

"We need more people here and we need them fast." He tried to explain. "I've checked the results over and over and-"
"What results?" Lexa asked him.

"Our tests. Everyone has been tested. Most of us are infertile. 4 of the 10 children we have come from outside the city; another acquisition like we were trying to do with your people. The tests not only show infertility, but symptoms of diseases we thought long dead. Part of the problem undoubtedly stems from the radiation, but it doesn't matter. We'll be gone in a generation."

"Why is that our problem?" Clarke asked him.

"It's humanity's problem." He stated. "This community is the last of its kind. If it goes, all remnants of the old ways go with it. Is that really what you want?"

"No, but we don't want to be forced into something we didn't agree too either." Clarke pointed out. "You should have told us before. We could have helped you. We could have talked through this."

"Your group is the largest we've ever attempted to bring here. It was a mistake, but it was a risk we had to take, but some of your people have an anomaly in their blood. I can't identify it, but I believe it is linked to their inability to reproduce. When I told Carolina that, she got worried."

"Yeah, we caught that." Clarke said.

"She thought that maybe most of you would have the same result and this whole thing would have been a waste. We'd be in the same situation with more people to care for."

"You don't have to worry about that now." Lexa pointed at him with her sword.

"A small percentage of our population was injected with a substance that turned them into something less than human. We were able to snap them out of it, but that's most likely what your tests are showing."

"Then, there's a treatment?" He sounded hopeful.

"Not for what you're talking about." Clarke informed. "We didn't even know about the reproduction thing."

"Then, I can help." More hope. "I can run more tests, come up with a treatment. Maybe there's a way they can have children. I can be of value to you. I'm the only doctor we have, but we have researchers on my team. They can assist me. They can be saved."

"We will decide who is to be saved and who is to die at our hands." Lexa told him and Clarke couldn't help but wonder if there was some dramatic flare in her voice. The truth was that her people were okay. No one had been tortured or killed. They wouldn't kill anyone including the president. They would, however need to determine what to do with those who orchestrated this whole conspiracy, but that would have to wait for another day. "Take him away." Lexa had opened the door and two grounders came in and removed the doctor from his office. "Shall we go talk with the president?" Lexa asked Clarke.

"No, lets make her wait. I want to talk to the representatives and find out what they knew about this."

Lexa nodded and they walked out of the hospital and toward the main city building where the representatives, 14 in all had been captured and stored. Clarke and Lexa entered the meeting room and had 4 guards remain with them.

"We've taken the city." Clarke informed. "We have no intention of causing any of you physical harm unless we have too."

"Where is the president?" A man dressed in a suit and tie like some Clarke had seen in movies from the past.

"She's fine. We've got her, but she's fine." Clarke looked around the room. Many of them looked terrified while a few of them looked almost confident. "I want to know what you knew about the president's plan to force us to repopulate this city."

"We won't tell you anything." That same man stated.

"Take him outside." Lexa ordered and a guard pulled the man from his seat and jerked him toward the door. The man yelled and he could still be heard from outside until there was no more sound. "Now, you will answer Clarke's questions or I will continue to remove you one by one and let my warriors take the information from you one piece at a time."

"What did you know?" Clarke repeated.

"We needed you here. You were supposed to meet some of our people and help us. You were supposed to take some of the jobs we don't have the numbers for anymore to help repair parts of the city and re-staff the plants, help farm. That's all I know."

"Thank you." Clarke stated. The woman's tone was believable.

"I don't understand what the problem is. Why are we here? We didn't do anything wrong. We were following Carolina's orders." Another man shared.

"You're her advisors?" Clarke questioned.

"That's what she wants people to think, but Carolina runs this city. What she says goes. Look as us. There are 14 of us when there are only about 150 people. We're just hold overs from the last president, from when we had more people here. She's kept us because it looked good to keep us to outsiders. We merely inform the people of her decisions and pretend they're our own."

"And her cabinet? The dead ones?" Clarke asked.

"She poisoned them." The first woman who responded professed. "No one knows. They think it was disease, but it was poison. I watched her do it." She took a deep breath. "I was too scared to do anything about it. They disagreed with her on bringing you here, but I think she would have done it anyway. She used it as leverage to get you here. Positions available in leadership is exactly what you wanted and with them dead, there were suddenly positions available."

"She killed them?" Lexa checked.

"Yes. I saw her. She would have killed me too, but she didn't know I saw it. She put it in their food and then they died."

"Ripa!" Murderer. Lexa said it under her breath.

"A few of us knew of her intentions to try to convince you to be with members of our population, but she mentioned hosting events like parties or-"

"Weddings?" Clarke asked.

"Yes, things like that. Things to get people together and hopefully everything would just work out. She even said humanity's survival was the most important thing so even if we brought you here and you only mated with your own people, at least there would still be people."

"That's true. That's what I heard. I didn't know she was thinking anything other than that until your people arrested us earlier and told us. I swear."

"I do know something else though." It was the woman.

"Speak." Lexa ordered her.
"I am York's cousin. We grew up together. I was older so when his parents died, I understood a little more than he did about it."

"Okay?" Clarke prodded.

"I think she killed them too."

"What?"
"I didn't know for sure until the poisoning of the cabinet, but I saw them in their coffins the day of their funeral. Their lips were the same shade of purple/blue as the members of the cabinet the days of their funerals."

"Why would she kill them?"

"Many people thought York's father would make a good president one day. He was already a representative when he died and was considered to be a strong candidate in the next election. His wife did not like Carolina. I think she killed them both so she wouldn't have to have York's mom try to have her investigated."

"Then why take York in?"

"Because she's a psychopath." Another man finally spoke up. "What part of that aren't you getting? What better way of exerting total control and power? She adopted York and raised him as her little errand boy. He'll be loyal to her until the day she dies or she kills him."

"You're wrong about that." Clarke said, but didn't elaborate anymore. "You'll be transferred to the hospital where we're holding the rest of the your people. We'll get this sorted out as soon as possible."

"What does that mean? We didn't do anything wrong? We're no danger to you or your people? You have weapons. You have the numbers."

"Just hang in there, okay?" Clarke told them and she and Lexa left the building.

"She's a killer, Clarke." Lexa stated the moment they were alone and walking home.

"I know."

"What are we going to do with her?"

"Jus drein jus daun." Blood must have blood.

"I will allow Indra the kill since she has-"

"No Lexa, it's not Indra's kill." Clarke stopped walking. Lexa stopped too.

"You want to-"

"No, it's not mine. It's not your kill either."

"Well, hail the conquering heroes." Carolina stated when they entered the house. She was still tied to the chair, but she'd been drinking water when they walked in so her gag was gone. "How is it ruling my city?" She asked.

Indra and Octavia were standing behind her. Lincoln and Bellamy were in the kitchen. Kane was standing, arms crossed in the doorway.

"Your people have been doing a lot of talking."

York walked in from the backyard.

"York, can I talk to you?" Clarke asked him.

"See Lexa? I was right. They do like each other." Carolina teased. Lexa's fire burned deep.

"Do you see this?" Clarke held out her wrist. Carolina looked at it. "This is for her. Now, shut the hell up."

Indra put the gag back in her mouth to silence a small laugh.

"York?"

"Yeah, okay."

"Indra, keep an eye on her." She motioned to Lexa.

"No need. As much as I want to kill her right now, I will resist that urge because you were right, Clarke." She leaned down and stared into Carolina's eyes. "She's not my kill."

Carolina looked confused for a second before that overconfident look returned to her face. Clarke took York outside.

"York, I've got to tell you something."

"Okay?" He seemed concerned.

"I heard some things today about Carolina."

"I bet."

"About Carolina and your parents." She started. "How much do you know about their deaths?"

"Just that Carolina said the disease-"

"It wasn't a disease."

"What are you talking about?"

"I was told today that they might have been poisoned."
"What? Why?" He was growing upset.

"Because your father would have made a great president and your mother didn't trust Carolina."

"So… Who? I mean…" He ran his hand through his short, dark hair. "Wait. You think Carolina killed my parents?"

"I can't prove it myself, but I think Dr. Harker or one of his researchers could. My mom could too given the right equipment."

"Why?"

"Because she wanted the power. All of this… this whole place… this drive to bring us here… it's all about power to her."

"But then why take me in? My mom had a sister. She died in a fire a few years back… at the plant, but she would have raised me."

"I don't know. I can only guess." Clarke replied. "I think she did it again to the cabinet members who died recently."

"Who told you all this?"

"We spoke with the representatives earlier and they didn't have anything nice to say about her. One of them witnessed her poisoning the cabinet."

"Who?"

"Your cousin." Clarke decided to be completely honest with the guy who'd risked his life to help them.

"Brooklyn?"

"I didn't get her name."

"She saw this and didn't tell me?"

Clarke nodded.

"I'm sorry to drop all this on you, York, but you had the right to know."

He sat on a chair in front of the long table they'd been eating at the night before.

"Now, what am I supposed to do?"

"She's dangerous." It was Kane. He'd apparently heard most if not all of their conversation. "I've spent some time with her today and there's no rehabilitation for her. If she's ever free, she will seek revenge. You can count on that."

"Kane-" Clarke started.

"Young man, it is ultimately up to you in my opinion what happens to her, but just remember… if she's murdered 5 people that we know about, how many are there that we don't know about?"

"For someone who keeps talking about adding to the population, it seems she wants to make sure the people she's adding are ones that support her." Clarke added.

"I need a minute." York stated and walked off toward the woods behind the house.

Clarke walked up to Kane.

"Did you get it?"

"Yes, I got it. It's in the kitchen." He nodded toward the kitchen. "And Clarke?"

"Yeah?"
"I was wrong to doubt you." He walked inside the house and Clarke waited a moment before following. She checked on the group in the living room. Carolina was still alive so she went to the kitchen.

"Here it is. Kane stole it from some of those cops." Bellamy shared and pointed at the long-range radio Clarke requested when they first arrived to communicate with the people back in Jaha and the capital, but it never arrived. Obviously, she knew the reason now. Both the capital and Jaha had a radio that would pick up the signals. She had assigned Wick and Raven to work on it earlier in the day.

"Good. Tomorrow, we'll radio the camp and fill them in on what's been happening."

"Why not now? We have the city?"
"Because the first question they'll ask is are we staying or going back and I don't have the answer to that question yet. I want to check on the supply situation here find out the real story. Then, I'll have a better idea of what we should do."

"Lincoln and I can check on the fuel supply with York tomorrow." Bellamy volunteered.

Lincoln nodded.

"Thank you."

She walked into the living room where she saw so many things all at once. Lexa was turned away from Carolina and appeared to be taking her jacket off and putting her sword away while Indra and Octavia were talking off to the side of Carolina whose gag was out and York was pouring water down her mouth while Kane just watched.

It took only a few seconds for the coughing to start.

"Thank you, so-" She tried to get out apparently thinking the water had just gone down the wrong pipe.

"Do not call me son." It wasn't that though. It was poison and Clarke knew it as she coughed louder. "You killed them. You killed them the same way you always taught me that if it was necessary to kill, kill with poison."