Thanks a lot to strangeJenny for Beta reading.
It was almost the morning, the screams stopped a few hours ago, Clarke seemed lost in the arms of her wife, and she did not say a word since Amyla had begun to comfort her. Amyla was worried; Clarke always had something to say, so much so that it often annoyed her.
"Clarke, are you alright?" no answer, "Clarke! Talk to me!" still nothing, "Princess snap out of it!"
Immediate reaction, "Don't call me that!" protested Clarke
"I thought you like it when I call you that in bed!" she whispered and was rewarded with a small blush appearing on Clarke's face.
"Yes, well that's different and you know it!" Clarke continued to protest.
"Talk to me Clarke, what's making you so worried?" asked Amyla in a concerned voice.
"It' s just that I realized it will never work you know." With the questioning look of Amyla, she continued, "Sky People and Grounders are too different. Before what they did to Finn, I was already afraid but now I'm terrified. I tried to hide it because I must seem strong for the alliance, but Amyla I could never accept your laws, they are all barbarous. When you were talking about them I thought I could, but with how your people tortured Finn... ", big sigh, "I just can't!"
Amyla was becoming angry listening to her, "So what? You expect me and the girls to leave the Woods Clan and become Sky people!"
"Of course not! I will never do that to you and the girls, I saw how my people looked at you! But Amyla can you honestly tell me that the girls, who have adopted some Sky People's mannerisms from their friends and me, they are laughing more, are more compassionate and more free, will be welcomed by the Grounders? That I and my friends who agree to come to your village will be welcome?"
Amyla calmed down, thinking about what Clarke had just said to her. "The people from my village will accept all of you when I give the order, I will not give them a choice! "
Clarke gave her a nod of understanding, "What about the Woods Clan, the other clans?"
"You will seem weak for them; it's why I want my village to be strong before we reveal ourselves."
"Because you are afraid of war?" a nod, "What if we were forming a new Clan? A clan strong enough to not have to obey the Heda or the Chancellor, but who could form alliances with them, thanks to you with the Grounders and me with the Sky people, a neutral Clan if you want?"
Amyla snorted, "And where will you find these peoples? I know that some of my people are probably already dead and some of your friends too, what's more we are not enough, a Clan is not just a hundred people Clarke!"
"I know, when we had the peace talk with Heda, they seemed more interested in releasing the Grounders who are being drained inside the mountain, to take the Mountain Men down. Those are peoples we could cure, who will owe us a debt of honour for saving their lives, who will never be welcomed back to their villages. The Grounders consider them traitors, and my people will never let them stay with them, these people have family who might agree to join them. Do you see where am I going?"
Amyla was staring at her; she began to fidget, finally, "Maybe you are not as hopeless as a leader as I thought."
"Thank you, I think?"
"Yes it was a compliment. But Clarke if we do that, we have to be sure that our new Clan is strong, enough to dissuade other clans from attacking us! I will be considered a traitor to the Woods Clan, if they are not afraid of our new Clan they will not hesitate to kill me! We will have to find a new place to stay; we cannot stay on the Woods Clan territory, meaning I will have to give up my village!"
"You always told me it was the people who were the making of the village!"
"Right, you really heard what you want to hear. Building a new village is not easy Clarke, and I have to find a place that has water, food, trees for building houses and defences, and this place must not belong to any clans!"
With a teasing smile, "Easy for you, you are a great leader!"
"Ah, ah, yes, yes. Let us assume that I am able to do all that without being killed. How do you propose to catch the reapers? Where will you cure them? There is an army in front of us in case you didn't see it!"
"For the place I was thinking about the Drop ship. I could steal some medical equipment for curing them, and we could restrain them with solid ropes. Of course we can't take them all at once, but small groups, a few at a time, those we saved could help us to catch and cure more of them!"
"Ok and how do we catch them?" asked Amyla.
"Lincoln told me about a devise the Mountain Men used to contain the reapers, Raven is a great mechanic, she will be able to find something," here she addressed a sad smile to Raven who had finally fallen asleep, with the girls around her. "As for catching them without hurting them we have our electric stun weapons. The things I don't know how to do, are where to find them in their little group, in the mines they were too many, and how to trap them. I was hoping you and Lincoln could help."
"So you want us to lead you to small groups, help you trap them and cure them and finally tell them that they are welcome in our new Clan. Putting all of us in a lot more danger, have I understood everything so far?" queried Amyla.
"Well, yes, when you put it like that, but it could work! You should have seen how the grounders reacted to Lincoln, Indra called him a traitor, everyone seemed afraid of him! Think about the future! We could establish new rules, which work for both of us, have the girls not obligated to follow the Grounders' or Sky People's rules! What's more, if the alliance falls we will still have an army for taking down the Mountain Men!"
Amyla released a big sigh, "I knew you will be the death of me! Alright I will talk to Lincoln and see what will come of it."
"Good, go talk to him, we don't have a lot of time for freeing our people before they all get killed! At worst, the reapers will refuse to form a new Clan but it still will help us to infiltrate Mount Weather if there are a lot less of them." reasoned Clarke.
"I'm going, I'm going! You know they will want to burn Finn with the people he had killed; you will have to go with them if you want an alliance, and the Grounders will consider you the leader with what you did in sparing his life!"
"I know, I will do all I can for our people to not kill each. I owe it to Finn, and I want our girls to be safe!"
Amyla had a proud look, "Stay strong, you will not be welcome in Ton DC, don't show them that you are afraid, be careful, and try not to make stupid decisions that could get you killed!"
After receiving a nod and a determined look from Clarke, Amyla left the tent in search of Lincoln.
Clarke moved to Raven, shaking her awake, Raven still had tears in her eyes, she seemed angry at everyone; Clarke for not doing enough, the Sky People for letting it happen and the Grounders for what they had done; it will take time for her to grieve. She had told her that Finn will be burned with the people he killed, which made her even angrier but what choice did she have? War with the Grounders, or letting the Mountain Men pick them to pieces after almost everyone killed each other?
The walk toward the Grounder camp was silent, when they met with the Heda, Kane was released, they had kept him to make sure no Sky People would try to prevent them from having justice. He seemed to be all right and wanted peace, he kept Abby calmer, which was a big bonus for Clarke, and maybe they really will not kill each other?
During the walk to Ton DC Lincoln came to her, telling her they had figured out something that could work with the Reapers, once the alliance was made they could try. Amyla and the girls were making some traps, Amyla hadn't told him about a New Clan idea, it was too soon, he would have to see by himself what his people really thought about him. He had agreed to help; he knew what being a Reaper did and wanted to save them. Next it was Bellamy who came to her with his idea of the inside man, she told him it was a good idea, he just needed to wait a little in order to help Clarke with a new plan that could help them not depend so much of the Grounders and free their friends, after that if he still wanted to risk his life, it would be his decision to make. Amyla would be happy if Bellamy wanted to go inside Mount Weather, Clarke snorted, Amyla had told her that she trusted Bellamy too, but Amyla thought that he was too protective and probably had a crush on Clarke, and that Clarke was too oblivious to see it, whatever Bellamy was like that with all the 'hundred', she wasn't oblivious!
Finally, it was Anya's turn "So since yesterday you haven't tried anything else stupid to get you killed?"
Damn Grounder humour, she answered with great sarcasm, "No, you haven't lost another fight against a 'weak' person?"
Anya snorted, "No, my honour is already damaged enough, a little more and I will have to come to live with you, if I don't want to be killed!"
"Thank you for your help with the Heda, without you the meeting would have been a lot worse .I hope both our people will have an alliance and that we will be able to rescue our people from Mount Weather." Clarke said gratefully to Anya.
"It will depend a lot on you Clarke, I have done all I could, the rest is up to you, some grounders respect you now but even a small mistake could lead to a war." With that she left Clarke alone with her thoughts.