3 in a row! I surprise myself sometimes, I wish I could promise it will always be like this but honestly that's wishful thinking.
Hope you enjoy it!
Days later, Clarke found herself once again standing in front of the crudely made graves and as she looked at them, she couldn't help but be thankful that there were only four where once before there were seven.
It had taken her many nights, full of tears and nightmares, but with Wanheda's help she understood she couldn't save everyone; some events would happen whether she liked it or not, the best she could do was prevent pointless deaths like Charlottes' and Wells'.
Thinking about those two brought a smile to her face; not only Charlotte hadn't kill Wells, trying to slay her demons and subsequently taking her own life by jumping from a cliff, but they had become friends, almost like siblings, who sang to each other at night and played together whenever they had a break from work.
"Be proud of yourself little one. Saving a life is no small feat"
"I am. I'm finally making a difference"
The blonde heard steps coming up from behind her and instantly knew it was Finn, not just because she remembered he came out here and talked to her but because unlike her who, with the help of Wanheda and her muscle memory, can walk in the woods without making much noise, Finn was careless, breaking every branch and crushing any leaves on his path.
If she was honest Clarke didn't want to talk to him, not that she was ever in the mood to do it, but for the sake of avoiding a conflict, she decided to humour him, hoping against hope that he wouldn't try to flirt with her. This time she turned without her knife, there was no need to scare him.
"You shouldn't be alone outside the barricade. What if I was a grounder?" he said and she couldn't help but chuckle.
"I would be dead, I presume".
Clarke knew they needed to find a way to make contact with Anya as soon as possible to try establishing a truce and ceasefire, grounders attacks were becoming more frequent these days and she didn't know how much longer the delinquents would resist. Thankfully no one had died yet but injured ones seemed to multiply by the hour.
"Clarke, I'm being serious. It's dangerous."
"Finn, the earth is dangerous, beautiful yes, but dangerous. You can't let fear rule your life"
"You are being reckless"
"Thanks for the concern but I can take care of myself."
"Anyway, I got something for you." Finn easily dismissed her and instead of saying anything else he smiled charmingly, presenting her with another gift.
"Someone told me you like to draw. Do you like it?"
"I… yes, thank you". For an instant she froze, remembering where that pencil had come from and what that place had meant for him and the old Clarke, vanishing those thoughts she did her best effort to smile.
"Clarke would you…" Finn let out a frustrated huff, he never got to say what he wanted because Glen showed up, looking urgently for Clarke.
"Thank God I finally found you; I've been running all through camp!"
"Take a deep breath Glen; you shouldn't over-exert yourself like that". She admonished him lightly.
"I know, I know, but Monty was adamant that it couldn't wait"
"Has he been able to make contact with the Ark?"
"I don't know, he didn't say, he just asked me to get you"
"Finn thanks for the gift but I need to go"
"I'll go with you"
They hurriedly went behind the barricade and straight inside the dropship where Monty was working with several wires.
"Hey, Monty. Any luck?"
The boy turned around, excitedly showing them a few pieces of loose wire that sent a bit of spark flying when he put them in contact.
"Mmm, what am I exactly looking at?. Electronics are not my thing"
Monty waved his hands enthusiastically and started talking a mile a minute. Clarke barely understood half of what he was saying but thankfully Glen seemed to follow his train of thought.
"So let me get this right; you were able to repair the solar panels and can use the dropship as a battery but you lack a way to spread the radio waves"
"Yes! If I use the bracelets as…" Monty turned around and shoved Finn out of the way "Don't touch that!"
Finn recoiled in shock but obediently went to sit in a corner; he was dreadfully tired of waiting. Couldn't Monty simply say what he needed to, there was no need to bore everyone with technological mumbo jumbo.
"As I was saying, I think I can use a bracelet as a transmitter"
Clarke considered telling him to find another way, knowing that a miscalculation on his part would fry all the wristbands, but before she could voice her thoughts Wanheda made herself known.
"You need to give him yours"
"But I know it won't work, all it will do is make my mother think I'm dead"
"Exactly"
"Why would I…?. Raven!. My mother only sent Raven when my wristband flat-lined"
"Monty are you sure you can talk to the Ark with a wristband?"
"Not a hundred percent, no, but honestly is our best if not only chance"
Clarke moved to sit in front of him and extended her arm. "Take mine"
"Clarke, are you sure?"
Monty squealed in protest, trying to defend his theory but Clarke cut off the bickering boys before things could escalate.
"It's going to be ok Finn; we need to take some risks"
"What if he fries your wristband?"
"It's a possibility, yes, but there is too much at stake and we need to take the gamble"
Monty grabbed some crudely made tools and very carefully started removing her bracelet.
"Yes, I did it!. It stills works!" He shouted with glee, proudly showing his price to anyone who wanted to take a look.
"What about your mother Clarke?"
"My death will only be temporary, right Monty?"
"Uhh, yeah, yeah, the trickier part is done" The black hair boy answered distractedly, too excited to keep working.
"Now I just need to emit a signal and patch it through the dropship's mainframe, using the wristband as…"
Finn yawned and stretched, accidentally dropping a few papers and metal pieces to the floor; before Monty could react Glen grabbed Finn by the arm and started to drag him away.
"We will just leave you to work, ok?". The blond boy said and hurriedly took Finn away.
"If you make any progress let me know, ok?".
To her amusement, Monty simply nodded and shushed her out.
****** ARK CONTROL ROOM ******
Abby was lying down on the floor, any pretence of sleeping had long since abandoned her, these days if she got to close her eyes for three or four hours she considered herself lucky. Between caring for Jaha and worrying for Clarke's safety she was drained, the bags under her eyes and her gaunt face were clear proof of her exhaustion.
Kane was crunching numbers and mumbling to himself, things were looking grim and he didn't know how to tell the rest of the council. Everyone was aware of their oxygen and supplies difficulties but things had gotten to a point where his population reduction plan might be the only solution available and even then it would only be temporary.
Fuji and Muir were talking to Sinclair about project Exodus when the beeping started, making all conversation cease.
Abby woke up just in time to see Clarke's screen go dark. She started to sob loudly, not caring about the other people in the room. Not for the first time she wished Jake was with her, he would know what to do.
"Abby, Abby, look at me please"
Marcus' soft voice pulled her out of her spiralling; he was crouching next to her but didn't dare to come closer. He knew she still hadn't forgiven him for ordering her execution, probably she never would, but he felt he owed to her to at least try and be supportive.
"Abby, I know you must be…"
"You don't have children Marcus; you have no idea what I'm feeling right now!"
"I know, I know I can't understand your pain but…"
"Just stop it, Marcus!"
"She is not dead. I don't care what that screen says, I don't believe Clarke is dead" He prayed like he hasn't done in years that his words were true.
"I'm sure there is another explanation Abby; it's the first terminated signal in a week"
"Clarke is a smart girl, maybe she had the idea to use the wristband to talk to us" Sinclair offered.
Abby gathered her things and without another word, she left the control room. Sinclair may be right but she needed to get in touch with Clarke fast, she needed to know her baby girl was safe and the only way to do that was by rushing her plans, she just hoped Raven was ready.
****** ARKER CAMP ******
When Clarke walked out of the dropship she saw everyone hard at work. Their camp was looking better than the first time around, the barricade was finally finished and the smokehouse was already under construction. Bellamy had even organized a small group to start making weapons, they weren't fancy but they would do their job.
The blonde asked Murphy to help her gather everyone; once she was sure they were listening she steeled herself and started talking.
"I need everyone to know that we are making progress with contacting the Ark. Monty believes he can re-establish contact through the mainframe of the dropship"
She waited for a few minutes until the deafening cheers and claps to subdue "Some of you may have noticed that I'm not wearing my wristband". Everyone started whispering and she could see Mgbe smirking.
"I only took it off so Monty could use it as a transmitter. Honestly, we are taking a huge gamble so please don't take yours off or all our hard work would have been in vain"
Murphy decided to intervene before things went south "As soon as we get in touch with the Ark, I promise will have a bracelet off party!"
All the delinquents cheered at that and Clarke squeezed Murphy's hand in thanks before ushering them quiet again. "For now, keep yours exactly where they are and get back to work."
"Nice speech," Finn said from her side.
Clarke didn't miss the leering glances he sent her way and not for the first time the blonde wished she could tell him she was in love with someone else. She even considered outright telling him she was a lesbian, so he would stop bothering her, but many delinquents knew she identifies as bisexual and that would expose her lie.
"Thanks, well I should be going"
"Clarke I wanted to…"
"Finn you should get back to work, it seems your teams need you and I have to find Bellamy. We can talk later, yes?" She said pointing at a group and promptly walked away from him.
Before looking for Bellamy she needed to put in motion her plan to discreetly sabotage whatever Monty was planning, she didn't need to risk him frying all the wristbands this time. Thankfully it would be fairly easy, just soaking a few wires in Jasper's homemade moonshine would be enough.
Clarke saw Connor drop down and Murphy moving forward towards the boy. She hoped things would play out differently this time.
"What is it, Connor?"
"I'm thirsty and exhausted"
"Go drink some water and get back to work. You can rest when your shift is over, the smokehouse is not gonna build itself, you know?"
Murphy asked Miller to finished skinning the deer they had hunted and was about to grab the end of the log to help Connor when he was harshly shoved by him.
"Who do you think you are to give me orders?"
"I was trying to help you fucking jackass," Murphy said, clenching his fists to avoid pushing him back.
Clarke realized Murphy was, indeed, trying to help so when she saw Connor trying to hit him again, she stepped in the middle just before he could get closer and hold his fist in hers.
The look that Connor gave Murphy could've curdled milk, but they were interrupted when Clarke cleared her throat.
"Are you sure you want to do this Connor?"
Her deep, frightening voice made him stop in his tracks and think twice before moving any further.
"Murphy was just trying to help you but instead of thanking him, you pushed him. Do you think that's ok?"
Connor stepped back but Clarke kept advancing on his personal space. "I asked you a simple question, Connor, do you think what you did was right?"
"No, I was not thinking"
"No, you weren't. When someone lends you a hand, the polite thing to do is say thank you and what should you do if you hurt them?"
"Say sorry?"
"That's right, Connor, you should apologize if you hurt someone"
"Thank you and I'm sorry"
"No, don't say it to me. Say it to Murphy"
"Thank you, Murphy and I'm sorry for pushing you"
Murphy grabbed a cup, filled it with water, and gave it to Connor who drank greedily from it.
"It wasn't hard to be nice, was it?"
Connor shook his head and, without looking back, run away from them as fast as he could.
"I'm proud of you for not lowering to his level"
"What can I say blondie? I'm a changed man" The sarcasm in his voice was not lost on the blonde.
Clarke lightly punched him in the shoulder as he started laughing hard and she smiled before turning to address the small crowd that had gathered around them.
"Don't just stand there, get back to work!. I better not hear of pointless arguments like this again or someone will be in serious trouble. Murphy is right our smokehouse is not going to build itself so get on with it for fuck's sake."
After searching for half the camp and asking everyone who crosses her path, she finally found Bellamy; he was filling a piece of tarp with small branches and relentlessly flirting with a bored-looking Harper.
She couldn't help but chuckle at Bellamy's persistence; it seemed Octavia's words were true, he was truly trying to work his way through all the female delinquents, sadly for him Harper only seemed to have eyes for the oblivious Monty Green.
"Bellamy I need to talk to you so I will help you guys fill this faster and take it to camp, that's ok?"
Before Bellamy could say anything Harper nodded in thanks and pointed to the branches they had already cut.
"Just so you know you are totally wasting your time with Harper," the blonde said to him, once they were alone.
"What do you know that I don't?"
"She has the hots for Monty"
"What, for real?" Bellamy's eyebrows rose like he couldn't give credit to what he was hearing.
"Yeah, sorry man"
"Meeh, there is plenty of other fish on the sea".
He shrugged nonchalantly, like he didn't care, which if he was honest was the truth, it didn't exactly matter to him who was under him, as long as someone was.
"Not me, but there are many others for you to try your luck with"
"Don't worry; I never even thought about hitting on you"
"Hey now, that's just rude" She shoved him lightly and he chuckled at her mock indignation.
"You are hot but you scare the fuck out of me"
Clarke couldn't help but laugh loudly at his revelation. The boy pretended to be miffed by her reaction but soon started to laugh too.
"We need to talk about Connor and Mgbe"
"What did those idiots do now?". He was exasperated, sure there was a time when he had been the ring leader of their little band of jerks but honestly, it was high time for them to grow the hell up.
Clarke recounted the incident with Murphy and a few complaints other delinquents made about Mgbe, emphasizing how those two might become a bigger issue down the road if they didn't do something now.
Bellamy easily agreed with her assessment, the warning that he gave them the first time didn't seem to do the trick so they needed to find another solution before things out of hand.
"Back on the Ark we would have floated him, I mean, except underage criminals the council killed anyone who committed a crime, regardless of the magnitude or the cause of it" Bellamy clenched his fists in poorly concealed rage "or even if it wasn't their fault in the first place like they did with my sister, they fucking locked her up just for being born"
"I know and I sort of understand why they did it, our resources were scarce and disobedience couldn't be tolerated but necessary or not their way of ruling was fucking tyrannical"
"Clarke, we have an opportunity in a lifetime and everyone is counting on us to not fuck it up"
"I think murder should be punished by death, we cannot risk any scissions or internal conflicts, but for lesser offenses like creating disturbances I don't think bloodshed and physical harm are the right way to go about it"
"I agree but we need to come up with some kind of punishment that fits and will frighten people enough for them not to act stupidly"
"We can't lock people up indefinitely, it's not only impractical but we don't have the resources, and we can't banish them either, they would most likely do something stupid and deadly" The blonde shuddered, remembering Murphy's banishment and all the issues it brought for them.
"You are right about all that but we need a solution, until we establish a punishing system our leadership depends on everyone's goodwill"
"I know" Clarke let out a frustrated sigh "Hey I brought some apples, why don't we eat something while we think?. Otherwise all this manual labour is going to kill us of starvation"
"Starvation..." Bellamy muttered, an idea coming suddenly coming to him. "That would be a solution."
"Starving them to death? No, I don't think that's a good idea. When we elected ourselves as co-leaders we promised everyone things would be different"
"What?. No! I didn't mean until they die. I was thinking like two or three days, as a lesson, and we would still give them water obviously"
"That could actually work"
"You sound surprised"
Clarke simply raised her eyebrow and curved her lips in mockery.
"Hey, I do have good ideas!… sometimes" He admitted sheepishly
"What's the saying, even a broken clock is right twice a day?
"Jerk" Bellamy shoved her lightly and took another bite of his apple while contemplating who he could approach for tonight… Harper was now out of the question but maybe Fox or Jill would be more receptive to his advances and if they weren't it didn't matter, he could always go back to Roma.
Clarke ate in silence, looking at Bellamy through the corner of her eye. She shook her head in amusement at his predictability; his smile and the slight bulge rising in his pants were more than enough proof of where his mind was at the moment.
Wanheda was very pleased with their interactions, she had been right; the boy had the potential to be a good leader and a strong ally, like most people he had only needed a little push in the right direction first.
The full quote is: "Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. ... Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement. For even the very wise cannot see all ends." (J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring)