A second chance

by laserturret1

Not my story written by MaxiBrux

2. 2

Welcoming New Kru Members

Chapter Summary

The survivors from Mt Weather need to meld with Skaikru and become one. The move from the relative luxury of the mountain to effectively camping in the woods is not as comfortable as some would like.

Chapter Notes

See the end of the chapter for notes

Bellamy and Miller each drove one of the Rovers loaded with familiar bedding for the Mountain people, and as many people as they could fit in, as close as they could get to their camp.

Clarke, Costia, Echo, Maya, Octavia and Raven stayed in Mt Weather. Clarke needed to recuperate and prepare for Philip Rhodes's surgery. Raven was checking everything she could on the computer. Maya stayed to help Clarke and to give herself a chance to separate from her people so they don't notice how much she knows about everyone, and to prepare herself to meet and pretend not to know her dear, sweet Jasper.

Everyone who knew what was happening wanted to talk about the future and how they could protect as many people as possible, but it was agreed that it could wait a little until Raven could "discover' the forthcoming apocalypse and they would have a plan for the Arc and something to offer Lexa.

The Mountain people enjoyed their drive through the forest; they even didn't mind their awkward hike for the last part of their journey loaded down as they were. More visits would be made to recover more belongings but Bellamy had suggested that it would be better in the short term if they didn't make it clear to the delinquents that they had so much more than the original Skaikru.

"They are teenaged delinquents, after all, and their whole lives have been one of deprivation and being punished for giving in to temptation"' Bellamy emphasised; "so let's not offer them any temptation, eh?"

The children were delighted to learn that they would be sharing a cabin with all the other children. They thought it was going to be one long sleepover. At first their parents wanted to balk at that, but when it was pointed out that the couple (Josh and Carol Turner) would have their own tent they soon accepted the arrangements with a smile. Vincent Vie agreed to share with Beppi, and Philip Rhodes if he ever became mobile again, while Charley Paul agreed to share with Aurora and Molly.

James and Toyah, two of the younger delinquents, helped Bellamy and Miller set up the sleeping areas for the children. James and Toyah were amongst the delinquents who were originally intended to sleep in the cabin, well, more a waginogan which is a lot quicker and easier to build without practical experience than log cabins would be, but when they knew six more youngsters would be joining them they thought that it should be for the under 12s only.

The next one built would be for the 12 to 15 year olds.

Bellamy knew it would be best to try to keep sleeping arrangements separated by age, and for the younger teenagers, by gender. He had no doubt that some of the older 12 to 15 year olds would be having sex, but hopefully they would keep that away from their sleeping quarters.

Once Aurora had shown the adults to where they should set up their private accommodations she went to greet her son.

"You seem happy so I'm assuming everyone is well" she asked as she hugged him.

"Yeah, it went almost as planned. O was shot in the leg but is fine, moaning about having to rest so I'm glad for the break!" Bellamy didn't want his mom to worry. "One of the guards died, Clarke had to operate on one serious injury on one of the guards that came with Lincoln, as well as O's leg and some other injuries before we learned that she, too, was injured and had the Trikru healers operate on her to remove part of her liver. She told them what they had to do before she went under. They were more frightened than she was."

"Oh, poor Clarke. That poor young woman acts like she has the weight of the whole world on her shoulders. I wish there was some way we could help her more. When are the girls coming home? I know you said they're all well, but I want to see for myself, and maybe offer a little bit of mothering."

"Why don't you leave Molly to oversee the women and children and come with me to take Philip to Mt Weather for his surgery tomorrow, or day after if Clarke needs to wait? You'll be able to mother O all you want and no one there will think anything of it. Miller will be in charge of the camp overall. We can give them a few days to settle but then we'll need to find things our new people can and want to do."

Bellamy wanted to just take his mom with Phillip Rhodes to the Mountain, but Josh Turner said that he thought he should go back with them so that he could talk to the engineer about where the radiation had been leaking into the bunker. Josh pointed out that now that they had marrow injections and could take the radiation levels it shouldn't matter but he was a great believer in fixing things when they're not needed rather than waiting until they are.

"Thanks" Bellamy said. "We wouldn't have thought of that and you're right. We should make sure the bunker is radiation proof just in case another nuclear apocalypse is on the horizon." And Bellamy cursed himself for not thinking about why so many Grounders were needed for so many treatments if the bunker really was sealed.

When they arrived at Mt Weather, Josh wandered off with Raven while Clarke, Costia, Nyko, Maya, Echo and Lincoln took Philip to the medical centre leaving Bellamy and Octavia alone in ith their mom.

"Come on, you two" Aurora said as she hugged her daughter especially tightly; "let us find somewhere private so we can talk without being overheard".

Bellamy, helping to support Octavia, who should still be resting her leg, led them to an empty family room. It didn't take long for both Aurora and Octavia to notice that Bellamy was shaking. It didn't take words, just the raising of two imperious brows to get Bellamy to start talking.

"Mt Weather isn't radiation proof; that's why they needed to carry out so many treatments because the radiation leaked in. It won't be able to save any of us if Praimfaya is as bad as you all say. No matter what happens, we're all going to die anyway. I'm so sorry; I can't save you even with this second chance!" Bellamy was falling apart with the stress.

"Bellamy, you listen to me and you listen good" Aurora was being firm; "Josh is going to help Raven find and seal all the leaks. They are both smart enough to think of a way to check for more leaks, work out why they were leaking and take precautions to make sure no more leaks occur. Got that?"

Bellamy could only nod in agreement: Raven and Josh had the brains and the time to make this place safe. Raven would have to discover Praimfaya soon so that they could get more hands preparing for the cataclysm. He began to calm down; his mom was right, they could do this: there was no point in them being given this second chance if there was no way to succeed, so they would ask the right questions in a timely manner, to get the information and help they needed so save as many people, and animals, as they could. They could do it, he was positive, well, almost positive.

The children from the mountain loved their new home; the idea of sleeping on the floor with all the other children was amazing to them. Carol Turner and Charley Paul were not so enamoured; nor were they as quiet as they could have - should have - been when talking about it.

"You know, if you really don't want to be here that much, you could always give the bone marrow back to the kids who are currently on bed rest recovering from the donations; return to your prison in the mountain, or die of radiation burns" Murphy was snarky as he listened to the two ungrateful women. "You were given an incredible opportunity, something that your people have been killing and dying for and all you can find to say about it is that your beds are not very comfortable. At least you're not sleeping on the floor with a hole drilled in your hip like those who gave you this chance. I came to tell you that we eat a light lunch as and when each person is ready after the lunch bell is rung until the final call bell, a lot eat together but some return to their tents for a bit of quiet, but we all tend to eat dinner together around the fire, youngest and sick served first so we can all catch up with everything going on. Come and grab some lunch when you're ready. Oh, I'm Murphy, by the way; I'm in charge of food preparation so let me know if you have any allergies or particular dislikes so I can make sure there is always something you can eat." At that Murphy, in all his scrawny 16 year old superiority, inclined his head imperiously at the two ungrateful new comers and walked off hoping that neither of them ended up on food prep duty.

Vincent, meanwhile, was having a very informative chat with his new roommate, Beppi.

"Something is going on, isn't it?" Vincent asked. "I know it's something big. I also know that I'm not supposed to say anything, but I can tell from the way you look around that you know more than you're letting on, and Maya, she suddenly started acted differently, more positively as if she had hope and started to tell me that we needed to be prepared, but she would never say for what and then out of the blue, when we have an emergency she tells me that it's time and tells me to put on a hazmat suit and disappears. The next time she sees me she gives me an injection and tells me to go to the quarantine area with certain people, to whom she also gives an injection. She later comes to tell us that we will soon be able to leave the bunker, but that we 11 are the only ones who survived because when Cage Wallace started shooting up in the harvest chamber, Clarke irradiated everyone who didn't get a bone marrow injection. That means that your, I suppose it's now our leader just killed over 370 people and I don't know why."

"I don't know what happened in the harvest chamber" Beppi began carefully; "but I do know that two of our people were killed by the acid fog that came from the mountain; that Clarke, a 17 year old girl who is apparently recovering from having a bullet removed from her liver, is going to have to operate to remove a man's legs because of the same acid fog; I also know that the people from the mountain have captured and killed thousands of our neighbours over the years and that Clarke was sure that we would now also be on your capture target: is any of that incorrect?"

Vincent huffed a sigh. "No, I cannot say that any of that is incorrect. We all knew what was happening, how we were able to recover so quickly from radiation burns" and when he saw Beppi's confused query, Vincent explained: "Blood was taken from the outsiders and swopped with our people's. The outsider died, our people lived. Some refused treatments and died of their injuries, my wife and Charley's husband included, and some would accept the treatments but argued that since we were taking the lives of the outsiders we should at least treat them right instead of keeping them caged up, there was also some who would argue that the savages deserved nothing more than to be kept in cages and that we should also be able to use them for entertainment. Not everyone knew, but some of us knew that they were also experimented on. We were trying to gather intel on that to present to the President to try to at least stop that going on. To be honest, we were fighting a losing battle and, as a people, we had lost most of our humanity. I believe the small number we started with to maintain our population led to a little insanity with the inbreeding."

Beppi thought as he tried to explain how life, and reproduction, worked on the ARC. Vincent couldn't believe that all the people in the camp had, in effect, been sent to die.

"It was a gamble" Beppi admitted, "but it has paid off. Even the worst of the delinquents is grateful to not be dead and is pulling their weight. We have some bitching, shoving and arguments, but no real fights. If there is a problem, it's talked out over our evening meal so everyone knows what's going on and why certain decisions are made. Clarke and Bellamy have no problem with anyone asking for an explanation, or for a change in assignment, or even more supplies. All our concerns are treated with respect and so far no one has seen fit to do anything other than treat Clarke and Bellamy with respect - they have earned it.

"As to something else going on, yeah, you're right. Something big is going down and currently knowledge is held in a very tight circle, but I have no doubt that once you are all settled, all our people have recovered from their injuries and Clarke and Bellamy have had time to draw breath that we will be told at least something about what is going on."

Two days later everyone bar Clarke and Philip returned to camp. (They were being looked after by Nyko and his second.) Word spread that a camp meeting was called for when after the younger children were in bed. They were about to be told what was going on.

"One night, a couple of weeks ago, a group of drunken teenagers sat around the fire and wondered how the ARC could have been so sure that the Earth would be uninhabitable for another 100 years. We realised that it was possible that they just got it wrong - people can make mistakes, it happens, right?" Bellamy said as he looked at the delinquents who were all locked up for making a mistake. "But we also realised that it was possible that they hadn't gotten it wrong and that we were just not party to the full story: a meteorite similar to the one that wiped out the dinosaurs was one suggestion, but our resident genius, Raven" who stood up to take a bow, "suggested that it might be the nuclear reactors blowing since they all have a fail safe for up to 100 years but after that they would be on borrowed time if they were not shut down properly when the bombs fell. We agreed that we would wait until we were able to contact the ARC and try to persuade them to investigate. However, the misfortunes at the mountain meant that she was able to make use of their computers. Raven hasn't been able to carry out a full investigation but she has discovered that radiation levels are rising again and that the mega reactors on this continent were not shut down before the bombs." Bellamy stopped talking to allow everyone to digest the possibilities of what he just said.

"Are we going to die?" Rayne, a very young 14 year old asked.

"Not if we can help it" Bellamy said. "There are a number of possibilities of what might happen. We might be able to work out how to shut down the mega reactors near here; we might be able to adjust to the higher levels of radiation like the grounders did after the bombs; we might be able to repair the Mount Weather bunker to make it radiation proof, although that would only save so many; we might be able to find other bunkers - there surely can't have been only the one built: so yes, we might die, but we are going to do all that we can to make sure that we don't. If anyone is particularly good at computer work, thinks they may be good at welding, report to Raven. For the time being, we plan on making a real peace treaty with the grounders, although we've been told that that won't be a problem now that we have neutralised their greatest enemy; on making sure that the mountain bunker is 100% radiation proof in case we can't stop the increase in radiation; and on trying to contact the ARC. Any more questions?"

"When we first came down here you said the ARC was running out of oxygen" Atom began, a little hesitantly, but on seeing Bellamy's nod of encouragement pushed on, "so what are they going to do?"

It was Raven who answered. "We're going to try to think of ways by which they can conserve oxygen, or make some; "

"Float Factory, it leaks" was shouted.

"No, we don't want to have to ..." Bellamy tried to talk but was interrupted by Raven.

"No, John's right; Factory Station leaks air all the time. If they could move everyone out into the other stations and seal it off; that would buy them a bit more time."

"Okay, we can point out that there is now a load of empty rooms in GoSci that can be used, maybe some of the Council like my Clarke's mom could live in one and open up a family suite, that sort of thing. We also want to get the Commander's agreement to some more coming down here; families, skilled workers that will give us more help in doing what needs to be done here. It is possible that they may be able to land somewhere else, we don't know without further investigation. What I do know, those who live here with us are our people, and Clarke and I will protect our people, all our people. If anyone can think of anything else, let me know."

It was Charley Paul who came up the one answer that the group were waiting for: "Algae" she said. "Algae used to produce around 40% of the Earth's oxygen. If there is a way for your ARC to produce algae it will help with the oxygen."

"Thank you; that is a big help. I'll mention it to a few others to see if they can think of way to get it to the ARC." Raven didn't say that they had already thought of the answer but a few words around the camp soon came up with the answer anyway.

Maya took on the role of nurse. She wasn't asked to do it, in fact she was asked if she wanted to do something else, but she insisted that she wanted to be a nurse and a physician's assistant. It was a job that required her to only help the injured or sick and not have to line up another to die instead of the one being treated. It would also allow for a natural meeting with Jasper if Maya couldn't muster up the courage to start talking to him the few times she was at the camp. Maya's job request was gratefully approved. Molly decided that she wanted to train to be Maya's assistant, someone to allow Maya to have some time off, to stand in when Maya was sick, or when the Med Bay was over run. No one could argue with that logic. Clarke pointed out that they would also need to have a younger person to train and for someone to be willing and able to be trained as a standby for her if they couldn't get a doctor down from the ARC

Charley took over Monty's role of primary botanist (knowing what plants were good for food, medicine or poison) thus allowing Monty to work on the computers. His job was to search for other bunkers, both in north America for the grounders and elsewhere potentially for the people of the ARC, and to try to link (hack) into satellites to track radiation worldwide. Jasper shook his head in disgust at the idea of spending all day working on a computer and felt so sorry for his friend, until he realised that Monty would spend a lot of his time at the mountain along with the really cute new girl, Maya.

Paul worked with Raven, not as a mechanic, more of a really useful handyman who was very happy to turn his skills to anything he was asked to do. He knew the bunker inside out and knew of all the weak spots. He didn't understand why a particular point was liable to leak, Raven tried to explain the reasons for the stress points so he could understand why they needed to do certain things, but for the most part it just went over his head. He was no Sinclair, but Raven came to rely on him, both professionally and as a friend.

Carol worked with Aruora on clothing. She admitted that she wasn't particularly clever, but she could turn her hands to lots of useful things like knitting, weaving and sewing. She found it odd to be working for a teenaged Fox, but since it didn't seem to bother Aurora that her boss was younger than her son, Carol decided not to let it bother her.

Vincent, it turned out, was very good with the children. He became one of the teachers and ended up overseeing the education and apprentice placement of all the under fourteens. He had very useful knack of knowing exactly what someone would be very good at after just a couple of conversations with them. Clarke and Bellamy insisted that everyone should have heredat of ever all round education, but time should be found to help develop None of the former mountain people enjoyed their stints on latrine duty, but given that everyone else had to do it, they soon learned to keep their grumbling fairly quiet. And it was something to help them bond with the others over, the one topic that everyone liked to complain about.

Chapter End Notes

There is a saying that I once heard, no idea where, 'Some people would complain if they were hung with a silken rope' and I kept thinking that some people of the mountain might theoretically know that they should be grateful to the sky people for freeing them from the confines, but would still complain about the less than perfect living conditions that they had as a result. S4 Murphy is great, and I could imagine his snarky responses to people who were complaining, yet in S1 he is still a boy and I mentally combined the two.

Maya will get her reunion with Jasper soon, but it won't be all immediate lovey dovey.

He hasn't been traumatised like he had in canon so is different to one Maya remembers.

Peace Treaty

Chapter Summary

Clarke, Bellamy and Raven travel to negotiate a Peace Treaty with the coalition, and then the gang travel to celebrate its formal signing.

Skaikru get more than they bargained for as a result of the fall of Mt Weather.

Chapter Notes

I know it's not much more than 5 minutes since Clarke undergone surgery and carried out a long and complex surgery on Rhodes, but she is one of the leaders and she needs to be there. What can I say other than she is one tough woman!

See the end of the chapter for more notes

Bellamy and Clarke, accompanied by Raven, Costia, Echo and Lincoln, made their way to Polis for the peace talks with Lexa. Bellamy, Clarke, Raven, Costia and Echo had talked and agreed that it would be premature for Skaikru to join the coalition; it would only lead to the same problems that occurred in the previous life. Being reminded of what led to Lexa having to kill her trusted friend and guard Gustus while he was tied to a post because he thought that Skaikru should not join the coalition, and that Titus killed Lexa in error instead of his intended target, Clarke, brought home how volatile it could be for them to formally join until they got to know each other better. Bellamy did, however, point out that the Commander had broken an alliance before so they needed something to show good faith that she would not do so again if it suited her.

"A signed Peace Treaty witnessed by all the Ambassadors or Clan Leaders is what you need" Costia said. "Lexa cannot go back on her word without being shunned if you have a formal treaty."

It was not an actual guarantee that the Commander would not break the Treaty, but being shunned would be a strong deterrent for her not to do so. Also, as long as Skaikru held the mountain, they knew they would be safe from the grounders, or at least reasonably safe.

At first Indra and Gustus tried to keep Clarke separate from Bellamy, for what purpose neither knew but Clarke refused to talk about anything other than the most benign of pleasantries until she and Bellamy were standing together.

"It is not our way to have two leaders" Lexa tried to point out. "We find that problems occur when the two cannot agree. It is better to have one strong leader than two weaker ones."

Clarke merely raised a brow in astonishment before advising "We have decided that it will be our way to have two joint leaders, each with their own strengths that combine to make an incredibly strong whole. If we disagree we know that we need to think more, or find more information to improve our plans because we know that none of us is perfect. I have skills and know things that Bellamy does not; he has skills and knows things that I do not. We prefer to share the responsibility so that each partner has the time to also enjoy life."

Clarke noticed that Lexa looked a little taken aback at the idea of a good leader being able to enjoy life, as did some of the Ambassadors. Bellamy just smirked at her.

"Before we begin formal peace talks, perhaps you could tell us why we should make peace with you when you crashed uninvited and without warning into our territory?" Lexa asked.

Bellamy and Clarke had prepared for this question so it took only the smallest of eye movement, (noticed only by Lexa, Clarke observed) for Clarke to tell their edited and enhanced tale.

"Just before the apocalypse nearly 100 years ago, 13 space stations from all over the world were circling the earth to learn new things. One of the space stations, Polaris, was headed by a brilliant scientist Becca Franco, a distant relative of our own brilliant Raven." Clarke paused a little for the names to penetrate. "Unfortunately, Becca had done somethings that we believe she came to regret: one she created a serum that could help peoples' bodies to withstand higher levels of radiation, she did that for the crew of a space ship that was being sent to other solar systems to try to find more natural resources because humans had almost depleted the earth's supply. Perhaps she did not regret that one so much since it did not seem to have any adverse side effects except it turned their blood black. We don't think she lived long enough to determine that it could help cure certain diseases like cancer, although this part is not relevant to our story.

"Becca's other main creation was an artificial intelligence, a piece of technology that could attach itself to a person's brain and control their thoughts, their pain receptors, everything that the brain did could be controlled by this Al. This AI was given the primary purpose of saving the world, in other words, Becca wanted it to help humans be less wasteful of the earth's resources, or at least that is what we think. However, the Al came to the conclusion that the best way to save the world was to get rid of all the humans so it initiated the launching of all the nuclear bombs. When Becca realised what the Al had done, she took one of the escape pods from Polaris station, and some of her black blood serum and came to earth. We know she survived the landing and the initial wave of the blasts because one of her friends tried to get the instructions on how to make the black blood serum from her and when she wouldn't or couldn't give it he sent a message to the person we believe to be her sister in space to try to persuade her to give it to him."

This is where Raven butted in with the planned interruption "yeah, I didn't see it but my mom said it was awful, Becca was being burned at a stake like some old fashioned witch execution while Bill's followers were chanting something like 'Blood, blood, we must have the blood.' The idiot didn't realise that the serum could only be manufactured in space 'coz it needs zero gravity."

"Thanks, Raven, for the detour into your delightful family history" Clarke pretended to be sarcastic while The Commander, Flamekeeper and Ambassadors were now hanging on to every word spoken. "Anyway, because the order to launch all the nuclear weapons came from Polaris, they were not allowed to join the other 12 space stations who came together to form the ARC and it was destroyed."

Bellamy took over the telling of their tale. "While we, or rather our ancestors, knew that people had managed to survive the initial blasts it was thought that no one would be able to survive the hardships that were to come - radiation sickness, nuclear winter that would kill all plant life and therefore all animals would die. It was thought that if the radiation didn't kill everyone, then starvation would and that the only humans left alive after a few years would be those in the 12 space stations above the earth. We thought that when we or our descendants came to earth we would be alone.

"We had not planned on returning yet: we thought the earth would need more time to fully recover, but the ARC is dying. Soon there will be no more oxygen for the people to breathe so a small group was sent to see if it was possible for humans to survive on the surface so that the rest of the ARC could also come down. We did not intend to land into someone's territory, we had no idea that there would be anyone down here for us to announce our intentions to; but as soon as we did, we asked for the opportunity to speak to you, to apologise and to seek a way forward to the benefit of all so that we may save our people who will soon suffocate in the sky. That is our story."

Lexa raised a hand to silence the mutterings amongst the Ambassadors and asked "What do you want from us?"

Bellamy continued to be the spokesperson. "Acknowledgement that the territory that previously belonged to the people of Mt Weather should now belong to us" Bellamy had to stop because of the outrage coming from the Ambassadors. Bellamy and Clarke could see that Lexa was torn by that statement so with a nod of encouragement from Clarke, Bellamy raised his voice to be heard. "Perhaps I could finish and then address any questions you have." The mutterings died down.

"We would like, although we could manage without it, but we would like the assistance of a few fleet of foot people to assist us in making sure the acid fog facility is fully shut down so that it can never be set off again, not even accidently. We would also like your acceptance that some more of our people will come down soon. We do not want everyone to come down at once since it will be unmanageable from our perspective, but they will need some help to make and preserve oxygen up there which we hope you will have no objection to us giving.

Because we now know that the lands around her are all claimed, we should like to use the extra time bought for them to try to find other lands that are unclaimed that they could land in so that they do not have the same issues as we are finding ourselves in, any advice that you could give us on that front would be gratefully received. We should also like time to move from our current site so that we can work out the best place to build our new homes etc on the mountain side. It will take time, but the forest will recover from our arrival. We would like agreement that we may trade with individuals or villages without hindrance and be safe from attack from your people. An agreement that if any of yours attack us we will be allowed to defend ourselves without repercussions from the coalition, if it is a few individuals they can be dealt with as individuals, but if a clan attacks then it is a declaration of war with that clan.

We would hope that in those circumstances you would not feel obliged to side with the attacking clan. If we as a clan were to attack one of yours, we accept that the whole coalition would come to their defence."

"What could you possibly have that we would want to trade with?" Clarke recognised the snarky Anya kom Trikru; "and do not say anything about your tek since we have managed fine without it for all this time."

"I believe your Commander has enjoyed the benefits of some of our tech" Clarke noted and all eyes turned to Lexa.

"Yes, Raven had kindly given me a radio that allowed me to speak with people over a great distance. She said that you had planned to offer some as an incentive to a Peace Treaty?" the latter point was said as a question.

"Yes, that was before we gave you the benefit of removing your greatest enemy. That alone shows that we are worthy of being considered allies" Clarke said.

"And what about your healing abilities? Are you willing to trade that?" Lexa asked.

Clarke and Bellamy looked at each other and gave a little smirk.

"You think that is amusing?" Lexa was affronted.

Bellamy answered: "It is an example of what happens when one of us disagrees with the other. I was clear that we should trade our healing skills but Clarke was insistent that they should never form part of a trade agreement."

"And how did you overcome your disagreement?" Lexa was the snarky one that time.

"My ... a member of our team slapped me over the back of my head and said I was a selfish moronic eejit so I immediately realised the error of my ways and agreed with Clarke" Bellamy replied embarrassed.

Lexa looked like she thought there was more to the story. The simple truth is that it was Octavia and Bellamy was about to say "my sister' before he realised that he should not acknowledge Octavia as his sibling. Clarke came to the rescue.

"Don't be embarrassed, Bell. The truth is that it was his mother who pointed out the error of his ways and I'm sure that if it had been anyone else that had done so the epiphany would have taken a lot longer to occur. I believe it is a skill that most mothers develop over time, they never forget, and never let you forget, that no matter your age or what you accomplish, you are always their child."

Clarke allowed a short time for the sniggers to quieten. "No, we will give whatever medical help we can when we can and we will not make it part of a deal. I will teach any healer who wishes to come to me to learn and we will not expect to be paid. If anyone has a need and we can offer aid without it putting our lives at risk, we will give it gratis"

"But I did manage to get agreement to a slight compromise" Bellamy added when Clarke finished speaking. "If, after the help or treatment has been given, the recipient of said aid wanted to offer a small token of appreciation, it would be gratefully received."

"Why after?" Lexa questioned.

"Because we do not want anyone to think that the quality of care that we give is in any way affected by the perceived value of any gifts" Clarke explained.

"What do you mean by perceived value?" one of the Ambassadors asked.

Bellamy answered that one. "If you have lots of hens, the value of one might not be much to you, but to us, who have none, the value is quite high. Let us offer you something that we have that you don't that we could trade" and Bellamy went to take a box from besides Raven, opened it and made several slashes with his knife. He then took a few spoons and offered one to the Commander. "Try this" he said, knowing that one of the Guards would take first bite.

The guard took a sample of the cake and had the strangest look.

"Is it safe?" the guard was asked.

"I think so, Heda" he replied. "Perhaps I should try a piece from somewhere else just to be on the safe side" and he took a piece from another part of the cake. When the guard look at the smirks on the Skaikru faces, he turned a little embarrassed.

Raven took out a pile of small wooded plates and decided to put some of the cake together with a spoon on each plate and passed them out to the Commander and Ambassadors.

Clarke, Raven and Bellamy all started to eat some of the cake.

"Is this the chocolate cake that Costia told me about?" Lexa asked as she took a tentative bite.

"Yep, and she has already agreed to trade some leather for another one" Clarke replied.

"Quite a lot of leather, too" Bellamy added.

"It is good" one of the Ambassadors noted.

"She'll probably trade slices of it to get something she wants" Raven slotted in. "That Costia is crafty when she wants to be. I admire that in a woman." And Raven earned a glare from the Commander that was met with a smiling shake of the head in return.

"So you see, we have radios, which surely would be useful between Ambassadors and their clan Heda to communicate, we have cake, we also have a way of storing food that keeps it fresh for up to a year; we do have things that we could trade that you or your people might want. We wish to be friendly allies, not wary or waring neighbours" Bellamy finished.

Looking around, Bellamy could see that Clarke was starting to wilt. She should not have been standing for all this time. The Commander, seeing Bellamy's concern also studied Clarke.

"Wanheda, Clarke" Lexa spoke, receiving everyone's attention, "how is the man whose legs you removed?"

"I'm very pleased at how well he is recovering. I'm very confident that he will pull through and live an independent and useful life" Clarke replied.

"And what of you? Are you recovered from your cutting open?" Lexa asked.

"No she is not" Bellamy spoke. "She should not be standing for all this time since she still tires easily."

"I am not weak!" Clarke was incensed.

"No" Bellamy agreed, "but you are human. You had to stand for hours to do Philip's surgery when you should have been on bed rest which set your recovery back for weeks. You know that" he insisted.

Clarke sighed. "Bellamy is correct, Commander. I am supposed to be on house rest at the moment so, if I may, I should appreciate it if I could sit down."

Lexa nodded to one of the guards who brought a chair from the outskirts of the room for Clarke to sit on. The chair was uncomfortable and it wasn't much better than standing, but it was a little better. Clarke nodded her appreciation to Lexa.

There was only quiet murmurings as all the cake was eaten. Raven collected the plates and spoons, replacing them into one of the crates they brought with them. Sensing that the time was coming, she turned on the transmitter so that they might be able to hear what was being said when they were asked to leave the room.

"Don't you think that freely giving away your biggest asset is making you appear weak?" was asked by the Azgedan Ambassador: "If your healing skills are as good as we have been told you could get everything you wanted from them alone."

"I think that our actions at Mount Orlan showed that we are not weak" Clarke was cross.

"Mount Orlan?" Lexa questioned.

"I'm sorry, Commander. In honour of the warrior who gave his life to help us free your people and take the mountain, we re-named it after him"' Bellamy explained. "We cannot return his life, but we can honour his sacrifice."

"We value life" Clarke expanded her point. "We will give all necessities that will save lives free and clear and I think we are the opposite of weak for doing that. We do have wants, though, wants that we are currently unable to fulfil ourselves. We will trade wants for wants, we will not trade for needs."

"What if you cannot meet your own needs? Will you expect us to meet them for you?" Anya snapped.

"Of-course we do not expect you to. We hope that you would offer us aid in our time of need as we would offer to you, but we have no expectation, nor do we require reciprocity for any gifts we offer" Clarke tried to keep the irritation out of her voice for being questioned for simply wanting to do what is right. "I admit that I would put my people first and aid would only be given free if it did not put our people at risk. If one of your people needed my skills, and one of my people needed my skills, and it was clear that neither one of them could wait while I healed the other, then it is my person who I would attend to first. But, as the Commander saw in the mountain, the injuries to my people were treated after yours, except for the minor ones that I knew could wait."

"But what of your injury?" Lexa asked. "That one waited until all the others were treated and it was a serious one."

"Yes, but I needed Nyko and Costia to learn as much as possible before they operated on me.

It would have been a lot harder if I had to do it on myself."

"Could you have?" Lexa was sceptical.

"Yes." There was no other possible answer for Clarke to give. "I am strong and determined enough to do what I have to in order to survive, and I will harness that same determination in order to ensure my people survive."

"But what sort of things do you want so that my people feel they are offering something that you truly value?" Lexa asked. Clarke tried to work out why the Commander would phrase the question in that way.

"Swords and knives, bows and arrows if we are to move away from the use of guns to more traditional weapons" Bellamy said.

"Animals that we can breed from, hens, goats, pigs, sheep, medicinal plants, cotton plants, cocoa and coconut plants, rubber plants, lessons in wood carving, Trigedesleng, paper making, weaponry, all sorts of things we need to learn about earth and earth skills" Clarke offered.

"Any bits of old tech that you find might be of use to us, solar panels in particular would be great" Raven said.

"Thank you Skaikru" Lexa said. "The Ambassadors and I will now discuss your requests.

You may rest in an ante-room while we talk."

Once in the ante-room Clarke sprawled out on the most comfortable looking chair and let Bellamy and Raven fight over the other seats.

"Put these ear buds in" Raven said as she passed Clarke and Bellamy the hearing devices and inserted her own.

"Are we really going to let them keep the mountain?" a male voice asked. Clarke translated the trigedesleng.

"I say we insist they totally destroy it" Clarke recognised the voice of the Azgedan as she continued her translations.

Raven and Bellamy pulled out their buds since they were not able to understand the trig.

"That will destroy the medical facilities that they have offered the benefit of to us all" Lexa countered. "I say we agree to everything they have asked, but we also ask for them to destroy their faya guns."

"But how many of their people do they want to bring down now? I say they should total no more than one thousand until we know we can trust them. If they have to come down they must settle away from our territory."

That seemed to result in murmurs of agreement.

"My clan would like to offer them a token of appreciation for destroying the mountain men; we feel that it could only help to be on the good side of Wanheda." Clarke tried to work out which clan that was from, but could not.

"Some of our people do also" said another.

"Perhaps at the signing ceremony they could be given then" Lexa said.

"And we should insist they bring more cake to the signing ceremony" added another.

"Is it true about Wanheda healing our people before hers in the mountain, Heda?" asked a quiet woman unknown to Clarke.

"Yes, there was a hole right through Jant's abdomen. We were so sure she would die but Wanheda just told her to shut up so she could save her life. Two of Skaikru gave some of their blood to make up for some that Jant had lost. Next she treated Glyn who thought he would lose use of his arm but it is almost better now. Only then did she treat one of her own who had a wound in her leg."

"What do you think about their story? Is it true about Becca Praimheda, or is it a different Becca?" Anya asked.

"The story matches that which happened to Becca Praimheda. It does mean that the saying blood must have blood has a different meaning to what we have lived" Lexa replied.

"Perhaps some more talk with this Raven and with Titus and some meditation with the flame would help answer any dilemmas that come from that; but none of it is relevant to the current question. Are we all agreed then?"

There were murmurs signifying agreement.

They had guessed that the issue of their guns would be raised and had previously agreed what they would say so they were happy with the outcome.

A guard came to ask them to return to the Throne room. Clarke slipped her ear bud into a pocket so it didn't risk falling out and raising questions.

"We have agreed in principle to sign a Peace Treaty but there are some details we need to agree" the Commander began. "The first thing is that you will destroy all your fayaguns" Lexa paused hoping to see a reaction from Bellamy and Clarke; she did not. "The second is that although you may live on the mountain, you do not live in it. Thirdly, until we have reached a new agreement, you only bring down more people so that your numbers do not exceed one thousand. Do you agree?"

The glance between Bellamy and Clarke was enough to alert the Commander to the fact that they were not going to agree.

"We will decommission all the guns found in Mt Orlan" agreed Bellamy, "and we are happy if you wish to send an envoy to see that it is done. We will not lose the guns we had previously. Without those weapons we are sitting ducks to you and even to animals since we have only Octavia who is well versed with a sword, Clarke with knives and Harper who is quite good with a bow and arrow. We need the guns to buy us time to learn to defend ourselves with your weapons. So like I said, we will destroy the guns that can shoot many times a second, but not our own. As to living in the mountain; winter is coming. We are not prepared for a winter. Most of us will live outside until the first frost and then move into the mountain for a period of up to four moons, unless there is still frost on the ground and we will move out once that has gone. We do not want to live trapped inside, but neither do we wish to die from the cold. As to the number of people we suggest come down soon, we were thinking that our numbers should be no more than 300 in the short term, maybe 500 a little later. One thousand is more than we anticipate we could assimilate at present."

Lexa looked to the Ambassadors as they began to talk in trig. Clarke could understand, the others could not.

"It is reasonable, perhaps a time line for them to destroy all their guns, Heda?" was suggested.

"If the clothes they wear are an example of how thin their clothing is they will never survive a winter and I have been told they sleep in thin, material tents" Anya said "so I suppose they should not be forced to die outside" which sounded very begrudging. "Let them live in the mountain as long as we know that the acid fog can no longer work."

There were no other comments, so Lexa nodded to indicate the end of the discussion. "We agree to your desire for your guns except that they must all be destroyed after two winters. We will not argue against you living in the mountain once we know that the acid fog can no longer rain down on my people, but we would prefer not to have to visit inside."

"Other than the coldest of days, we will maintain some accommodation outside" Clarke agreed. "The medical facilities are, of course, inside so anyone using them would have to be inside the mountain. As to the guns, we agree for our people that they have a period of six seasons from the time they land to cease all use of guns except for a total of a dozen guards.

That means our current people have until the end of two winters to learn your defence techniques, but new people landing also have a similar length of time."

Lexa nodded her agreement.

"There is one issue that we would like to raise, it is not a condition of the Treaty, but with all the Ambassadors here it is perhaps best to talk about it now" Clarke began.

On receipt of a nod from the Commander, Raven began to talk. "We have discovered that the mountain people had access to a missile silo." The puzzled looks caused Raven to pause and rethink her wording. "A missile silo is a large bunker, underground, from where very large bombs can be sent to anywhere in this land. We do not know where this silo is. We need to be very careful that we do not do anything that could cause the missiles to launch or blow by accident. However, once we do locate it, we should like to send a team to wherever it is to make sure those missiles are decommissioned. We will ask for an escort from the clan on whose land it is."

"Why not just leave them? They have not . launched or blown in all this time?" Lexa hesitated over the unfamiliar terms.

"Because they have been there for over a hundred years and will have been slowly becoming unstable. At some point they will blow; it could be ground tremors, a powerful lightning storm or just a sudden change in atmospheric pressure that could set them off. It might not happen for another twenty years, but it could happen tomorrow. That is why we want to find them. When they blow, if there are three missiles, as we think there are, they will destroy an area the size from Ton DC to Polis around the silo site. If there are more, the destruction will be worse, if there are fewer, the destruction will be less. It is up to you as to whether you want to take the risk. All we know is that they are not near Mt Orlan so we should be fine." Raven made sure to emphasise the point as to whose benefit that request was really for.

"When we meet with the Leaders to sign the Treaty in ten days' time we shall discuss it then.

We shall also then discuss possible land for the rest of your people who will not settle with you' Lexa declared.

Using one of the rovers meant that the journey to Polis only took one day. They were warned, however, that for the actual signing they would need to attend a feast that would last long into the night. Clarke hoped that by then she would have more of her customary strength back so would not look weak to the other leaders, particularly Nia of Azgeda. (And she wouldn't particularly want to appear weak in front of Anya again, either.) Raven used the radio in Mt Orlan to contact the ARC. She told them that the land was inhabited by people who were not too happy at a bunch of people crashing into their land, narrowly missing burning down a village full of innocents and did not want any more to do so. Knowing that the ARC was running out of oxygen it had been agreed that if the ARC could get the shuttle up and running they could use that to bring some people down to stay before winter and return with vats of water and other plants so that they could grow algae everywhere on the ARC to help increase their oxygen while the Grounders considered other areas that could be suitable for the ARC people to live, but that could take a little time. Raven also mentioned the idea of moving the people out of Factory Station and sealing it off, after removing everything that could be repurposed, of course, because it leaks oxygen like the proverbial sieve.

The ARC called together all their experts to discuss the ideas to save and increase their oxygen usage and it was agreed that if a further 250 people could come down very quickly it would be enough to buy them enough time to get through the winter at least. The Farm station were very pleased to find an old algae farm in the GoSci that Raven told them one of the delinquents admitted to seeing when they were somewhere where they shouldn't have been. It gave them the blue print to have more made. The more they could make, the more oxygen they would produce, and algae was a nutritional food source too so it could make sure that there were no food shortages for people to suffer through.

At the next call, Raven raised the issue of the increased radiation and the possible reasons and asked them to investigate what they could. In a private minute while talking with Sinclair Raven managed to ask him to make sure he was one of those coming down. Clearly hearing what Raven was saying, he agreed.

Two rovers with Bellamy, Clarke, Raven, Octavia and the eight pre drop assistants left for Polis for the formal signing of the Peace Treaty. Although it was not actually requested Skaikru took two large chocolate cakes, a light fruit cake and a large coffee cake as a contribution to the feast. Each cake could be cut into 20 good sized portions, but if there were more than 80 people in attendance then the portions would be cut smaller. John, the baker and the one in charge of portioning grumbled that he was the one who had done all the work for the feast but he would be the one who would not have the night off.

Before the formal ceremony, Bellamy and Clarke were given a few minutes to read through the Treaties. Unfortunately one copy was in Trigedesleng and neither of them was supposed to be able to speak let alone read that language, but a quick glance through by Clarke showed that there were some differences between the copies. She didn't know if that was deliberate or otherwise. She called for Echo.

In front of Gustus, who Clarke knew well would report everything said to Lexa, Clarke asked Echo to read and translate aloud what the copy in Trigedesleng said so that she could confirm it was exactly the same as the copy in English.

Two factual differences were found, both would not have been in Skaikru's favour. Clarke, as assisted by Echo made the changes in the Trigedesleng copy and initialled the changes and asked the Commander to also initial the changes. The look on the Commander's face as she stared at Titus was priceless. Clarke correctly assumed that it was Titus who made the changes and that it was not by the Commander's order and wondered if Titus was going to be more deadly in further attempts to undermine the Treaty. 'I bloody hope not' she thought.

"I think that the person who wrote these Treaties shows a remarkable ability to translate and write in both languages" Clarke said making it appear that she thought the errors were accidental. "Although I speak fluent Spanish and French, as well as English of-course, I've never been able to master the ability to write them as fluently as I speak. And now neither language is useful. I hope that I, and many others from our kru, are soon able to speak your language as well as you speak ours."

The formal part of the ceremony was for Titus to read out the Treaty in Trigedesleng before the Commander signed both copies, and for them both to be signed by Bellamy and Clarke, before being signed as witnesses by all the Leaders of the clans except Flokru who were represented by their Ambassador. Clarke remembered that Titus wanted Luna to be hunted and killed by a traitor's death for abandoning the conclave, Lexa compromised by banishing her from Polis.

Once all the signatures were completed, a toast was offered by Lexa to new friends, while Bellamy replied on behalf of Skaikru.

Then one of the clans announced that they wished to present Skaikru with small tokens of appreciation for the destruction of the mountain. Yujledakru leader said that they were not close to the mountain so were generally free from the terror it wrought, but over the years seven of their clan were taken and killed by the mountain. Seven people came out each carrying two plants, one cotton and one coconut. Then seven children each carried a chicken: six hens and one cockerel, perfect for breeding.

"We were not able to gain vengeance for our lost people. Thank you for doing so" their leader said.

Clarke had tears of appreciation running down her face. "This is so overwhelming. We can't thank you enough for these gifts; they mean so much to us; thank you."

Ouskejonkru said that eleven of its clansmen were released from the mountain, and one died.

One of the eleven released had been injured and was the leader's son. "I cannot give enough to offer fair recompense for all you have done. We hope this will be enough" and 11 goats and one stallion were brought through.

Clarke and Octavia immediately went to the horse, to admire it.

"He is utterly magnificent" Clarke breathed. "I feel that you are being too generous, although not even the finest animal can compare to the pleasure we received from freeing your people.

Thank you. We will make sure that they are treated well."

And it went on with each clan offering something to Skaikru: Pelts from many animals from Azgeda, (Nia's smile appeared nowhere near her eyes); swords and knives, from Podakru; more plants, medicinal Clarke thought, from Louwoda Kliron and more yet from the Trishanakru; fishing nets from Floukru; two more stallions from Ingranronakru (Clarke thought that they would be charged a great deal for some mares at some point); three large crates full of old tech from the Sankru; Delphikru solved the mare problem by offering two mares; Boudolankru offered six saddles, there had clearly been some collusion; and then, finally Lexa spoke.

"Before I offer the gifts that I have chosen for you, I wish to ask, why did you wait and offer to save the civilians in the mountain before you released the air? Two of my people died who might have been saved if you released the air immediately."

Clarke looked horrified, and for a brief moment there was a flash of satisfied interest in Queen Nia's eyes, not that Clarke was aware enough to notice it. "The three people held automatic weapons, guns that can fire five or more bullets per second. If all three were to fire, even after I pulled the lever then there would be a lot more than two people dead. I hoped that at least one of them cared enough about someone in the mountain to put down their gun. The fact that two people lowered their weapons, and the one who did fire took the time to kill his own people before turning to shoot at the cages meant that a lot fewer people died than would have done otherwise. It was a gamble, yes, but although I am sorry that you lost two of your people, if I hadn't taken that risk, it is very likely that you would have lost a lot more and there would have been more severe injuries to treat."

Lexa looked almost proud. Clarke guessed that the Commander had known that there was a good reason for giving the option to surrender to the people in the mountain. Lexa then indicated that someone bring through the gifts she had prepared. "Trikru did not wish to offer something as a clan, they feel that allowing you to stay and not killing you all on sight is showing sufficient gratitude" Lexa said with a smirk towards Anya, Clarke only laughed;

"but I know that the individuals freed wish to offer personal tokens of thanks later. My personal tokens of thanks are to you, Wanheda for the care and dedication you showed towards all my people while you carried out this battle and in the immediate aftermath."

Inside one of the wooden boxes was a beautiful carved chess set. There were slight differences in the pieces indicating that they were done by hand, possibly a number of different hands. "Costia told me that you like this game and asked for assistance from one of your people to design the set. I have Becca Praimheda hum in satisfaction at the idea of playing and I know she would like it if you could teach me the rules."

Clarke could only nod in agreement, but knew that it wouldn't be long before the Commander would need a much better opponent than she was - perhaps if Wells came for a visit he could offer to play.

The other gift was a large crate that when opened was shown to be full of books. All of Skaikru exclaimed over the contents; handling them reverently as they carefully opened them to look at the words. Clarke heard a muttered "we know what to bring as gifts that they want now" and knew that they would receive more books in the future.

"Your gifts to us are overwhelmingly generous. We thank you so very much. They will all be treasured" Clarke said.

"They most certainly will' Bellamy added. "We are in your debt, thank you." "As you said previously, gifts are given freely with no requirement for reciprocity. We are even" the Commander insisted.

Through it all Queen Nia stared with cold hatred at Lexa, and occasionally sent an equally vicious glance Clarke and Bellamy's way. They would need to be careful of Azgeda.

The next day, bellies still full from all the food they had eaten, head's aching from all the wine they had drunk, Skaikru, minus Zoe, Fox and Harper who kept an eye on the goats, headed back to their camp. Some would return with two trucks for the items they couldn't fit in the rovers. Clarke and Octavia decided to ride home on their new horses while leading the others. The goats would ride in one of the trucks, and Clarke didn't envy the person whose job it would be to load them!

Once everyone and everything was back at their camp - now a little more crowded with the new menagerie, they began to prepare for the arrival of more people from the ARC.

Chapter End Notes

As a general rule, missile silos are located in the middle of nowhere and I know that Raven would be able to locate the one controlled by Mt Weather, but they want to pay their cards close to their chest and try to get more of a feel for which of the clans are more likely to play nicely.

I know canon had no shuttle, but with 12/13 space stations all linked together I don't believe for one minute that there wouldn't be at least one shuttle. I picture it a bit like a concorde - sleek rather than stout. Skaikru Gets Bigger

Chapter Summary

More people from the ARC come down to join Skaikru, some are more welcome than others.

Chapter Notes

See the end of the chapter for notes

Atom and Stirling were in charge of building the huts for people to live in on the mountain.

Their exact location was approved by Raven because she wanted to be able to hook up rudimentary running water, even though it would only be two months before they would fall back into the mountain to live through winter.

There was a large fire pit at the centre of the village with a grill for limited outdoor cooking and eating and a communal hall with some roughly hewn tables and benches. Latrines, sex segregated, were built so that those outside would not need to go into the mountain if they accepted the primitive facilities. The huts were of various sizes and could be partitioned if appropriate. There would not be enough for everyone, but Bellamy had assured them that the main aim was to get through winter and then worry about longer term issues in spring. The possibility of another apocalypse was clearly weighing on their minds.

Two sleeping huts were built that would be as insulated and waterproofed as much as possible so that someone could sleep outside in all but the worst winter's nights. Fox had already been charged with ensuring that there a few sets of clothes for those outside that would keep them warm.

Back at the drop ship site, Mbege was supervising the building of two new dormitories. The one that the under 12s currently slept in would be used by those under ten, another would be used by the 10 to 12 year olds and the third by the 13 to 15 year olds. Sixteen and 17 year olds had to share a tent with two or three others of the same sex. They knew that there would be some married couples coming down who would want their own quarters but until they had the full list it was difficult to do too much planning.

Those who were working in the mountain spent most of their nights there so it was agreed that their accommodations in the camp would be surrendered, and Clarke and Octavia agreed to give up their tent and sleeping bags and would make do with what they could find on nights they were there. Maya's bed was put in with her dad and Beppi since it was clear that Philip would not be returning to the site and she would only need a bed there occasionally since she spent most of her time looking after Philip (and Clarke on the rare occasions that she let her) in the mountain. Back on the ARC work was progressing on preparing their only shuttle for the return trip.

There would be 300 people on board going down, 50 of whom would return with vats of water, pots of plants and other things that the Council had been assured would help make their lives better while they stayed in space awaiting their time on earth.

The few remaining delinquents had all been moved a section of the prison that was sealed from the rest. Abby had taken Clarke's slightly sarcastic suggestion and had moved into Clarke's old cell. Even though she could leave the room any time she wanted, it brought home to Abby just how lonely Clarke had to have been during her time in solitary, something she had not thought of before because Clarke had always been a bit of a solitary child.

Thelonious and Wells had taken three adjoining cells, two to be bedrooms and the one in the middle to be their living quarters. David Miller would have taken another until it was agreed that he would be one of the 250 to remain on earth and join Skaikru.

Thelonious made a public announcement to all the residents explaining about the oxygen problem and the solution of the earth asking for volunteers to go there. He said that they would not split families so first choice would go to parents of children already there, and to whole families or unattached people. None of the Council would be able to go. He didn't say that the reason no members of the Council could go was because they would not agree to being led by Bellamy Blake and Clarke Griffin and that they would need to make a different settlement when they found a suitable place to colonise.

People who wished to go to earth were told of the people who already lived there and about the Treaty that had been signed, adding that when the rest of the ARC came down they would be required to settle in a different area and so would not be joining those already there. They were also warned that Bellamy Blake and Clarke Griffin were in charge and that temporarily, accommodations would not be as comfortable as those on the ARC. Those who thought that their accommodations on the ARC were pretty uncomfortable couldn't understand how that could possibly be the case and regarded the settlement of the ARC in another area as a positive rather than the negative that Thelonious seemed to think that it was.

A lot more than 250 wished to go down to earth so each Head of Department was told to meet together to select those going and those staying as a group to make sure that a balance of skills, both on the ARC and on earth was kept and that given the possibility of the earth's imminent demise once again, to make sure the balance of necessary skills stayed with the ARC, but that more longer to live people went to the earth unless they had necessary skills required for the ARC. Those who had no particular skills would be chosen by the Council to make up the numbers.

The only times that discussion was required before agreement was when Sinclair chose himself to go and Kyle Wick to remain and Abby chose Jackson to go and herself to remain.

Sinclair said it was because Kyle was already almost as good an Engineer as he was and would only improve with time, especially with Thelonious to guide, whilst he was at the top of his own game and would only become less effective over time. Abby said that she would have time to train another Eric Jackson, who had just completed his training, but there would be no time to train another her, and the 2,000 remaining on the ARC needed her skills more than the few hundred on the ground. She did, however, ask if she could be one of the 50 who would go down but return so that she would have the opportunity to talk to Clarke about her decision.

It was pointed out that once the shuttle was ready it would need a long smooth runway on which to land and take off, something that was not currently available. If the old runway was found to be in a reasonable condition underneath the land reclamation of the old Washington Dulles airport it was thought that would be the best place to land, mainly because it was closest, and they had a good relationship with Trikru. It would mean that there would need to be an agreement about free movement of people and vehicles until everyone was either with the camp or on Mt Orlan, or they were back in space. If that did not prove acceptable, the next best option was the old Kennedy Space centre in Florida which was Yujleda territory and a lot further away.

Luckily, Raven declared that the runway at Dulles was, with a little work, acceptable. Anya agreed that the shuttle could use that area provided Skaikru provided a cake slice for each of the Skaikru people who be travelling through her territory; that included the Skaikru who were already on land but would be travelling through to either prepare the landing strip or to escort them to their new homes.

"If we can clear the trees between the runway and our camp to make a clear path for our vehicles, why don't we just give you 20 large cakes that can each be cut into 20 good portions so that we don't have to keep track of who comes and goes?" Clarke suggested.

"Would that be acceptable to you?"

Anya smirked at Clarke agreeing to the offer but added "If you need any of my warriors to assist, that will be extra!"

Clarke could only laughingly agree, and decided not to use Trikru unless absolutely necessary. Murph was already going to have a fit at having to produce all the cakes. Luckily, as long as they had the ingredients, they were not actually difficult to prepare so a lot of the work could be left to the junior cooks.

It turned out that many of the Trikru freed from the mountain cages wished to do something to help Skaikru as their small tokens of thanks for their freedom. When Clarke was told of that she suggested that each give one day of work for Skaikru. Anya said that it was too little and would insult those offering. Clarke then said one day before winter, and three days after winter when Skaikru would need the help most. That was finally deemed acceptable.

It took only half a day to clear and prepare the runway with the help of 40 former Mt Weather captives. They insisted that they must do more work. Their other half day was spent felling and de branching trees that would be pulled to Mt Orlan to help build homes after the winter, or that was what they were told (since they would be used to help build homes after the nuclear winter that was approaching it wasn't really a lie.

The day of the shuttle's landing finally arrived. Trikru people were warned to stay well clear of the runway to avoid burns. All the vehicles at Skaikru's disposal, plus Octavia and Clarke on the two strongest horses arrived waiting to greet the new arrivals. Large barrels of water had been loaded onto the trucks and would be secured in the shuttle by those waiting to be moved since it would take at least five round trips to get everyone at their new destination.

They didn't know everyone who would arrive, they were only told broad details, although Clarke did know that Wells would arrive but would be leaving to return to the ARC. She hoped that Wells would be brave enough to ride with her on the horse back to the camp.

Many Trikru watched as the 300 Skaikru disembarked the enormous birdlike monster. Each was carrying a bag, some holding the hand of a child as they stared around them with fear and awe. It was late summer, early autumn, but still warmer than the ambient temperature on the ARC. Clarke didn't wait for everyone to disembark before she got amongst them and started to direct them to the vehicles.

"Wells!" Clarke called, "are you up to ride on a horse with me back to our camp?" Wells was taken aback because he thought that Clarke still hated him. He then heard:

"Mother, I didn't know you would be coming down: you're not on the list." Clarke had realised who it was that turned Jake in.

"Clarke, baby, no I'm not staying. I wanted the chance to see you, talk to you" Abby was hesitant, sensing that the reunion would not go as she had expected.

"Why? If you wanted to see and talk to me you could have done that at any time I was in prison but instead you chose to leave me in solitary to almost lose my sanity after you had been the one to put me there. If you wish to view our medical facilities I shall arrange for you to have the tour with Jackson. Maya, our nurse will be leading it. Excuse me, I have people to greet."

Clarke went to talk to the pilot, Kyle Wick. She remembered him from the previous life and had liked the guy. He said he was stoked to have the opportunity to fly and couldn't wait to do it again, and then again when bringing more people to earth. He introduced Sinclair, who Clarke recognised again.

"I think I've met you before" Clarke said to Sinclair to try to cover for the feeling of familiarity.

"Well, yes you have. I am surprised you remember since you were not that old when your dad used to bring you to Engineering. The ARC sure does miss that man, and I'm sorry about what happened to him, to you too."

Clarke smiled at him. "Not your fault, but more is coming back to me. I can fit what I remember, what my dad told me and what Raven has said about you all into one picture now and I have to say that I feel that I know you quite well already!" Sinclair and Kyle said they would supervise the loading of the barrels and the unloading of the little cargo they were able to fit while Clarke and her people moved some of the newcomers to their new homes. Clarke was not to worry since Abby would make sure that everyone was calmly awaiting their turn to leave the airport. Clarke didn't worry since she would be staying at the airport until the last Skaikru had left and she would be making sure all was well, not Abby.

Seeing the uneasy looks they were giving the Trikru Clarke laughed at them. "They are only come he in midate on so you koo wo who is bos, don teal, arios as sad Havenya,

Anya's scowl turned even fiercer looking as she ambled over to Clarke and the two men.

"I do not like tek" Anya said to them in greeting.

"I don't either when it doesn't do as I want it" replied Sinclair diplomatically. "But it does obey me a whole lot more than some people do" he made a pointed look at Kyle.

"Then get rid of the people" Anya offered.

"Why do you think I am leaving him to return to the ARC while I stay in this beautiful land?" Anya looked at Kyle who tried to smirk charmingly at her but couldn't hide the fear when she said "I would have just killed him" and walked off.

"She was only joking, right?" Kyle asked. Clarke smirked and shrugged her shoulders.

Seeing that just about everyone had disembarked Clarke took control.

"Everyone listen up" she shouted. "We will take you all back to the camps we have but it will take time so please be patient. As you see some of our neighbours have come to meet you. I assure you they will do you no harm and I trust that you will respect them. This is their land that we are on and they are doing us a favour by allowing us to use it. The first people to be taken to their new homes are the families with young children under ten, please make sure you have your personal belongings with you and make your way to the trucks."

People were milling about; some moved hesitantly to the trucks, never having been in one before; some never having even seen one in movies before. The children were less afraid then the adults about these new situations.

Clarke saw one of the guards reach for his shock baton - they had insisted that no guns be brought down. Immediately Clarke grabbed his arm and took the baton from him.

"Why don't you go and collect all the batons and bring them to me? They will not be needed here" Clarke suggested.

"Miss Griffin I presume, there is a crowd of frightened people, we need to keep control" he tried to take his baton back from Clarke.

"And we will keep control by being calm and in control of ourselves. Collect all the batons, guardsman ...?"

"Shumway, Commander" he offered and Clarke immediately knew she had to be very careful and make sure that he had no access to a radio. "Guardsman Shumway, I don't know if you are one of the Guards staying down here, or returning back to the ARC, but Bellamy Blake and myself are in charge of the people from the sky while they are on earth. The only titles used are that of Chief and the Chief Guardsman is David Miller. If you or anyone else needs to use force to keep people calm then I assure you that you have failed. Now, for the final time, collect all the shock batons and bring them to me, let me grab someone to assist you."

Clarke called for Octavia to assist Guardsman Shumway to collect all the batons. Octavia remembered exactly what Shumway had done in the previous life just as well as Clarke and knew that she would need to watch him closely all the time he was with them. Luckily for Octavia, Lincoln had not left her side so he was able to present a suitably intimidating figure to the traitorous guard.

Marcus Kane walked up to Clarke and asked if she was sure she was doing the right thing.

Clarke gave Kane the same speech she gave Shumway and thanked him for not trying to undermine her authority.

"You and Blake are in charge down here. When we all come down we want smooth, even if geographically distant, relations between us. Shumway was warned who the leaders were when he chose to come down to settle but I don't think he realised how hard he would find it.

Blake, a former cadet, might have real trouble with him so I'd watch out if I were Blake." Clarke realised that Kane had a point and resolved to keep a special eye out for trouble.

Then Clarke caught a glimpse of another person she was not happy to see: Charles Pike. He stood alone, staring at the Trikru who were there with distrust and anger. Clarke didn't know how well he would take to being led by her and Bellamy, she would find out later and take any action necessary to make sure that the peace was maintained; both within Skaikru and between the clans.

The first batch of new arrivals were taken to the drop ship site where they were greeted by Bellamy and warned that it was their temporary home only until they were better prepared at Mt Orlan. The second batch, made up of the medical and farmers were taken to the Mountain to be greeted by Monty, thrilled to see his parents again, Jasper who was the general host and Raven who introduced Maya as their resident nurse.

Both Eric Jackson and Abby were amazed at the progress of Philip Rhodes and wondered if Clarke had been too premature in amputating his legs. When they saw the damage done to his guts and internal organs they couldn't believe he was still alive. He would always need a colostomy bag and a catheter. Maya said that Philip was gaining strength in his arms so that he could be totally independent once Raven had finished customising his chair, and would soon be taking care of all his personal needs himself.

"But why go to all that bother for a man so clearly dying?" Abby asked. "Why not just let him die with his dignity intact instead of keeping him living like this?"

Raven and Maya didn't know which of them was more shocked. The woman who asked this was the woman who gave birth to and raised Clarke. How was it possible that both could be doctors, yet be on opposite ends of the spectrum when it came to patient care? "He's our best shoe maker" Raven said as if that alone was a good enough reason.

"Ben, his son, says he still gives the best cuddles" Maya said as if that alone was a good enough reason.

"Because when I was questioning Clarke's commitment to making sure Ben gets all the help he needs Clarke promised me that every member of her people would get the best care she could offer them" Philip said tired of them talking about him as if he wasn't there. "My son wanted me to live, so I wanted to live, so Clarke promised to do all she could to make sure that I live. At every point Clarke told me what the risks were and asked me if I wanted to carry on. I have been treated with care and dignity by Clarke, Maya, Nyko and Costia who have helped take care of me, and by everyone else who has come to see me, except for you."

Abby was so taken aback that her medical competence appeared to have been called into question by this man who had gone against all her advice and carried on with a child who would only grow up to be a drain on resources.

"And what about your son? Who will be looking after him?" Abby asked.

Raven snorted her amusement and Maya just smiled.

"Ben is perfectly happy with all the other children who have no parental figures available. He has his job, which he is teaching to Carrielee, one of the youngsters who used to live here, so that there is always someone to ring the wakeup bell" Philip said. "I admit I was worried when Bellamy and Clarke said everyone would have a job, but they made sure that Ben was made to feel as valuable as everyone else and I know that he will always feel valuable with them in charge."

Abby was feeling very chagrined at how Clarke was clearly the top dog now and she wasn't even 18 yet. Then they discovered that not only was Beppi Mkembi still alive, but was apparently well again.

"Yeah, he and my dad have struck up a good friendship" Maya said. "Beppi started to get well after Clarke did a bone marrow transplant for him."

"Why would Clarke waste limited supplies on carrying out a bone marrow transplant?" Abby asked.

Maya and Rhodes shook their heads in disgust. "She clearly didn't think it was a waste"

Maya said. "Clarke will always try to do what she can to save who she can."

Eric and Abby could find no fault with the way the medical facility was run. They did however question Maya's announcement that Clarke and Bellamy had decreed that everyone, Grounders or Skaikru, who needed medical attention would be treated to the best of their ability without looking to rations or ability to pay. Everyone had agreed to be a blood donor and could be called upon at any given time to donate, knowing that their health would not be put at risk. The farmers were in clover looking at the facilities in the mountain. Monty reminded them that they didn't rely only on the hydroponic farm for sustenance, but they also had some live animals for eggs and milk (and meat when their time came) and that fresh meat and vegetables were often brought in from the forest. It was John Murphy who would direct the farmers to grow what crops since he was in charge of food, as long as it didn't go against what Clarke wanted grown for medicinal purposes, or what Zoe wanted for fabric to make clothing and bedding.

"There will probably be a team set up to oversee the farm now that we have one. I don't know who will have overall responsibility. Clarke and Bellamy will sort it all out later. Just keep growing what you think in the meantime and let Clarke or Bellamy know if there is something you think we should grow but don't have the plants for at the moment and they might be able to trade for some" Monty finished.

Back at the airport Clarke was talking to Anya. She pointed out Pike and Shumway and said that they were two people whom she didn't trust to be loyal to Skaikru.

"I will keep a close eye on them, and if necessary eliminate them" Clarke said. "You will need to watch them if they come into your orbit. If they do something that results in their deaths we will require nothing more than an explanation."

Anya looked at Clarke with more respect than she was want to and simply nodded.

Wells walked up to Clarke and Anya and introduced himself.

"Wells is the best chess player I know, so I'm hoping he'll have a chance to play the Commander while he is here" Clarke said. "The Commander did say that she was hoping to have the chance to welcome the new members of Skaikru to earth, so perhaps then."

Anya looked at Wells as if to pay attention to him for the first time but Clarke was well aware that Anya would have already noted the calm young man and have taken in the fact that he was respected but disliked by most of those who came down. She would also have seen that Wells was aware of the mistrust but that he did not let it reflect in his behaviour. It was the sort of stoicism that Clarke knew Anya would respect.

Once the last of the people leaving by vehicle were gone, the cargo brought down was loaded onto the truck beds all was ready for the final journey of the day.

Most of the Trikru had trickled away once they realised that they would not see anything stranger than the clothes that Skaikru wore. Clarke bade Anya farewell, and thanked her once again for allowing them to use her land. Anya just reminded Clarke that she was still owed 12 cakes.

Lincoln, astride one of Skaikru's stallions named Poseidon, Octavia astride another which she had named Helios, with a very nervous Finn sat behind her, and Clarke riding the third stallion named Triton with a stoic Wells sat behind her all set off for Mt Orlan. In deference to their passengers, they moved at a brisk walk, taking much longer than it would have done travelling by truck.

Lunch, which was eaten during a brief stop, was some deer jerky and an apple each. Both Finn and Wells commented on how delicious the food was. Lincoln looked baffled by such statements.

Octavia snorted "if you think this is delicious just wait until you taste your main meal. Murph has planned a special menu for the days the visitors are down here with the intention of ending you back to the ARC wishing you could have stayed. I think he is taking too much leasure from the idea that he gets to make some of the higher ranked Arkers jealous. To be onest, everything tastes better down here."

Clarke who had lived off Alpha fare which was better than the food anywhere else on the

IRC could only agree.

Laven gave Finn an exuberant hug in welcome and warm two handed hand shake to Wells.

Abby was nowhere in sight and Clarke just knew that it meant she was in the proverbial loghouse.

Mindful of Charlotte's previous murder of Wells, Clarke ensured that Wells was never left unaccompanied. To give Wells, Finn and Kyle the full earth experience, they shared the their accommodation outside the mountain with Clarke, Raven and Octavia (although, to be honest, Octavia was more often than not to be found somewhere else with Lincoln, which also kept her away from Abby who might question who Octavia was). They all agreed that it was surprising how cold it got at night and could understand why a group would sleep together to share body warmth. Luckily, at no point did it ever move even in the slightest bit away from being platonic.

When they had a few moments to talk alone, Wells confessed that when heard about the plan to send a dropship to earth and that Clarke would be on it he had tried to think of ways he could ensure that he was on it too so that he could be there for Clarke in what he thought would be her hour of need.

Clarke snorted. "That would not have been a good idea to put you with 100 delinquents. The son of the man perceived to be responsible for the deaths of their loved ones, the man who made an announcement telling us that we're expendable; no it's a good job you changed your mind."

"It was Kane. I don't know what he saw but he said he knew I was planning something and that it would not end well for anyone. Besides Blake and Reyes were responsible for choosing who would go and it was doubtful that they would choose me over someone else. I could only agree with his assessment, and what you just said confirmed it."

"I think we have enough control that it would be safe for you to stay now, if you wanted to" Clarke offered. "Or maybe wait until the next batch come down if there is another batch to stay with us."

"We'll see. We could play chess by radio. It'll drive you crazy" Wells spoke the truth so Clarke told him that he could play with the Commander instead.

There was no doubt that earth food was so much better than ARC food. The adults who had balked at sleeping in tents thought that the food more than made up for it, and the children all thought that sleeping in a large room with all the other children didn't need to be made up for.

They were sad when they were told that when they moved into the mountain they would go back to living in family type accommodations; which reminded Clarke that they needed to consider how best to ensure that all the orphans were matched with suitable guardians. It was something that she thought Aurora, Beppi, Molly and Vincent could probably take responsibility for, and would probably do a damn fine job of it, too.

The water vats were filled and secured on the shuttle. Some medicinal plants had also been stored safely. The fleshiest part of ten deer and ten boars (some traded from Trikru) were wrapped and secured, and over 2,000 apples were picked and packed. There was enough meat and fruit for everyone on the ARC, regardless of station to have a little taste of earth.

All that was left was to say goodbye to those leaving.

It was poignant for Clarke to see Wells leave with a smile on his face and the words that he was proud of her in her ear. She hoped that he would stay with them eventually; he would make the perfect Ambassador. Hugging her mother goodbye was awkward. Clarke did love her mom but she was so disappointed that the love was not reciprocated in a way acknowledged Clarke as a successful woman in her own right. Clarke wondered if Kane and Abby would get together in the new life as they did in the previous and was slightly disappointed that she wouldn't get to know Kane as well as she had previously.

Chapter End Notes

Why in canon did Abby not visit Clarke every day while she was in solitary? It's not as if Clarke could tell Abby something that she didn't know, and solitary is classed as cruel.

That is something that always bothered me, and that Clarke didn't hate her mother for it as well as her father's death.

I know it's not clear in the chapter, but Finn stays. I have no idea what I'm going to do with him yet, a few thoughts are bubbling, but nothing is hitting me with enough force to want to use it - any ideas?

I have decided on Bellamy's romantic/matrimonial future and I'm afraid it's like nothing I have read about before so no Becho or Belarke - sorry for those wanting either of those ships. I've not yet settled on Clarke or Echo's future, or even Ravens. Hmph, I better get thinking since it is a lot to sort out. Troubles Ahead

Chapter Summary

Some people are not very happy about the way Clarke and Bellamy run Skaikru and want to change things.

Chapter Notes

Tho aphermay be inhis apresting top read who salinsever allergies, or know

See the end of the chapter for more notes

With the help of some Trikru, the vents for the acid fog were found and blocked off. Raven did say that if necessary they could blow the blockages since they were more for show for the Trikru than substance, but she hoped she was never required to.

More external housing was built on the mountain side, and running (cold only) water was arranged so that some degree of comfort was added. Most of the newcomers wanted to move into the internal housing as long as the doors were open, or at least unlocked, so they could leave at any time, as did Aurora, Beppi, Molly and those originally from the mountain, except for Maya. The younger children didn't want to move inside but they had to do what their parents' wanted. For the first time ever, the orphans were looked on with envy.

It didn't take long for the drop ship site to be completely vacated by Skaikru, with agreement by Anya that they could return to remove more from the wreckage if necessary.

All the shock batons were stored in medical (one was put with each First Aid kit that went out with every hunting and gathering party) and the guns could only be held by guards who were actively on patrol, including those guarding the hunters and gatherers. This decree did not go down well with Shumway and his two fellow guards that came down. They made sure that their views were heard and that some of the other adults (including Pike) were on their side. It was difficult to know exactly how many were thinking of rebelling but both Clarke and Bellamy thought that they needed to nip the situation in the bud.

A meeting was called of all adults aged 16 and over. It meant that three 15 year olds were outside patrolling and four 14 year olds watching the monitors. In front of their people Bellamy and Clarke took to a small stage and called order. "When you chose to come to earth you knew who would be in charge; that is correct, yes?" Bellamy began. There were some murmurs of agreement. "You knew that it would be different to life on the ARC; correct?" Once again there were some murmurs of agreement.

"So we need to know, specifically, what it is about the way we run things that you are unhappy about. So now is your opportunity, speak now, raise your hand and you will have the chance to speak about things you would like to change. Come on, don't be shy, you've been talking all week about unhappy you are, so now is your chance to raise the issues in a fair way that could lead to change. Pike, I know you have a problem or two so tell us, now" Bellamy pressed

"I think it is completely ludicrous that we are led by a former guard cadet and a teenaged delinquent, a traitor no less, and we should call for an election of a new, proper leader" Pike stated to some cheers.

Since you knew the situation previously, why did you choose to come down?" Clarke asked.

"Because I knew that you would not be able to keep order for long and would need some sensible intervention to help look after all our people" was the response.

"But we are keeping order; it is you who is undermining things. We have a home for everyone, we have food for everyone, we have no rationing of healthcare, we have a treaty with our neighbours. What is it that we have done that you are not happy about, or what more can we do to make things better for us?" Clarke persisted.

"You can cancel the Treaty with those savages for starters. We should not need to ask for permission to bring more of our people down to earth" Pike said to fewer cheers then he thought he might get with that statement.

"You do realise that without that Treaty you would not have been able to land here. You would all have been stuck on the ARC with the shortage of oxygen and no way of making more and the inevitable resulting culling. Sure, more drop ships could have come down but they are one way vehicles and not enough places for everyone so, again, death on the ARC.

The drop ships could land anywhere, and without the Treaty the dropships' people would be treated as invaders and everyone could be killed on sight, if they landed in territory belonging to savages that is. These so called savages saved my life; these so called savages have helped provide food and water to go up to the ARC for our people; these so called savages have given us so many gifts, the horses, goats, chickens, medicinal plants for starters. I'm not saying they are perfect, but then neither are we. The leaders of the ARC kill people who take medicine for their children, kill people who hit back at someone who attacks them, lock children up because their parents did something wrong, sent children and some adults down to the earth when they thought they were probably going to die because in their words they were expendable. I know who I think are the savages and it's not our neighbours." Clarke's words were met with loud cheers.

"A vote" Bellamy called, "all those in favour of cancelling the Treaty with the coalition raise your hand."

A total of 11 hands were raised. "All those in favour of keeping the Treaty raise your hand." Bellamy looked around and didn't bother counting. "Motion denied by an overwhelming majority. Next issue."

This time it was Shumway who spoke. "Why can't all the guards carry their guns, or at least their shock batons, all the time?"

"Because you don't need to" Bellamy answered. "If you don't carry it you can't discharge it at the wrong time and get yourself into trouble."

"We are trained guards!" Shumway protested. "I am a Commander, and it's ludicrous that not only am I not armed all the time, but I have lost my command."

"Has there been any trouble that would have been easier to deal with if you had been armed?"

Bellamy asked.

"No, but."

"How about we arrange for all guards to receive training in unarmed combat, to focus on restraint? Will that make you feel better?" Bellamy asked.

"Not a lot, no."

"Chief Miller, have there been any problems with the guards only being armed while out on patrol?" Bellamy persisted.

"No, the only problems have come from the guards spending time moaning about it instead of doing their jobs. I do like the idea of training in unarmed defence, though, thanks" Miller replied.

"Okay, another vote" Bellamy called. "All those who want the guards to be armed all the time raise your hand". Only eight hands were raised. "All those who want the guards to continue to be armed only when out on patrol raise your hand." Once again the decision was clear. "Motion denied by an overwhelming majority. Other issues?"

"What's this I heard about us all having to be blood donors?" one voice shouted from the middle of the crowd. This point gained some disgruntled mutters.

Since Medical was Clarke's area she took over. "No one has to be a blood donor" and there was lots of relief. "If you have an objection to it then let us know in medical and your file will be noted that there are objections to blood donation and will never be called to give some, nor will you accidently be given a donation."

"I don't mind giving blood for my fellow Arkers" said Pike, "but I don't want it going into the savages that you treat."

"First of all, refer to our neighbours as savages again and you will be on report. It is disrespectful and incorrect, and if said to the wrong person could lead to trouble, so it is a form of Treason, and we know what you think about people who commit Treason. Secondly, we are Skaikru; the people still on the ARC could be called Arkers, not us. Thirdly, blood is stored ready for use at any time. It is given to who so ever comes in needing it. People are called to donate to stock up the supplies and can have no knowledge as to whom it will be given. The only exceptions are when an emergency one to one transfusion is needed, usually when a serious injury has occurred out in the field. We try to limit the blood donors to those aged 16 and over, and every one of the original Skaikru were happy to donate when necessary, even those younger than 16. Unless there is an absolute catastrophe, there will never need to be any rationing for blood. And fourthly, where possible, the people of the coalition who need treatment are typed and cross matched where possible, so might not even receive our blood. Are there any more questions about blood donation?" There were a few mumbles but nothing out loud. "Very well, another vote: all those who want to change the way we organise blood donation, raise your hand." This time there were a number of hands raised and there required a proper count.

"Forty-six for change. Those in favour of keeping the current system raise your hands." The count was 107. "The motion for change had been denied by a majority of 61. Any other issues?"

There were some quiet mumblings until one brave soul raised his hand, and on receiving a nod of encouragement went on to ask "What is happening about the increased radiation?"

Clarke and Bellamy had a silent discussion, before on receipt of a nod Clarke began to speak.

"We know that the mega reactors on this continent were not safely shut down at the time of the bombs and that they are deteriorating and leaking radiation. The ambient radiation levels are still low enough for our health not to be effected, but they are rising. Our Engineering team is considering if it would be possible to send some people in to try to limit the damage.

They have not yet reached a conclusion. The ARC is trying to get a feel on radiation across the earth, but as you know they are in a geosynchronous orbit so it is not easy for them, but we do know that they have been able to link to another satellite that shows some unexpected damage that could be caused by radiation, or it could have been a geothermic event. So far we have no further information. Just in case, steps have been taken to ensure that this facility is radiation proof so we will be fine, and our computer experts are searching for other possible facilities as are people on the ARC."

"Will the people on the ARC be able to survive if they can't come down here?" Glass, a former friend of Clarke's from the ARC called.

"They can survive with their current numbers for a while longer. We do not yet know what effect the algae will have on the oxygen levels, but we do know that at one time algae produced nearly half of the oxygen on the earth, so we have hope. There is the possibility of more coming down if they cannot survive. Know that you have now become our people and are our top priority. We will not put you at risk to save others. If we can give aid without risking you, we shall. If we can give aid, but there is a risk to you, we will let you decide whether or not to risk it, and we will never ask you to do something that we have not done ourselves, risk or otherwise. Any more issues to raise? No, well, let me say that if any of you are unhappy about any decisions we make, you can talk to your Chief, or if that was unsatisfactory, come to us direct. Same goes if you have any suggestions on how we can make life better, and if anyone is really not happy with the way we run things, the next time the shuttle comes down, you can always go back to the ARC." Bellamy and Clarke left the meeting and Bellamy whispered to Clarke "was that last point just a suggestion?"

"No, it was also a warning" Clarke said. "We cannot have people like Shumway and Pike stirring up discontent, not when it puts our people at risk. Still, it went well, overall, don't you think?"

"Yeah, we did good, Princess. So should I ask to arrange the unarmed combat training?"

"Give me tomorrow to chat to Lincoln, then send Pike, Shumway, Harper and Miller to negotiate a trade with Anya for some training. Let Pike be the negotiator and make sure he knows what it is we can offer to trade. I know Anya wants a couple of radios, but won't take them unless she feels she is giving us something that she thinks we need, something of equal value. She doesn't really understand that the runway was a real need and it would have been very difficult if the shuttle had to land somewhere else. She might now that she saw how long a runway was needed for the take off so she might take them now that she thinks we may have gotten the best of a deal with her."

Clarke then spoke to Lexa on the radio and arranged for Jackson and Maya to visit the main healing centre in Polis for a few days, to both learn and to teach. Clarke let Lexa know that she was setting up a sting operation that would either result in Pike and Shumway learning their lesson, or in sealing their fate. Raven elected to go with Jackson and Maya, armed with some slices of cake and three pairs of walkie talkies, to see if she could find anything worth trading for. She hadn't been to Polis in the previous life and thus was looking forward to the trip.

Both Jackson and Maya were waiting for Raven in the rover before she had arrived to load up, so eager they were. It wasn't until Raven reminded them that they needed to make sure they had enough food for their stay, and bedding in case they needed to camp that they realised they had not taken care of all the essentials. Eventually they were on their way.

When Clarke explained the detail of her plan to Lincoln he was happy to help and was sure that Anya would have no problem with her part, especially since the meeting was also a genuine negotiation and Anya did like to haggle. He and Octavia left to make sure Anya was on board and would return the next day just after breakfast. Lincoln and Octavia would ride while the others would travel in a rover. Then she explained her concerns and plan to Harper and Miller.

"Why don't we just give them to Anya as a present?" Harper asked as Miller snorted. "I'm sure she would know how to bring them to heel."

"Or how to get rid of the bodies if she got bored" Miller added.

"Yeah, yeah, I take it you two are happy to be my spies?" Clarke wanted to be sure.

"I certainly am" Harper said. "I don't want people like that trying to spoil everything that you are building here for us and if that means eliminating the threat, then so be it."

"What she said" Miller agreed. The fly in the ointment was when Pike turned up with one of his farm station buddies to accompany them. "Clint can let me know if we can provide anything they're short of over winter" Pike offered and Clarke had to agree that it was a reasonable point.

"That's good. You'll be in the rover for most of the journey, but will have to walk part of the way. Shumway and Miller are there for protection, and Harper is our best hunter and will see to any animals you encounter. They all know not to shoot unless absolutely necessary, it ruins the food unless it's a clean head shot. Stay safe and report to Bellamy when you get back about the training sessions and to me about what we're giving them in return if you can't get us together to give one report."

"Lincoln, thank you for leading them to Anya kom Trikru" Clarke said in rudimentary trigedesleng, knowing that if they were asked both Harper and Miller would be able to truthfully translate. "Don't worry, Anya speaks excellent English, although she might pretend not to to see how you react; don't give her the satisfaction" Clarke advised Pike.

Pike merely grunted and Clarke hoped that he would pass this test and show appropriate respect to the Heda of their nearest and closest neighbour.

"Clarke, Clarke, come in please" Harper called over the radio. "Clarke, we're heading back.

Pike, Shumway and Clint all appear to be suffering an allergic reaction to something. I have no idea why because we all ate the same thing but they have all swollen up. Pike's bad, Clarke" Harper warned.

"This is Clarke. What did they eat and drink?" she asked. Could Anya have taken things into her own hands and poisoned them?

"A sort of nut and mushroom casserole. It was very nice I wanted to ask for the recipe to give to Murph, and we just drank water. There was some wine ready to toast with once we made the deal, but it wasn't yet finalised. We all drank from the same cup."

"Damnit!" Clarke said. "It sounds like a nut or fungus allergy. But why would it only affect the newcomers? Never mind, I'll address that later, just get here as quick as you can." Clarke called Bellamy to warn him what had happened and asked him to make an urgent announcement that no one was to eat anything with nuts or mushrooms until they had been cleared by medical unless they had already done so.

Clarke could only find two tracheotomy kits and two ampubags and so had to improvise using a chicken leg bone which she gave instructions to Bellamy on how to shape and how to make sure it, and his mouth, were as sterilised as was possible.

Anya and Nyko accompanied her people to the med centre. Clarke barely spared a glance and the Trikru Heda because she didn't want to know the answer to her questions just at that time.

Instead she focussed on her patients.

"I don't' think I can save Pike" Clarke said, "but Shumway will live as will Clint". "Wanheda, I don't think Shumway can survive either. You do your best for him and I shall copy you and treat Clint if that is agreeable to you."

"Uh" Clint said as he shook his head in rejection of the idea.

Clarke sighed thinking that Clint would have to be added to the people who could not stay if he was not careful. "Nyko, I will treat Pike, and you treat Shumway. Clint can clearly wait until one of us is finished."

"But Wanheda," Nyko questioned while scrubbing his hands and arms, "why waste time on treating Pike, I do believe he cannot be saved."

"Because like it or not, he is still one of my people and I will do my best to save them all." Clint was sat on the one of the chairs while both Shumway and Pike were laid out on the tables. Their tops were removed and antiseptic was poured over their throats. Taking a scalpel Clarke began to feel along Pikes windpipe, explaining to Nyko what she was doing and why and then sliced horizontally along the pipe.

Unfortunately, Pike's heart had stopped and Clarke had to restart it. Eventually, she got Pike breathing and heart rate steady.

Shumway was breathing on his own once an airway had been opened and his heart never so much as stuttered. Unfortunately, Clint deteriorated in the time it took Clarke to treat Pike.

She had to carry out a tracheotomy on him using the chicken bone and Bellamy breathing for him for a couple of breaths.

All three were treated for the allergic reactions.

When they were all resting as comfortably as possible, Clarke asked Nyko if he wouldn't mind watching over the patients while she and Anya talked.

"He is worse than you said" Anya opened with. "Why did you save him?"

"Because even in death, if I can put it off for long enough, he can still be of service to my people. Thank you, I owe you."

"No, this one was a pleasure. Sorry about the other two. Only Pike should have suffered."

"Not your fault, it is something that I should have checked for everyone, and will have to do so when I return. What did he do or say that was that bad?" Clarke wondered how Pike had pissed Anya off so badly that she wanted him gone so much.

"First when he talked to Clint and Shumway, it was always quiet so I couldn't hear him but I was told that he kept saying things like having to ask the bloody savages for help, as if they needed any help from the likes of us. When talking to me he talked loud and slow as if I could not hear nor understand his words. He at first refused our food, until Harper and Miller said they would love some and thanked us for our hospitality. Then Clint said, 'yeah, thanks, it's nice of you to feed us' and took a little. Shumway and Pike then seemed to realise that they were being rude and Pike said 'alright, we'll have some of your food' as if they were doing us the favour. A quick nod from me and the server knew to put some of the poisoned mushrooms on their plates."

Clarke nodded, realising that Clint had a genuine allergic reaction while Shumway and Pike were actively poisoned. Still, she had said that all she would require was an explanation, so all was good as far as Clarke was concerned.

A quick radio call to Raven, Jackson and Maya informed them what had happened and plans were made to test everyone for nut and mushroom allergies.

"I've already had both nuts and mushrooms so I'm fine" Raven offered, but I'll make sure these two newbies don't eat anything that they could be allergic to.

Clarke knew that she didn't really need to worry about them since Jackson's med bag contained adrenaline and epinephrine so they would be fine if they had a slight reaction to something; she only hoped that it didn't prove necessary and that there were no more near deaths

Chapter End Notes

I'm not sure that I like Clarke being economical with the truth but there are times when giving someone information that they cannot handle requires a little bending of truth - a bit like a parent telling a child that their lost dog has gone to a farm so that he has more room to run around. Nyko would not be able to handle the reason for Clarke keeping Pike alive, or at least she thinks he won't be able to.

Why did no one from the original 100 suffer from nut allergies? Possibly because the one per cent person died before eating them, or just lucky. But the current batch are not going to be so lucky. As I said, I am sorry if this chapter is upsetting to people who suffer from severe allergies. Melting Down Changes Things

Chapter Summary

Clarke and Bellamy realise that they can't think of everything. Now that they're more than leading 100 people they need to start learning to ask for help.

Chapter Notes

In this chapter there is use of the acronym DC - it means Deputy Chief in this context.

See the end of the chapter for more notes

Everyone was being tested for nut and mushroom allergies. There were no allergies to the mushrooms (unsurprisingly) although a few people said they didn't like them; but there were 37 people allergic to nuts and all but two came down with the second group of people.

Clarke sat looking at the list of people allergic to nuts and snapped.

"I don't believe this!" she screamed. "How could I have not thought about this?" and she threw the tablet at the wall as she fell to the floor and started crying: not gentle tears falling down face crying, no, it was loud screaming and sobbing crying. "Thirty-seven people could have died because I didn't do my job! I'm supposed to save them! I can't do this. I can't keep losing people!" and Clarke dropped her head into her arms to hide herself away.

"Bellamy and Octavia to the med centre. Bellamy and Octavia to the med centre, immediately" came over the radio causing panic amongst those who heard wondering what else could possibly have gone wrong.

Bellamy reached the med centre first. Molly pointed to Clarke, huddled in the corner, sobbing her heart out, but no longer screaming. Octavia came in with Aurora who broke her heart at the sight of the young woman with too much weight on her teenaged shoulders.

Bellamy immediately hunkered down to Clarke and pulled her into his arms; holding her tight and rocking her as he would a young, lonely, frightened Octavia. could have lost so many, Bellamy. Thirty-seven of our people are allergic, Bell. We could have lost 37 people because I just didn't think!"

"Oh, Clarke; it's not for you to think of everything" Aurora said. "Eric Jackson didn't think about it either. Neither did your mother and both of them are a lot more experienced than you in such matters despite you living through a previous life that I know packed a whole lot of living, and dying, into a period of less than a year. If someone had suggested that you test for nut allergies and you didn't, that is one thing, but no one thought about it and that is not on you."

"But look at the names and origins of them all. Look at them, this is not right" Clarke was still crying. "Something is going on and I can't work it out!"

Octavia picked up the tablet with the list of everyone allergic to nuts and read it, trying to work out what it was exactly that had Clarke so upset. Then she saw it.

"Even though Glen and Deiter were part of the first group this time, they weren't one of the original 100. None of the original 100 are allergic, and everyone bar Glen is from Farm Station. This is certainly strange, but I don't think it is something that you need to be upset about Clarke" Octavia said unsympathetically. "Besides, I was looking forward to you torturing Pike by getting him to work with Trikru a lot."

"O's right Clarke" Bellamy said, trying to be a little more sympathetic to Clarke's sorrow while ignoring Octavia's wish to make Pike suffer. "It is strange, but not something you should feel such guilt over. You had no way of knowing that we could be allergic to nuts, let alone that so many would be."

"But I did know that about one per cent of the population should be allergic and I didn't think to test our people because none died in the previous life so I just forgot about it. But Glen was part of the original 100, he died when we landed. I admit I don't care about Pike and Shumway, but what do you think I was doing sending them to talk to Anya, Octavia? But I could have let Glen and Dieter die, Monty's parents, just because I didn't think!" and Clarke started to cry again.

Hugging and rocking Clarke as she cried herself to sleep made Bellamy think. They were

and Mt Weather. He had to come up with a plan to take some of the weight from Clarke, and if not take it on himself, make sure it was given to people who could handle it.

Octavia took the tablet with the test results and said that she was going to radio Jackson and the ARC to let them know. "They can make what they want of the info" she said as she left.

Continuing to hold Clarke as she slept, Bellamy looked at his mother helplessly.

"Don't worry, Bell, I think this will help her" Aurora said. "I think she needed to break so that she would be able to accept help easier." "How could I let her get this bad though mom? Raven and O both think that she is my soul mate, and I think that I didn't want her to be so much that I kept too much distance between us. Clarke's breakdown is partly my fault" Bellamy insisted.

Aurora thought for a moment before speaking. "You know that Beppi thinks the sun rises and sets according to Clarke's desire. He said she is the most caring and compassionate person he has ever come across and I just didn't see it. From what Raven and Octavia said I thought she would be a bit softer in her attitude with everyone, but she kept a professional distance and I never saw her relax. I was as equally standoffish with her as I thought she was with everyone else. I did nothing to help her either."

"I think Clarke over thinks everything. She knows that she has to make awful decisions and that doing so will hurt some of her people, some of her friends, who will hate her for it. Even though that hate is probably temporary, it will still hurt that her friends can hate her. Perhaps she thinks that keeping her distance is safeguarding herself against that future hurt." Bellamy's words resonated as unarguable truth.

"Well it is up to us to show her that she doesn't need to keep her distance, help her to lighten up and share her workload. Maybe you are her soul mate, maybe you're not, but you are definitely her friend so make sure you show her that you are her friend" Aurora ordered.

"Yes, mom" Bellamy smirked. Strong as he was, Bellamy struggled to stand while holding Clarke. He placed her on one of the med bay beds and pulled up a chair so that he could hold her hand while she slept.

Clarke was still sleeping the sleep of the mentally exhausted when Raven, Maya and Jackson returned from Polis.

"Octavia told us about the nut allergy sufferers" Jackson said. "It's not Clarke's fault, I should have thought of that, or even her mother should have thought of it and made a note on the tablet sent down originally suggesting that she tests everyone. But there is no way that it's a coincidence that they practically all come from Farm Station, and it is very odd that both of Monty's parents suffer but Monty doesn't. I think something has been going on in the last year or two or something that means they will probably grow out of it after a while. I'll talk to everyone who came down with me from Farm to see if they'll confess to something. She sleeping or passed out?" he indicated Clarke.

"I think just sleeping"' Bellamy said. "She's been so stressed trying to think of all possible scenarios and have a plan set out for each that I think seeing the long list of people who could have died caused a stress induced crying jag resulting in falling asleep. She'll waken shortly" he finished with as Clarke showed the first signs of stirring.

Jackson just nodded as he went to look over the records for Pike, Shumway and Clint. "Pike isn't going to pull through, I don't think, brain dead. But then I'm amazed every time I see them that Beppi and Rhodes are still alive. Perhaps Clarke will work her magic again. Nice use of a chicken bone on Clint; I'll probably remove that tomorrow and he'll be up and about in a day or two. Shumway will be fine, too eventually. We just need to test me and Maya, now." Raven looked at Bellamy in concern and said "We need to do more for her, or at least take some of the load from her?"

"Yeah, I've got an idea. What do you think about." and Bellamy talked to Raven, and she agreed.

Next afternoon, Clarke looking better, lighter, than she had done for some time, and Bellamy called together a meeting of all the Departmental Chiefs and their old Advisory Board.

Bellamy began the meeting.

"There's now a lot more of us and a lot more responsibility. Clarke and I have talked and agreed that we would like to change how we organise that responsibility and we need to talk it over with you before we finalise things."

There was some muttering between the older chiefs about how Pike was right and they needed more grown up leadership. Clarke and Bellamy looked at each other with smirks at their ignorance.

"We think that Departments with 25 or more workers should appoint a Deputy Chief to assist the Chief with the day to day running of the Department. Chiefs for whom that will apply give us a list of three that you would recommend and Clarke and I will interview them and make our selection of the three."

"What if we have more than 50 working for us, can we have two Deputies?" Hannah Green asked, since she had over 60 working for her in the farm.

Clarke and Bellamy hoped that someone would raise that point because they wanted it to be seen that they listened to the advice of others. "That's a good point"' Bellamy conceded.

"How about for every 25 workers in your Department you can have a Deputy? That way you can allocate responsibility as you see fit but you will still have overall responsibility for the long term planning of your Department, just send a list of five people you would recommend and we will select the two." That made everyone smile.

"They will like the extra rations" Hannah said.

"What?" was asked by many.

"There is no rationing here, we've made that clear" Clarke said. "Everyone gets what they need, they younger children get less, and certain physical jobs get slightly more protein, but other than that everyone should get the same."

"Well they don't" Hannah was emphatic.

"T'll look into that" Bellamy promised. "First a talk with the servers, then surveillance, and, hopefully not necessary, but automated food dispensers as a last resort. Please let me know if there appears to be any sort of favouritism. We could give extra jerky to those needing the extra protein if we need to go down that route but we will not have a black market." "Then what's the incentive for those taking on the extra responsibility?" Hannah asked.

"The sense of fulfilment. Responsibility is part of the workload. More responsibility, less other work. The person cleaning the canteen is equally as important as the person in charge of it so they should get the same reward. If a Department needs more workers to be able to carry out all the work then let me know and I'll sort it. No one should be working more than 60 hours a week as a matter of course; also, no one should be working less than 40 hours a week as a matter of course."

"Hey, I would love to work less than 60 hours a week" Murphy grunted out.

"You could if you trusted your team more" Clarke pointed out. "I've seen them stand around and watch you try to do it all and be brushed off when they try to help. If you want to be a chef and not the Food Prep Manager, let us know and we can make changes."

"Actually, I just want to cook and prepare menus. I hate Management" Murphy said.

"Okay, recommendations for Food Prep Manager required. The post will entail staff management over all the cooks and canteen staff, liaison with Hannah - Farm Chief, Harper - Hunting Chief and Murphy - Head Chef. You three get together and come up with three suggestions and Clarke and I will interview and make a selection" Bellamy said. "We'll let them think about their Deputies."

"Now, you know that there is a problem with the radiation and with where the Arkers can settle when we come down so we have decided that Clarke will Head the team looking at those issues, the Strategy Team. She will also oversee our relationships with the Grounders and Arkers. I will oversee the day to day running of Skaikru. So basically, if anyone has any issues about day to day stuff, they report them to the appropriate DC, or Chief, and if it not sorted to everyone's satisfaction then they report it to one of the Advisory Board who will raise the issue with me, and Clarke if getting nowhere. The same if there is an issue or point to raise on the longer term strategy except the issue should be taken to Clarke before me.

Questions?"

Murphy raised his hand, a surprise since Clarke and Bellamy would expect him to just blurt it out. "This is something that some of the food prep people are talking about, but haven't asked about directly, but they will at some point. One was asked if they would consider adopting one of the orphans and they were concerned that it would mean that they wouldn't be able to have another child later. What is the policy on having children?"

It was clearly an issue that was of interest to a great many people since there were lots of nods of encouragement. Bellamy looked to Clarke to answer.

"There will be no population control. We will however ask that people consider the practicalities of having a baby within our current accommodations. We can certainly support some, but if every woman between 20 and 30 suddenly decided to have a baby now we would struggle because we would temporarily lose a lot of the workforce, and have to make an awful lot of cribs. I need to talk to Jackson, and look at the medical records, but I would suggest if anyone wants a baby, just wait until your implant is to be replaced and just have it removed without replacement." Clarke looked to Jackson with a raised brow in question. "That would be a good idea so that conception is spread over time. Unless we have somehow really skewed the balance, the implants will be due for renewal over an even spread of time. I would still suggest the genetic testing, though."

"There we go, that is the policy, wait until the implant is due to be replaced and have it removed. I think only exceptions should be women aged 30 or over who have a while to wait for their implant to be replaced or will be aged over 30 when it is due to be replaced can apply to have it removed early. No guarantees, but I expect most to receive a positive response" Clarke added.

"Your Advisory Board" David Miller began, "can you tell us how they are chosen, and could you rename them something like Peoples' Representatives, and make plans for eventual elections for the positions?"

This was very close to a point that Bellamy and Clarke had thought about before so Clarke was able to alert everyone to their current thinking.

"We chose them when we first landed because they were able to prove their willingness to work with and for everyone. We knew that when our numbers increased we would have to do something different, we just hadn't gotten around to finalising plans, but basically we thought of having elections to the Board so calling them Peoples' Representatives would be no problem. We thought we would wait until we knew for certain who would be living here as part of Skaikru, and who would be with the Arkers when they eventually came down to make a final proposal to you. We wanted to know numbers and demographics before working out the best way for everyone to feel represented. We'll be happy to consider ideas once we're settled and are turning our attention to that. There is one thing we're adamant about, though.

There will not be elections for new leaders unless the current ones wish to resign. We need stability and not people looking at short term popularity. I think we have shown that we will listen to the people, though."

"I'm not saying that you're wrong" Vincent said, "in fact I think you are correct and as long as you continue to have the interests of your people at the heart of your decisions I will continue to support you; however, some people will need more visible proof of your good leadership. A public statement about the rationing issue will help with that. Secrecy will fuel discontent. Having a public discussion and vote when big issues come up will help. Maybe publish your laws and punishments, details of your planned judiciary open it up for discussion, something like that so everyone can see that you are thinking of the best thing for them, but taking their wishes into account."

Clarke looked to Bellamy, and on receiving a nod of agreement said "You're right. Our first public statement will be about rationing, once Bellamy has gotten to the bottom of the current problem. Hannah, can we grow algae too? That way we could make algae bars available to all as needed as a snack. They're not nice, but if anyone truly felt they needed more to eat than the portions available then algae would meet all the nutritional needs. We use the statement to make it clear that everyone gets the same meals unless there is a physiological reason not to do so, for example those allergic to nuts will have to have something different when nuts are being served. We also make it clear that if new clothes are needed, they can exchange their old ones for new. If new furniture is required and we can't provide it they can receive help in making it for themselves. Re-iterate that there will be no medical rationing and publicly state the policy on population growth. As an addendum we can also remind people to let us know if they can think of anything we can do to make life better for all our people."

"Yeah, then when we're settled for winter we can produce the proposed judicial paper and have an open consultation meeting. It will give them something to focus on other than that they are tired of the cold and want to be out in the sunshine again"' Bellamy said.

That closed the meeting and as everyone got up to leave, Clarke asked Hannah and Jackson to stay and talk about the nut problem. She thought Hannah was more likely to be honest if it was just between her and Jackson, at least to start off with. If he got nowhere with Hannah then Jackson could talk to the rest of the former Farm Station.

The day was broken by the radio as there was another emergency. It almost sent Clarke back into her crying mode. Echo had found Roan and was bringing him to Mt Orlan. He was in a bad way Clarke was told

"You will need all your healing skills and to harness the full power of Wanheda to save him." With tears streaming down her face, Clarke handed the radio to Bellamy to get the details of their arrival. She then went to brief Jackson. With her hands shaking so much, Clarke knew that she would need Jackson to help bring her back so she could save her friend.

Chapter End Notes

I know, it's a bit short but the next few are a bit long to make up for it!

Aurora had the chance to get to know Raven in the earlier chapters when they planned for the first drop ship, but she never seemed to have the chance to get to know Clarke - living this new life got in the way. Now Aurora realises that she kept a bit of a motherly eye on her two, plus Raven who she grew attached to, but there was no one to look out for Clarke. We all need someone in our corner and Clarke was so busy being in everyone else's corner that no one noticed she needed someone in hers. That will change, I promise.