The price of Salvation
Chapter 4
Resistance
When morning arrived, Clarke woke up, but later in the morning. She had not set any alarm and when she awoke, her eyes widened when she saw the time on the digital clock on the table next to the bed.
Almost 1 o'clock in the afternoon?!
Holy shit.
Clarke's mouth dropped.
She'd never slept this late before.
Then she looked around the room, realizing that the interior of the room was not one she recognized.
And that was when everything came back to her.
This was why she hadn't set her alarm.
Because there was literally nothing for her to be expected to do tomorrow, as far as she knew. She had been eating and drinking the previous night.
And she'd been talking with her mates…the mates who more or less had gotten her mother to agree to hand her over as if she were a bargaining chip.
Clarke felt her heart fall to her stomach.
She shuddered, lifting herself off of the bed, stepping down onto the floor, and found where her shoes lay.
She looked down at herself, inspecting her clothes.
She was thankfully still dressed. She pushed one foot into her shoe, then her other foot into the other shoe and started walking around the bed to the door to her room.
She half expected the door to be locked.
It wasn't.
She opened the door, eyes wide slightly that the door gave no resistance.
She stepped through the doorway and walked out into the hallway, looking from one end of the hallway to the other.
She saw no one, but knew that there were many large rooms in this place where she was being forced to live.
Clarke wasn't stupid. It didn't matter that her mates were being soft with her and trying to give her things.
She knew what all these things were-bribes. They were just bribes. That's all the TV and the cable and the pool and everything else was-bribes.
She knew she would need to remind herself of this often, no matter how touched she might feel occasionally by her mates' actions.
Them giving her all the treasures in the world, didn't change they more or less had bartered with her mother to have her in their grasp as if she just a possession-a thing, not a person.
Her mother might have allowed it to happen, but her mates were the ones that had made the bargain in the first place, taking advantage of the Ark peoples' vulnerability in this new world.
And yes, Clarke understood that marriages tended to be a part of alliances in this world. As such as the case in the world ages and ages before the bombs hit.
Still, that didn't make it okay. It didn't mean that treating people like chattel was okay.
She moved down the hall to the large main room where she'd last been before passing out.
She saw the bar counter first, then turned and saw the sofas and the rest of the room.
There didn't appear to be anyone else here.
Clarke narrowed her eyebrows.
Where was everyone else?
Then there was a surprise.
Someone lifted themselves up from the sofa where he'd been sleeping, sitting up for Clarke to get a good look at him. Her eyes widened when she saw him.
Finn! It was Finn Collins!
One of her friends from the Ark camp. And her former boyfriend.
"Finn?!" Clarke asked, stunned, running over to the couch.
Finn grinned when he saw Clarke.
"Hey," he said, getting up from the couch, "You're up!"
"How are you here?!" Clarke demanded, staring at him, confused, "Why are you here?"
Finn said, grinning still, "Well, that's a fine 'how do you do,' huh? After I came all this way to try to protect you, got captured by your mates and your mates let me live and stay here if it made you happy, and this is the greeting I get?"
Clarke's mouth dropped.
Finn had followed them all the way here?!
And her mates had caught him and chose to let him live as a means of bribing her-again?
Well, that was just plain great.
"Dammit, Finn," Clarke snapped, "I don't need you being in danger."
"I'm not," Finn pointed out, "I'm perfectly fine, see?" He spread his arms out, showing himself more, making it clear he was unharmed, "They didn't hurt me at all."
Clarke sighed, "That's not what I mean. I mean that there's a strong chance they'll use you against me later if I don't do what they say."
Finn's eyes widened when he heard this, his grin falling from his face.
"Oh," he mumbled, "I hadn't thought of that."
"I'm so shocked," Clarke grumbled.
Finn said as he lowered his arms, "They offered to let me stay here with you. And to let Callie, Wells, Roma, Roma's parents, Fox, Harper, Sterling and Monroe live here too."
Clarke's eyes widened at that.
"You think that they want to use all of us against you?" Finn asked, now sounding slightly worried.
Clarke shrugged. "I don't know," she confessed, "It's either that or bribe me with all of you being here. Or both."
Finn grimaced. "Shit," he said.
"Yep," Clarke admitted.
Clarke looked down at her clothes and grumbled, "I think I'm gonna need to take a shower. I haven't changed these clothes yet."
Finn chuckled, "You and me both. I'm still wearing the same clothes that I followed all of you in."
Clarke snorted, looking up at Finn, "Dammit, Collins, I can't believe you followed us all the way here."
Finn grinned again. "Well," he said, "It was either that, or listen to Raven and Octavia gloat over you being gone and them not having to see you ever again and about how they felt like you got whatever you deserved."
Clarke smirked. That was in no way a shock for her.
Raven had used to be Finn's girlfriend. She wasn't his soulmate. And Finn had come to despise her, how arrogant and selfish she was.
But Raven just couldn't get it through her head that she wasn't the most important person in the world.
Octavia was the same way. As was Octavia's brother. Not to mention the thugs around Octavia, Octavia's brother and Raven; Miller, Jasper, Dax, Mbege, Murphy-all of them.
Clarke knew that she shouldn't want this, but she personally wouldn't have minded it at all if there were some Mountain Men left that decided to hollow out the bones of that group and kill them.
It wouldn't be like there would be much of a loss of life.
When Clarke thought about Octavia, Raven, Octavia's brother, Bellamy, and those other thugs; Murphy, Mbege, Miller, Jasper, Dax and the others, her thoughts got vindictive and hateful. And she wasn't sure she regretted that.
Even if she should.
"Well," Clarke said, "Whatever reason our…hosts decided to let you stay aside, where exactly are they right now?"
Finn frowned.
"Honestly?" He said, looking behind him and scouting the room, where there was no one but the two of them present, "I don't know." He turned back to Clarke as he continued, "They let me up from where they chained me, after they were sure I wasn't going to try to lash out at them and we made the arrangement. Then they told me that I could sleep in that room. I did. It wasn't a very comfortable room. Then when you came into this room, I woke up here."
Clarke thought about that a moment. So, they moved him. They moved him to this room. Why?
Clarke realized a second later that it was probably another bribe.
They moved Finn to this room, so that he would be the first person that Clarke saw after waking up.
Or perhaps, it had been meant as a warning.
So that Clarke would know that her mates had someone she loved in their custody.
Clarke knew that the way she was thinking sounded like paranoia. But when she literally had been forced to go with complete strangers, before she even had turned ten years old, it was difficult not to assume the worst from people.
Clarke's mates, she just wasn't sure what to expect from them. Except for bad things.
She had been given to them like a prize. And everything here that was given to her, she had to assume, was a bribe.
So, Finn being here? Callie and the others that she cared about and that cared about being brought here eventually? That couldn't be good.
Now, maybe she was jumping to the wrong conclusion, however, given Clarke's experiences and what she observed thus far? She didn't think she was wrong to assume the worst.
"Finn," Clarke said, trying to think quickly, "Did they say anything else?" Clarke realized quickly that there were likely cameras in this room, so she knew she and Finn would need to be careful about what they said.
Finn shook his head.
"No," he said, "Just that they made it clear that me, Callie, Wells, Monroe, Sterling, Fox, Harper and Roma could all live here, if we wanted to."
Clarke nodded, considering. She knew better than to think that she and Finn could run. Even if they managed to escape from here, which seemed like an impossibility, what would happen then? What would happen to the Ark people?
Clarke hated her mother and Octavia and Raven and Bellamy and Jasper and Murphy and a lot of other people there. But there were actual innocent people from the Ark that lived there.
Masses of families and children that had never hurt anyone.
What happened when Clarke broke this pact that her mother had made with her mates?
Wouldn't that leave all of those Ark families and children vulnerable? Wouldn't all the other tribes instantly start attacking the Ark camp?
Clarke knew how much the Trikru loathed the Ark people.
There were eleven other tribes too. They might not have hated the Ark people as much as the Trikru hated the Ark people. But still, breaking this pact that her mother had made with her mates, would leave the Ark camp vulnerable.
Yes, the current commander would honor the agreement that Clarke's mates had made that they would protect the Ark camp, but that would last only so long as Clarke remained with her mates. From what Clarke had heard, the current commander, Lexa, hated the Ark camp, as much as any Trikru did. So, if Clarke tried to avoid this marriage with her mates…
So, there was nothing she could do, lest she decided that it was alright to sacrifice the safety of hundreds of families in the Ark camps, growing families too, now that it was safe to have more than one child per family, now that they were on the ground, for the sake of her and Finn's freedom.
Clarke cursed silently. She hated her mother more in that moment than she ever had before.
To put her in this situation…
Clarke didn't doubt for a second that Abby hadn't made the pact with Clarke's mates, out of the good of her heart.
No, Abby hadn't made that deal all those years ago, with the safety of her people in mind, or with Clarke's comfort in mind.
Abby had made that deal, for herself.
Abby had made the deal so that she would survive and have power in the Ark camp. For no other reason than that.
"Fuck Abby," Clarke grumbled.
She heard a chuckle from Finn and she knew that she had said those words out loud.
"Damn," Finn said, "I mean, don't get me wrong, I agree with you. But still, that's a bit mean."
"It's no less than what she deserves," Clarke said dryly, "The bitch did all of this all for herself. And oh, yeah, she killed my father."
Finn nodded. He knew the story like everyone else at the Ark camp did.
Jake Griffin had been floated. Specifically at the orders of Thelonius Jaha.
But Abby Griffin was the one that had sold Jake Griffin out to Thelonius Jaha in the first place.
So, yeah, Finn completely got why Clarke hated Abby Griffin so much. Couldn't say he blamed her at all.
A pity Abby Griffin, Marcus Kane and Thelonius Jaha weren't dead by now.
A mechanical whirring reached Clarke and Finn's ears and they both turned to the sound, seeing a pocket in the wall to Clarke's right and to Finn's left, open up, a small robot-yes, a robot, carrying a large tray in its mechanical arms as it drove over on machine driven wheels, moved across the room to the two of them, moving not slowly but not quickly either.
The robot had a digital face with black square eyes and a line for a mouth against a pale blue background.
"Uh…," Finn mumbled, sounding nervous.
The robot stopped next to the two young adults, lifting up its mechanical arms in offering, the tray covered with food.
"For us?" Clarke asked, looking at the robot cautiously.
Not that she'd had a doubt.
She suspected that anyone with this much money to throw around and with as much ingenuity that her mates had, probably had some odd inventions to order about the place. This robot was simply proof of that.
The robot gave no answer to Clarke's inquiry, just kept its awkward mechanical arms up, still offering the tray full of food to her and Finn.
The tray was absolutely packed with food.
There were slices of bread with butter on them, croissants that had almond paste, ham, and raspberry paste spilling out of both ends, and other pastries with clear and obvious types of paste sticking out of them. There were biscuits and cinnamon buns and chocolate bear claws and cups of chocolate milk on the tray.
Suddenly an additional mechanical arm lifted up from under the two primary mechanical arms of the robot that in height, only came up to Clarke and Finn's waists.
This mechanical arm was holding a small bouquet of flowers. Specifically, petunias.
Clarke looked at the flowers, startled and noted that the arm was aimed specifically at her, as if the robot was expecting her to take the flowers from the blunt three fingered hand of the robot.
Clarke slowly reached out and took the flowers, and the awkward claw like hand of the robot relinquished its hold on the bouquet.
"Thank you," Clarke said to the robot, knowing how ridiculous it was to thank a robot, but also realized that if she and Finn were in fact being watched like she suspected they were being, then it would likely be a good idea for her to for now, give off the impression that she was being as cooperative as she could manage.
The robot seemed to take her thanking it well, as it lowered that arm and remained keeping the tray full of food and drinks up in the air in offering for the two young adults to take.
Finn carefully grabbed the edge of the tray and lifted it up from the hands of the robot, slowly pulling it over to a table next to the couch and placing the tray down onto the table.
The robot beeped a few times, lowered those arms and turned around, zooming away on mechanical wheels.
It when back into the compartment in the wall, and the small doors where it had come out of, slid closed.
Clarke had gotten a glimpse of a hallway where the robot had zoomed down before the doors closed up.
So, there were compartments all over this building that led to different hallways.
Good to know.
Even though she knew that she likely couldn't run away, without her people facing the consequences, either by the hands of her mates or by the hands of the Trikru, as soon as it got out that Clarke had shunned her mates and therefore, destroyed any pact that her mother had made with them, somewhere in the back of her brain, she filed away that information about all these different compartments being within the building.
You never knew when it might come in handy.
Clarke turned back to Finn and went over to the bar counter, grabbed a large glass and went to the sink behind the counter, filling it with water. She then placed it down onto the counter and put the petunias inside the large glass, giving the petunias the water they needed.
She smiled. They were beautiful flowers. If nothing else, she'd give her mates that. Another bribe, of course. But she could appreciate that they knew beautiful flowers when they saw them.
Or at least one of her mates did.
The petunias were all purple and yellow with some nearly black and a few white ones.
Clarke again felt some annoyance, knowing that her mates must have learned from her mother that she loved flowers.
Then again, maybe they just assumed that because she was a woman, she liked flowers. It was a correct assumption, of course, but it was probably an assumption that had only been drawn because she was a woman.
Still, even if she was annoyed, she appreciated the flowers.
She then moved past the bar counter and went to where Finn was sitting down, grabbing a glass of orange juice and grabbing a muffin.
Clarke sat down in the sofa chair across from him, after grabbing herself a cup of milk and a chocolate bear claw.
The two young adults ate their "nutritious" breakfast fast and hungrily.
When Clarke was nearly finished with her bear claw and Finn entirely finished with his muffin and after he had drunk some of his juice, he looked at Clarke apologetically as he said, "Um, Clarke?"
Clarke looked at him after she swallowed some of her bear claw. "Hmm?" She mumbled.
Finn looked awkward now as he said, "I'm sorry to tell you this, but your mates told me this last night. They said that you had the right to know. And maybe they were lying, I don't know. But they told me that Callie Cartwig also gave them information about you, like Abby Griffin did. Callie has been sending them letters, giving them information about you."
Clarke stiffened, staring at Finn.
What?
Finn must have read something horrible in Clarke's face, because he appeared apologetic, his face paling fast.
"I'm sorry," he said, "I don't know if they're lying or not. And I don't know why Callie would talk to them. But that's what I heard them say."
Clarke stared at Finn as if she had just learned from him that there was a live bomb in the room.
Callie…Callie had done that?
But why?
What did Callie get out of that?
"Why would Callie do something like that?" Clarke demanded, though she knew asking Finn such a question was unreasonable. Because how would he know?
Finn shook his head. "I don't know for sure," he said, "But your mates, they said that Callie did it to protect you. They said that she sent them those letters because she wanted you to be happy and said that you couldn't be happy with the Ark people."
Clarke understood why Callie would think that. But if Finn was right and her mates weren't lying, how could Callie do something like that?
She had trusted Callie.
And she had…
Clarke felt her heart stop and her jaw clenched.
Her mother selling her out to her mates, and giving her daughter over to them like a possession and giving Clarke's mates information about her daughter, was one thing.
It was Abby, that was to be expected from her. She was a horrid human being.
But Callie Cartwig?!
How could she?
But then, Finn was right-how did either he or Clarke know that her mates weren't lying?
Then again, why would they lie about something like that?
They were already planning on having Finn, Callie and the other people Clarke cared about at the Ark camp, live here, so, what was the point about making up stories that likely would make her angry at Callie?
And besides, so far, her mates had done nothing except be honest with her, from what she could observe.
"Did…did they say what sort of information Callie has been giving them about me?" Clarke asked Finn.
Finn shook his head. "They didn't say much about it," he answered, "Just that Callie was giving them additional information about you. More intimate stuff that you kept from Abby."
Clarke glared, but not necessarily at Finn. That might be what the flowers were about.
Clarke had kept her love for flowers a secret from her mother. Because she knew how her mother liked to mock the things she loved.
But Callie had known.
When Clarke saw Callie again, she was going to have a looooong talk with that woman.
"You said that they told you that you could live here with them," Clarke said carefully, "Did that sound like an offer or an order?"
Finn looked uncomfortable again as he answered, "Not sure. I think they phrased it as an offer, but it could have been an order. Wouldn't surprise me if it were."
Clarke nodded. It wouldn't have surprised her either.
"Alright," she said, "So, you, Callie, Wells, Monroe, Sterling, Fox, Harper and Roma's family are going to be living here now. So, what then?"
"Happy you asked, love," A woman's voice said to the right, and Clarke and Finn both turned to see six of Clarke's mates; Natasha Romanoff, Bruce Banner, Peggy Carter, Jessica Jones, Pepper Potts and Tony Stark, walking in.
Clarke couldn't hold back a glare at them.
Pepper, Peggy and Bruce looked at her, smiling sadly. Natasha, Jessica and Tony ignored her glare.
Jessica said, "Good thing you two ate. You both should drink some water too."
Tony added, smiling at Clarke, "Glad you liked my machine. Sorry for how awkward it is. A lot of the machines I have around here are. I'm remaking more advanced models all the time."
"Yeah, and how does that go?" Natasha asked, smirking.
Bruce shook his head as if he wanted to banish a disturbing memory regarding Tony's inventions from his brain.
Clarke frowned, unsure of what the story was behind this, but decided not to inquire about it.
Rolling her eyes, Pepper sighed, looking at the bar counter and at the flowers there. She looked at Clarke, smiling. "Did you like the flowers, honey?"
Clarke's jaw tightened even more.
It reminded her of Callie.
"I guess so," Clarke said, anger in her voice, "Who told you I like flowers?"
"Callie," Natasha said calmly.
Clarke looked at all six of her mates in the room, investigating their faces for any sign of arrogance or amusement. There was none. Whatever their reasons for telling her that Callie was the one to tell them, it wasn't out of spite or sick amusement.
After several seconds, Peggy answered, seeming to try to help Clarke understand, "We didn't tell you this to hurt you. We just want to be honest with you. And we don't want to keep any secrets from you. Especially when it involves someone you care about like Callie."
Clarke felt herself spit out, "But why the hell would Callie tell you things about me through letters? Or through anything?"
Smiling sadly, Bruce said, "Because she doesn't want you with the Ark people anymore. Because she's sick of the way the Ark camp treats you. Because she wants you safe and happy."
Clarke tensed, placing down her last corner of the chocolate bear claw and the almost finished cup of chocolate milk onto the table next to the tray on the table and she growled, "And you want me to be happy? So happy, you spoke to people behind my back?"
Natasha sighed, "Yes, Clarke. Because we wanted to know what would make you happy. But we don't want to keep secrets from you, either."
Clarke's teeth were clenched.
Dammit.
Her mates probably also knew about her love for animals, particularly reptiles.
As much as she would appreciate the possibility of having a bunch of pets, it didn't change that all those pets would be bribes and that Callie had sold her out, just like Abby had.
"You're angry," Natasha said, not needing to read Clarke's face, "We understand. But we want to make you happy. And for you to feel safe and comforted here."
"Yeah, yeah," Clarke said, unable to help but feel whatever compliance she'd previously possess, slip her hold, "And freedom, of course, is non-existent."
"Not non-existent," Bruce assured her, smiling, "It's just we can't completely let you go. You can travel around this city and go wherever you want to go, just as long as we know where you are. After we're married? You won't need that monitoring anymore. Because you're keeping to the agreement we made with your mother."
"I see," Clarke said, "So, if we marry, fuck, and then I decide to leave-say go to an entirely different country and leave you behind, and never speak to you again or come near you again, you'd allow it?"
There was no answer, and all six of Clarke's present mates all looked uncomfortable at her question, telling Clarke all she needed to know.
"I thought so," Clarke snorted, "I guess there goes your proud proclamation of my freedom, huh?"
Bruce, Tony, Pepper and Jessica all had the decency at least, to appear guilty.
Peggy, however, said gently, "I know this is all difficult. But try to see it like this; the Ark camp has been nothing but inhospitable to you over the years. And to your friends," she gestured to Finn, "Sure, the things that we're doing, are bribes. But we do want you to be happy here with us."
Clarke almost snorted. They weren't even going to pretend anymore that they weren't bribing here.
Peggy continued, "But think about it. Here you'll have everything, except for complete freedom. And isn't everything else worth sacrificing all out freedom for? You'll have everything else. Happiness, protection, friends," again, Peggy gestured to Finn, "Family, pets," Clarke tried not to growl-so they knew about her affection for animals, "all the comforts and entertainments in the world, money, power, the best healthcare imaginable…pleasure, and love."
Clarke tensed at those last two things being listed off.
Clarke knew that at some point she'd need to sleep with her mates.
But she hadn't thought about the pleasure she'd get from it. She had figured her mates just cared about their pleasure, not hers.
It appeared she was wrong.
And love?
Clarke tried not to think about that too much. She had seen how her mates had looked at her.
She knew her mates felt something strong for her. But she hadn't realized they already felt that much for her.
Clarke looked at Peggy, startled.
Peggy smiled as she repeated, "Isn't everything else worth sacrificing all out freedom for?"
Clarke tried to maintain her glare, but felt her stomach twist, as she already knew the answer.
Yes, yes it was.
It shouldn't have been worth it to her.
And probably to a lot of other people, it wouldn't be worth it.
But it was worth giving up, to her.
She mentally cursed. Her mates had already won.
But she wasn't going to let them know that.
Author's note
Originally I was going to have a very limited number of chapters. Now, I'll probably extend it to fourteen or so chapters. Not sure, I'll have to see.