What the ocean found: Chapter 7: For the right reason

Arkadia

A month had gone by since Wells, Finn, Anya and Wakuren had first made their plans.

So far, no random Grounder or small army of Grounders had gone on the attack against the camp, luckily. But Wells wasn't going to assume that they could stay here. He knew better. He knew Grounders. One day, one way or another, they would be at the Ark's front gates and ready to kill, just because the Ark people were different. So, he knew that they couldn't stay here, even if there hadn't been any attack in a month.

However, Wells, inexplicably, began to have his doubts. How would Clarke react to this? He could picture it, as Miller and his father and Octavia began their patrols, as he had told Anya and Wakuren they would around this time.

The three of them exited the gate as the electric fence opened up.

He almost shuddered. The mental image of Clarke's horrified expression, of her wide blue eyes, staring at her brother, as if she didn't recognize him.

He would never lie to her again; he had already done that by allowing her to think that he had been the one to sell her father out to his father, he wouldn't do that again.

But he could just imagine the look on her face when she found out.

She might never trust him again. Might never forgive him.

For what he was planning on doing to Abby and Kane? Maybe she'd forgive him one day.

But for Miller and his dad and Octavia and Bellamy?

That he couldn't really predict. That, he suspected, she'd have a more difficult time in forgiving him for.

But that was alright. It would hurt him, sure, if she never trusted him again or forgave him. But he cared more about her being safe. And she wouldn't be safe as long as Abby, Octavia, Bellamy and Kane were alive.

And how happy could she really be with them alive, anyway? Or with Miller or Octavia or Abby or Bellamy being alive?

He knew that doing this was for the right reason. He might not like the means of it, but the ends justified those means.

He wasn't sure when he had become one of those "the ends justifies the means," murderers.

But it was what had happened.

That was just the situation that Bellamy, Octavia, Kane, Abby and Miller had put him in. And they had also provided the groundwork in getting him to being the person he was now.

And the commander sure as hell had helped.

This was an ugly world, and people like Bellamy, Octavia, Abby, Miller and Kane didn't make doing the right thing easy-in fact, they made it impossible.

Which meant that they needed to be executed.

Wells watched as Miller, his father and Octavia disappeared through the woods, and the gates closed.

He hated that Miller's father was going to be killed, but he knew it was also necessary.

Miller's father most likely wouldn't have let it go, had his son been murdered. Which made him a threat.

So, Wells had made it clear to Anya and to Wakuren, that David Miller was to be killed too.

Wells looked away from the gates, his eyes meeting Finn's, from where the other young man stood, near one of the self-made metal shacks that was constructed by the people from the Ark. Finn glanced at Wells, an uneasy look on his face.

They both knew what needed to be done.

They hadn't said a word of this to Raven or to Charlotte.

But they knew they'd have to tell both of them. And Clarke.

Wells supposed there was one thing that brought him pleasure. The thought that the moment Bellamy found out about Octavia's death, Wells would get to see the look on the older man's face when he realized he would never see his baby sister again.

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Floukru territory

Clarke secured her boots, finishing up the laces, then lifting herself up from her kneeling position, and grabbed her weapons from the shelves, tying them to her belt and got ready for the day.

She still was cautious around the Grounders here, but she found herself more at ease and fitting in the tribe better than she had a month ago.

Clarke tried not to think too much about the reasons why.

She tried not think too hard about how attentive Luna and Saija both were. And that the kids here all seemed to adore her, specifically, because they saw her as some hero, for what she'd done in the mountain.

Clarke walked out the door, going down the steps and heading for where some of the adults were fishing by the edge of the water.

She didn't find Saija, but she found Luna there, giving quiet instructions to one young Floukru, who hadn't yet figured out the art of patience while fishing.

Clarke caught Luna's gaze and was unable to help a small smile at Luna's smile.

"Klark," Luna greeted, nodding to the younger woman.

Clarke nodded back as the young Grounder was fishing.

Luna walked over to Clarke asking, "You slept well?"

"Yes, thank you," Clarke said, "Anyone need help here?"

Luna shrugged. "Not as of yet," she assured Clarke, "We should perhaps get some food," she gestured to the children and teenagers fishing, "They've had their breakfasts, so, they have a head start on us."

Clarke chuckled. Unlike the nonsensical Trikru, who tended to expect the people they taught to absorb a lesson before having any food in the person's stomach for the day, the Floukru knew that a person would absorb a lesson much better if they had some food in them first.

Clarke began walking, with Luna alongside her.

She asked, keeping her voice quiet, "You…have you heard anything about the Commander? Or her scouts?"

"No," Luna said, "Don't worry, Klark. There is no sign of her right now. And if we see any sign of those with her? We will warn you."

Clarke nodded. She wanted to believe Luna. Really, she did. But she wasn't sure she could.

There were things that she'd experienced throughout her time here that she wasn't sure she could just shake off and say that the members of the Floukru were just trying to deceive her.

The number of times she'd gotten so tired due to overall exhaustion and distrust, and falling asleep next to Saija, she'd end up waking up with a fur blanket over her, and Saija sitting next to her, reading, occasionally glancing at Clarke, smiling, over the past month, honestly made Clarke self-conscious.

Clarke tried not to think about how protective Saija was of her, or about what it meant.

Or about how protective of her, Saija's lover, Jesor, was.

And she didn't want to think too hard about what it meant when Luna would always keep an eye on her and make sure she was safe. Clarke tried to tell herself that it was fear; that Luna was just trying to make sure that Wanheda, one of the most dangerous people here in the tribe, was not hurting anyone.

But Clarke had seen how Luna looked at her whenever she would watch over Clarke.

She wanted Clarke to be happy here.

Clarke didn't get it. But that was how it was.

As Clarke and Luna got to one of the food halls and sat down, several of the warriors boisterously greeting their leader and Clarke.

One of the men, Rodar, smiled and nodded to Clarke.

Clarke chuckled at his apprehension.

He still was cautious around her, and she couldn't exactly blame him, since she had more or less given him few clear reasons to be uneasy around her, since she'd threatened his life the very first time she had seen him.

Rodar said, "Are you planning on visiting some of our southern villages yet, Klark?"

"Not as of yet, Rodar," she said, smiling, "Thank you for asking."

Several of the children that were there, happily went up to the table where Clarke and Luna were about to sit, a couple of them pulling at Clarke's shirt, picking up the paper bird she'd made, folding it up into the shape and presenting it to Clarke.

Clarke smiled as she said in Floukasleng, "Thank you. It's very pretty, Lareena."

Lareena smiled as she said, in Floukasleng, "Your Floukasleng has gotten better, Klark."

Clarke chuckled slightly at that. That wasn't saying much.

Her languages were limited to English-Gonasleng, the Spanish and French that she and Wells had learned in their extra credit language classes, and Trigedasleng.

That was about it.

She was only just beginning to learn Floukasleng.

She had the basics down; "hello," "goodbye," "thank you," "you're welcome," "yes," "no," "please," "sorry," "why," "what," "I," "we," and several sentences. It would take a while before she was anything close to fluent in the language.

Luna smiled as she watched Klark and Lareena interact.

The children all loved Klark. And the children here were among the few people that were able to get close to Klark without her freaking out, at the beginning.

Luna had noted how sad Klark would sometimes look when she gazed at the children, clearly reminded of the children in Mount Weather.

When Klark had finally begun to talk about it, Klark had seemed to nearly cry.

Luna had suspected that that was just one of the many reasons why Klark was so damaged. But she hadn't wished to push Klark to talk about it.

Seeing Klark interact with the children had given her some confidence that perhaps she'd be able to help Klark, maybe even give her a home here.

It was still likely going to be a long time before Klark actually trusted them completely. But they were lucky that she trusted them now as much as she did.

It took about a week for Klark to at last stop staring at them with such suspicion.

Another week when Klark was alright with actually sleeping when one of them was around. She no longer looked at them as if she expected them to pull a knife out while she slept and slice her throat open.

That was an accomplishment, after she was finished reminding them every so often about how cowardly their people were, getting someone sick and sending that sick person to infect the rest of an army, to "soften up," the army.

Luna would admit that that particular battle tactic proved that the Trikru were nothing, if not hypocritical cowards.

The Trikru, like all of the tribes, tried to pride themselves as being great warriors. But when you used a disease to make all the members of an army sick, to give you an advantage, you were illegitimizing your own claims of being brave and strong warriors that needed nothing to help you win.

Luna had never understood the Trikru claiming that they were somehow brave. Because she never had seen real evidence of this.

None of the other tribes had used this tactic before; making a member of an army sick, then sending the sick individual back to their army to soften up the rest of the army. That was a clear sign of a tribe that was weak in spirit and constitution.

On another subject, and better note, Klarke was even becoming more open with a lot of them, including Luna herself and Saija.

Luna wondered if Klark had caught on yet what Saija's intentions were.

After lunch, Luna assured Clarke that she'd be by soon to check on Clarke helping with the ship that some of the sekens were looking after.

Clarke nodded and watched as Luna went to some of her warriors who were reporting back to her after scouting the outskirts of their territory.

Clarke headed to where the sekens were.

The majority of the sekens, at least in this part of the tribe, would be training near the barrier of the villages, close to the woods.

Clarke walked over and observed the training, sitting down next to a tree, leaning her back against it.

Clarke smiled at the larger kids training the smaller kids.

She heard footsteps cracking sticks and some weeds, aware completely that the only reason why she heard the footsteps, was because the person approaching wanted Clarke to hear and she turned in the direction of the sound.

It was Saija.

"Saija," Clarke greeted, finding her voice slightly cautious, given that she didn't yet completely understand what it was that Saija wanted from her.

It wasn't romantic or sexual. She was almost positive that it wasn't that.

It didn't feel like that.

Saija nodded to Clarke.

"Klark," she said, slowly lowering herself down so that she was seated next to Clarke, "Is it alright if I sit here? If not, I can leave."

Clarke shook her head.

"It's fine," she said, as she gestured to the children training, "I know I'm going to have to get to training soon. It's not good to get rusty in this world."

"Rusty?" Saija repeated.

"Yeah," Clarke said, "It's the Sky People term for people that aren't as good at something as they used to be." Clarke added, chuckling and shrugging, "I never physically fought all that much, either. The last time I had any real physical fight between myself and someone else? Was when I fought against Anya. The commander's fos."

Saija's eyes widened. Klark had fought against Onya kom Trikru?

Klark must have felt Saija's surprise, because she added, "The only reason why I won that? Is because Anya was injured, exhausted and I had recently given her a tranquilizer to get her to cooperate. But I won. But not for lack of not trying on Anya's part."

Saija chuckled. She couldn't help but be impressed, still.

"It still is an impressive feat," she confessed.

"Maybe," Clarke said, however, her tone was doubtful.

Saija nodded. "Well," she said, "I can train you, if you want."

"You could," Clarke said, and felt like they were about to enter into a subject that perhaps was better left alone, "But I'd need to know just…well," Clarke half felt like she shouldn't say-because how did she properly phrase the question.

"What the hell do you want with me?" Sounded damn rude.

And Clarke had made the decision to try to be more polite with the people around her, as the time went on and she begun to realize that she liked them, even if she tried to tell herself not to, because of past traumas.

"Never mind," Clarke said quickly, "I'll ask later. But don't want to think about it right."

"Alright," Saija said, "If you don't mind, may I ask something?"

"Sure," Clarke said, for now, not thinking they were approaching any subjects that might be potentially dangerous.

"You…..you have said things in the past that make me somewhat concerned," Saija said.

Clarke actually chuckled as she asked, "Oh, what? The threats? Sorry about those."

"No, not that," Saija assured her, "I promise you, Klark, you are not the first person that has come here and made threats when all you needed was help. I was thinking more along the lines of what else you said. About what you said when you caught that large snapper the second week you were here?"

Clarke instantly stiffened up. Shit. They had gone right into "not safe territory."

Three weeks ago

Clarke had finally calmed down enough to let Luna and Saija show her how to start fishing. She hadn't had a lot of patience and had grumbled a bit, making a few of the kids next to her giggle, but the end result had made her gasp, when she pulled the line up out of the water, revealing a rather large, red fish on the end of her pole.

She stepped back, watching as the fish dangled from the hook on her pole.

"Oh, shit," Clarke established, surprised.

"Excellently done," Saija said, smiling, as she closed the book she'd been reading for several minutes and placed it down, getting up from where she'd been seated.

Clarke pulled the pole away, so that the fish would be tossed into a pail.

The kids put the fish into the pail and Saija came over, smiling at Clarke.

"You did very well, Klark," she said.

Clarke nodded and averted Saija's eyes as she said, "Yeah, well, it's good that I'm good for something. With everything else…everything else I do is just not enough."

As soon as she said that, Saija froze. "Who told you that?" She asked, causing Clarke to look at her, alarmed, "Who told you that the things you do aren't enough, Klark?"

Clarke's eyes widened when she saw how Saija's expression became dangerous.

"No one," Clarke lied quickly, hoping not to mention anything else that might indicate just how her people had treated her before she had killed all of the Mountain Men.

Saija eyed Clarke.

"Look," Clarke said quickly, "I just don't think too highly of myself after I killed the people in the mountain, that's all."

She hoped Saija couldn't tell that she was lying, and she was sure that the other woman was.

But Saija at the time, let it go.

She would, however, reassure Klark later that there was no reason for her to think ill of herself, when all she did, when she killed all the Mountain Men, was protect her people.

Present day, three weeks later

"And it wasn't just that comment," Saija said, "You've said more than that since then."

Clarke mentally kicked herself. Saija was right. Clarke had tried to be careful about what she said, so that she would give no indication about how her people had treated her before she had killed the Mountain Men.

But occasionally, things slipped out. Her self-esteem had gotten a little better, but barely.

"It has nothing to do with what people have said to me," Clarke said, lying again, "I just feel bad about the mountain."

Not entirely a lie.

Saija sighed, and Clarke was positive that Saija was going to ask about this again.

Saija watched Klark carefully. In the past month that Klark had been with them, she would occasionally say things like, "I'm sorry, you probably want me to leave now," or "I'll go, if you want, I know I'm nothing but trouble," "Look, I know I'll never be good enough, so, why don't we just end this now, and I can go."

Just who exactly had put these thoughts in Klark's head?

Saija's jaw tightened at the thought and her blood boiled.

Klark claimed that no one had said those things to her. But neither Saija nor Luna believed her.

Neither did Saija's lover, Jesor. Jesor was at one of the boats when she also had heard one of Clarke's comments and Jesor had had the same reaction that Saija had.

They both believed that someone had taught Klark this, and Klark believed it.

They both wanted to kill whoever had told Klark this.

It made them suspect, strongly suspect, Klark's blood mother, Abi.

But Klark never mentioned her.

But perhaps that in itself, was suspicious.

Saija had talked carefully with Jesor about Klark. And Jesor, to Saija's relief, had not been against taking Klark in.

Saija hadn't been able to help but smile at how Jesor carefully treated Klark, when instructing the young blonde woman on how to use a net from a fishing boat.

Jesor was not a rough person usually, but she seemed to be extra gentle when instructing Klark.

Saija had yet to discuss this with Klark, that she and Jesor both had hoped to more or less adopt the young woman.

Saija was cautious about this, because she didn't want to scare Klark off.

It was Saija's strong belief that someone that Klark had known, had verbally abused her a great deal. So much to the point that the young blonde woman believed that she was worthless and that she shouldn't be around people.

Saija was hoping she could get some names out of Klark, but she would leave that alone for the moment.

Right now, she was hoping to broach the subject of her and Jesor adopting Klark, if Klark would allow it.

"Look," Klark said, as she stared at the children training, clearly wishing to distract herself, "I just don't want to talk about it."

Saija nodded. "Alright," she said, "I apologize. I shouldn't have pushed."

"It's okay," Klark said, though she and Saija both knew that she'd have to talk about it at some point.

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Arkadia

Nathan Miller and his father, David Miller had gone out of the gates, and so had Octavia.

Wells knew that Lincoln was scouting around the perimeter, so, thankfully, he would not witness Octavia's murder.

Wells hated that he was doing this to a dear friend, but Lincoln deserved far better than Octavia.

He hoped Lincoln would find someone much better, when he was ready to move on.

There was almost an hour that had gone by, since Octavia, Nathan Miller and David Miller had left. Wells felt his throat become dry, even if he knew that this was for the right reason. It would be the last time he would be seeing all three David and Nathan Miller and Octavia Blake, alive.

The two things Wells knew he'd get out of this-people that had hurt Clarke in the past dying, and never able to hurt her again. And the thought of Bellamy's face when he realized that his sister had been horribly killed.

Wells snickered at that second thought.

He couldn't wait to see the look on Bellamy's face when the time came.

Author's note

As this chapter might suggest, the next few chapters are going to be extremely graphic when it comes to violence.