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The war had devastated both sides, and left Eden a burnt husk. But there had been Monty and his algae. Monty, the man with an incredible mind and huge heart. Monty, the friend she’d left behind again. Monty and Harper, the new stewards of Earth, with Diyoza, Kane, Abby, Indra, and Gaia alongside helping build a new world.
It had been Diyoza’s idea for everyone to go on the ship, but after looking at the remaining fuel and the damaged systems from McCreary’s hostile takeover, Raven had determined that there were only 100 pods that could be used. Clarke had been prepared for another battle, but in the end, no one wanted to fight.
There were discussions and considerations. There were questions and concerns. In the end, it had been easy, and the remaining Wonkru and Eligius factions members split easily between the two choices, with some ready to just be done and build a home, while others were interested in the idea of a timelocked future.
Saying goodbye to all them had been hard, but when she hugged her mother, Clarke fell apart. Abby held her daughter close, telling her how proud she was; how much she loved her. She had given Clarke a small book full of stories of Clarke’s childhood and old Griffin-family tales. Tears began to fall as Clarke tucked it into her small bag, and pulled out her sketch book and handed it to her mother. She had filled every page with the face of someone leaving on the ship. Abby shaking with grief as she turned the pages, seeing the faces of people who would soon be gone forever. When she got to a page near the end, she stopped and pulled Clarke into a hug.
“Take care of each other. Hold on to each other. Do not ever let the darkness dim out the love in your life.” Each word fierce and powerful in Clarke’s ear. Abby squeezed tighter before letting go.
Clarke glanced down at the picture that her mother had paused on, freckles and dark curls filled the page.
Shaw announced it was time to get ready for takeoff, and the large bay doors started to close. Clarke took one last look at her home, before turning to find Madi and get strapped in.
Raven, with Emori’s help, had programmed the cryo pods to awaken them in a hundred years.
“Monty said it would be enough time for Eden to heal and for his algae to replenish a large desert area.” Raven’s voice was rough, throat raw from the sobbing goodbyes she’d shared with so many.
Clarke watched as Shaw took a small step towards Raven, bring a strong arm around her waist, tucking her into his side protectively.
“You did good” she heard the near stranger whisper into her friend’s ear. Clarke felt her heart swell for Raven, someone who deserved nothing less than the pure adoration and respect Shaw was clearly offering.
Shaw raised his voice to the others in the room. “It’s like taking a nap on an uncomfortable couch. We get in the pods, the gas knocks us out, and then we wake up. Though, I gotta warn you, you’re going to have a helluva headache the next day.”
A gentle murmur of laughter filled the room, and Clarke watched Shaw face beam with pride as Raven smiled at him. At the end of everything, there was still good in the universe.
“A hundred people going back to the Earth after being in space for a hundred years? I think I’ve already read that story,” Bellamy’s deep voice cut through the laughter. He stepped forward, moving into the empty space between Clarke and the wall. “I wasn’t a fan of the ending though.”
“Stories can be rewritten,” Clarke’s words spilled out before she could stop herself, and suddenly she was hyper aware of the way the other people in the room were looking her and Bellamy.
Clarke’s eyes fell upon Echo who was studying her, always the watcher. Clarke took a breath preparing to change the subject, but Echo spoke first.
“It doesn’t need retold when it was never finished to begin with,” her smoky voice said simply, free from malice but full of meaning, “Maybe you just stopped reading too early.” She glanced quickly over to Bellamy before returning her gaze to Clarke.
Echo began to move towards the doorway, stopping near Clarke.
“We make our own endings,” Echo said quietly.
She continued to stare at Clarke for a moment, her fox-like eyes conveying a dozen emotions and messages, an eyebrow raised questioning Clarke’s understanding. After a moment, Echo clearly felt satisfied with Clarke’s understanding, so she nodded and left the room.
Bellamy shifted his weight, arm brushing up against hers, and Clarke let her hand find his, fingers gently touching before wrapping around each other. The rest of the room continued to stand quietly, and Clarke wanted nothing more than to be back in her little valley home, coloring Madi’s hair and sketching birds.
“Yeah, I’m going to go help Echo prep the pods. I really don’t want to be here when you two start making out.” Murphy’s said, tossing a final knowing look at them before he left, calling for Echo to slow the hell down and wait for him.
That broke the tension and everyone quickly found something to busy themselves with. Clarke walked over to where Raven and Emori were arguing over what kind of wiring to use for the timers. They seemed happy to be distracted from the discourse and give her a rundown of how this would all work.
Emori had created a device that would allow Raven to activate the cryo pods remotely, eliminating the need for someone to stay awake.
“Which is great because I was not looking forward to the argument between you and Bellamy over who got to play martyr this time.” Raven said flatly before continuing on with her explanation.
They’d go to sleep, just as Shaw had explained, and then they’d wake up. A century later.
“Of course, I’m going to set the system to wake me a couple of weeks early,” Raven commented and when she noticed Clarke’s worried, questioning face, she expounded, “It’s only going to be three weeks early. I want to make sure I have the radio systems up and working by the time everyone else is awake.”
Emori filled in, “We thought it made sense to reestablish contact to the ground before we just show up on their doorstep.”
Clarke smiled. “That’s a great idea. It didn’t go so well last time we did that. You are both brilliant.”
They had finished planning, preparing, and now Clarke was walking Madi down the hallway to the where the cryo pods were waiting.
“I’m scared Clarke. Can I have a bed near the door? I don’t want to feel locked in.”
Clarke couldn’t help but smile and squeeze the girl’s hand. This girl had held the power and minds of a hundred years of powerful commanders, had been willing to lead an army into battle, and eventually been instrumental in the finally bringing peace to Eden. But she was still twelve years old, and sometimes she was still afraid of small spaces.
They walked through the door, and Clarke watched as Madi looked for a place that didn’t already have a name marked on it, claiming it for a member of this new space-bound family.
“Oh Clarke, I found one.” Madi called to her, voice carrying over the general buzz of the people getting in their beds. “There’s one next to it too. You can have that one.”
Clarke walked from to the doorway to where Madi stood. When she got over to her, Madi had already written their names on the empty pods. It took Clarke longer than it should to realize what Madi had done.
“Madi, what the hell do you think you’re doing?” Clarke’s voice had an edge to it.
“Getting comfortable?” Madi’s replied nonchalantly as she climbed into her pod.
“Madi, I can’t be in this spot.”
“But Clarke, this is the closest one to the door and I don’t want to be alone. Please don’t leave me.”
Clarke immediately felt guilty about misunderstanding Madi’s motives, and she grabbed the girl’s hand and pulled it to her face for a quick kiss before letting go.
“I’m sorry. Of course I will stay with you. Now, Raven says we should all wake up at the same time, but Shaw said they woke up in batches. So, do you remember what you need to do if you wake up before me?” Clarke went over the plan in excruciating detail.
Someone tapped her shoulder, interrupting reminders of where they’d stored the water tanks.
Clarke turned around, preparing a few words about how rude it was to interrupt, but stopped short when she saw Bellamy’s dark eyes looking down at her as he walked past
“Raven said it’s time to get in place.”
Clarke nodded and turned back to Madi, preparing to hold back her tears and help assuage any remaining fears the girl had, but then she heard his little shocked “Oh.” and turned back to look at him, knowing what he’d seen.
“Madi has a fear of locked in spaces, so she wanted to be next to a door.” She looked at his raised eyebrow, and continued quickly, “And she said it would make her feel better if I was next to her.” Clarke wanted to climb inside herself but chose to turn back to Madi, ignoring the smile forming at the corners of his mouth.
She gave Madi a kiss on the forehead and assured her everything was going to be ok before Raven walked into the room and shouted for everyone to get into position immediately. Clarke turned around and climbed into her new century-long bed. Shaw wasn’t wrong, it was really cramped. She squirmed until she got into a position that felt at least somewhat comfortable, and began trying to regulate her breathing to relax.
“Guess it’s too late to ask Raven for a pillow.” Bellamy said gruffly. She turned her head to see him, in the bed next to hers, wrestling with the lining of the pod.
Raven shouted again, telling everyone they had 30 seconds to get into their pods and shut up or she was floating their asses. Once everyone was laying down, Raven began going over the guidelines Clarke had been explaining to Madi.
“Yeah, I’d say that’s a bad idea. She’s kind of scary.” Clarke told him, matching his widening grin.
“No talking!” Raven commanded, “You can confess your endless love for each other when you wake up.”
They both blushed and turned their attention from each other. Clarke looked over at Madi and smiled as the young girl absently braided the ends of her long brown hair while focusing on Raven. When Raven was done talking, she climbed into her pod and started the computer countdown.
A quiet blanket of murmured ‘goodbyes’ and covered the room. Madi turned to Clarke and smiled; she was always ready for an adventure. The girl leaned up quickly and told Bellamy goodnight, before leaning back down and looking at Clarke with a huge mischievous grin and bright eyes. Clarke realized that Madi’s earlier pleas for Clarke to choose that pod weren’t as innocent as she made them out to be.
“I love you Clarke,” she said, face softening, but still full of youthful playfulness.
“I love you too, Madi” Clarke said as the covers began to lower onto their pods.
Clarke couldn’t stop herself, she turned her head one last time and saw Bellamy staring back at her, eyes full of unspoken emotions.
He cocked a half grin as he said, “Goodnight princess.”
She rolled her eyes and smiled back, but then decided she had something to say, “Bellamy, you need to know that I--” her words were cut off but the sealing of their cryo bed chambers. She continued to stare at him until the gas caused her eyes to flutter and then close.
His sleeping face was the first thing she saw when she woke up. It took her a moment to realize where she was. When she heard door unlocked, she pushed it up and looked around. So Shaw had been right, they did wake up in groups. But after moment, Clarke realized something had gone wrong. She was the only one awake. Raven lay across from her, hands holding her remote device, eyes closed.
Clarke stumbled to the operations room, and looked at the monitors. All the lights were green. Green is good, she thought with a sad smile. After a few minutes of studying the data on the screen, she let out a happy little shout. Something had happened in the system and her cryo pod had been brought out of stasis rather than Raven’s. It wasn’t the best news ever, but still, it could have been a lot worse.
And here she was again, sitting in a dark room, alone, waiting for her friends to return. An alarm went off on the panel in front of her, reminding to look in on everyone, her people, her family. She didn’t need to manually check their pods, but still, she felt compelled. It was something she had control over, made her feel connected to them, even as they slept. This wasn’t the way it was supposed to be, but since when had a single plan of theirs ever been fully successful? None of this was the way it was supposed to be.
Of course this time she would only have to wait a few more days, rather than years. But this time I don’t have Madi, Clarke thought sadly as she walked through the long corridor, making sure all the status lights were green. She made her way to the cryopod at the end of the first row. A young girl, long, brunette braids resting on the sleeping shoulder on Clarke’s adopted daughter. She watched Madi rest, unnerved by how deathlike the whole picture appeared.
Clarke continued down the row, passing her own empty cryo pod, and pausing to stare at Bellamy. He looked peaceful. It was something she was unused to seeing on his face, but at the same time, it looked perfectly at home. Maybe Echo had been right, maybe it was time to finish their story.
The thought made her rock back on her heels a little. The exchange with Echo, the awkward scene in the operations room...to her, it had all happened last week. The embarrassment, confusion, and the longing were still very real, very raw in her memories, but outside this ship, it had happened 99 years ago. An entire generation had been born and lost since she had felt Bellamy’s fingers entwine with hers.
She continued her check of the cryo-pods and then walked back to the main control center. Raven would be pissed to know there was a canteen and meal ration sitting next to a keyboard, and the thought made Clarke giggle. She decided to pull out the book Abby had given her and read the stories of her family again. On the last few pages were the letters that Abby had written to Clarke when she was locked in the sky box. Every other line was dotted with a tear stain. Whether hers or Abby’s, Clarke could no longer keep track of.
She enjoyed her time alone. There was a lightness knowing that it was temporary, knowing that her friends were alive and together. She spent her time exploring the ship and reading the old logs. Old Earth was fucked up. No wonder the Ark and the Grounders were so messed up, they were both born of violence.
We must do better.
She had found some old grease pencils (How old? One hundred years? Two hundred years? She didn’t know.) and began sketching on the walls. She drew as many faces as she could from memory. She wanted people to see their loved ones when they awoke.
She had been dozing near a window when she heard the alarm echo down the hall. It awoke her with a start. This wasn’t her set timer. This was the warning alarm Raven had set. It was time for them to wake up.
Voices began bouncing off the walls, the near-perfect silence of the ship had been replaced by squeals of joy. She stayed outside the doorway, letting people stream into the hallways. Finally, as the room cleared out, she stepped in and walked towards Madi’s bed. The young girl was standing next to Raven, who had ripped a panel off the wall to access a computer screen and keyboard.
Something was wrong. Raven had her crisis face on. Clarke looked around and saw it, ten or so pods that were still closed, beating their fists against cryo bed doors.
“They’re losing oxygen. The system is reading their pods as being open, so it’s removing life support.” Raven’s fingers lightning fast on the keys, bringing up menu after menu.
Shaw was at the end, trying to pry open the door. Madi stood back, clearly scared. Finally Raven raised a fist in the air.
“I got it. I’ll have to manually unlock them one by one, but I can do this.”
After a few moments, Clarke heard the unlock of one of the doors, and saw Shaw and Madi rushing over to help the woman, someone she recognized as being a friend of her mother’s, out of the bed. Another click and another and in a couple of minutes, nearly all the remaining doors were unlock.
“Damn it. I can’t get this last one. It’s fucked up.” Rage and frustration thick in Raven’s voice.
Clarke looked around, looking for the last locked cryo pod. She stopped breathing when she saw him. She had been in such a hurry to find Madi, then help Raven, that she’d walked right past his bed without even glancing.
Of course it would be yours.
She saw his fingers, bloody from trying to claw at the inside of the door seal. She saw his face, no longer peaceful, but full of fearful understanding. He met her eyes and stopped beating on the door. She ran over and started imitating Shaw’s earlier fruitless attempts at prying the doors open. He had stopped struggling, his eyelids flickering, but his gaze never wavering from her. She was distracted by a loud animalistic sound. She realized it was her own screams echoing back.
“Shaw, Madi, somebody please help me. Raven keep trying. Please. We can’t lose Bellamy. I just can’t.” She cried out as she began pulling on a hanging piece pipe, likely broken during during the original coup.
The three of them managed to get the it off, and Clarke shoved past them. She began beating the cryo pod, but she paused when she realized his eyes were closed and his body lay still. She let out another cry of rage and pain, completely unaware of the crowd that had formed behind her. Someone grabbed the pipe out of hand, and she saw Miller begin beating on the pod.
The click and hiss of it coming unlocked was almost missed, but with moments Miller and Shaw were shoving open the door while Clarke, Jackson, and a grounder she didn’t know, were pulling Bellamy out. She heard Jackson say something about him not breathing and she heard Madi let out a childish sob, but she stayed focused.
Chest compressions. Breathe. Not Bellamy. Chest compressions. Breathe. Can’t Lose Bellamy. Chest compressions. Breathe. Not Bellamy. Chest compressions. Breathe. Can’t Lose Bellamy.
When he grabbed her wrist and began coughing, she fell onto him, wrapping him in tight hug until he squeaked. She looked down at him and was surprised by what she saw. He was smiling. The asshole had almost died, and he had the audacity to smile at her. She knew she was being irrational, but that stupid, lopsided, arrogant grin pissed her off.
“Why the hell are you smiling? You almost died! You were dead and I saved you and you’re smiling.”
“You know, if you wanted to kiss me, you could have done it without trying to kill me first.” He rasped out.
She stared at him and all the annoyance melted away. His face was full of gratitude and thanks and love.
She bent over and placed a gentle kiss on his lips. He leaned up, reaching for her, pulling her closer. For a moment, there was only them. Clarke Griffin kissing Bellamy Blake. This is the way the story ends, and another one begins.
“Ewww, gross.” Madi said, bringing them both out of their reverie.
“Yeah, the hobbit’s right. Get a room.” Murphy snarled.
Clarke stepped back and let the others help Bellamy to his feet. He exchanged hugs with Miller and Jackson, and thanked the grounder and Shaw. Clarke watched as Murphy and Emori came over to congratulate him on not being dead. The room was clearing, now that the drama was over. Clarke watched Echo walk over to them. She was visibly shaken, and Clarke had a pang of guilt wash over her. The tall brunette stood in front of them for a moment before flinging her arms around Clarke.
“You’re always saving all of us. Thank you Wanheda.” Echo whispered in her ear, “Thank you Clarke,” she said after a moment’s pause and pulled back.
She put a hand to Bellamy’s face and just said, “You’re not dead. Make the most of that.” and then she was off.
The rest of the of them stayed in the room for another beat before Raven grabbed Madi’s hand and started walking out, Shaw right behind them.
“What’s wrong? Where are you going?” Bellamy asked, confused about the sudden departure.
“I need to go try to make radio contact with the ground. And honestly, by the look of the two of you, if stay here any longer, Madi and I are both going to be scarred by what we see. We’ll be in the operations room.”
“Clarke...I….just…”
“Yeah I know, I love you too” she said before leaning for another kiss, this time deeper and full of fire. He grabbed her hips, pulling her into him, his fingertips brushing against the bare skin and dancing along the waist of her pants. She pulled back and looked at him, “You know, we should probably go to the med room and get you checked out.” She raised an eyebrow, her meaning unmistakable. “They have very nice facilities on this ship, complete with a bed and a lock.”
“You know, I think that’s a good idea.” he replied. “And thanks for you know, waking me up.”
She smiled up at him and pulled him down for another kiss.