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Earth, they made it.
They landed, they were alive.
When Finn opened the dropship door, Clarke was sure they were going to die. But they didn't.
The trees, the sky, the air, oh god the air.
The air was so sweet, it felt so good in her lungs and on her skin.
Clarke heard birds in the distance.
She laughed breathlessly.
Earth, wonderful, amazing earth. Clarke couldn't remember being this happy.
*
It didn't last, of course.
They were dropped on the wrong damn mountain. Then Jasper was speared by grounders, Clarke saved him, but barely.
She and Finn had become close, he had protected her from Murphy's wrath.
Wells didn't like Finn, but Clarke stopped caring about what Wells thought when he turned in her father.
Sometimes, she thinks she slept with Finn just because she knew Wells disapproved.
*
She always felt eyes on her, especially in the forest.
When Raven came down, Clarke pulled away from the group. Wells had become their leader, whether the others wanted it or not.
Wells was a good leader, he had wanted Clarke to join him, but she couldn't, she still was their healer, only because she was the only one who knew enough about it. But after finding out about Raven, Clarke couldn't bring herself trust anyone else, expect for Wells.
Wells, who lied to protect her, who had her hate him, was the only one she could ever trust.
So she started going into the forest alone. She knew she shouldn't.
Clarke knew it was stupid, after everything that had happened. But she liked it.
It was peaceful, until it wasn't.
*
The fog came quickly.
Clarke had heard about it from the others. She knew what it had caused.
She started running, she ran until she could barely breath. Clarke tripped on a root or something, she went flying forward. She caught herself, but she landed funny on her ankle.
She couldn't run any longer.
Clarke began to crawl when she heard a grounder horn.
With the fog and the grounders, it was only matter of time until one of them killed her.
She forced her self to keeping going, even though her ankle was killing her.
She didn't hear anything behind her when arms came up around her. She twisted and turned, trying to see who grabbed her.
She gasped when she did.
A grounder.
The pain in her ankle and body made her feel fuzzy. And before Clarke could see if he was going to kill her, she blacked out.
*
She woke up in a cave, shackled to a wall.
She tried twisting her arms free but they were tied too tightly.
Clarke saw movement out of her eye.
The grounder from before appeared.
He looked like huge with all of the furs he had on him. His face was painted but she could still see his dark eyes, they matched with his dark curly hair.
He was holding something that looked like a rope.
Clarke started pushing herself against the wall, trying to move away from the grounder.
The grounder didn't seemed bothered by her. He just grabbed her good leg and tugged her back toward him.
He began wrapping her bad leg.
She watched him do it, before saying, "You are doing it wrong."
He looked up at her, and she could have sworn, his dark eyes were amused. He offered her the rope.
Clarke looked up at her arms and then back at him.
The grounder cut her arms free, before offering her the rope again.
Clarke carefully took the rope from the grounder.
Despite being given a something that could be a weapon, Clarke didn't try to run.
The grounder didn't scare her.
She wrapped her leg.
After her leg was wrapped, the grounder took her by the arm.
He led her though a series of tunnels before gesturing toward one.
She climbed though the tunnel, and found herself outside of the camp's east wall.
Clarke looked back toward the grounder, but he was gone.
*
The next time Clarke meets the grounder, it's when Dax tried to kill her.
He almost did, he would have, if the grounder hadn't shown up and pulled him off of her. When Dax had lashed out with his knife, hitting the grounder, Clarke had picked up a rock and hit against Dax's head.
He stopped moving after that.
Clarke leaned back against a tree, gasping for breath.
The grounder kneeled in front of her. His hands were covered in Dax's blood and there was a deep gash running from his shoulder down his chest.
"You're hurt," she gasped out, her hand reaching toward him.
He shook his head.
Clarke frowned, "Yes, you are. Let me help you," she said, "Please."
He stood from the ground and turned away from her.
When he started walking, she followed.
They went back to his cave. He gave her his medical supplies.
"Can I take off your, um, furs?" she asked cautiously.
She thinks he rolled his eyes before shrugging them off himself.
Blood was still stuck to his chest, but Clarke could clearly see the tattoos on his ashen skin.
She carefully clean the blood off his chest and his wound.
Once she bandaged his wound, she grasped one of his hands and began cleaning the blood off his hand.
When she was done, he grabbed the cloth from her and pressed it gently to her forehead, where Dax had cut her.
"I think, I think I killed him," she whispered.
Clarke felt tears build up in the back of her eyes.
"That's not me, I am not a killer. How could I have done that?" She said, looking at the floor. A tear slipped out, she felt the grounder wipe it away.
"Who we are, and who we need to be to survive, are two very different things," the grounder said softly.
Clarke's head snapped up.
The grounder was looking at her intently.
And for the first time since Raven came down, everything felt ok.
*
She saw the grounder next when Finn hauled him in their camp, late one night.
He, Wells, Raven, and Murphy had been planning to catch a grounder for a while.
But Wells hadn't told her, because he knew Clarke would disapprove.
Clarke was kept out of the dropship by Miller, she could hear sounds of them questioning the grounder.
Clarke could tell Miller wasn't happy about this.
"Miller, please, we both know this isn't right. We can't do this, not down here, this is not the Ark," she pleaded.
Miller sighed, "Go on in. I can't do this, it isn't right," he said tiredly.
Clarke raced into the dropship. She found them on the third level.
The grounder was tied up, and Murphy was holding a knife.
"What are you doing?" she said angrily.
"His kind has killed four of our people, plus have stabbed Jasper, it's payback," Murphy said while he twirled the knife in between his fingers.
"Besides we need information," Raven said from the corner.
"And you think by torturing him, you'll get anything?" she exclaim.
"It's what they would to do to us," Finn said.
"But we are not grounders!" she said loudly.
"Clarke, what would you have us do?" Wells asked quietly, "It's the only way."
"It's not, Wells, and you know it," she responded angrily.
Wells grabbed her arm and hauled her out of the room.
She could hear the sound of skin being sliced before the grounder groaned.
*
Clarke was able to get the grounder out the next morning.
He couldn't walk without support, so Clarke went with him.
He was almost deliriously with pain. He kept muttering things.
At first it was names she didn't recognize, Octavia and Aurora, but then it was her name.
"Clarke," he would groan.
When she finally reached his cave, he was nearly passed out, Clarke was supporting all of his body weight.
He passed out completely once she laid him down on the furs that acted as his bed.
She cleaned his wounds, he woke up when she had dressed them.
He stared at her for a long time, before saying, "Thank you."
"What's your name?" she asked.
"Bellamy," he replied.
Clarke smiled at that.
*
Clarke started to sneak away from camp to visit Bellamy.
He taught her how to fight, what plants were good for what, and what things were safe to eat.
He also told her about grounders, well, at least his clan.
"We don't have hair like yours," he said, "Only clans further north have that."
"Is that why you used to watch me?" she asked curiously.
Bellamy blushed slightly, "Yes, that was part of the reason."
Clarke grinned, "What was the other part?"
"You looked like a princess from old stories," he said softly, "That's why I watched you. My sister, she loved thoses stories. My mother used to tell her those every night."
"Where is your mother and sister?"
Bellamy looked away, "Dead, from the ship that you brought from the sky. Fire came off of it. Landed on their village, burned it to the ground."
Clarke rolled her lips into her mouth, "Is that why the other grounders want war?"
Bellamy nodded.
"But you don't?
"I don't want it, war is messy. We have lost too many already," Bellamy explained, "But I will fight anyway."
"Then why are you going to fight if you don't want to?" Clarke asked.
Bellamy looked into her eyes, "Because they are my people, I understand why they must do this."
Clarke pushed her hair out of her face, "I wish I could convice you not to fight."
Bellamy just smiled softly.
*
The 100 were also getting ready for war.
Finn and Raven had found guns, they made bullets.
Wells found her one night after she returned.
"You can't keep leaving, Clarke," he said.
"You don't get to control what I do," she responded calmly.
"It isn't safe. Your grounder won't protect you from his own people. He is planning on killing as many of us as possible. It's time you do the same," Wells said.
"Wells, I can't do that, I am not going to kill anyone else. I won't do it, and you can't make me," Clarke said firmly.
"I wish this wasn't what we had to do, Clarke," he said kindly, "But it is, now I need you to be with us."
Clarke scoffed, "Don't act like this was your only option, you never tired anything."
"Peace was never an option, Clarke, don't be a fool," he said harshly.
"I wish I was a fool to believe that, Wells," she responded in the same manner.
*
It wasn't until a grounder shot an arrow into Raven's back, did Clarke really understand what it meant to be at war.
The arrow had hit Raven's spine, she couldn't feel her legs. They needed to buy time for more bullets to be made. Finn had decided that he and Raven could build a bomb.
They set it off on the bridge.
Clarke went to see Bellamy the night after they set it off.
He was there, he wasn't dressed for battle, but for travel.
"Where are you going?" she asked.
Bellamy turned, fear was written across his face.
"I am leaving, I am going east to the ocean, a clan there will take me there," he said.
"But why? Why now?" She asked confused.
"Because the bomb you made will bring the Mountain Men. And the Mountain Men will kill everyone," he said.
He walked over and gasped her face in his hands, "Come with me, Clarke, leave this place behind," he said desperately, "Come with me to the sea. We can start a new life there."
Clarke thought about Wells, her best friend. She thought about Monty and Jasper, how they always made her laugh. She thought abut how Finn needed her medical expirence to train him. She thought about Raven and how much Raven needed her right now.
Clarke shook her head, "I can't."
He dropped his hands away, "Why?"
Clarke's eyes filled with tears, "Because they are my people."
"You'll die here," he said almost harshly.
Clarke gave a watery laugh, "Maybe, but maybe I won't."
"Clarke," he said softly.
She reached up and crushed her mouth to his. And, oh god, it's wonderful. It felt better than her first breath of fresh air on earth. She wished she had done this earlier.
She pulled away first.
"Goodbye Bellamy," she said, pouring every emotion into her words.
"Goodbye Clarke," he said.
*
She thought of him when Raven collapsed on the dropship floor, near dead.
She thought of him when she closed the dropship door, with Wells and Finn on the other side in the ring of fire.
She thought of him the most in the white room at Mount Weather.
She hoped he made it to the ocean, she wondered if the ocean would feel as wonderful as kissing him did.
She hoped it did.