Chapter Text
Everything hurt.
This was nothing new. Clarke Griffin felt as if she had been hurting for hundreds of years and technically, she had.
She wandered what it was this time as her mind struggled to wake from unconsciousness. As far as she could tell, her whole body ached. Again, nothing new. Her neck especially. Similar to the inflamed sting after getting a needle jammed into your jugular.
Clarke was familiar with this feeling. And she was not happy to be feeling it again.
Open your goddamn eyes, Clarke. I’m going to be pissed if someone has managed to possess you again.
She wasn’t quite there yet. Her eyelids felt like glue and wouldn’t budge.
But she was aware of sounds. Loud sounds, alike to that of a station in space long gone. Machine buzzing…..like you would hear on the Ark. Which made no sense because the last thing she remembered, she was on Sanctum after coming back from the Eligius ship with Madi and –
Don’t think about that now. Think about opening your eyes.
She could hear people mumbling, talking quietly amongst each other and the rattling of metal. Somebody’s voice was talking over a loud speaker but she couldn’t make it out.
It sounded too impossibly familiar to actually be the person she was thinking of.
Finally, her eyes opened, just a miniscule. And it was dark. She blinked the sleep out of her eyes before squinting around her. What the hell?!
“Clarke? Clarke Griffin? Is that you?!” an achingly familiar voice whispered excitedly from her right.
Oh, I think I know what’s happening now.
Her mind compartmentalized a thousand different theories into one at the sound of that voice. With that cheerful tone that, last she heard, was cursing her name from Polis to Azgeda. Who played over and over in her head in the five years she spent with Madi, his letter to his best friend foretelling mankind’s ruination of what was left of the Earth. Whose goggles, that once sat in the dashboard of a buggie that was no more than a memory, now sat on his head.
As she met his playful brown eyes, she finally made peace with the fact that she was inexplicably dead.
“Long time no see, Clarke,” grinned Jasper Jordan from where he was buckled into a dropship seat beside her.
-
“Clarke. Hey, Clarke! This is great, right? Just like old times. Except, for, well, the others.”
Clarke had been trying to think on when she could have possibly managed to die after getting back to Sanctum barely an hour after defeating the Primes but she was drawing short on viable answers. It’s not like she would have gone anywhere but to bed after the hell Josephine put her through. Maybe the infirmary, to check Madi for injuries. Everyone else seemed to be fine, Bellamy didn’t seem to have any wounds when she saw him earlier. Speaking of, how the hell did she die if Bellamy Blake was around?
After Bellamy resuscitated her and she got some rest, she talked to Octavia, intending to find out all the brunette knew about the Children of Gabriel and the man himself. Instead, per usual, the younger Blake decided to have it her way and point out how her brother ‘literally told death to shove it’. Clarke hadn’t had the chance to fully examine what that meant. Sure, she could reason it away as them being best friends and partners for years but she knew the truth deep down. And she knew that if she were him, she wouldn’t’ve let death stop her from bringing him back. She wondered what he would think about this situation. How would he reason it?
“Like don’t get me wrong – I’m super confused but this is the kind of weird where you should probably embrace it without asking too many questions. Like, why question it?”
And Jasper. God, how was that possible? If anything, she was more likely to believe him to be a mind trick. That she never escaped Josephine and this was just the Prime’s way of letting her know that she had her believing she was free. Despite the bile rising in her throat at the very idea she was still trapped in her head, she managed to enjoy the sight of her old friend before her. She didn’t get to see him before but seeing him now, as he had been before the Mountain, it was nice. It reminded her of simpler times, before the Ark came down or before the Grounders attacked. When it was just her and her Delinquents.
“Hey, Jasper?” Clarke smiled – barely - interrupting the rambling she remembered so fondly of, “Why are we here? Are we dead?”
Jasper gaped at her before closing his jaw, “Hold on a minute. You think we’re dead?”
Clarke frowned, “Of course. How else could I explain this? I swear to hell, if this is one of Josephine’s mind tricks, I’m going to just pull the plug on myself!”
“Wo ho ho,” Jasper chuckled, leaning back in his seat which looked suspiciously like the ones the 100 pulled from the dropship and recycled for their own comfort, “Look Clarke, I don’t know who the hell Josephine is or what happened after I died but rest assured we’re alive right now. I’ve pinched myself so many times and went through everything I know and learned. But one thing doesn’t make sense. If this was Heaven, Hell or, in your case, ,mind tricks, than why the hell are they here?!"
Clarke turned to where he was pointing and almost passed out again. He was pointing at someone over the age of 20. If this was a memory drawn from when the 100 first landed, than the only person over 20 on this ship would have been Bellamy Blake. They were surrounded by about 100 other people and over half of them were at least well into their 30s. And none of them was Bellamy Blake.
Don’t sound so disappointed. You don’t know where you are and if it turns out you’ve bit it, you don’t want him to show up anytime soon.
Her throat closed up as she struggled to swallow the anxiety and the fear she felt at the possibility that she was dead and that she had left Bellamy and Madi behind, thickening into a choke hold as if to say that’s not it, you liar. She ignored the burning of built up sobs and focused on her surroundings, trying to pick up more information so she could get a better understanding of the situation.
Another thing, she noticed was different this time was that Wells was not beside her and instead Jasper was in his place. And seemed to recall everything they knew of their time on the ground including his death.
“Do you think that - ?”
“I think so.”
“So that means - ?”
“The big man upstairs gave us another chance? Yep.”
Clarke let out a disbelieving laugh, “That can’t be it. No, there has to be a logical explanation as to how me and you – who I remind you, died – are here right now. I’m still on the fence of it being a mind trick.”
“Where’s your sense of faith, Clarke? Look I get it. I woke up, saw you and I admit to wanting to wring your neck to see if you were really here. But then I thought. Hold up, Jordan! Take things slow. Clarke’s the only one who you actually recognize. Wait ‘til after you get your answers. But then I realized, hey this looks familiar as hell and, wow, I’m not dead. Nor does it look like we’re bathing in radiation. So than I came to the conclusion that, hey something weird has definently happened, but we are defiently on an Ark dropship about to go somewhere and where else are we to go but down? Which means…..”
He turned to Clarke, gesturing theatrically for her to draw the conclusion, “We’re going to Earth.”
“100 points to Griffin,” Jasper clapped, laughing to himself at the little pun he made. He stopped when he noticed her frown deepen, “What’s wrong? Earth is a good thing. You know, If you ignore the grounders, the Mountain Men, the radiation and whatever the hell happened when I was gone.”
The blonde felt their stomach drop. She was going to throw up..
Clarke started pulling against the belts violently, whispering harshly, “We need to leave. RIGHT NOW.”
The boy next to her laughed like she said a funny joke.
“Leave? Where are we supposed to go? Catch a shooting star to Mars or something? There’s nothing out there but space until we get back down to the ground. What’s wrong with you?”
“Jasper, you don’t understand but we need to leave.”
“Why? What’s happening?”
Clarke gritted her teeth in frustration.
How the hell did Finn and those two boys get their belts off last time?
“Talk to me, Griffin. What’s up with the suicide mission all of a sudden?”
She growled, throwing herself back into her seat in fustration. The person behind her mumbled for her to stop fidgeting while another one cautioned her that she was going to break her seat if she didn’t sit still.
God, they speak to me as if I’m a child.
“CLARKE.”
“Ow!” she winced, jerking her head to the side and rubbing at her sensitive ear as she shot an annoyed look at Jasper, “WHAT?”
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?! We’re dropping soon and you know what a rough landing does from the first time around.”
“Jasper, there is no more Earth. It’s a long story but basically after you died, the radiation killed the Earth and after five years of waiting for the air to become safe to breathe, there was only one place left untouched. I can’t go into detail right now but somehow we – well not we but people – screwed that place up royally and it got to the point where we had to blow it up. Than we all got into a space craft and left Earth.”
There was silence for a while, a silence Clarke used to study the belt used to lock her into her seat until Jasper started cackling quietly beside her. She didn’t find this surprising.
Of course, he would find us destroying the Earth amusing. It’s what he had basically been telling us since we left the Mountain.
He had quietened down and now looked at her with a humorless smile.
“You’re telling me that you had a place you could actually live after the radiation razed the planet and you still managed to ruin it?”
Clarke shot him an annoyed look, “In my defense, it wasn’t my fault this time.”
“I’m impressed. Did we finally repress those genocidal urges? Wish Maya could have lived to see that.”
“Alright, listen here, Jasper Jordan!” she hissed, pulling him by his shirt collar, “I may have tolerated your shitty attitude in the past but whatever is happening now, know that my tolerance is long gone. I never wanted to hurt you or Maya. Believe me when I wish we had found a way to get her out – to get them all out. But I didn’t have the luxury of time. Raven was almost dead. My mother had a drill in her stomach. Cage had our people in chains and was threatening each and every one of them with a gun including you. We all had a choice. I made one that meant our people’s survival. And I will continue to live with that for the rest of my days. Now, do you want to die in space or die in a wasteland?”
Jasper’s jaw tensed but he never once blinked the whole time she was talking, and his smile stayed where it was. He gently pried his collar from her hands and straightened it, clearing his throat.
“That was a nice speech. Love the moxie, that’s a new one. Haven’t seen that since we first landed. But if you’re done I should probably draw your attention to three things,” he told her as he smiled mischievously, holding three of his fingers up in front of them as if he was going to teach a child how to count, “One, we are obviously younger than we were before we woke up. I mean, I wasn’t that much older, but I had a nice-looking goatee and my head was shaved. My hair has grown back and if you take a look at our clothes, they’re the same ones issued to us by the Sky Box facilitators before they loaded us on board the dropship.”
“Two, if you look around, you will recognize at least one person from the Ark that should either be dead or just straight up shouldn’t be here right now.”
“And three, as we have been speaking, Chancellor Jaha has just recited the Traveler’s Ode and has just told us he will see us all on the ground.”
Clarke’s heart felt like it stopped beating. As she looked around, at herself – she couldn’t ignore the fact that every word he spoke was true. And it shouldn’t be. It defied all logic. Then again, she had see things that rivaled the level of weirdness this situation was exhibiting.
Her breathe grew heavier and her voice got lower, as if her speaking louder would put a crack in the illusion.
“Say it’s true and we’ve somehow……”
“…..gotten sent back in time.”
“Then everything we’ve lived through…..”
“…..we can avoid it, Clarke. Every bad thing that you’ve done, that everyone has lived through never has to happen.”
Clarke’s bottom lip wavered and she already felt the tears start to well up in her eyes as she asked hesitantly, more to herself than the boy next to her.
“We can all survive this time?”
“Clarke,” Jasper whispered, “We all get to live this time.”
No sooner had he spoken, they felt themselves drop into space.
-
Clarke held her breathe as her stomach leapt into her throat, the pressure of them dropping making her fingers tighten on the belts across her chest.
“Shit, forgot about that feeling but damn is it good to be alive again!” Jasper whooped and cackled, earning a few glares from the people around them. He ignored them all, throwing his head back as if relishing in the feeling of falling.
She didn’t know how he was laughing when she felt like she might just throw up if she were to open her mouth. How she didn’t throw up the first time was beyond her, although she had a sneaking suspicion it was because she was too busy being mad at Wells and hoping not to die to notice.
Wait. Wells.
He’s alive.
Which means they are all alive.
All of them.
Oh, this was going to be difficult but one thing was for sure.
“Jasper, as soon as we get to the ground we need to get the 100 and leave.”
Jasper swung his head towards her, his laughter cut off by her surprising words.
“What? I couldn’t hear you properly, but I could have sworn you just suggested we leave?”
“Your hearing is fine. Listen, I realized that while the adults are with us this time, we are still prisoners to them,” Clarke said, jerking at the restraints to prove her point, “If you look around, you will notice that everyone else aren’t strapped in with the same belts as us.”
Jasper cursed under his breathe as he realized what she was getting at, “You don’t mean - ?"
Clarke felt her lips curl despite her stomach feeling like it was being tossed around inside her, “Bellamy might have been a dick at first but he was a smart dick. If we hadn’t been in the Mountain, the first thing the Ark would have done was restructure itself on the ground so that it would be no different then if we were still in space. We are expandable, and while they care enough to maintain the human race, they don’t give a damn about our feelings or if a few of us lose our lives if it means the rest of them survive.”
Ironic how it continued to be like that long after most of us died.
“So, what do you suggest we do? Ditch the adults?”
“The adults will be fine whether or not we stay. Us, on the other hand, will not.”
“No offense, Clarke, but we almost died on our own the first time. Like, me especially. Grounder. Spear. Bait. Traumatized Jasper, ring any bells?”
“That was the first time. This time we know the land. The people. And, we came down with supplies and know where to get more.”
“But our parents – “
“We’ll come back for yours. And Monty’s. We’ll get Miller’s dad to help us out. Maybe even be able to convince Sinclair and Jackson to come with us.”
“Fuck, Clarke, we don’t even know if all of our friends are on this ship! Or if any of the other ships will make it! And even if they did make it out alive, what happens if we’re the only ones who remember the past – the future or whatever? How the fuck are we going to get any of them to come with us?!”
“Hey!” Clarke whispered, gripping his arm from where it rested beside hers, “Why the hell would we be here if our friends weren’t brought back? And if all of them aren’t here, we’ll take who we can and wait for the rest of them to show up. If they don’t remember, that’s fine. We’ll just have to lead them in the right direction, but it wouldn’t make sense to have only us remember what happened and leave everyone else clueless.”
“Right,” Jasper breathed, settling back in his chair, “Well then, what’s the plan, princess?”
Clarke flinched at the old nickname.
Shit, you also forgot about him.
“Well, Clarke? You’re the one with the big shot plans. Spill.”
She shook her head clear of any unnecessary thoughts and nodded to herself, “Okay, you remember the first time there was a ton of chaos when we first walked out of the drop ship?”
“How could I forget?”
Clarke smiled, “Well it’s going to be kind of like that except the guards and the people from Alpha will want to get everything under control as soon as possible. We’re going to use that chaos to get the kids and get out but we need to be quick.”
The sound of metal rattling caused them both to pause as the dropship shook harshly, gritting their teeth at the loud crashing sound.
“Alright, better tell me this now Clarke, because if I didn’t know better, that was the sound of us piercing through the atmosphere.”
Clarke sighed and started talking quickly, knowing that they were going to be on the ground soon.
“Okay, as soon as we land, the adults are going to want to check things out first. Two things could happen. First, the adults leave us trapped in the chairs, leave to look around and come back later once they get orders from Alpha or a higher authority. If they do this, we use the metal of the chairs to cut through the belts before checking to see how many kids are in here. We get them out, steal some stuff and sneak out before they come back in. If we’re lucky, we’ll have about 5 minutes to spare before they alert everyone else and lock down the area. In those five minutes we should split up, get the others and get the hell out of dodge.”
Jasper nodded, “Sounds impossible. What’s the second thing?”
“The adults let us out, still go out first in which we will have less time trying to get out of the damn seats and more time stealing shit and getting to the others.”
“It’s a wide area to cover,” he pointed out, already working on his seatbelt, “There’s 100 of us, 102 counting Raven and Bellamy. How are we supposed to find them all?”
She followed his lead, dragging her belt up and down the sharp metal, “It’s likely we won’t be able to find them all in one go. But in order to cover the area, we’re splitting up. Remember how it was when we first got there? They were all in groups, friends huddled near friends, people they met in lock up. You and Monty stuck together, Murphy had his tribe of assholes, Bellamy stuck with his sister and everyone else stuck with Bellamy.”
“Okay, so who am I getting saddled with? Please, don’t let it be Murphy.”
Clarke rolled her eyes and gripped the belt harder, “I should for your shitty attitude.”
Jasper let out a mock gasp, “You wouldn’t.”
“Stick with finding Monty. I know your eager to see him again. But if you happen to see Harper, Fox, Wells, Atom, Raven or Finn, try and drag them along with you.”
Jasper let out a low whistle, lips curling up in amusement as he drawled, “Is Griffin trying to avoid a certain Spacewalker?”
Clarke flinched slightly at that, gritting her teeth to keep from taking the bait he was dangling in front of her, “I’m being smart. Finn will go to help you out and Raven will go with Finn because she loves him. Otherwise she would stay with the adults.”
“What about Wells?” the dark-haired boy hummed playfully from beside her, a sound at odds with the situation they were in, “Why are you shoving your best friend off to me?”
“Because he will try to make me stay. If you bump into him instead, you can just say I’m meeting up with you and I told you to bring him. He’ll go along with it.”
There was only a few tethers left of the belt to go when the roof of the drop ship made the popping sound of the metal roofing being ripped off as it dropped through the atmosphere and the thrusters were deployed to steady the landing.
“I hope Finn didn’t manage to get out of his seatbelt this time,” Jasper muttered, using the shaking of the ship to cut through the last of his belt. Clarke put an arm over his chest to protect him while he worked on the last of hers.
“So, who are you rounding up?” he asked as he leaned back with an arm put out in front of her.
“I’m going to search for Miller first and send him to find Bellamy and Octavia. Then I’m getting Roma, Monroe and Murphy and sending them off to meet Miller who will take them to you. I’m then going to find C- Charlotte and she’s going to help me carry any supplies I find.”
She chokes up at the little girl’s name and Jasper stills, turning his head slightly.
“Clarke – “
“Like you said. This is our chance to make up for our mistakes and to live. To that, we can’t hold on to the past.”
Jasper didn't say anything as the popping sound got louder and the shaking grew more aggressive to point that they were both nearly thrown from their chairs.
“I understand.”
A massive thud rocked the dropship and then it went silent. Jasper looked up at the roof of the dropship and turned to Clarke in a way that could only be described as nostalgic. She remembered and her lips quirked up into a dry smile.
“No machine hum.”
“That’s new.”
-
It turned out the adults went with option one which made them cutting through their seat belts on their way down not only very dangerous but also unnecessary.
“Alright, we need to go out and look around. Prisoners from Lockup are required to stay in the drop ship until further orders are given. Do not attempt to leave or you will be restrained and punished,” warned a guardsman who shot looks of suspicion at what seemed like every person under the age 20.
Mutters erupted from below where Clarke and Jasper stood on the second level and they heard someone yell something along the lines of ‘what are you going to do? Float us?’ which made them both smile wistfully.
The guardsman continued on as if he didn’t hear the comment, “Two guardsman will be left here to watch you, so don’t try anything.”
Jasper shot Clarke a look of panic but the blonde girl was observing the two men taking their places at the entrance. One was shorter than the other and by the way he was leaning he seemed to favor his right leg and probably suffered some bruising from the landing around his side. The other was taller and gripped his baton in his hand tightly, already looking to beat up on any kid that even breathed near him. A gun was holstered by his side but he didn’t even have his hand anywhere near it meaning that he didn’t think he was going to need it.
The guardsman in charge left with the rest of the adults, leaving the door open.
Bad move on their part. They won’t be able to tell if we leave or not. The sound of it opening and closing could have acted as an alarm of sorts.
Jasper leaned against the railing and sighed hopelessly, “Well we’re screwed. What’s the plan now?”
Clarke kept her voice low as she replied, “Same plan.”
He whipped his head towards her in surprise and tsked, “Clarke, there’s two armed guards between us and our ‘plan’. Pray tell, how do you expect us to get past them?”
She drew him close and subtly pointed out everything she observed before giving him his orders. She could tell from his face that he thought this plan was not going to succeed and she didn’t blame him. Jasper never was a fighter. Strong and fierce, yes. But at this heart, Jasper was gentle and didn’t want to fight. He sought a joke or a distraction to solve a problem. Clarke, well, she never had the luxury of such a tactic. Diplomacy or Violence, two opposing ideals but her ever present approaches to a problem. This was no different.
She led Jasper down to the first level and tried to single out any faces. She recognized Bree, Jessica and Drew and nodded at Jasper to head over to them and spread the word. She saw a taller boy with sandy blonde hair and recognized him as one of the boys who used to go hunting with Bellamy. His name, Bek Yaxley, was listed as one of the five that died during the bone marrow harvesting in the Mountain. She was told he was one of the first to die after he assaulted their captors, specifically those who had dragged his girlfriends out of the room to be tested.
The said girlfriend, Aslynn, was standing by his side, her eyes darting from the two guardsman to the open door. Clarke changed direction, making her way over to them. The girl saw her coming and stiffened as recognition lit up in her hazel green eyes, the boy stepping forward, acting as her shield.
Clarke ignored the way that stance sang to some part of her, the part where Clarke was once that girl behind a boy. Instead of golden hair though, it was a soft brown that curled around his ears and instead of pale skin, it was golden with constellations of light freckles…
Get it together, Clarke. Now is not the time to lose your head like that.
Clarke jerked her head back to the girl, ignoring her protector and leaned in as close as possible, lowering her voice to a whisper.
"We're leaving. Be prepared."
She didn’t wait to see if the girl understood or if she was going to do as she asked. She turned on her heel and walked over to the guards. She heard some of the kids behind her, whispering about what she was doing and what she planning. Jasper must have gotten to some people because they quickly shut up by the time she made it over to the two men.
The shorter one considered her warily but the taller one didn’t take his eyes off the mass behind her.
“Excuse me?”
The shorter one shot a look at his companion, unsure if he should respond or not. His companion just stared on, but the tick in his jaw told Clarke he heard her just fine.
“I was wondering if you could –“
WHACK!
Clarke’s head jerked violently to the side as the baton slammed against her cheek. To Clarke’s credit, she didn’t falter in her stance. But she couldn’t help the shaky hand that came to hover her bruised cheek or the gaping look on her face. She planned on pissing them off, sure, but she didn’t expect a full-blown strike to the face before she could even talk!
She felt some fluid build up in her mouth and spat it onto the floor, uncaring of the blood dribbling from her lips or how it stained her teeth.
“He shouldn’t have done that,” she heard Jasper mutter from somewhere behind her.
Clarke sighed before meeting the guards eyes with a slight smirk, “My name is Clarke Griffin.”
The guard’s eyes widened comically at her last name and that was all she needed. She lunged at him, gripping his shoulders and sending a knee to his groin. He keeled over to the side and she used his shoulders as a momentum to send a kick to the other one who approached her from behind, her boot sinking into his side. He grunted in pain but managed to grip her ankles, locking her leg long enough for his companion to recover and to wrap an arm around her torso.
“Wrong move, dude,” Jasper jeered from the crowd gathered, all waiting to see if this slip of a girl - the princess they remembered who could barely throw a punch - could really take on two guardsman and come out victorious. Clarke bet all she had that Jasper somehow talked her up to them, reminded them all that she used to lead them, used to take care of them and nurse them back to health or injury. That she had killed for them.Those that knew Jasper best were probably wondering if he might have smoked something before coming aboard the drop ship. That was, of course, if they didn't remember what happened in their past lives.
Clarke was dragged backwards by the one behind her, giving her the opportunity to use her leg to boost a kick from the foot dragging on the ground. She met her target, his hands springing to his mouth where she was sure a bloody lip had split open. With both her feet free, she bent at the knees and hefted the guard behind her over her head, his arms letting go in shock. She put one foot on his throat and bent to pull the gun from his holster and the baton from where it was left on the ground.
“Hey Jasp, hold this for me?” Clarke called to the boy, throwing the baton to him before turning back towards the guard, gun in hand. The one with the bloody lip sneered and tried to make it to his feet despite the pain he was feeling in his ribs and face. He moved, gun in hand.
Smart this one. He has a better weapon and if he were to shoot it, the others would come back to see what the gunshot was about.
Clarke stilled. She watched him as he finally managed to stand upright, taking notice of the way the gun shook in his hand and how the safety was still on.
Smart, but not too smart. He won’t shoot a kid even after seeing me fight.
“Put your gun down. Right. Now,” he grounded out, the blood muffling his words.
Clarke glanced at Jasper and gave him a slight nod. Jasper frowned.
Oh well, if he doesn’t know now he’ll find out soon.
She slowly placed the gun on the floor, sending it over to him before he could ask. He was so shocked by the movement that he took his eyes off her long enough that he wasn’t prepared when snatched the gun right out of his and picked the one of the ground, shoving one of them into the waistband of her trousers and holding the other one up to his face threateningly.
“I have a message for the Council and for the Chancellor. Don’t come looking for us.”
She gestured for Jasper to give her the baton and felt only a twinge of guilt when she used the butt of it to knock both guardsmen out. She spent a few second to catch her breathe, tucking long strands of blonde hair behind her ear.
“We’re getting off to a great start on the whole ‘not repeating mistakes, we’re good now’,” Jasper muttered as he came up beside her, his hands flopping to his side dramatically.
Clarke blew another piece of hair out of her face before moving past him to check the supplies, “Not repeating mistakes, we’re good now’ officially starts now.”
-
“Are we ready to go?”
She looked around at them all and waited until they were all looking forward.
“Okay, this is how it’s going to go down. Jasper will lead you to where we are going. We go out in groups of four. There’s about 20 of us here. Go on my count.”
Clarke peered around the door and looked both ways, trying to get a sense of where they were. She knew that if this was the same as before, Jaha would have waited until they were directly over North America. The trees and the sky supported this. A few of the kids thought the adults went right so that means they would go left. From that point they would find a higher vantage point and she and Jasper would try to find any significant landmarks.
“First group, go.”
She watched as Jasper took Bree, Jessica and Drew out and down to the left where the land seemed to steep. She counted to five before letting the second group go. As she got to the fifth group, she heard the sounds of people in the distance. The adults were coming back.
She turned to the last three, Bek, Aslynn and Kath.
“Run. Now.”
Clarke and her group raced around the side of the dropship and rolled down so that the steep acted as cover. She gestured for the others to follow where Jasper was taking the others while she stayed to observe the group of adults returning. She noticed they were mostly guardsman that came back and came to the assumption they must have found the rest of the Ark.
These guys must be for to take the kids back.
A body landed next to hers and she jumped before she noticed it was just Jasper.
“What are you doing? What happened to the run like hell part of the plan?”
Clarke peeked over the slope to see the guardsman yelling out orders, four of the man going in and coming out with their unconscious comrades. She couldn’t see before but she was pretty sure the one in charge was –
“Damn, is that Sargent Miller? He looks great.”
Clarke raised an eyebrow at that and watched as the older man gestured for them to go back the way they came. That’s when she realized that if they were going to get their people, she would first need to find out where they were.
“Alright, you remember most of the landmarks right?”
“Contrary to popular belief, Clarke, I’m not useless.”
“That’s not what I –“
“Yes, I know where they are.”
“Do you remember an underground bunker? Between the dropship and the ravine?”
Jasper snorted, cracking a small grin, “Ah yeh, wasn’t that where you and Finn used to – “
“Yes, good. You know it. Take the kids there and wait for me.”
She went to follow the retreating adults before she was stopped. Clarke looked at the hand on her arm and back at Jasper.
“Wait,” he said, looking back at the kids before whispering, “What are you going to do?”
The blonde girl gave him a knowing look. She patted his hand in reassurance as she leaned forward to whisper determinedly.
“I’m going to get our friends back. Be safe. Don’t die. And if we do, May we meet again.”
She shook his hand off and started after the adults, jogging into the forest behind them and out of sight.
Jasper huffed before turning back to the others. Their faces stared at him in a mix of fear and determination. He realized that he needed to lead now, like Clarke and Bellamy did when they first landed. He wasn’t that weak, coward of a boy anymore. He survived a spear through his goddamn chest! He fought Grounders, the Mountain Men and a horde of ALIE possessed Arkanians. Earth didn’t manage to kill him last time. He died on his own terms. He didn't plan to change that. Except this time, he planned on sticking around long enough to keep the human race's heads out of their asses.
And to make sure that Maya had a second chance. A chance to finally live on the ground.
“You heard the princess, follow me if you want to survive.”