Jason slid his sword back into its scabbard with a dull thwack, he looked at Clarke with his gaze turning uncharacteristically soft. "You alright?"
Clarke nodded, though her hands were still shaking from the adrenaline and the shock of Anya's final moments.
Octavia stepped over the body, her expression hardening as she glanced down at the dead Grounder leader, "We should have just killed her back in the cave," she muttered, "It would have saved us the trouble."
Jason didn't offer a defense or a reprimand. He just stared at the tree line for a heartbeat before turning away. "Come on. Let's go."
Clarke stumbled forward toward the perimeter of Camp Jaha. Every step felt like walking through deep water. If Jason hadn't forced her to rest the previous night, her legs would have given out a while ago. She felt a heavy, hollow ache in her chest for Anya, she had genuinely hoped to save her, to build a bridge, but that hope now lay cooling in the dirt behind them. She forced the memory of the Grounder's death into a dark corner of her mind.
She was home, she was safe.
As they emerged from the dense cover of the trees, stepping into the open expanse leading to the main gate, Jason suddenly hummed, a low, vibrating sound in his throat. In a flash of motion, he grabbed Clarke by the shoulder and hooked his arm around Octavia, dragging them both violently backward into the dirt just as the air erupted.
BANG! BANG!
Splinters and dirt exploded where they had been standing a fraction of a second before. A high-caliber bullet whistled through the space where Clarke's head had just been.
"Shit!" Jason roared, pinning them behind a large, fallen log. "Those idiots!"
The gunfire continued and from the way they kept shooting he could tell it wasn't a panicked shot, hammering against the wood of their makeshift cover. Jason didn't cower; he leaned out just enough to identify the shooters on the ramparts, then cupped his hands around his mouth, his voice booming with a command that cut through the gunfire like a whip.
"CEASE FIRE! You stupid idiots, we're friendlies!"
"Identify yourselves!" a voice barked from the ramparts. Jason didn't miss a beat as he spoke up. "It's me Jason, I've got Clarke Griffin and Octavia Blake with me! We're coming in, so tell your boys to keep their fingers off the damn triggers!"
There was a tense pause, then, the same woman's voice rang out again, "Jason? You were marked MIA with your team. Are they with you?"
Jason didn't answer immediately. He whipped his head around as he heard the heavy, thud of boots approaching their position from the camp side. "Octavia, Clarke, stay low," he hissed, pressing them into the dirt. "Don't move. Some of these idiots inside are a little too trigger-happy today."
A unit of guards burst through the gate with their rifles raised in a tactical wedge formation, advancing toward the log. The lead guard was a tall woman with a hard gaze and she pointed her barrel directly at Jason's chest. Just behind her, another figure stepped through the gate, looking out at the clearing with a frantic, searching expression.
"Where are the others?" the lead guard demanded.
"Hiding," Jason said, his voice flat.
"From what?"
Jason gestured vaguely at the guards with their rifles still trained on his head. "From the trigger-happy idiots with guns, of course. You're making a real welcoming committee here."
The lead guard rolled her eyes and signaled her team to lower their weapons. "Fine. You can come out now."
Clarke and Octavia stood up, brushing the dirt from their clothes. As they made their way toward the gate, the lead guard kept the pressure on Jason. "What about the rest of your team? Why aren't they with you?"
"We had to split up," Jason said while his eyes scanned the compound, "Had to cover more ground."
They walked into the compound and a crowd began to gather, the chatter of the camp dying down as they realized who had just walked through the gates. The guards funneled them toward the central command compound."
"Clarke? Jason?!"
A female voice cut through the murmurs of the crowd.
"Abby—" the lead guard started to say, but she was cut off.
Clarke stopped dead in her tracks. The voice was a ghost from a life she thought she'd left behind and wouldn't ever hear from again. She looked back and felt her throat tightened up, she was staring into the soft, tear-filled eyes of the woman who she thought died on the exodus ship.
"Clarke," Abby gasped with a sob of pure astonishment.
"Mom?" Clarke whispered, the word felt foreign and miraculous all at once.
Abby didn't wait for permission and shoved past the guards, the professional mask of the medical officer shattering instantly as she threw her arms around her daughter. She held Clarke with a fierce, desperate strength, as if she could pull her back from the grave. Clarke was alive. Despite the horrors, the blood, and the miles of wilderness, her daughter had made it back.
As the crowd surged forward and the reunion became a blur of tears and questions, Abby looked over her daughter's shoulder and locked eyes with Jason.
She didn't have the words, so she just mouthed the two words that mattered: Thank you.
Jason gave a singular, barely perceptible nod as he watched the reunion. Beside him, Octavia looked on, her own eyes bright with a mix of envy and relief.
——
Once inside the relative medical tent, the noise of the camp faded into a dull mummer. Clarke leaned into her mother, the smell of antiseptic greeted her.
"I saw your ship crash…" Clarke whispered as her voice started to break. She had spent weeks believing the fiery streak in the sky was her mother's funeral pyre, "I thought you were gone."
Abby pulled back, her hands cupping Clarke's tear streaked face. Her expression was with the same relief that had brought Clarke to her knees. "I wasn't on it, Clarke. I'm right here with you."
Clarke leaned her forehead against her mother's, a watery smile finally touching her lips.
Then, the flap of the tent parted, and a guard, Willis, stepped in. He surveyed the scene with his eyes lingering on the disheveled, traumatized girl, "How is she?"
Abby looked up at him and responded, "Better, now that she's back where she belongs."
Willis nodded, though his face remained grim. "I'm sorry, Abby, I know the timing is abysmal, but we need answers." He looked directly at Clarke. "Where have you been?"
"Willis," Abby warned, her voice dropping into a razor-sharp tone of authority. "She just got back. Can't you see she's—"
"I'm sorry, Abby," the guard interrupted, not breaking his gaze from Clarke. "We tried pressing Jason for details, but he told us if we wanted the truth, we had to come to Clarke. He wouldn't give us a word."
Clarke shifted as her exhaustion became momentarily replaced by the memory of the harvest chambers, "It's okay, Mom," she said, pulling away and sitting up straight. She looked at the guard, "Mount Weather."
Willis paused, his brow furrowing as if he were trying to understand what she'd just said, "The Grounders took you to Mount Weather?"
"No," Clarke said, "The Mountain Men, they're real, Willis. They're the ones who took us and they've been taking grounders too, they're using them for… they're harvesting them. We have to get them out. Now."
Abby stepped in as her maternal instincts were warring with the politician within her. "We're not doing this right now. Clarke, you're dehydrated and in shock."
"Mom, there is no 'later'!" Clarke shot back with her voice rising with desperate urgency.
Willis eyed Abby, looking as though he wanted to push for more, but the intensity in Abby's glare silenced him. He looked at the woman, then at the girl, and finally gave a sharp, reluctant nod. "Yes, ma'am." He backed out of the tent, the heavy canvas flap falling shut behind him.
Abby turned back to her daughter, her face softening, but Clarke wouldn't let it go.
"Mom, listen to me," Clarke pleaded, grabbing Abby's coat. "I've seen the labs and I've seen what they do to the Grounders, and it's only a matter of time before they turn their full focus on the rest of the 100. We don't have the luxury of waiting for a search party. Jason and I… we've already started the war. We just need the rest of the Ark to finish it."
———-
Clarke paced the small space, her mind was racing with how to get her mother to see the urgency of the matter. Abby had been firm: Chancellor Kane and a contingent of guards had already pushed into the woods with a Grounder scout, and orders were to hold the line at Camp Jaha.
"It's not enough, Mom," Clarke argued with her mother. "I've seen the facility. If Kane goes in blind, he's not going to rescue anyone, he's going to become a lab rat. We need to move now."
Octavia pushed through the tent flap, looking at the two women before looking to Clarke, "We need to go"
Abby stepped between them. "I said no, It's too dangerous, and that's final. We have to coordinate with the Chancellor's team."
"Maybe it's dangerous for them," Clarke countered, "but we have Jason. He knows the terrain, he knows their tactics—"
Octavia cut her off with her face looking awkward. "Uhh, yeah, about that."
Abby's brow furrowed. "What do you mean? Where is he?"
"He's gone," Octavia said. "He realized Bellamy and the rest of the scouts might be heading right into a trap, or worse, stumbling into a hostile Grounder village so he didn't wait for permission and just went after them."
Clarke's heart plummeted as she realized he went out there alone? She didn't wait for her mother's protest; she bolted out of the tent, ignoring her mother's shouts. She needed to know. She sprinted toward the main gate, her eyes scanning the incoming crowd. A group was just being processed by the guards.
She expected Kane's tactical unit, but as they got closer, the faces were familiar and devastatingly relieved.
"Bellamy!" Clarke breathed. She saw the familiar curls, the rugged, battle-worn look of the leader she had left behind at the dropship. A smile, the first genuine one in weeks, broke across her face as she turned to look at Octavia who came out the tent behind her.
Octavia didn't wait at all when she saw her brother, she let out a strangled cry and launched herself at her brother, wrapping her arms around him as if he were a ghost. Raven followed close behind Bellamy's back, her eyes locking onto Clarke. "Clarke?"
The girls collided in an embrace. When Bellamy finally pulled away from his sister, he turned to Clarke, his expression unreadable.
"We've been so worried," Bellamy said with his thick voice.
Clarke stepped forward and buried her face in his chest, wrapping her arms around his waist. Bellamy was taken aback, stiffening for a second before his arms came up to hold her just as tightly.
"That's something I never thought I'd see…" Octavia remarked, wiping her eyes and smirking through her tears.
Clarke ignored her, focusing on the warmth of the moment until reality crashed back in. She pulled away, looking at the small group. "How many are with you?" Bellamy asked with hope flickering in his eyes.
Clarke's face deflated. She bit her lip as the feeling of despair returned again, "None. It's just us."
Bellamy's smile vanished, his shoulders slumping. It was then Clarke realized the circle was incomplete. "Where's Finn? Where's Murphy?"
Raven looked at the ground, her voice small. "They're out there. They were looking for you, along with Jason."
Octavia shook her head. "No, Raven, Jason found us. He's the one who brought us back here. He's out there right now, hunting for the others."
"Shit," Bellamy swore.
————-
Jason sprinted at a speed that would have left a normal man gasping for air. He had been running for the past hour, covering ground that had taken him and the other hours to complete the first time.
He reached the twin ridge, the high ground where he, Bellamy, and the rest had originally split up and didn't even break his stride as he raced through the other path. He didn't stop to check for tracks this time around; he knew the direction they had drifted.
'Don't do anything stupid,' he thought, his eyes scanning the dense undergrowth for any sign of a campfire or a struggle. 'Stay alive until I get there, you idiots.'