Chapter 2
Ash watched as the Ark got further away from them, his hand reaching over to grip Octavia's when he hears a quiet whimper. He knew she was afraid. So was he, but he tried to stay strong to reassure her.
"Well this day isn't turning out how I thought it would," he joked with a smile.
"You mean to say you weren't planning on being shot out of the only home you've ever known?" Octavia replied with a snort.
He took that as a win. If she was being snarky she wasn't in shock.
Just as he was about to respond with an equally sarcastic comment, he saw Clarke waking with a start and looking around.
Wells said something to her, but Ash was too far away to hear them over the sudden crashing noice and the delinquents startled cries as their ship shook.
"A, what was that?" Octavia asked with worry evident in her voice.
"I don't know O, must have been the atmosphere."
Ash hoped it was the atmosphere and not a meteor or something.
Their conversation was once again interrupted, this time by the screens in the drop ship lighting up with the face of the Chancellor, Thelonius Jaha, Wells' father.
"Prisoners of The Ark, hear me now. You've been given a second chance, and as your Chancellor, it is my hope that you see this as not just a chance for you, but a chance for all of us, indeed for mankind itself."
"Aw how generous of him," Ash thought to himself, disdain evident even in his thoughts.
"We have no idea what is waiting for you down there. If the odds of survival were better, we would've sent others. Frankly, we're sending you because your crimes have made you expendable."
"Well thats nice," Ash commented to Octavia, who nodded in agreement, scowling at the man on the screen.
"Your dad's a dick Wells!" Someone shouted as the chancellor continued.
"Those crimes will be forgiven, your records wiped clean"
"Yeah right," Octavia snarked. Ash agreed with her. It was unlikely that all would be forgiven. The council was very set in their ways so even if their records were wiped, the 100 would probably still be considered criminals.
Ash stopped paying attention to the chancellor as he noticed Finn messing with his harness. He vaguely heard the chancellor saying something about a mountain when Finn was out of his seat, floating around the drop ship.
"Space walker bandit strikes again!" Called out a random delinquent.
Ash rolled his eyes as more random kids called out and cheered for the boys stupidly reckless behavior.
"Idiot," he grumbled as Finn floated over to Clarke and Wells.
"Check it out. Your dad floated me, after all," Finn said to Wells with a smirk as other delinquents jeered.
"You should strap in before the parachutes deploy," Wells replied hesitantly, face weery at the mention of his father.
"Hey, you two, stay put if you want to live," Clarke called out at some people on the other side of the ship.
Ash turned towards where she was looking and saw 2 other guys now floating around the cabin.
"Hey, you're the traitor who's been in solitary for a year," Ash heard Finn say, and he immediately looked over to see who the statement was directed at. He was shocked to see that Finn was talking to Clarke.
"What did she do to make her a traitor A?" Octavia asked, voicing the very question that Ash himself was wondering.
Being in lockup meant youre basically cut off from Ark gossip, and because Ash has already been in lock up for over 6 months when Clarke was brought in and sent straight to solitary, he didnt even know she was a prisoner, much less what she had done to get locked up.
"And you're the idiot who wasted a month of oxygen on an illegal spacewalk," Clarke snapped back at Finn. "Get back in your seat unless you want to die."
Ash saw Finn sending Clarke a cocky smirk, and he decided to step in before the idiot said something that would annoy the blonde more. She was already looking incredibly irritated with the reckless boy who refused to go back to his seat.
"Hey Spacewalker, why don't you stop being an idiot, listen to the pretty girl and sit back down yeah?" Ash called out, shooting the other boy a stern glare.
"Whatever Shawshank" came the grumbled response from the now disgruntled boy as he floated back to his seat and strapped himself back in.
That nickname was given to him by Raven during her first visit after he and the boys got locked up, and it annoyed Ash to hear Finn calling him that. He was a prisoner just like Asher. He'd been locked up for his little space walk 3 months ago.
Ash and Finn had never got on. Finn was Raven's first ever friend and current boyfriend. They were neighbour's and had known each other from when they were toddlers. Raven and Ash had been friends for a long time as well, since they started school at age 5, but Finn had been her friend longer.
Finn didn't like Ash because he was jealous of his relationship with Raven. Ash was a good looking, funny guy and Finn saw him as a threat even though he saw Raven as a sister. He'd been jealous of the blonde boy since Raven had became friends with him and it had only gotten worse when the two eventually started dating. Ash didn't like Finn because he thought Raven could do better than a jealous, possessive asshole like Finn, but for some or other reason Raven was happy with him, or at least said she was, so he left it alone.
He did however, take note of the flirty look Finn had shot to Clarke. He'd have to keep an eye on that.
All thoughts of keeping an eye on the other boy were abruptly shot out of his head as the dropship jerked again. Octavia let out a startled cry and grabbed Ash's hand, shutting her eyes tightly.
Despite his slightly panicked state, Ash managed to hear more of Clarke and Wells' conversation, as their voices and risen in volume.
"Clarke there's something I have to tell you," Wells cried out desperately. "I'm sorry I got your father arrested."
At that, Ash's face lost what little color it had left. Jake, the man who had done so much for Asher, had been arrested?
"Don't you talk about my father!" Clarke shouted at him, her face full of obvious rage.
"Please," Wells begged. "I can't die knowing you hate me."
"They didn't arrest my father Wells, they floated him!" Clarke yelled, voice cracking. "I do hate you!"
And with that, all conversation was cut off by a huge crash as the dropship slammed into the surface of the Earth, jostling the delinquents around.
Once everything settled, Ash hastily looked over at Octavia and was relieved to see that appart from looking fairly shaken, she was okay.
"Listen," a boy with goggles around his neck said to his Asian friend. "No machine hum."
Ash truly listened then, noting that the boy was right. Apart from a rhythmic clicking made by what Ash assumed was the thrusters cooling down, and the groaning and light chatter of the other kids, it was quiet.
"The exits on the lower level," Ash stated, undoing his harness and turning to help Octavia with hers. "Let's go, it might not be safe in here we don't know what may have been damaged during the landing."
They made their way down the ladder where they were joined by Murphy and Atom, who had been seated on the lower level.
"You have a good flight O?" Atom asked with his goofy grin. "I personally found it a bit bumpy so will only be giving it 3 stars."
This made Octavia chuckle a bit before they heard a commanding voice yelling out for everyone to step away from the door. Ash and the others turned to see an unknown man with dark hair and a guards uniform standing by the ever to open the door.
"Who the hell-" Murphy's question was cut off by Octavia letting out a shocked gasp of "Bellamy?" And rushing forward.
Now Ash was even more confused. What was Octavia's older brother doing here? Why was he wearing a guard uniform? O had told them that Bellamy had been kicked out of the guards after she had been arrested.
He watched their reunion with confusion but he also felt really happy that Octavia had been reunited with her brother. He knew that she had really been missing him and felt incredibly guilty that he'd been kicked out of the guard because of her.
"Whats taking so long?" Someone shouted.
Ash whipped his head around, looking for the person who'd shouted that, moving towards Octavia out of habit, ready to defend her if necessary.
"Hey!" Octavia shouted back defiantly. "I haven't seen my brother in a year chill out!"
The murmering immediately picked up.
"Brother?"
"Nobody has a brother."
"Thats Octavia Blake!"
"Hey its the girl under the floor!"
Octavia looked very uncomfortable with all the attention that had been placed on her, and instinctively stepped towards Ash when she heard the dreaded nickname. Ash stepped closer, shielding her the best he could from the view of the other delinquents, Atom and Murphy moving with to flank him. While Ash was by far the most protective towards Octavia, the other two also cared about the younger girl who they'd come to view as a sister thanks to Ash's fierce protectiveness.
Bellamy noticed this and frowned, not really liking that his sister had moved towards other boys for protection when he was right there. He moved towards her, grabbing her arm, ignoring the frown he received from the tall blonde boy standing between his sister and the crowd.
"Come on O," he said in a soft voice. "Let's give them something else to remember you by."
"Like what?" Octavia asked, still nervous of the crowd.
"Like being the first person to step foot on the ground in 100 years," Bellamy replied with a smirk, reaching out to pull the lever and open the door.
"Wait the air could be toxic!" Wells called out, having come down from the upper level during the commotion of the Blake siblings' reunion.
"Well if its toxic we'll die anyways," Clarke said while rolling her eyes at the boy as she made her way througg the crowd towards the door.
"Hey," Ash said with a small smile, looking at the girl that had stopped in front of where he stood, still blocking Octavia from the others.
"Hi Asher," Clarke replied with a small smile of her own, as Bellamy opened the door.
Ash turned to watch Octavia take a hesitant step out, before jumping off the ramp and looking around, a grin slowly forming.
"WE'RE BACK BITCHES!" she called out in joy as the other delinquents made their way out if the drop ship and onto grass for the first time in their lives.