Seizing Bullets

Clarke walked quickly along the corridor. Pike hadn't bothered to lockdown Arkadia despite accepting three outsiders (which now she, Octavia and Murphy were) and this meant only one thing given that two of the group were missing: Pike knew she was here to cause trouble and she was going to deliver.

'Lexa, I'm ready.'

'Understood.'

'Remember: long live the Commander.'

'It is the only information you have relayed to me, Clarke.'

Lexa's voice was clipped and it was not due to the radio. Clarke closed her eyes for a moment and fought the urge to confess all of her plan, or to simply break out of Arkadia and go back to Polis.

'Just...' Clarke's voice broke, '...just trust me one more time.'

It was another several seconds before Lexa responded but when she did, her voice was clear.

'I do trust you still, Clarke.'

Pride spread through Clarke and her mind latched itself onto the impossible task ahead.

'Then let's go.'

Clarke turned to the window at the sound of the war horn and watched as the sky lit up with a hundred flaming arrows. They were expertly shot and fell just within the walls of Arkadia, not intending to kill but the effect was immediate. Clarke watched as the lights of Arkadia went up and she saw Pike run across the grounds from where several people were tied up. She couldn't make them out but she was sure she knew exactly who it was.

Clarke ran to the doors closest to her and fiddled with the panel next to them. She hissed in frustration and smashed at it with her gun and the effect was instant as the corridors of Arkadia screamed with an alarm.

The hiss of doors opening started to fill Arkadia but Clarke slipped to the side wall and pulled the panel out so she could crawl inside. She instantly closed it, disappearing within the walls of Arkadia itself. She could hear the shouts of concern through the metal barricade she was hidden in and she began to make her way, crouched low, through Arkadia. The guards would be torn by the outward threat and trying to secure people inside. She needed to get Pike back within Arkadia and distracted by the chaos.

After five minutes, of climbing over metal beams and grates, Clarke turned left and pushed at the panel Octavia had told her about. She was near the farthest exit, and away from any of the housing area. She crawled out and looked along the right hand side corridor which was clear. She took left, carrying her gun steady as she finally stood straight. Two guards rushed through the doors and she quickly shot them in the leg. They cried out and Clarke kicked their guns away and stamped on their radios. They groaned in pain and tried to grab at her but they were desperate and weak on the floor and she easily stepped out of their reach. She didn't recognise them; they had to be from Farm Station.

Clarke carried on into the next corridor and shot at the guard waiting. There was a loud bang as the bullet connected with metal and the guard launched himself down the next corridor, screaming for back up. Clarke smiled as she quickened her pace. The sounds of footsteps echoed behind her and she made haste. Firing her gun twice behind and she heard as the footsteps halted in their pace. She turned left into the next corridor and shot the one guard standing there in the leg. Before he could even collapse, Clarke grabbed him by the hair and pulled him up so his back was pressed against her chest and she walked backwards with him, pointing her gun at his face.

She could feel him shuddering against her and Clarke tried to soothe his cries as they carried on but the footsteps grew louder. She pressed on, making her way around and glancing behind so she didn't walk into the walls as the corridor curved. The shouts ahead grew louder but Clarke kept stepping backwards, half dragging her prisoner.

'Clarke! Stop!' Bellamy shouted as he rounded the corridor and finally caught up to her.

His own assault rifle was steady in his hands but his eyes were wide in alarm.

'Clarke, what are you doing?'

His voice was gruff and Clarke blinked back tears at the memory of how they last parted.

'What needs to be done.' Clarke said quietly.

The guard in her arms squirmed but Clarke pressed the tip of her gun against the bottom of his chin and he stilled. His injured leg quaked beneath them and Clarke wondered how long he would be able to bear the pain.

'Bring me Pike or an innocent dies.' Clarke said quietly and as composed as she was when she had faced Emerson at Arkadia.

'You're not this person, Clarke.' Bellamy said, and he lifted his faced away from the gun to look at her without the lens.

Clarke didn't need to be seen through a target.

'You know that I am.'

'No,' Bellamy pleaded, 'what you did to Dante, you had to do. You were saving us all.'

'That's what I'm doing now.' Clarke replied.

Footsteps thundered along the corridors and more guards joined Bellamy. Clarke pressed her back to the wall as guards came down the opposite end of the corridor.

'Stay back!' Bellamy ordered them.

They hesitated under Bellamy's angry glare and backed up a few feet so that they were nearly ten metres away from her.

'Is Lexa going to attack?'

Clarke's face remained impassive and Bellamy inched forward.

'Is this what Lexa has turned you into, Clarke? Her puppet?'

'And what has Pike turned you into, Bellamy?'

'I wouldn't hold one of my own hostage.'

'No, you'd just slaughter an army of allies.' Clarke replied. 'So here is the deal: you bring me Pike or I kill this guy and the grounder army will destroy you all.'

'Clarke, please-'

'Courtesy means nothing in this world.' Clarke retorted.

Bellamy eyed her for a moment and she knew what at last was finally coming: the challenge that should have been issued from the very beginning.

'Then do it, Clarke.' Bellamy said, dropping his gun on the floor.

The guards stepped forward in a swift motion but Bellamy screamed at them to halt.

'Wait for my command!' Bellamy hissed.

Bellamy stepped into the middle of corridor, defenceless.

'Make your move, Clarke.'

Clarke's finger ached over the trigger. Her gun was jammed into the side of the guard's face. He hissed and gave great shaking breaths in her arm but Clarke's eyes never left Bellamy. Her thumb twitched over the gun and she pushed the guard away, dropping the rifle on the ground.

Clarke's face was slammed into the floor and her wrists were pulled behind her back. In a second she was heaved to her feet and facing Bellamy.

'You should have come back with me.' Bellamy said sadly.

Clarke's expression remained blank as her guards pulled her down into the depths of Arkadia.