The Sentence
Clarke grunted, her head lolling against her arm and sweat tickled her face as it dripped down her. Her back was as sore as if she had been lashed with a whip and not the shock sticks. She could barely make out what Pike was saying but he was screaming now. He was beginning to break.
There were thuds and scrapes along the corridors of Arkadia. She'd heard a woman screaming before, and she was sure it was her mother.
The sun was beginning to rise. The room was bathed in a golden light, which merely caused Clarke to moan. She wanted darkness. She wanted sleep.
There was a knock on the door and Clarke heard it creak open, not bothering to raise her head to see who it was.
'Sir,' Bellamy's voice croaked, 'what's the plan?'
'Clarke!' Monty shouted, aghast.
'She's alive,' Pike said, in tones of annoyance, 'and she's told us nothing.'
'Maybe she doesn't know anything.' Bellamy tried.
'Do you really think the great Wanheda knows nothing? With all of the things she has seen in the enemy's territory?'
'She's one of us, Sir.' Bellamy begged.
'Not anymore.' Pike spat. 'Release her.
There was a click at her wrists and Clarke dropped straight to the floor, her face hitting the ground. Her hair was sprawled over her head. She couldn't even summon the energy to move. Her face was surely now bruised but the cool metal was soothing to her skin.
'Clarke!'
'Not you, Monty.' Pike warned. 'Hold her.'
Clarke felt herself yanked up roughly. She gave a small cry and her legs shuddered violently beneath her. Her hair was brushed out of her face and she struggled to open her eyes, and when she did she regretted the effort.
'I'm sorry this was your choice, Clarke.' Pike said, turning around.
'Get this over with.' Clarke spat.
Bellamy and Monty exchanged horrified looks before the guards dragged her out of the room and behind Pike.
Clarke's feet dragged along the corridor and she struggled to gain control but she pushed the guards slightly so she could regain their balance. Their control over her was regained instantly but she would walk through Arkadia. She would not be dragged.
Guards tried to order Skaikru back but it was no use. People pushed forward along the corridors to get a glimpse of her. Clarke tried to hold her head high but the pain was still trembling through her back and it was all she could do to stay in the moment and not slip into unconsciousness. There were quiet muttering flooding the halls, despite the guards calls for silence.
'Is that her? The one who stopped the Mountain Men?'
'It's Clarke!'
'Clarke!'
'Is that Abbey's kid?'
'That is- that's the Griffin girl! She was best friends with Jaha's son!'
Clarke grinned to herself. The disruption she had caused had at least warned people that something was afoot, or her mother had. There would be no silent execution. Clarke would make sure of that.
The entrance doors opened with a dull creak. Clarke squinted in the glow of the morning sun but she could make out silhouettes ahead, near the fence. She was pushed roughly forward and she bit back a curse, not wanting to give them the satisfaction of her pain.
The ground sloshed beneath her feet so that her boots sunk slightly with every step. It must have been a heavy rain last night. Clarke glanced at the sky but there was no sign of clouds. She couldn't help the bubble of regret. She would have liked to feel the rain of her face for one very last time but then, she had always dreamed of being under the sun. This was perhaps the more fitting end.
She carried on through the grounds of Arkadia and people poured out from all exits.
'Leave them!' Pike yelled to the guards and Clarke smiled again; he was losing control.
As she drew closer, she felt a pang of shame at the sight of Sinclair, Kane, Lincoln, Octavia and Murphy tied up and clearly awaiting their own executions. She hadn't wanted this for them. There was still time and hopefully she could still change things and spare them, even if her own course was set. She didn't want to be responsible for yet another Skaikru death- not after Finn.
Octavia and Murphy had followed her here willingly. Octavia may have always returned on her own to try to rescue Lincoln and the others but Murphy had returned purely because she'd asked him to. She let the regret drain from her heart when she thought of Lexa; Lexa would save them. Lexa would keep her word and she would give Skaikru hope and end the bloodshed.
Clarke was pulled to a halt a hundred yards or so away from where Octavia and the others were bound. Clarke felt a single tear roll down her face. Octavia though, gave her a small nod, her eyes blazing with pain and understanding and Clarke could only offer a small smile back. She didn't want Octavia to be scared. Octavia still had time and Bellamy would protect her, even if her own time was now run dry.
Clarke turned around slowly to face Pike. His eyes were fixed upon her, and his hand clutching his pistol trembled. Almost all of Skaikru appeared behind Pike. Her mother was sobbing loudly, and Jasper and Raven held her back. Raven inexplicably looked as though she was struggling to stand and Jasper's face was covered in bruises. There was no sign of Jackson, who always doted on her mother, and Clarke started to wonder what she was leaving Skaikru too. Monty and Bellamy pushed their way through the crowds but Abbey pushed Bellamy away from her. She was sure she heard Raven hiss that he wasn't worth it.
Clarke scanned the rest of the crowds and saw the tears pouring down Harper's face and Miller stood behind her stoically. He gave her a tight smile and Clarke's whole body warmed in gratitude. There were still those who would take care of the hundred.
'On your knees, Clarke.' Pike ordered quietly, but his voice still seemed to ring out through the grounds.
'I bow only to Heda.' Clarke replied defiantly and there was a gasp of shock from the watching crowd.
Pike inhaled sharply at the words and Clarke watched as his hand gripped the gun more tightly.
'Clarke of the Sky People, also known as Wanheda the Mountain Slayer, you have been sentenced to death for treason.' Pike exclaimed loudly.
Abby screamed loudly at the words but Jasper and Monty tried to pull her away. Abbey tried to fight them off but they gripped her tightly and she sunk to her knees.
'I'll be okay, Mom.' Clarke mouthed to her mother but there was no subsiding of tears, and Clarke found her own falling more freely now.
'Do you have any last words, Clarke?' Pike asked.
Clarke nodded slowly and Pike stepped back half a pace.
Clarke's eyes turned towards the crowd. A lot of the faces were clear in their despair but Clarke couldn't miss the fact that many were also proudly reverent of Pike and wore a look of disgust and contempt for her. She wasn't surprised. She didn't recognise those closest to Pike and she hadn't even bothered to get to know all the Arkers when they landed, she was much too focused on trying to find her friends.
She met Jasper's eyes which were ablaze. Raven's own gaze was fierce and as Clarke's eyes met hers, Raven turned her head towards Pike and gave a short nod. Bellamy shuffled next to her and his hand twitched near his gun.
Clarke closed her eyes for a moment and when she opened them again they latched themselves to Pike. It was hard to believe that he had been her teacher and mentor, and this was what his guidance and instruction had brought Arkadia: death and hatred.
Clarke willed her voice to carry the strength her body lacked. Lexa, and all of their people, would hear her words.
'Long live the Commander!'
Bellamy's shot just missed Pike who launched himself out of the way. Raven, Monty, Harper, Miller and Jasper surged forwards ready to fight. There was a scream of Pike's supporters, including Monty's mother, as they rounded on the crowd but arrows poured from the sky with pinpoint precision and the guards were driven back.
The war horn boomed over the landscape and within seconds the gates of Arkadia were ripped off their hinges and Lexa led a charging army into Arkadia.
Clarke threw herself to where the others were bound and quickly untied Octavia and Lincoln first, who charged into battle with cries of anger, and then she freed Murphy, Sinclair and Kane.
Screams spilled onto the ground as freely as blood as sky people fought alongside and against each other and the grounders tried to make their way through the chaos, targeting Pike's people and screaming for justice.
Arkadia was lost to its own brutal civil war. The violence of the Sky People had fallen from the sky to taint the earth. As more people poured out from Arkadia, the ground was lost to a war as ferocious as the day the hundred had faced Trikru and Clarke wondered if in deliberately provoking war between her people, they would ever be able to find peace again.