chapter 13

Diana was livid. Oh, she knew Abby would end up reporting her actions and she knew that Kane and Jaha couldn't get to her as long as they didn't know who she was working with.

After all, a weed had to be pulled out by the roots.

What she did not expect was for the video of Jake to be played. The sheer emotion in the video would have already pacified the crowds and she had Shumway on standby to interrupt Jaha using his technopathic abilities the moment he lied and instead broadcast Diana's words which would hopefully incite a large enough riot to allow her and her group to grab the Exodus ship.

Instead, Jaha had given a full disclosure on the 100 being sent down, the culling Sector 17 and even the nanobots injected into the 100 though it was a largely simplified explanation which also left out any mention of Clarke getting different injection.

It pissed her off. She suspected the only reason there wasn't anyone trying to cause unrest was a combination of the emotions stirred by Jake's video, the high guard presence all over the Ark and also the silver tongue of Jaha. Thelonious, despite his heinous actions, had almost convinced even Diana to his way.

"There are two more issues of grave importance that I need to address. If all of you were to look at your computers or tablets you'd see that the year currently states that it is 2149."

Diana's mouth dropped as she heard these words. Her hands clenched into fists and she felt her nails dig into her palms. Thelonious wouldn't dare do this.

"The truth is...the year is actually 2277. The apocalypse was over 200 years ago and not 97 like we led you to believe. The reason for this being hidden was due to the actions of our first ever Chancellor Darah Sydney. "

Diana was able to hear the exclamations of surprise of those who were watching in the hallway and she could . Thelonious paused before he continued his speech.

"She was a genius paralleled by few. In fact, she alone was able to formulate a way for the stations to unite. Thus, she was elected Chancellor, but the system used to elect her was not the democracy we know today, but a plutocracy and there was none who had anything close to what Darah had brought to the table. This is what enabled her to reign for 20 years . The stations that had less to offer were given less rations, supplies and so on. It was brutal, cruel even but it worked."

"The problems began in 2068. The hydroponic farm on the Ark had been infected by a fungus and extreme damage had been done to it and it was only getting worse as time went on. The yield of the farm was a lot lower and there was an uproar as the lower class citizens were given even less rations. There was also rapid population growth as people had more children in order to get more supplies. Soon, the Guard were vastly outnumbered by the rest if the Ark and crime and unrest was climbing exponentially. This suited Darah's agenda just fine. In order to prevent an uprising Darah ruled with an iron fist and every single transgression resulted in imprisonment. Despite calls from the upper echelons to execute the prisoners so as to not overwork the hydroponic farm Darah had staunchly refused to do so. The reason being she wanted to test the improvements she'd made on her first two editions of her nanobots and as such she experimented on the prisoners. "

Diana looked at Shumway who had a stunned look on his face before she said,"Make sure that our Plan B is ready by the time he's done speaking. Remember essentials only and make sure they're distracted."

Shumway nodded slowly before leaving the room. Jaha had taken a break presumably to allow this all to sink in the minds of the Arkers before he continued.

"It was an open secret and those who opposed it were cut down ruthlessly. Darah wished to eliminate any thoughts of treason and that was the only crime people were executed for. Fellow neighbours reported any signs of treason or suspected treason in the hope of winning favour and by proxy extra supplies. After over a decade of such behaviour the process of making powers had been perfected and the version of the Guard at that time had begun to manifest powers of their own which they used to subjugate the population further. This could have been life as we know it on the Ark. However, in 2088 members of the Guard had grown sympathetic to the masses and they had led a mutiny. All of the upper echelon and members of the Guard had been killed, but Darah had been discovered dead by a suspected suicide in her lab . The remaining series of her nanobots and a secret third version which was supposedly meant to be used by Darah as well as all electronics that she used had been locked away in a room under constant guard and accessible only by the current Chancellor."

" That put an end to a period of time that was called The Blight,"said Thelonious managing to sound both firm in his delivery and yet sympathetic to the woes of their ancestors, "However, the after effects of the Blight would last for over 70 years. It was discovered from the few notes of Darah's that had been discovered that the degradation of the hydroponic farm had been orchestrated by her in order to breed hopelessness amongst the people. In the build up to her being overthrown, Darah had managed to cause near irreversible damage to the hydroponic farm as a last hurrah. The organisers of the mutiny had elected a new Chancellor, but perhaps unsurprisingly the caste system remained intact. The new Chancellor was far more sympathetic and as a show of good faith decided to release the prisoners back into the Ark on the same day they'd overthrown the regime. The stress put on the hydroponic farm had reached breaking point and the Chancellor, Joseph Kane, on the second day made two decrees and it was the second of those decrees that would cause Joseph to lose his humanity. The first was that having more than one child was declared a crime punishable by execution and while this weighed heavily on him it was the second decree that truly ruined him..."

Jaha took a deep breath and for the first time Diana was able to discern a note of uneasiness and disgust in her successor's voice,"The citizens of the Ark were forced to take part in cannibalism. Joseph knew that if people refused then the remnants of the human race would fade away and cease to be and so any dissenters were executed and their corpses were harvested. Anyone over the age of 14 was forced to do this and children below that were given the bulk of what the hydroponic farm was able to produce. Joseph ruled with an iron fist for 15 years before the ghosts of the past came back again."

"The usage of any powers had been forbidden under the penalty of death. It therefore came as a surprise when those hadn't been experimented on and indeed those who were born after the Blight began to exhibit powers. The final piece of Darah's plan had fallen into place. It was widely believed that the reason she had destroyed the hydroponic farm was to force the Ark to be driven to cannibalism because she'd made it so that the nanobots could be passed down genetically and through ingesting anything that had the nanobots in their system. There wasn't anything to be done as by then everyone on the Ark had ingested the infected flesh. The powers only had roughly a 20% chance of manifesting, but the genetic trait for them was always present and always passed down. Darah had been a geneticist beforehand and efforts were made to crack through her heavily encrypted laptop. Finally, in 2161 the code had been cracked through the work of many coders who had dedicated their lives to the endeavour. It had been cracked by a man called Steven Warren. It was discovered that Darah had designs of various gene editing machines. One was recreated and although it was impossible to prevent the nanobots from being passed down genetically the machine was used to reduce the chance of natural manifestation to zero. It was suspected though that due to the limits of the gene editor that if any citizen of the Ark were to be injected with the nanobots or ingest anything that had been injected then there was a 10-20% chance of the powers activating. "

"It was decided by who you know as our second Chancellor, Wells Jaha, in 2195 that the events from 2068 to 2195 were to be scrubbed clean from the records in an effort to wipe the slate clean and give us a chance at a better life. To escape further from this floating was introduced as the only way of execution as it would prevent us from going down that road ever again. Thus, the history of the Ark as you know it has been a fabrication made of the lost peaceful times. The first 16 years and the last 81 years. This is a truth known only by the council and the Heads of the various departments. Now onto my second order of business, there have been reports of flares on the Earth and I can confirm that we believe the 100 have made contact and so as my last act as Chancellor I hereby declare Project Exodus open pending contact from the ground. I'll allow a reprieve for 10 minutes before I explain the details."

Diana rose from her seat and began to mentally prepare for the execution of her plan.

It was almost time.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The silence in the entire dropship was deafening. The radio that Raven and Monty had made was capable of producing an extremely loud volume and it had been cranked up to the maximum. It had started broadcasting perhaps an hour and a half after Clarke had returned with Octavia.

The delinquents were shell shocked at the world changing news and though it didn't explain everything, it certainly helped to explain just how the Earth had managed to be warped to such an extent however that didn't explain how the Grounders had powers if it had been an Arker who had developed them.

It also explained why not all of the 100 had activated any powers. The odds on them manifesting were low and if the estimation was to be believed only a few more would actually activate them.

The sound of someone climbing up the ladder drew the attention of everyone in the upper level. The hatch was lifted and to the surprise of them all John Mbege - one of Murphy's friends -came into the room along with Ryan Finch. The startling thing though were the knives that they were brandishing.

"You are not signalling them,"said Mbege,"We finally have a slice of the good life and we won't let you ruin that by signalling them."

Raven stood up and walked up to Mbege. She looked him in the eye and said,"Listen, you turd. We're surrounded by an unknown number of Grounders who have powers. There's no possible way for us to survive especially if only around 20 of us will be worth anything in a fight."

Ryan looked incensed and said with anger,"You guys all think you're hot shit. Just because you have powers you all think you run the show."

Octavia and snorted and said,"Well who else is supposed to step up? You? Mbege over there? You guys haven't even once left the dropship nor have you at least been in one fight with a Grounder. If it hadn't been for me, Roma, Clarke, Bellamy and Finn those Grounders could have killed a lot more of us. Monty is the only reason we're surviving off more than just meat and ration packs. Everyone I just mentioned as well as Miller and Jasper have been risking their lives doing rounds while you've been coasting on your ass."

Octavia's anger had taken over and her armour spread over her entire body. Her voice had developed a slight echo, but the tone was unmistakably cold,"I suggest you put those toys away or you might get hurt."

Mbege took half a step forward, but he froze when he saw Clarke point her hand at him and her eyes were glowing blue,"Octavia's right. We've been doing our best to keep all of you safe and if you guys have such a problem with us and the Ark coming down then leave. The last thing we need is to be fighting amongst ourselves while also having to fight the Grounders. So if you want to go, then go. The acid fog should be gone by now. Maybe you'll find your friend Murphy if the Grounders haven't gotten to him yet. "

The anger within the two boys rose at Clarke's cutting words before Mbege said,"You may think you're doing us a favour Princess, but the truth is... you're a monster. You sent Murphy and Charlotte to their death. How many Grounders have you killed? How many more will you kill? "

Clarke walked gingerly from behind the table and yet she still seemed as confident and sure as she usually was. She lowered her hand and the blue glow faded from her eyes.

"I don't care what you think about me,"said Clarke coldly,"I'll do whatever it takes to keep us safe. Charlotte was unhinged and murdered Wells because she couldn't get to Jaha. Murphy almost got killed for that by you and almost everyone else and he would have been killed if I didn't step in. He had nearly and would have crippled Max if I didn't step in."

Clarke took a step forward and Mbege took one back,"The Grounders I killed? They were willing to kill me and everyone else in here and I'll be damned if I let something like that happen. So listen John. You can hate me and curse me all you want. I. Don't. Care. Just don't you dare threaten me or anyone else in this camp again or I'll show what a real monster is."

Ryan looked cowed by the words of Clarke and Octavia not to mention the hostile looks everyone was sending the two of them.

"Come on John. Let's go."

Mbege was still angry and when Clarke turned her back on him as if he was nothing. He snapped. He threw the knife like Bellamy had taught him and watched as it sailed through the air towards the oblivious Clarke.

"Clarke! Watch out!"screamed Roma as she watched the knife zoom towards Clarke. She knew that due to the small space within the upper level Clarke didn't have time to turn her back and avoid the knife.

Which is why she felt her jaw drop as Clarke turned around and caught the knife by the handle just millimetres away from it embedding into her neck.

It looked, in Roma's opinion , fucking badass.

Strangely, Clarke had a puzzled look on her face as she looked at the knife in her hand before she connected the dots and glared at Mbege who looked shocked beyond belief.

"Leave,"said Clarke slowly,"Before I kill you."

The two boys couldn't have left the room faster. Clarke stared at the knife for longer before she heard the radio crackle. She heard Jaha greet the Ark and he began to speak, but Clarke flipped the switch on the radio and said,"Sorry to interrupt, Chancellor Jaha, but this is Clarke speaking. Clarke Griffin of the 100. The Earth is habitable. I repeat the Earth is habitable. "

There was a pause on the other side before she heard Jaha say,"We thought you were dead. Am I correct to assume Raven Reyes helped you contact the Ark?"

"Yes,"said Clarke as she sent a smile to Raven,"It's thanks to her and Monty Green–"

A derisive snort erupted from Raven interrupted Clarke and Monty simply sighed heavily before saying to himself,"She's never gonna let that go. Isn't she?"

Clarke had to fight to keep the humour she felt from reaching her voice and she continued, "Excuse me, like I was saying Raven and Monty built the radio. It was also Raven who built the flares you mentioned during your speech using her escape pod. However, that is not important. What's important is that there are people on the Earth who survived the nuclear winter."

There was some movement from the other side before Clarke heard a voice she'd hardly been expecting nor particularly keen to hear.

"Clarke? What do you mean there are survivors on the ground? Are they hostile? How many of the 100 are alive?"said her mother rapidly and Clarke decided to intervene.

"Hi Mom," said Clarke icily and since she knew this was on the Ark-wide channel she had to keep her anger contained. She felt a hand settle on her shoulder and squeeze. She trailed up the arm and saw Roma was giving her a small smile. That was enough to calm her down,"The Grounders seemed to have survived the bombs probably through natural selection and while there have been a few bumps we're meeting with one of their leaders to discuss peace. There are currently 96 of us alive. A few of us have manifested powers, but not all. We now know why since we were tuned into your whole broadcast."

The voice of Jaha came back on and she could hear the curiosity in it,"That's surprising news. Never did I think that people had actually managed to survive the nuclear war. Have you guys made your way to Mount Weather or the bunker due south of on your map? I mentioned it in the video that was played during your descent."

Clarke raised a brow and said,"No, we set our camp up around the dropship. The video got interrupted by a boy who had punched the screen in. We never knew of either of those, but Mount Weather is not safe. It's where the hostile Grounders stay and there's periodic acid fog that kills anything caught in it."

Jaha's voice came back on and he said,"I see. These hostile Grounders? Are they separate from the group you're making peace with and are they dangerous? Are they the ones who killed some of your members?"

Clarke felt an iron ball form in her throat as the moment she'd been trying to avoid came up and again she was thankful for the support Roma was giving her,"Yes, one of us was killed by these hostile groups and yes they are separate from the other group and two had died in the descent to Earth, but the last one had been killed by one of two that had been exiled. It was Wells. Wells was killed by a girl who thought killing him would get rid of her nightmares. Her nightmares of you floating her parents. I'm sorry...We couldn't do anything to save him..."

The line was silent before Thelonious' voice came back on," I see... I know despite your differences you and Wells have known each for long and I hope you have had the time to grieve properly. Clarke, we'll work on making this a secure line so the 100 can speak to their parents in privacy. Is there anything else to report?"

"Yes,"said Clarke as she took a deep breath,"The Grounders. Somehow, they have powers just like us."

"What!"exclaimed Jaha loudly,"How is that possible?"

"We're not sure, but we know for certain that they powers. When will the Ark be coming down? If the talks go south we'll be surrounded by thousands of hostiles enhanced with superpowers. We will die,"said Clarke calmly which was in contrast with what she felt,"Also, I'll need your word that all of us including Bellamy Blake will be pardoned. He has been a massive help and without him we'd be in dire straits."

"I see,"said Jaha stoically,"Project Exodus will take us at least two weeks to prepare for. The bunker I mentioned earlier is roughly 20 miles south of Mount Weather, but the exact location is visible on the map. It has supplies and also doubles as a weapons cache that should aid you against the Grounders in the very least. Thank you for you service, Clarke and you the 100, Ms Reyes and Bellamy Blake have been exonerated from all your crimes. "

"Thank you,"said Clarke before she prepared to turn off the radio,"Citizens of the Ark today marks a new era in our lives. We can finally live the life oir forefathers wished for. I hope to see you all soon. May we meet again."

Jaha's voice came on and solemnly he said,"Thank you for that, Clarke. May we meet–"

The sound of an explosion cut off Jaha's voice and there was some static before the line went dead.

"What the hell happened?"demanded Raven as she fiddled around with the radio,"It's not an error on our side then that means..."

"Mom was right,"said Clarke in horror.

"Diana's coup, "said Raven in realisation, "It's happening now..."