chapter 45

Kane woke up with a start. He looked around and he was surprised to find himself in a room that smelled of herbs. He looked around desperately in confusion before a vaguely familiar voice reached his ears.

"I see you are awake,"said the girl from the cell as she peered down at Kane. She appeared a lot different however. Gone were the rags that she had worn while they had been in the cell.

In their place was armour made of leather that metal plates in key places. There was a large pauldron upon her shoulder, but what drew his attention the most were the many weapons that were on prominent display on her person.

Her eyes were cold and detached and surrounded by a sea of black paint that wrapped around her eyes and rose to the crown of her head. The most interesting part of her warpaint, though, was the six stripes(three on each side) that ran down her cheeks. They almost looked like the claw marks of some savage beast. There was also a golden pendant that shone from its place on her forehead.

It was her change in demeanour from before that made him realise she was not simply a servant girl. The confidence and power radiating off of her could not be radiated from anyone else other than a leader.

A Commander, in fact.

"You must be the Commander, "said Kane as he straightened up and tried to school his features, "I am Marcus Kane. I'm the leader of–"

"The Sky People, "said the Commander as she looked at Kane,"Your people have drawn attention since they first landed in my territory. We have not reached an alliance or ceasefire so tell me Marcus of the Sky People. Why are you here?"

Kane almost winced at the harsh tone of the Commander, but he ignored the feeling of trepidation as he said,"I would to know what happened with the first of our people that we had sent down. Their camp was completely empty and burnt to ashes. I'm here to negotiate for their release and also for an alliance."

"We do not have your children, Marcus. "said the Commander before she added,"Tristan had gone to their camp and reported that there was no one there and it was burnt to ashes and there many skeletons surrounding the metal building. So while a battle did occur, I can assure you it was not my warriors who fought and took your children."

That was not all bad news decided Kane. The vast majority of the people that lived in these lands were under the rule of the Commander. If there hadn't been any attack from them then they were probably safe for the time being and hopefully the teams looking for the Ark survivors would be alright.

There was still the case of the missing children, however.

"Commander, as far as I know all of the clans are under your rule?,"said Marcus as he looked at the woman and when he received a curt nod he said,"Who are the cannibals aligned with? One of the few that escaped the camp during the attack said that they had attacked us, but Anya had helped fight back against them. Is it possible that they are still alive?"

The Commander appeared to be unperturbed by the news, but her posture was still rigid,"The cannibals you speak of, my people call them Ripas. They are not aligned with any of the clans, but they were ."

Kane's brow furrowed in confusion as he said,"Are they like those traitors to the clan who stay near the Mountain? "

Lexa's eyes hardened as she said,"No, the Splita are weak. Cowards and not worthy of being apart of any clan. The Ripas are different. The Maunon will attack a village and take my people. They come with their guns and their red smoke and terrorise the people of all clans. Some never return, but some return as Ripas. Their minds are broken and they can no longer use their powers. It's impossible to change back once one becomes a Ripa. Many have tried and failed to restore them to their former selves. If your children have been taken by the Maunon then it is best to hope that they are dead."

Kane was horrified to hear that there not one, not two, but three groups of people that were opposed to the Coalition. What confused him however was the third group the Commander had mentioned.

It went without saying that the two most dangerous of these groups were clearly working together or at least one of these groups was made by the other. What was more concerning to Kane, though, was the news that a technologically advanced society still existed.

"Who are the Maunon?"said Kane and the way in which the world rolled off his tongue showed his unfamiliarity with the language of the Grounders.

"Maunon is Trigedasleng for Mountain Men, "said the Commander as she looked at Kane unflinchingly her eyes focused squarely on him,"They hide themselves in the Mountain and only come out in strange armour. They have guns, smoke that makes you sleep and they create fog which burns you to the point where no healer can save you."

Clearly, the Ark had been misinformed about who was left on Earth and if a society like this could go undetected then it was possible that there were other civilisations that were thriving all over the globe. However, some of what the Commander said made no sense.

"Acid fog?"said Kane confused,"The children were under the impression that the acid fog was a result of radiation that caused mutations in the weather. It's actually a weapon?"

Lexa nodded and said,"Yes, it's why those we exile are sent into the Mountain's area. The Dead Zone is survivable, but the Mountain Men always know who's in their lands and if the acid fog or the reapers do not claim your life then the Mountain Men themselves will come. We believe they aren't many in number, but they affect the lives of all my people."

"I don't understand one thing, Commander,"said Kane as he looked at her ,"If you have such great numbers and I'm assuming your warriors have powers as well why haven't you attacked the Mountain? Surely the acid fog could have been circumvented in many ways."

The Commander's fingers on her right hand just barely twitched and she said," Long ago, there had been no acid fog, but once the Mountain Men crawled out of their cave and tried to take what was theirs – a war soon erupted between them and my people. The acid fog had been deployed when the army of Commander at that time reached the gates of the Mountain. Somehow, the Mountain Men had devised a way to block our powers from working once we got too close to them and the acid fog had spread too quickly for them to escape. Hundreds of warriors were killed in seconds. Only our Commander survived, but he was executed by his 12 generals not long after for failing us. It was then that our people split into 12 clans that we currently are. Various clans have tried and all have failed to take down the Mountain. "

"Why would your people split like that? Surely they must have realised being together was their best chance to win ?"said Marcus and he was surprised when a small, wry smile came over the Commander's face.

"People are hardly ever rational. There were far too many differences between our people and the Coalition had already been at it's breaking point before the Mountain. The death of our first Commander was what had begun to drive the wedge between our people, but it was only after the first battle at the Mountain that Wonkru was no more."

It was jarring for Kane to realise the similarities and differences between the Grounders and the Arkers. They had both overthrown their leaders that had failed in them some way and yet they were also different. Their first Chancellor had divided their people and her death unified the Ark while the first Commander had unified her people and her death had divided them. It was almost poetic.

Marcus' arm suddenly pulsed with pain and he remembered that he had tried to kill himself. There was no ambient light from outside so he judged it to be quite close to midnight or thereabouts. The lamps in the room made it easy to see the angry red line that traversed his forearm and it was undoubtedly clear that it would scar.

"You should rest, Marcus kom Skaikru, "said the Commander as she prepared to leave the tent,"We've already sent the one you call Thelonious back to your camp and after my healers take care of you again we will convene to a village that is nearby to your camp for peace talks. What you did was honourable, Marcus. There are not many leaders who are willing to sacrifice themselves for the good of their people. "

Kane was glad to hear that the Commander was willing to speak to them. They only had a limited amount of weapons and a limited amount of knowledge on Earth. They really needed the help in the long run. Perhaps they could also find a way to rescue the kids from the Mountain.

If they weren't already dead or turned into reapers.

The Commander was just about to leave the room and Kane managed to muster up the energy to ask her one last question,"Commander, excuse my manners, but it seems as though I've forgotten to ask you for your name."

The Commander turned back to look at Kane and she said ,"Lexa. Lexa kom Trikru."

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Clarke looked at the time on the clock and she saw that it was almost time for her to go. Raven staying in her room to sleep had been an unexpected surprise, but it had been welcome and Clarke was glad to have smoothed over the bumps in their relationship.

She couldn't, however, tell Raven about her plans. The other delinquents felt safe within the Mountain and would certainly disagree with Clarke if she were to propose her plan to them. It was why she had to wait until the sounds from the delinquents' room faded away into nothingness.

Raven had practically passed out soon after they had eaten and Clarke had placed the other girl in the bed. Clarke knew that she only had shot at breaking out of the bunker and brute force wasn't going to be enough. After all, the Mountain had survived the nuclear war.

Clarke slowly climed out of the bed and to her relief Raven was still passed out cold. Clarke opened the cupboard and she scanned over what clothes would probably be best for her to wear. It was an odd assortment of clothes that seemed to range from normal, everyday shirts to military-grade camouflage pants.

She picked out a pair of combat boots, flexible denim jeans and a blue denim jacket. The clothes were just the right size and didn't restrict her motion in anyway.

Clarke walked into the living room and she sat down on one of the couches with her legs crossed. She needed to be invisible to all and the first step in doing that had to do with disrupting the eyes of the Mountain Men.

Clarke's eyes closed and suddenly a rush of information flowed through her head as she used her technopathy to map out the cameras and other devices that were in her general vicinity.

This ability was bit strange in it's implementation. The dropship was easily controllable due to there being virtually no firewalls in place. However, this Mountain obviously had better protection than that.

It didn't mean that Clarke couldn't gain control. She could. It would just take longer than usual. Around 30 minutes or so–she estimated –and that was if she was in the control centre. She was able to detect exactly where it was through her connection with the Mountain judging by the amount of commands that flew out from the place like a ripple in water.

She was essentially just plugged into the system right now and she hadn't tried to take control of anything, thus far. She focused on using the cameras all over the Mountain to track patrols and she wasn't in the least bit surprised to find numerous guard patrolling.

It made the next phase of her plan more necessary. Clarke was about to disconnect from the system when she found another section of the Mountain that had almost gone unnoticed.

Words began to rush through her mind and unknown to her she began to speak aloud as they flashed through her mind,"Pipes. Ventilators. Substituents. 4 parts carbon, 10 parts hydrogen, 1 part fluorine, 2 parts oxygen and 1 part phosphorus."

"Clarke,"said a voice and Clarke closed her connection the mountain and she was surprised to see Raven looking at her,"What are you doing?"

Clarke reconnected upon seeing her friend and quickly silenced the listening devices , permanently this time, and said,I need to get out of here, Raven. There isn't enough time to go, but I have to go now. This place it's...bad... I can't say much else, but–"

"I believe you,"said Raven cutting Clarke off and the mechanic smiled wryly at the look of surprise on the other girl's face,"Clarke, I trust you way more than I trust these people. If you say that there's something wrong then I believe you. What's your plan?"

Clarke sagged in relief and said,"That means a lot, thanks Raven. I'm trying to figure out a way to get past the guard patrols and I connected to their mainframe and while there were other stuff that would take too long to break through something jumped out at me just now."

"Is that why you were reciting the periodic table?"said Raven before she added,"I only caught the part about oxygen and phosphorus. I'll need you to reconnect to that part of the Mountain's mainframe and tell me what you see."

Clarke nodded and this time what she had been looking at stuck out like a flame in a dark room," 4 parts carbon, 10 parts hydrogen, 1 part fluorine, 2 parts oxygen and 1 part phosphorus...wait there's more...I think they're two different substances...4 parts carbon, 8 parts hydrogen, 2 parts chlorine and 1 part sulfur. What the hell is this stuff?"

Clarke opened her eyes, but what she didn't expect to see was a look of disgust on Raven's face,"Raven. Talk to me."

Raven sighed and said,"You were right,Clarke. This place is sketchy. The two formulas you just told me. One is sarin. A red nerve gas that causes vomiting, convulsions and highly irregular heart rate, but it's not that lethal. The other is sulfur mustard, this one is yellow and causes rapid blistering on skin and mucous membranes. Extremely lethal. They're both chemical weapons,but the thing is sulfur mustard doesn't really linger long in the air, but it does if mixed with sarin. The result would be an orange gaseous chemical weapon with the benefits of both and downsides of neither. Three guesses for where we've seen orange gas that blisters and kills it's victims. "

Clarke felt her anger raise as she said,"The acid fog. They make the acid fog. What the hell is this place?"

Raven shrugged and said,"I don't know, but we all have to leave ASAP. This just shows that–"

"We can't do that, Raven,"said Clarke seriously as she cut the other girl off,"All the delinquents got wasted on liquor and are probably still processing that and there's no ways those without powers could even hope to outrun the fog or the people they would send after us. You guys will have to stay here to stay safe."

Raven's face twisted in anger and said,"And were will you go? To take down the Mountain? Clarke, I hate to break it to you, but there isn't much space for you to cut loose. If you go supernova like you did at the dropship then it might cause the scrubbers to blow up and who knows how many people will die."

Clarke knew that much at least. Even on the Ark, the carbon dioxide scrubbers were never meant to come into contact with fire. Besides the obvious part of fire eating up oxygen, if the scrubbers came into contact with fire then it was likely that the Ark would not survive the chain of explosions that would follow.

"I know that, Raven,"said Clarke as she began to tie the laces on her boots,"I'm going for a more stealthy approach and I'll just have to borrow something to make that happen."

Raven looked slightly confused, but before she could voice her concern Clarke said,"I'll need you to stay inside here. These guys have a way of shutting down your powers and if they catch wind of this and activate whatever the hell that thing is then we're all screwed."

"Can't you disable whatever that is with your technopathy?"said Taven and she was disappointed when Clarke shook her head in the negative.

"I can only temporarily take control of things,"said Clarke as she began to tighten her other boot's laces,"Also, there's a lot of encrypted stuff like the scrubbers, ventilation system, doors, their defense system and files. I can't get into any of those. The acid fog had weak security, but I guess that since they're sheltered from it inside here they don't really care."

"Ok, I get that, but why would you leave?"said Raven as she looked at her friend,"If you leave we have no way of defending ourselves. "

"You guys will be fine,"said Clarke as she finally finished lacing up ,"I'm going to bust out of here and I hope that the Commander cares enough about Anya to help us. Numbers will be what we need to take these guys out. Also, Dante said that the neutralisation device or whatever took a lot of resources so I'm guessing if they were to use it then I would have detected a massive drain on the grid. He said something about improving it, but it seemed like posturing to me."

Raven looked down at her hands and she was happy to see the familiar green glow of her lasers. She shut them off and said,"You're right. We should be able to hold them off for a little bit."

Clarke nodded and said,"You're right, that's not good enough. Come on, let's go."

Raven was confused by Clarke's statement as the other girl suddenly walked to the door and seemingly not scared of the cameras walked straight into the delinquents dorm.

Luckily, there were all deep in the throes of sleep and none of them woke up at all. The smell of alcohol was hanging in the air and Raven had to concede that Clarke had been right about their chances with everyone in such a state.

"What are we doing here?"whispered Raven as she stepped closer to Clarke.

Clarke looked at her and said,"You guys need to be able to better defend yourselves. I think I've figured out how to activate your powers."

Raven was surprised by this, but she followed Clarke as she began to walk around the dorm,"I can't do anything for the ones that the nanobots didn't merge with, but the others should be fine."

Raven nodded and grabbed her arm saying,"I know where everyone sleeps. Come on."

It was a strange process from Raven's perspective to see Clarke's hands light up in a soft, white glow and all she did was tapped the foreheads of everyone.

Soon, the last remaining was Octavia, but this time after Clarke activated her latent powers she pressed both her hands to the other girl's head. Raven was concerned when an expression of slight pain came across Octavia's face, but it disappeared a few seconds later as Clarke pulled her hands off of the girl.

"Let's go,"said Clarke as she gestured towards the door. The two girls made it out of the dorm and back into Clarke's without trouble and ince the door closed behind Raven whirled to Clarke and said,"What the hell did you do to Octavia? You looked like you were hurting her!"

Clarke nodded and said,"Well, I haven't had much practice with some of my powers, but I didn't mean to hurt her. I just needed something from her."