Warnings for the basic eradication of an entire people in this chapter and the stealing of infants.

Trigger warnings for disturbing descriptions of killing of children and babies. The 100 and the sky people get really dark in this chapter.

Princess Mechanic in this chapter, Wells and Fox as well and bisexual Lincoln.

Forgiveness does not exist

Chapter 4: The Extinction of the Rock Line people:

Two months after the third chapter

Ingranronakru lands

The sky was beginning, just was beginning to darken. There was still at least another hour of light left before night fell upon the traveling, bloodstained group. Upon her horse, who she had named "Dark Fury," Clarke leered down the rock laden valley they were traveling through. What a desolate area to live in. The only other two terrains where she could think of that would be way, way worse to live in were the Azgeda lands and the Sankru lands. It was hard to decide which amongst the two lands were worse to live in.

Freezing coldness and possible starvation? Or burning and dehydration and also likely starvation? Hard to say.

It had been almost two months since they had decimated those first batches of Boudalankru villages. Now? The whispers were flying everywhere already. Whispers of the deceased tribe's ghosts wandering the lands for eternity. The Boudalankru, the bulk of the Commander's warrior power had been wiped out. Thanks to the crafty and murderous and ruthless decisions of a group of people that the rest of the world didn't even believed existed anymore. According to the rumors that everyone heard in the various villages that Clarke and her group had gotten to Podakru, the territory of the Lake People, that many a villager believed the "Sky People" to be dead. All of them. Even the Commander and the general Anya's homon, Klark kom Skaikru was supposedly gone from this world as well.

And the popular belief amongst many Grounders was that a band of surviving Mountain Men that had taken the Sky peoples' bone marrow were the ones wiping out the villages of the Rock Line people and the Trikru. Stories were raising all over the place that the Mountain Men had survived and were showing the Commander just how grateful they were for the bone marrow they were given.

Much to Clarke and all the other survivors' delight, the Commander was beginning to receive criticism from many warriors and ambassadors of the different tribes. With the Boudalankru wiped out officially now, the dark whispers of "traitor" beginning to surround the Commander were increasing. The tribes were beginning to believe that Lexa had given the Mountain Men bone marrow with the sole intention of being in their good graces and hoping that her Trikru would be spared when the Mountain Men would be able to walk on the ground unaffected by the air that otherwise would have killed them. It was beginning to be strongly believed by many that the Commander hadn't just betrayed the Skaikru and her own homon, but the rest of the tribes as well and were offering the other tribes besides the Trikru tribes up as tributes.

In the eyes of the people of the different tribes, the Commander was loyal to only one group besides the Trikru. The Mountain Men.

At one of their hideouts in the Plains People's lands, when they had heard this news, the news from one passerby they "helped" had made so many of the Sky people laugh that their laughter had reached the sky. The commander had shot herself in the foot. She had made her own worst enemies by making doubt start to grow in her warriors' eyes. No one trusted the Commander now. Because of the equipment that Clarke and the others had left all over the villages of the Boudalankru that they had wiped out, people truly believed that the Mountain Men still lived and that they were wiping out tribes wherever they could find these tribes.

And now, two months later, the Boudalankru, thanks to all of Clarke and the others' efforts, were all dead. Because of Clarke, Lincoln, Wells, Raven, Monty and everyone else. They had started on that day after they left the Azgeda territory and entered the Rock Line territory and destroyed those first two clusters of villages. And for the next two months they had worked their way up through that territory.

And now? Two months later? The Rock Line people didn't even exist anymore thanks to them.

It was a fact that shouldn't have made them so proud, but it did make them proud. It made them overjoyed.

They were monsters and now the blood of all the Rock Line people were on their hands.

The next five villages that Clarke and the others had gone to after the first bunch they had destroyed, they had deliberately scattered around Mountain Men equipment around the grounds of the village and had tested out one of their new weapons from the Mountain. Sleeping gas. The same kind that had knocked them all out at the dropship when the Mountain Men had first captured them and Anya. They had put on all their masks and made sure the horses were off and out of range of the sleeping gas. And as they threw the sleeping gas around the villages, they watched as the villagers by the masses collapsed into unconsciousness.

There had been a series of gasps and cries of "The Mountain Men!" before they all dropped and were asleep. It would be the last time they ever knew of any kind of peace.

For after the thick, white clouds dispersed around the unconscious Grounders, the still masked sky people and Lincoln moved in, all with masks, all carrying weapons. As the Grounders slept, one by one, their throats were cut. Cut right to the bone.

They had invaded the different homes, slitting throats where they could find them. Setting the different villages ablaze. Their methods would vary. From setting the villagers on fire while they were still alive, to slitting their throats, to cutting their chests open and exposing their hearts and stabbing the hearts. To suffocation. To carrying a bunch of them to the water troughs for the horses and dropping them face down into the troughs and letting them drown. In all, five villages had been wiped out. All the horses had been stolen and the villages had been burned down.

Clarke and the others sold the horses to different ranches on the edges of the Podakru territory, using the masks of the Boudalankru people to hide who they were. By using the masks and the furs of the Boudalankru they slaughtered in those five villages, no one recognized them. After they burned down the villages, stealing all the resources and the masks and garbs, using some of the horses for themselves and selling the rest for money, they traveled on, following Lincoln's lead to the next batch of Rock Line villages. There were six of them. Clarke and the others did the same method that they did before. Sleeping gas. Scattering Mountain Men equipment around, slitting the peoples' throats with refined blades, putting bullets in the Grounders' heads and setting the place ablaze.

All six villages perished only a week after the five other ones. Clarke and the others took the horses, sold some of them and brought the rest to a village on the Podakru land, again, using Boudalankru disguises.

The story they used was that they were being attacked by Mountain Men and were giving their horses away to keep them safe while they prepared for battle. And they made sure no one figured it out in time.

It had been two months and the rest of the stupid Grounders just went with the explanations they were given. And now? With six more Boudalankru villages destroyed in the east, seven more of those villages destroyed in the west, five more destroyed in the south and eight more villages destroyed in the north, the Rock Line warriors were extinct. Wiped out. Every last one of the tribe members who had been of the Rock Line bloodline were gone. Killed. Except for the babies of two of the last villages Clarke and the others sacked.

After they had wiped out some of the villages coming close to the Rock Line peoples' borders, aware that they were getting close to destroying the rest of the Rock Line people, they discussed whether or not they should really just make sure that the Rock Line people were totally extinct. But after the next few villages they sacked, burned and destroyed, they all came to the same conclusion. They wouldn't be around forever. And many of them, all of them really, still had their implants in. And they didn't have the tools to remove them. The tools that the Mountain Men possessed weren't efficient enough to remove the implants and could have risked their deaths.

But the fact remained that they would one day die. Be it being killed by another tribe that finally discovered the truth, or somehow by old age if they ever reached that age. So it was a unanimous decision between all of them. For the older Ark people it was to pass on their culture to another generation, because they didn't want it to die out and let the "savages' culture" live on. For Lincoln, it was to snub his treacherous Commander and fill the Grounder babies' heads with Sky people culture. For Clarke and the rest of the surviving 100 and Raven, it was corrupting the Grounder culture and to gain more allies and look more innocent with having small children with them.

Clarke and Raven who had begun a relationship even considered possibly taking a couple of those babies as their own.

And so it was after the last, the very last few Boudalan villages were wiped out that the only survivors were the babies. They wiped out the parents, and stole the babies from their wooden cribs. It should have been despicable in their own eyes, but for them, it had become a pleasure to do. To corrupt Grounder culture in any way there was possible. They would slaughter the adults and teenagers and children and fill the babies' heads with their own culture and their own hatred of the tribes.

And thanks to pillaging all the villages, they had plenty of food and taking some of the cows had gotten them milk for the babies.

So they had a whole miniature, traveling village between the 179 Sky people, Lincoln, their horses, the extra horses, the cows and the fifty babies they had stolen from the now burned to ashes villages here and there. The rest of the babies they had shot in the heads and set on fire in their cribs. Every action they had taken since the mountain had been monstrous and inhuman. They had killed children and babies in each village they sacked. They weren't going to pretend that those bombs that they had let loose the first time hadn't killed all the babies of the villages along with their parents and older brothers and sisters. And they had done the same to all the babies in all the different villages. They had gone into the rooms where the babies slept and lodged bullets in each of their heads.

When Monty had gotten down from one of the babies' rooms, Clarke had met Monty's ashen and dead face, dark eyes haunted by what he did. It was grotesque and inhuman, but they had all committed horrific acts in the name of vengeance, and knew that they couldn't stop. Clarke herself and Lincoln had dispatched several babies. Lincoln had snapped the necks of at least ten babies. Clarke had shot fourteen babies in the heads. Three more babies had been smothered in their sleep by Monroe. Raven had slit seven babies throats with her knives.

Harper had shot fifteen babies in the head. Dax had blown up a bunch of babies' rooms up with grenades. He actually looked like he was enjoying himself when he tossed the unclipped grenades. Derek, Miller, Coleen and Monroe released loads of bullets into different babies' rooms in different nurseries and set the places on fire. They were monsters. And all of the villages they had decimated had been a testament to that. They had butchered many. So many. They were the reasons why all of the Rock Line people, save for fifty babies were wiped out. Because of them, all but fifty babies were what was left of the Boudalankru tribe.

Clarke, one day asked Lincoln how many people he thought they had killed altogether between that village in the Trikru territory, the Mountain Men and all the Boudalan people. Lincoln, grim-faced acknowledged that he didn't know. He knew that there were at least two hundred people in each village they had sacked. 300 to 400 at the most. Doing the math, their killings had likely gone into the thousands. Clarke had released a grim laugh when she realized that Lincoln likely was right.

The nightmares had gotten bad. Raven had to be checked on every few hours during her sleep. Her sleeping got better as of a couple of weeks ago. Monty had night terrors. Lincoln had to hold him captive to keep him from thrashing around and shoved a leather bit of some kind into his mouth to keep him from biting off his tongue. Some of the places they had found Wells and Fox during their night terrors could have been humorous were their living situation not been so horrific. They had found Fox crouching down once in the brush, shaking. Harper and Mbege had to drag her up from the grass and the brush.

Wells had nearly run off a cliff before Miller stopped him and woke him up.

Clarke's own nightmares and moments when she was forced back into the memories of the horror of the destruction of the mountain and all the villages were repulsive and horrifying. The memories of the burnt faces, the broken open skulls from the bullets and the knives, the stiff, unmoving corpses haunted her mind.

But they were what they were. Monsters. And that was all they could be. They were monsters all thanks to the Commander, Anya and the Mountain Men. And the Grounders' disgustingly ridiculously horrifying culture. They had been carved into grotesque versions of themselves, because of the Grounder Commander who swore that she would protect them as she protected her own people with the alliance. An alliance that she had soon betrayed. But it was her own undoing. With her betrayal came the rumors. The assumptions and the whispers. The suspicions that the Commander was serving the Mountain Men and that the Mountain Men were out of the mountain and hunting down other tribes and wiping them out. All thanks to the Commander.

The Mountain Men had wiped out all of the Rock Line villages. That was the story that everyone believed. Every village that Clarke and her people had gone to said the same thing. Or a similar thing. The Mountain Men alive. The Mountain Men were out of the mountain. And they were wiping out villages in the Rock Line area. And all those stories came to the same conclusion. Everyone believed that the Commander had betrayed her people. She had given the Mountain Men the bone marrow of the Skaikru. And so the Commander had aided the Mountain Men. The Commander had betrayed her people by giving the Mountain Men bone marrow. The Commander was losing allies. Her council was beginning to consider leaving the coalition.

Clarke and the other sky people could barely contain their glee when they learned of these developments. How could they not be so completely overtaken by glee and happiness knowing this? The Rock Line people were wiped out, save for the fifty babies in their "care" who would soon be indoctrinated with their own zealous desire for Grounder blood when they were old enough to absorb those kinds of lessons. And more information rewarded their attentive listening in on Podakru stories.

It wasn't just the Podakru who were distrustful of the Commander now. The Azgeda had been distanced from the Commander's orders for a long time now. And the other tribes like the Yujleda, the Sankru people, the Trishana people and the Delfi people all stopped trusting the Commander. And the Podakru swore that there were disgusted whispers from the Plains people as well about the Commander being responsible for all of the Rock Line peoples' deaths and that the commander was a traitor and nothing else.

Seeing a majority of the Podakru also being distrustful of the Commander was exhilarating for all of them to see. When they got back to their own camp, that was burrowed out in large logs and between mossy boulders, Lincoln, Dax, Raven and Miller having gotten a fire ready, Clarke, Diggs and Derek told them the good news and there had been stolen drinks for everyone. And why shouldn't they have reason to celebrate? If the stories they had been given by the Podakru people were true, then six tribes were beginning to distance themselves from the Commander and her rule. And the seventh tribe was wiped out, all but the fifty babies in the sky peoples' possession.

That left five more tribes. The Trikru were unlikely to shy away from the Commander, since Lexa was by blood from that tribe. But it was only a matter of time before the other tribes, or some of the other five tribes started feeling the distrust and believing there was some credence to those rumors. It helped knowing that the Ingranronakru tribe were on the verge of being all but inhospitable to the Commander, should she approach their territories.

Vengeance truly was sweet. It might be a cold one, cold as the ice that now ran through all of their veins. But it was the sweetest vengeance that ever could have existed. In a drunken hiccup, Derek compared it to really good ice cream. Like the cookie dough kind that used to exist before the bombs hit. The others had laughed and Clarke agreed. They kept the babies asleep with the milk of the cows and the goats. They had no real use of the babies until the children grew big enough to hold weapons and to understand how to survive the world of the Grounders.

They learned a few of the babies' names from the clothes they found on the babies, etched in writing what their names were. Lincoln translated it for them, since he knew some of the Rock Line language.

They knew that those names were unacceptable. Not unless they wanted the babies to figure out where they were from. So they gave the babies Trikru and sky people names. Names that wouldn't bring attention at all to their lies. Amongst the babies, there were twenty boys and thirty girls. Some of the babies they named after the sky people that died in the mountain. Others they named for average Trikru people. Lincoln named one baby girl after his mother. Naming her Alina. Baby brothers that had been stolen from one of the last villages had been named Jasper and Monty Jr. Monty had sniffled and almost cried when Clarke told Monty that. Monty never left those babies' alone for too long after that. Raven named one other baby boy Finn.

Two baby girls they named Octavia and Abby. One baby they named Bellamy. Another they named Markus.

Several others they gave proper Trikru and Boudalan names. The plan after they got old enough to form language and understand information was simple. Brainwash them. Tell them that because the Commander gave the Mountain Men bone marrow, the Mountain Men were free and because of that, the babies' parents were all dead. And that the only reason the babies were still alive was because the remaining sky people saved these babies.

More time went by and the sky people were disturbed, but in a twisted way, delighted by their own desires and their own pleasure at defiling the culture of the people that had betrayed them so easily two and a half months ago. That night, they ate and drank to their villainy, the babies they stole sound asleep in their furs deep in the caves they were hiding out in.

It was then Clarke had the beautiful, horrid idea. They prove the Ingranronakru's suspicions when it came to the Commander right. By destroying some of the Plains Peoples' villages. Kill some of them out, and take the babies. When they were mostly dead, dress up as Grounders and spread the rumors that the Commander was not to be trusted.

It was so, so simple. Clarke grinned and announced this plan to her people. Raven had howled with laughter before taking a huge gulp of Monty's moonshine. The rest of the kids grinned and laughed at the violent encouragement. Harper, Fox and the other more timid kids or peaceful kids even enjoyed what they were hearing. Even Wells had come around to enjoy bombing villages and relished in stabbing warriors in their sleep, all for the sake of revenge. His mind, like the rest of their minds was haunted by the mountain. Even the many villages they had destroyed in the Rock Line areas wasn't enough to make him feel better.

But maybe the blood spilling from the Plains People would bring him and the others some satisfaction. Across from Clarke and the rest of the murderers, on the other side of the campfires, were Monty and Derek who were cradling a couple of babies in their arms. Monroe was playing with one Boudalan baby, who had worn a leather coat over him with his name stitched into it. The name was "Voltak." Who had his parents been? None of them knew and none of them cared. But Voltak was going to grow to hate his own people and blame them for the deaths of his family instead of the teenagers raising him to hate. That was the most repulsive and beautiful thing about this.

Clarke smirked at Wells, then over at Lincoln who was watching the babies, making sure the next generation of avenging murderers were safe. Now was time to plan how they would attack the Plains People.

The Plains People, as they learned when first coming here from the Lake people's lands, were similar to the Trikru. Their main trade were in horses, furs and metal. They luckily enough were just as stupid as the Trikru were. They believed the stories they were hearing from the Lake People as much as the Lake People believed the stories about the Commander from the other tribes. The only difference between the lands of the Trikru and the lands of the Ingranronakru were that the Plains People had much more open space, caves and wide terrain without trees. Caves that they used to their advantage. But their cultures were very similar. They were all morons. That was convenient enough for the Sky people.

OOOoooooooo

Polis

The Commander watched Onya pace back and forth nonstop, a furious snarl covering Onya's face. "Where?" Onya demanded, teeth bared. "Where?! Where is she?!"

The extermination of the Boudalankru had not helped in either Leksa or Onya's feelings about where Klark might be. Only that the Mountain Men were out there somewhere, slaughtering their people and it was possible that Klark was either dead, or she was being hunted by the Mountain Men as well. They had to find her.

They had to find Klark before another tribe did or before the Mountain Men did. They'd find her and bring her back to Polis and promise her that they never stopped loving her. Even if she hated them, they had never stopped loving her ever. "Onya," Leksa said, leaving no room for Onya to speak again, speaking so sharply that the older turned to her immediately. "Peace." Leksa sighed. "We've searched everywhere in our territory. We've had scouts search all over the Eastern tribes. Now it's time to search the west. Onya, I'm sending you, Indra, and the best trained warriors from each tribe to go with you in search of Klark across the western lands."

Onya nodded. "With what tribes are left." The older said bitterly, dark eyes flashing with anger at the tribes' betrayal. The Commander nodded, understanding the frustration of the woman who had at one time been her teacher. The Azgeda, the Podakru, the Yujleda, the Delfi, the Sankru, the Trishana, they all proved to be distrustful of their Commander. They were unlikely to help. The Ingranron people as well had turned away from their Commander, despite her threats of death to fall upon them. She was a coward in their eyes. She had faced the Mountain, their peoples' greatest enemy and she had retreated.

She was a traitor to them. A coward. Weak. There were rumors spreading around the villages and the tribes that she had been working with the Mountain Men for years. That she had always intended to betray her people. Only a few tribes trusted the current Commander now.

And the Rock Line people were all dead. All of the tribes in the Boudalan territory were gone. Wiped out. Every village in those territories were burned down, wiped out. The burnt bodies found practically covering the different lands of the Boudalan territory were riddled with holes and stab wounds. The boot marks left around the decimated bodies were imprints almost identical to the ones that the Mountain Men always left, proving to the scouts who looked at the prints that the Mountain Men still lived.

And now the Commander was being blamed for it by the tribes. The tribes believed that she had given the Mountain Men the Sky Peoples' bone marrow deliberately to make the Mountain Men capable of leaving the mountain without suits. The tribes blamed Leksa for the destruction of all the Boudalan villages.

And Leksa wasn't sure they were wrong.

Leksa answered, thinking on the few tribes still loyal, trying to ignore the pain in her heart over failing to protect her people, "The Trikru, the Luwodakru people, the Floukru, take as many of them with you as you can. I don't care what it takes. Bring Klark back to Polis. If she still lives, find her. Bring her back here. Your search in the western lands start now." Onya nodded, bowing to her Commander before she left.

Leksa sighed out, going to the wide gaping opening in the window where she tended to take her frustrations out on those defiant against her. She had been doing it a lot lately. Four Sankru had spoken to her just two days ago with nothing but disrespect in their tones. Calling her weak and a traitor. Saying that she was responsible for the thousands of deaths in the Boudalankru lands.

In her grief, Leksa had acted before she could think. She had decapitated two of the Sankru and threw them out the window. The next two had joined them.

Ingranron warriors and Azgeda warriors had joined the many that were flung from this balcony in Leksa's anger. She felt her chest become heavy, looking over the landscape where the Mountain Men somewhere roamed. Where was Klark? Where was she?

She knew that she had been asking a lot by telling Anya to go to the eastern lands in search of Klark. But they had to find her. The eastern lands where the other tribes lived took at least twenty-five days to get to by horseback. Twenty-two if one didn't stop for rest. But the horses would need to rest at some point. Leksa looked out over the tall hills and mountains. The Podakru lands, the Ingranronakru lands, the Trishanakru lands and the Ouskejonkru lands. It might have been a desperate measure to search there. But Leksa had to find out if there was any chance that Klark was in any of those lands. All of the other tribes' lands had been searched. All for nothing. The messages had reached Leksa a month and a half ago when the deliverer of that message had come to Polis from the Boudalan lands on horseback.

Leksa dreaded those messages more than anything else. The Rock Line people were killed off. One group of villages after another. By the time Leksa had sent out a scout to investigate, the tribe of the Boudalan were no longer in this world. Leksa both yearned and feared the day when Klark would be found. She just hoped that Klark had not been harmed in any of those lands if she still lived.

OOOooooooooo

Ingranronakru lands

It was night when the Sky people decided to enact their plan of attack on the Plains People.

The boots the remaining 100 and Sky people wore were the white ones of the Mountain Men, put on with the purpose of making the Grounders think that the Mountain Men were the ones invading their peoples' lands. And much to the sky peoples' pleasure, it seemed to work from what they heard the next day. But the current day, they were focusing on destroying a few Plains People villages. They stole the boats from the Lake peoples' lands. They had left Miller, Dax, Myles, Lincoln, Raven, Derek, Tim, Coleen, Harper and Fox at the caves with the other Sky people, watching the Boudalan babies they had abducted.

They needed to keep their next generation of Grounder killers safe.

With Clarke were Wells, Tyler, Zach, Monty, Monroe, Mbege, Diggs and some others. They had carried the boats of the Podakru over their heads on their way to the Ingranronakru villages. Inside the boats were many explosives and sticks of dynamite. They reached the lakes around a few Ingranronakru villages. They put the boats into the lakes, cut some of the fuses of the dynamite sticks shorter. The lengths of white ropes of the fuses of the dynamite sticks had been cut and left back at the caves. They couldn't risk any of those severed fuses being found by the Grounders. They walked in orderly, military fashion as they imagined the Mountain Men doing. One behind another, behind another.

Clarke gave the order when they saw the last lights from the villages go out, informing them that everyone in the villages were getting ready for bed. They cut away the last of the fuses, took out lighters and turned them on, setting the fuses on fire. Monty pressed a few buttons on the different bombs, activating them. He and Raven had monkeyed with all the bombs to make them go off sooner instead of later. These bombs would go off in only three minutes. The dynamite sticks blowing up next to them would create a chain reaction of explosions. Clarke kicked off the first boat, pushing it across the lake, making it drift to the village. Monty, Monroe and the others pushed the rest of the ships to the villages.

They walked back up a few feet, readying their weapons, all the nozzles of the guns having silencers on them. The clicking of all the weapons being held and aimed could be heard, but none of them had anything to worry about. Everyone they might have worried about hearing were all the way on the other side of the lakes. Any survivors that tried to flee from the to be destroyed villages would be gunned down. Mowed down with bullets. There were two rocket launchers that they had with them. They would use those wisely and make sure that the shots count, killing as many people as they could with it.

It was time to prove to the Ingranronakru that their suspicions that the Commander's decision at the mountain had doomed them were true.

After a few seconds went by, a mellow boom went through the lake, causing ripples to run along the water. Wings of glowing orange and yellow fire erupted from the destroyed boats and shot through the small and narrow huts, hitting stables and hitting homes. There were multiple more, huge explosions that followed, all hitting different small buildings. Soon, thousands of screams joined the booming and the crackling of the fires. Terrified and pained horse cries joined. Clarke and the others felt more sympathy for the horses than they did for the humans. But they had no use for any more horses, not unless they needed to sell them. And why give the Grounders more horses?

Why give these animals more of an advantage by giving them horses? No, the Grounders deserved to have less horses, just like the deserved to have less lives.

People did in fact flee from the villages, but most of them were set on fire, screaming as they ran, fire shooting out from them like a wavering, orange tower. Clarke turned to the others as they got their weapons ready and hissed, 'No!' at them. At their surprised looks, Clarke answered coolly, "Those on fire are already going to die. Let them die. Don't give them a quick death and don't waste any bullets. If there are any people running out without any flames on them, then shoot them. And only them."

She heard Wells, Monty and the others give their verbal answers. They nodded and readied their weapons, but did not fire as more ablaze people fled from the huts. At last, at least five different people that had not been touched by the fire came running, screaming. That was when Clarke, Wells, Monty, Monroe, Diggs and the others opened fire.

Their bullets flew across the lake, hitting all of the people fleeing instantly. The five that had been running from their huts collapsed to the ground. Diggs and Mbege opened fire on several others that were without flames trying to run. Soon, most people that had tried to run fell down to the ground with bloody holes in their bodies.

There was giggling between the remaining 100 as they opened fire on the villages. They laughed together as they killed off thousands and thousands of people in the villages. The only things that would be heard were the explosions and the screams of the Sky peoples' victims. But they would not hear any banging from the guns, since from there were only silencers on the guns. The only ones rewarded with the almost silent "popping" noises from the guns and the giggling from the shooters were the vengeful Sky people.

Hours had past and soon the only noises that exited the village's huts and grounds were the crackling flames and the remaining, agonized moaning of Clarke and her peoples' victims as those victims burned to death or bled out from their bullet wounds.

Clarke pulled her face away from the cold metal gun, smirking. She put the safety on the rifle and told the others to do the same. They did as ordered. They put the safety on their guns and lowered the weapons. Clarke turned to the others, all of them wearing satisfied smiles on their faces, their masks of murderous pleasure glowing in the firelight. Clarke announced, voice almost purring with content, "That's good for tonight, guys. We did good. We did really good. Now let's head back to the caves before people find us. They'll be busy with the fires in the villages and trying to keep the fires from spreading. But let's not stay here longer than we have to. We should tell the others how much we pulled off tonight."

Diggs and Monty snickered. "Yeah," Monty said, grin like a shark's. He in no way resembled the boy that he had first been when they had come down in the dropship in the Trikru territory once upon a time. "We've had our fun. Now we can tell the others how much we fucked them." Clarke grinned. Everything about this was surreal. Because despite the three heartless months that had passed by, it still felt unreal that they were like this. It felt like they should still be those naïve, innocent children that had come down to Earth months and months ago, thinking that they were the first humans in years to be on the ground.

They had been so foolish and stupid. So weak.

But now? They were like blades. Shattered pieces of glass that would cut a Grounder up the moment they had the chance. They were cruel beasts compared to the stupid little children they had been months ago. What felt like a lifetime ago. They were animals. Murderous predators. And they were okay with that. But it still felt unreal. To compare the people they were now to the people that they were months ago. It felt silly.

They began to walk away from the edge of the lakes. Diggs went up ahead and the others followed. Clarke smirked over at the villages in ruins and walked after them. She swung the rifle and over her shoulder and let it hang from her shoulder against her back. She cradled the machine gun she had fired on the villages in her arms. She faced Wells's back as she left. They walked in single-file as the Mountain Men would, the Mountain Men's boots leaving the intended footprints along the ground.

A few hours later, they reached the caves. The many Sky people greeted them. Clarke and the others had made sure that they didn't leave footprints behind that the Grounders couldn't find or track. They had gone to the river and had walked into its depths. They had trudged through the river to the location. None of the Grounders would find their footprints.

Clarke and the others got to the many, wide almost endless caves as they closed in, taking off their guns and pulling them from their bodies. Clarke, Wells, Monty and the others reached the beginning of the very first cave where Raven, Lincoln and Dax were waiting for them, their faces illuminated by the small built fires in their camp where their dinner was being cooked. Clarke grinned, getting close. She and the others tossed their weapons and magazines into a pile on the floor of the ground and the cave floor. They pulled off their Mountain Men boots and tossed all of them into the cave floor. The footprints wouldn't be as easy to see in those caves as it would on the dirt. They put on their usual boots and sneakers and sat down along the logs in front of the fires where the dinner was.

"What do we have for dinner, Lincoln?" Clarke asked her friend and who had become like her and the rest of the 100's big brother. Lincoln walked over nodding to the animals roasting. They had agreed that today was Lincoln, Dax, Derek, Coleen, and Jenna's turn to hunt animals. Sure, they had supplies and milk from the villages. But if they didn't hunt regularly, then they'd get out of shape on the matter.

Lincoln answered, "Three boars. Five deer. Three panthas. Five rabbits." Clarke smiled, grabbing a sharpened stick that impaled one of those tiny rabbits. She picked it up and took in the skinned animal's cooked state, aware that the rabbit was cooked enough. She called over to Raven. "Hey, Rae, have you eaten yet?" The dark skinned girl limped over with her cane. "Not yet." She said. "Worried about the brats that we took from those other villages. We had to make sure they ate first." Raven snickered as she walked over, lowering herself down and sitting on the log next to Clarke, putting the cane down on the ground along the log.

Clarke handed Raven the spiked stick with the dead rabbit, smirking. "Tonight was good." She told her friend and nowadays, sometimes lover. "Plains Peoples' tribes have been wiped out. It will only be an amount of time before the Plains People blame the Commander for this." Raven grinned, holding the stick with the rabbit, and leaning close, kissing Clarke, hard, their tongues sliding along each other, Clarke's hand slipping into Raven's shirt and her nails bit into Raven's breast, bringing a moan from the dark skinned girl.

Wells went past Lincoln, not caring about his sister groping someone in public. They had decided to give up all civilized rules after the mountain. The rest of the sky adults knew better than to question their authority by now. They saw Clarke and the other delinquents as their only hope. So they weren't going to complain.

Wells got to the inside of the cave, grateful for the small fire that had been built inside the cave for light. Standing over the many blanketed bundles lined up along the cave's lowest shelf, were Harper, Fox and Myles. Wells grinned at them as Harper sang a quiet lullaby to the sleeping babies. "How are our baby murderers?" He asked, finding the question so strange in that he didn't feel like vomiting over saying it and taking joy in it. Myles smirked. "They're good. We gave them milk from the cows and goats. All fed. All fifty of them. It's going to be so fun when they get big enough to carry weapons." Wells chuckled, looking down at the babies that he would have at one time in his life tried to protect from this life. Now he saw them as tools to use against the rest of the Grounder world.

How sick was that? Very sick. And he didn't care.

"You haven't eaten yet, right?" Fox asked, looking at her new boyfriend, smiling." Wells shook his head when Fox came over and grinded herself up against him. He wrapped his arms around Fox and kissed her. His and Fox's relationship had started a few weeks after their group had first declared war on the Rock Line people. Fox had nervously approached Wells, asking if he wanted to get into a relationship with her. Wells had always liked her and found her attractive. So he had accepted it. Their relationship had been nice and normal. Despite their now ruthless nature, it was almost sweet. Wells really liked Fox. Might even love her.

But he was grateful for her. Any happiness in their lives, all of their lives, they'd take it.

It was the same with Clarke and Raven's relationship. But Wells wasn't stupid. There had always been real intensity between Clarke and Raven. Wells saw the way Raven looked at Clarke, and the way Clarke looked at Raven. If Clarke hadn't been so deeply involved with the Commander and Anya originally, then Clarke might have entered a relationship with Raven.

But it didn't matter now. The two of them were together now.

The night carried on. A night of eating, drinking, jeering, laughing and joking. They took turns rocking the babies back to sleep and feeding the babies, singing to them.

There were five different large caves. All fifty babies were kept in two caves. Twenty-five in one and twenty-five in another. The animals slept in another. The rest of the sky people were split off into five different groups. One group stayed with twenty-five of the babies. The other group stayed with the other twenty-five babies. The other group stayed with the animals. And the other two caves housed the weapons and the supplies. Or just allowed those that wanted, to just have fun having sex, in case any of them wanted not to be seen, despite the public lewdness no longer being frowned upon.

Clarke and Raven were taking up one of the weapon caves for that exact purpose, Dax and Derek guarding the door of the cave to give them privacy.

Raven and Clarke were up against one of the cave's walls, Clarke was working Raven's jeans off. Raven's cane was leaning up against the wall, and hand unbuckled his brace and let it drop to the cave floor. Clarke unzipped Raven's jeans and pulled the older girl's pants down. Clarke went up against Raven's body with her own body, left arm around Raven's waist. Clarke's right hand went where it pleased-between Raven's dark-skinned legs, palm upwards, fingers slipping into Raven's channel, palm against Raven's clit. Raven's gasps hit the cave walls instantly and she buried her face into Clarke's neck. Raven could almost sense the smirk on Clarke's face as the overwhelming pleasure took her.

Deep in the recesses of the cave, Raven's moans could be heard. They were concealed from view, but Raven's whimpers and moans could still be heard. At the mouth of the cave where Clarke and Raven were having sex, Dax and Derek shared a smirk. It was no secret that their leader and their mechanic were usually knuckles deep or face in each other and had been since the destruction of the first Rock Line villages.

Amongst the many couples that had formed in the Sky peoples' group, from Wells and Fox to Clarke and Raven to Lincoln and two sky men, no one was surprised by anything and didn't judge. Why judge? They were outcasts of the world. Hated by all tribes. It was best not to put themselves more under scrutiny. They had each other's backs and that was all that mattered.

So there was no judgment thrown around about the moans all around in the caves or across the campsite where they were staying. Clarke had made it clear to them that they would be moving out the next day. It was too risky to stay here after they had destroyed those villages. Eventually people would start to search around this neck of the woods. And that would be very dangerous for them. If they were found out, it would lead to their deaths. So they were going to travel out of here after tonight. And according to Lincoln, the next safest place would be outside of the boundaries of the tribe territories. At the very end of this country. The incredibly far east part. Even the tribes would not go there. It was supposedly too feared because it was considered unknown.

Clarke said not to risk that yet. It was too soon to investigate such unexplored territory. They'd need more weapons before going there, in case there were any other tribes or hostile forces there. So The plan was to go back into Podakru territory. Destroy a few villages and snatch the babies of a few villages.

They would keep the babies they had quiet with some of the tranquilizers laced into their food and milk.

And if any of the babies died? Well, they could always kill more villages and steal some more of the villagers' offspring.

Author's note

So the Sky people are now some serious nightmare fuel. Destroying villages and stealing children. What can I say? Lexa likes making her worst enemies. Wonder if she should see someone and talk to them about that weird fascination she has with doing that.

And anyone wondering about the lands that Lincoln were talking about, it's on the map of the Grounders on the wiki site. The "butt" end of America is considered "unknown territory" by the Grounders. Which means just outside of the lands of the Plains People, the Glowing Forest people and the Lake people, is considered dangerous. Which means it might be safer for the sky people to go there. I'll bring it up again later. But for now, still wiping out time.

I'd like to say that I think we can just accept that the Sky people are now the bad guys. You can't get much worse than this chapter. Even if you understand their reasoning, their prejudice really got out of hand this chapter.