1.

The train moved slower than usual, or that's how it felt for her anyways. She was sitting with her knee tucked under her chin thinking about how she's going to pull this off. The atmosphere on the subway was usually loud, busy, maybe even light hearted, but tonight it was silent. It was after one in the morning, but she knew that this was as good time as any, if not the best time to get this plan into motion.

Arkadia, the only known land of civilization, had massive walls around its citizens. The walls were meant to keep out any possible enemies, although for the last hundred years they hadn't seen another living soul. The rules and regulations that were reinforced by the Chancellor, Thelonious Jaha, were large barbed walls all on their own. Food was scarce, technology was only for the privileged but even then, technological advances were progressing slower than before the nuclear war hit, and bodies were counted, chipped, and checked every so often.

It wasn't life. It wasn't living like human beings, human beings with choices, and free will. It was a prison and the walls were not doing well in keeping enemies out, because reality was, they were creating enemies on the inside. That's actually what lead Clarke to sneak out just two hours ago with a half assed note explaining she would be gone for a few weeks without any indication as to where and a black backpack filled with clothes, books, and other essentials.

"She'll get over it" Clarke had mumbled as she closed the front door after shutting off the lights. Her mother, Abigail Griffin, was a surgeon. She would probably read the note, run to Thelonious or Shumway, the head of security, and panic. But after failed attempts at locating Clarke, they would pull her back. Probably tell her that Clarke can take care of herself and she will come home when she's ready, that it probably has to do with her father's recent passing.

Idiots, Clarke thought. They didn't know much about her, not enough at least to know why she left. Wells Jaha, Thelonious' son might have his theories, but he was too caught up in following his thickheaded father's footsteps to even work up the actual reason.

The train suddenly halted, Clarke had arrived at her stop. Breathing deeply, she stepped off the platform, adjusted her bag over both shoulders and took off sprinting in the direction of the wide open space. It was the last stop, near the outskirts of Arkadia, or well, close to it at least. The moon was full tonight, shining brightly lighting up her path. She dashed through the dark woods, jumping over fallen trees, watching and listening for sudden movements. She continued to run until she was heaving out of breath. She slowed to a walk but continued to pass through the forest with determination. It was twenty minutes later when she came to the clearing.

The night was still, not a single person in sight. The streetlights across the road flickered brightly as she stood against the cold pole debating whether or not to take those next few steps forward. There was a light glow coming from the wet pavement underneath her, she silently cursed herself for coming all this way only to have the fear sink deep in the pit of her stomach.

C'mon Clarke, you have to do this.

Taking a deep breath, she pushed off and made her way closer to what looked like an abandoned warehouse. It was called the Dropship, headquarters for Skicru. The bricks a burnt red rusting off into a deep brown color, it would have screamed sketchy for anyone else, but she knew what hid behind those large beige garage doors. She knocked on them twice, loud.

"Who are you?"

She turned to the owner of the voice, a nervous expression on her face. She clears her throat before moving closer to the boy with pitch-black hair and goggles resting around his neck.

"Hi, I'm Clarke, I wanted to uhm, talk to Raven Reyes?"

"She's inside, I'll call her." He gave her a short nod before disappearing back to wherever he came from. A beat later, she saw a brown-haired ponytail come into view.

"Clarke?" Raven's voice grabbed her from her thoughts. A small smile seemed like it would appear on Raven's face but it disappeared just as quick. "What are you doing here?"

"Uh, I heard that you guys don't have a trained medic, and I wanted to offer help." She spoke confidently standing her ground.

"Where the hell could you have heard that?"

Clarke's mind drifted to her working at the hospital alongside her mother last week when she saw the fiery Latina curse at a boy called Finn for not coming to see the emergency doctor sooner. She knew all about their situation, witnessed more than one person from that crew come in for the occasional stitching, and quick check for any infections, not to mention the exchanges she hears between doctors on her floor whenever one of them comes in with gashes or broken bones.

"It doesn't matter, we aren't interested, find someone else to give charity to." Raven dismissed her with a wave of the hand and a voice so drowned in disgust at Clarke's offer, Clarke was surprised Raven didn't spit at her after the word charity.

"Look, it's not charity, I'll keep quiet and not get in anyone's way. I want to help." She begged, suddenly feeling the rainy air get thicker and colder.

"Why?" Raven raised an eyebrow and Clarke didn't know whether it was in confusion or challenging her but she felt at a loss of words, how was she going to explain this. "Why would a council member's daughter, who has everything she ever wanted, come down here, what is it three hours away from home, to offer help to a bunch of rebels?"

"I don't agree with them, I never did. I know what kind of people you are, I want to join, I'll help where and when I can. I won't say shit to anybody outside or inside the crew about whatever goes on behind those doors." Clarke replied, choosing to ignore the guilt setting in her stomach.

"What makes you think that the crew will accept you anyways? These people, they won't let you in, and you running away from mommy won't help anyone out. Jaha and his friends will come looking for you, and if you lead them here I can assure you that they won't find you alive when they come."

"They won't be looking for me. I just want to fight back, for once." Clarke's voice wavered a bit at the end, her thoughts returning to days ago, to her father. "You have my word."

"Your word doesn't mean shit to these people Clarke," she paused looking her up and down before sighing, "listen, even if I wanted to help you, it isn't up to me."

"Who is it up to then?" Clarke asked with determination swimming in her eyes. Raven stared back at her seeming to internally fight with herself about something, Clarke hoped the winning side was going to be in her favour.

"Follow me."

Clarke followed, walking behind her through the creaky door hidden on the side of the building, which would be where the goggle boy had come from. She walked in slowly, her feet stepping lightly in the exact same spots Raven stepped on. The sounds of wild chatter and pop rock music filled her ears, it seemed really distant but when Raven pulled open the heavy metal double doors the sounds blared through. Surprisingly not a single soul looked her way as she walked through the open space towards the spiral staircase on the left side, near a couple heavily making out against the wall.

Clarke's heart was at her throat. She's heard about Skicru before. She knew exactly who they were, what they were. The stories and rumours circle Arkadia like it's everyone's business. Skicru was a group of rebellious people, the town claims them to be teenagers but most of them are in their early to mid-twenties, basically adults.

Skicru isn't the type of unruly gang where they can do whatever the hell they want, causing havoc and threatening this society, although they may seem like that to the council members that run the town. Those actions are simply misleading. They are starting a rebellion, a true fight for rights and innocent lives, a rebellion against the council, and when Clarke found out, she rushed to help. Besides not agreeing with more than half the rules they are forced to live by, she had her own personal reasons for going against the rulers including her own mother. She had her reasons and they were hers, and no matter what happened in the next few moments she would stick to her initial purpose.

"Just through here" Raven guided as they reached the top floor of the warehouse. Clarke's eyes wandered throughout the area, hearing stories about these people and seeing where they live everyday was completely different.

"Why are we here? Who is this up to?" She questioned again, swallowing whatever nerves racked her brain. Raven smirked softly knocking the closed door at the end of the hallway. Within seconds the door swung open revealing strong arms and narrow eyes.

Bellamy Blake.

His face was tan, hair blacker than the night and eyes dark with anger probably because they had disturbed whatever he was doing or maybe because he saw a short blonde who clearly didn't belong, standing right outside his door.

"This is Clarke; she wants to be our medic since we don't seem to have an actual trained one" Raven says in a teasing tone staring at Clarke. Bellamy stood still, his facial expression didn't waver and eyes directly on Clarke. Clarke knew who he was, she heard all about him but never would she have thought that he was the one leading Skicru. When they mentioned him before it was always about how he worked under Marcus Kane, the man who founded Skicru and made it what it is now.

Eyes locked on each other, the space suddenly not wide enough, and the saliva gathering in her throat, Clarke swallowed and awaited the words that were going to come out of his lips.

"What do you want?" His deep voice made her heart beat harder; she had difficulty not jumping at the sound of it.

"I uh, Raven told you."

"No. I want you to tell me."

"I want to be your-the uhm medic here, to help you guys with injuries…" she trailed off, knowing that wasn't the answer he wanted to hear. He stayed silent, studying her before folding his arms across his chest stepping outside the doorway, closer to her.

"No." he said, direct and firm. He took a step back and looked at Raven. "Get her out of here, and check if anyone followed her."

"No one followed me." Clarke interrupted before Raven could open her mouth. "Look, I know you don't trust me, and I don't expect you to. But I have insight on the council, I know what they think and what they are planning. I am also the best chance you have at an actual medical professional who can deal with problems here instead of having the eyes of the Ark on you when you go to the hospital."

It was still and the silence grew on. It made her nervous and the look in his eyes told her that wasn't the right move to make.

"No."

"Blake don't be stupid. She's right and you know it." Raven said from beside Clarke, surprising her. Another long moment of silence later, the look in his eye going from anger to completely blank and unattached.

"Fine. Raven show her where the medical office is, tell her about the rules here and if she's still alive show her to your room." He spoke quick and sharp, his eyes never leaving hers. She stared back, not challenging him but wondering. It seemed too easy, he didn't pry or press her for details about the council just then and he didn't question why now, why she decided to come to their rescue now. He walked back into the room shutting the door with a slam behind him. Raven must have seen the look of confusion on her face before giving a dry chuckle out loud.

"Blake's smart Clarke. He knows you wouldn't have come all this way at this time of night just to fuck us over."

"How does he know that? What if I am? If he knew that I wouldn't fuck you over, why did he give me shit just now?" The questions rolling off her tongue before she can stop herself.

"Are you trying to fuck us over?"

"No."

"Okay then, follow me."

The run-down of the place seemed simple enough, at first. The rules or 'guidelines' as Raven called them, claiming there are no rules in Skicru, included: doing what is expected of you meaning that if you're a guard then you follow your duties, if you're a mechanic then you continue building, fixing, installing whatever it is you needed to do, and if you're the medic you tend to people's wounds and injuries, keeping whatever information being exchange in the Dropship to yourself not even whispering about it to anyone else in the crew, and lastly, stay out of Bellamy Blake's way. His word is final, and his orders are what you follow, no matter what.

Clarke had nodded to every word that left Raven's lips, even when she wasn't sure she'd be able to follow the rule-guideline- about staying out of Bellamy's way. She had only talked to him for about a minute but even then she knew that their paths would cross again and in the same fashion it did tonight, hostile and uninviting.