Lightning Only Strikes Once - Clexa

Chapter 11: Extreme U-hauling

Clarke's not sure if she should find the quiet crowd of Trikru behind her ominous or comforting. They wait at the edge of the drop ship's clearing as her, Bellamy, Octavia, Finn and Wells continue to stagger towards the others. Lexa at their head (looking dangerous even standing perfectly still) helps her relax, but Anya's judgemental stare from beside her goes a long way towards negating that.

Several of the delinquents look on the verge of fleeing – either out into the forest or into the drop ship to try and fortify it. "It's all right," Clarke calls out, her exhaustion colouring her words. It's her fault, really – it's late at night now, and between the bunker and trekking all around the area she didn't exactly get a good night's sleep last night. "They're not here to hurt us, I promise."

Bellamy throws a derisive glance her way, but doesn't disagree. Whether or not he thinks the Trikru are dangerous, he's not so stupid as to incite their meagre population against the army of warriors behind them. "Yeah. Everyone out here, now."

The people hidden in the drop ship come out in twos or threes, visibly hesitant, but eventually the clearing fills.

"What's happening?" whimpers Charlotte, her voice grating on Clarke's tired ears.

Bellamy smiles at her, however. "Hey, hey, it's fine, didn't I just say? Come on, kid, what happened to slaying those demons?" He pats her head like she's a much younger child and she huddles into his side.

"Clarke, you're back," Monty gives her a genuine smile, nearly displacing the worry on his face for a split second. "With a lot of people."

"Yeah," Jasper says a little shakily. "A lot." He stares at them worriedly but then forces his usual carefree grin. "Some of them are warrior women. Do you think they like nerds?"

Clarke's just grateful he lowered his voice, because she has no idea how Lexa's people would react to that one. But the joke does seem to lower the tension a bit as several of the other guys chuckle. "Listen up, everyone," she says firmly. "These are the Trikru. The woman in the front is the Heda, which is their word for Commander. She's in charge of – well, basically as far as we could go in nearly every direction." The crowd begins to murmur to each other, quiet expressions of panic overlapping throughout the group.

"What's she doing here?" Miller says.

"She wants to offer us a home," Clarke says simply.

It's the first time anyone but Clarke has heard exactly what's going on, since she hadn't filled the others in on the way and they hadn't pressed her while they were surrounded by Grounders. She'd just said it would be fine, and Wells at least had believed her, she wasn't sure about the others.

"We have a home," Wells objects, looking at her like she's gone insane.

"Some of us do," Murphy says sourly.

"The Ark will come down eventually, we can't just take off from here," Wells continues, ignoring Murphy. "They won't be able to find us."

Now the hubbub of conversation rose as everyone started arguing – some saying the Ark wasn't coming down, others wishing it wouldn't, some panicking about where to go.

"Quiet," Clarke says, raising her voice. "I have no intention of leaving the Ark not knowing where we are. The Heda says we can leave several people at a nearby town just in case Pascal, Trina and Atom turn up, and they can keep an eye out for any messages as well. This is just so we have beds to sleep in and food to eat so we survive long enough for that to matter. If – when – they do come down, she also says we'll be free to either stay in the Grounder capital Polis or to come rejoin our people. Our choice."