Chapter Text
Clarke lay on the hard metal table in the sterile underground lab and tried not to wince at the glaring lights that were making the pounding in her head worse. Well, the lights and the unending chatter from the other, more annoying, blonde in the room.
“I’m telling you now, this is going to end badly if you try to remove me. I can’t believe you’re so self-absorbed that you’d let Bellamy get his family killed just to save someone who was happy to die a few days ago.” Josephine snapped as she paced back and forth in the corner furthest away from Gabriel, who she was trying to pretend she wasn’t staring at.
Clarke had been dizzy and disorientated when she crashed the bike, Josephine’s demands to have control back so they could go back to Sanctum ignored as Clarke tried to stop the trees from spinning. She was still out of it when Gabriel and Octavia had found her on their own bikes, but she was lucid enough to quickly tell Octavia about Bellamy being alone in the woods trying to catch-up with both the children of Gabriel and the soldiers from Sanctum after him. Octavia hadn’t even hesitated before re-mounting her bike and going to find her brother, leaving Clarke to be the very awkward third wheel between Josephine who was trying to pretend to be unaffected by Gabriel and Gabriel who was pretending not to hear Clarke’s side of her and Josephine’s ‘conversations’ which consisted mainly of Josephine trying to find a way for Clarke to give her back control and getting annoyed when Clarke mostly ignored her.
Clarke fought the heaviness of her limbs as she tried to stay still while Gabriel looked at the information the contraption on her head was sending him.
“By the looks of this, you have a couple of hours at most before you-“
“Have a stroke and my brain starts haemorrhaging, yeah she may have mentioned that.” Clarke said with a sigh as Josephine sent her a smug look and went back to pacing.
“If you’re seeing a physical manifestation of her, we have even less time.” Gabriel muttered.
“Give me control or tell him about the EMP. It’s the only way any part of you survives. You need to do what’s best for your people, and this isn’t it!” Josephine said convincingly, but Clarke knew too much about Josephine now to buy into anything she said.
“No. Monty was right, making deals with people who sacrifice infants to the forest to ‘purify’ the bloodline and dress it up as an offering to the gods isn’t doing better.” Clarke spat angrily but Josephine just rolled her eyes.
“Why is Clarke yelling at the air?” Clarke’s head spun towards the doorway where Bellamy was moving as swiftly as his still injured leg could carry him towards her and Gabriel, ignoring his sisters question as he assessed Gabriel’s threat level.
“I was yelling at Josephine, actually, the wall between our minds is pretty much non-existent at this point so I can see her now, which is even less fun as it sounds.” Clarke said to Octavia, though her eyes were too busy giving Bellamy a once over for any new injuries.
“Good to see you’re still in control.” Bellamy said softly, a small relieved smile crossed his face briefly before he gently leaned forward and cleaned up the small trickle of blood coming from her nose with his already stained sleave.
“For now, anyway. As soon as I fall asleep or pass out, she’ll take control again and then she’ll try to get back to Sanctum so they can kill me and give her control permanently and trust me, I’ve seen a lot of her memories and her being in control is bad for her people, not just ours.” Clarke
“Like I was explaining to Clarke, seeing Josie when she’s awake means she has a couple of hours at most before she-“ Gabriel started to say, Bellamy still watching him with distrust, even as Octavia went to stand beside him.
“Before I die. Yes, you mentioned.” Clarke finished quickly, trying to ignore Bellamy’s wince at the word die but had to try and figure out a larger plan.
“So just take out the mind-drive already, what’s the problem?” Octavia asked, looking between Gabriel and Clarke for clarification.
“The problem is that removing my mind-drive is tantamount to killing me, and no matter our differences Gabriel isn’t capable of hurting me.” Josephine said calmly, but Clarke saw through the bravado to the fear underneath. Josephine had said it herself, Gabriel and his people had spent the last 70 years trying to wipe-out the Primes and here was his opportunity to wipe out the worst of them. The question wasn’t if he could do it, it was whether or not he’d let Bellamy go through with his plan to use Josephine as a bargaining chip to make a deal with Sanctum.
“The problem is taking out the mind-drive is going to leave me out of it while my mind reassimilates and I’d rather have a plan in place on what to do next before that happens.” Clarke said with a sih, knowing that this would be the start of a verbal battle she was really too tired to wage with Bellamy when she could barely keep her eyes open.
“WE already have a plan Clarke; we take out the mind-drive, we use it to bargain for our people’s release and resources to create our own compound.” Bellamy said firmly, clenching his jaw as Clarke shook her head and then winced from the pain.
“Did you miss the part where I said ‘sacrifice infants to the forest to ‘purify’ the bloodline and dress it up as an offering to the gods’ and that’s not even mentioning that they erase people’s minds to use Nightbloods as glorified meat suits.” Clarke pointed at her own head in example. “Monty was right, giving in to people who murder human beings to live forever isn’t doing better.” Bellamy reared back as if she’d slapped him.
“Bringing Monty into this isn’t…” Bellamy bit off before looking away briefly and shaking his head to clear it before looking back at her. “We don’t know what Monty would think of this but he might think differently if he knew his son was a prisoner of the people who you want to go to war with.”
“You really think I want war? Look, all I know is that giving up wasn’t doing better. That giving into the Prime’s isn’t doing better. Doing the wrong thing isn’t what’s best.” Clarke looked at Bellamy, who was looking away from her with his jaw clenched.
“What do you mean ‘giving up isn’t doing better’?” Clarke froze at Octavia’s question as Bellamy’s head whipped around to look at her oddly.
“We don’t have time for this, your brain is deteriorating at an accelerated rate. I can take Josie’s mind-drive out but I won’t let you use it as a literal bargaining chip. The Primes have been manipulating the people of Sanctum for too long. Between murdering hosts and giving Nulls to the forest, they’ve killed hundreds and it has to end.” Gabriel stated firmly before looking at Clarke in question. “What I can’t understand is how your mind was able to survive the erasing serum.”
“I have neural mesh in my brain from when…” Clarke trailed off as an idea briefly flittered through her mind and she worked hard to grip it firmly until it took hold.
Bellamy grabbed her hand gently, worry clouding his face as Clarke started to mutter to herself. “It can’t be that simple.”
“What can’t be that simple?” Octavia asked in frustration as they all drew closer to Clarke, who seemed to be struggling to focus.
Clarke’s vision was starting to get dark around the edges, but the beginnings of a plan; a crazy, could never possibly work in a thousand years, plan began to form and she needed to tell Bellamy before she lost hold of either it or her control on her body.
Clarke squeezed the hand that Bellamy had grabbed in fear and tried to find him in the encroaching darkness. She tried to speak, but it came out muffled. Clarke huffed in frustration so Bellamy moved closer. Clarke spoke slowly, enunciating each word carefully before fading into the darkness and losing consciousness.
Bellamy straightened quickly in shock, Clarke’s limp hand still firmly in his as her words tumbled through his head. Bellamy didn’t know if Clarke’s idea was brilliant or just the product of her mind breaking down but now that she’d said it, he couldn’t help but agree with her that it could be what saved them all. If they could make it happen.
“What did she say?” Bellamy looked over to his sister, who was looking between him and Clarke with worry just below the surface of her frustration. He opened his mouth and closed it a few times before he let out a bark of laughter and voiced Clarke’s crazy idea.
“She said to send the Prime’s to the City of Light.”