Work Text:
“Gather around children.”
“It’s the 73rd Unity Day of Earth. We will start the celebration with the story of the very first Sky People.”
The children all huddled up and sat next to the fire and the old man sat down, on a log, in front of them all.
The story begins after the fall of human civilization on Earth, on an Ark in orbit of space. We all refer to the people of the Ark as the Sky People, now.
The Ark was united from several different space stations that were created to save humanity from the Nuclear wars and fallout on Earth, to extend the existence of the human race. Many colonies came together after many wars in Space to form The Ark. Bringing us the first Unity Day, the very first of many.
After many years of peace, The Ark was in danger. The oxygen systems were failing. The leaders desperately needed a way to save all the people.
The Chancellor and the Council thought of a way. The way was risky and they didn't want to kill everyone. Knowledge requires experimentation, requires sacrifice.
They hatched a plan to send 100 delinquents down to the Ground. A plan they called The Hundred. The Hundred delinquents already sentenced to be floated, to death, on their 18th birthdays.
They sent them down to Earth, to die or survive, with full pardon.
That plan didn't even go as they planned, nothing really ever did for the Adults.
The Adults is how the delinquents referred to the leaders of the Ark.
Now this is where the real story begins. An epic story of loss, tragedy, battles, sacrifice, horror, eventual peace and love.
One Hundred and One, all under the age of eighteen, except one.
Bellamy Blake, a 23 year old fighting to protect his sister, Octavia, was the only one that wasn't supposed to be on the Dropship. He had shot the Chancellor of the Ark and ran to be there with her, to make sure she was safe. Always the protector.
Bellamy became one of the leaders of The Hundred.
He was a strong and rebellious. He was a janitor on the Ark before he landed on Earth. His sister, Octavia, was all he had left. He is known as the Rebel King, the heart. His hair was chestnut brown, curly and shiny. His face was scattered with freckles.
He had once taken leadership by himself. He had taken bracelets off the kids so the Ark wouldn't come down. Selfishly trying to save his own skin. He also was indirectly responsible for three hundred deaths on the Ark because he took a radio that was needed for the communication with the Ark. He thought with his heart. His ultimate goal was to protect his sister.
The ground changed him, well it did all The Hundred, but him more than most.
“One of the leaders?” A boy of about twelve asked the older man. The man nodded his head, one blue eye glowing, and the other brown eye dark as chocolate in the firelight.
The other leader of The Hundred was 17 year old, Clarke Griffin. She was the princess, a few called her after they landed, because she was one of the ‘privileged’. She ended up being known as Brave Princess. She was strong, brave, smart, and the brain. Her hair was bright, the color of the sun. Her eyes were as blue as the clear ocean.
Clarke and Bellamy clashed from the beginning. They each wanted something different at first. Bellamy wanted ‘Whatever the hell we want’ and she wanted rules with moral.
“How did they become the leaders? He had shot the Chancellor and she must have had enemies for her status.” This time a little blonde girl spoke.
“At first, yes, Cynthia.” The old man replied. “But, it didn’t take long for her to make her own reputation on Earth. To show them what she was capable of. He also showed he was no monster, and he was pardoned, too.”
The Chancellor didn't perish and the Ark was broken apart in the Earths atmosphere as it was sent to the Ground.
Clarke had been trained with her mother, which was a doctor. She became their healer, of sorts. In many ways she healed Bellamy.
He was their militant protector. He provided training for them to survive the ground with weapons, since he was going to be on the Guard once, before his sister was imprisoned.
A war was on their horizon and they had to do everything in their power to either stop the war or survive it. They didn't want anyone else to die.
Bellamy wanted to stay and fight for their new home but Clarke wanted to go to the sea to find allies and settle.
They had to fight. The Grounders were faster than they knew.
In the Battle of the Grounders they lost many of their people. Clarke even thought she had lost Bellamy when she was forced to close the Dropship door and fire the rockets, to save most of the kids. She had made the decision to close the door on her co leader for the good of the others.
When the doors were open, the Mountain Men kidnapped the 48 that remained, including the Brave Princess.
The Mountain Men circulated irradiated blood through the young criminals of the Ark. They created horrible guards called Reapers and were, all in all, evil scientists trying to make everyone's lives hell to be able to walk on the Ground. They couldn't walk the Earth surface themselves because the radiation would kill them.
The Grounders and Arkers were immune to the radiation due to where they had lived during the years after the fallout. Arkers in space had solar radiation and the Grounders had the surface.
Clarke struggled against Mount Weather and the decision she had made to leave Bellamy to die. She needed him more than anyone, he was her Knight, she was his Princess. She ended up escaping the Mountain to be, once again, reunited with Bellamy. At which point they had already taken on parts of the other within themselves, changing for the better. Becoming stronger.
“Were they relieved to be reunited?” Another child asked. The old man smiled and replied, “Yes, they were both happy the other was alive. They were happy to see that so many were alive.” The child questioned again, “Were they friends yet?” He laughed to himself. “Oh, yes. But they were so much more than that. They were also leaders and they were partners.”
There was still battles to be waged and wars to be won. Before either of them could get their people, who had became their friends. They had to argue with the Adults who had came down. They had to get their roles back. They had to show them that they knew more of the Ground and Grounders than the Adults.
Clarke was brilliant, she had figured out a way to stop the impending war with the Grounders by turning Reapers back to men. She had a success with Lincoln, a Grounder Healer that Bellamys sister Octavia had fallen in love with. Reapers had captured him and taken him to Mount Weather, where they turned him into one in return.
Clarke had fallen in love with Spacewalker, Finn. A boy who was later condemned to die, because of a massacre he committed against a small group of unarmed Grounders, for a treaty to be formed with the Commander of the Grounders.
“What did he do?” The little girl that the man referred to as Cynthia asked. He lowered his head in reply, “He shot eighteen unarmed civilian Grounders in their camp because he thought they had taken his people. War, ultimately, drove him to the edge of sanity, like it does most soldiers in times of war.”
Finn gave himself up in the ultimate sacrifice, to save every one of his people.
The truce was formed and a treaty was signed.
After the formation, the Grounders and Guards of the Ark alike, stormed Mount Weather, bringing it to its knees.
Several more people were killed in the Raid to the Mountain. Arkers and Grounders fought side by side and died side by side.
All of the remaining hundred were returned to Camp Jaha.
Clarke and Bellamys relationship was that of the Knight and Princess, though they were equal leaders. They had grown to rely and depend on one another. More than they could admit, at first. They needed one another more than anyone had needed anyone in their lives. They had to lead, to be good leader that their people could trust and follow. Their bond was strong. Some say, it was one of the strongest bonds that could happen between two people.
As the Knight usually does, Bellamy had fallen in love with Clarke, even before the first Grounder attack, but she was in love with Finn and he didn't think he could ever deserve her. Their partnership meant more to him than anything. After Finns death, he couldn't bring himself to tell her. She mourned for over a year. He still continued to love her with all the passion of his heart, like a sun going supernova.
Two years after the Raid, the remaining delinquents and dozens of other young adults seceded from Ark control. They were lead by none other than Clarke Griffin, Brave Princess, and Bellamy Blake, Rebel King.
They came together to rebuild and form an equal society, where everyone had a vote and all status quo were annihilated.
They had been through so much. The Battle of the Grounders, Mount Weather, the death of so many friends. Through it all they stood together, leading their people.
That is how Camp Freedom was founded. That is how our home was created.
“So what happened with Bellamy and Clarke? Did they ever fall in love?” Cynthia, asked her grandfather. The man reached into his pocket and pulled out a watch and smiled. “Woah! Look at the time. Its past ten. I don't want your parents to be mad at me. Scatter off little ones. Happy Unity Day!!” The children all gave moans and groans of dissatisfaction and scurried in all directions around camp, back to their homes. He turned the watch over in his hand.
It had an inscription carved into the back which read. Property of Clarke Griffin Blake.