Chapter Text
Chapter One – The Volunteer
It was a cool day outside, but inside the wreckage of the Ark it was stifling. The air circulation system only worked a portion of the time and now was one of those times where it was not. Clarke and Bellamy stood, silent and still outside the door to the makeshift meeting room where the Council was discussing what their next steps of action would be. Bellamy and Clarke stared at each other as they eavesdropped, Clarke’s features hard and determined while Bellamy seemed to be trying to convey how bad of an idea this was.
“Clarke told us that the unit leader, Anya, indicated that the 100 started a war.” Jaha’s voice was incredulous as he paced close to the door.
“We should have never sent a bunch of juvenile delinquents down on our behalf.” Kane cursed. Abby’s choppy, disbelieving laugh echoed through the broken metal of the door Clarke had her ear pressed against.
“We didn’t send them down on our behalf.” She scoffed. “We sacrificed them as lab rats to see if the earth was inhabitable; we didn’t know there were people down here.”
“The point is, how do we finish what they started.” Jaha murmured. Clarke rolled her eyes. Bellamy held his hand up for her to stay quiet.
“We cannot win a war. Even with the technology we have, even with the weapons we have. They outnumber us. They know this land. They have all the advantage.” Clarke leaned back and lined her eye up with a crack to peek into the room. Her mother was sitting next to Kane, back ramrod straight and her brows furrowed. She looked like she had aged ten years in the past month.
“What if we could offer something?” She asked.
“What do you suggest?” He asked. “You think they’d go for our medicine or our tech?” Clarke watched her mother shake her head.
“I think we have something they want even more.” She inhaled. “We have thirty Omegas in this camp.” She said. Clarke sucked in a sharp intake of breath.
“Abby, are you suggesting we barter for peace with people?” Jaha froze midstride.
“How many people are you proposing to sacrifice this time?” Kane asked. “Are you going to ask for volunteers or will there be a draft? Come on, this is ridiculous.”
“Kane, the kids told us how shocked that unit leader was when Clarke stepped forward as the leader. They haven’t seen an Omega in a position of power. She said that Anya told her that Omega’s are rare on the ground.”
“So, what is your plan?” Kane snapped. “We sacrifice twenty women to become slaves and submit to the enemy?”
The door slammed open and the three council members whipped their attention to where Clarke had rushed into the room. Bellamy stood behind her with panicked eyes, wishing he could draw back behind cover again.
“How about just one?” Clarke’s voice was rushed.
“What the hell, Clarke?” Bellamy and Abby said at the same time.
“Send me. I am the ‘Omega Leader’ of the hundred. Offer me as the olive branch to their Commander.” She stood before the three adults proudly. She wouldn’t let dozens of other women be sent to the Grounders against their will.
“Clarke, you think you alone would be enough?” Kane asked and Abby’s eyes darted between him and her daughter.
“Absolutely not!” She pushed herself up from the table. “I can’t believe we’re even discussing this.”
“Oh, but it was okay when it was thirty other women?”
“This is out of the question!”
“I think this could work.” Jaha finally said. “Abby, remove the implant and bring Clarke back here so we can prepare her for her meeting with the Commander.” He ordered. Abby stared at him slack jawed.
“Sir.”
“If you won’t, I’ll have Jackson do it.” He gave her a stern glare and she rounded on Clarke, grabbing her arm and yanking her from the room.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” She barked.
“What I need to do in order to end this war.” Her mother’s fingers clutched her arm so hard her nails drew blood. She dug her feet into the ground and jerked her arm out of her grip. “You were willing for every Omega in our camp to go. But you don’t have to. Send one to save many.”
“You don’t know what you’re saying.” Abby stepped towards her and brushed her wheat gold hair behind her ear as she looked imploringly into her blue eyes. “You’ve never had to take the full brunt of Alpha pheromones before; even when an implant malfunctioned on the Ark, your senses have been dulled as well as your scent. You will be overwhelmed. You may lose control.” She said earnestly.
“I need to do what I can to stop any more people from dying.” Clarke blinked back tears.
“You’re just a kid, this is not your responsibility.”
“I stopped being a kid the day you sent me down here to die.” She said bitterly. Abby stepped back, staring at her daughter in hopeless shock. For a moment, time stood still. Then Abby inhaled deeply.
“Fine.” She led her into the med bay. Clarke climbed up onto the exam table.
“There’s a few things that haven’t been taught to you in your biology class” Abby started as she gathered the instruments.
“We don’t know if this Commander is male or female but it will generally be the same. If it is a woman and she enters her Rut, she will grow a penis so that she can impregnate you.” Clarke flushed faintly and averted her eyes from her mother. She stared hard at the floor picking at her fingernails in her lap.
“You don’t know what you’re getting yourself into.” Abby set a scalpel and forceps on a metal tray a little too hard, the metallic clanking noise drawing Clarke’s attention back to her. “The Ark created the implant because our biology makes us behave more like animals than people.” Her voice was pleading, begging her daughter to see reason and forget the whole idea, but Clarke’s eyes grew cold, her face set.
“It doesn’t matter what I’m getting myself into. It matters if I keep people safe.” Her hands balled into fists.
“Hold your arm out.” Abby instructed. Clarke tilted her elbow so that her mother had clear access to the back of her right arm. Abby move behind her with a syringe in her hand.
“This is just a local anesthetic.” Clarke nodded as she felt the pinch in her arm. Abby sidled over to the instruments slowly, hoping to delay the act as long as possible to give her the chance to change her mind.
“Just get on with it, already.” Clarke snapped. Abby startled at the corrosive tone her voice dripped with. She moved back behind her and made a small incision before grabbing the forceps and pulling the implant out. Her daughter’s implant was made specifically for Omegas. It prevented her heat from starting, it kept her scent weak and it acted as birth control. Abby dropped the implant on the tray in front of Clarke with a brassy clink and the blonde’s eyes flicked to it while she worried her bottom lip between her teeth.
“You should start to feel the effects immediately.” Abby began bandaging her arm. “Omega hormones are very strong. It’ll be a few hours before the full force builds up but we cannot wait too long before getting you to the Commander. The Alpha’s around here give off very subtle pheromones but since you’ve never had one before, it might jumpstart your heat.” Abby sighed, keeping her tone clinical and detached. “Your heat can last anywhere from three to seven days. It will sync up with the Alpha that claims you but if you go unclaimed it will run its course naturally.” She moved around to face Clarke. “To claim you, an Alpha will bite the scent gland on your neck hard enough to draw blood. His or her saliva needs to get into the gland. It will alter your scent to show you belong to them.” Already Abby could tell that Clarke’s pheromones were stronger. She bristled and clamped down on the parental need to protect her daughter.
“You don’t have to do this, Clarke.”
Clarke met her mother’s eyes.
“Yes, I do.”
Abby and Clarke returned to the meeting room. Jaha and Kane sat at the table talking under their breath, stopping when the mother and daughter entered the room.
“Abby, Kane; I would like to speak to Clarke alone.”
“Chancelor, I am her mother. Anything you say to her can be said in my presence.”
“This isn’t really a conversation her mother should hear.” Jaha leveled her with a stare as he stood from his chair. “Now, please, give us the room.” He gestured to the door. Abby considered arguing more for her right to be Clarke’s mother for just a little while longer before throwing her to the wolves. Clarke turned and met her eyes.
“Go.” Her heart broke at the defeat in Clarke’s eyes and she let Kane guide her from the room.
“Clarke, first of all, I want to thank you for the sacrifice you are making for your people. I cannot express the gratitude we have for you.” Jaha neared her. “I must make myself very clear; however, even if this Commander does not accept our offer for peace,” he paused for a moment looking over Clarke, “this must be beneficial for our people, one way or another.”
“I don’t understand.” Clarke’s brows furrowed.
“If Omegas are as rare as you say; your attendance in Polis alone may be enough to spark dissonance. You may be able to tempt enough Alphas that as the Commander she may have to weaken her guard to keep you safe.”
“Why would she keep me safe?” Clarke was puzzled and everything Jaha said only lead to more confusion.
“It is her responsibility as Commander to keep her people in line. I’m hoping that taking an Omega against her will would be something even these people frown upon.” It clicked suddenly and Clarke narrowed her eyes.
“And if it’s not.”
“You are to do whatever it takes to make sure your people come out stronger.” He stood in front of her, Clarke was only a couple inches shorter than Jaha and yet somehow she felt like she was three feet tall as he glared down at her. Jaha took a breath and stepped away from the Omega.
“May we meet again, Clarke.”
Clarke stared at him with fire in her eyes and kept her mouth shut.
Abby, Bellamy and Clarke had been walking for hours. Clarke had made a big deal about going to Polis alone but Abby made an even bigger deal about Clarke not going alone as an Omega in a world of Alphas. In the end, Abby won out and Clarke conceded to only her mother and friend coming along. Abby could see the city of Polis ahead, they were close.
“Mom, I don’t feel so good.” Clarke’s worried voice sounded behind her. Abby stopped walking and turned around. Her heart dropped to her stomach. Clarke had peeled off her jacket and tied it around her waist. A deep flush had started on her chest and moved up to her neck and cheeks. Abby pressed her hand against Clarke’s clammy forehead. “Shit, I thought we’d have more time.”
Bellamy jogged forward from his position in the back; keeping an eye on their surroundings. “Is she alright?” Abby glanced over her shoulder in the direction they had been heading; it wasn’t too much farther. She turned back to Clarke. She pressed her daughter’s wrists together, rubbing one against the other.
“Do this, you have scent glands in your wrists. Rubbing them together can help with the burn of your heat; for a little while, at least.” She faced Bellamy. “Come on, we need to hurry.” They picked up their pace, Bellamy falling to the back again.
“I thought we only had the gland in our neck?” Clarke questioned focusing on her wrists. She needed something to distract her from the uncomfortable feeling growing in her lower abdomen.
Abby shook her head. “You have the ones in your wrists, one in your neck and as an Omega you have two in your thighs.” She responded. Clarke swallowed hard; she couldn’t see the glands on her wrists but she could feel a slight relief when she rubbed them together in the right spot. Like she was slapping a bug bite to quell the itch without full on scratching.
“I feel like I’m going into this blind.” Clarke looked at the back of her mom’s head. Abby sighed.
“This was never meant to be something you needed to be prepared for.” Abby answered grimly.
Clarke was letting out a low whine under her breath. She was trying very hard to press on unfazed but her skin felt hot and she was covered in a thin sheen of sweat. The autumn sun beat down on her bare neck and she would give anything for a cool breeze to shift through the trees. She had pulled her hair back so that it was off her shoulders and she was tugging at her shirt to keep it from sticking to her damp skin. She fidgeted; her wrists raw from being rubbed together so aggressively. It wasn’t helping anymore. She stared up at the building that rose from the remains of the once booming city center. She had never seen something so enormous; even the Ark that had crashed into the Earth’s surface was only a portion of the size. She stopped walking and took a deep breath.
“Mom.”
Abby turned around and faced her, concern etched into the lines on her face.
“I need to go the rest of the way alone.” She stated, determined.
“Like hell you do, Clarke, you’re about two maybe three hours away from your heat starting in earnest and then you’ll really be heatsick. Cramps, fever, nausea, incoherence; you may be unable to control yourself. You think I’m just going to let you wander the city in search of the Commander?” She snapped. Clarke sighed heavily; she could feel the anger from her mother but the pheromones that rolled off her in waves were filled with fear as well.
“I’ll be okay. I know what I’m doing and I need you to return to camp. Both of you.” She turned to Bellamy as the boy joined them. He clutched the gun to his chest wearily.
“You can’t protect me in there. I need to do this alone. Your presence will be seen as a threat or a challenge and that’s the last thing we need.” Clarke shivered as she felt a drop of sweat roll down the expanse of her back.
“I can’t just leave you here.”
“Just remember how you sent me down to Earth and sacrifice me again.” Clarke turned to her mother, her eyes burning and the irritation growing from her heat blooming the longer her mother tried to argue with her.
“Bellamy, I need you to take my mother back to camp.” She directed her gaze towards the male Alpha. He swallowed and gave her a stiff nod.
“I will return to you either at the end of my heat with the news that the Commander has accepted our peace offering or before with a declaration of war.” She unbuckled the watch on her arm, it was slightly too big for her and she had pushed it half up her arm while she was chafing her wrists together. She held it out to her mother.
“Keep dad’s watch safe for me. I’ll get it back from you when I return.” Clarke said. It was her way of promising that she would come back. Abby’s eyes welled with tears but she nodded, taking the watch and clutching it tightly in her hand.
“Be careful, Clarke.” She pulled her forward into a hug. Clarke held back her own tears and buried her face in her mother’s neck; the maternal scent soothed her. She stepped back and stared at Bellamy with hesitation.
“I’ll make sure to get your mother back safely.” He told her. He made no motion to get closer to her; aware that his presence had an effect on the Omega. Clarke glanced over them once more before she turned on her heel and began walking into Polis.
Clarke picked up her pace the closer she got to the tower; she could scent the Alpha’s around the crumbling city and her pulse raced in her neck, her fear mounting. She was not so far gone into her heat that she could want to be taken by a strange Alpha just to fulfill the ache between her legs. However, the discomfort was building and the hollow emptiness she felt in her lower abdomen had her clutching her belly. She hoped that the Commander would accept the peace offering and claim her because she didn’t know how she would return to the camp while she was in the throes of her heat. She reached the doors to the tower as the sun had started its descent in the sky. It was not yet dark; but it would be soon.
Two adolescent Alpha’s stood guard at the base of the steps. They spoke in a language Clarke didn’t understand and their tone was joking. That was until Clarke stepped forward and the Alpha closest to her tilted his head and sniffed the air. The corner of his mouth turned up and he turned slowly to face her. They were young based on their features but they towered over Clarke; these Alpha’s were much larger than the ones on the Ark. They had been allowed the full range of their hormones to develop their physical attributes. Clarke froze.
“Chit do osir don hir?” The one who was farthest from Clarke gestured to her but he was talking to the other Alpha. What do we have here?
“Ah” the other sighed; his predatory grin growing dark, “a groun dina, en ai laik enti.”Clarke didn’t know what they were saying but the body language and the pheromones they were throwing at her were causing her to shake with fear. An attractive meal, and I am hungry.
“I’m here –”
“Ah, she speaks the language of the warriors.” The Alpha nearest to her cut her off and stepped closer to her. He was so close to her and she felt overtaken by his pheromones. She sank to her knees, her head bowed; she didn’t know why and she didn’t know how to stop. He grinned down at her.
Suddenly, Clarke’s head cleared as the Alpha was thrown back several feet and she glanced up to see the other Alpha kneeling in front of a small but sturdy Alpha with battle scars and dark tattoos on her face.
“Chit ste mana gon disha?” The woman snapped her hand resting on the grip of the sword at her hip. What is the meaning of this?
“This Omega just walked up and presented herself.” The young Alpha stuttered. The woman’s harsh gaze fell onto Clarke and she shrank back onto her heels. She couldn’t remember how she ended up on the ground. She pressed up and stood tall facing the stronger Alpha.
“I did not!” She snapped offended. “I am here as peace offering to the Commander from the Sky People.” She spoke in a clear voice despite the ache in her belly. The Alpha pheromones around her were stronger than she had ever scented before. It was like she had grown up and spent her whole life breathing through a mask. The woman tilted her head back and glared at Clarke down the bridge of her nose.
“The Commander does not accept. You might as well turn back now before you get hurt.” The Alpha responded and readied to leave.
“No!” Clarke burst. The woman glanced out the corner of her eye.
“I’m not leaving until I speak with your Commander.”
The fierce woman faced her fully, leveling her with a pointed stare and tutted. She turned to the young girl who stood at her side.
“Inform the Commander that there is an Omega here offering herself in exchange for peace. That she will not leave until she speaks with Heda.” The girl nodded and scampered off into the building.
“Very well, but only because an unclaimed, unmated Omega simply cannot be left standing on the streets of Polis unaccompanied.” She glanced around. “Where is your escort?”
“I came alone.”
“Doubly foolish, then.” The woman inclined her head to invite her to follow as she entered the building. Clarke took a deep breath and steeled her nerves as she entered the crumbling infrastructure.