Several days had passed since the hundred landed on the ground. Rory Kane, along with the ninety-nine other kids were incredibly confused the morning the guards woke them a half hour early. One by one they lined up down the halls of cell block, waiting anxiously for whatever was coming. Rumours began to spread down the line; that they were being executed to save oxygen, that they were being put to work to repair the Ark, that they were being freed. None of which were true.

As Rory slowly approached the end of the line, she poked her head to the side. She saw a table with a couple of large black boxes on it, and a plethora of guards around it. Soon enough she was next in line. The guard sitting at the table extended a hand, expecting something. Rory stared at her with confusion. Obviously frustrated, the guard reached her hand out further.

"Your wrist," she demanded, as if that was obvious. Rory gingerly placed her left wrist in the guard's palm. The guard reached into the box to her right and pulled out what looked like a very strange wristwatch. Before Rory had the chance to react, the guard snapped the watch onto her arm. It made a click sound as it closed and Rory felt a sharp jab in her skin.

"Ow!" she exclaimed. She held her arm to her torso while choking back tears. Another guard escorted her onto what she would soon learn to be the dropship. She never even got to say goodbye to her father.

...

Rory remembered the feeling of touching the ground for the first time. The fresh air was slightly damp and smelled so sweet. The trees were greener than she could have ever imagined. But what really shocked Rory were the sounds. Earth was so...quiet. On the Ark there was a constant rumble of machinery and air purifiers. And don't be fooled, Earth was still noisy. But they were the noises of life. Branches rustling against each other in the wind, the crunch of sticks and leaves underneath feet, the flapping of a birds' wings. Rory didn't think she would ever get used to this. She didn't want to. She wanted to feel that way forever.

Low and behold, that feeling lasted all of two minutes. Earth became terrifying. Two kids had died during the impact of the crash. Octavia returned from her adventures with an injured leg and Jasper had taken a spear to the chest. Almost all of the hundred were older than her, with rougher edges and handmade weapons. John Murphy was one of the biggest bullies in the group, and he had taken up being second in command. Second only to her own brother, Bellamy.

She had no idea how Bellamy had managed to get himself onto the dropship. She hadn't worked up the courage to ask yet. But truth be told, part of her wished he never came down at all because he was so different down here. The Bellamy she grew up with was gentle. Kind. Never raised his voice. Could never hurt a fly. He was the one who made sure she got to classes on time and played tea party with her after dinner when their father was too busy working. And on top of all that, he made sure his mother and Octavia were fed, loved, and safe. He was everything to everyone, even if he had to keep his two favourite people a secret.

But on Earth, he was brutal. Mean. Destructive. With Murphy's help, Bellamy led the camp through fear mongering. And he became ridiculously overprotective. Rory was to stay in his sight at all times, and if he was off hunting she had to stay in the dropship. Rory began to wonder if this is who he was when he wasn't around her.

Bellamy's current control tactic was forcing people to take their wristbands off in exchange for food. Rory wasn't an idiot, she knew that the wristbands must transmit signals back to the Ark. Vitals maybe, possibly other means of communication. And Bellamy wanted to destroy that. Rory felt so conflicted. She trusted that Bellamy was doing the right thing, but at the same time she didn't want her father thinking she was dead.

Rory squinted in the darkness, just able to make out the faces of her fellow delinquents in the light of the fire that roared. A large animal, some sort of pig, was roasting between two sticks over the fire. Murphy and another boy were positioned by a tree stump at the front of the food line, using metal scraps to pry wristbands off. It looked painful. Rory took a deep breath. She slipped past the crowd to get a piece of meat off the animal. Nobody noticed her. That was the nice thing about being Aurora Kane. No one knew who she really was, and nobody cared about who they thought she was. For her whole life, she was the Vice Chancellor's perfect daughter. It was easy to be invisible when no one bothered to get to know you.

She sauntered over to where Bellamy was standing, overseeing the wristband destruction. Silently, she handed him a piece of meat off her portion. It was an absent-minded move, something she'd done on the Ark for years. Bellamy gently pushed her offering away.

"You don't have to do that anymore Rory. We've got everything we could ever need down here."

He was referring to Rory stealing food for him. She was about eight when she first realised that she and her brother lived very different lives. They were sitting at the same table in the dining hall. Rory never had to worry about going hungry. Up until that point, she was oblivious to the fact that Council members and their families had an upper hand in society. The ration on Rory's plate was a size and a half bigger than Bellamy's. Her father was in another overtime meeting, otherwise he would be the one sitting with Rory. It seemed like that was becoming the new normal. Rory pushed the mushy, artificially grown vegetables around with her fork.

"Eat your food Rory" Bellamy said, his own mouth full.

Rory knew that Bellamy always saved half his rations to give to his mother and Octavia. He told her as much. As she stared down at her ration of grey mush, she realised that he was not eating enough. There was no way that half of his already small rations was enough for a growing boy. That day forward, she started to steal. It was liberating to do the wrong thing. No one asked questions when the Vice Chancellor's daughter was wandering around storage rooms or "helping" in the kitchens. And it felt good to do something for her brother for once.

Her charades lasted two years. She got caught sneaking rations out of a storage room in the west end of the Ark. Her father's status couldn't help her this time. She was sent to cell block. And one could imagine the shock and horror Rory felt when just three days later, Octavia was pushed into the cell block rec room. Everyone stopped what they were doing to look at her. Most were confused, they had no idea who this girl was. But Rory knew. And she was old enough then to understand what it meant. Aurora Blake, her own namesake, must be dead. Bellamy was alone.

The flickering of the fire brought Rory back to the present. She caught Finn's eye as he pushed through the crowd of delinquents. He and the blonde girl - Clarke Griffin - took food without removing their wristbands. They were fighting for leadership with Bellamy. Finn looked down at Rory's wrist and gave her a friendly wink. A gesture of solidarity. Rory felt guilty, like she betrayed Bellamy all over again.

Another kid followed Finn in suit, disregarding Bellamy's rules. Before Rory had time to react, Bellamy had moved towards the kid. He grabbed their hand before they could get to the food and launched a jaw-cracking punch across the kid's face. Rory froze and looked at the scene in dismay. Bellamy kept telling her that the ground was safe, that he would keep her safe. She was starting to think he might be wrong.

...

Wells' death came as a surprise to everyone, but what was even more surprising was that he got killed by a little girl. The more time they spent on the ground, the more Rory was starting to lose faith in humanity altogether. She was never particularly close to Wells, but she frequently spent time with him when they were much younger. Both of their fathers had high positions in the Council, so they crossed paths a lot. Rory knew Wells was disliked by many of the hundred, Murphy especially. But there was no way to predict how out of hand this could get.

The mutiny was terrifying. Rory got squished among the crowd as they shouted and cheered for Murphy to die. A particular blonde pushed against the crowd near Rory, begging for Murphy's release. Her name was Anna, Anna murphy. The Ark had an exception to the one child rule when it came to twins. They were extraordinarily rare. Rory's head spun while she watched her brother kick the box underneath Murphy's feet. His body swung desperately in the air while he kicked and wrestled.

"Stop, just stop! Murphy didn't kill Wells, I did." Charlotte was only a year or two older than Rory herself. She had gotten closer to Bellamy in the last few days, which rubbed Rory the wrong way. Disbelief clouded Bellamy's face and his entire demeanour dropped. Anna ripped the hatchet attached to Bellamy's belt away from him and cut her brother down. He slumped onto the dirt.

Like it was instinct, Rory rushed to meet Murphy. She pulled the gag out of his mouth while Anna untied the rope around his neck. He was in survival mode, eyes wide with fear. Though his hands and feet were still tied, he pushed his body away from the girls.

"Its okay, you're okay" Anna said, brushing the damp hair out of his eyes.

"Help us get him to the dropship," Rory said, waving Finn over. He and Anna took Murphy under an arm each and hauled him back to the dropship. Rory did not follow. Instead, she was frozen to her spot crouched in the mud. Her eyes were beginning to brim with tears. She flinched when a hand on her back helped her rise to her feet. She met Bellamy's gaze and let him lead the way back inside the walls.

When Murphy decided to go after Charlotte, and Bellamy decided to go after Murphy, Rory was given strict instruction to stay in camp. No wandering, no helping, stay put. They waited for hours until Bellamy, Clarke, and the rest of that group finally returned. Clarke explained to the rest of the camp what had happened, and why they decided to banish Murphy. Anna Murphy walked right up to Bellamy and landed a slap across his face with a thwack. She uttered some choice words at him and stormed off into the darkness. Rory didn't think it was quite fair. Murphy was just seeking justice, wasn't he? He wanted revenge, that's a lot different June Bug , Bellamy would tell her later that night.

Rory found Anna sauntering around the outskirts of camp the next day. The Murphy twins had always frightened Rory when they were in cell block. They made quite an intimidating pair. Although, if Rory remembered correctly, it was mostly John. Anna was at least a little bit kinder.

"I'm sorry about your brother," Rory said plainly. Anna jumped at the surprise visitor and spun around quickly. Her defences lowered when she saw it was just Rory. "That must be hard."

"Like you'd know anything about it," Anna spat back. Rory chewed on her bottom lip, deciding if it was about time to let the curtains up.

"You landed a pretty good hit on mine so...I wouldn't blame you if you wanted to do it again."

"What are you talking about?" Anna sneered. She must have thought Rory was poking at her wounds or something. "People don't have brothers, are you crazy"

"You do"

"Yeah well, not anymore thanks to Bellamy. Just leave me alone." Anna walked back towards camp, making sure to push Rory with her side on her way. Rory was left standing alone feeling stupid. After the events of the last two days, Rory had taken to spending her time outside the camp walls. She had been a huge plant biology nerd on the Ark, spending all of her free time studying for her science classes. Once again, it was easy for her to disappear, to slip between the cracks in the walls and no one noticed.

Except for Bellamy of course, but she wasn't very concerned about him at the moment. Especially since he purposely ruined the radio Raven brought down, damaging their only possibility at seeing their families again. Which is why, when he came storming out to find her, she acted as if she didn't hear him coming.

"Rory what are you doing it isn't safe here," he said.

Rory did not turn to look at him. "Shouldn't you be helping raven solve all the problems you caused"

"What?" he asked. "Look, Rory, you don't understand. Just come with me." He reached for her arm but she pulled away.

"Stop it, leave me alone!" she shouted. Bellamy's eyebrows raised. Rory had never raised her voice at him before, and he was not prepared to take on the crazy pre-teen years on Earth.

"Why are you being such a brat?"

"I am not being a brat, I don't want to be around you right now, geez"

"Aurora I am not playing, get inside the camp. Now" Bellamy used her full name, so Rory knew she was in deep shit. But she stood her ground, unmoving and glaring.

"What?" he asked, exacerbated. He was not used to having to deal with her disobeying him. Octavia, sure, but not Rory. Rory was almost perfect.

"You tried to kill someone, Bellamy!" Rory shouted once more, this time staring him right in the face.

His face fell. "How-"

"Octavia told me. You tried to kill someone, you tried to kill Murphy, and then you exiled him! You wouldn't let people eat unless they did what you wanted, you yell at everyone, and you're scary," Rory's bottom lip trembled. "You're scaring me."

Bellamy let out a long sigh. He sunk down onto his knees so that he was at Rory's level. Gently, he placed a hand on her shoulder.

"I have tried to protect you from bad things your whole life. All the sad things, all the monsters..."

"They'd never get past you," Rory finished his sentence, remembering the mantra he used to tell her when she was younger.

"That's right," he continued. "So yeah, I did some bad things. But it was all for you and for O. To keep you safe. I am sorry that I scared you."

"It's okay," Rory nodded. She let herself mold into his embrace. "I miss the Ark. I miss Dad. This world is too scary." Bellamy stiffened at the mention of her father.

"Yeah but it's our world Rory," Bellamy said, firmly squeezing her shoulder for emphasis. "We can make it whatever we want. You say the word and we'll take it on together, okay?"

"Okay."

a/n: ur mom lol