Sorry for the break, I've been focussing more on my JJ and Isaac fanfics.

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The guards led Clarke and me down a few hallways, before finally walking us into a room. The first thing I noticed was the music that drifted from the room as soon as the door opened. It was classical, like what they listened to at the opera in the movies I used to watch before being incarcerated.

There were several famous paintings hung on the walls around the room and Dante stood at an easel working on a painting of his own.
"Lose the handcuffs," he instructed the guards.

Two of the guards stepped up and retrieved keys from their belts. I felt some of my anxiety lift once the handcuffs were gone, but not all of it. We were still in an underground compound that apparently we weren't allowed to leave. 

The guards went and stood by the door so that Clarke and I had some breathing room, waiting silently as Dante continued to paint.
"There are some blank canvases if either of you would like," the man offered, pointing with his paintbrush.

"I'm not really much of an artist," I said, looking around the room.

It appeared to be his office. with several shelves and filing cabinets lining the walls, and a large oak desk sitting near the centre. I wondered how things worked here and how similar they were to the Ark. 

Clarke watched the man paint, not making any move to get closer. "I used to paint the ground, too."

"It's not just the ground. . ." Dante told us. "It's a memory."

At this, I focused back on the man. "Wait, hang on, you've been outside?"

"Yes. Fifty-six years ago. . . for five minutes," he claimed as he dabbed his brush on the palette. "I was seven when the first of what we call The Outsiders appeared. Before that, we thought we were all there was. Imagine our surprise."

"We don't have to imagine," Clarke stated.

And she had been right, we didn't. Coming to the Ground not all that long ago, we thought that we were going to be the only ones. So, it came as no less than a shock when we came across the Grounders.

Dante glimpsed over his shoulder for a moment before continuing. "My father- this was his office at the time- believed it meant that the Earth was survivable again. And so he opened the doors. Within a week, 54 people were dead from the exposure. My mother and sister among them.

"Loss. . . pain. Regret," he said as he put his brush down and began to clean his hands on a rag. "Time eases these things, girls. But the only time it's ever truly gone is when I'm painting."

"You didn't bring us here to talk about painting," Clarke replied bluntly, not in the mood for small talk. "Did you?"

The man stopped what he was doing to face us, "I'm afraid I have bad news. Our patrols have swept the area and found no evidence of survivors. Either at your camp or from the Ark."

"No," I said immediately, my heart sinking. "That forest is endless, how could they possibly be sure?"

"They can't," he admitted. "I've ordered them to keep searching-"

"I want to be out there," I told him, cutting him off. "I need to see."

"I'm sorry, I can't allow that."

Clarke's shoulders stiffened beside me, the blonde growing as frustrated as me. "And why not?"

"Because I'm doing this for your own good. Both of you," he answered. "It's not safe out there."

"Radiation does not affect us."

Dante shook his head, "It's not the radiation I'm concerned about. You need time to grieve."
He proceeded to call the guards back into the room, "These men will show you both to your room."

"And if we try to leave?" Clarke practically threatened.

"Please don't test me, Clarke."

I felt my jaw clench as I looked at the man, "You can't do this, you can't-"

I stopped when I felt Clarke grab my arm. Glancing over at her, I saw that she was pissed, but she knew that we weren't going to get anywhere if we were handcuffed in a cell. Taking a step back I climbed off the offensive. 

I hated it, but she was right.

✧✧✧✧✧

The afternoon had gone by slowly. We had all had dinner with the people of Mount Weather, Clarke playing nice with Dante, before we all returned to our dorm.

It was a large room lined with bunks, along with a few sets of tables and chairs. It was definitely nicer than the SkyBox, that was for sure.

I was sitting on a bunk beside Carter, the two of us talking. Before I had woken up in the white room in Mount Weather, Carter was one of the last things I had remembered seeing and I was curious to know what I had missed.

"It was kind've scary, if I'm being honest," the boy laughed humourlessly, scratching the back of his head. "Jasper managed to get the rockets working - I think that was when you passed out - and everything went really quiet. I stayed by you because I honestly thought that if I left you'd die and then Bellamy would come back and kill me.

"Anyway, we waited a while, all of us just sitting there wondering whether or not they had survived and were gonna break-in and slaughter us all. When we thought we were safe, we opened the door. Then they hit us with the smoke grenades."

"Smoke grenades?" I repeated, somewhat surprised. Dante didn't give the impression that he was the sort of person to resort to things like that. But then again, I couldn't be sure. I didn't know the man and I wasn't always the best judge of character.

Carter nodded, "Yeah. There was pink smoke everywhere and then they had us surrounded. They left Raven on the Dropship saying that she was too injured. We tried to get them to bring her, but they just said no. They almost left you behind, too, until they assessed your injuries and decided they could help you."

"So, Raven. . . is she. . ."
I couldn't even bring myself to say the word.

"We don't know," Carter answered, already understanding what I was getting at and thankfully, not leaving me to have to say it. "She was alive when we left, but she didn't look good."

I found myself biting my nails nervously, crossing my legs on the bed. If they had left behind Raven but chosen to save me, I would feel awful. The mechanic was probably someone I saw as one of my closest friends, and I couldn't keep losing people.

Suddenly, an alarm began blaring throughout the compound, catching the attention of everyone in the room. I looked over to see that Clarke was once again confronting the girl who she had threatened when we had first arrived at Mount Weather.

"C'mon," I said to Carter, climbing up off of the bed and walking over to her.

As we approached, Maya was already heading out and Jasper was grabbing Clarke's arm to get her to stop.
"Hey, Clarke. What are you doing?" the boy asked.

"Maybe they found survivors," our leader pointed out. "If our people are hurt, we have a right to know."

"I'm pretty sure we shouldn't go wandering around."

Clarke brushed him off and headed out the door anyway. I didn't hesitate to follow after her, Carter asking me where the hell I was going.

"Where do you think?" I answered over my shoulder. If they had found our friends, as Clarke had said, we had a right to know.

Clarke ran ahead and the three of us followed after her, finding Maya suiting up with some other Mount Weather inhabitants. They were talking about the people they'd found but we had arrived too late to hear what they had actually been saying.

"Who attacked them?" Clarke asked as she came to a stop.

The man who Maya had been talking to ignored Clarke, speaking to Maya instead. "What are they doing here?"

When Clarke realised that we weren't going to be allowed to go any further, she decided to help herself. So, she instead snatched the ID card off of one of the men's shirts before running off again.

"Stop," the man who had ignored her demanded. "It's not safe."

"It is for us," I told him as I ran after Clarke who tapped the card on the reader and began to open the door. "Jasper? Carter?"

The two boys looked at each other, both of them frowning. 
"Someone's gotta keep those two out of trouble," Jasper sighed, tapping Carter on the shoulder before they followed Clarke and me through the doorway.

We were running through sterile-looking hallways with expensive paintings hanging along them. If we weren't in a rush, part of me wished I could stop and look at them all. Seeing them in person was so different to seeing them as pictures in the books we had had on the Ark.

"Clarke! Theo! Slow down," Jasper called after us.

"Run a bit faster, mate," Carter suggested to the boy with a small laugh.

Carter was more on our side, agreeing that they couldn't just lock us up and expect us to sit quietly while the people we had come to the ground with were missing. They were practically our family at this point.

"That's not what I'm talking about, alright," Jasper said. "You guys need to stop pushing so hard. These people are-"

The boy fell silent when we reached the room where they were keeping the bodies of the people who had been attacked. The bodies lying before us were covered in plastic to lessen the chance of skin-to-skin contact for the Mount Weather doctors.

But the plastic was clear and Jasper immediately saw what the rest of us had.

"Are lying to us," Clarke completed for him. She stepped forward, flattening a section of the plastic to get a better look.
"That's a bullet wound. Grounders don't use guns."

"Unless the Grounders got the guns from us," Jasper suggested, wanting nothing more than for this to be a safe haven, not wanting to be fighting for our lives every day as we had been.

"Come on, man," Carter said gently, not wanting to start a fight but trying to get Jasper to see the facts. "That's not what happened."

Clarke nodded, "I think our people are alive out there."

I felt the smallest glimmer of hope relight within me. They could all be alive.

"Get them out of here," a voice suddenly announced. 

We all turned to see a bunch of people in hazmat suits entering the room. A couple of them were also leading in a man who had severe burns over the upper half of his body.

None of us moved, unable to look away from the man. Dante hadn't been exaggerating when he said that they couldn't leave the compound.

✧✧✧✧✧

After being forced to leave, Jasper, Carter and I returned to the others while Dante took Clarke aside. She was our leader, so it was only expected that he would want to discuss what had happened with her.

We all waited in the dorm patiently for her return, eager to know what had been said. Again, Carter and I sat side-by-side. Jasper, on the other hand, stood across from us, distancing himself both physically and in opinion.

He had taken the bait that was Mount Weather, believing that they had brought us here in order to help us. But I had had too many people I thought I could trust turn on me to be as open to believing them as my friend was.

When Clarke finally returned we were all up and heading in her direction.
"What did President Wallace say?" Jasper asked, skipping the pleasantries and getting right down to it.

Clarke was emotionless, not giving much away as she responded. "He showed me Shaw's body. It looked like an arrow wound."

"Maybe because it is an arrow wound," Jasper said as if it were obvious.

I shook my head, "They're being way too secretive, J. Surely you can see that?"

"I don't think it's an arrow wound. I think that's just what they want us to believe," Clarke reiterated. When Jasper noticeably rolled his eyes, Clarke was quick to jump on the defence. "What? They could've doctored it."

"Clarke, you sound like a crazy person," Jasper replied rather candidly. "Why do you wanna screw this up?"

"What even is this, Jasper?" Carter countered. "I mean, what do we really know? Why would they just help total strangers? What is this?"

"This is safe," the boy answered. He then turned to Clarke, directing his words at her, "This is food, a real bed, clothes. My personal favourite: not getting speared by Grounders. And how long do you think they'll let us stay if you keep this up?"

This caught Clarke's attention, the girl stepping forward to talk in a more hushed tone. "Did someone threaten you?"

Even I was a bit shocked by her question. Sure he believed what they were saying, but Jasper would never let anyone threaten him if he thought it would be putting the remainder of the 100 in danger.

"No. No, it's common sense," he told her, almost scoffing in response. "Look, we're guests here, not prisoners. What would you do with a guest who kept calling you a liar? Generally, acted like an ungrateful ass?"

"I'd kick that ungrateful ass out," Miller said, not even looking up from the book he was reading on his bunk.

I noticed Carter purse his lips to keep from laughing. It might've been harsh, but Jasper had a point. There was only so much we could push before these people began to push back.

"Right now, the biggest threat to us is you," Jasper warned the blonde. He went to walk away, before he stopped and faced me, "Don't let her take you down with her."

I didn't know how to respond, just staring as he walked away, a solemn look on his face. I wanted to believe Jasper and have the faith he had, but what if he was wrong?

But then there was the alternative. What if he was right? What if we were safe here?

✧✧✧✧✧

After the argument, I had retreated to the dorm. After everything that had been said, I just wanted to be alone and try to process my thoughts - to decide where I stood in terms of Mount Weather and their true intentions. 

People had come and gone through the room, stopping to grab something before leaving to be with everyone else out in the main room. Some people stopped to check on me and ask how I was after what had happened back at the DropShip but I was thankful that the majority just left me to be with the book I had found.

It was called Alice in Wonderland and so far it was quite interesting. Interesting enough to distract me from my thoughts, at least.

That was, however, until Clarke came in. The girl looked around to make sure we were alone, before walking over to me.
"What's wrong now, Clarke? It's been a long day."

I knew I was being short with her, but Jasper had a point about us getting kicked out if we weren't careful.

"Do you remember the man who we saw them bring in? The one who looked like he'd been on the sun?"

"What about him?" I said after nodding. 

"I just saw him in the dayroom," she said quickly. "He was walking around, almost completely back to normal."

Closing the book, I sat up so that I could pay better attention to her. "What do mean almost back to normal?"

"I mean, that the burns were gone. Basically no scars or anything, just. . . gone," she responded, back to her usual untrusting self. "Healed."

I felt my brows pinch in thought, "How is that possible?"

"I don't know," Clarke answered. "But that's what I want to find out. And that's why I need your help."

"Alright," I answered without hesitation. I had helped her get this far, after all. I wasn't about to abandon her now. "What do you need me to do?"

Clarke rolled her sleeve up, showing her recently cut arm. "I need you to tear open my stitches," she answered as if it were just your regular request.

"I'm sorry, what?" I choked.

"He's gone to the medical wing for his next treatment. Only patients are allowed in the medical wing," Clarke explained. 

I swallowed heavily, shaking my head, "Clarke, I don't know if I can do that. You could bleed out."

"No, I won't, because they're going to take me to medical," she was quick to answer. When she saw I was still hesitant, she softened her tone before trying again.
"Theo, I want to find our friends. I need your help to do that, okay? Please."

Pursing my lips, I thought about what she was saying. They had healed third-degree burns in the span of hours and from what they had learned, there wasn't really any technology capable of doing that.

So, if they were lying about what technology they had on hand, what else were they lying about?

Why was it so hard to choose who to believe?

"Okay," I finally said, climbing off of the bunk. "Let's do it."

Opening the art case Dante had given her, Clarke retrieved a freshly sharpened pencil. It wouldn't pierce the skin overly deep, but we didn't need it to. We only needed something that could go in the wounds and tear open the stitches.

Taking the pencil from her, I swallowed deeply. Reaching my free hand out, I took ahold of Clarke's wrist gingerly. The girl seemed hesitant also, before nodding.

"Do it," she said.

Biting the inside of my cheek, my hand was shaking slightly as I brought the blue pencil forward. Lowering it, I pushed the point into the end of the wound.

Clarke hissed in pain and I immediately stopped. The blonde gritted her teeth, eyes pinched as she nodded, "Just do it."

Taking one more deep breath, I steadied myself before finally dragging the pencil down towards her hand.

Blood spilled down her arm as the stitches were torn wide open. Clarke cried out, grabbing her arm to try and hold the wound closed. My eyes fell to my hand which was just as stained as the pencil.

"Find them," I told the girl. She nodded, leaving and heading in the direction of the medical wing which hopefully held some answers.