KING, the hundred

forty-six: told by blood

"well, they thought they were made for each other
only thinking of one another"

i can't go on without you by kaleo

"They're bleeding them." 

Avery said it before Abby could.

They were bleeding her friends. One of her people was dead so that those men could be standing in the airlock. Breathing air. Alive. One of her people was dead. We don't know how much time we have left. The message echoed in her head.

Her people were dead, and she'd sent Bellamy right in there with them. To his death. A really fucking unpleasant one, too. An image of Bellamy's dead body, hanging upside down, blue and bloodless flashed in her vision.

"Jackson found genetic anomalies in their blood that could only come from someone on the Ark." Abby elaborated.

"They're bleeding my friends." Clarke said from beside Avery. Angry tears filled their eyes. Avery was angry. God, she was so angry.

"We don't know that." Marcus turned toward them, sending them his best face of reassurance.

"Yes, we do." Clarke was almost screaming. "We were genetically engineered. They weren't."

Clarke turned her tear-filled eyes to Avery. As soon as they made eye contact, they agreed silently. These men were going to die. It was just a matter of when and how.

Clarke was the first to move forward, her body controlled by what could only be described as pure emotion. There was no restraint to her movements, no calculation. All Clarke Griffin knew was that the men in the airlock needed to die and the button could do it was only five feet away from her hand. Marcus stepped in front of her before she could move any closer.

"Clarke, calm down." He said, surprised at her outburst of emotion. "What are you doing?"

"Killing him." Was Clarke's simple reply.

Of course, she never made it that far.

"You are not in charge here." Abby snapped a few moments later, her eyes flickering between Avery and her daughter. It seemed like she couldn't even recognize Clarke anymore. Avery's eyes were darker than Abby had ever seen them before.

***

Avery King punched a wall on their way back to the lab.

It was one of the stupidest choices she had made in her short life, which was full of dumbass decisions. The wall was metal. Her hand didn't feel good afterwards, but couldn't find it within herself to regret it.

It wasn't like she was swinging wildly, either. She punched the wall evenly. Once. Clarke just watched it happen, unmoving. At least she offered Avery a bandage that happened to be laying on a nearby table after she took a moment to actually compute what one of the most put-together people she knew had just done.

Avery was still wrapping the skin-colored bandage slowly around her hand as they made their way back into the lab.

Clarke started talking to Raven. They were talking, and then they were yelling. Clarke thought it was over. Raven said she didn't get to give up. Monroe was just trying to calm them both down. They were both wrong, they were both right. Avery didn't give a shit.

The only thing she cared about in the room were her knives, stashed away in a small case in the corner and the shock baton Raven was making. So she grabbed both of them quickly, slipping the knives into her pockets and tossing the handle of the shock baton into her open palm.