{ Disclaimer: I do not own The 100, nor do I take credit for any of the characters/plotlines that were created by the show's producers. I take credit simply for my work and my original characters. }

One

Melody Pond killed a man.

She'd like to have been able to say that it was an accident, but that would have been a lie. Melody had in fact wielded the blade that ended the life of Doctor Jason Evans. She had been the one to drag the sharpened edge of the blade across the man's skin, slicing his throat open from left to right. And as the crimson colored blood had begun to pour from his throat and pool around her feet, Melody had felt no remorse. Only relief.

A nurse had found the two of them. Melody, leaning up against the wall with a bloody scalpel clutched in her hand. And the doctor, lying on the floor in a pool of his own blood. The nurse was a screamer, Melody remembered. She'd screamed and she'd screamed and she'd screamed. Murderer. You're a murderer. Melody hadn't had a response for that. The woman spoke the truth; Melody Pond was in fact a murderer.

The guards had come for her then, and Melody hadn't resisted. What was the point? She'd -literally- been caught red handed. In cold blood. Even as the cold metal of the handcuffs had bit into her wrists and she'd been shoved not-so-gently down the hallway, Melody had remained silent and straight-faced. They'd led her to the Sky Box, the prison station of the Ark, and into the section that was reserved for juvenile delinquents. There they had thrown Melody into a cell and left her to rot.

For four whole years.

"Prisoner 071198."

As two armed guards stepped into the room, Melody's head snapped up and her green eyes narrowed. Her fingers curled into the fabric of her sheets as the girl slowly slid her way to the edge of the bed. The guards began to approach and yet Melody continued to sit on the bed, which was in reality nothing more than a thin mattress spread over a slab of metal that had been fused to the wall.

The gears in the girl's mind began to come to life, creaking slightly as they were in dire need of exercise. Now, why in the world would they be coming to her room in the middle of the day on a Saturday? Lunch had already been served. She wasn't due for an inspection. There was absolutely no visitation. So, what could it be? Understanding dawned on Melody all at once.

They were going to kill her.

A terrified look flashed across the girl's face as her grip on the bedspread tightening. The guards came closer and closer, closing the gap between them and the prisoner. When they were just a few steps away Melody suddenly jumped up and all but flew across the room, her messy fire-red hair streaming behind her. The cell was small and it wasn't long before she came to one of its four walls. Slightly discouraged, Melody turned around and pressed her back against the metal wall, eyes wide as she seemed to cringe away from the guards like a deer in headlights. She was, without a doubt, caught.

"I'm not eighteen yet." She said aloud, hating the slight quiver in her voice. It made her sound like a frightened child.

The rules of the Ark clearly stated that a prisoner could not be 'floated' before their eighteenth birthday. Floating was the Ark's most popular mode of punishment. It was a death sentence. And Melody was still seventeen for at least a few more months. There was no way that they could float her. It was against the law!

The guards said nothing as they continued to descend upon her. Their arms were outstretched, as if they meant to grab and detain her. Melody's eyes fell upon their weapons, which were holstered at their sides. Between the shock batons and the machine guns, Melody didn't stand a chance at escaping. Not that she could escape. She wasn't big, she wasn't strong. And where would she go, even if she did manage to make it out of the Sky Box alive?

The girl's green eyes were filled with fear as the guards reached for her. Their grips were iron-clad as each one of the guards grabbed one of her arms and pulled. They began to haul Melody towards the door, causing the girl's panic to spike even further. She didn't stand a chance.

"I said I'm not eighteen!" Insisted Melody once more. Her head swung from side to side as she searched for any sign of understanding or compassion on the guard's faces. They were both stoic as they marched in sync. "You can't do this!"

They could do it. That was the scary part. Melody knew that they could do whatever they damn well pleased because they were the ones in charge and she was just a prisoner at their mercy. The most maddening part of it all was the silence from the guards as they dragged Melody out of her cell and into the hallway.

The moment she was in the hallway, Melody realized that she wasn't the only one in a state of panic. Dozens of voices could be heard shouting and arguing and pleading as one by one the prisoners were drawn out of their cells. The halls were full of guards in teams of two leading prisoners out of the Sky Box and towards another station.

Stunned into silence, the redhead shuffled along slowly. Her green gaze drank in the sight as countless prisoners marched along beside her, heading towards the next station. What could this mean? The chancellor couldn't float all of them at once. No, a few dozen teenage prisoners disappearing at once would surely raise questions and concerns. Was it quarantine then? Perhaps there was an outbreak of strep throat or the chicken pox. It had happened before, but not once since Melody had been alive.

For the last few years Melody had been 'out of the loop' so to speak. She was always one of the last to know what was going on. Apparently murderers didn't get roommates, nor did they get visitors. The only human interaction she'd had since being locked up was the few terse words exchanged with the guards who served her meals three times a day.

"I said," She began again, only to find herself being interrupted.

"You've said enough." Snapped the guard to her left. "Shut it."

"You can't do this." She repeated, shaking her head. "You can't."

"You're not being floated."

"What?" Melody looked over at the guard in surprise, wondering if she heard him right. "You're not floating me?"

"No."

"Then what's going on?" She pressed, unsatisfied by his vague answers. "Why are you taking me out in the middle of the day? Why are you taking me out at all?"

"You and 99 other prisoners have been selected to undergo a mission for the good of the Ark." This time it was the other guard who spoke to her. If Melody wasn't mistaken, his voice held a slight twinge of sympathy.

Thanks for the concern, she thought bitterly.

A mission for the good of the Ark. The words painted a pretty picture, a picture of noble warriors riding off into battle. For the good of the Ark. In theory, maybe. But Melody knew the truth behind the carefully chosen words, words that had likely come from the mouth of the chancellor himself. Whatever this 'mission' might be, it wasn't going to be easy.

Melody forced herself to remain silent as the guards led her and countless others down the seemingly endless hallway. Absently she thought, I don't remember it being this long before. Granted the first time she'd walked down this hallway had been under different circumstances. Then, Melody had been a scared thirteen year old girl. A pitiful freckled-faced kid with big eyes and a life that was over before it had even began. Countless people had watched her trudge down that hallway, all of them thinking the same things.

Why did she do it?

How did she do it?

She's just a kid.

And, most importantly; she'll die in there.

Killing someone was not exactly a forgivable offense. The only reason Melody hadn't been floated was because of her age. Some argued that she was too young to be floated. Launching a thirteen year old girl into space unprotected was simply inhumane. Others argued that murder was murder and she should be punished accordingly. They had argued back and forth, but eventually it had been decided that Melody would be put in The Sky Box until she was old enough to undergo another trial. And there she had sat for almost four years, until they decided to let her rejoin the world of the living.

They entered a new, larger room and the guards finally released Melody. She rubbed at her sore wrists absently as she looked around the room. It was a huge room with what looked to be some sort of small dropship sitting in the center of it. All around her, other prisoners were dressing and boarding the ship.

"Put this on."

A jacket hit Melody square in the chest and bounced off, falling to the floor. She bent over hastily and picked up the jacket before slipping it on over her gray tank top. It was a lightweight anorak jacket, probably made of cotton, which had been dyed a dark green color. The jacket zipped all the way up to her throat, but was decorated on either side with brass snap-buttons that held the pockets closed. It was a loose fit, but there was an inner drawcord that Melody pulled tight to cinch the waist accordingly.

"And these."

A pair of black leather combat boots were dropped in front of her carelessly. Melody looked down at her sock feet for a few moments before kneeling down to slide her feet into the boots. She laced them all the way up and then stood once more, wiggling her toes around inside of the boots. It was the first time in years that she'd been allowed to wear anything other than the custom tank top and jeans. She couldn't recall the last time she'd been permitted to wear a pair of shoes on her feet.

Melody straightened up once more and looked over at the guard, awaiting further instruction. The guard only looked up briefly from where he was digging through a pile of clothes. His gaze scanned Melody once before he shook his head and said simply, "Cuff her."

Once again fear struck Melody so hard that she felt the urge to run. When it came to the fight or flight response, she had a bit of trouble with the 'fight' part. She blamed her mother, who was just as small and scrawny as Melody herself. A mother who, with the best intentions in mind, had drilled into her daughter's head that women were not powerful enough to fight. Ladies were meant to be sweet and docile and good-natured.

The guard took one step forward and Melody took one back. She would have taken another if not for the second guard stepping forward to hold her still. Melody thrashed her body from side to side, desperate to escape as the first guard drew closer. She could remember all too well the feeling of the metal hand cuffs cutting into her wrists. It made her feel helpless and confined, at the mercy of the guards. Which she was, regardless.

"Please…please." She begged, practically shaking as she cringed backwards, away from the approaching guard.

Her eyes slipped shut as the guard came to a stop in front of her. Melody felt him grab her arm, and then he was 'cuffing' her, as one of the other guards had put it. A surprised yelp pushed past her lips as she felt the prickling of tiny needles piercing her skin along the inside of the cuff. Her green eyes flew open and she stared down at her wrist in surprise. She wasn't wearing a set of handcuffs, but rather a single silver bracelet.

"It's to monitor your vitals on Earth." Explained the guard, who was tampering with the bracelet. A few moments later a green light flickered on. "There. All set."

"Earth?" Melody gaped at the man as she was led away. "Did he just say Earth?"

The second guard led her towards the dropship that sat in the middle of the room. It was an old exodus ship, one of the ones that they kept stored away for when the human race could one day return to Earth. But that was impossible right now. Earth had been inhabitable for decades. The nuclear wars had wiped out all life and left the planet irradiated beyond belief. It would be centuries before any of them could return.

All at once the reality of the 'mission' hit Melody like a ton of bricks. They weren't being sent away to defend the Ark; they were being sent away to die. A mission 'for the good of the Ark.' This was a mass murder.

Melody sat down hard in one of the seats, still trying to wrap her mind around the whole thing. They're sending us away to die. The thought was so disturbing that it chilled her to the bone. Her movements were jerky and almost robotic as she buckled herself into the cushioned seat. I'm going to die. Those words echoed in the girl's mind as she sat back against the seat, almost to the point of shaking with fear.

"Isn't this exciting?"

Her head snapped to the side, green eyes narrowing at the boy who sat beside her. He appeared to be her age, give or take a year or so. He had big brown eyes that matched his messy hair and for some reason wore an excited grin on his face. The boy didn't look afraid. In fact, he looked exhilarated. He looked alive.

"We're going to Earth." Melody said the words as if they should explain everything. As if somehow they would cause understanding to dawn on the boy's face as he realized his fate. She waited for that look of understanding, the look of fear, but it never came.

"I know." The brunette sent Melody a wicked grin. "I'm Jasper Jordan."

It was a nice name, the kind of name that just slipped off of your tongue. Jasper Jordan. It had a nice ring to it.

"Uh…Melody." She said quietly, thinking to herself that it didn't matter what their names were. They were all about to die. And for some reason she was the only one who seemed concerned by the fact.

What was wrong with these people? Didn't they realize what this meant? As Melody looked around the dropship she was surprised to find a lot of excited faces. A few of the other prisoners looked nervous, but those who did were few and far between. Most of the others were talking animatedly and voicing their excitement for the upcoming journey.

"You do realize what this means, right? Us going to Earth." Pressed Melody, raising her eyebrows at the boy who was practically bouncing in his seat.

His excitement was pointless. Even if they did manage to survive the landing to Earth -and that was a big if - the radiation would kill them as soon as they set foot on the planet. This was not a win-win situation. It wasn't a time to celebrate and make plans for the future. They had no future.

"Yeah." When he nodded and turned to look at her, Jasper somehow managed to knock the pair of goggles off of his head. They fell down and covered his face, causing the boy to laugh softly before he raised them to peek over at Melody. "This is a fresh start."

Before Melody could utter another word, a large monitor towards the front of the dropship suddenly switched on. She watched with little interest as a video of the chancellor began to stream, silencing the rest of the prisoners. Chancellor Jaha was a middle-aged man with dark skin and equally dark eyes which seemed to look right through a person. He always wore a somewhat grave expression on his face, even when he was trying to be uplifting and positive. He had always intimidated Melody.

The man on the screen spoke calmly and seriously as he explained to them the purpose and the goals of the 'mission' they were about to embark on. Melody, along with 99 other prisoners, were going to be sent down to Earth to see if the planet was inhabitable. Their job was to keep on the bracelets they had been given, which would monitor their vitals and send the data back up to the Ark. If it was safe, the rest of the people on the Ark would come down to join them. If it wasn't, then it really sucked to be the 100.

"This is so epic." Jasper said, his words and his grin directed at another boy who sat in a seat across the dropship. The other boy had shaggy black hair and kind eyes. Although he looked a bit more reserved, he wore a smile that mirrored Jasper's.

"Jasper, we could die." Melody finally said, her green eyed wide and confused. "Don't you realize that?"

As if to prove her point, the ship suddenly jumped to life. There was a slight rocking movement accompanied by the whirring noise of the engine. On the screen, the chancellor wished all of them luck before the broadcast cut out and the screen went black. The noises of the ship grew louder and louder until it was all that any of them could hear. A few moments later the hatch was opened and the ship was unceremoniously released into space.

It felt like they were falling for a moment. Melody's stomach dropped and her grip on her harness tightened to the point that her knuckles turned white. Bit by bit the sound of the engine died down, until it was little more than a dull roar. The dropship began to float towards Earth, on a predetermined route that had been programmed into the mainframe. There was no turning back now, not that any of them would have had the option.

Over the sound of the engine, Melody could hear people laughing. The clinking sound of seatbelts being unbuckled caused her head to turn towards the direction of a few prisoners. One of them had undid his buckles and was floating in the air. Spacewalker, they called him. Others began to follow suit.

They'll be the first to go, Melody thought sadly with a shake of her head.

When the initial shock from the take-off was over, Melody seemed to have captured Jasper's attention once more. He gave her a funny look that must have mirrored her own just minutes before.

"Don't you get it, Melody?" Asked the optimistic boy as he continued to bounce his knee excitedly, smile in place once more. "No more days and nights spent rotting away in our cells. We're not coming down here to die. We could have done that just fine on the Ark. We're coming down here to live."

Melody hadn't had the chance to think of the situation as being even remotely positive. But now that Jasper had mentioned it, she had to admit that in a way he was right. She had spent the last four years locked up in a cell with no contact with the outside world. Now, she was in a dropship surrounded by ninety-nine other teenagers and nothing holding them back. Wasn't this what she had wanted for as long as she could remember?

Jasper's way of thinking was certainly more appealing. Definitely less 'gloom and doom.' Yet it was still hard for Melody to accept his way of thinking. All of his optimistic ideas revolved around a big if. If they made it to Earth. If they survived the radiation. If they managed to find supplies to get them through.

"Relax, Mel. We're gonna make it." Said Jasper, who had seen the worried look on Melody's face. "Trust me."

The look on his face was a look of pure determination. Although the odds were definitely stacked against them, Jasper had yet to lose hope. He was positive that they were going to make it out of this alive.

Maybe, Melody thought, she shouldn't have given up so soon.

"Alright." Melody gave a small nod and released a shaky breath. "I…I trust you."

Melody willed herself to be optimistic. To add to the effort, she forced herself to give Jasper a smile that was half-hearted at best. In return, the boy reached out and offered his balled up fist to her. Melody shyly extended her own hand to bump knuckles with the boy. A somewhat genuine smile lingered on her face as she thought of how surreal all of this was. The action of 'bumping knuckles' was so purely teenage. How long had it been since she was allowed to just be a teenager instead of a prisoner?

Just as their fists were about to connect, the ship lurched. Melody let out a shrill shriek as she felt the ship dropping once more, causing her body to jerk against the harness that held her to the seat. They were no longer floating through space, but rather plummeting towards the ground at an alarming rate. The only thing that Melody thought could have made this happen was if the dropship had entered the Earth's atmosphere.

A hand wrapped around her wrist tightly, and Melody turned her head to look at Jasper once more. The smile had vanished from the boy's face and was replaced with, for the first time, an alarmed look. His brown eyes were wide and he looked as if all of the color had been drained from his face. His gaze flickered across the ship, towards his friend from earlier. Once the other boy had flashed him a reassuring thumbs-up, Jasper focused all of his attention on Melody. His grip on her wrist tightened, as if he thought that by holding onto her he could somehow ensure her safety.

"Mel?" Jasper's voice sounded as anxious as he felt. He was waiting for her to give him the okay.

Melody drew in a deep breath and forced herself to give him a small nod. Jasper's grip on her wrist lessened only a tiny fraction. Her eyes slipped shut as she leaned her head back to rest it against the seat. Her heart was hammering against her ribcage, unwilling to be still no matter how much she tried to convince herself to be calm. Melody tried to focus on her breathing, which was slightly ragged, but focusing on any one thing in that moment was proving to be more difficult than she imagined.

All around her it sounded like things were falling apart. There was the sound of crashing and grinding, metal on metal and things breaking apart. Melody wouldn't have been surprised if the whole ship was getting ready to crumble. It was so old and the conditions of the Earth's atmosphere were unpredictable. All Melody could do was cringe backwards against the seat, as if by making herself smaller she could somehow survive the crash landing.

The sound of people screaming had Melody's eyes flying open. Something warm and heavy fell against her side, weighing her down. When Melody looked to her right she had to stifle a scream at the sight of a limp body belonging to one of the 'spacewalkers.' He hadn't been strapped into his seat when they entered the atmosphere and thus he'd suffered an injury to the head which had apparently killed him. With her free hand Melody shoved the body away from her before shivering and drawing further within herself.

Sparks flew everywhere. Bright flashes of golden orange bounced off of pieces of metal that were rubbing against each other. And then, the electricity failed. More screams echoed throughout the dropship when its inhabitants were enveloped in complete darkness. Melody drew in a sharp breath and clenched her jaw, willing herself not to cry out like the rest of them. Despite being seventeen years old, she was still very afraid of the dark. Bad things happened in the dark, when you had nobody to protect you.

The lights came back on, but only momentarily before they began to flicker again. Melody glanced over at Jasper. He was leaning back against his own seat, eyes squeezed tightly shut. His grip on her wrist was still just as tight as it had been before. Melody's fingers wrapped around his arm and she gave it a tight, reassuring squeeze. She was rewarded with a smile from the boy that she was quickly coming to depend on. The only constant right now was Jasper and the feel of his hand on hers. Jasper was steady. He was stable. He was the only thing that Melody was 100% sure of right now.

The lights flickered on and off, on and off, on and off. Shouldn't we have landed by now? Melody wondered to herself, trying not to revert to panicking once more. They had been within the gravitational pull of the Earth for a few minutes now. It should have been a straight drop after that, right to the surface. Melody assumed that the Ark would have equipped the dropship with something to slow their landing, but whatever it was it wasn't working. They were still heading towards the surface at full speed and everyone was finally panicking, as Melody had wanted all along.

"Jasper, shouldn't we have landed?" Melody's voice was loud over the sound of the commotion in the dropship. Everyone else seemed to be wondering the same question.

"It could take a few moments for the parachutes to deploy! Don't worry." Instructed a voice that did not belong to Jasper Jordan.

Melody sighed to herself and repeated the boy's words over and over again in her mind. Don't worry. Don't worry. Don't-

She was jarred from her thoughts when she felt the dropship suddenly begin to slow. The boy was right; the parachutes had just needed a few moments in order to deploy. Melody let out a breath she hadn't even realized she was holding and silently thanked whatever God there might be that they had managed to slow down. For a few minutes there she had thought that they were all goners.

They still hadn't escaped danger. They were simply falling at a slower pace than they had been before. Yet for some reason the slight change of pace seemed to ease their minds. The screaming came to an abrupt stop, although the slight twinge of panic remained in their voices. No one could guess at what waited for them down on Earth, but at least they weren't going to crash into its surface and go up in flames.

The dropship began to slow down and then suddenly it was coming to a stop. A loud thud noise filled the air and seemed to reverberate throughout Melody's bones as she was jerked against the straps once more. Finally, the ship stilled and everyone inside of it fell silent. They all seemed to be thinking the same thing.

What next?

A few minutes passed before anyone made an attempt to move. The landing hadn't been too hard on any of them. A few might have sustained minor scrapes and bruises or, like Melody, whiplash from seatbelts that were too loose. What kept them all in their seats was the sheer shock and relief at being alive. At first none of them moved, and then everything seemed to be happening all at once.

"Mel, you good?" Jasper's voice was a bit shaky as he turned to look at her. His grip on her hand had tightened significantly throughout the course of the landing and now she realized that it was almost to the point of pain.

"I'm fine, Jasper." Melody pried her hand away from his and then leaned forward to unbuckle herself from the seat. It was slightly amusing how often the two of them seemed to switch roles since they'd met. One moment Melody was being the worrisome mother hen, and in the next Jasper was the one making sure she was alright.

"Alright. Cool." Replied Jasper, who had copied her actions and was leaning forward to undo his own straps as quickly as possible. When Jasper stood up he wobbled slightly and had to reach out to brace his hand against the wall to keep from falling. Melody wasn't surprised by this; her own legs felt like a pile of Jell-O.

By the time Melody had unbuckled and was standing up, a third person had joined their little party. He introduced himself as Monty Green. He was the boy that Jasper had been talking to from across the ship, the one that he'd wanted to make sure was alright when the ship had begun to fall. Judging from the friendly embrace8 that the two boys shared, Melody could only assume that they were close.

"Monty, this is Melody." Jasper introduced the two before reaching out to draw Melody into a side-hug. His arm remained draped over her shoulder comfortably as he continued talking with the other boy, Monty. "She's with us now."

For the first time in a long time, Melody found herself grinning as she leaned against Jasper's side. His words warmed her through. She's with us now. Melody repeated the words in her mind and decided that she liked them. She'd never been 'with' anyone before. She kind of felt like she had been taken under Jasper's wing. And it was a good feeling. For the first time since she'd been locked up, Melody actually had a friend.

Things began to be set in motion when people started to get out of their seats. The delinquents broke off into groups and began talking, all of them wondering what the next step was. Melody, Jasper, and Monty got swept up in a large crowd that was moving towards the front of the dropship. Too short to see what was happening up front, Melody had to stand up on her tiptoes to make out the shapes ahead. She thought she saw people heading for the door.

"We can't just open the doors!"

Moments after the feminine voice rang out, a girl was shoving past Melody to get to the front. Mel didn't recognize the girl, but then again she didn't recognize many people. All she saw was the girl's back, but she could tell that the girl was both slender and blonde.

"Hey, back it up guys!" A new voice rang out, this one deeper and full of authority.

Like with the blonde girl, all Melody could see was the guy's back as he faced the door. At first, anyways. She watched as the blonde strode up to him, prompting the man to turn around and scowl at her.

He was older than the rest of them, but not by much. He was taller than the other boys, and he was broader than them too. He could have only been a handful of years older than Melody and the other delinquents on the ship. His skin was a darker shade of tan and he had hair that was thick, curly, and black. His dark brown eyes shone with a fierceness as he glared down at the blonde girl in front of him.

"The air could be toxic." She pointed out, her voice sounding slightly frantic. It reminded Melody of how she had sounded earlier, when trying to convince Jasper that he should be worried. She could definitely sympathize with the girl.

"If the air is toxic, we're all dead anyways." He retorted simply, hardly even giving the girl a second thought before he began to move towards the door once again.

Melody held her breath as she waited to see what would happen. Either he would succeed on opening the door, or the girl would fight him on it. There would be a power struggle in the near future, Melody guessed. They were both trying to take charge. The two of them looked like they had leadership potential, but they obviously didn't go about it the same way.

Just when things looked like they were about to get heated, a new voice rang out.

"Bellamy?"

The voice belonged to a girl. Melody's head slowly swung to the side, as did the most of the heads in the crowd. It was yet another girl that Melody didn't know, but this one looked familiar. She looked eerily like the boy at the door. They had more similarities than Melody had ever seen between two people from the Ark, and that was saying something because they all sort of looked alike.

"Octavia."

The two of them embraced, and murmurs went up among the crowd. Octavia Blake! The girl that they'd found hiding under the floorboards. That was why the two of them looked so alike; they were siblings. Something that was forbidden on the Ark. One child per household, that was the rule. When the rules were broken, the parents were floated and the child was locked up. That must have been Octavia's case.

As the murmurs grew louder and people began openly shouting about it, Octavia grew irritable. She turned and lunged for the crowd, but the guy, Bellamy, pulled her back. He said something to soothe her, placing both hands on her face, but the disgruntled teen wasn't content to be consoled.

"Come on. Let's give them something else to remember you by." Said Bellamy.

"Like what?" Octavia scowled, casting a fleeting glance over her shoulder at the crowd that had formed around them.

"Like being the first person on the ground in a hundred years."

He pulled the lever that opened up the dropship door,

and they were home.