With the psychological boundaries set and the liabilities firmly excluded, Aleksander shifted his focus back to their immediate survival. It was time to fortify the camp.
He knelt beside a salvaged metal crate and emptied a small canvas pouch of smooth, river-washed stones onto the surface. The group gathered around him, the lingering tension in the air entirely replaced by a palpable, breathless curiosity.
Aleksander held his hands over the stones. He didn't speak an incantation, but the air in the dropship suddenly grew heavy, crackling with raw static electricity. The dark iron rings on his forearms hummed, emitting that same mesmerizing, toxic glow of blue and purple energy.
As he moved his fingers, ancient, intricate runes began to burn themselves directly into the surface of the stones, glowing like molten gold before cooling into a faint, pulsing blue. The delinquents watched in absolute awe, the harsh reality of their desperate survival momentarily eclipsed by pure, undeniable magic.
Aleksander picked up the enchanted stones and held them out to the group.
"Take these," Aleksander instructed, his voice steady. "Bury them at equal intervals along the interior base of the wooden walls. Once the last stone is in the dirt, the ward will seal. It will create an invisible barrier. If a Grounder tries to breach the perimeter, they will find themselves forcefully thrown backward."
Bellamy, Wells, Octavia, and Clarke carefully took the stones, treating them like unexploded ordnance.
"Get those in the ground tonight," Aleksander told them. Then, he turned to Monty. "As for the plant side of things—the quick crop growth spells and the medical potions—I am going to need Jasper. His knowledge of the local flora and chemical extraction is vital."
Monty's face immediately lit up. "I'll go get him."
Monty practically scrambled down the ladder. Less than five minutes later, he returned, dragging a highly confused and half-asleep Jasper up to the second deck.
It took another terrifying display of the floating parchment, the magical Geas, and a small fireball to bring Jasper up to speed. For a solid two minutes, Jasper just stood frozen, staring at Aleksander with his jaw practically unhinged, his mind entirely blown.
But as the sheer shock finally began to recede, Jasper's signature, nervous energy came rushing back in full force. The sheer impossibility of the situation was terrifying, but the possibilities? Those were endless.
Jasper looked at Aleksander, a slow, eager grin spreading across his face. "Okay... okay, so, magic is real. You're a Fey badass. You can heal severed neck and punch mutant wolves." Jasper gestured wildly with his hands. "Can you... I don't know... make a potion that gives a guy muscles?"
The dead serious, tactical atmosphere of the dropship instantly shattered.
Clarke let out an involuntary, exhausted laugh, burying her face in her hands. Bellamy rolled his eyes, though a small smirk tugged at the corner of his mouth, and Octavia just shook her head, thoroughly amused.
Monty, however, didn't laugh. He took a very serious step forward, standing shoulder-to-shoulder with his best friend. "Actually, yeah. Asking for a friend. Can you do that? Because dragging heavy tree trunks to build that wall is killing my back."
For the first time since they had landed on Earth, Aleksander let out a genuine, quiet laugh. The heavy burden of leadership and ancient secrets momentarily lifted, reminding him that despite the war looming outside the walls, he was standing in a room full of teenagers.
"Yes, Jasper," Aleksander answered, a highly amused glint in his dark eyes. "Alchemy covers physical enhancement. As long as you and Monty can forage the required roots and plants from the forest without getting yourselves killed, I can brew a potion that will significantly increase your muscle density and stamina."
Jasper pumped his fist in the air. "Yes! We are going to be so ripped!"
"Focus, Jasper," Bellamy interrupted, clapping the boy on the shoulder, though the tension had completely bled out of his own voice. "First, we secure the camp. Then you can worry about your biceps."
"Right. Magic stones first. Muscles later," Jasper agreed, snatching one of the glowing stones from Monty's hand.
With the glowing warding stones distributed and the camp's perimeter finally on its way to being fully secured, the suffocating dread that had hung over the leadership began to lift.
Aleksander leaned against the metal console of the dropship, bringing their focus back to the offensive strategy.
"Now that my abilities are out in the open," Aleksander said smoothly, "we don't have to fear the Grounder numbers quite as much. I can easily bypass the heavy blast doors and security systems of the National Guard bunkers using magic. Furthermore, there is a pre-war supply depot not far from our current position. I want to scout it out."
Bellamy exchanged an eager look with Jasper and Monty. The prospect of having actual military-grade weapons and proper supplies instead of sharpened sticks and scraps of metal was a game-changer.
"I'm in," Bellamy agreed immediately.
"We all are," Clarke added, a newfound confidence returning to her posture.
They quickly agreed to assemble a small, heavily armed team at first light to make the run to the depot. With the plan set, Bellamy, Octavia, Monty, and Jasper climbed down the ladder to bury the warding stones along the walls, leaving only Aleksander, Clarke, and Wells on the upper deck.
The silence that settled over the three of them was heavy, thick with the unsaid weight of the night's revelations.
Wells rubbed the smooth, unblemished skin of his neck, his brow furrowed. He looked at Aleksander, his expression a complicated mix of profound gratitude and lingering frustration.
"I won't lie, Aleksander," Wells started, his voice quiet but firm. "It bothers me that you kept something this massive from us. From me. We were supposed to be leading this camp together." He paused, letting out a heavy sigh as the reality of his own pulse grounded him. "But I also know I'd be dead in the dirt right now if you hadn't broken that secret to save me. I owe you my life. I won't forget that."
Aleksander gave a single, respectful nod, accepting the boy's complex feelings without demanding blind loyalty.
Clarke crossed her arms, looking down at the metal floor grates. The emotional whiplash of the day was catching up to her. "I just don't know how to feel about any of it," she admitted, her voice trembling slightly. "The magic, the Grounders, my mom sending that pod... it's like everything I thought I knew about the universe was a lie."
Aleksander watched her closely. His empathy picked up the deep, agonizing ache of grief that still anchored her heart. The pain of losing her father, Jake Griffin, was the foundation of her every action.
Aleksander stepped forward, closing the distance between them.
"Not everything was a lie, Clarke," Aleksander said softly, his voice dropping to a gentle, steady cadence that completely commanded her attention. "But there is one more truth you need to hear. And I think this is the right time."
Clarke looked up, her blue eyes searching his face, suddenly guarded. "What?"
"When Chancellor Jaha ordered your father to be floated..." Aleksander began carefully, holding her gaze. "I was there in the observation deck. I couldn't stop the execution without exposing myself to the entire Council. But as the airlock opened and he was pulled into the vacuum of space, I didn't just stand there."
Clarke stopped breathing. Her heart slammed against her ribs.
"I threw a shield around him," Aleksander said simply. "It trapped a pocket of oxygen and put his body to sleep. He's frozen in time. He doesn't age, and he doesn't need food or water."
Clarke's knees buckled slightly, but she caught herself on the nearest crate. "Are... are you saying he's just floating up there in the dark?"
"No," Aleksander said, holding her gaze. "I made the shield heavy enough to pull him down, and strong enough to protect him from the heat of reentry. He didn't just survive the vacuum, Clarke. Your dad landed on Earth."
The words hit her like a physical shockwave. A ragged, breathless gasp escaped Clarke's lips as the impossible weight of his words sank in. Tears instantly flooded her eyes, spilling hot and fast down her cheeks.
"He's here?" Clarke demanded, her voice breaking into a desperate, frantic plea as she stepped toward him, her hands trembling. "On the ground? Where is he? Can you find him?"
"He is definitely alive, and he is on this planet," Aleksander explained, his tone calming and reassuring. "But the reentry was chaotic, and the stasis ward cloaks him from standard magical detection to keep him hidden from threats. I couldn't track his exact landing trajectory from the Ark. I cannot pinpoint his exact location until we cover more ground and I get close enough to sense the specific magical signature of the ward."
Clarke didn't care about the logistics. She didn't care that they had to search an irradiated continent to find him.
The sheer, overwhelming reality that her father—the man she had grieved with every fiber of her being—was not a frozen corpse in space, but was actually sleeping somewhere on the very same planet, waiting to be woken up, was too much to process.
A choked sob tore from her throat. Driven by an overwhelming tsunami of relief, gratitude, and an affection she had been harboring since they landed, Clarke closed the gap between them.
She threw her arms around Aleksander's neck, burying her face in his shoulder as she cried freely. Aleksander hesitated for a fraction of a second before wrapping his arms around her, holding her steady as she trembled with overwhelming relief.
Clarke pulled back just enough to look at him, her eyes shining with absolute devotion. Before her logical brain could second-guess the impulse, she leaned up and pressed her lips to his, kissing him deeply in the dim light of the dropship.
Standing a few feet away, Wells watched the scene unfold with a mild, knowing smile.
He didn't feel a sting of jealousy, nor did he feel the urge to look away. He had known Clarke for years, and he had easily spotted the subtle, growing crush she had been harboring for the brilliant, enigmatic Alpha Station prodigy since they first touched down on Earth.
More importantly, Wells knew his own heart. The childhood crush he had once harbored for Clarke had faded years ago, replaced by a deep, protective sibling bond. Seeing her finally let go of her paralyzing grief, knowing that her father was alive and somewhere out there in the forest, was all that mattered to him.
The era of mere survival had just shifted into an era of profound hope. And for the first time since they landed, the leaders of the hundred were entirely united, armed with ancient magic and a reason to conquer the Earth.