"Okay,"said Raven ,"So she shot Polaris out the sky and ended up killing the only other rival to her seat and scared the hell out of everyone else on the stations. It's no wonder she stayed Chancellor for so long. Those poor nerds and astronauts were probably beyond scared of her."
Clarke nodded and said,"Essentially, yes. Once the Ark had formed she still continued improving and working on the nanobots including mine which she called Novus. She made more improvements on all three series once the Ark had formed like increasing the success rate and allowing it to be passed down genetically."
"Okay, Princess,"said Finn suddenly,"Enough of the history lesson. What about these nanobots? What are the differences between them? That's why we're right?"
Clarke resisted the urge to roll her eyes at the obnoxious tone in his voice and unsurprisingly Raven's hands were actually twitching once she had heard Finn speak up.
It wasn't the time for an argument so Clarke spoke up before she would have to end up healing someone,"I was getting to that. Anyways, now that you know what kind of a twisted and genius Darah is it should help you understand who would make such a thing. What they do though is extremely interesting."
"You see, Darah had suspicions that the Earth was still inhabited by other people. There hadn't been any successful radio attempts according to her notes, but the reason she had essentially poisoned everyone with the Primus and Duos was to arm the citizens of the Ark. Darah may have been spied on by the US military, but she too had her own spies and she had found out about something called Project Everyman. Essentially, the US had used the stolen Duos versions of the nanobots and also made them able to be passed down genetically and also had poisoned a large portion of the population with them. This was apparently the last line of defence that the United States had and there was supposed to be a way to control those with the nanobots as well, but that was never developed because of the war. "
"So you're saying the government had planned to use their entire population as a form of last resort army?"said Miller, "That's twisted."
"Yeah, well now we at least know how the Grounders got their powers,"said Bellamy as he cradled his forearm that had been broken against the first Grounder he had fought.
"It all leads back to Darah basically, "said Harper,"But could we get an explanation on what the powers are meant to do or something?"
"Okay, I was getting to that,"said Clarke before adding, "Darah had basically forced everyone aboard the Ark when she was in charge to at one point or another to consume the Primus or Duos serums. The thing is though was that if one had taken the serum then not only was it likely that they would activate powers, but if one either had a child or ate the flesh of someone with powers then that would also essentially ensure one had the capacity to obtain their powers. She had used more Primis serums which were brown in colour than she had Duos which we all know are silver because she was basically thinking of things in terms of a food cycle of sorts."
"Food cycle?"said Jasper in confusion and he wasn't the only one that looked confused.
"That's the closest thing I could compare it to. You see the serums were actually never meant to be taken in the same generation. The Primus serums were made to do the initial genetic alterations and hardening and they also never gave the physical boost that some of us got. The Duos serum was meant to both gift the user with a Duos level power whilst also giving immense physical enhancements. The Primus series had a tendency to generate powers that while useful were not actually suited for combat."
"Like invisibility or plant creation, "said Monty.
"Yes, but since our earlier ancestors had all come into contact with Primus and Duos series the tertiary function of the Duos was revealed. You see the Primus serum despite everything could never gift multiple powers so the idea was to allow the Primus alterations to be passed down before one would take the Duos series. This was because the Duos was a heavy strain on the body. The part where it gets interesting though is how the numbers of powers one activates is chosen. The strain of having multiple powers was a concern to Darah so she had coded the nanobots to gauge not only how much strain a body could handle, but also there is apparently some sort of X-factor within the body that in Darah's words separates the wheat from the chaff. Basically, the amount of powers you can develop depends on your body's ability to handle the strain as well as how much more exceptional you are."
"So you're telling me that these things can somehow measure our potential or something?"said Raven and it was a fair question.
"I think that was the effect that Darah was going for. I don't know whether the method used is infallible or not however and it's not really mentioned, but that's beside the point. The thing I find interesting is that the nanobots tend to give you a power that is suited to your personality. It doesn't always happen, but it is a pretty common occurrence apparently more so with the Duos. Finally, the last part on the Primus and Duos is on their weaknesses and limitations. In general, the Primus abilities tend to be not directly linked to combat. Darah had focused more on the genetic hardening aspect and essentially laying the foundation for the Duos serum so while not all Primus abilities were not meant for battle, most if not all abilities that are not meant for battle are in fact Primus abilities which is important since apparently physical trauma is what causes one to lose control of their Primus abilities, but it doesn't quite give clear examples on that. "
Octavia had been silent and processing the volumes of information before she suddenly said,"Oh! I think I know what you're talking about. When those bastards abducted me, I got blown through a whole lot of trees and even though my armour was up I couldn't even move and the last thing I remember is my invisibility flickering on and off without me trying to do anything. "
"Thanks, O. The next one is pretty important since pretty much everyone here has at least one Duos ability activated. The weakness of the Duos had to do not with the body, but more with the mind. The explanation states that when one hasn't mastered their Duos power and they experience extreme emotional highs then their powers would tend to run wild. Like..."
Here Clarke paused awkwardly as she realised just who was in the room and she stared at Raven who seemed to have reached the same realisation as her,"Like how I changed the weather from rainy to sunny when I landed and saw Finn."
To Clarke's slight surprise, she saw a downcast look appear on Finn's face at Raven's words, but apparently Raven wasn't done as she added in a voice that was deceptively void of emotions, "Or how I started a mini-hurricane in the woods when I found out Finn was cheating on me."
Instantly, the atnosphere in the room became awkward. In Clarke's eyes, it felt more mortifying than the time her parents had caught her making out with a girl in her room a few years back and this time Clarke wasn't even directly linked to the situation.
"Uhm, yeah. So anyone with Duos powers has to practice with their powers or you could end up hurting others or yourself. There also appears to be a general guide to measure the general limits and versatility of powers. There seems to be three tiers of how one controls their power and in general the higher your tier, the more you can do. If a power is localised around one set of organs, aside from the hands, then that is the lowest level like Jasper's heat vision or , uhm, Roma's scream. The middle tier is powers that are controlled by your hands specifically and these powers tend to have more use and firepower. This would be like Raven's laser beams or Bellamy's telekinesis. The highest level is anything that is controlled by your mind or some sort of mental trigger and these while not necessarily have the most power they are the most versatile. This is the tier that also allows one to directly affect other people or objects. This is like Finn's intangibility or Octavia's armour and invisibility. In all probability, Octavia could learn how to hide things with her invisibility or crystallise things like how Finn has already done."
Octavia looked pretty upbeat at the information and Clarke was sure Octavia probably had all sorts of ideas swirling in her head. The others were also pondering on the information they had learned and suddenly a bout of nervousness overcame Clarke as she realised she would have to tell them about what she had learned about the Novus serum.
The things she had learned about the serum had honestly amazed and terrified Clarke at the power she literally had available to her. The Novus was a whole new level of genius and insanity and while she was sure the others had some idea of what the Novus serum enabled her to do there was actually a lot more than Clarke had been expecting.
Clarke had been so focused on the Novis series that she hadn't realised everyone was waiting expectantly before Jasper coughed loudly and obnoxiously to get her attention.
Clarke jilted at the noise and when she finally snapped out of her daze she found the others all staring at her,"Right, sorry I drifted off. Anyways, I think it's time I tell you about the Novus serum. In Darah's notes, she never mentioned having ever taken a Primus or Duos serum and the reason for that was because this was the one she intended to take for herself, but she died before taking it."
Everyone was looking at her with focused eyes and Clarke began to toy with the ring on her finger. The motion settled her nerves and Clarke decided to just bite the bullet and get it over and done with.
"You see Darah had worked on all three strains simultaneously however Darah knew that she would probably become a massive target and she needed something to defend herself with and in all likelihood against others with powers. So Novus was at it's base designed as a hard counter to the Primus and Duos whilst also being superior at the same. That's why I'm a lot stronger and faster than everyone else by a long way and I think it was also a middle finger to the people who had stopped Project Ascendance, but it doesn't stop there. "
Clarke cleared her throat and with more confidence then she felt said,"So I'm sure you all remember how Darah had made the best gene editing available? Well, what pretty much everyone didn't know was that she had made even greater strides in that field. You see Novus is vastly different from the other two serums and that's why the serums were likened to a food chain. The Primus are similar to plants in that they aren't capable of much other than what their bodies do to survive. This is also why the body is the weakness of the Primus. It was purposeful by Darah since she knew that if someone to include the weaknesses ever betrayed her then she would have a way to subdue them. The Duos, on the other hand, would be the herbivores in that with their more combat inclined powers and increased physical capabilities they would be able to counter and subdue anyone with a Primus power. Therefore, following the food cycle method, Duos were essentially the herbivores and carnivores of the food cycle depending on how strong the individual was. The mind or emotions affecting the Duos powers wasn't intentional by Darah and so she decided to opt for a more sure fire way of being able to beat Duos powers and so she put all of what she had learnt in her life to the stress to make Novus which is the animal at the top of the food chain. The nanobots in the first two serums only ever ran once and made the changes before shutting down. "
"The Novus nanobots, on the other hand, don't ever stop running. Darah believed that versatility and adaptability were the bare bones of surviving anything and so Novus was initially made to account for any situation. Unfortunately, the computing power to process every single possible power that could appear and then manifest something to counter it was astronomical and only achievable in far too long a period of time. So, Darah decided that instead of being able to counter every power she would face, she would rather be able to steal powers instead."
The silence in the room was deafening and it was finally broken by Raven's shocked voice,"You can steal powers?"
The others – except for Bellamy and Octavia – looked just as surprised at these turn of events and Clarke nodded and said,"Yes, amongst other things. I can sense how many powers you have active or dormant and I can also activate them."
This time even Bellamy and Octavia were surprised and it was the latter that spoke up,"That's what you were doing to Diana when I found you. She was crying out in pain and you were just hovering over her and you were smiling Clarke. You didn't even hear me call your name like five times."
Clarke sighed at the wary and surprised looks everyone was giving her and she cursed Octavia's inability to keep quiet. It was extremely concerning to find out that Octavia had been right there and Clarke hadn't even noticed, but that was beside the point.
"I was pretty angry at the time. She's the reason Roma and who knows how many other people on the Ark are dead. So if any of you think I'm a monster who's about to attack you or something you can calm down. I'm still me,"said Clarke with equal parts incredulity and anger," If I wanted to steal any of your powers or something I would have by now. You guys trust me right?"
The tension in the room was thick and despite herself Clarke felt more than just a little hurt when no one spoke for a few moments, but it was Raven who broke the silence that was beginning to descend on the room.
"Clarke,"said Raven with more trepidation than Clarke had ever heard in the girl's voice,"Your hand."
It was then and only then that Clarke realised her hand was pointing at the others with blue energy rolling off her palm. Clarke lowered her hand shakily until it was at her side again.
The tears came without warning and they were suddenly pouring out of Clarke's eyes. Clarke looked at her hands and they were trembling.
All she could see was the beam shooting straight through Roma's heart. The scream Roma had let out was echoing through her ears like a haunting and constant melody. The signs of life slowly fading from Roma's were stuck on an endless loop within Clarke's mind.
The haunting scenes fled from her mind when she felt something warm embrace her. Clarke opened her eyes and she was surprised to find that the mechanic had pulled her into an embrace.
It had been perhaps only seconds since Clarke had lowered her arm and yet it had felt like a lifetime.