[That's because there is no real way to view her world in a more pleasant light. It's all that and more. People at war. People believing that because they were lucky enough to have certain abilities (skills, not powers), they should be allowed to succeed. (Clarke had been talked into that once, believing that it was also better to save some people than all people. She would never do that again.)

She shakes her head.]

The first time? I don't have the whole picture, but Becca—she was ALIE's ... ["Creator." As much as Clarke knows their conversation would be strange to overhear, talk of AI would be even worse in a place like this. Plus, it's Markus' work. She doesn't finish the thought. She's certain he can piece it together.]

She wanted to make up for what she did. The Flame I described to you and Connor before—it was originally meant to sync up with the Ark where I grew up. That didn't happen as planned, so she went down to the ground with it and some additional technology that she had developed. Blood that could withstand radiation. Black blood.

[Which she has mentioned before, and might again. Her golden ticket to another Insomniac's Ball.]

This blood changed people permanently, and it eventually became a recessive gene, passed on. And thus, so did the Flame. [And for those who didn't have the blood itself, they were still changed, albeit to a lesser extent.]