Clarke doesn't really know what to expect when she arrives at the Grounder camp. The only reason she's even here is because she has faith that Abby, her mother, can turn Lincoln back from being a reaper. They don't know how exactly, since they have no idea what drugs the Mountain Men used on him. The detox process alone could kill him in a heartbeat. But Clarke can't afford to think that way because if Abby truly isn't capable of returning his humanity, their people will be dead before the afternoon.

As she passes through the camp, tattooed faces stare at her with pure hatred and disgust. Some even spit in her direction while others throw the words of their language at her, not that she can understand them, but Clarke can only imagine how unpleasant they are.

"Wamplei kom hogeda skai kru!" (Death to all sky people)

"Ripa!" (Murderer)

She is led up a small hill overlooking the land between the Grounder camp and the Ark. When she gets close to the designated tent, a large and muscular Grounder with tattoos all around his face steps in front of her, his eyes giving away all the contempt and loathing he feels for her.

"If you so much as look at her the wrong way," he hisses, "I will slit your throat."

Clarke doesn't respond, but the threat sends a chill down her spine.

He moves aside and opens the tent flap. Clarke walks in cautiously, jaw clenched, while he follows. Standing just on the inside is a Grounder whose face is hidden behind a mask that only shows his eyes. The next person that comes in her line of vision is a dark woman with an equal amount of scars and ink on her face. Her hand clenches the hilt of a sword and the look she gives Clarke is frightening. But Clarke will not let any of these people see her fear, because the strength she shows now can mean the difference between life and death for her and her people.

Clarke slides her eyes to the left of the woman to finally look at the Grounder who will decide her fate.

Sitting back on a wooden throne and toying with a jagged-edged knife, the Commander watches Clarke's every move with cold, calculating eyes. Her long brown hair is tied back to express the face paint she proudly wears. Power seeps from her veins, though Clarke is surprised by her youth, assuming that the Grounders had someone much older giving the orders to slaughter her people. If anything, that makes this girl all the more dangerous, and she doesn't seem to be a day over seventeen.

Her beauty is dark, yet exquisite.

"So," Lexa says slowly, looking down at her knife as Clarke halts a couple of feet from where she sits, "you're the one who burned three hundred of my men alive."

It wasn't a question. There wasn't a single doubt that Clarke was the leader.

Shoulders stiff, Clark replied coolly, "You're the one who sent them there to kill us in the first place."

Lexa's dark green eyes finally met Clarke's blue ones with intensity. There isn't so much hatred as there is curiosity. There is dislike, of course, but also the question of how this situation can affect her people. She cocks her head slightly to the side, assessing Clarke.

"Do you have an answer for me" she asks stoically, "Clarke of the Sky People?"

"Yes," says Clarke, taking a deep breath. "I've come to make you an offer."

Lexa smirks humorlessly, as if the thought of Clarke's words being useful in any way is laughable. "You seem to be under the impression that this is a negotiation, but it is not."

The dark woman next to her mutters something in Grounder language, but Lexa holds up a hand, and she respectfully falls silent.

"I have found a way to beat the Mountain Men," says Clarke.

A spark of interest reaches Lexa's eyes, and she nods for Clarke to continue, still twisting the knife idly between her fingers.

"They have captured hundreds of your people, keeping them locked away in small cages. Their blood is being used as a kind of medicine to cure the people inside the Mountain when they are injured or ill."

Anger flashes across Lexa's face. "How have you come to know this?" she snarls with barely controlled anger.

"Because I've seen them. Some of my people are imprisoned there as well. I was among them only days ago—"

"Lies!" says the woman to Lexa's right. "No one escapes the mountain and lives."

"But I did," Clarke insists, and she says what she hopes will help the Commander believe her, "with Anya."

Lexa seems to be thrown off by these words, for her eyes widen slightly in surprise.

"We fought our way out together—"

"Another lie!" interrupts the tattooed Grounder woman. "Anya died in the fire that your people lit. You killed her."

Clarke reaches inside her pocket for the very proof that will show Lexa the truth, but before she can pull it out, she hears the kiss of metal against metal behind her, and realizes the man who followed her in has pulled out his sword.

No attack follows, so Clarke slowly takes her hand out of her pocket, clenching the braid she cut from Anya's head after she died. Lexa's eyes follow her every move, though her expression has gone back to a blank stare. "She told me you were her second before you became the Commander," Clarke says, "I'm sure she'd want you to have this."

She takes a few steps toward Lexa, eyeing the woman next to her, who makes no immediate move to stop Clarke. When Lexa reaches out to receive this gift, something close to pain flashes through her eyes while she gently caresses the braid.

"We have no idea if it is even hers—"

"Shof op, Indra!" Lexa says impatiently, and her second in command falls silent. "Anya was my mentor, before I was called to lead my people." She sets the braid down gently, refusing to look up. "Did she die well?"

"Yes, by my side," says Clarke, and with those words, Lexa's head lifts, and her eyes burn with intensity. "She was trying to get a message to you."

"What message?" Lexa snaps.

"There is only one way for us to save our people, and that is if we work with each other. Put our strength and intelligence together so we can fight the Mountain Men and get our people back."

Indra scoffs. "Those who are about to die will say anything. You are speaking the words of desperation."

Lexa ignores her. "I'm still waiting for an offer, Clarke kom skai kru."

This is it. Clarke is careful with her next words, for the impact they hold is everything. "Those of your people who have not been used for their blood are suffering something very different, if not worse. The Mountain Men are turning them into Reapers, controlling their animosity with some kind of drug. But—I can turn them back."

"Impossible!" Indra snarls angrily. "Heda, ai beg yu teik ai frag em op nau—" (Commander, I beg you let me kill her now)

"I've done it already," Clarke insists, "with Lincoln."

This seems to be the last straw for Indra. She lurches forward until her face is only inches from Clarke's and growls, "That traitor is the reason why my people were slaughtered in that village!"

"Indra!" Lexa warns, but she does not stop.

"He should bare the cuts of every person in that village and his head should be removed from his body to be placed on a plate for my Heda's satisfaction—"

"Pleni!" Lexa shouts, getting to her feet with dangerous precision.

Indra backs away from Clarke immediately, but the loathing in her eyes is something Clarke has never seen before. There is so much hatred there, though it is rightly placed. Clarke did burn three hundred Grounders, but it was to save the lives of her people. Still, Lincoln's head doesn't seem to be the only one Indra wants on a plate.

Indra takes position on the opposite side of the tent, needing to be as far away from Clarke as possible if she wants to abide the words of her Commander. Lexa, on the other hand, looks Clarke hard in the eyes as she takes a couple of steps forward until they are but a foot apart.

"You say you can turn reapers back into men?" she asks coolly.

Clarke nods. "Yes."

"Then prove it," Lexa hisses. "Show me Lincoln, and if he has indeed been turned back into a man, we shall discuss a truce."

"You will have to follow me," Clarke says slowly, hoping Lexa doesn't think she's trying to trick her into an ambush of some kind.

Lexa nods her agreement, and motions with her hand for Clarke to walk out of the tent first.

"Indra, Gustus, choose gonakru kom follow," she commands when they're outside. Both walk away at once to gather more grounders. The thought of them following makes Clarke nervous, but she'd be a fool to think that the Commander would go anywhere without reinforcements.

"You are brave to have come here alone," Lexa notes, falling into stride beside Clarke as they leave the grounder camp.

"I didn't really have a choice in the matter. You were about to send your people to slaughter mine," says Clarke tightly.

"But is it not only fair? After what you did to three hundred of my best warriors?" Lexa questions, not in a hateful way, but as if she's honestly curious as to how Clarke sees the situation.

Clarke looks at her in surprise. "Because you sent them there to kill us! I will admit, we did blow up that bridge and kill some of your people, but that was the cause of Anya wanting all of us dead for simply landing on grounder territory." Now that Clarke has started, she doesn't seem able to stop. "When we crashed here from the Ark, it was because we were sent here by our parents to see if Earth was habitable again. We were slowly dying up there, and needed to find another way to keep the human race alive."

"But we are here," says Lexa, "and the human race has been surviving for far more years than I have been alive."

"We had no way of knowing that from up in space," Clarke says pointedly.

Lexa doesn't respond, and there is silent for quite some time. Clarke can't hear the grounders on their trail, but one glance behind her back shows a furious Indra, a protective Gustus, and many more. Clarke clenches her jaw, hoping desperately that her mother has turned Lincoln back into a man.

5