She was outside of the Maunon stronghold, but she was far from free. As well as the impossibility of the Maunon pursuing her out of the building without their usual protective layer, there was also a high fence of metal surrounding the enclosure, with what appeared to be sharp pieces on the top to dissuade any attempts at climbing. Not that she had enough time to attempt that before being shot down. More blinding lights pierced the darkness and followed her every move. There were Maunon behind and above her firing away, so she just kept on weaving and sprinting as she made her way to the fence, frantically trying to think of a way through. When she was almost there a desperate idea took shape. She had one chance at this so she hoped it worked.

Lexa readied her sword and slashed down on the metal with all of her might at the first opportunity. A number of the chains were thus weakened as her hurtling body slammed against it, and the fence gave way just enough to allow passage. Jagged edges tore into her body length coat and nearly ensnared her before she regained her feet and rushed into the forest cover all around. The Maunon were yelling incomprehensible, urgent things. No doubt they were not giving up the hunt. She needed to find someplace to rest and think. But where?

Before she could fathom her predicament to any great extent, the ground began to rumble. Anticipating another earth shake, Lexa made sure she was not below any fragile tree branches and took a firm stance. However, when lights shone on the dirt road off to her side, she ducked down into the foliage instead and watched in amazement as three metal, horseless carriages rode past.

Somewhat dazed by this occurrence, she lay there longer than she should have and heard clumsy movement through the underbrush. Lexa held her breath as her original pursuers stomped around her, flashing their artificial lights nearby. When they too had passed, she contemplated stealth tactics and slitting their throats from behind. One of them had potentially killed Anya. This could not be forgiven.

Jus drein jus daun.

After dispatching of them, she felt marginally better about Anya and Gustus' fates. She took a quiet moment to revel in her agony, stupidity, to feel everything that she always denied herself, and then replaced her mindset with the commanders and continued on through the forest. Lexa moved away from the road and went deeper into the woods, towards Tondc, looking for some sort of sanctuary where she could plan her next attack.

If the rumbling machines hadn't been shock enough, coming to the end of the forest certainly was. In all her life, the only time the trees disappeared altogether was by the ocean, and she knew she was nowhere near there. A road separated this section of forest to the next. It was different than the last in that there were dotted white lines and solid yellow ones painted on. She knelt down and placed exposed fingertips to the hard, stone like surface, surprised that it retained a bit of heat.

Another horseless carriage rode passed leaving a trail of foul smelling air behind. Even her horse had never produced such disgusting scents. She shook her head at this and the destruction of her beloved forest and continued across the road on her quest for sanctuary.

Sometime later she was observing an unbelievable sight from the edge of the treeline on a crest. Down below was a city unlike any she had ever seen before, Polis included. Lighted buildings were everywhere, some rising higher than she would have thought possible - there was a large pointed tower on the opposite side of the city that particularly grabbed her attention. Hard roads separated some of them just as they had the forest. Even more of the machines glided effortlessly along their surfaces, and for some unknown reason, waited for red lights to turn green before moving again.

Perhaps the most startling thing of all: Maunon roamed freely. Her people had long puzzled over why they couldn't leave the mountain. Many said it was simple cowardice. But then why send scouts to spy on them? Why steal her people? As far as Lexa was concerned there was more to the story.

"You're not going to believe this, sir," said Jackson, as he bustled into Jaha's office.

Jaha had been in the middle of playing back the footage for the tenth time.

"What is it now?" he said, pausing the large wall screen on an image of the woman hurtling through their fence, their supposedly breakout proof fence.

"So, you asked us to run full diagnostics on them while they were in surgery and well," Jackson was practically bubbling now which was never a good thing, "they're radioactive!" he blurted out.

Jaha's eyes widened as he nearly crushed the remote in his hand. As if the situation wasn't bad enough. Now this. Maybe he had misheard?

"Repeat that for me, Jackson."

Jackson smiled and held up a Geiger counter. Jaha put aside the remote and rubbed his face with both hands.

"I couldn't believe how high their white blood cell counts were so I took it upon myself to investigate further. After eliminating every other cause, I thought to try this baby," he tapped the counter, "and lo and behold, I found the source!" Jackson got a dreamy look on his face. "Their immune systems are unlike anything I've ever seen before. They're absolutely beautiful and-"

"The radioactivity," barked Jaha, making Jackson jump. "Is it dangerous? Do we need to quarantine?"

"No." Jaha silently sighed in relief. "The levels are abnormally high but not harmful...so long as we don't eat them that is. That was a joke, sir."

Jaha just stared at him. Jackson cleared his throat, looking away.

"Anything else to report?"

"No, no, that was it, sir," he muttered before slinking out of the office.

Moments later, the light above the screen started to flash. Someone was trying to reach him. He pushed a button on the remote and Marcus Kane's larger than life face appeared.

"Update," said Jaha, hoping for good news even though his number two wasn't exactly smiling.

Marcus grimaced and said, "We found two more dead in the forest not far from the complex. Their throats were slashed."

That placed the body count at seven. While regrettable loses, these were not his primary concern.

"And? The woman? Have you apprehended her yet?"

"We have men scouring the forested areas still," Marcus answered after a brief hesitation. "But my money's on the city. We've tapped into the surveillance network. No sign yet."

Jaha placed his hands on his desk, leaning forward slightly, closing his eyes in consternation. He took a deep breath before saying, "She's dressed like a drunken pirate, Marcus. How hard could it be to find her at one in the morning?"

"Harder than you'd think, sir," said Marcus seriously. "It's convention season," he elaborated. "The geeks are out in droves." Jaha vaguely recalled his son saying something about that. "What else do you want us to do?"

Jaha audibly sighed. "We need to coordinate our efforts. Contact local law enforcement. Put a BOLO out. The usual thing. Armed and dangerous. Proceed with extreme caution. Make sure they understand this is a priority person of interest."

"Yes, sir."

"Oh and Marcus?"

"Yes?"

"I don't need to tell you what will happen to us if she gets anywhere near the white house."

Marcus gulped. "No, sir, you do not."

After disconnecting the call, Jaha mentally prepared himself for his next one. It was time to contact the Secretary of Defense and inform her of the situation. Already on thin ice, he had hoped to keep this development quiet and under control. Well, the cat was out of the bag now and if he didn't tell her soon, she would just find out anyway and give him even more hell for his operations massive screw-up.

"Call Madame Secretary."

Curiousity once more getting the better of her common sense, Lexa slid down the dirt hill and towards the twinkling lights and hordes of Maunon. She tried to rationalize this action by telling herself that it was necessary to find an ally in this strange world, for survival purposes; or at the very least, someone she could question at knife point about this place and the Maunon stronghold, to find its weaknesses and bring it down in a way she was never able to back in her land. For Gustus and Anya. She would have questioned one of the black clad men, but the blood lust and need for vengeance had clouded her judgement and they were choking on their blood before she realized her missed opportunity. Therefore, what she should be doing is hiding up in a tree waiting for another to pass by. Instead, she headed into an entire city of enemies, hand on the hilt of her sword, ever ready to strike.

Curiousity killed the Heda, she thought with a slight smirk.

The first people she approached did not attack her, but they did look at her funnily. The same could be said of most of the people on this side road. It became immediately apparent why this and the colourful lighted poles were necessary as she had almost been hit by one of the wheeled machines while crossing the lined road. A terrible sound came from it, one that rivalled the terrible smell. In fact, this place was so much noisier and smellier than she was accustomed to that even if she hadn't been anticipating a sudden attack, she would not have been able to fully calm herself.

However, after passing by a number of people wearing far too little clothing - where was their armour? - and still no one had pointed a gun at her, she relaxed a little and began observing her surroundings in greater detail. Amidst masses of grey, there were many vibrant colours, mostly on the people, but also on the walls and signs. There were no tents in sight and the rectangular buildings were constructed of some sort of clay substance, not metal. Every building had those same clear apertures that allowed one to look inside, as well as out. She stood in front of one of these and observed her own ghostly reflection.

It was no wonder all these clean people kept staring at her strangely. Her hair was full of twigs and dishevelled, many braids having come undone; her face was sticky with Maunon blood, sweat had co-mingled with this and the war paint making the design unrecognizable and chaotic; her war medallion was missing, likely lost as she crashed through the fence; the arms and back of her coat were ripped to various degrees, blood from cuts staining the dark fabric; hardly the picture of a respectable commander. If anything, she was surprised these weaklings had not run away in fear at the very sight of her like that Monty boy had attempted to do.

Lexa continued her exploration of the city, moving slowly but steadily towards the large tower that had commanded her attention earlier. She thought if anyone knew how to destroy the stronghold, it would be the person who lived in there. Obviously they were the leader of this city and possessed knowledge no one else did. How else could they have built such a masterful structure?

While impatiently waiting for a lighted pole to turn red, she noticed a group of heavily armed, albeit scrawny warriors from another clan approaching her. She gripped tighter on the sword hilt, mentally playing every manoeuvre she would use before they attacked. Except they didn't. They simply stood beside her, enthusiastically chattering about nonsensical things, and waited along with her. This close, she realized their weapons weren't even real.

One of them glanced sideways at her and said, "Cool costume." He looked her up and down, staring too long at her breasts. "Love all the details. That blood looks so real. But, uh," he gave her a bit of a guilty look, "who are you supposed to be? Are you someone from Mad Max?"

Lexa thought of simply ignoring him but decided there was no harm in responding. "I am the commander."

"Hmm, the commander," he puzzled as they began to walk across the road, stealing glances of her breasts every few seconds. "That's not ringing any bells. Could you be a little more specific?"

Somewhat flabbergasted (and outraged) that he didn't know of her, she continued with, "I command the twelve clans of the Trikru."

"The Trikru? Never heard of them. Is it from some really old fantasy stuff?"

Okay, now she was wishing she hadn't opened her mouth at all. This pretend warrior was clearly not worth her time. Across the busy road now, she turned to leave, but froze in place as she caught sight of a massive green man hulking towards her. The mutant torso and muscles were larger than any warriors she had ever seen. It would be a formidable foe.

Without a word she unsheathed her sword and prepared to lunge and strike it down. But as soon as the notched and bloody blade was revealed, the annoying fake warrior exclaimed, "Holy shit! Is that thing real?!"

The other fake warriors came to crowd around her and she missed her opportunity to kill it. One of them even had the audacity to touch her arm and ask if he could see it. She did not relinquish her grip and simply glared at him until he backed off. This the rest of them soon did as well and she moved past them, sword still drawn, looking for the creature again.

Lexa was unable to locate it amongst all of the other colourful creatures around the corner here. Some had mutant appendages sticking out of their bodies or even heads. No one was paying any attention to her except to give her vaguely lecherous looks that her warriors would be tortured for.

It finally dawned on her that perhaps there was a festival of sorts going on. The Trikru themselves wore carved animal masks during celebrations.

More at ease, she sheathed her weapon and continued towards the tower.

Okay, sorry, I really thought Clarke would make it into this chap. She'll definitely be in the next one. And I'm excited for their first meeting. :)

Also, the fake warriors were probably from Game of Thrones.