DISCLAIMER: The 100 belongs to the CW Network, There is no intended copyright infringement.

Note: Incase anyone noticed, I put this chapter out in a rush last night and today when I had a bit more sleep behind me I fixed it up a bit, so that was what changed. Anyways, reviews are wanted as always, and enjoy!

Chapter 2:

Remember Me - Drink With Me

I thank whatever gods may be

For my unconquerable soul.


"I lost someone special to me too. Her name was Costia. She was captured by the Ice Nation whose Queen believed she knew my secrets. Because she was mine. They tortured her, killed her, and cut off her head."

"I'm sorry."

"I thought I'd never get over the pain, but I did."

"How?"

"By recognizing it for what it is."

Clarke turned to look at her and in the same instant Lexa turned too. Their eyes met.

"Weakness."

"What is? Love?"

A nod.

"So you just stopped caring? About everyone?"

Another nod.

"I could never do that."

"Then you put the people you care about in danger. And the pain will never go away. The dead are gone, Clarke. The living, are hungry."*


"Heda, allow me."

She raised her arm, chalice in hand, and passed it to him. He sipped it, and handed it back.

Gustus is a good guard, but that was unnecessary. Clarke isn't someone who would do that. Maybe to others. Maybe to a Mountain Man. But no. Not me.

Lexa gave a pledge and toast to the alliance and it's goals, and as one her and Clarke brought the cups up towards their lips.

Gustus doubled over suddenly, a moment before they sipped.

What the?...

He gagged. He coughed. And with the cough came spit and white foam. He stumbled backwards, rapidly losing control of his limbs. Of his body.

Of his life.

No…NO

"This wasn't us! You have to know this wasn't us!"

Clarke's plea fell on deaf ears. Lexa was lost, her mind running a hundred miles a second. She turned over every moment of the past 3 days. Every moment where something could have happened to explain this. Someone else slipping the poison into the bottle. Someone poisoning Gustus for an unrelated reason entirely.

But no. None of it made sense. None of it except the obvious. She had been fooled. Tricked. Played.

By Clarke.

The world faded away. Words were exchanged between the two leaders. Lexa's words were harsh and bitter, and with them she noticed something change in the eyes of the girl before her, to a deep pain. Like a wound still being bandaged was dug into by vicious claws exposing the raw flesh again, all too soon. Somewhere in Lexa's mind she acknowledged the words she had just spoken to the girl. Brutal and unnecessary.

No, stop. They just tried to kill me. Whatever I said to her was just.

Lexa breathed in sharply through her nose and back out again just as quickly. Her mouth was sealed shut, her teeth clenched together so tightly she could feel her jaw straining.

She didn't care. The muscles beneath her cheeks rippled and contorted, flexed and tried desperately to rip out from under her face and shred the world to pieces. Her eyebrows squeezed inward, her forehead wrinkled and folded into lines in the center, and her eyelids slid over her eyes, just narrowly leaving them exposed to the outside.

And those eyes, they blazed. Like infernos from the deepest corners of hell, searing and biting and hunting, hunting for their enemy. For the one who wanted to kill them. For the one they wanted to kill. The hazy green that usually resided there was gone. Fully dilated, her eyes were two black holes set on white canvas, melting whatever fell under their gaze, turning the Sky People to ash.

Her men had searched their enemies and found poison on one. The Commander's fury now given something, someone, to poor all its hatred into. But the one they called Raven, the one who delivered the poison that nearly took her life, wasn't enough.

The girl who she had comforted just this very morning, with the blonde hair that even on it's worst days could out shone the sun. With the face that Lexa found herself picturing more than she would ever dare to admit. With the eyes that could tear down her mask and see straight through Lexa to the very core of her emotions, to the center of her heart where the fire raging and searing inside of her was rooted. The girl who she found an unwarranted but comforting ability to trust without pause. She should take the blame too. She had betrayed her. Had proven her right. Love was weakness. Caring is weakness. Clarke of the Sky People had come too close and now the fire was set to burn her.

Good. Let her burn. She plays to gain my favor only to stab me in the back. To stand there and watch while I accept her people's gift of death. While my guard risks his life for me and ruins their sad attempt at what? What is there to gain by my death? Without me they would be the dead ones.

Lexa's heart took up arms and waged war against her mind. She couldn't fathom why the Sky Girl wished for her end. She couldn't understand what would be to gain. Her people would not disband to kill each other, at least not until the killers of their Commander were slaughtered. Jus drein jus daun.

Clarke's mouth was open. It hung there, shocked.

What, surprised your plan failed?

The Commander, with rage set on her face, swimming lavishly through her eyes, in her mouth, throughout her war paint. Her mask, ordered that none of them were to leave, and with that the enraged grounder left the room. She needed air. Needed to remember how to breath.

"Breath deep, Clarke, and hold it. You must clear your head. Let your breath out slowly, and with it your thoughts. Keep doing this until you can without shaking. It helps."

She felt like a fool. Giving words of wisdom, of comfort, to that girl. Clarke must have so enjoyed how vulnerable Lexa had made herself.

She probably fought back laughter at my hand on her neck.

Lexa found her way to her tent, ordered the warrior acting as her temporary guard given the state of Gustus to stop anyone who tries to enter, and kill anyone who persists. She wasn't interested in hearing her generals demand the heads of the Sky People. She had plenty of those thoughts in her mind already.


Indra entered the tent.

"Let me gut them Heda."

So much for killing anyone who persisted.

"No."

"They dare try to poison you, in one of your villages at that! You cannot let this stand, it will be seen as weakness, the ranks could lose faith in you. Give me the order, Heda."

Lexa looked up, anger set on her face, fire flickering in her eyes.

"No."

Indra was on edge. She was a powerful presence in any room, often seen as more dangerous than Lexa by those unknowing. Like the Sky People.

The general simmered, her muscles tensing and straining, begging to be allowed to run ramped, to destroy those who tried to kill her commander. But she knew she would get nowhere with coming headstrong at her Heda, so she forced herself to take a breath and, and reply more calmly.

"Heda, with respect, their act must be seen as an act of war. They got in close, gained your trust, and then betrayed you."

"I am well aware of what happened Indra!" The Commander's voice bellowed. The ground shook below her, the air retracted, trying to escape the fire that was coming to consume it.

Indra's shouldered pulled back a bit, her weight shifting slightly back onto her heels, but she didn't step back.

A little calmer, "The one they call Raven. She had the poison on her. She shall pay with her life. Death of a thousand cuts."

"And the others?"

"They have until the girl is dead to return to their camp safely and get their people out. After the girl pays for her crime we will march on their camp. If they are there they will be slaughtered."

"I will ready the girl."

Indra walked out, leaving the tent in an uncomfortably empty air. Lexa closed her eyes, but all that did was bring Clarke's face to her mind.

She turned around, lunging at the lone wooden table in the center of her tent with a furious scream that would make any warrior take a step back, and in one sweeping motion sent the maps and various papers atop the table scattering and fluttering to the floor. The Commander leaned over the table, her fists resting on it and supporting her weight.

Breath. Breath.

She clenched her eyes tightly shut, formed her mouth into a thin line, and tilted her head down and turned it to the side. She stayed this way for a while, not wanting to move. Not wanting to show the world the pain she was shocked to find herself in.

Not physical, but deep emotional pain. The kind that only the heart can feel. The kind that washed over her and became one with her when Costia had been ripped from her grasp and killed. The kind one gets when they allow themselves to care.

Why am I feeling this? Love is weakness. Love, is weakness…

And then she realized, in that moment, hunched over the table alone in her tent, that she had no hatred for the act. The assassination attempt itself was not what caused her hurt. No, It was who.

But it was Raven…

Clarke had to have known. There is no way she didn't know. What kind of leaders doesn't know the plans of her subordinates.

Love is weakness. Costia was my weakness, but she's no longer here, and with her absense my weakness is gone too. I have no care for anyone. I have no weakness.

Clarke.

And it hit her. Like a wave crashing against the jagged rocks in a storm. Like a fire being suffocate and put to rest, it hit her. She cared about Clarke. She saw herself in the young girl who fell from the sky, who wanted her people back, who had seen too much for her age and who shouldered the burden of leadership.

Who was willing to kill the one she loved to cement this alliance.

At my order.

Lexa's mind blurred again. She lost track of reality and with lots of movement and muffled voices she didn't try to hear, including her own, she found herself refocusing. Raven was before her, tied to a post. Her knife had drawn a red line across the girl's arm. The girl was contorting her face in pain, the thin red line snaking down, being pulled to the Earth, leaving a trail behind it that contrasted with the white of the girl's skin as though they were meant to oppose each other.

"Lexa stop!" Clarke's voice grabbed her attention.

She let the girl through and the girl began to explain, something? Lexa still wasn't focused. All she could focus on was the desperate look on the girl's face as she tried to save her friend. And then,

NO, STOP! What are you doing?! Are you trying to get yourself killed?!

Lexa's mind screamed but her voice did not cooperate. Before her was the person she had for some reason felt this unwavering ability to trust. The girl who fell from the sky. The one who had turned the grounder's world upside down over the course of, what, three days? The last time she had felt this immediate trust was with Costia.

No, that can't be what this is. I've only just met her, and love is weakness. I know this. I just told her this. My mind is playing tricks on me.

But still before her the girl stood, drinking the liquid that had almost poisoned Lexa straight from it's bottle, and still, the grounder found herself tearing herself apart inside and screaming for the girl to stop, but her body wouldn't listen.

Why? Don't let her die…

"Clarke!"

Bellamy, Octavia, Kane… All the people who had earned their place alongside her cried for her to stop, to not do something so rash as to...

Or not.

She was fine. She explained. It was the cup.

But then…

"Him." The one they called Bellamy's arm was raised, his finger extended, pointed at her guard. Gustus.

She questioned. He admitted.

Lexa hated this feeling. The world fading, voices mufflings. Her inability to remember anything after the moment passed. All she knew was she was sorry. So sorry, for ever doubting Clarke. For ever thinking that the Sky Princess would harm her, would betray her. She would never. Someone she had trusted so fully had betrayed her still, but while she hurt it was Gustus, there was unexpected relief that consumed her with the knowledge it wasn't Clarke.

Clarke.

And in that moment Lexa made a silent vow. An oath to herself. As long as she breathed, so would Clarke. She would always be there to help her carry her burdens and survive, and she would never betray her. Clarke's people would be saved, by her alone if she had to, and Clarke would be under her protection. She would cut down anyone who tried to harm the girl. An attack against Clarke would be an attack against her.

Gustus stood there, tied to the poll where Raven had almost died. Blood dripping from a thousand wounds all over his body, soaking his clothes and pooling in his mouth. His eyes failing him, his strength leaving him. His fight nearing an end.

She stood before him, blade in hand, and came to. Back to reality, back to the present, out of her trance. His breath curled in front of his face, and even it looked glad to leave his dying body. And with his last, he whispered out to his leader. His Heda.

"Ste yuj."

She drew her sword, she leveled it. Centered it. Readied it. And with all the strength she could possibly find hiding away in every part of her body she managed to raise her eyes and look into his.

"Yu gonplei ste odon."


Jus drein jus daun - Blood must have blood

Ste yuj - Be strong

Yu gonplei ste odon - Your fight is over

In case anyone is wondering, yes, Lexa's promise to herself will play in as the story continues. Don't worry, I'm not in denial about the events of pt1 of the season finale (I envy those who are though). Anyways, please remember to give me reviews! Always appreciated.

*The entire first bit is directly quoted from the episode. It is not my original work, I simply put it there because I felt it was important to lead into the chapter as this entire chapter revolved around Lexa's thoughts and fear someone she trusted with personal information had betrayed her. So just to be clear, the entire first section of this chapter is NOT MY WORK! Thanks!

And of course, please let me know what you thought of my work : )