A/N: Thank you all for your wonderful, insight and helpful feedback! The one thing I love about such feedback (other than pointing out my mistakes!) is how certain comments can be the spark that leads to any idea, which connects to another and another so that before you know it and certainly before I do, another chapter is written, so thank you and enjoy!

Lexa

Did she really think that she could sneak away unnoticed? I'd always tended to sleep more on the light side for as long as I could remember. You never knew when someone would try to sneak up on you, especially when you held such a powerful position as I currently did.

I heard her words, I felt her lips lightly press against my cheek but was the sentiment hollow? Did she really mean those words? Or was she just using them as a ploy to escape? There was so much about Clarke that was still the same, but she was definitely not the same girl.

That 'experience' to put it mildly changed her in ways which were still being discovered, so it was altogether possible that she'd become more ruthless, more cunning, more calculated. Part of me was hurt that she would leave as she did after I'd opened my heart to her. But the overwhelming feeling that was ruling my emotions at the present time was anger.

It was this anger that drove me to chase after her. No doubt more Azgueda would be after her having failed in their first attempt, but if I was being completely honest, I wanted answers. Answers that only she would have. Right now all I had were questions.

After the mild head start she had, it wasn't long before I caught up to her. There were still outlying villages not far from Polis, so I decided to continue to follow her. I did this for two primary reasons. The first being that I wanted to have our confrontation somewhere more private where we could air our grievances discreetly. The second reason was I wanted to study her movements and her actions closely, especially when she wasn't aware I was doing so. I was hoping it'd give me some more insight into her.

As she entered a clearing that was quite sizeable, I had to change my tracking of her by sticking to the treeline, lest I give my position away. It was then that I first saw them. More Azgueda scum. My blood was already boiling so it was positively volcanic now. I watched as they surrounded her near the treeline on the far side of the clearing.

I presently was watching from high up in a nearby tree having made myself scarce upon first sighting of those I hated so bitterly. What did surprise me, but not as much as I'd have thought given their misgivings regarding the distribution of resources along with Azgueda and other clans was the sight of Desert Clan members.

I watched as they drew weapons, those that hadn't already done so that is and slowly advanced on Clarke. It was now that I made my move. I drew two daggers, one for each hand and dropped from my position. As I hurtled toward the ground, I let fly one of the daggers which lodged itself in the eye of one of those Desert Clan members standing in front of Clarke.

As I came into contact with an Azgueda warrior, mostly to break my fall, I plunged my other knife into his throat, removing the second warrior from the ambush. I sprang to my feet and drew my sword, standing back to back with Clarke now.

"I'm glad to see you Lexa," she had the audacity to say to me now. "Don't be so sure about that Clarke."

Without so much as a warning, those who sought to do us harm attacked and the skirmish begun. The sound of steel furiously meeting steel rang out in the early morning air as both sides played to win. They wanted nothing ore than to kill us and let our blood stain the land.

"When I kill you Heda, I'll parade your body around for everyone to see in Polis," this delusional fantasy proposed by that pile of rippling Azgueda muscle. At these words, Clarke let out a battle cry and charged the behemoth, making him step back again and again.

I'm sure had I not shown up even these mildly experienced warriors may...may have proven to be too much for Clarke. Then again, as I turned around after having pulled my sword out from the chest of another slain warrior, I turn to find the ground behind me littered with more bodies, left by none other than Clarke.

She was however too preoccupied with the behemoth to notice any other threat for the time being. "Duck!" I call out to her and hearing my voice she instantly does as I command. An arrow flies across the clearing and lodges in the chest deeply of said behemoth.

I turn and throw a dagger in the direction of whence the arrow came but it harmlessly clunks against the exterior of a tree. I catch sight of the mysterious archer but cannot determine the identity of the individual, due in large part to their cloak. They melt away deeper into the forest and I turn back to Clarke who has knocked away the weapon of the Azgueda behemoth and has her sword pointed under his chin.

Clarke

"Any last words?" I say to this large man who just tried and failed to kill me. My sword underneath his chin so as to maintain eye contact. He spits in my direction, harmlessly but damn rude that's for sure. I increase the pressure at which I press the point of the sword into his chin until a thin trickle of blood begins to run.

"Just a message for you and the Heda. We will not stop until we've destroyed you and all you stand for. Out with the old and in with the new." He nods at me rather than Lexa who had come to stand beside me to hear the message and with a quick slice of his throat, he's become nothing but free food for the vultures.

I stare at him, hardly able to believe that I was able to do this. That I had the skill to not only prevent him from hurting me much but also to knock away his weapon and then slice him upwards from his groin to his shoulder, before kicking him to the ground which is where our conversation began and finished.

"Thank you for..." I start to say as I turn, but discover that Lexa is no longer standing beside me anymore. In fact she's halfway across the clearing already. I sheath my sword and run to catch up to her.

She obviously knows I'm right behind her but she makes no move to acknowledge me. I grab her arm and pull her around, so she's now facing me and not too happy. "What's going on with you Lexa?"

She pushes me and I stumble back a couple of steps, "Me? What is wrong with you Clarke?" She steps forward as she continues, "I poured my heart out to you, I told you I loved you and yet you lead me on and leave me in the night like a coward. How could you?"

"I love you too Lexa but you know why I have to leave and you know as well as I do that it would have been that much harder if I'd had to face you. You'd have never let me leave."

We stood opposite each other, a few moments of silence before she finally spoke, a resigned but hard look in her eye. "Well you got what you want Clarke. You left and you you're free to stay away too. I don't want to see you again." She turned and started walking away again, but I wasn't finished yet.

I upped my pace and stood in front of her. When she tried to step around me I grabbed her and held her still, "Do you think this was an easy decision for me to make Lexa?"

She shrugged out of my grasp, "It sure seemed that way when you lied to my face and then left. Do you think it was easy for me, opening up the way that I did? But you probably didn't even think about me at all."

She pointed in the opposite direction, "Just go before I do something we'll both regret." I just stood there and watched as she got further and further away from me, except this time I made no move to follow her. Boy did I feel like the worst person in the world. What was the matter with me?

I just left her without even thinking twice about it. I just thought about myself. To use my people as an excuse was both selfish and incorrect. Those feelings for Lexa did exist, I didn't make those up. But I'd only been thinking of myself in my need to get away. The guilt weighed heavily on me now as I headed back to the Ark.

I needed to help my people, that much was true. War was certainly coming once again and we needed to be prepared. But unless we had Lexa's help, we we're going to get caught in the crossfire. Getting Lexa's help was going to be easier said than done given how I'd just screwed that up royally.

I needed to focus on the present though. I'd go back to the Ark and try to improve things there and then I'd go back to Polis and patch things up with Lexa. It may be the only way we were going to survive the potential onslaught that awaited all those connected or associated with Lexa.

A/N: So the end of another instalment! Will we see a reuniting of Clexa? Or will hurt feelings and jealousy jeopardise more than just their relationship?