A/N: So this chapter kind of rebelled against me and refused to be cut to any kind of appropriate lengths. I couldn't even figure out a way of chopping it up satisfactorily so I'm afraid it's all coming out in one big lump. Sorry about that O_o Good luck, grab some energy drinks and have fun!
Chapter 8
Ugh, again?!
Clarke pulled her horse to a halt, lurching her way off it with as much grace as she could muster, and marched stiffly to where her mother was crouching beside a small pool of water.
"Mum, why are we stopping?" she asked wearily, trying not to let her frustration show too much.
"You need to drink, too-"
"I'm fine," Clarke cut her off, waving away the canister of water. "We're almost home."
This is ridiculous. Is she trying to make the Grounders think we're weak?! We've got barely half an hour left before we get back to Camp Jaha-
With that thought came the realisation that they were in territory that Arkers might be patrolling; the last thing they needed was for the Grounders Lexa had sent with her for protection to attack Arkers they mistook for threats to her safety.
"Our scouts patrol these woods," she said, turning to the riders behind her. "Be careful where you shoot."
"Yes, ma'am," said the Arker guards who'd come with Abby. The Grounders merely nodded their gruff, silent, barely-there nods; Clarke refused to think of Lexa.
"The Grounders listen to you." Abby's statement was most definitely a question. Lexa's theories about the Ark's leadership and her mother's pride rose unstoppably in Clarke's head; she dismissed them as quickly as she could.
"Lexa told them to," she replied, trying to keep it simple. She watched her mother's reaction and felt another wave of frustration well in her chest. "We shouldn't have stopped," she said, trying to refocus. "Mount up," she called to the riders behind her.
"Clarke-"
"Mum," Clarke cut her off, losing patience. "I need to get back to that radio to see if Bellamy has made contact."
"Listen to me," Abby said, the belief in her own righteousness clear in her eyes. "I know you don't think you need my protection anymore, but you do. You have to trust that I know what's right for us." Clarke stared, forcing herself to swallow down the loudly protesting voice that said with great certainty that her mother really didn't have a clue how to make things work with the Grounders,with Lexa. "Let's go home," Abby said and Clarke all-but sighed with relief. Getting back to Camp Jaha to get to the radio was the most important thing right now. "Let's move out!"
Clarke made her way back to her horse, glad that the beast was so placid and obedient despite her clear lack of experience with horses. She heaved herself up into the saddle, trying not to wish that she had a helping hand pushing her up as she went.
Just as she got settled however, a sharp crack and a cry of pain rang out. Clarke jerked around in the saddle and saw one of the Grounders, Peton she thought, slump forward and tumble off his horse.
A gunshot.
It wouldn't have been Arkers-
"Mountain Men," she murmured the answer aloud, her heart thumping wildly in her chest.
If we can catch them, we can get some information.
She urged her horse forward, looking for an opening in the bushes to the side where the shot had come from, another of the Grounders, Rayek, following close behind her. They found the trail quickly and ploughed along it, pushing past bushes and ducking low branches until suddenly the track opened out and Clarke saw one Mountain Man dead and the other on his knees with Octavia's sword at his throat.
"Finish it!" Indra's cry rang out.
"Octavia, no!" Clarke managed to call just in time to make the younger girl stop. "He's from Mount Weather; we need to keep him alive. Check to see if he's got a patch kit, we've got to get him back to camp."
She watched, relieved to see Indra confirming her authority with a nod to the Grounder beside her who then went to help Octavia search the wounded man.
Did Lexa tell Indra to listen to me, or does Indra also believe I'm the one in charge at Camp Jaha?
Since when did Octavia wear Grounder war paint? And take orders from Indra?
Her musings were interrupted as she saw Octavia leave the writhing and moaning Mountain Man to rummage through his partner's rucksack. The look on the girl's face as she pulled some documents from the bag was unmistakably worrying.
"What is that?" Clarke asked as Octavia stared at the paper in her hands.
"Clarke," the younger girl called back as she stood and held the documents up to Indra first for a moment before making her way towards the blonde. "You and Lexa were the targets."
Clarke stared, shock and fear pulsing in her stomach as Octavia handed her the photos, the one on the top a clear image of Lexa and herself, their faces circled in red.
Me and Lexa. Dante tried to kill us. Me.
Lexa.
"We have to warn the Commander," Indra spoke, tension heavy in her tone as she gave voice to Clarke's own thoughts. "Sen op oso mou snap hosa ona Tondc," she ordered, her eyes moving to Rayek who was still mounted beside Clarke. "Nau!"
Rayek whirled around on his horse and galloped away.
Lexa will be fine.
She'll be fine.
"Clarke," Octavia's voice brought her back to the moment and she shook her head.
Focus.
"We need to get back to Camp Jaha, now," Clarke said firmly, her eyes flitting to Indra who held her gaze steadily. "One of the riders the Commander sent with me, Peton, got hit by the Mountain Man's bullet." She heard a sharp intake of breath from the Grounder general.
"Where is he?" Indra growled.
"This way," Clarke said, pointing back through the trees. "Follow me. Bring him, please," she said to the other Grounder who was now patching up the Mountain Man's suit. "We'll need to question him." Again, Indra's nod gave the go ahead before the general started jogging towards her.
"Take me to Peton."
Clarke spun her horse around as quickly as she could, almost no longer even impressed by Grounder physical prowess as Indra kept up with her horse as they made their way back to the road.
"My mother is with them; she'll be doing everything she can to keep him alive."
She'd hoped to comfort Indra, but the general showed no sign she'd even heard her.
Please let him still be alive.
"This guy is from Mount Weather," she told Jackson as they lowered the now-unconscious man onto a gurney. "We need to keep him alive." Clarke tried not to wince with her sudden fierce hope that Indra's eyes weren't on her as she said it. She was glad that Peton was in her mother's hands and not her own; Abby had her faults and her judgement was sometimes lacking, but almost never in the medical room.
"Lock him down," Jackson instructed calmly. "Pull."
"There was a tear in his suit," Clarke explained, as Jackson surveyed the burned man through his mask, "but we fixed it in the field." She caught sight of a familiar red jacket in her peripheral vision and realised that Raven was approaching. "Anything from Bellamy?" she asked, her heart pounding in her throat.
"No," Raven replied, worry evident in her tone.
"Then why aren't you at the radio?" Clarke exploded, the tension thrumming through her body and making her snap.
"Octavia just took my place," Raven defended herself, her voice rising righteously over the syllables. "How about you back off?"
At that moment Jackson reached for the Mountain Man's mask-
"No!" Clarke stopped him just in time, cold sweat trickling down her spine. "Leave it on. It's the only thing keeping him alive."
"Well, how can we treat a guy if we can't touch him?" Jackson protested even as he backed off.
Crap. Clarke's brain seemed to freeze, completely useless.
"I can rig up some scrubbers in the airlock," Raven suggested and Clarke could have hugged her. "Give me 20 minutes," she said confidently before striding away as purposefully as her damaged leg would allow her.
"Damn it!" Abby's hissed expletive cut across the room and Jackson left the Mountain Man to assist her. "I'm losing him. I need the blood now!" Clarke felt her stomach sinking as she realised that Indra was about to lose another warrior to a bullet because of her. She watched as her mother lost the battle, resorted to exhorting the dying man to fight and finally had to admit defeat. He was dead.
Indra marched slowly towards the fallen warrior, her face dark and solemn.
"Yu gonplei ste odon," she murmured as she drew her knife and cut a length of one of Peton's braids. She stood there, her hand resting gently on the dead man's head for a moment before her gaze slid sideways towards Clarke.
Oh god.
"A killer lives while a warrior dies?" the general growled as she stalked towards Clarke, anger rippling across her shoulders. "This is your way?"
"I'm sorry, Indra," Clarke replied, cramming as much sincerity into her voice as she could as she forced herself to hold her ground, "but he can help us beat Mount Weather."
"Then let me make him talk," Indra's voice took on a deadly softness, almost like Lexa's.
"No," Clarke replied firmly. "We're not torturing him." Images of what had been done to Lincoln flashed through her mind and she swore she'd never let that happen again if she could stop it.
"Clarke's right," her mother said as she reappeared beside Indra. "He might just talk because we saved his life." Clarke had to work hard not to groan; she could practically hear Indra's disgust before she even spoke.
"You people are so weak," the general hissed, turning and marching away out of the med bay.
Clarke took a deep breath and reminded herself that it wouldn't matter what Indra thought as long as she could keep Lexa on her side, as long as Bellamy could prove her faith in him to be justified.
Oh god, please don't let the Mountain Men have killed Lexa, please let her be-
Focus!
She felt before she saw her mother sidling up to her.
"Are you ok?" Abby asked gently, as if there was any possibility of being what they'd used to define as 'ok' back before they got thrown down onto this warzone of a world. Clarke decided she didn't have enough space in her brain to deal with stupid questions like that.
"He's gonna need a transfusion with our blood," she said calmly and firmly, directing the instruction to Jackson who stood across the gurney from her.
"I'll type him as soon as we can take off that suit," he replied and Clarke nodded, glad that there was nothing left for her to do in here right now, that she had nothing keeping her here in her mother's domain.
She turned to leave but a firm hand caught her elbow, holding her back.
"Someone tried to kill you today," Abby said, forcing Clarke to meet her gaze. "It's ok if you're upset."
Clarke wanted to scream at her.
How does she not understand that that's pretty much what happens every day here?! We've been under attack one way or another from the moment they sent us down here! It doesn't stop!
A phrase popped into her mind suddenly: 'Just another day on the ground'. She'd smiled when she said it to Lexa yesterday because she knew Lexa understood; Lexa knew that the reality of life on the ground was that it was pretty much always fraught with danger.
"Just another day on the ground," Clarke flung the words at her mother as politely as she could, knowing full well that her mother would be shocked and hurt and god-only-knew what else; it would be enough to make escaping her that bit more possible. "I'll be in Engineering waiting for Bellamy to radio. Let me know when he wakes up."
She strode away firmly, leaving her mother staring dumfounded behind her.
She's got to understand. If she's going to be Chancellor and try and make important decisions, she's got to understand what being on the ground means.
"Staring at the thing won't make it talk to you any sooner."
Clarke tore her eyes from the radio to where Raven was tinkering with something at the table. She swallowed, well aware that the mechanic was right, but no more able to move away from the radio.
"So much depends on this, Raven," she muttered, pressing her knuckles into her eyes for a moment to relieve the pressure of a headache that was building there. "I need to talk to Bellamy."
"As if you hadn't already made it abundantly clear that hearing from him is the most important thing in your day today," Raven snarked with an almost lazy roll of her eyes. "All I'm saying is there's no point wearing yourself ragged stressing over something you have can have no effect on."
"Any word?" came Monroe's agitated question as she strode into the room. Clarke was slightly relieved to have a buffer between her and Raven right now.
"Nothing," she replied heavily as her chest tightened again.
Come on Bellamy; I need you to make contact so we can get started on this plan. Lexa's depending on- We're all depending on this!
"Damn," Monroe sighed, the hopeful tension dropping from her shoulders. "I've been sent to tell you: the Mountain Man's awake."
Clarke's eyes widened and she leapt to her feet, a little more cold seeping into her blood.
"He's awake? I've gotta-" she strode to the doorway, only pausing on the threshold to say, "Let me know if-"
"Don't worry," Raven cut her off with an epic eye roll. "We'll tell you if Bellamy makes contact."
"Right, thanks," she said, hoping her quick smile didn't come across as awkwardly as it had felt. She dashed out of the room and away from Raven; she wished the air didn't feel thick and heavy between them all the time now, but she didn't have any idea how to fix it.
This Mountain Man better have some good intel, she thought to herself, trying to refocus, something to make Indra see it was worth saving his life.
She rounded the corner just in time to see Kane approaching the door, her mother leaning against a wall, watching.
"Hey," she called out as she approached. "Has he said anything yet?"
"No, we're just starting now," Abby replied, a frown crossing her face at Clarke's approach. After a moment her eyes flicked back to Kane and she nodded. He walked over and pressed the intercom button.
"Can you hear me in there?" Kane started, knocking on the window to make sure they got the man's attention. The Mountain Man sat up on the gurney and faced them. Clarke wondered if she'd seen him in the Mountain but quickly dismissed the thought. "What's your name?"
"Carl Emerson," he said, his voice a little groggy but clear enough. "Mount Weather security detail."
"Ok, Carl," Kane nodded and Clarke felt a brief moment of hope that this might actually work out. "I'm Marcus Kane, that's Abby Griffin, and that is Clarke Griffin, but I think you already know that." The Mountain Man just stared back silently at them. "We found the photos in your rucksack. We know you were targeting Clarke and the Commander. Can you tell us why?"
Emerson's silence only dragged on and Clarke's eyes were drawn unstoppably to the various items on the table beside her that had been taken from his bag, particularly to the pile of photos.
"Do you know if the team sent after the Commander was successful?" she asked before she could stop herself. Emerson's eyes landed on her but they gave nothing away. Clarke swallowed. She could feel her mother's frown on her.
"Please answer the question," Kane said firmly after a few more moments' silence.
"Carl Emerson, Mount Weather security detail."
He was like some kind of strange robot stuck on repeat. Clarke swallowed, her eyes drawn back to the photos again. She picked them up, flicking through them until she came to the one that made her chest squeeze, the one of Lexa and herself all circled in deadly red.
"As you already said." Kane was evidently losing patience. "You don't seem to be grasping the situation here. You should've died in the woods. We saved your life. Why not help us bring an end to all this?"
"Carl Emerson, Mount Weather security detail."
"He's not gonna talk," Clarke spoke into the boiling silence. She'd seen the Mountain Man's facial expression when Kane said they'd saved his life; she knew what it meant.
"He will if we open the door," Kane practically growled, his eyes fixed on Emerson. Clarke raised an eyebrow but was fairly certain Kane wasn't going to follow through on that threat and her eyes returned to the photo in her hand.
The beeping of the intercom made her look up again and she saw her mother standing by it, glaring at Kane indignantly.
"We are not doing that," she hissed at him.
"We need to know what he knows," Kane hissed back.
Clarke wanted to roll her eyes. It was extremely tempting to point out that she and Bellamy had already had this discussion over Lincoln weeks ago. Her eyes drifted across the other contents of Emerson's bag and landed on a small metal cylinder that looked familiar.
That's one of those tone generators that they used to control the reapers, she realised with a jolt.
"Vulnerabilities," Kane carried on and Clarke was brought back to the fact that they were still arguing over something that she knew very well how it ended, "troop numbers."
"She's right," Clarke cut in, not wanting to waste any more time on this. She didn't often come out in support of her mother in arguments, but she was right on this one. "Torture doesn't work."
"Clarke, it could save your friends-" Kane protested, clearly not understanding the concept that torture was not only inhumane, but ineffectual.
"I'm the Chancellor," Abby hissed, spinning around and jabbing a finger at him in the air; it was like a toddler throwing a tantrum.
"Then act like one!" Kane hissed back. "I told you I would support you as long as I believed that you were doing the right thing."
"I am," Abby insisted, "and if you disagree, convene a vote and take my place."
Oh god.
"I don't give a damn about the title," Kane exclaimed and in that moment Clarke saw that he understood the situation better than her mother did, even if he was wrong on how to deal with Emerson. "I just want to save our people."
"So do I," Abby practically huffed. Clarke quite understood why Kane chose that moment to storm away as his frustration got the better of him. There was a moment of ringing silence before Abby turned to the guard who was stood by the airlock door. "I want this man under 24-hour guard. Is that clear?"
The guard nodded and Abby turned to Clarke. Clarke looked into her mother's face, saw her searching for something to say or for some kind of defiance in Clarke for her to squash, before she too turned and stormed away.
Well that was effective, Clarke thought, shaking her head a little hopelessly as her gaze ran back to Emerson, slightly disconcerted to see him watching her.
But she had found out something useful from watching the exchange, something worrying, but useful: the Mountain Men's 'security detail' had been at least as hardened as the Grounders had by the last century spent surviving Earth. They dressed up their brutality better, hid their harshness better, but she saw the same ferociously defiant determination in Emerson's eyes as she'd seen in many of the Grounders. Not only did this mean he wouldn't talk, but it meant that the Mountain Men were at least as dangerous as the Grounders, if not more so because the Grounders didn't use guns.
It was a chilling thought.
It makes sense though; only a people hardened by survival could keep other people in cages to drain their blood, or turn men into reapers with a drug.
The reapers.
That at least was something concrete she'd be able to show to Indra; if Raven could replicate the tone generator, and Clarke would bet her life that she could, then they'd have a way to control the reapers without hurting them. Between that and her mother's proven ability to rehabilitate reapers, that must surely go some way to repairing things with the angry Grounder general.
She turned and made her way back to Engineering, telling herself firmly that she didn't need to feel anxious about seeing Raven. She liked the other girl; she had a hell of a lot of respect for her. It was only difficult because every time she looked at Raven she could see all the damage that she, Clarke, had done to her.
Get over yourself, Griffin, she told herself firmly and strode into the room, trying to ignore the desperate hope in her chest that Monroe would still be there.
"Raven, hey," she said as she walked in, her heart dropping unstoppably as she saw that the older girl was the only one in there.
"He hasn't made contact," Raven said wearily, not looking up from what she was doing.
"I figured," Clarke said, unable not to heave her own sigh. "I have a job for you." She realised she'd phrased that incorrectly the moment Raven swivelled around to face her, an eyebrow raised in scornful challenge. "Have a look at this," Clarke said hurriedly, handing the tone generator to the mechanic who took it after a moment's hesitation. "I got this from the Mountain Man's rucksack. They use them to control the reapers." A look of understanding dawned quickly on Raven's face. "Do you think you can make more?"
The mechanic turned her focus to the tone generator, flipping it around in her hands a few times before she flicked the switch. They both winced as the high pitched whine burst into the air.
"Yeah," Raven said, switching it off again. "I can totally replicate this frequency."
"Good," Clarke said with some relief as she paced behind her. "If we can neutralize the Reapers, the tunnels are an option. Get on it." Again she almost winced as soon as she said it.
Why must I lose any sense of tact around her, of all people?!
"You don't need to give me orders, Clarke," Raven snapped, tension clear in her posture even as she kept her eyes fixed on the device. "I got this."
"Raven!" Clarke was glad of Octavia's interrupting cry as the younger girl came running down the corridor to join them. "Any word from Bellamy?"
"Nothing yet," the mechanic replied, all the anger dropped from her voice as she turned to Octavia, softness and sympathy flooding her gaze.
"Lincoln's still missing, too," Octavia said, fear shaking her voice as she closed her eyes for a second. "He should be back by now."
"They'll be ok," Clarke said firmly, wrapping a hand around Octavia's arm in an attempt to reassure her.
"They better be," Raven said darkly. "Your whole plan rests on Bellamy getting in."
"He will," Clarke retorted, her own ire rising. She could take Raven doubting her, but doing so about this in front of an already-distressed Octavia was not on.
Before she could come up with anything to say to Raven however, the P.A. chimed through the air with a summons for her and Kane to the airlock where the Mountain Man was being kept. She could not afford to miss whatever was happening down there.
"We'll finish this later," she said, her eyes resting on the back of Raven's head for a second before she glanced at Octavia and dashed out of the room.
She made it to the airlock corridor just as Kane arrived from the other direction, both of them striding quickly along the metal walkway. She met his eye a little warily but took his silence with relief as they both turned towards the airlock and walked to where her mother was waiting for them together.
"Did he say something?" Kane asked as they approached.
"No," Abby said, turning to them with a sigh, one hand on her hip. "But his blood did. Jackson found genetic marker anomalies that can only come from someone who was born on the Ark." As she spoke, Abby's eyes flitted from Kane's to Clarke's and back again, as if she knew Clarke would understand what this meant before Kane did.
"It's started," Clarke choked out, her blood freezing in her veins. All she could think of was all the time she'd wasted since her escape from the Mountain. So much time wasted on so many fruitless things when the people who had needed her were being drained of their blood.
"It didn't come from the blood transfusion that we gave him?" Kane asked, the ridiculousness of this question bringing Clarke back from her thoughts.
"No," Abby replied, as of course she would. "I took the sample before that."
"They're bleeding my friends," Clarke ground out, fury blossoming in her chest like billowing flame.
"We don't know that-"
"Yes, we do," Clarke cut off his absurd attempt to calm her. "We were genetically engineered. They weren't."
She strode forward, a red haze of raging hatred rising around her, her eyes fixed on the air lock control.
"What are you doing?" Kane demanded, grabbing her by the arm.
"Killing him," she answered simply and tried to walk on but he tightened his grip, holding her back. "Get out of my way, Kane!"
"Calm down," he said, as if he hadn't been the one to threaten opening the door just an hour earlier.
"Clarke," Abby said sharply, stepping forward. "You are not in charge here." Her eyes met Clarke's and Clarke wanted to roar her frustration. "We do things my way."
She stared at her mother and at Kane, taking in the guards by the airlock door and knew she'd be fighting a losing battle if she tried again.
Besides, we've already lost, the thought reared its ugly head and the fight went out of her. They're probably all already dead.
With that gut-punching thought, she dropped her resistance and walked away, despair rising as the faces of her missing friends rose in her mind.
She walked back through the Ark's hallways, not really knowing where she was going until she found herself striding through the doorway to Engineering, taking some weird comfort in the fact that Raven might blame her for wasting time as much as she did.
"We're too late," she said, anger at herself beginning to bubble up again as she spoke. Raven twisted in her chair to face her, horror filling her eyes. "They're already bleeding them." The loop of Jasper's voice on the radio reached the part where it said Harper might be dead and they didn't know how much time they had left. Clarke wanted to be sick. "It's over."
"No," the older girl said suddenly, standing up to glare at Clarke properly. "You don't get to give up, Clarke," she said, her voice rising and cracking in her anger. "You killed Finn and I didn't give up." Clarke gaped at her, feeling like she'd been punched in the stomach. "I'm building a damn tone generator. You do your job."
"What is my job?" she demanded to know, feeling overwhelmed by the insanity of the fact that people seemed to expect her to know what to do, to know what was going on.
"I don't know," Raven yelled back, "to come up with something!"
"I have tried-"
At that moment, Jasper's loop cut out and the voice they'd all been waiting to hear rang out through the radio; Clarke thought her heart might have just stopped.
"Camp Jaha, this is Mount Weather," Bellamy's voice came fuzzing across the airwaves, shocking them out of their argument. Raven spun around in shock, reaching jerkily to fine-tune the frequency and clear up the transmission. "Can anyone read me?"
"Holy crap," Raven breathed, her voice low and serious.
"Camp Jaha, this is Mount Weather," Bellamy began to repeat and Clarke looked at the mechanic beside her, not trusting herself to grab the right bit of kit without interrupting the transmission. "Can anyone read me?" Thankfully, Raven deciphered her hesitation quickly, grabbing the microphone and handing it to Clarke.
"Bellamy?" she spoke into it, her voice shaking a little.
"Clarke?"
Relief was like cool water in her parched mouth.
"Are you all right?"
"I'm fine," he replied quickly. "That's it for the good news. We have to talk fast. Something has changed. Jasper, Monty, everyone, they just locked them in the dorm."
"But they're alive, all of them?" She hardly dared to believe but-
"I think so, for now." Clarke felt like her chest might explode. "Maya says that they're already using their blood, and things are gonna get ugly in here real fast." The joy was short-lived.
"Maya is with you?"
"She helped me escape," he said and Clarke hoped that someday she'd get the chance to truly apologise to the mountain girl for her behaviour before. "If not for her, I'd be dead. And, Clarke, there are kids in here." She could practically see him swallowing heavily. "We need a plan that doesn't kill everyone. Please tell me we have one."
"I hear you," she said, hoping he'd understand, "but we can't do anything until you disable the acid fog. Raven is gonna help you." She glanced across and saw Raven silently nod her agreement; it felt oddly wonderful to have her support.
"Got it. What else?"
Thank god for pauna.
"You have to figure out a way to free the Grounder prisoners," she said firmly, remembering the rows and rows of trapped Grounders caged inside the Mountain. "There's a whole army inside that Mountain, and they don't even realize it."
"Trojan horse," he summed and she was glad to hear he'd understood so quickly. "Good plan."
"What does Maya think?" Clarke asked, knowing that the girl would have a much better understanding of what was really achievable than either of them would. "Is it doable?"
There was a slight pause.
"She says it's not a problem." Clarke really hoped she was right. "Look, if I'm gonna pull this off, I need you to buy me some time. It won't be long before they realize I don't belong here, and if that happens-"
"That can't happen," Clarke cut him off, her mind already firing as a possible plan rose swiftly in her mind. "I'll come up with something." She glanced across as she felt Raven's eyes on her and saw the older girl almost smirking at her with a raised eyebrow.
"Come up with it quick," Bellamy's slightly gravelled voice responded.
"Copy that," she agreed fervently. "And, Bellamy?"
"Yeah?"
"You came through." She couldn't help a small proud smile, thinking of how far he'd come, of how much he'd proved himself capable of.
"All I've done so far is not get killed," he said with uncharacteristic self-deprecation.
"Keep doing that," she ordered him, considering it to be a fair achievement in itself. She handed the radio back to Raven, her plan solidifying in her head. "You're up."
"What are you gonna do?" Raven called after her as she walked away.
"I'm gonna keep them looking outside instead of in." Raven blinked at her for a few moments and Clarke smiled, hoping it would be enough to convey her gratitude. She'd needed a kick up the ass and Raven had given her one.
She practically jogged out of the fallen Ark, knowing that she'd need some backup to put her plan in action and knowing exactly who the best person to get that backup from was. She glanced around once she'd gotten outside, scanning the compound for Grounders until she spotted them, training as usual in the west corner.
"Indra!" she called as she approached, feeling hope and determination and the brightness of a workable plan firing in her blood. The Grounder general turned and Clarke could see the surprise form on her face as she looked at Clarke and saw the conviction in her gait.
"Clarke?" she replied with cautiously guarded interest. Clarke could see Octavia, who had been sparring with another Grounder under Indra's careful watch, stop what she was doing and turn worried eyes to her.
"I need your help," Clarke started, having already decided that frank bluntness was the best plan. She saw Indra's brow furrow and ploughed quickly on. "We've just heard from Bellamy on the radio." Her eyes darted to Octavia again and saw beautiful bright relief flood her face. Indra's eyes widened for a split second before they too flitted to Octavia.
"Did I say to cease your training?" she growled at the young girl and the Grounder she was sparring with. The Grounder immediately took up a fighting stance again and, after a few moments' hesitation, so did Octavia. "What do you need my help with?" the general asked, her narrowed, calculating eyes back on Clarke again.
"Bellamy's got a lot of work to do in the Mountain that will be crucial to the plan that the Commander and I settled on. We need to keep the Mountain Men focused on us so that they'll be too busy to notice that they have an intruder." She watched as Indra processed her words, keen eyes always evaluating, judging, weighing. "I want to send them a message, a threat that will force them to look at us instead of Bellamy and I want to use the Mountain Man we captured to do it." One of Indra's eyebrows rose and Clarke was fairly certain the general had already figured out what she'd need her help for. "I need your help, your support, to override my mother's authority here and get that Mountain Man out of her custody."
Clarke tried her best not to hold her breath as Indra's dark, piercing eyes seared her for several long moments.
"Alright, Sky Girl," the general nodded. "You'll get the help you need."
"Thank you," Clarke breathed, adrenaline buzzing in her veins as Indra nodded disdainfully at her again.
"Octavia, Larran, Yaro, Gasthar, Rishi, Veran!" Indra called and immediately Octavia and the five Grounders turned to face her, ready to jump at her order. "Masta ai op!" All six grabbed their weapons and formed up around the Grounder general. Clarke had to work not to stare in amazement at Octavia, at the way she seemed to fit seamlessly into the group. "Lead the way, Clarke kom Skaikru," Indra addressed Clarke again, her voice low and still distrustful.
Clarke nodded, turning and striding firmly away to the airlock. It was incredible quite how unstoppable she felt with a good plan and a handful of Grounders at her back. She felt no hesitation as she ordered the guard at the airlock to stand aside, no doubt that he would cede to her authority and no amazement when he did.
Even as they marched out of the Ark into the compound and murmuring voices began to be heard as people realised what she was doing, even then Clarke knew without a shadow of a doubt that she was not going to be stopped, no matter who the official Chancellor was. She watched with almost a trace of relish as her mother and Kane rushed to confront them.
"Clarke, what are you doing?" Kane called as he jogged to intercept them.
"Clarke, stop," her mother tried to order.
"No," Clarke refused, her veins on fire with determination. "I'm letting the prisoner go."
"Absolutely not," Abby cried incredulously.
"He hasn't told us anything yet," Kane said in the tone of explaining something very obvious.
"He doesn't have to," Clarke retorted quickly. "He's gonna tell them something." She watched Kane's brow furrow and wondered if he might have an inkling of understanding.
"Get the prisoner back to the airlock now," Abby ordered the guards behind her.
"Yes, ma'am," one of them answered; he and several of his fellows advanced a step. They got no further before the ringing clang of swords being drawn rang out behind Clarke and the Arker guards froze, raising their guns defensively against the Grounders standing with Clarke. Clarke swallowed and looked hard at her mother, willing her to understand.
"You may be the Chancellor, but I'm in charge."
Abby's eyes widened a fraction, her nostrils flaring.
"Indra," she said, her voice shaking with anger, "tell your people to stand down before this gets out of hand."
"No," the Grounder general replied with absolute calm.
"People could get hurt," Abby said, her eyes back on Clarke as if trying to guilt her into backing down.
"Not if you get out of my way," Clarke replied, feeling another thrill of that unstoppable feeling at the sound of the Grounders' support behind her. She decided it was time to dole out a little patronising truth to her mother: "You need to trust that I know what's right for us."
Abby looked as if Clarke had slapped her.
"The Grounders trust Clarke," Kane said carefully after a moment as he took a slow step closer to Abby. "Maybe we should, too."
Clarke could almost see the different facets of her mother's pride whirring and battling it out on her face as she tried to decide what to do.
"Stand down," she said after a long moment, and Clarke felt relief flood through her. She hadn't doubted that the Grounders would get her past the guards, but she really hadn't wanted it to come to that. Her mother moved aside and Clarke strode past her, the Grounders bringing Emerson in her wake.
"Open the gate, now," she ordered the guards on the gate and watched as it swung open. She stood just beyond the threshold and waited as the Grounders frogmarched the captive forward to face her. "Can you hear me all right?" she asked as she peered through the perspex of his mask, "because I need to make sure you get this."
"Loud and clear," he grunted.
"I have a message for your leader," she began, feeling that fiery determination flood her veins again. "We're coming for him. You're watching us, but you haven't seen a thing. The Grounder army is bigger than you think, and even if you could find it, your acid fog can't hurt them, and now, thanks to you," she lifted the tone generator she'd borrowed back from Raven and flipped the switch on for a few seconds' demonstration, "neither can the Reapers. So you have one last chance. Let our people go, and we'll let you live. It's just that simple."
"I got it," he nodded and she could see the grim understanding settle on his face.
She reached for the gas release on his oxygen tank.
"It's an eight hour walk back to Mount Weather," she said, affecting a casual tone, and then pressed the release, watching the marker tick down past eight all the way to six. "You're gonna do it in six."
"Six hours?" he protested. "That's not enough. How am I supposed to deliver your message?"
"That's your problem," she hissed at him, fairly certain that it was physically possible. "Now go."
His eyes burned into her for just a second longer but then he turned and ran headlong back into the forest. She watched him for a moment, satisfied that he'd make it and that the time limit she'd enforced would mean he wouldn't stop for any dangerous detours on route. She took a breath, letting the satisfying elation of having carried out a plan that could make a real difference fill her, and then turned back to Camp Jaha.
Octavia stood defiantly before her, tension wiring through her body; Indra stood behind her, watching on with unreadable eyes.
"Clarke," the younger girl started, evidently working hard to contain her fearful anger, "you want to explain to me how this helps my brother?"
"I just told him we have a secret army to worry about," Clarke explained, trying to reassure her. "The more they're looking at us, the less they're looking at him." She watched, seeing the moment Octavia understood, the moment her anger turned to relief. "Bellamy is the key to everything, Octavia. If he dies, we die."
"Clarke!" a bellowing voice called her back just as she was making her way towards Engineering early the next morning. "Clarke of the Sky People!"
She turned, recognising that it was Indra's gruff voice hailing her, and went to meet the Grounder general as she came towards her up the corridor.
"Indra," she said as she approached, trying but failing to recognise the enormous Grounder who walked with her. "Is everything alright?" Clarke had gone to sleep the previous night satisfied that her plan was a good one, a strong one, but had woken this morning with a horrible feeling that it was all just too precariously balanced. Bad news was not something she wanted to be handed right now.
"This is Ryder," Indra said, gesturing to the huge man beside her as if that answered her question. She carried on at Clarke's enquiring look. "The Commander sent him last night with orders to protect you; he is to be your personal guard. She feels it is necessary to increase your protection, given the specific threat to your life from the Mountain Men."
A thousand different thoughts spiralled through Clarke's brain at this: first and foremost was her deep and resounding relief at the proof that Lexa had survived the Mountain Men's attack on her if there had been one; second came the apparently blush-inducing thought that Lexa had been concerned enough about her well-being to appoint her a personal guard; third came the almost suffocating pressure of the thought that Lexa was counting on her to come through at this meeting, so much so that she'd sent her a guard to make sure she made it there; and then there were the myriad worries that surfaced around the awkwardness of being shadowed by a complete stranger and the distrust that she knew he would be on the receiving end of from her people, despite the fact that he was there for her protection.
And on top of all that, if she knew Grounders at all and if she knew Lexa even a bit, there could be little doubt in her mind that this Ryder would have been instructed to give his life for hers if necessary and he would most likely do it willingly as his Commander had ordered. It was a little uncomfortable knowing that a stranger was running around after you, prepared to give their life for yours.
"Uh," she said as she realised she should probably respond, "ok; thanks." She tried to smile at him, hoping it didn't look as timid as it felt; his gruff, unsmiling nod wasn't exactly encouraging.
"We will be ready to leave for Tondc in approximately one hour," Indra said after a few moments' awkward silence. "Make sure you and your people are ready."
"We will be," Clarke said firmly, managing to keep her voice together despite the howling raging fear that was gathering in her stomach that she might have to face the twelve Clan leaders at Tondc with very little to show for herself. And then on top of that, her skin decided to heat up again at the remembered realisation that going back to Tondc would put her back in close quarters with Lexa.
It'll be fine, she told herself firmly. It only got weird because we had to survive the pauna alone together. It'll be fine.
Indra nodded at her, looked for a moment at Ryder and then marched away back down the corridor. Clarke glanced up at Ryder who was still stood there watching her, waiting to follow wherever she went.
Great. Just perfect.
"Well," she began, glancing a little warily up at him, "I'm headed to Engineering to see if Bellamy's checked in yet."
He nodded but said nothing so, after a moment, Clarke took a deep breath, smiled at him as best she could and carried on down the corridor towards the room with the radio. She could hear his footsteps on the metal grating behind her but decided she'd just have to push that from her mind for now; there were more important things going on.
"Has he checked in yet?" she asked as she entered the room.
"No," Raven replied, glancing back and staring sceptically as she caught sight of Ryder. "You worried someone's gonna try and take a shot at you inside the Ark?"
For goodness' sake…
She took a breath and decided that if he was there for her protection, he was probably supposed to take orders from her too.
"Wait outside, Ryder," she told him, somewhat relieved to see him nod and back out of the room. She turned back to Raven but the mechanic's focus was already back on the board in front of her. Somehow Clarke still felt the need to justify herself. "Lexa's orders."
"Whatever, Clarke," Raven waved her off with a slight shake of her head.
Clarke clenched her jaw but took a breath and moved on. Her eyes caught on the radio again.
"He's late," she remarked, unable to quell the fear that rose in her throat. "What if something's happened to him?"
"He'll be fine," Raven said with confidence Clarke wished she could match, the mechanic's focus on the puzzle before her too strong.
"You've been busy," Clarke said, her eyes darting around at the various schematics on the tables and boards around them. Her eyes caught on a diagram of the Philpot Dam and she strode over to it. "Why are you focusing on the dam?" the question bubbled up angrily in her chest and she rounded on Raven. "I told you acid fog was our priority."
"Until Bellamy gets eyes on their dispersal system, there's only so much I can do," Raven retorted, an irritated edge coming into her voice as she raised her eyes from the board and took a step towards Clarke.
"Fine," Clarke conceded, knowing that arguing wouldn't help and that she didn't have nearly enough expertise to argue with the mechanic about this anyway. "Tell me about the dam. Can we cut off their power?"
"Maybe," Raven replied. "I'm still playing with a few things."
Clarke's wandering eyes landed on a tone generator and she picked it up, pleased to discover that it made the same tone as the one Emerson had been carrying.
"How many of these have you made?" she asked, holding the generator up.
"Only two so far, but-"
"Two?!" Clarke exclaimed, slamming the generator back on the table as her panicky fear grabbed her again. "That's not enough. There will be Reapers everywhere."
"High-frequency tone generators don't grow on trees, Clarke," Raven protested defensively, advancing on Clarke as she spoke. "Wick is scrounging for parts-"
"Raven," Clarke cut her off, feeling the pressure of expectation all-but bursting out of her head as she struggled to keep her voice calm, "I am about to leave for Tondc, where Lexa and the heads of all twelve Grounder clans are waiting for me to tell them we're a go, only we're not a go because they still have acid fog, and we only have two tone generators."
She couldn't bring herself to watch as Raven's anger gave way to soft concern.
"Hey," the older girl said gently, reaching a hand out to rest comfortingly on Clarke's arm. "We'll be ready. We will."
Clarke wished it was that easy to believe.
"Ark Station, do you read me? Anybody there?" Bellamy's voice crackled through the room and they both jumped, hope lifting some of the veil of panic from Clarke's mind. She strode to the radio, picking it up with no hesitation this time.
"Bellamy, you're late," she admonished him even as relief thrummed in her voice. "Every three hours means every three hours."
"Are you through?" came his quick, unapologetic reply.
Clarke took a breath, met Raven's eye and conceded that now was not the time.
"Have you found the source of the acid fog?"
"No. That's gonna have to wait."
"What?" she exclaimed in disbelief. "No; nothing is more important than that."
"Our friends are," he replied, his voice cracking a little. "They've starting taking them from the dorm one at a time every few hours."
"Wait, taking them where?" Raven asked, pulling the radio carefully towards her, her eyes darting to the Mount Weather schematic they had drawn up.
"I don't know," he replied. "We tried to follow them, but they went to a classified level. Maya borrowed the schematics of the vent system from her boss, and I'm still trying to find a way in. Anything?"
"I think," came a quieter, muffled voice that Clarke just about recognised as Maya's, "I found a path, but it's gonna be tight. Here's the walkie Raven asked for and the earbud."
Clarke looked questioningly at the mechanic.
"We're going to make him mobile so he can talk to us from anywhere," Raven answered her look and Clarke nodded; it would certainly make things easier.
"Bellamy," Clarke said, picking up the radio again, "you have to find them."
"That's the plan."
"If you don't, all of this is for nothing."
"Yeah."
Silence rang for a moment as they all tried not to contemplate the consequences of Bellamy not finding their friends.
Clarke took a breath and looked at Raven, the decision firming up in her mind by the second.
"I'll be right back," she said, handing her the radio and turning quickly toward the door.
"I thought you were going to Tondc?" Raven called after her but Clarke didn't wait around to answer; the mechanic would find out soon enough.
She passed Ryder in the corridor and he silently followed after her as she marched quickly from Engineering to the Council Room where she knew Kane would be preparing for the trip to Tondc. Determination was warring with slightly defensive self-justification in her mind.
Lexa's expecting me.
I'm needed here. Kane seems to get it; he'll do just fine. Lexa needs to understand that I'm not really an authority figure around here; nobody elected me.
She's expecting me. She said she'd rather not deal with any of my 'generals'.
She'll just have to get over it. She knows Kane, respects him. It'll be fine.
Of course this has nothing to do with being worried about the meeting, or with being afraid of seeing her again.
Shut up.
She did her best to sweep her thoughts aside as she strode into the Council Room, Ryder on her heels.
"Plans have changed," she said firmly as Kane looked around. "I'm staying here."
"The Commander's expecting you," Kane frowned.
"Our people inside Mount Weather are in trouble," she explained, telling herself firmly that it was perfectly legitimate justification. "I'm not going anywhere until I know they're ok."
"And what can you do for them from here?" Kane retorted a little tartly. Clarke knew she had no answer for that question so she ignored it.
"You'll go to Tondc in my place," she continued firmly, as if he hadn't challenged her at all. "Lexa respects you. I'll get there soon as I can."
"Clarke, wait," he said as she turned to leave and grabbed her arm to hold her back. Instantly Ryder drew his sword, stepping closer as if preparing to defend Clarke from Kane.
Clarke stared at him for a second, astonished, before quickly gathering herself and realising that his instructions were to protect her from any threat, from any source. She swallowed, met his eye and tried to look calm.
"Put it away," she said firmly and was a little relieved as he nodded, sheathed his sword again and stepped back.
For goodness' sakes, Lexa-
"Clarke," Kane said carefully as she turned back to him, "being a good leader means knowing which battles to fight-"
"And which to delegate," she finished for him impatiently. "I know. Please, I need you to go to Tondc."
He looked at her steadily for a moment before taking a breath and nodding.
"Fine; I'll go."
"Thank you," Clarke breathed, nodding her gratitude at him as the doors opened behind her and quick footsteps entered the room. Clarke turned to make her exit but was met by her mother striding into the room.
"What is it?" Abby demanded as she looked at their faces.
"Kane will explain." Clarke did her best to brush her off, not wanting to get into another debate.
"Perhaps your mother should go," Kane said, his voice raised a little to call her back as she tried to leave again. "She is still the Chancellor after all."
Clarke looked at him hard, trying to mask her incredulity. She had thought he had noticed her mother's propensity for tactlessness with the Grounders almost as much as she had. The last thing they needed was to set Abby loose at Lexa's summit with the leaders of the twelve Clans.
"Which is why she's needed here," Clarke replied firmly; she was not quite able to meet her mother's eye however so she answered quickly and left just as quickly.
She all but ran back to Engineering, Ryder hot on her tail; her heart hammered in her chest at what she'd just done. Going against Kane and Abby was one thing; displeasing Lexa was a different thing altogether, for a wide and disconcerting plethora of different reasons.
It's done, she told herself firmly. Focus on the mission.
She reached Engineering in just a few minutes, asking Ryder to wait outside again as she entered, just in time to hear Raven giving Bellamy directions over the radio. She walked forward to stand beside the mechanic, her eyes roving over the schematic of Mount Weather they'd constructed between them, seeing the additions Raven must have made with Maya's information in her absence.
"So you're not going to Tondc?" Raven said, glancing at Clarke and taking her thumb off the radio transmission button.
"Kane's going instead." She met Raven's eye for a moment. "I wanted to be here." Raven gave her a tiny nod and Clarke knew she understood at least that part of her reasoning.
They waited a few moments and Raven filled her in on what Maya had said and what she had consequently instructed Bellamy to do. Clarke swallowed hard and nodded; when Maya had said it would be 'tight' she had not been exaggerating.
"Ok," Raven said, pressing the transmission button again and speaking into the radio, glancing at Clarke as she did so. "So tell us where you're at now."
"I'm at an intersection," came Bellamy's slightly crackly reply. "Which way?"
"Ok," Raven said, handing the radio to Clarke and stepping up to the schematic, pointing to a clustered junction of pipes that seemed to be just a few metres from where they had estimated the lab to be. "He just passed the air filtration system on this floor, which puts him about here."
"Bellamy," Clarke spoke into the radio, "we think you're close. The lab should be up ahead."
There was a slight pause.
"Any chance you can be more specific?" he asked uncertainly and Clarke looked questioningly at Raven. They both stared at the schematic trying to figure out what the problem was. A muffled high-pitched buzzing sound came from the radio and then Bellamy's voice sounded again. "Never mind. I got this."
As he moved, the buzzing sound got louder and clearer.
"Is that a drill?" the mechanic wondered aloud and Clarke had to swallow very hard as a horrible possibility rose in her mind.
"Bone marrow extraction."
They stared at each other. Clarke's blood felt like ice in her veins.
It fits.
They both snapped to look at the radio as the drilling stopped and a cool female voice became audible.
"You ready for the last treatment you'll ever need, Lieutenant?"
"You have no idea," came the reply.
I know that voice. I know I know that voice.
"I've waited my whole life to breathe fresh air."
"That's Emerson!" Clarke hissed as she figured it out.
"Let's get back to this secret army that she claims to have," came another man's voice, this one oily and arrogant. She racked her brain to recognise it but came up with nothing. "She tell you anything that might help us find it?" At that point the drill started again but- "Stop drilling, please."
"The window for extraction after death is incredibly short," the cool female voice protested.
Death. The window after death.
Oh god.
She and Raven stared at each other again and Clarke could see her own panic mirrored in the other girl's face.
"I only need a minute," came the arrogant voice again.
"No, sir," Emerson replied.
Sir? But it's not Dante he's speaking to.
Didn't Dante have a son who was second in command or something?
"Nothing about the army," Emerson continued. "She did say she was coming for you and that if we let her people go she'll let our people live."
"It's a little late for that," the other man said with almost a trace of amusement in his voice.
"I'm sorry I failed, sir," Emerson apologised.
"No, it's ok," the arrogant man said calmly. "We'll finish the job tonight. Whitman just radioed in. Apparently there's a war council meeting happening tonight in one of their villages, and all the leaders are gonna be there."
Clarke's heart jolted in her throat and she stared at Raven, fear bubbling through her veins.
Lexa-
"Sir, I feel good," Emerson said. "Let me take a team out and support Whitman."
"No. He has less chance of being spotted if he's alone."
"Sir, Whitman's good, but he can't take out that many targets alone."
"Which is why," the arrogant man said and Clarke was sure she could hear the smile in his voice, "we're gonna use a missile. This time, we're not gonna miss."
A missile.
A MISSILE!?
Clarke's head felt like it was going to explode as her boiling fear erupted inside her.
All those people- Lexa, Kane, Octavia-
Lexa-
"Please tell me you heard all that." Bellamy's whispered voice broke into her thoughts as it crackled over the radio. She swallowed hard, trying to corral her thoughts.
"We heard it," she replied, her brain still firing.
"We have to warn them," Raven murmured, the fear in her eyes echoing that in Clarke's.
"Did Kane take a radio?" she asked, a desperate doubtful bubble of hope in her chest.
"No," Raven replied quickly, popping the bubble. "This is the only unjammed frequency. We have to keep it open for Bellamy."
Clarke knew she was right. It only left one option.
She pressed the transmission button on the radio and met Raven's eyes; she needed them both to hear her.
"If I leave now, I can make it there in time."
"In time to be blown up, you mean-" Raven tried to protest.
"When I get back," Clarke carried on firmly, "I want to know our friends are safe and the acid fog is down. Can you handle that?" She stared hard at Raven, needing the older girl on board. She watched as resignation set in on Raven's face as she closed her eyes, shaking her head for a moment before meeting Clarke's gaze again.
"Yeah," she said, still shaking her head, "we can handle it. Go."
"Clarke, wait," Bellamy called over the radio, fear evident in his voice. "Octavia was in Tondc when I left. Is... is she-"
"She's here," Clarke said quickly before Raven could answer; that was definitely one of the easiest lies she'd ever had to tell. "She's safe." She watched Raven's frown form quickly and deeply.
"Ok," Bellamy breathed his relief. "Good. Be safe, too"
"I will," Clarke replied and hoped she wasn't lying this time.
"Octavia's in Tondc for the meeting," Raven challenged her as soon as the transmission was cut. "Why'd you lie?"
"Bellamy can't be distracted," Clarke explained, knowing that the pragmatist in Raven would understand quickly enough. "It helps no one." She put the radio transmitter back on its hook and moved to walk past Raven.
"Hey," the older girl stopped her, pulling her back. Before Clarke could fully understand what was happening, Raven's arms had wrapped around her, holding her tight. A lump rose in Clarke's throat and she tentatively raised her arms, returning the embrace. This was the last thing she'd expected from Raven; Clarke knew she'd given the other girl more than enough reasons to hate her and yet here they were. Apparently Raven's heart was big enough to make space for her in there anyway.
They held on for a few seconds and Clarke soaked up all the comfort that she could before they both pulled away.
"Don't get blown up," Raven said softly and Clarke almost smiled. She nodded, unable to find a voice in that moment, and turned to leave.
She ran from the room, Ryder jogging after her as she went and this time Clarke blessed the Grounder's unquestioning silence. She raced out of the Ark to where the few remaining horses were kept, thankful beyond belief for their existence and hauling herself up into the saddle as quickly as possible.
"We have to get to Tondc as fast as possible," she said to Ryder as he leapt into the saddle of his own horse a few metres away. He met her gaze, his brows furrowing a little at the urgency in her voice, but he nodded.
"I will lead the way then," he said, his voice a low rumble in his chest. He paused for a moment before speaking again. "Lean forward over the horse's neck once we're galloping and she will truly show you the meaning of speed."
Clarke stared at him, already wincing in anticipation of how much pain her legs would be in, but she nodded firmly.
"Let's go."
He silently urged his horse into a quick trot and she followed after him out of the compound into the forest, breaking into a gallop as soon as they were clear of Camp Jaha.
We've got to get there; we've got to get there in time.
Her mind ran over and over those words in a terrified mantra, faces flashing in her mind as they rode. Kane, Octavia, even Indra.
Lexa.
Oh god, Lexa.
A/N: Cliff hanger! Or it would be if you hadn't already watched the show and knew what happened ;)
Apologies again for this being the longest chapter of anything ever written, I hope it managed to stay enjoyable anyway.
For the Lexa fans among you, I have a strong suspicion that the next chapter will be from her pov – there's only so long my inner fangirl can apparently go without visiting our little Commander's thoughts
Thanks, as always, for reading! Let me know what you thought with a review
