AN: Warning! Torture ahead!


Clarke's hand falls away from the door. Lexa's knees have given out from underneath her so Clarke steps forwards and catches her before she can injure herself. Lexa's face is anguished. Tears have begun falling out of her eyes once more and her mouth has fallen open. At the sound of their fall Luna turns around, her face ablaze with fury.

She's standing at the table with two guards next to her and a messenger chained into a chair across the table. Clarke and Lexa had walked in on an interrogation.

"Nomon? What is this?" Clarke's voice is strained, and sounds so unlike her usual that Luna's hard expression softens before she turns back to the messenger.

"Costia and Lincoln's ship was attacked during last night's storm. Lincoln survived but the ship was ransacked. One of our trading ships came across the wreckage, this messenger was waiting for them," Luna's guards leave when she flicks her wrist in dismissal. They have a hard time moving around Lexa and I but they manage it. Lexa's tears continue to fall and she shows no sign of movement. She's empty, shattered.

"Nomon can you look after Lexa? I'll get the information we want from him," Luna nods and grasps Lexa at the knee and shoulder before lifting her and carrying her to the next room, out of sight from the head but still close enough that she can revel in the screams Clarke shall be causing.

"Hello there, my name's Clarke, this is Diana," Clarke reaches into her belt and draws out a pure white blade, with a serrated edge designed for sawing. The blade glints in the candle light revealing it's poisonous nature, "She really, really wants to meet you. But you see, she doesn't have too if you tell me everything."

The man's face remains stoic. He stares straight ahead and for a second Clarke is reminded of Libra before she killed him, "Do you know who I am?"

This gets a reaction out of him as he turns to look at her suspiciously, "I believe you know me as the Bloody Smile," his eyes widen at the name. Clarke's become something of a boogeyman in the Ice Nation due to her massive killing sprees, "Do you want to talk now?" the man straightens himself and resumes his stoic face, "Good, more fun for me," Clarke switches her grip on Diana before stabbing through his palm.

Clarke steps back and watches for a couple of seconds as the poison enters his bloodstream. She sighs and takes off her jacket revealing a lightly worn tank top, muscled biceps and numerous scars along her shoulder blades. On one arm she has a black tattoo of waves swirling around her bicep marking her as a member of the Floudonkru and on the other two crossed bones and a wolf skull mark her as a member of Jus en Klaka's crew.

Clarke changes her grip on Diana again before dragging it through the skin on his shoulder.

"Tell me who sent you," another cut across his chest. By now the poison is sitting in and the messenger can feel burns forming along his skin.

"Meet Diana, poisoned with diluted juice from the fruit of a manchineel tree. I hope you get along well together," the man screams as his veins are burned through by the deadly juice now running through him.

Clarke holds up a small vial, "As much as I enjoy your screams, tell me everything and I'll heal you."

And so the man blabs. It's not surprising really, he's a messenger from the Ice Nation. They don't train all their citizens for battle up there, the fools. Even the Maunkru train all their people on how to withstand torture, though that may be more so they don't flinch in the face of sparks from their forges. He tells Clarke everything she asks for, from the location of every Azkru village to his mother's maiden name. She smiles and offers him the vial. When he eagerly opens his mouth she tips the liquid in being careful not to get any on herself. The man's eyes widen as the new poison takes effect and Clarke clasps her hand over his mouth and nose.

"Now that one was juice squeezed from the Gimpie Gimpie plant. It's also known as the stinging tree, how're you feeling?" the man's face is turning red but eventually he swallows and Clarke removes her hand from his face unleashing his scream. Veins all across the mans body tense as he struggles and struggles to free himself. The pain is intense, and often known for forcing stronger men to suicide. Clarke sighs once she's certain that his chains are secured, not that he could run away if he tried.

But just to be certain she heats up another dagger and cuts his achilles heels.

"Be a good boy and scream for me won't you?" the man is so far gone into his screams that he's frothing at the mouth, "Tsk, I asked you a question," Clarke grabs Diana and stabs the man in the arm again, furthering the spread of the manchineel poison and the burns that are now appearing all across his body as the poison spreads through his veins and combines with the juice from the stinging tree,

"I'll be back in a bit with my friend, keep this warm for me will you?" Clarke grabs a needle from the torture tools Luna has set out and slams it between the tendon and ligaments in his knee. The needle is coated in more juice from the stinging tree and the man has bit off a bit of his tongue from the pain.

Clarke rises and leaves the man behind to go and see Luna and Lexa. Her hands are covered in his blood from when she cut him with Diana so she takes care to draw the two tear-lines down her face.

As Clarke opens the door she comes across the scene of Lexa sobbing as she grasps desperately at Luna's back. Clarke kneels down next to the two and wraps her blood-soaked arms around them. Lexa snuggles into the new heat as Clarke gently removes her arms before starting to braid Lexa's hair.

"Is it done?" asks Luna, knowing that Lexa will appreciate at least some semblance of normality during this chaotic time.

"He told me everything, I made sure to sure only Diana and Gimpie so Lexa can make her choice."

Lexa continues sobbing into Luna's shoulder, not even bothering to respond. The screams still fill the air around them as the man next door is slowly passing from this world.

Clarke makes quick work of Luna's braids, she'd often done them for Bugia in the same fashion. When Lexa's sobs stop momentarily, Luna sees her opportunity.

"Lexa, I know this isn't the time, but do you wish to walk the path of redemption or vengeance?"

Lexa's tears and heaves for breath still momentarily as she considers her options, "Whats the difference?" her voice is weak, and muffled by Luna's shoulder. Luna grins at Clarke as she remembers the blonde's own response when asked the question.

"Ones a path of love, the other a path of hatred. Lexa, you have all the time in the world to make your choice," Clarke pipes up as she gently wipes away some of Lexa's tears before hugging her again.

"I can remember her face Clarke. The way her nose scrunches when she smells dead fish, the way she smiles when Delos chitters at you, the way she and Indra never get along. I can remember everything, she isn't gone Clarke. She's still here... She's not gone," Lexa's voice is quiet and panicked as if trying to assure herself that when she returns to Ton DC Costia will still be there for greet her.

"She's gone Lexa. The dead are gone and the living are hungry," Clarke's eyes close as she offers the words that let her sleep at night.

"But she's not dead! Costia's not dead! She's not! She told me she'd never leave me!" Lexa's getting frantic, her head roughly shaking into Luna's shoulder as she sobs. Luna weathers the storm before grasping Lexa's head soothingly with her hand.

Luna starts humming, even as the man in the next room provides an eerie backdrop.

"Lexa, she's gone."

Lexa continues shaking her head. She's showing just how truly young she is and suddenly it strikes Clarke that Lexa might just be younger than her. Even Clarke is still only sixteen years old, though her seventeenth will soon arrive.

The man next door's scream suddenly stop. Clarke looks up at the silence before nodding to Luna. Luna continues humming gently as Clarke stands and draws Diana. Delos shows up from the corner he'd run off to in order to avoid the screams. His ears are quite sensitive after all.

Delos climbs up Clarke's back and she draws a dagger in her other hand. With short, deliberate steps she inches towards the door. In a flash of speed the door slams open, and Clarke's arm snaps out to stab the unfamiliar face that appears. Diana tears through the skin on his shoulder as the other dagger stabs into his raised arm. Delos jumps from one human to the other as he unsheathes his claws and digs them into the intruder's arm before climbing to his neck and biting into his jugular. As Delos rips into his neck, Clarke pulls back Diana and kills the attacker by sheathing her dagger into his heart.

Clarke remains hunched over the body as she waits for another intruder to show themselves. When nobody emerges from the darkness Clarke sheathes Diana but keeps the other dagger in hand as she glances around the room. The messenger's throat has been slit and several candles have been knocked to the floor. After making sure nothing else has changed Clarke sheathes the final dagger in her boot before replacing the candles. Delos returns to his master after he'd checked the rest of the house for intruders.

Delos climbs up and nestles himself across Clarke's shoulders as she returns to Luna and Lexa.

"Where?" Clarke asks, knowing what Luna now wants from her.

"Pick five, murder them all," Luna's voice is cold as she informs her of her mission, "Take only Delos. I want you back in twelve days to go with Lexa to meet her."

Clarke nods, "As you wish, Mother."

And so Clarke leaves, taking with her two swords, Delos and five flags marked with her Mother's symbol.


AN: Fun fact: those were real plant poisons I mentioned

Also, sorry if Lexa's breakdown was skipped over, I just felt that it would have made Clarke slightly uncomfortable to be around Luna while she's working her magic and there were things that she had to do.

:D Feel free to ask questions, though I can't promise that I'll reveal much of anything.
~FoM