Chapter 8
3RD POV
Clarke was in shock when she saw the last of the Mountain Men in front of her, and she didn't notice him lunge towards her before she was already being choked by the man.
"Stop him," Lexa ordered. "Put him in a cage!"
Once the guards took Emerson away, Lexa rushed to Clarke's side, "are you okay," she asked as she tried to help the blonde.
"I'm fine."
"Heda, what say you on the Mountain Man?"
"Wanheda shall decide his fate."
"Heda-"
Lexa silenced Titus, "leave us."
The man bowed and left the two girls.
"Clarke," Lexa said getting her attention.
"I believe he deserves death."
"Clarke."
"His men killed thousands of grounders, and they tried to kill my people."
"What about blood must not have blood?"
"He shall be the last of it."
"How does that make things right?"
"I think it satisfies both of our people. Once we defeat the last of the Mountain Men, then we shall move forward and blood must not have blood shall be enacted."
Lexa nodded, "okay."
"I'm gonna head back to my room," Clarke stated.
Lexa nodded and with that the blonde left.
"So Clarke wants to kill this man, but won't let us go to war?"
"She says that since he committed treacherous acts on both of our people, it would be a just death."
"I mean I guess that makes sense, but killing him and then saying you won't kill the sky people is only going to aggravate everyone," Anya explained.
"What else can we do?"
"She wants to move towards peace. How is killing one man a path to peace."
"It rids the Earth of his people," Lexa stated defending the blonde's position.
"If you want to move towards peace, then Emerson is the first step."
"That monster can not be forgiven of his acts against our people, Anya."
"And he won't be."
"What are you saying?"
"Banish him. Let him live the rest of his life alone. Place a no kill order on him. Let time haunt him for the rest of his life."
"Clarke will want his death."
"If you banish him, you give him a fate worse than death."
After talking to Anya, Lexa called in Titus to discuss the decision, but Titus sided with Clarke seeing that he was in favor of not changing Grounder ways. After arguing for an hour, Lexa ordered her guards to get Clarke so that she could make the final choice.
"You sent for me?"
"Yes. We have called you here to discuss the fate of the last of the Mountain Men."
"I thought his fate was death," Clarke said confused as she looked at the other three.
"I don't normally agree with their kind, Heda, but Clarke is right. Blood must have blood, at least when it comes to the Mountain Men."
"What's the other option," the blonde asked.
"We banish him," Lexa says.
"How is that equivalent to the amount of men he killed?"
"We banish him to the land outside of the farthest clan," Anya spoke up. "Then place a no kill order on him-"
"No kill order? He killed-"
"The result is living the rest of his life alone, with only time to haunt him."
"A fate worse than death," Lexa stated.
"Commander, he killed thousands of your people, how can you just banish him?"
"If Anya's proposition works, then he will be haunted with his memories and he will suffer for the rest of his life."
"Wouldn't the grounder ceremony bring him more suffering?"
"It would lead to his death which ends the suffering, this options gives him an eternity of suffering over the loss of both his people and his power."
"And what if he comes back? Then what, banish him again? What if there's more people out there that you don't know. What if he makes more allies."
"If he comes back then we will kill him, but if he lives out his sentence, then he wouldn't be harmed."
"Commander, this is a waste of time," Titus spoke up. "You've given the girl the ability to choose the man's fate, and she chose death."
"I am giving her another option to consider, and while it might not change the final result, at least it is there."
"I need more time."
"Heda, we can't waste anymore time-"
"The choice is Clarke's. You have until sundown, his sentence will be carried out tonight."
With that Lexa and Titus walked out, leaving only Anya and Clarke.
"How could you propose something like this? After everything he did to your people. To you!"
"My interest is whatever will keep Lexa safe," Anya said.
"Emerson being alive only keeps her in danger."
"One man versus a coalition of warriors."
"What are you talking about?"
"If Lexa wants to try to propose that we no longer follow our current system of justice, then Emerson must be the first step."
"He killed thousands of your warriors."
"And the Sky People have just as many. Yet you all are still alive."
"That's a different scenario."
"Is it? They hunt us in order to use us as blood bags for treatment. You attack peaceful men sent to protect you, and before that you started a war with us."
"You attacked us first, remember?"
"You burned 300 men alive, then another 300 innocent soldiers, and let's not forget Finn killed innocent villagers just to ensure your safety."
"Killing people in war is different than hunting them to use them as medical tools."
"And yet to us the mountain men and the sky people are no different."
"We are not nearly as bad as the Mountain Men. They went after my people too, Anya."
"That's not the point."
"Then get to it, or so help me-"
"The point is, if you want Lexa to spare your people's lives, then we must also spare his." Clarke didn't respond, so Anya continued talking, "Too many people are still upset over Lexa's proclamation to be merciful towards your people, if we then turn around and kill Emerson just to please you, there would be an uprising, and Lexa's life would be at stake."
"I don't understand, wouldn't they want him dead?"
"Yes, but taking his blood, while sparing the blood of your people seems irrational, especially since you are the one who influenced the commander to make the first decision."
"So then the people would only be mad at me. Lexa would be fine."
"Lexa will stand in between you and anyone who wishes to harm you, Clarke. While some dare not defy the Commander, if enough defy her, she can be overthrown. Her protection of you is her weakness."
"Emerson's life is my decision, she has no say."
"But she gave you the ability to choose. Your decision is a reflection of her wisdom."
Once again Clarke didn't respond.
"I know this is a hard decision for you Clarke, but this time, it's not just you or your people's lives on the table, Lexa's life also lies in your hands."
With that Anya left the girl to her thoughts.
Soon enough sundown had came, and people gathered back in the throne room. Emerson was tied up in the middle of the floor to a tree stump. Clarke, Anya, Titus and Indra were standing to the side of Lexa, who was sitting in her throne. Many other warriors and ambassadors stood opposite of them and waited for Lexa to speak.
Lexa stood and rose her hand, silencing the crowd, "tonight we decide the fate of the last of the Mountain Men. Wanheda," the Commander motioned for her to move forwards. "What is this man's fate?"
Clarke walked down to Emerson and looked the man in the eye. The man growled at her through his gag. Clarke smirked and began to speak, "where I'm from, the penalty for this man's crime is death."
The crowd began to erupt as the ambassadors and warriors reacted to Clarke's statement. Lexa rose her hand, and they were back to being silent.
"But," the blonde stated. "To this man, death would be the easy way out. I sentence this man to be banished from the lands of the coalition."
Hearing this Emerson struggled trying to reach for Clarke.
"A fate worse than death," she said to the crowd before approaching the man. "May you live forever as the memories of your people haunt you until the end of time."
Emerson continued to struggle as the guards came to take him back to his cell.
Clarke turned back to Lexa, and the other girl nodded before silencing the crowd once more.
"Let this be the beginning of a new age. Where blood must not always be answered with blood. Let us begin to make the move towards peace."
With that the commander dismissed everyone. The room was quickly evacuated, leaving behind Indra, Anya, Titus, and the two leaders.
"Thank you, Clarke," Anya said as she and Indra left.
Clarke nodded and then looked over to Lexa who was sitting back in her chair, more relaxed than Clarke had ever seen.
"It was a wise choice you made, Clarke," the commander said. "I know it was a hard decision for you to make."
"I did what was best for our people."
Lexa grinned.
"Heda," Titus spoke.
"Yes?"
"What are we to do now?"
"We train our warriors in case we need to go to war, and we continue with the nightblida, they still have much to learn."
Titus nodded before walking out, slightly frustrated by the previous events of the day.
On Titus's way to his room, he ran into the guards holding one of the Sky People.
"What is this?"
"We found him with the sacred symbol."
"Take him to the basement."
The guards nodded and walked off, dragging the person with them.
As soon the guards were out of site, Titus turned back around and walked into the throne room.
"Heda," he said interrupting the girl who was speaking to the blonde.
Lexa glared at the man.
"Sorry for the interruption, but may I have a word with you?"
Lexa nodded, "excuse me, Clarke."
"Sure," the blonde nodded.
"What is it Titus?"
"Heda, the guards brought in someone, we believe him to be Skaikru."
"Then we must have Clarke verify if it is their leader."
"No, I don't believe it was."
"Then where is he?"
"He's downstairs."
"Why? If he means no harm, he must be let go."
"Heda, he was taken because he possessed the sacred symbol."
"Are you sure?"
"Positive."
"Look into it, but do not kill him."
"Sha, Heda." With that Titus walked out and went to the basement.
"Sorry about that," Lexa said as she walked back into the room where Clarke was.
"No, don't apologize."
"Where were we?"
"You were talking about before you were brought to Polis."
"Right," Lexa smiled. "It was great. We would train, but the kids would mostly just play around. We were taught a few skills, but for the most part, things were simple."
"It sounds like it was a lot of fun."
"It was. Even after Anya took me in. I used to piss her off so much."
"How," Clarke chuckled.
"I would be late to training because I'd be trying to make new friends."
"You? Making friends," Clarke joked.
"I know, hard to believe I had fun."
"Do you miss it?"
"Sometimes. I miss not having to always be so serious, sometimes I wonder where I would be if I hadn't had to go to Polis."
"I'm sure not much would be different."
"Maybe, or maybe I'd still have a lot more people in my life."
"That's not your fault Lexa."
"It is. I ordered the death of Gustus."
"After he tried to poison you."
"The Ice Queen went after Costia because she was special to me."
"You can't blame yourself for what happened to Costia."
Lexa frowned as she looked down at her hands.
Clarke reached out and held the girl's hands, "hey."
Lexa looked up into Clarke's eyes.
"It's not your fault."
The two were unaware that they were subconsciously moving closer to each other until they could feel their breaths on their face.
Clarke cleared her throat and stepped backwards, "you need to give yourself a break sometimes, Lexa."
Lexa nodded.
"I'll see you in the morning."
"I don't know anything about Clarke or that symbol!"
Titus was busy with Murphy in the basement trying to figure out what he knew about the sacred symbol.
"Then how does Skaikru have possession of our most sacred symbol?"
"Sacred symbol? It's a corporate logo."
"Wrong. This is the sacred symbol of the Commander to whom I've dedicated my life. Now you will tell me how you got it."
"I told you ten times, Jaha gave it to me."
"The chancellor?"
"Yeah. He said it was the key to the city of light. And the woman who isn't actually a woman, is just a computer program."
"That program ended the world?"
"Yeah."
"How?"
Murphy sighed as he told Titus what he had been taught on the Arc.
The next morning the two leaders were walking side by side through the streets of Polis. Lexa enjoyed showing the girl her second home. She told stories about when she first arrived, and the stories they were told about it when they were younger.
"One day, I was playing with some of the older children, and we'd pretend we were the Commander's guards. We'd pick one person to walk in the middle of all of us, a couple of us would be guards while others were opposing warriors. We'd rush the group of guards who did their best to protect the commander, then the commander would fight the remaining warriors after they got through."
Clarke smiled as she listened to Lexa. She was amazed at the girl's memory and she was happy that the girl had a fun childhood. But she also realizes all that the girl had to give up in order to become the commander.
"Clarke," Lexa said to pull the girl out of her thoughts.
"Hm?"
"Are you alright?"
"Yeah, sorry. Just lost in my thoughts."
"What were you thinking about?"
"I was imagining what things were like for you. You gave up a lot, Lexa."
"I had to."
"For your people, I know. But what about yourself? How much have you given up for the sake of your people? I'm not saying a leader can't be selfless, that's actually a good thing, but...Sometimes you have to do things that are best for you too."
Lexa smiled, "come on," she reached for Clarke's hand. "I want to show you something."
Clarke smiled and held the girl's hand as she followed the commander. They walked out to a random field on the outskirts of the city. There was a circle of rocks and destroyed grass where Clarke assumed a fire had been made, and a small makeshift cover in the trees where there was a random door under that seemed to lead underground.
"Is this where you kill me," Clarke joked.
Lexa looked confused.
"See on the ark we have this tapes that play old movies and shows from the ground. A random field in the middle of nowhere is usually where someone is murdered."
"Well, then the answer is no." Clarke chuckled at the girl's confusion. Lexa rolled her eyes and lead the girl to the door, "I found this place when I was younger. It was an escape on the days, though there weren't many, when I got to just hang out." She opened the door, and the two climbed down into the bunker.
"This place is beautiful, Lexa."
"It's nothing too fancy."
"I know but the candles, the blankets and stuff, I've found my fair share of bunkers, and they all look like shit compared to this."
"Well, it's just a place I go to when I'm stressed."
"Thank you for showing me this."
"The only other person who knew about it was Costia."
"Did you two come here often?"
"Usually. It's not frowned upon for nightbloods to make friends and stuff, but it's not necessarily encouraged. Especially since during the conclave you may not make it out alive."
"So what do you do here?"
"We'd usually just hunt, make a fire, and talk. Catch up on each other's lives. I didn't get to see her much until after my conclave."
"How did Titus feel about that?"
"He felt the same way about Costia as he does about you."
The two girls spent an hour in the bunker, talking about how Polis was before Lexa became commander. Clarke enjoyed getting to know more about the Commander, she felt honored that Lexa felt comfortable enough to share things with her.
When they got back into Polis, they headed for the tower. They were headed back to the throne room, so that Lexa could give the nightbloods another lesson when Titus stopped them.
"Heda," he said as he quickly approached the two girls.
"Titus?"
"There's something you need to see."
Lexa nodded and the two girls followed Titus into the throne room. Instead of the group of nightbloods, the two girls were faced with a small group of grounders and a girl with a bag over her head.
"What is this?"
"There has been a situation."
"What happened?"
"Heda," one of the villagers spoke. "Our village was attacked by Sky People. We have taken one prisoner."
"Show me."
The man ripped the bag off of her head to reveal one of Clarke's friends, her face was covered in blood, her eye was swollen, and she was gagged. At first glance Clarke couldn't recognize her, but she got a better look, and gasped.
"Octavia?"
A/N- heyyy an update, sorry for the wait, and thanks for the patience. I'll do my best to update as soon as possible. R&R much appreciated (:
