Chapter 10: Stone hearts and hand granades

Update!

Title from Stone hearts and hand granades by Leona Lewis

I'm totally in love with all the feedback :)

Lexa's POV

"We need to find her, quickly. Octavia go find Indra and tell her to ride to our camp to get my armour and weapons, tell her I order to summon our best available scouts and they must wait me outside of Camp Jaha. No horses, they can be noticed easily."

Octavia departed in a hurry and I stood up, the adrenaline running through my body kept me from feeling my sore body or the piercing pain in my chest. Nothing mattered more than saving Clarke. This time I had the opportunity to save her, I was not going to let this chance pass because of any injury. Nonetheless Abby stopped me.

"I refuse as a doctor to let you go out to find my daughter, you are gravely injured Lexa, how many time must I tell you? What will happen if your injury reopens again?"

"I don't care, I need to find Clarke, I can't let this happen again, I can't!" After some seconds thinking, I came out with an idea" Cauterize my wound."

I said firmly and Abby looked at me with wide eyes, she was speechless for a moment until she recovered her voice.

"Nothing will happen, we will find her and bring her back, they probably only want her to make some kind of negotiation. I'm not going to cauterize your wound, you have internal damage too, if I cauterize it and your rib causes more damage it will be more difficult to treat it, you are risking your life!"

"No Abby, you DON'T know him, he was one of the people who tortured Costia, he is not here to make any kind of deal with your daughter, he is here for the same reason he came years ago. To take someone special from me once more! I will risk everything I have to save her, I'm asking you as Lexa, Abbigail Griffin, please let me go after Clarke."

She looked at me intensely, after a moment of tension she finally spoke directing to the exit.

"Let's go to the infirmary, I will cauterize your wound and we will discuss how to go look for Clarke."

Once we were at the infirmary, she prepared everything while we talked about the plan. Bellamy and Raven were inside the room too.

"We can't take a lot of people, my scouts and I know how to be imperceptible but I don't know if your people are capable of walking silently."

"You could lead a first squad, with your people and one of them stay behind guiding a second squad with our people."

Proposed Abby, meanwhile Raven was looking at the burning piece of metal that Abby was holding.

"I support her plan, I offer to lead some of our people while we follow the scout" Bellamy added.

"We will follow this plan then. You should find your warriors and wait outside the camp, explain the plan to Indra."

Bellamy nodded and exited the infirmary. Abby was now by my side, waiting. I took my tank top off and nodded to her.

"Raven could you push it against her wound as soon as I had taken the stitches off?" Raven moved her eyes from Abby to me and nodded. "Okay, keep the blowtorch in one of your hands and when I start taking them off, heat the metal bar up a little more and then put it on the wound."

Abby disinfected the wound and then started pulling out the stitches, I tried to think about anything but the pain, my mind running directly to Clarke. Images of her being tortured crossed my mind, I started panicking internally until an intense pain brought me back to reality. Greeting my teeth, I hold the end of the bed until my knuckles turned white. When Raven finished I found myself panting, eyes closed and feeling dizzy. Only when I felt a hand on my shoulder I started to recompose. It was Raven.

"Thank you."

"No problem, just be sure to bring her back, alright?"

"I swear on my spirit that I will do everything I can to bring her back to you."

"Okay, stop right now. You are such a pedant sometimes..." We both shared a little smile. "I guess you are not as bitch as I thought you were, good luck, Commander."

I nodded at her and she exited leaving Abby and I alone in the room.

"I know you are in a dangerous condition, and that I'm being selfish, but please, bring my daughter back. When I knew she left Camp Jaha the first time, I barely hold up. If she doesn't return this time, I don't know if I could bear it."

"Neither do I. I will bring her back, I promise."

Abby hugged me carefully and I started walking to the door.

"May we meet again, Commander."

"May we meet again, Abby."

When I reached the entrance of Camp Jaha, I saw everybody outside, already ready to depart, Indra holding my armour and Octavia my sword. I went out of the Camp and started putting my armour assisted by Indra. It felt extremely heavy but I ignored it. After some minutes, Indra finished putting my cape in place and Octavia offered me the sword. I grabbed it and pulled my hair in a ponytail.

"How many are we?"

"We have four scouts, and five sky warriors. I will be guiding Bellamy's squad plus one of the scouts. Lincoln and Octavia will go with you to assist you. Once we find Clarke, the ice warriors will only find the three of you while the scouts will be hiding on the trees and we will be in the rear-guard, out of their sight. Afterwards, most of the attention will be threw to you, for you are the most important, that will make Octavia the best option to sound the horn to start our surprise attack." Indra explained.

I repeated the plan in my head, and then look at everybody.

"I think Indra made everything clear, any question?"

Lincoln asked permission to speak and I allowed him to ask.

"Our main mission is to save Clarke, what should we do with the ice nation warriors?"

I thought about it for a moment and then I answered him.

"Kill everyone who attacks you, the ones who surrender will be judge afterwards."

All nodded and I signaled to start walking. We are going to find you, stay strong, Clarke.

Clarke's POV

"I thought we were going to Camp to talk with Indra but we are walking in another direction so I suppose I am being kidnapped." The weapons aimed at me made everything crystal clear so after a pause, I continued talking. "You are all idiots, you chose to kidnap me at daylight, and the day I have meet..." ings so all the people will ask for me when they see I didn't attend them.

That's how I would have ended my sentence if Echo hadn't hit my stomach. I was now on my knees, both of my hands holding my weight while I tried to catch my breath.

Echo knelt beside me and whispered to me before she pulled me to stand up.

"Don't say anything about this horrible plan, I did it on purpose. They are obliging me to do this and I'm trying to make your people and the Commander's job of finding you before is too late easier."

I gave her a little nod and stayed in silence the rest of the walk.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

We reached a small Camp after some hours and various stops. After some time, one of the warriors came towards us and started speaking with the big eagle man.

"The Queen is going to visit us."

"She will be pleased to meet her new plaything."

His last word caused a shiver run through all over my body. So this was not about politics, this was because of Lexa. The history was being repeated.

"I am sorry to disturb you, Brontos, but Clarke is coming back with us immediately."

Brontos' face went pale, while my face lit up as I locked my eyes with Lexa's.

"What are you doing here? Echo told me nobody would find Clarke was missing until we were far away from here…"

"Well you should grow some neurons, because if you think that kidnapping me in the middle of the day was a good plan, you need them."

I answered Brontos, and only then he realised he had been tricked.

"You!" Brontos said signalling to Echo "You betrayed me! I will murder you and your son!"

Some of Brontos' warriors captured Echo after she tried to escape.

"You are not going to kill anyone, just let Clarke and Echo free and I will forget everything that is happening. You don't want to feel my rage, Brontos."

Lexa was speaking with such a cold tone I could barely recognize her. But I also noticed her laboured breathing, she was at her limit, she was anything but recovered from her wounds, and she was risking her own health for me.

"Look what we have here, the great Commander and her new little star. But Brontos there is something I don't understand, why is she wearing weapons and why is she followed by two warriors?"

Everybody turned their gaze to the new person riding on a white horse, she was wearing heavy armour decorated with a white feather scarf which fell from her waist till her knee and around her neck she had another white scarf made by animal fur. A lance rested on her back, her black hair was tied up in a ponytail, and her right side was shaved. She was much taller than Lexa and heftier.

"Ashkna."

I heard Lexa pronounce which I supposed was her name trough greeted teeth and her tone full of hate.

"Well you owe me an honoured greeting, Commander, I respected you, and you should have introduced me with the same respect. I am a Queen after all."

The smile she was giving to Lexa made me sick. This woman was insane and she was very dangerous. The worst part of all is that I could found all that just by looking at her smile.

"You don't want to cause a war you can't win, Ashkna, so let Clarke come back with me, and I will forget you."

"Hahahaha, such air of superiority, Commander. Can you be sure that I can't win? And I am only doing Clarke a favour, she can tell me some things about you and I will keep her safe from you, you have caused her so much pain."

What the fuck was she talking about?

"Excuse me? Lexa is not causing me pain, she is trying to help me actually."

Ashkna looked at me, her grey eyes piercing my soul causing me to shiver again. But I didn't stop looking back at her.

"Just think a little, since you came to Earth, when did you started murdering people? I'm pretty sure that all started with the Commander."

"But when we incinerated 300 of Lexa's soldiers she wasn't the responsible of..."

"Lexa sent them. You killed that boy, again for Lexa. You let the people from TonDc die, Lexa once more. You caused a genocide, let me think, oh yes, again Lexa." I didn't want to listen to her, she was just trying to poison my mind but as much as I wanted to deny it, what she was saying was logical. But I also knew that every person is responsible of their acts, I learnt to not to blame people who don't deserved it. But I let her think she was winning her stupid mental game, I was tired of talking with dumb people long ago. "But don't be sad, look at the bright side, I'm also very close with the Commander just as she is with you. My only purpose is to destroy everything she loves. You are her new hope and I can't tolerate that, that's mean I'm not doing a good work. However, Echo told me that maybe you already broke her hope."

I looked briefly at Echo, she gave me an almost inappreciable nod so I deduced this was another lie to try and kept me from danger.

"Yes, totally, I found that I prefer to be with a fish I met at the lake two days ago, than to be with Lexa."

Ups, my mouth slipped. And just as I finished my sentence I was thrown to the ground, my stomach aching.

"I'm not very fond of people who make jokes, sorry plaything."

Ashkna grabbed my neck and pushed me up. I started losing consciousness due to the lack of air when I saw a blurry Lexa running to where we were. Suddenly I found myself on the ground and when I focused my eyes again, I looked horrified at how Ashkna flourished her lance from the ground to Lexa's face, going over her entire body. I couldn't see if she had hurt Lexa, I could only she Ashkna lifting her up by her neck just like she did to me. Lexa seemed so small, I needed to help her but my head was spinning. Then Ashkna threw Lexa to the near tree. Her body making an awful noise when it impacted the trunk and then fell to the ground.

Tears started forming in my eyes.

"Stop it! Let her go!"

Brontos sunk her foot in my stomach making me groan. And then someone screamed.

"NOW!"

A horn sounded through the forest and grounders and my people started attacking the ice nation warriors. Most of them just froze and fell on their knees while a few of the ice nation warriors tried to fight back. I saw Ashkna running and got on her horse while she shouted.

"Brontos, find a way to fix this mess or don't you ever bother come back to me."

Lexa was now standing, the left side of her face, dripping with blood, I panicked and tried to stand up only to be pushed to the ground, my face against the mud. I felt a sharp object against my neck which started to cut my skin.

"If I die here, you are coming with me."

Brontos said, moving her blade and cutting deeper into my skin. Just when I thought that everything was over, the blade and the weight over my body disappeared.

"Yu gonplei ste odon, Brontos. (Your fight is over, Brontos)"

I heard Lexa but I couldn't move, I almost died. I was going to die but Lexa saved me, and I just wondered that maybe it would had been easier if I just had died. It would have been fair, I had murdered so many people, I had caused so much pain and I had suffered too. But just as I was sinking in a dark pit, trembling arms surrounded me and I never had clung to my life more.

Somehow I was now sitting on my knees and Lexa was hugging me, one of her hands now resting on my hair, the other trying to pull me closer to her. I reacted and hugged her back trying to calm her down, she was shaking.

"I was so scared of losing you, I couldn't lose another person I care about again…"

"Shh, it's fine Lexa I am here, I am alright, don't worry."

The rest of our people started to tie up the Ice Queen warriors who had surrendered and I saw Bellamy exiting a tent with a little baby in his arms.

"Skiler!"

Echo ran until she reached Bellamy and took the baby in her arms, her eyes full of tears of joy.

I remembered the bloody face of Lexa and I moved away to inspect the damage. I looked horrified at the left side of Lexa's face. She had a cut from her chin to her forehead, my first concern was to see if her left eye was injured too.

"Lexa, could you open your left eye please?"

"It is not damaged Clarke, I'm keeping it closed because the blood is bothering me."

I glared at her and sighing, she opened it. Okay eye healthy.

"I think it won't need stitches, but it surely will left a scar."

Moving from her face, I went to inspect her chest but she stopped me.

"That wound is fine, Abby cauterized it."

"She did what?!"

"It's not her fault, I asked her to do it, I needed to find you Clarke."

Just as she finished talking, I finally realised that I almost got kidnaped and, as a result, tortured. I started sobbing and Lexa hugged me again.

"Thank you, thank you..."

I repeated while she stroke my hair.

When I calmed myself I placed my hands on Lexa's thigh and she winced. I felt my hand wet and when I looked down I found another wound.

"It is just a scratch, I'm fine Clarke."

I totally ignored her and turned my head, looking for Lincoln.

"Lincoln come here!"

He reached our position and started looking in his back for some herbs and jars.

"They are not deep cuts, I can stop the hemorrhage but she will need more treatment once we go back to Camp."

He treated her face first, and then her leg, bandaging it. When he finished, he went back with Octavia.

Bellamy and Echo came near us while I helped Lexa to stand up.

"We found two horses, you could go back riding them and get yourselves checked at Camp."

I looked at Lexa who was looking at Echo and her baby.

"Clarke and I will ride one, you and Echo can ride the other one. I'm not sure if I am able to ride a horse so Echo will lead us to Camp if you agree."

We looked at each other, totally puzzled. She was trusting Echo without questions. Echo bowed slightly and answered Lexa.

"I will lead you to Camp."

Lexa nodded and after giving some orders, we got on the horses. I was once more, holding the reins, but Lexa was at my back, holding my waist firmly.

"I think I have already lived this moment, and I didn't like it."

"Do not worry Clarke, this time I'm not going to make your trip boring by passing out."

I chuckled and she rested her head on my back.

"Be careful Commander, your people are watching."

"Let me just forget about it for a minute."

I smiled and we started moving.

"Let's go back home."

"Together."

See you next time!