My apologies in the delay with this new chapter, I needed to take a break from writing to gather my ideas for what to do with the rest of this story and what I want to happen to Aerrow and the others.

The walls of the room vibrated with the echoes of the angry clashes and clangs of metal hitting metal.

At its centre, two figures stood locked in a dance of violence, anger and aggression. At a distance, the two looked almost identical. They were of the same height, both had shoulder length hair and both wore the same form fitting flecked-silver, black clothes. One however wielded two thin bladed swords, about 80 centimetres in total length, while the other swung a single, long bladed samurai sword. On closer inspection, one would realise that these figures were not in fact identical. One was a man, the other a woman.

They fought with vibrance and energy. Just from the sounds of the weapons colliding and the grunts of their users, one thing was clear: this fight was intense

Aerrow concentrated hard. His jaw was clenched and adrenaline pumped through his veins. Drops of sweat formed on his brow but were quickly thrown off whenever he performed his next attack. Normally he loved this feeling, the feeling of being in battle, being locked in combat with another, where the only thing keeping him from death was his instincts and his ability. In fact, he had come to relish it.

But not this time.

This was hard. It was more than hard, it was brutal.

Alexis was an incredibly skilled opponent, and it was all he could do just to fend off her attacks, let alone try some of his own. She moved with fluidity and control, far greater control than he ever had, and she seemed to be able to predict exactly what he would do next. He may as well have been fighting in slow motion.

It didn't help that he still wasn't completely used to fighting with two weapons. He had built up and fine-tuned his skills using a bo-staff, and that muscle memory wasn't easy to shake. He may have been able to get by against the grounders and the guards using only his raw fighting talent, but here, now, Alexis made him look clumsy and un-coordinated.

What was more, while he was giving his absolute maximum, Alexis almost seemed to be holding back, just waiting for him to tire out. Wherever, or whoever she had picked up her fighting skills from, they had done a good job. She was on a total other level.

As he gradually tired out, Aerrow lost control on one of his swings and Alexis parried his sword and kept the momentum, spinning around in an instant, flicking her wrist and slicing Aerrow's cheek, all in one, effortless motion.

Aerrow dropped down onto one knee. He felt the side of his cheek before bringing his hand in front of his face. It was covered in blood. He growled in frustration. He couldn't beat her. He wasn't fast enough, he wasn't strong enough. He wasn't good enough.

Alexis stood over him "control your attacks" she told him quickly "don't let your enemy see your intentions"

Aerrow leapt back on his feet with a snarl and charged at her. This time she easily sidestepped and stuck her foot out, tripping her opponent over. Aerrow fell face first onto the ground and slid for a few metres before coming to an undignified halt.

"Control!" Alexis raised her voice at him sternly.

Aerrow clenched his fist. She was getting inside his head, something no enemy had done before. He rolled over onto his back in preparation of resuming his duel, only to find himself staring at the end of Alexis's sword, held just under his chin.

Aerrow froze.

Alexis's face was hard as she stared at her fallen opponent. She seemed annoyed that he wasn't improving.

Eventually she spoke "You may know how to fight" she spoke sourly "but by no means are you a warrior"

She lowered her sword quickly and spun on her heel "that is all for now" she said as she exited the room, leaving Aerrow to pick up the pieces of his broken pride.

Aerrow slowly sat up. He looked down at the swords in his hands, before shouting in anger and tossing them to the side. He got to his feet and lay down dismally on the bed in the corner of the room.

It had been several days since he had agreed to let Alexis train him, and while he had definitely made progress, he was still outclassed in every area by his female opponent. It frustrated him beyond belief that he was not good enough, there were people out there who were better than him, who threatened the lives of Clarke, Bellamy, Octavia and everyone else he still cared about. As long as Alexis was better than him, the last two years of his life had been wasted.

He sat on the edge of the bed and thought to himself.

He flashed back to when he met Sara, and agreed to train her. He was the teacher, she was the student. Now the roles had reversed and it was him who was getting his ass kicked by a superior opponent.

He drew comparisons between him as a teacher, and Alexis. They were very different. When he had been training Sara, he had been patient with her, encouraged her and progressed things slowly. Alexis was the exact opposite. She has hard, fast and unforgiving. She pushed him hard, and gave little to no encouragement. She did not seem to view him as a person, rather only as a weapon.

Now he saw the difference between he and Alexis. When he was training Sara, he trained her through his emotions. Alexis trained him through her physical ability only. There was no heart and soul in her training, unlike the times with Sara that he had enjoyed so very much.

Furthermore, there were no secrets between he and Sara. They understood each other's thoughts and feelings. It was why they bonded so well together and when combined, made a fearsome fighting team. It wasn't like that with Alexis.

She was a complete mystery to him. He had no idea of her past, how she learnt to fight, nor her intentions for the future, for either herself or for him. Even just the way she interacted with him, the brutal attacks when they were fighting and the sly, sexy glances when they weren't, he couldn't tell if she wanted to kill him, or seduce him.

Aerrow trailed off his line of thought. His cheek was still bleeding but it would heal in time, just like the other cuts and slashes Alexis had inflicted on him over the past few days. What wouldn't heal was the crushing realisation that, as hard as he tried, as good as he was, he wasn't good enough.

A few minutes later, Alexis re-entered the room, only this time without her samurai sword.

"what now?" Aerrow said sourly as she approached

"Now I teach you control" she said simply, motioning for him to come over to her

Aerrow reluctantly pushed himself up with a slight groan and made his way over to where she stood.

The two sat on the floor, opposite each other in the centre on the room. They sat cross legged, backs perfectly straight

"why are we doing this?" Aerrow grumbled, uninterested

"because you are frustrated, Eroxin" Alexis replied "you need to relax"

Aerrow rolled his eyes. He had had enough of her training for one day

Alexis pulled something out from her pocket. It was a vial of something. Inside it was a light brown liquid. "drink this" she told him, holding the vial out to him

"Why?" Aerrow grumbled

"It is a natural tea, it will help you relax, to clear your mind" Alexis replied sharply "Now, drink it"

Aerrow reluctantly grabbed the vial and drunk it. It tasted strange, almost like a type of herb he had been given by a grounder who gave him his tattoos and taught him how to use a bow and arrow, in more peaceful times, before they made him hate them. Those herbs had helped heal injuries and counteract certain toxins. He had used them to save Sara's life after she had been poisoned with snake venom. How they could help him relax, he didn't know. Maybe this was a variant, or something new altogether.

Alexis shifted slightly, keeping her eyes fixed on his "now" she said "I want you to close your eyes"

Strangely, Aerrow felt the anger built up in his chest begin to subside, and he was indeed starting to relax and think more clearly. He found himself going along with what Alexis was telling him to do. He closed his eyes and his world went a serene black. Out of the darkness, he heard her voice.

"Take slow, deep breaths" she said. Her voice had changed. It had been hard and sharp, now it was slower, more gentle.

Aerrow did as he was told. Whatever was in the tea, it was really starting to kick in now. He felt so calm, more calm than he had been for a very long time. In fact, the last time he felt like this was when he was in his lonely cell on the Ark, training himself. He had no distractions, his mind was uncluttered. While physically he was trapped, in his mind he was free

"I feel your anger, your rage, your sadness" Alexis continue "it radiates from you, burning you up from the inside"

Subconsciously, Aerrow clenched his fist

"the only way to stop it, is to face it" Alexis told him. Suddenly, he felt her fingers on his temples. Her touch was cold, but soft "I want you to delve into your mind, concentrate, find the source of your anger"

Aerrow concentrated hard. Memories began playing in his head, memories built up over his entire life. He saw his father showing him the stars and telling him fantastical stories of myths and legends, he saw his early childhood friends, when his application to join the guard was successful, the first time he met Arianna, kissing her for the first time, training in his cell, landing on Earth for the first time and taking in the wondrous aroma of his new surroundings. He saw himself saving Clarke from the panther, lying on top of the drop ship with Sara. Every single memory had made him so happy, but now brought him so much pain as he remembered everything he lost. He was sure he could feel a tear rolling down his cheek.

He opened his eyes. Alexis was still staring at him. Her gaze was intense, but soft

"Everything" he breathed "I saw everything"

Alexis remained silent

"My whole life is what makes me angry. Everything that was, everything I've loved, everything I've lost"

Alexis pressed her lips together and shook her head "not good enough" she said "there is one moment. Look hard enough and you will find it"

Aerrow closed his eyes again

"remember, deep breaths" she said gently "one… two… three…"

Suddenly, her voice faded out, and Aerrow found himself in a subconscious nightmare

A rush of light came out of the darkness, and suddenly Aerrow was transported back to that fateful night of the battle with the grounders

He took down yet another grounder with a swing of his bow. His muscles burned with fatigue, but he knew he must continue fighting. The soft pressure against his back reassured him. He turned and glanced briefly at Sara, whom he stood back to back with. Despite the grim scenario in front of him, he smiled. She had always made him do that, no matter how bad the situation, she had been able to make him smile.

Suddenly, Clarke came out of the drop ship, saying Jasper had set the rockets to fire, and told everyone to get inside.

He turned to Sara.

"Get inside the drop ship" he told her

"no" she replied straight away

"Sara" he said quietly "I need you to be safe"

"If you're not leaving, I'm not leaving" Sara said sternly, taking him aback with the sternness and determination in her voice

"Our story, remember" she continued "we started it together. That's how we finish it, together"

She extended her hand towards him.

Aerrow closed his eyes briefly. He didn't want to lose Sara again, but he realised that she would be just as devastated if she lost him. Either they fought their way out of this, or they went down trying.

"Together" he said finally, putting his hand out to meet hers.

The next thing he saw was the tip of Tristan's sword exploding out the front of her chest. She looked down in shock as blood poured out of the wound and stained her shirt and ugly red. Aerrow was frozen in shock. He couldn't move. The girl he loved took a shaky step forward but then collapsed. He felt the tips of her fingers grace his as she fell.

"NO!" he screamed. His eyes shot open, looking around desperately for a weapon. His fists were clenched tight and sweat formed on his forehead as he took deep, heaving breaths. Suddenly, he realised that he wasn't in that clearing. He was in Mount Weather. he shook his head furiously, trying to shake the vision of Sara's dying body from his mind, but to no avail. He felt that anger inside him. It felt like it was about to explode out of his chest just the same as the sword did to Sara.

"Relax, Aerrow, relax" Alexis's firm voice called out, piercing the bubble of rage around him.

Somehow, he started to calm down, and he had no idea why. Then he realised. That was the first time he had ever heard her call him by his first name. Previously, she had only used 'Eroxin', but not this time. Why?

He looked down and noticed her hand gripping his wrist firmly. He looked up to meet her intense gaze. Her silver eyes bored a hole straight through his skull. They were intense, but there was also something in them. Something reassuring. Something that, despite her apparent absence of caring emotions, told him everything was going to be ok.

Gently, she let go of his wrist. He held his hand in front of his face. It was shaking uncontrollably.

"What did you see?" Alexis asked quietly

Aerrow hesitated before answering "I saw… I saw" he rasped, trying to find the words "A girl I loved… she was… killed by the grounders… and I didn't… I couldn't"

By now Aerrow was a wreck. Shaking uncontrollably, unable to form proper sentences. His shoulders heaved as tears flowed down his cheeks

"I just… I just let her die" he continued "we shouldn't have been at war… she didn't… she didn't have to die"

Unable to take it anymore, Aerrow squeezed his eyes shut and turned away. He got to his feet and walked over to the back wall of the room. He screamed as he punched it, before just putting his hands against it and leaning against it. He head was down and he breathed heavily, just trying to find some way to control himself.

He never noticed Alexis coming up behind him until, strangely, he felt her arms wrap around his neck and her hands rest against his chest. He froze instantly

"We are, all of us, like mice stuck in a maze" she said quietly "we will only move if presented with cheese or a cat. We are motivated only by a desperate sense of want, or a desperate sense of fear"

Aerrow slowly began to regain control of himself as he thought about her words

"In your case, want and fear are one in the same thing" Alexis continued, moving her hands back and forth slowly across his chest "You want to love, to be loved, but you also fear it"

Aerrow looked up, staring directly at the wall. She was on hundred percent correct. He thought he could deny himself of his feelings ever since Arianna was murdered on the Ark. That wasn't true. He was only running away, hiding himself from his feelings. The truth was, he craved love, but at the same time he was also terrified of it.

"A warriors life is lonely" Alexis told him quietly "Love is dangerous"

Aerrow remained motionless. He glared at the wall in front of him, trying both to force his emotions down, and resist Alexis's soft touch

"But…" she continued "love is also a choice"

Unseen by him, she leaned in close, bringing her mouth next to his hear while very deliberately pressing herself against his back

"You are a remarkable person, Aerrow" she whispered in his ear "But you are held back by the pain of your past"

Aerrow stared dead ahead, refusing to make eye contact. He could feel her breasts pressing gently against his shoulder.

"My dorm is next door" she continued "It is accessible by my keycard only. Tonight, that lock will be disabled. If you need me, I'm there…"

She placed a slow, soft kiss on his cheek. Her lips barely touched his skin but even then he felt an electrifying jolt at the contact. And then, in an instant, she was gone.

Aerrow was frozen where he stood. A whirlpool of thoughts and images swirled around in his head.

He had lost Arianna. He had lost Sara. He saw Clarke, sweet Clarke. He felt her lips pressed against his. He also saw the look of utter disappointment on her face the moment she found out about he and Sara. That kind of emotion never faded. He didn't know if she had made it back to the camp or not. Hell, he didn't even know if she was still alive. What was the point of being in love with someone you could never quite grasp?

Then he saw Alexis, beautiful and deadly in equal amounts, pressed against his shoulder in her skin tight clothing, practically offering herself to him.

He took a deep breath and exhaled loudly, before walking over to his bed. He lay down and covered his face with his hands and sighed.

He never went to Alexis's dorm.

…

This was observed by a man named Cage Wallace, Dante's son. He stared at an image of Aerrow's sleeping form, presented on a monitor in the mountain's command centre.

Suddenly, the door to the room opened and the dark skinned Doctor Singh strutted in.

"Doctor Singh" he addressed her

She stopped in front of him "Cage" she said impassively

"what do you have on the boy?"

Singh smiled slyly, before walking over to the monitor. She quickly brought up a page of figures and test results

"He is remarkable" Singh stated "His intellect is impressive, he reacts and adapts quickly. His pain tolerance is ten times higher than a normal persons, and he heals from injuries extremely quickly. His physical capabilities are extraordinary, almost a rival for Alexis's but here's the thing"

She paused

"Alexis was trained from the moment she was born"

"So what?" Cage replied "Maybe he did as well. Who knows what they were doing up there?"

"No, look at this" Singh interjected, pointing to a particular figure on the data "His cellular data indicates that he has only been putting himself under such physical strain for the past 26 months. It's like he is… enhanced"

Cage frowned, his mind whirring with possible explanations. He studied the graph hard. He looked at a particular model of data and his eyes narrowed

"His DNA, it's perfect" he told Singh "zero genetic imperfections at all. How is that possible?"

"Excellent question" Singh replied "although theoretically, it is naturally possible, the chances of such a thing happening are over a trillion to one, there has simply been too many genetic mutations to the base human genome over time"

Cage frowned "so… how can he be like this"

Singh looked at him seriously "There is a way" she said slowly "During the war, there was a military project"

"what kind of military project?" Cage asked slowly

"Have you ever heard of Robert Van Dyke?" Singh asked him. Cage shook his head

"He was a Dutch scientist, specialised in genetic binding, taking the best, most highly evolved parts of peoples DNA and fusing them together" Singh said "He developed a serum that, when injected into a newborn baby, when the DNA still isn't fully developed, it allows perfect bonding between the genetic components of that baby's parents. This means that only the best attributes of the parents' DNA is passed on to the child, while the limiting ones are removed from the genetic make up. This leads to higher physical and mental capabilities"

Cage cocked his head at her. This sounded vaguely familiar

"Anyway, the U.S military recruited him and began working on a soldier development program, a supersoldier, if you like. They injected babies with this serum, waited until they were old enough to be trained as soldiers, then ran them through a series of trials to test if their physical and psychological capabilities had indeed improved" Singh continued "It was dark stuff, cutting edge and top secret. No-one knows what happened to the soldiers, but the trials came to be known as Van Dyke's tests"

Cage looked up sharply. Now he recognised the name. Van Dyke's tests were brutal. The soldiers were pushed beyond their human limits. The tests were initially implemented on Navy SEAL's, the most physically capable human beings in the world, and every one of them was killed. The rest of the world may not have known the details, but stories of the tests were well known and had been down from generation to generation

"Anyway, the bombs were dropped before the tests could be proven conclusive, and the serum was lost forever" Singh went on

Cage licked his lips "Is it possible that the tests could have continued in space?" he asked Singh

Singh shook her head "not a chance. All the data on the tests, and the serum itself, was lost in the war. If Eroxin's DNA is perfect, I don't know how, but he is not a product of Robert Van Dyke"

Cage stared at her for a few moments, then looked back at the image of Aerrow, unaware that he too, was being watched

…

In a dark room, somewhere else in Mount Weather, a man sat in front of a monitor. On the screen was an image of Aerrow, alone in his dorm. The man stared at the screen, his small, beady eyes glistening with intent. On the end of his nose sat a pair of exquisite circular, gold rimmed glasses.

He was surrounded by television screens, all projecting various images and data. The largest screen projected a timeline, with data entries written at various points along the timeline.

It read:

16/12/2197: Ark Station reports birth of subject Alpha. Serum injection successful

12/12/2199: Ark station reports birth of subject Sierra. Serum injection successful.

21/10/2213: Ark station reports culling successful. Uniting of Alpha and Sierra has begun

16/12/2215: drop ship released. Landing successful. The 100 are on the ground.

05/01/2216: Data reports suggest that subject X had been successfully conceived. Project nearly complete

14/01/2216: PROJECT FAILURE! REPEAT, PROJECT FAILURE! Data indicates Sierra is deceased. Subject X lost.

UPDATE: Mission still active. DNA successfully recovered from subject Sierra. Awaiting acquirement of subject Alpha for DNA fusion

(there was another data entry, preceding the one dated 16/12/2197 by three years, but he ignored it. It was not integral to his mission. It read: 30/09/2194: MISSION ALERT: Ark station reports birth of subject Bravo, However data indicates Serum injection failed. Subject aborted

UPDATE: Subject Bravo has been taken care of, mission timeline set back but still on course)

The man stared at the writing. He clenched his fist in frustration, but he quickly relaxed. This was his life's work. He could afford to wait a little longer

His wrinkled but nimble fingers danced across his keyboard, and a new data entry appeared

20/01/2216: Part Alpha potentially acquired. Awaiting confirmation. Further information to be provided.

The man stared at what he had written one last time, before pressing his finger down on the 'enter' key. Then he leaned back in his chair and grinned evilly.

Ooh… it is from this point where everything starts picking up. There will be much more to this story than just what happens on the show. Stay tuned for more