A/N: Hi! Thank you guys for the reviews! I appreciate it and I'm glad you are enjoying this story so far. Anyways.
Without further adieu:
I only own my OCs and this storyline, the dialogue and events from the show belong to their respective owners.
Sentences like this in quotations are grounders, or anyone, speaking in Trigedasleng. Other sentences in the same form are thoughts.
~Enjoy!~
THIRTEEN: Broken
It had barely been a day before Nia threw Rory into the arena.
She didn't know what to expect when she could barely fight, but she did it anyway. She had to keep up her end of the bargain so that Nia would. Killing a few other prisoners was something she just had to do. So Rory stood exactly where the previous Champion did and she killed seven out of the eight prisoners chosen that day. Two of them nearly killed her but she was quicker and smaller, making them run out of energy when all she did was dodge.
But nothing prepared her for the eighth prisoner.
Her name was Chloe Hester; a girl that was Rory's age and someone she knew from the Ark. However, not just anyone, it was the first girl that gave the dark-haired girl the inkling that she liked other girls. They weren't friends, never were. Lovers would be the more correct term. So when she caught sight of those familiar blue eyes and black hair that was a shade or two darker than her own, she wanted to drop her sword right then and there.
"Rory?!" Chloe ran to her to hug the girl, but Rory stops her inches away.
She looks up to Nia and sees that the Queen was intrigued by the outburst, "Chloe, how are you here?" Rory whispers.
"Our part of the Ark crashed in the snow. Wherever this is." Chloe explains, "She captured some of us." She gestures to Nia, "What the hell is going on?" She asks.
"The Arena." Rory glances around, "Queen Nia's way of sorting out the strong from the weak. So she knows who to break more." She looks down, "I won't kill you. But one of us has to die."
Without thinking, Chloe shakes her head, "No. I'm not letting you sacrifice yourself. I won't kill you either." She steps towards Rory and aims the sword the other girl was holding to her chest, "Survive, sparky."
Rory couldn't do it. All she saw instead of Chloe was Finn and the sword in her hand suddenly changed into that scalpel. Her hand begins to shake when tears threaten to spill over but she pushes that down once Nia rises from her chair to yell at them. She tells them to kill one or the other otherwise she will kill both of them, but Rory only looks up at the Queen. Chloe doesn't hesitate to pretend to swing at Rory who acts rather than thinks and grabs Chloe's shoulder to stop it as she hears the sound of metal breaking skin.
She looks down to Chloe's gut to find her sword lodged in it. Blood began to spill onto her right hand as the other girl falls back. Rory lets go of her sword while her eyes lock onto her hand. What had she done? She falls to her knees in the cold snow while the crowds cheer at their Champion being victorious. But all Rory could do was stare at her hand.
No…
Rory barely registers that some guards were now dragging her into the Compound where they take her into the torture room. Nia comes in furious, yelling at the girl that she couldn't even kill someone from Skaikru. The ones she abandoned. All Rory does is hang her head low while Ontari rips off the girl's jacket. She doesn't even scream or show any signs of pain when the cutting begins. Not even when the burning does.
Because she had slipped past the point of being broken.
That night as she lay in the Champion's room, she could not sleep.
The memories of Finn and Chloe both dying would appear every time she closed her eyes. She resorted to tearing open her old wounds and making her new ones worse. She needed to feel...something. Anything. But not even pain wanted to grace her with its presence that night. Her black blood soaked the bed sheets and her fingers. Maybe if she bled out and died the world would be better off without her. Her people would be better off without her.
She's killed another of her own people. What happens if Nia brings in more? Would she be able to face them? Rory didn't know. If this is what Nia meant by closing off her feelings, well it worked. No tears spilled that night over Chloe Hester. Not even as morning came and Rory hadn't even spent a minute asleep. But the healer came in, she knew that much, and yelled at her when he notices she opened her wounds. She didn't care. Nothing mattered to her anymore. Nothing.
When the healer left, her mind drifted away to dreams of darkness and a voice she felt herself longing for. She never should've left Lexa standing there in front of Mount Weather. Perhaps she shouldn't have left at all...but what would happen if she had? She wouldn't be here that much is certain. Rory would be safe. Safe among people who can protect her. Here? She was a sheep among savage wolves that didn't think twice about killing before asking. So that night while she lay in bed looking at the ceiling, she made a choice.
The choice to become a predator instead of hiding like prey and she hoped that it wouldn't ruin her altogether, not knowing that this would be the end of Rory.
And the beginning of Aurora.
A/N: Poor Rory.
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~QueenOfSerpents27~