I don't know why but for some reason I really struggled with this chapter. I hope it's not complete shite but I dunno.

Lexa and Clarke stared ahead and then at one another.

"This massive...warehouse is your safehouse?" frowned Lexa.

"Why is there some big bald dude standing outside?" asked Clarke.

Raven didn't look at them as she said, "I came here last night and-"

They stared at each other again. "You brought us into gang territory?" said Lexa, utterly bewildered. "I'm not sure I see how this is safer-"

"It'll be fine," said Raven unconcernedly, more or less believing that herself. The guard outside the side door she had exited from the previous night was not the same guy. This could go better or worse than that encounter. She'd find out shortly.

"Fine?" said Clarke incredulously, stopping in her tracks. She glared at the back of Raven's head, arms crossed. "Wasn't the whole reason I didn't come here last night because I might be recognized? And besides that, I thought we agreed not to involve anyone else? That was kind of the whole point to leaving Grounders."

Raven turned to both of them, annoyed that they were being so resistant to her help. "They won't be," she said, doing her best to keep her tone civil. "I'm just going to ask Anya if we can crash here for a bit until we figure out a plan of action. She doesn't need to know why we're here though. None of them do." She gestured unconcernedly at Clarke. "And I doubt she'll recognize you. That was Lexa's concern. Not mine. People are pretty dense. Believe me. I bet you could walk up to your own mother like this and she wouldn't know you. Just disguise your voice a bit. Or better yet, don't speak at all."

For the third time in less than a minute, Clarke and Lexa shared a look. Why was Raven being so blase about all this? Why was she so determined to go back there?

"Anya?" said Lexa, eyebrow arched. "I thought you spoke with Heda?"

Raven just barely managed to suppress the flush at her blunder. "I did," she muttered gruffly. "They're the same person."

"So...you're on a first name basis with the leader of a criminal organization after only one...interrogation?"

She should've had more shame but Lexa just couldn't help herself. It was so rare to see Raven flustered about a girl. Or boy. Or anything for that matter. She had that in common with Clarke, serial killers notwithstanding.

Raven huffed in annoyance and embarrassment. "Turns out I used to know her," she replied.

"Wait, what?" said Lexa, smirk disappearing. This was news to her. She had a pretty good memory and was almost certain Raven had never mentioned anyone named Anya.

Lexa was not mistaken. Miss Reyes had only once uttered Anya's name and lamented her story to a fellow technician by the name of Monty Green. They had imbibed copious amounts of his infamous and strictly prohibited moonshine. During this blackout drunk stage, she had decided that it was a very good idea to blow up a tub of butter in the quartermasters quarters (with Anya's high school picture secured beneath the IED).

The quartermaster being an incredibly asinine and rigorous rule keeper - who Raven swore had it in for her - it seemed like just desserts. Unfortunately, she had boisterously told anyone who passed by what she had done, even her superior officers. And since the quartermaster was the son of an influential General, they subsequently had no choice but to reprimand her in the most severe way, and to discharge her from the service, regardless of her many uses on and off the field. It was one of their greatest mistakes. They attempted to recruit her again a few months later, but by then, Raven had lost interest in military living, having regained a fond appreciation for hot and frequent baths, alone...or otherwise.

"Just...drop it," said Raven, scowling at her.

Lexa nodded, knowing all too well there were certain topics best left unexplored.

"Let's get this over with," said Raven to herself, marching up to the latest guard.

She had been wrong earlier in her assessment of what would happen. It didn't go better or worse. It went exactly the same. He grabbed Raven (who was several steps ahead of the others) and rammed her into the side of the building. Caught off guard (though she really shouldn't have been) she banged her (still recovering) knee into the wall, making her cry out. Before Clarke and Lexa could protest too much, or perhaps pull a gun on him, the door clicked open, and the machete guard from the previous night told him to release her. Confused, the guard obeyed, and then followed the trio into Heda's interview room.

Again, Raven walked ahead of them, suppressing winces all the way, until she found herself face to face with Anya once more. The bruise left by her hard head appeared to be mostly masked by the black face paint, which is just as well. Raven had a funny feeling the Trikru would not have taken kindly to her assaulting their leader. She supposed the one guard brave enough to show his face during the altercation was told to keep his mouth shut. Even though she couldn't see it, she still felt vaguely guilty. If her leg wasn't hurting so badly again, she might have even apologized today. As it was, she wasn't in the mood, and had already begun to regret bringing them here.

"This is...unexpected," said Anya, eyes flitting over her companions before settling back on Raven.

That appeared to be all she was going to say by way of greeting so Raven swallowed and said, "Yeah, I hope this isn't too much of an imposition, considering...but uh, my friends and I could use a place to stay for a bit. Off the grid."

Anya looked at her for so long that she couldn't hold back another grimace. Heda then directed her unnerving stare towards the male guard who promptly stood taller, waiting for orders. "She's injured."

"Yes, Heda," he said as stoically as he could muster. His eyes darted towards the sheathed sword. It was ludicrous to think Anya would decapitate him right then and there. Wasn't it?

"I wasn't aware that you were acquainted with these individuals."

"They are my guests from this point forth," said Anya, surprising everyone in the room. "See them to the guest chambers."

"Right away, Heda," he said, gesturing to them to move off into a corridor. Clarke mouthed 'guests?' to Lexa, who would have laughed under different circumstances. The guest chambers weren't a torture dungeon as Clarke might have supposed, nor were they particularly grand. The concrete floor was slightly sticky and discoloured. The chairs around the square table were ratty and would probably break apart if they sat in them. The queen sized bed sheets looked like they hadn't been washed in years, and there was a thin layer of dust coating everything else. They were definitely not in Kansas anymore.

Raven stumbled into the room behind them, and Lexa caught her, steadying. She helped her sit down on a chair and it held, though it did creak a bit. Lexa brought another chair across from Raven and sat down, pulling her braced leg into her lap. Raven's protests didn't last long after Lexa removed the brace and began to massage her continually abused knee joints.

She grinned dopily, closing her eyes. "Damn, I forgot how good you were with your hands."

Lexa stopped momentarily when she noticed Clarke's indignant expression, then continued on. Clarke needed to stop getting jealous at every turn. She knew this, but she couldn't seem to help it. Not being able to have all of Lexa when she was so stressed out was starting to make her screws loose.

A short while after this, Anya herself appeared at the door, which apparently didn't have a lock. It seemed an odd choice for a guests space, but perhaps it was the best she could offer?

She eyed the two of them, hands subtly clenching at her sides. "I must apologize on behalf of Dekk. My people can sometimes be...overzealous."

"Don't worry about it," waved off Raven, quite enjoying herself now. In that moment, Raven thought she could've been quite happy with Lexa if she hadn't been so immovable in her opinion of Clarke. Her blissful bubble was popped a few seconds later.

"Would you do me the honour of introducing me to your wife?"

The room went deathly quiet, and Raven wished the floor would open up and consume her so that she didn't have to explain herself. She was a relatively good person, she didn't deserve this shit. Sure she didn't like homeless people very much but that was because they reminded her of her drug addicted deadbeat mother. Raven didn't even know if she was alive or dead right now. A sentiment she shared at the moment. She was Schrodinger's fucking cat. Her fate depended on who opened the box.

Clarke guffawed in disbelief. "Raven, what the hell is she talking about?"

Dead, dead. She was dead.

Cringing, Raven hazarded a look at Anya. Rather than be put off by being misled, she seemed to be happy. She almost seemed to be smiling. Or maybe Raven was seeing things that weren't there because she was phasing out of existence.

"My mistake," said Anya, stance relaxing slightly. Raven wondered if Anya had served in the military at one point herself. Or if she had been raised by someone who had later on in life. She definitely hadn't been this rigid when they were in high school together. Or spoken nearly as formally. Though she had still been intimidating...for various reasons.

"This is Lexa," said Raven quickly, unbelieving at her good fortune. Why was Anya letting this slide? "A friend of mine."

Anya nodded, her gaze moving to Clarke, who suddenly stopped smirking. "And you are?"

Clarke was irritated when Lexa spoke for her, but only for a second. "She's my girlfriend."

It was silly of her to get a thrill out of hearing that, after all she wasn't in high school anymore, and yet, they had a similar relationship to that of teenagers. Minus all of the fun touching stuff.

Anya nodded solemnly again, apparently not even caring that a name hadn't been given. Though, just like the homeless man, her gaze lingered on her hair. Maybe she needed to rethink her disguise?

The fact that she was wearing sunglasses in a dimly lit room never even crossed her mind as being a little odd. She wasn't exactly a celebrity or anything. More likely people would think she was high and trying to cover up her bloodshot eyes.

"It's good to meet you both," said Anya, glancing between Clarke and Lexa.

She stared at Raven again, who forced herself to meet her gaze. What is her deal? "Well, I'll leave you to it."

Anya left the room and just like that, Raven could breathe again. She pulled her leg away from Lexa in order to redo her brace, all the while avoiding their bemused looks.

"That was...unexpected," said Lexa, unconsciously mimicking Anya from earlier.

Now that Raven thought about it, they were eerily similar in a number of ways. "Drop it," she said again. "We've got a lot more important things to discuss than my failed teenage romances." Fuck. Why did she say that? Her brilliant mind had been off lately and all because fucking dead girl forced her to come here when there was absolutely no fucking reason.

Wisely they didn't say anything more to her about Anya. In an effort to get more comfortable, Raven took off her backpack with her clothes and laptop in it. "So..."

There was a knock at the door. Now what?

"Come in," called Lexa politely.

The dick guard, Dekk, was standing there, filling up the whole door frame. "Forgive my interruption," he said. "There is a beef stew being served in the commons. Would any of you like some?"

Not knowing where they were going, Clarke had packed three sandwiches and drinks. "We're good," she said patting her back. The pack was hurting her lower back but she had reservations about putting it down on the grimy ground, or bed here. And letting her money and gun out of sight was also a factor in wanting to keep it close.

Dekk looked like he had been struck by lightning. He looked to the others for confirmation that they too wouldn't be partaking. Even though he needlessly hurt Raven, Lexa felt bad for the guy. Heda's reputation wasn't exactly of the lenient variety. And it was already obvious to her that Anya had a soft spot for Raven, and that Dekk was asking on her orders.

"I'll have some, thank you," she said.

He gave her a slight grateful smile and said, "I'll be right back."

Clarke stared at her funnily. "I thought you said that you don't eat meat?"

"She doesn't," grunted Raven.

"I'm just trying to reciprocate their hospitality," shrugged Lexa. "The Trikru aren't really what I imagined them to be like."

"Oh, trust me," said Clarke darkly, "despite this bizarre politeness, they're still capable of extreme violence."

"Okay, anyway," said Raven, "how about we start-"

"One beef stew," said Dekk, appearing out of thin air. For a big guy, he sure was silent. And fast. What the hell did he do, teleport to the stew and back?

He swept into the room and placed the metal bowl filled to the brim with amber contents on the table.

"Thank you, Dekk," said Lexa, picking up the spoon. "This looks delicious."

He looked between all of them when he was back in the doorway. "Washrooms are just down the hall," he said pointing in the direction.

Raven suppressed a snort. The guy had good timing. Was that supposed to invoke confidence in the cooks ability or what?

"Don't hesitate to ask for anything. Heda's guests should want for nothing."

"Why do I feel like I'm in the witches candy house?" muttered Clarke when he was gone.

Raven let out the pent up snort but otherwise didn't respond. She glanced at Lexa's stew. "So, what are you planning to do with that?"

Lexa pushed it towards her. Raven had to admit it smelled pretty damn good. And she was pretty damn hungry. She doubted it was poisoned or else Dekk would've insisted they all have some. Besides, why would they bother with something like that when they could just slit their throats? And anyway, it didn't seem like Anya had any intent like that.

Raven dug in unceremoniously. An explosion of flavour hit her tongue. "Damn, this is really good you guys. Like really good." She held it out to Clarke who made a face.

Clarke was far from enthused about being here. If she had known ahead of time, she would have never agreed to this. Rather than answer, she shrugged her backpack off, grimacing as she stuck it on the dusty bed covers and a plume of white shot up. She hoped they weren't spending the night. Sleeping on the streets would probably be more sanitary. Between this and the subway, her clothes were going to be ruined.

She pulled out all of the drinks and two of the sandwiches, handing Lexa the vegetarian one. Lexa also removed her backpack and they sat in relative silence eating for a few seconds. Raven was consuming her food with considerably more gusto.

"Let's get down to business," said Clarke. "We don't want to overstay our welcome."

"Well, you've had the longest to process this, Clarke," said Lexa after swallowing. "Did you come up with anything?"

Clarke glanced away busying herself with a sip of bottled water. She grumbled something.

"I'm sorry, what was that?"

She huffed. "I said, not really. Shooting him was about it."

"For what it's worth," responded Lexa once she caught her eye, "I'm glad you didn't. You wouldn't want something like that on your conscience."

Clarke was confused at first, then her expression softened. "Lexa...please don't beat yourself up about that anymore. It-"

"Shouldn't I, though, Clarke?" returned Lexa with a little bit of heat. How could Clarke be so callous? "I killed a man. He had a family, friends. People who cared about him. And I just took that away from them. Because I'm selfish and thought you deserved life more than him."

Clarke should've known this was eating away at Lexa, but she had been too wrapped up in her own problems to notice. Lexa was a far gentler soul than herself. She would avoid killing spiders if she could, instead setting them free.

Clarke held her hand out palm up and after a slight hesitation, Lexa took it. "I'm really sorry you had to do that-"

Lexa let go, standing up in agitation. She grasped her wrists behind her back. "That's just it, Clarke. I didn't have to do anything. No one forced my hand. I chose to do it. What kind of person does that make me?"

She followed suit, getting up and placing her hand over her heart. "Human."

They stared at each for awhile until Raven couldn't take it anymore and said, "Would you two stop eye fucking and sit back down?"

They blushed, for indeed that was precisely what they had been doing, each caught up in their own fantasy world.

After reclaiming their seats Raven added, "Cheer up, Lex. Think about it this way, by doing what you did, you've prevented countless other lives from being taken."

That was assuming they were successful in removing Bellamy from society.

"And that's worth a little sacrifice, don't you think?"

"Yes," she conceded eventually, begrudgingly. They sat in contemplation until she continued, "My idea is to go the police-"

Raven choked on a partially masticated piece of beef, but managed to get it down by chugging some water. "Really, Lexa?" she sputtered. "That's the best you've got? That'll go over real well! Hey, this is my girlfriend, Clarke Griffin. Remember her? The dead girl you've been trying to find for days? Well, she's not dead anymore, but she was, and one of your detectives did the killing! And oh, yeah, he's also The Phantom Killer! So you screwed up big time there too!"

Lexa was far from amused. "We'd get evidence first-"

"Yeah, 'cause there was sooo much of it during the FBI investigation! Did you forget why they called him the Phantom Killer? He didn't leave anything incriminating behind on his kills!"

"Clarke mentioned she found trophies-"

"No, absolutely not!" interjected Clarke, bristling. "We aren't breaking into his apartment to look for them. Besides, the likelihood he would have left them there and not just destroyed them after I found them, are slim to none. And even if they were there, and he wasn't lurking in wait for us, we would've attained them illegally, and it would just be thrown out of court!"

Lexa was irritated that they both ganged up on her without even letting her finish a single sentence. "What's your brilliant plan then?" she said tersely to Raven. There was no immediate response. "That's what I thought."

"There's something I've been wondering about for awhile now, Clarke," said Raven once she polished off the last of the stew. "Where did Bellamy kill you?"

Instantly Clarke was uncomfortable, but she had been expecting something like this to come up, so she wasn't completely unprepared. "Where I was found. Just like the police think and papers say."

"Okay," said Raven, with a slight frown. "So you found the trophies in his bedroom, and then he killed you in the alleyway behind your condominium." Clarke nodded. "How did you get there?"

Clarke sighed, resigned to tell them the full truth now. It wasn't fun for her to relive that kind of terror, but it was necessary. She fidgeted with the plastic wrap of her sandwich. "He injected me with some sort of paralytic. I'm guessing it was the designer kind that would only come up in a blood test if the toxicologist specifically looked for it. Anyway, I couldn't move at all, so he carried me to his car and stuck me in the trunk. It was padded down. Again, I'm guessing to prevent bruises inconsistent with a strangulation. It was all set up already though, which tells me I wasn't the first person he's given this exact treatment. It was like being in a coffin, except, I couldn't even scream."

She shivered slightly and Lexa being the gentlewoman she was, took her jacket off and draped it across her shoulders. Hopefully this time, she wouldn't ruin it. Lexa took her hand, and Clarke found the strength to carry on.

"He drove around for awhile. I think he went to a bunch of prostitute stops, then one of them got in and they had a conversation that I couldn't make out. He pulled over somewhere, maybe an alleyway, I don't know...and she got out of the car for a little while before getting back in. He made a comment or two and then drove some more. She got out again, and he only drove a short distance away. He sat there for awhile, maybe an hour or two, then drove a little more and opened the trunk. By the time he pulled me out, I was just starting to regain function of my limbs, as I'm sure he knew. I recognized the back of my building." She swallowed, biting her lip. Despite her best efforts, she was trembling. "Before I could scream for help he had put the belt around my neck and was squeezing..."

Lexa squeezed her own hand, internally burning with rage. Her previous apprehensions about murdering him vanished without a trace. Just like he would once she was through with him.

"Blake used her as a body double," said Raven after a few beats, internally shuddering at Clarke's ordeal. It was one thing to get killed. It was an entirely different one to be psychological tortured for hours first, helpless to prevent your fate. "That's how he got video proof of 'Clarke'," she used air quotes, "coming home at the time he said he dropped her off."

Raven reached down, opened her bag and pulled out her laptop. In sleep mode, it turned on right away. She pulled out her trusty wi-fi enhancer, allowing her to get internet access pretty much anywhere. After a few commands into Linux, she gained access to the 100th's precinct database. A few more commands and she had pulled up the pre-logged video recording of 'Clarke's' arrival home at ten to midnight. Time of death had been logged as between two and three in the morning. That would fit with Clarke's rendition.

She swiveled the laptop around, sending some dust flying. Clarke looked at the woman who had impersonated her. Even she couldn't tell the difference. The cameras weren't close up enough, and the quality was too poor to make out detailed facial features. But she was the right height and figure. Had blue eyes and blonde hair fashioned the same way. And she was wearing her black leather jacket, so whoever was on duty that night, probably wouldn't have suspected anything. Especially not since this woman had her key card and didn't draw any unnecessary attention to herself as she entered the building.

Clarke knew exactly what Raven was thinking, and sure enough...

"If we could find her, she could testify against Blake."

Clarke gave her a sardonic look. "Do you really think he's that sloppy? He doesn't like loose ends. He probably killed her the same night he killed me. But since I'm best friends with his sister who knew I was with him that night, he couldn't just disappear me." Clarke gestured to the screen. "She was dead the moment she got into the car."

It was Raven's turn to get irritated. She had thought she had a really good idea there. "Okay, dead girl, I'm gonna need you to give me something to work with here, or we might as well just go stand in the street with bulls-eyes on our backs."

They glared at one another and were therefore rather startled when Lexa spoke up for the first time in awhile, especially with such ominous words.

"Blood must have blood. He has to die."

Looks like there's more than one Heda in town. lol