Clarke

Elody waited four days before she called for her again, and by then Clarke was ravenous, dehydrated, and weak.

"Shall we talk?" the queen asked her, motioning for Alek to set food and water in front of her. She waited patiently while Clarke drained her cup and started eating with abandon. "Slow down," she said in that strange, gentle tone again. "You will make yourself sick."

"I'm starving," Clarke answered, but she took a moment to rest and let her stomach settle, feeling it rebel against the sudden influx of food and water.

The queen's dark eyes were unreadable as she gazed at Clarke. It seemed like the woman rarely blinked, though she knew that wasn't really true- her stare was just so severe that it appeared that way. In spite of her resolve to stay calm, Clarke felt herself almost squirming, her face turning red.

"We can talk," she said, finally. Even that made her ashamed, but now that she knew the true horror of what was hiding in Alek's leather roll, she felt she had no choice. She would try to minimise the damage to those she loved.

She couldn't help but think of Murphy- fingernails torn off, face bloody and beaten, cowering in fear. He had lasted three days. She had been with Elody now for what she guessed was close to three weeks, but she couldn't be sure, since time was hard to track. She took comfort in the fact that had lasted much longer than Murphy, and the Ice Nation seemed much more proficient at causing pain than even Murphy's captors had been. While they had been brutal and cruel, the people here had turned torment into an art.

Meeting the queen's eyes she said, soft, defeated "What do you want to know?"

She half expected Elody to gloat, but she didn't. She just nodded her head and said, "Finish your meal. We will talk after."

It was an uncomfortable breakfast, though the food and drink were both delicious. The queen's people seemed to be as good at cooking as they were at torture, and the food was always amazing- better even than what she'd eaten inside Mount Weather. Elody did not try to make conversation with her, and Clarke had no idea what to say, so they passed the meal in silence. The plates were cleared away by the queen's attendants, and then they were left alone- even Alek was gone. Despite knowing that he could be called back at any moment if necessary, Clarke was immensely relieved that he'd left the room.

"If you cooperate with me, I will give you a proper chamber," Elody said, with that same unsettling gentleness. "You will be fed regularly, and have unlimited access to water. I only ask that you accommodate my questions."

She made it sound so simple, the way she said it, but Clarke knew that was because she'd been broken- deprived of food, drink, time, and comfort, she knew that she had buckled under the pressure. All she could do was nod mutely. She couldn't help but wonder if this same thing had happened to Costia, if in the end she had talked. Selfishly, she hoped so.

"Where shall we begin?" Elody asked, almost conversationally, as though she had no idea how demoralising and humiliating this was.

"Wherever you want," Clarke said, flatly.

"Let's begin with Lexa," the queen said, pretending not to notice that her guest was not playing along. "Were you her lover?"

"No," Clarke answered, shaking her head. "Maybe if we'd known each other longer."

"So there was something between you."

"Yes," Clarke answered. She felt exposed, stripped naked, all her secrets bare for the queen to look at as she pleased. She crossed her arms over her chest and hugged herself to stop from feeling so unprotected.

She asked more questions about Maya and their other allies inside Mount Weather, asked about the harvest chamber- exactly how it was laid out, how many it could hold, how the people were taken, whether the procedures killed them or not, how often the Mountain Men required blood, whether or not it ever failed. Some of these things Clarke could answer and some she couldn't, but Elody seemed to know the difference between this and a lie, and she never accused Clarke of being dishonest if she said she didn't know.

"So you killed all those people, in order to save your own?" she clarified.

"Yes."

"Even though there were only fifty of yours, and over three hundred of theirs? Do you feel that was justified?"

Clarke couldn't figure out whose side Elody was on, or even if she was on anyone's side. Hesitantly she said, "It wasn't just about my people. If we hadn't irradiated the facility, they would have come after us and they would have kept taking more of Lexa's people. They would have died without the blood."

"How did Maya feel about that?"

Again, she hesitated. "I don't know."

Elody's black eyes narrowed. "You are lying to me again."

"No, I'm not," Clarke said hurriedly, feeling sick to her stomach. "She wasn't there when we irradiated."

"I believe you," the queen said. "But that means you are lying to me about who helped you inside the mountain. You said we irradiated. Who was in that control room with you if not Maya? Who was your inside man, really?"

Clarke panicked, trying to see a way out of that, a way to protect her friends while not being caught in a lie. "I…" She trailed off, swallowed, her nausea only increasing.

"Shall I call Alek back?" the queen asked, sounding disappointed.

"No," Clarke said quickly. "No… I just have to think."

"Think of the truth," Elody warned. "Not a lie. I will know."

Clarke believed her. She let out a long, shaky breath. "There was someone else with me in the control room," she whispered.

"Who?"

"Bellamy." Her voice was so soft that the queen had to lean forward to hear her. She had thought she'd been so careful, so clever, to hold him back, yet in that moment she knew that she had been fooling herself. "He's a friend."

"A Sky Person?"

"Yes, a Sky Person," she snapped, and then closed her eyes briefly. "I'm sorry."

"Take a breath, gather yourself," Elody answered. "I understand this is difficult."

Clarke just stared at her. She couldn't figure this woman out at all, which made her feel even more anxious, because she couldn't predict her next move. Finally she said, "He was my inside man. I sent him in before I went in myself. He was supposed to shut off the acid fog, sneak the captives out the back door while me and Lexa and our army distracted them." Even as she said it aloud, the pain was obvious in her voice- they'd had such hopes for a resolution that minimised the bloodshed. If only it had been that simple.

"Interesting," Elody said, and she did look genuinely intrigued. "So your original intention was not to irradiate the mountain?"

"No," Clarke said, shaking her head. "No, everyone was supposed to survive… well, almost everyone. There were innocent people in there."

"Innocent," Elody spat, her first true sign of emotion. "Innocent people do not enslave an entire race only to prolong their own lives."

Clarke wanted to yell at her, point out the absolute insanity of that statement when here she was, basically enslaved just because the queen had questions for her. How was that any better? But she held her tongue, somehow, and just said, "Their children were innocent."

"Perhaps," Elody allowed. "So how was it that your noble plan transformed into mass murder?"

The bluntness with which she described the irradiation as mass murder, though technically correct, made Clarke cringe. "Lexa betrayed us," she said softly.

"You will have to be much more descriptive."

So Clarke launched into an explanation of what had happened, outlining Bellamy's final days inside Mount Weather, the ambush at the doors, the happiness she'd felt when the door finally opened, and then the shock and disbelief that had overwhelmed her as she realised Lexa had made a deal to free her own people at the expense of Clarke's.

"Why would Mount Weather agree to that?" Elody interrupted her.

"What?" Clarke asked, surprised at the question.

"You are finite in number," the queen explained. "The Tree Clan is prolific. Why would they see the gain of fifty or a hundred, or even two hundred, as better than the unlimited supply of people from the forest? Not to mention the other clans?"

They were back to this- the marrow. The secret Clarke did not want to give up… she didn't even know why, but something in her gut told her it was dangerous knowledge for the queen to possess.

"I don't know," she said, hoping she sounded confident, truthful. One look at Elody's face told her that she had failed. It was like a knife in her heart as she said softly, her voice defeated, "Our blood is better than yours… they wanted us because we could cure them- permanently."

"How?" Elody demanded, and Clarke could tell by the look of satisfaction on the queen's face that she knew this was her most closely guarded secret.

"Bone marrow," Clarke whispered.

"What is that?" the queen asked, narrowing her eyes in confusion.

"It's in the middle of all our bones," she answered, struggling to explain it in simple terms. "It's a honeycomb, spongy sort of stuff… it's what produces all the blood for our bodies."

Elody was smart enough to understand the meaning of that and she said, "So if they have your bone marrow, they can make blood like yours."

"That's right," Clarke said, nodding. "There's something called a bone marrow transplant… you take the marrow from one person and inject it into another. The cells take root in the recipient's bones and start producing blood."

"But why your blood?" the queen pressed. "Why are you so special?"

"It's because we were born and raised in space," Clarke explained. "There's radiation up there… more than there is even on Earth. The Gr- uh, the clans… their people can process the radiation far better than the Mountain Men because they've lived on the ground, and the only people who've survived to pass on their genes were ones who could filter out the radiation."

"Which you can do even better," Elody finished her thought, nodding her head. "I see. Now I understand the reason that Lexa made the deal that she did."

"So does that mean you forgive her?" Clarke asked, feeling positive for the first time in days. If Elody forgave Lexa, maybe she would let her go.

"No," the queen said, dashing her hopes immediately. "But the reasons are clearer now."

"The Ice Nation is so far away," Clarke said carefully. "Lexa's decision happened so quickly… there was no-"

"Do not try to defend her," Elody interrupted. "Or would you defend her for tonDC as well?"

Clarke felt the colour drain from her face. "You know about tonDC?" When Elody said nothing she swallowed and said quietly, "We made that decision together."

"What decision is that?"

"To… to let the bomb drop," Clarke said, uncertainly.

"Oh really?" Elody asked, her jaw clenched in anger. "So it was your decision and Lexa's decision to allow my second to be killed in tonDC?"

"You didn't know," Clarke said, realisation dawning on her like a punch in the stomach. "That's not what you meant at all, is it?"

"Alek!" the queen yelled.

"No," Clarke whispered, then louder, "No, please! Please don't do this! I'm sorry." She was panicking now, knowing what was coming- or rather, not knowing, which was much worse.

Alek burst into the chamber and he saw the anger on Elody's face. Brusquely he unrolled his leather case and the queen pointed at one of the red darts. Without a word, he removed it from the case and pulled out the glass vial to dip it in.

Clarke remembered that red meant severe pain- worse than any suffering she'd felt yet. She launched herself off her chair and thought about running, but she knew there was no use. Instead she collapsed to her knees in front of the queen and actually begged her, "Please don't do this. Please… I'm sorry. I'm sorry for tonDC, for your people… I'm sorry for everything, please, please don't do this." She felt tears building in her eyes but she refused to let them fall- she was so raw and broken, but she wanting to keep that one thing- her tears- for herself.

Alek knelt down and roughly grabbed Clarke's arm, flattening her hand against the floor. He lined the red dart up with the space between her third and fourth fingers. Clarke tried desperately to squirm away, to pull her hand back, anything, but the man was so strong and she was so weak from hunger and fear.

But then, as if it was a miracle, Elody put her hand and said, "Stop. Leave us."

Alek released Clarke, stood up, bowed to his queen, and left the room as quickly as he had come. When Clarke raised her face, Elody's hand was outstretched toward her. She took it, let the queen help her to her feet. She actually wanted to hug her, such was the extent of her gratitude, but instead she just stood there, heart pounding, shaking like a leaf. Her teeth were chattering.

Elody called one of her female attendants, a woman Clarke had never seen before, and spoke to her in Trigedasleng, and this new woman smiled kindly at her and led her from the room. Only when they had been walking for several minutes did Clarke realise they weren't going down into the basement, to the dungeon where she had her cell.

Instead she was taken to a much nicer room, with slats high in the wall to let in light, paneled with panes of glass with strange patterns on them that Clarke belatedly realised was frost. But despite the chill outside, the fire crackling in the hearth had warmed this room. Someone had brought in a large tub and filled it with hot, scented water. There were clean clothes laid out on the bed.

"You may bathe," the woman said in heavily accented English. "And you may sleep. The queen will call for you again tomorrow."

Somehow, mechanically, still in shock, Clarke managed to say, "Thank you."

The woman nodded, left, and she heard the soft thud of a bolt sliding into place. Clarke took off her clothes and slid into the hot water, hugging her knees to her chest as she let herself turn red and shrivelled.

The more she sat there, the angrier and more desperate she felt. "I have to get out of here," she whispered to herself, over and over, her determination growing with each passing moment. "I have to go home."