'What plan?' Clarke asked, standing up and ignoring the concerned look from her mother.

'We need to go back to the source...or at least a source.' Raven said.

'What are you talking about?' Octavia asked, confused. 'You've got everything you need here.'

'No, I don't.' Raven responded, 'and I can take all of this with me, but I need direct access into the City of Light. I don't think ALIE exists externally. Murphy told us about solar panels in the Dead Zone. They can't just be for nothing.'

'Oh they weren't,' Murphy drawled, 'a little drone popped up and led us to her.'

'There wouldn't have been so many panels for one drone - even if they were its power source.' Kane reasoned.

'So we head there?' Sinclair asked. 'And hope that we find something?'

Raven gave Sinclair a look close to incredulity and raised her eyebrow.

'Really, Sinclair?' She teased. 'That's the best you can come up with?'

Sinclair looked at her, baffled.

'How likely is it that the Mountain Men were only ones who thought to make a bunker?' Raven asked.

'You think there are more?' Bellamy asked, crossing his arms and looking doubtful.

'Every time we think we learn something about life on the ground we're proved wrong. I don't think in this entire world that one bunker survived. They knew of the bomb threat and had time to build a shelter. Who's to say there aren't others?'

'It is unlikely we'd just happen to land right next to the only bunker left.' Clarke conceded.

'So you want us to find more Mountain Men?' Abby asked, sceptical.

'No, one lot was bad enough, but it might be something we need to try in the long run,' Raven answered, 'but for now we go back to basics- our Mount Weather.'

'Which a missile blew up.' Kane reminded her.

'I was there,' Raven pointed out, 'but that mountain was designed to withstand nuclear warfare. It got hit by one missile. We saw level five destroyed but we never went to check -'

'-the tunnels.' Clarke finished, adrenaline rushing through her at the realisation.

'Right.' Raven said, smirking. 'If anything survived I can tap into their systems and network and find where any power is going in the area. If there's any crossed networks I'll be able to hack into the City of Light source directly which will give me a lot more control than I currently have. Right now, I can only fiddle with the aesthetics but we need to be equal to ALIE if we're ever going to have a chance.'

'It's better than walking through the damn Dead Zone.' Murphy muttered.

'With ALIE being in Clarke's head we don't have time for that anyway.' Raven said, throwing Clarke a nervous look.

'She's not with me.' Clarke promised; it would be ridiculous to talk so openly about their plan to beat ALIE if she could listen in.

'You've closed your mind off for now,' Raven said, 'but she'll keep trying, Clarke.'

Clarke swallowed nervously but she was ready to face it. ALIE had already tried to break her and had failed badly. She would be ready to meet whatever ALIE threw at her next.

'So when we get to the source, how do I jump in with Lexa?' Clarke asked Raven.

Clarke was beginning to feel that was the overwhelming battle. She couldn't do this without Lexa, although she hated the fact that risking giving the Flame to ALIE was the only way they could fully defeat this threat. Her feelings didn't matter though because the argument now was moot: they had no way to cross over to each other. They may have been stood next to each other but they well as well be in different galaxies. To Clarke's amazement however, Raven smiled.

'When you were out, Aden filled me in on some of the things that happened in Polis.' Raven said.

'Aden?' Lexa repeated.

'You weren't going to give me the gossip when you were worrying over Clarke and I needed everything I could get.' Raven replied. 'Trying to kill the Ice Queen, Clarke?'

Clarke stepped forward as she felt both Bellamy's and her mother's eyes burning into her.

'What does that matter?'

'We can't figure out how to make the leap across from the City of Light to the Flame. We've been looking ahead at how to bridge this huge gap but we're going nowhere.' Raven said. 'Did you get any clues when you were out?'

'No,' Clarke admitted; feeling self conscious.

She had no idea how she was going to explain Finn to them. She glanced at Lincoln who quickly looked away.

'I didn't think you would.' Raven said.

'So what is your plan?' Bellamy asked, agitation rising.

'The simplest solution is the best and when you can't think your way forwards-'

'-then plan your way backwards.' Sinclair finished, proudly.

'What the hell does that mean?' Murphy asked, looking between the two.

'Blood.' Raven answered, smiling at Murphy. 'If they take the Grounder oath - slit their hands with a blade and then shake, their blood will merge and their portals will be brought together.'

Clarke stared at Raven, stunned. Lexa's blood had been the key to all of this. It was such a simple idea and she cursed herself for not realising it before. Yet it probably had been safer that way. ALIE had infiltrated her memories and tried to use them against her. If they had come up with this before Clarke had taken the chip then it risked handing ALIE that knowledge.

'Why can't we do this now?' Lexa asked; impatient.

Clarke knew Lexa wanted the ALIE chip removed as soon as possible. Shame flooded through Clarke when she thought of how she must have been when ALIE was attacking her. She was weak and crying out. She never wanted her friends or her mom to see her like that, she didn't want Lexa to, especially not after everything they'd been through already.

'We don't know how it will react.' Raven answered. 'We can't have a trial run, if we do it then there's no going back and I'd rather wait until we're at the source. We're triggering a war by doing this and Lexa will be under huge threat in the Flame while ALIE tries to break Clarke's mind.'

'Clarke's going to have ALIE attacking her up until then anyway.' Octavia pointed out.

'I can handle it.' Clarke said quickly, looking determined at Raven who nodded.

'Then we have to move.' Lexa urged. 'We cannot wait here if we have to get to the Mountain. ALIE's people may already be planning another attack and she could invade Clarke's mind again at any moment.'

'We should go,' Abby agreed, surprising Clarke.

Murphy smirked at Bellamy.

'Do I get a gun again?'

Author's Note: Happy holidays!