"Are you sure this will work?" an angry looking Pike questions Dante Wallace as he glares at the older man.
Dante Wallace refuses to answer, still in a stupor over the call he had recently received telling him that his son was dead.
"Of course it will work." Nia smirks back. "Two women cannot survive against the size of the force we sent against them."
"Do not underestimate the power of Heda and Wanheda." Titus sagely replies.
"They are human, nothing more." Thelonious retorts, steepling his fingers in front of him and tapping the pads of his fingers together as he waits for news.
The odd group waits in silence, refusing to interact more due to the hatreds they share amongst them. Pike keeps his hand on the gun at his hip, eyeing Titus and Nia, expecting them to make a move towards him at any minute. Nia switches her cold gaze between Dante and Pike, while Thelonious and Titus are the only ones who manage to maintain outward neutrality. Dante, who has now sagged noticeably in his chair, refuses to look at anyone and instead stares intently at the woodgrain in table.
When the door bangs open suddenly, Pike jumps to his feet with his weapon raised as Clarke bursts through the door, a weapon raised in each hand.
"Wanheda." Titus growls.
"Clarke?" Thelonious questions, shocked to not only see her here but in war paint. When he notices Pike's position, he grabs Pike's arm to force his weapon down.
Nia pulls a gun and points it at Clarke but before she can get to her feet a knife impales her throat. Her eyes widen in shock and pain as blood dribbles out of the corner of her mouth. Lexa steps out from behind Clarke just in time to see Nia's eyes close for the last time.
Upon seeing Lexa, Pike punches Thelonious in the face and raises his gun once more, but Clarke pulls the trigger, shooting him right between the eyes. His body slumps forward and slams into the ground, the thud of his head hitting the ground loud in the now silent room.
Lexa is the first to move, striding towards Titus and grabbing him by the front of his robes and shoving him up against the wall, tightening one hand around his throat.
"What is the meaning of this, Fleimkepa." She growls at Titus as he refuses to meet her eyes. When he doesn't answer, she grabs his face with her other hand and forces him to meet her heated gaze.
"Heda, beja…" Titus pleads, but when Lexa makes no move other than to bring a knife to his neck, Titus finally begins to speak. "This war with the Skaikru would have destroyed you, Heda. The Coalition was one thing, but a treaty with the Skaikru? The people would not have accepted it. The clans were already becoming discontent with your failure to eliminate the Mountain and Wanheda. When Thelonious came to me with a way to eliminate Wanheda, I had to take it. My duty is to protect the Heda."
"I am Heda, Titus. Your duty was to protect me, to protect Leksa, to trust that I was doing what was right for our people." A tear rolls down Lexa's face as she realizes that she will have to kill the man who helped raise her, one of her closest advisors and protectors. Despite his recent misgivings towards her decisions, he had always been by her side, and she had never thought that he would be capable of this.
Meanwhile, Clarke is confronting Thelonious on the other side of the room with her gun raised at his chest. "I know what you did to my father." Clarke growls, trying to hide the trembling of her lower lip. "You had him killed for wanting to save our people. You were friends with my parents for 20 years and were on the Council together for 10, but you threw that all away trying to keep power and keep making money over the good of our people!"
Thelonious remains calm, not truly believing that Clarke will kill him, despite the knowledge he has of her numerous successful missions. His arrogance will be his downfall. "Clarke, I was just doing what was right for our people. Sometimes being in command means making difficult decisions, but…" Thelonious is cut off as a gunshot sounds through the quiet room. The man is confused for a moment, until he looks down at his chest where a dark red stain is now spreading across his crisp white shirt.
Clarke lowers her gun and stalks forward as Thelonious drops to his knees. "My father's life was not yours to take. Neither is mine." Thelonious slumps the rest of the way to the ground and Clarke doesn't even bother to close his eyes as she turns away from him, only to find Lexa standing there waiting for her.
As soon as she had heard the gun shot go off, Lexa had panicked and turned around to check on Clarke. Her grip around Titus' neck had loosened only slightly as she ensured that her wife was safe, but that was enough for him to try to break free. Unfortunately for the bald man, he had trained Lexa too well, and she had known what she had to do as soon as she heard of his betrayal, despite her misgivings. As soon as he twitches, she cuts his throat and steps back to avoid the spray of blood as much as possible.
Lexa doesn't even stay long enough to watch her father-figure bleed out before she strides over to check on Clarke. When the blonde turns around to meet her, tear filled blue meet weary green. "Jus drein jus daun." Lexa whispers and Clarke rushes to embrace her wife in relief.
Lexa catches movement over Clarke's shoulder and finds Dante picking up Pike's gun. She quickly turns to shield Clarke with her own body, but Clarke feels the stiffness in the brunette and breaks free to stand at her side, refusing to allow her wife to protect her.
As soon as she sees Dante gripping a gun, she raises her own, but the old man is not pointing it at them, just holding it loosely in his right hand. "I guess it's too late to ask for mercy for my people, isn't it?" He laughs ruefully, finally raising his despondent eyes towards to the two women.
"No, it's not." Clarke says.
"Yes." Lexa says at the exact same time as her wife.
Clarke glares at Lexa and is about to argue, but Dante interrupts. "Don't bother, Clarke. You're married to a savage, what do you expect other than ruthlessness?"
Lexa refuses to allow a dead man's words to hurt her, but Clarke still squeezes the brunette's hand in comfort. "Lexa is not a savage. She united the 12 Clans. She's making peace with us. Blood does not always need more blood."
Dante taps the gun on the table and waves his free hand towards Lexa. "Ah, but see, your wife doesn't agree with you, does she? Jus drein jus daun, eh Commander?"
Clarke turns to look at Lexa but finds the brunette clenching her jaw and refusing to meet Clarke's blue-eyed gaze. "Lexa, there are innocent people here. We can't just kill them!"
Lexa squeezes Clarke's hand tightly, holding her in place as she finally meets her gaze. "The Mountainmen have been killing us for over a century, Clarke. Decades longer than our fight with your people. The recent massacre of 300 of our warriors by the Skaikru will be difficult for the Coalition to overlook, but I will be able to make them see reason. Skaikru assisted in the downfall of our greatest enemy, and most still fear the power of Wanheda. This victory over the Mountain today will provide enough vengeance to sate my people. Jus drein jus daun has always been our way, and it's the service we provide to the people who pay us. None of the people in this Mountain are innocent; they have been living off my people for generations."
Clarke tries to release Lexa's hand in anger, but feels Lexa only grip it tighter. She spits her next words at Lexa, unable to hold back her anger at the situation. "What about those who aren't warriors, the parents, the children? You're just going to slaughter them? When does the cycle of violence end?"
Lexa manages to keep her voice at a normal tone, but her words are stern. "What would you have me do, Klark? Release them to the world where they can tell their story to the public? Waste resources imprisoning them? Attempt to integrate them into the Clans, where they will only face persecution and likely assassination? Every single person in here harbors a hatred towards us. I cannot allow any of them to go free and risk them becoming a future threat to my people. Leaving them alive to wage future war on us is not ending the cycle of violence; it's perpetuating it. My duty to protect my own people comes first, not to save everyone. You can't save everyone, Klark."
Clarke realizes that Lexa is right, but she still tries to think of a way to save the innocents. She doesn't think she can live with the responsibility of exterminating an entire race of people, nor with the thought that she doesn't know what truly distinguishes her from the Mountainmen anymore. They were just doing what they had to in order to survive, just like she is now.
Lexa glances at Dante but finds him watching them in a nonthreatening manner, gun flat on the table and no longer in his hands. She keeps his form in her peripherals just in case he makes a move towards them, but otherwise focuses her gaze on Clarke as she steps closer to her wife. "We have the power to change our people for the better, but it can't happen all at once. Klark, the peace amongst the clans of the Coalition and the Skaikru without threat from the Mountainmen is already an unprecedented era for our people."
"The first step towards peace. An era when blood does not always have to have blood." Clarke murmurs.
Lexa smirks and presses her forehead to Clarke's own. "Well, we are still assassins, Klark."
"Too bad you won't be there to usher that new peace in with your people; that's the last thing I can give me people. Well, that and a quick, merciful death they won't see coming." Dante sighs as he picks up the gun. Before Clarke or Lexa can do anything, Dante puts the gun to his temple and pulls the trigger. The old man's head slumps backwards over the chair, and Clarke looks away from the gruesome sight, but her eyes land on his phone which is now blinking on the table.
The blonde rushes over and picks up the smartphone, only to have her eyes widen in horror. "Lexa, he's activated the self-destruct button."
"How much time do we have left?" Lexa questions, focused and back in Commander mode.
"Two minutes."
"Are you sure this is going to work?" Octavia questions Raven, who is currently focusing on hovering her latest invention – some sort of helicopter airplane hybrid – just outside the top of the mountain.
"Yes, O. It's going to work. I've run the simulations." Raven grunts out as she finally steadies the plane and flips the switch to transfer control to Octavia, who holds the plane steady while Raven starts pulling up her latest invention.
"But you haven't field tested it yet?" Octavia asks skeptically.
"Wait, we're about to risk my daughter's life on something you haven't even tested in a controlled environment?" Abby's voice screeches through the radio.
"If you kill Lexa, your death will be a long and painful one, Reivon." Anya threatens over the air waves as well.
"Can everyone just focus on their own jobs of delaying their armies from starting a war while I do mine of rescuing the only ones who can stop it? Gosh, way to lay the pressure on." Raven grumbles as she keeps typing away. Seconds later, flaps on the underbelly of the plane open and a large gun flies out. "Well, here goes nothing." Raven sighs as she presses a button and large harpoon like object flies from the gun and into the side of the mountain.
Raven pulls up the diagnostic screen and reads out the feedback as she gets it. "OK, infrared has two people and several fresh corpses in one room near the very top of the Mountain, so that's what I aimed for, knowing Clexa. The harpoon made it past 99% of the wall, now just to deploy the prongs." Raven presses a button, but nothing happens. She starts typing frantically on the computer, but nothing happens.
"Raven…" Octavia hisses, waiting for something to happen.
"I'm trying O! The hooks won't release into the open position." Suddenly, a noise sounds and Raven cheers in excitement. "Alright! It worked! Now here's the best part. So it's basically a giant grappling hook, but the hooks are held tight to the body of the projectile until I press a button to release them. All along the inner edge of the hooks are explosives that are revealed as the hooks open up inside the wall. When I detonate the bombs, it should blow the wall outwards instead of inwards."
"I think I'm in love." Anya murmurs quietly, just audible over the radio.
"Easy girl." Raven chuckles. "That bomb you built in the elevator was beautiful, and you're great in bed, but it's still a little early for that."
"Not with you, branwada, I'm talking about the weapon." Anya hisses.
"Well I invented and built the weapon, soooooo…"
Abby interrupts their verbal sparring diplomatically. "Raven, sweetie, we get it, you're a genius with explosives, can you just get my daughter out of there?"
Raven grumbles but listens to Abby and presses another button, resulting in a large explosion near the top of the mountain. Octavia struggles to hold the plane steady as the explosion tears apart the mountain to which the grappling hook is attached to, but after half a minute the explosion stops and the two brunettes are left looking at a small hole in the wall with the grappling hook resting on the floor.
"What's your plan for getting them back in the plane?" Octavia asks, as two figures stumble frantically towards the grappling hook.
"Well, I made this out of wurtzite boron nitride, so it should have mostly survived the blast as it's highly resistant to shock and the hardest material in the world, so all we have to do is reel them in as soon as they grab on."
"Wait, no one in the world is making that! How did you synthesize it?" Anya yells in disbelief.
"Well, I'm not too bad at chemistry myself, but I've got a real good friend who is a chemistry god." Raven gleefully tells the dirty blonde.
"Can you please stop this… nerd foreplay or whatever this is and get on with the rescue mission?" Indra growls.
"Yeah, Rae, Clexa is waving pretty frantically. We should probably reel them in." Octavia says as she gently nudge's Raven's shoulder to direct her attention to the two figures holding onto the grappling hook prongs and waving their free arms.
"OK, whatever." Raven presses a button and the metal cable immediately retracts, jerking the cable suddenly. One of the figures flies off in midair but is quickly grabbed by the other, and the two fortunately manage to hold on as they are reeled in. "Whoops, almost lost Lexa. Good thing she's with the Sky Princess. I guess I should make some modifications on the reeling in mechanism."
Raven's chuckle is interrupted by a large boom and an explosive wave, but fortunately Octavia still has the wheel and instinctively steadies the plane while also steering it up and away from the flames and explosion.
"What the hell was that?" Abby yells over the radio, but Raven is too busy staring in awe as the entire mountain collapses into a fiery inferno like a volcano and Octavia is too busy trying to control the plane.
"The self-destruct mechanism of the Mountain." Clarke answers her mother's question as she steps into the cockpit.
"Clarkey!" The two brunettes yell in happiness as they leap to their feet to tackle her onto the floor in a hug.
"I told you not to call me that!" Clarke growls as she struggles to escape from underneath her two best friends, which only proves more difficult as the plane starts leaning to the left from being unattended.
Fortunately, Lexa was right behind Clarke and steps over the pile of friends to grab the wheel and right the plane. She is not familiar with the technology on the plane, but manages to mute Abby and pull up the video conference feature to send her orders to Anya. "General, show me the ambassadors."
"Sha Heda." Anya replies formally. Quickly, she pulls up the video feed into the conference room where the 11 ambassadors and Prince Roan are waiting. At first they are confused seeing their over video conference and covered in blood, dirt, and sweat, but she holds herself as confidently and regal as ever.
Lexa stares directly into the camera, ignoring the question looks the ambassadors send her as they see Clarke and her two friends getting to their feet in the background. "Ambassadors, our greatest enemy, the Mountainmen, have been destroyed! With the help of Wanheda and Skaikru, we are now unburdened by our greatest enemy! Without the shadow of the Mountain hanging over us, we will be able to flourish as never before!" Lexa's words of victory ring out strongly, even though she is not physically in the room with her people. "In the spirit of friendship and harmony, I offer Klark kom Skaikru, legendary Wanheda mountain slayer, houmon gon Heda and her people a seat at our table. In a week's time, we shall hold a summit initiating the Skaikru into the Coalition and formally initiating Klark as Hedatu." Lexa pauses for a moment, expecting angry outbursts, but only sees shock as the ambassadors gape at her. "I am pleased that no one objects, as I have already dealt with two coup plotters today. Speaking of, I shall be needing a new Fleimkepa." Lexa glares at her ambassadors, ensuring that they have received her message, and then focuses on one man. "Prince Roan, it is fortunate that you are present in Polis, as it shall only speed up your coronation. Queen Nia is dead, long live the King."
The room remains completely silent, until Indra and Anya start chanting, "long live the King." Soon, the rest of the ambassadors chime in, and Lexa allows her lips to quirk up in the smallest smile as she orders Anya, Gustus, and Indra to handle things while she is still away. When she shuts down the video she swivels her chair to face the three women, one of who is gazing at her in adoration and the other two in awe.
"Holy shit you're actually the Commander." Raven mumbles while Octavia is still too in shock to reply.
Clarke pulls Lexa to her feet and wraps her in a tight embrace, which the brunette returns. As the plane once again tilts, Octavia and Raven quickly maneuver around the couple to take the helm yet again, level the plane off, and it point it back to Arkadia.
"Thank you for saving my people, Lexa." Clarke murmurs into wild brunette locks.
Lexa loosens her grip on Clarke to pull back just enough that she is able to look her wife in the eyes. "I told you, Klark, your people are my people."
Clarke leans forward and presses a deep kiss to Lexa's lips, only pulling away when Raven and Octavia start fake gagging obnoxiously loud. Clarke rolls her eyes in mock annoyance but still nuzzles Lexa's nose with her own. "When you were speaking, you called me Hedatu. What does that mean?"
Lexa blushes slightly and nuzzles against Clarke's cheek, trying to hide from the blonde's too observant eyes. "I know I should have asked you first, but… I want you to be more than houmon gon Heda. You are my equal, Klark. If I make you Hedatu, then you can rule beside me. Not only will your people be my people, but my people will become your people as well."
When Lexa tentatively meets Clarke's eyes, Clarke smiles and leans in for a slow kiss as she grabs Lexa's right hand with her left and intertwines their fingers as she hums happily, "Hmmm, Heda and Wanheda ruling together, I like the sound of that."