Chapter 20

Marie was exhausted, both physically and emotionally. She had been sure that she would have to return to the other delinquents with Clarke and Bellamy, she had not seen any way of getting away from them.

After Bellamy had finally urged Clarke on and reprimanded her slightly, the older blonde girl had firmly grasped onto one of her smaller hands and Marie had basically been pulled along against her will through the forest and she knew that every step carried her further away from the grounder village, Lexa and Anya.

Marie was not even fully sure what had actually happened. She had been walking together with Bellamy and Clarke for what felt like a small eternity. Her ankle was hurting again, but she had not dared to speak up as both of them had already appeared tense enough. She had just wanted to sit down and rest for the night as the light slowly began to fade around them. She did not know what had really caught Bellamy's attention, but suddenly the older boy had stopped in his tracks, looking around them with wide eyes. Clarke had seemed alarmed as well and before Marie fully had grasped onto what was happening, the older girl had tightened her grasp on her hand and really pulled her along, as they now ran through the forest, away from whatever seemed to be following them.

Marie had felt her ankle hurting more and more with each passing moment and she had been out of breath pretty quickly as well. Suddenly an arrow wheezed past them and lodged itself into the tree trunk behind them. Clarke and Bellamy both seemed scared by the attack, but for some unknown reason, Marie knew that she did not have anything to fear. Lexa would surely not allow her to be hurt like that. The commander wanted to protect her after all and she had the suspicion that they had been followed by grounders. The reapers had not used a bow from what she could tell and she had seen Anya train Tris, if the grounders wanted to shoot them, they would not have missed and shot at the tree.

Bellamy cursed under his breath, clutching the loaded automatic gun in his hand, trying to seek cover from the attack and simultaneously aiming to shoot back.

Clarke was trying to shield Marie from the attack. The near darkness which had fallen around them was not helping them in the slightest, the grounders were used to this environment.

Marie was internally hoping that her feeling was right and it were indeed the grounders and that Anya was among them.

Anya had followed Marie with the two invaders for some time now and she was still thinking of a way to get the little girl separated from them, which would not require her to attack them. She was alone, so she could not fabricate a rouse to lure the two invaders away and she still did not wish to risk attacking them and the little girl getting hurt potentially. She knew that their camp was still some distance to cross, so she resigned herself to wait, hoping that something would come to her mind. They could theoretically leave the blonde child with the invaders for now and just "collect" her once they attacked their camp with their army, but there was no way of making sure that Marie would not get into the middle of the attack and maybe not just get hurt, but even killed instead.

Her attention was called away from the two invaders and Marie, when she picked up sounds of someone approaching her from the other side and Anya tightened her grip on the handle of her sword, fearing that there had indeed been more reapers roaming through the forest. An encounter with reapers being on her own and in the vicinity of the invaders who obviously carried guns could very well mean her own death.

She lowered her sword though, when she recognized Tris who was strangely enough accompanied by Gustus and Lexa in person. Anya furrowed her brows, she could understand why Tris had tried to locate her and she bit back a slight grown, knowing that Lexa's presence could only mean that her previous second knew what had happened.

The commander's green eyes were determined and showed a certain amount of worry plainly within their depths.

Former mentor and student quickly had worked out a plan on how to separate the two invaders from Marie. Lexa had considered trying to take them hostage to question them and get a hold of their weapons, but she had discarded the idea to minimize the chance of Marie getting hurt accidentally.

Marie could not look around quickly enough to notice all the shadows which seemed to circle around them and her feelings of security faded for good and were replaced with fear instead.

Suddenly, Clarke pushed her down harshly, telling her to stay put and not move from their cover.

Marie put her hands above her ears when Bellamy began to shoot and the shots rang around her way too loudly. She had never heard this sound, but she knew that she did not want to hear it again, it was too loud.

The next thing she really realized was that someone was touching her shoulder and when she opened her eyes, she was not looking up at Bellamy or Clarke, but into Lexa's concerned green eyes and Marie let out a relived breath and slowly got back to her feet. She frowned slightly when she could hear another shot being fired, but it sounded pretty far away.

"Anya and Tris have lured them away" Lexa assured the little girl in a gentle tone. It was obvious that the child was a little spooked by everything which had happened tonight and she could imagine that she must be exhausted as well. She knew that they would need a while to reach TonDC, so she opened her arms for the little girl and picked her up only a slight moment later. Although she had known the whole time that there never had been a single moment in which Marie had been in their direct line of attack and that their whole attack had just aimed at separating them, but Lexa felt relived now that she had the physical reassurance that the child was well.

Marie slung her arms around Lexa's neck immediately, nuzzling her face into the crook of the commander's throat and letting out a slight yawn.

Gustus watched his commander together with the young child with a slight frown, unsure of what he should make of the situation. He could absolutely not understand why Lexa had obviously decided to keep the little girl. He agreed that there was no sense in killing her. She was young and would adapt to their ways, but he would have expected for the child to remain within TonDC, moving her into an already existing family, but it was obvious that Lexa was already close to the child. The way with which the young commander was looking down at the little girl in her arms was obvious enough that it did not require further explanations.

Marie seemed to squirm a little within Lexa's arms for a few moments and Lexa tried to lightly shush her, whispering to her that she could rest already and that she would be safe now. "I will not let harm befall you, little star" she assured the young girl in a firm but gentle tone.

Although the commander's words had mostly been whispered into the child's light hair, Gustus had still picked up enough to decipher their meaning and he only drew conferment from them. He sighed slightly under his breath, Lexa's decision to keep the girl by her side would not make the commander's life any easier, but he would stand by her decision. It was not his place to question his leader. He had seen the young woman grow into who she was today and he did see more within her than just their leader. On a personal level, he internally hoped that maybe the young child would be able to revive something within Lexa which he had feared to be lost after Costia's brutal murder.

It did not take long at all for Marie to fall asleep within the commander's arms and the child slept peacefully, sheltered by Lexa's warmth. Lexa tightened her grip slightly around the small body, keeping her even closer to her own chest. She had meant her words; she would protect the little girl.