Chapter 33

A messenger rode hard through the night on the roads to Polis. He had an urgent message to deliver. He pulled up hard when he got to Polis as the guards challenged him.

"I have an urgent message for the Commander from General Anya!"

"What about?"

"Maunon." They let him through. He rode for the central square and the Commander's tower. At the square, he got off his horse and ran to the tower where he was challenged again.

"Urgent message for the Commander from Anya about the mountain men." One of the guards escorted him up to the Commander's throne room.

"Wait here." The tower guard then went to the Commander's personal guards and said that a messenger from Anya had arrived with an urgent message about the mountain men. The personal guards looked at each other and one of them knocked on the door.

"Enter," a voice called from inside.

"Commander, an urgent message from Anya about the mountain." The Commander picked up her clothes and moved to the bathroom to change.

"Where's the messenger?" she asked, coming back into the room.

"Your throne room, Commander." The Commander nodded and left.

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"Report!" said the Commander as she walked into the throne room.

"Commander! Anya has news of the mountain. Indra and Lincoln met a group of a hundred children walking towards Tondc. These people were sent down from the sky people against their will. Their leader made a deal with Mount Weather to sacrifice those children so the maunon can walk the ground and slaughter us."

"Where are they now!"

"Tondc, Commander. Anya asks that you come to Tondc to talk to them. They have more to tell," the messenger said. The Commander looked at the messenger for a few seconds.

"Guard!" she called. When the guard appeared, she said, "Get my horse ready and several warriors. We ride for Tondc within the candlemark!"

"Commander," he said as he left.

"Go get some sleep and take care of your horse. You can follow us in the morning," the Commander said to the messenger.

"Sha, Heda." He left to get some much needed sleep.

xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx

At Tondc, the hundred had slept for the rest of the day and most of the night. They woke as dawn was breaking. They started to get up. They were told by the grounders standing watch where to go to relieve themselves and then to go back to their tents as food would be brought to them. They thanked the watchers and did as they were told.

Adara had talked to Murphy about talking to Charlotte as she had inadvertantly woken Charlotte and she was terrified that something would happen to her. Murphy said he'd have a talk with her. Adara nodded her thanks.

Adara was checking on her watchers when she heard a noise to the North. She reached her mind out and encountered several people. The Commander was here. She went and woke Clarke up and told her to go get ready for the Commander.

Adara then told her people that the Commander was on her way and to be polite and respectful. Their lives were in her hands as the hundred had technically trespassed on her lands. They nodded and started to straighten out their clothing and the tents.

Adara looked up at one of the watchers on the wall.

"Commander's nearly here," she said, pointing in the direction she was coming from.

"How do you know? I haven't seen or heard any sign of her.

"I've got extremely good hearing," said Adara, turning away to make sure she herself was presentable. The watcher on the wall shouted down that the lead goufa thinks the Commander was nearly here. The watcher laughed at something the other person said and went back to watching. Less than a minute later, he swore as the Commander came into view. He yelled down that the Commander had arrived and then looked directly at Adara who just smiled at him.

"Look lively," said Adara. The hundred got to their feet. "Follow my lead, okay?" she said as the Commander drew nearer. As the Commander got to the hundred, Adara bowed to her. The rest of the hundred followed suit. The Commander nodded to them as she passed through the village gates. Moments later, their food arrived. Several people went to help pass the food out.

A warrior came out and asked for Adara and Clarke to go to Anya's tent. They both went to see the Commander. Clarke could hardly wait and practically ran. When they arrived, a guard announced them and they were ushered inside.

"You are the children who are to be sacrificed?"

"Yes, Commander," said Adara.

"Why?"

"Our leader in the sky has been in contact with Mount Weather. Their level of technology mirrors ours. Jaha decided that he would send 100 prisoners to the ground for the mountain men to use for bone marrow. That would kill us and make it possible for them to leave the mountain without suits. When they do that, they intend to kill all the… the word they use is 'savages'. It's not the word we use, though. They want to kill all of you and take your land. The people of the sky would then use Mount Weather as a base until they become used to being on the ground and then they would help the mountain men to kill you. We - the hundred - do not want that." Adara explained.

"Why does he do this?"

"We don't know. We - Clarke and I - believe that he is xenophobic - hates people who are not like him or from a different culture. All our lives for three generations, we have been told that no-one lived down here. We were told that the radiation was so bad, no-one would have survived. They have become arrogant in their belief that the Earth belongs to them as they were the last of humankind. Jaha, as our leader, may be of the opinion that as he is the leader, that makes him the most superior human. That he is the best of the best, that there's no-one better than him. Now that he knows different, we think he has become… unhinged."

"What is unhinged?"

"Mentally unstable, Commander."

"He is a threat?"

"Yes. We believe so."

"We should kill him," Said Indra, thunderously.

The Commander lifted her hand and Indra stepped back and kept quiet.

"What do you think we should do with him and the others still in the sky?" Clarke and Adara looked at each other.

"We think Jaha should be punished, banished most probably," Adara also held up her hand so that Indra would not interrupt. "If we deem him too unstable, then yes, he should be killed before he destroys us, all of us."

"The other people of the Ark do not know of his treachery. He has the backing of only one other - Diana Sydney. There was a third, but Adara killed him," said Clarke. The grounders all looked at Adara. Adara refused to bow her head and held it high.

"He raped my mother before killing her," she said, not going into any other details. Indra was looking at her with new eyes as her respect for the child leader grew.

"What should be done with the sky people who do not know?" asked Anya, speaking up for the first time.

"We hope that when they learn of his betrayal, they will be on our side. That they will see me as their leader. If not, we may have to find somewhere to exile them to. They cannot be left to roam your lands if they are not going to attempt to live peacefully," said Adara.

"Adara, now please?" pleaded Clarke. "I need her now." Clarke had been getting more and more antsy as they were in the presence of the Commander. Adara looked at Clarke and nodded her head. She turned around and looked at the Commander.

"Gromyo," she said.

As with all the others, the Commander's eyes grew wide with the revelation of her previous life. She stared at Adara and then moved her eyes to Clarke.

"Ai hodnes," she said as she rushed towards Clarke and pulled her into a tight hug. Clarke hugged her back just as hard.

"Ai hod yu in," said Clarke," as she pulled back slightly to kiss Lexa. It was a slow and passionate kiss - and long. When they finally broke for air, Adara spoke.

"I knew we had to get the talking out of the way before I woke her up. Now we'll lose them both for the day," she said facetiously.

Anya was still staring at her Commander, not believing what she saw. She watched the Commander lead Clarke towards the tent flaps.

"Commander?" Adara called out. When the Commander turned around, Adara continued. "Clarke hasn't eaten yet today. Make sure she eats, please." The Commander nodded and they left the tent.

"The Commander and the princess?" Anya asked, incredulously.

"A lot has changed since you died, my friend," said Indra, shaking her head.

"But those two?"

"They may have started out calling Clarke 'princess' as a joke," said Adara, "but when the Commander heard it, she thought it appropriate and started calling her 'Skaiprisa'. The rest of the clans called her that too, out of respect." she looked at Anya and continued. "They also called her 'Wanheda', too." Anya looked even more surprised.

"She never told me that when she said what had happened previously." Indra looked at her.

"Did she tell you she took down the mountain almost single-handedly?" she said.

"Clarke did? That sky goufa did that?"

"Yes," said Adara. "When the grounders left, there was only Octavia and Clarke left on the outside. Even Skaikru left. Those two went into the tunnels under Mount Weather and Bellamy let them in. Those three, with the help of their people already inside, took down the mountain. What the Commander didn't know, was that the mountain men had already gone out and kidnapped several of our people, including Clarke's mother and Raven. They were drilling into those two when Clarke and Bellamy pulled the lever to irradiate the entire mountain. Clarke had to kill those who had helped them inside the mountain. The rebel faction of the maunon. But it was Clarke's idea to do so."

"When we escaped from the mountain, I knew she was resourceful, but I thought that some of it was just luck. I never knew she had it in her." said Anya with admiration.

"Clarke has probably killed more people in six months on the ground than any grounder. Almost a thousand people. She hated herself for that. She thought that no matter what she did, she'd always end up slaughtering whole communities of people."

"How many?!"

"Nearly a thousand. 300 of your warriors in a ring of fire, 380 odd in the mountain and she includes the 250 people who died when the mountain sent a missile into Tondc."

"And she's haunted by this?"

"Yes. I think in part, that is why she hasn't put herself forward for leadership of the hundred. She wants to be with Lexa, yes, but a big part of that is that she doesn't want that blood on her hands. I think she's tired of killing."

"But she's your co-leader!"

"I don't think she will be for much longer, now that the Commander's awake."

"Who will you pick then?" asked Indra, curiously.

"I don't know. Raven or Octavia, probably."

"I would like Octavia to be my seken again."

"I think she'd like that too, but I don't know what's going to happen again. Can you say that if she had to choose between her brother and you, that you wouldn't abandon her again?"

"I didn't abandon her, she was Trikru and she chose the Skai boy instead."

"Her brother."

"The boy who helped Pike kill 300 of MY warriors!"

"Her. Brother," reiterated Adara.

"A killer!"

"We're all killers, Indra. It's just the way you look at it. I took the life of the man who raped and killed my mother. Just because I did the right thing, doesn't mean I'm not a killer." Adara was standing in front of Indra. "Just because YOU don't see it that way, doesn't make it any less true. I'm a killer. I killed someone. Bellamy killed Dax in self-defense. He killed your warriors with Pike. How many lives have you taken? No matter the reason, you deliberately take a life, you're a killer."

Indra looked at her.

"That is not how we look at it. Those who died in battle were killed because they were the enemy."

"Killing is killing, Indra. Someone loses a life. If we cannot see ourselves as killers, we see ourselves through false eyes." Indra stood there, thinking through what Adara had said.

"You are not so young as your age suggests," Indra finally said.

"Age is just a number, right? It's what we do that defines us."

"Yes, it is. When you think Octavia is able to join the Trikru, I will gladly take her as my second."

"And I will gladly let her. Just not yet. We need to get rid of Nia, Pike and deal with ALIE first, not to mention those barbaric maunon!" said Adara. Anya laughed.

"We'll have you speaking Trigedasleng soon."

"I hope so, Anya, I really do," Adara said with a smile.