"This is madness."
Anya walked back and forth across the room, passing and re-passing in the same spot. Lexa was seated in her throne and Cassie had settled on the steps in front of her, knees almost folded against her chest.
"Okay, what is going on?" She asked.
"Anya, she cannot refuse. She has no choice or else they will come and slit her throat while she sleeps, and yours too."
"This is complete madness! He knows she will never be able to win!"
"Girls! Can we please slow down a minute and explain what the fuck is going on?" Cassie intervened.
Lexa turned to her, looking down hard at her, and Cassie was afraid for a moment that she had offended her by calling her "Girl."
"Magnus challenged you to a single fight, to death. This is what people do when they feel like they have been disrespected and need to regain their honor."
Cassie raised an eyebrow.
"Oh."
"He knows you don't know how to fight," Anya resumed, continuing to pace. "He knows there is no way you can win this fight. It's not just a challenge, it's an organized murder. Lexa, you have to stop this."
"You know there is nothing I can do," Lexa replied softly but gravely. "My authority cannot be applied to a challenge. And we have all the information we could get out of her, so really there is nothing I can do."
"We have to find a way. There must be something, some law we haven't thought about. Magnus just wants to kill her, like he has wanted since she came down from the sky-"
"I am sorry, Cassie," Lexa apologized.
"It's okay, sweetie. I'm perfectly okay."
Anya stopped pacing, turned to her, looking at her defeatedly.
"Oh no, you are not."
"It's okay, really. We all get what we always wanted. I die, finally, I get to go to whatever's after, you guys finally have some peace and quiet and Magnus can finally shut up about killing me. Really, it's a win-win!"
Anya gritted her teeth, contracting her jaw, and Lexa straightened up, descending the steps to her throne and past Anya.
"Good luck," she said before crossing the room and out through the door that closed behind her back.
"You are joking," Anya growled.
"Look, Anya, you can drop the act now that Lexa's gone. It's not like you even liked me in the first place."
"What are you talking about?"
"Honey, you may have a big shell, but behind all your walls you're kind and you care, and that's not your fault if you care about me. But, let's face it, you kinda want me gone," Cassie explained.
Anya stared at her for a few seconds, speechless.
"What?"
"Look, this was fun and all, but you never really liked me. You pity me, which is why you cared about me."
"That is not true!"
"Of course it is! Can't you just stop playing with me? Like, Hell, you've always hated me since I came down on that fucking pod!"
"I never hated you!"
Cassie frowned.
"You don't?"
"No! Yes, you are annoying, yes, you talk too much, and yes, you've embarrassed me more time than I can count, but you're also ... My friend. And I don't have that many friends. I don't count on loosing you too!"
Cassie opened her mouth, closed it, seemed to think deeply, her brow furrowed.
"Well, there is no other solution anyway. You heard Lexa, she can't do anything. Magnus challenged me, I have to accept the challenge or we will both die. Simple."
"Why did you intervene in the first place?!"
"He was a child! He was a child being beaten up by an adult three times his size! He was just a sweet little child being thrown to the ground and told he wasn't worth anything until he learned to fight back or to fucking die!"
"This is how we raise our warriors!"
"That's how you raise a killer, Anya!"
"Oh, so now you think I am a killer?"
"This is not what I meant! You know what this kid will grow up to be? An abusive husband, a violent father who will know nothing else than beating his family to get them to do what he decides! This is how you kill a people, by teaching them how to forget to be human! I will not stand by and watch as you destroy these kids!"
Anya groaned, pinching the bridge of her nose in annoyance.
"Why do you even care? Every time there is a child just tripping and falling, you run up without even thinking about the consequences of your actions! Why would you do that?!"
Cassie burst into tears.
"Because I'm a mother!"
Anya's angry expression vanished, giving way to amazement and confusion. Cassie plopped down on the steps to the throne, cradling her face in her hands to hide the tears rolling down her cheeks.
"You… Never told me you had a child," Anya whispered.
"What do you want me to say?! That her mother ended up pregnant because she had no idea birth control existed? That the only reason she was born because our teaching system and I failed her? That she gave her baby to me because she didn't have anyone else to take care of her? That I spent every single year of my life since then breathing for this little human who was following me around anywhere I went? That she was my sun and my stars, my joy and my heart, and I failed her? I failed her mother, I failed mine, I failed everyone! That I failed to protect her?! That I miss her so much it's like my heart has been ripped out of my chest and tore to pieces?! That's what you want to hear, Anya?! That's the story you want to learn?! "
Anya stared at her wordlessly, unable to think of what to say. She stood still, turned into a stone statue as Cassie cried, her tears clouding her vision and making her unable to stare at her friend's face. Cassie was sobbing until she choked, finally overtaken by the pain and grief, the despair and that sense of agony that every day filled the gaping hole left in her chest.
"Fucking sickness of the soul!"
When Anya spoke again, her voice was harsh and her jaw clenched.
"You left her."
Cassie snorted.
"What?"
"Your daughter. You left her on your Ark. You left her all alone to go and die," Anya hissed in a deep voice, an expression of horror and disbelief painted on her face. "You abandoned her. And by accepting Magnus 'challenge, you are abandoning her a second time. How dare you? How could you do that?"
Cassie chuckled, a funny, half-hysterical laugh rising in her throat.
"Oh, Anya, you still don't get it, do you?"
Anya seemed to understand what she meant before Cassie even explained to her, her expression turning horrified.
"If I die, it'll be coming home to my kid."