Chapter 15

Once Taylor woke up the next time, she was still highly groggy. It took her a few moments to realize that she was in fact not on a horse with the commander any longer, but instead again lying on a soft and very sturdy bed, covered with a bunch of furs.

Taylor blinked her eyes open, still clueless as to where she was and how long she could have been asleep. She looked around without making a sound, taking in her surroundings. She realized that she was in a tent again and a moment later, Taylor recognized the commander's tent from the show. It was exactly the set up in which Clarke walked in, speaking with Lexa for the first time.

She sat up in the bed, realizing that at this moment she was alone in the tent. It was beyond herself, how she could have slept through the whole journey and obviously the erection of the camp as well.

Taylor got down from the bed and noticed with a satisfied short smile that the pain in her abdomen had lessened noticeably. She crossed through the tent with quick steps, pushing the frail material of the tent flap out of the way.

Had the show down between Lexa and Clarke already taken place?

She could only hope now that she was not too late. Thus far, she had only told Lexa and Clarke that there would be a meeting, but not about Lincoln and what would happen afterwards.

Taylor was surprised to nearly collide with Anya and Lexa who obviously were just returning to the commander's tent. It obviously was not morning yet and it was still dark outside.

"What did I miss?" she asked in a low tone, spotting Gustus and a second guard she could not identify standing as guards outside.

Lexa brushed past her and motioned her back inside of the tent, followed by Anya.

"Markus Kane has just been sent back to his people with the message that they are to leave my lands" Lexa proclaimed in an easy tone.

"And Jaha?" Taylor asked with a raise of a brow. She remembered from the show how the man had been absolutely for the plan to abandon the camp and leave the kids in Mount Weather basically to die.

"He is in custody in one of the tents under guard, where he will remain until he can be transferred to Polis" Anya answered the question as she had been the one to oversee his temporary accommodation.

Taylor nodded in slight acknowledgement, feeling a little reassured that Jaha was taken care of and kept secure. She was still of the opinion that the conflict with ALIE was not allowed to happen.

"And you gave them until the morning to leave?" Taylor turned to Lexa, looking at the commander expectedly.

Lexa nodded in agreement, not longer surprised that the blonde doctor already knew of her strategic decisions without having been told of them.

Taylor knew that right at this moment, Clarke most likely was at the Drop Ship helping Bellamy and Octavia to take care of Lincoln while he was under the influence of the reaper drug.

"Clarke will come here demanding an audience just as their time runs out" Taylor finally said and broke the silence in the tent.

Both, Lexa and Anya, had been looking at the doctor, waiting patiently. Now, both of them seemed surprised by the boldness such a move required.

"They would dare to march here and demand an audience?" Lexa echoed with a raised brow.

Anya's mind was in turmoil as well. She remembered how Taylor had told her before, that in the future she had seen, she had been shot in front of the Ark and still Clarke had managed to talk to the commander without her influence. She was honestly impressed by that.

Taylor inclined her head before she explained "Right now, Clarke is in the process of figuring out how to cure a reaper…."

"What?" Lexa interrupted her with a doubtful expression. Many of their healers had tried capturing Reapers and turning them back into human beings, but all of their attempts had been futile and the Reapers had died. As far as they knew, there simply was no cure.

Taylor nodded her head "Clarke has recognized that the Mountain Men turn your people into Reapers by the injection of a drug. She is able to keep the Reapers alive until they are off this drug. She will use this as a bargain for her people. All she wants, is to unite forces with your people to get hers out of the Mountain."

"They invaded our lands and now they massacred a village" Lexa retorted. She had to agree that finally conquering the Mountain Men which basically were at this point the coalition's biggest enemy, was an appealing prospect. But she was not convinced that the costs of this were not too high. Taylor had also implicated that she herself would die. She knew how most of her progressors had found their deaths, namely, at the hands of their own people, often after a political decision which was not taken kindly. "A cease fire between the coalition and Skykru could cost me dearly" she finally formulated what she feared.

The way in which Taylor's expression fell for a few seconds, before she could control herself, were answer enough for Lexa. Somehow, Skykru would be the reason for her death and she needed to be careful with them.

"Skykru tried capturing a Reaper?" Anya broke the sudden tension-filled silence again, not understanding why they would even attempt such a thing.

"Lincoln is the Reaper they are trying to save" Taylor tried to explain. She quickly enumerated how she knew about Lincoln having been captured by Skykru before and how the man had been captured by the Mountain and then turned into a Reaper. She explained about his feelings to Octavia and that the girl was now pleading Clarke to safe and help him.

"So, they find out about this by accident?" Lexa checked if she had understood the doctor correctly.

Taylor slightly tilted her head to the side in thought. In a way, that was indeed correct, so, she nodded her head in agreement.

She startled strongly, when outside suddenly the warriors started to chant. The hairs on her arms and the back of her neck immediately stood up and her frame was shaken by a shiver. During the time she had been speaking with Lexa and Anya, the sun must have gone up slowly and thus, the time Skykru had to leave their camp peacefully was up. It would not take long now before Clarke demanded to speak to Lexa.

Taylor shortly bandied a glance with Anya.

The general had stepped closer to her and comfortingly placed a hand on one of her shoulders, obviously having seen the alarm in the doctor's grey eyes.

"No one will harm you" the general assured her in a strong tone.

Taylor nodded again. It was not that she was afraid, but just that the sudden change in atmosphere had been so overwhelming to her. By now both, Lexa and Anya, had assured her separately that she would be safe and she believed them. She already felt safe in their presence.

Only a short moment later, Indra proclaimed her arrival at the commander's tent, wanting to be allowed entrance.

Lexa walked over to her throne and sat down, calling in the guard Taylor did not know the name off, together with Indra.

The dark-skinned warrior had not been introduced to Taylor yet and the moment in which her dark eyes fell onto the blonde doctor, the warrior immediately reached for one of her weapons.

Anya quickly shoved Taylor behind herself protectively, meeting the other general's angry stare in mute warning.

Lexa also got up immediately from the throne again "Indra, control yourself. Taylor is not a threat" she proclaimed in a sharp tone. One of the commander's hands had closed around her dagger and she had taken a step in Anya's and Taylor's direction as if she wanted to interfere with Indra's way.

Taylor looked slightly around Anya's shoulder, being shorter than the general she was not able to look above her shoulder without standing on her toes. She was taken off-guard by the hostility which was edged deeply into the dark-skinned warriors features and out of instinct, she stepped the slightest bit closer to Anya and put a hand onto her back for contact.

"She looks like Skykru" Indra seemed to try to protect her aggression. She slowly let go of her weapon though.

"Taylor is not from Skykru" Lexa said in a firm tone, before Taylor could speak up for herself.

It was obvious that Indra was not convinced and Taylor could honestly not fault her for that. She knew that she stood out on first glance. She was no warrior and that was obvious in the way she carried herself. She had no visible tattoos like Trikru warriors either, neither any scars.

Indra still was suspicious and she obviously was on edge as well because she demanded to know who Taylor was then. "Is she Azgeda?" she hypothesized as her eyes narrowed on Anya as if she could see through the general to inspect the foreigner more closely.

"No" Lexa denied immediately, her tone hard. They still had not matched their stories of Taylor's origin and she only knew of one thing which her people would not dare to question. Taylor would immediately be identified as a foreigner by the fact that she did not speak their language. It did not matter if her people would believe Taylor to be Skykru or maybe even from the Mountain, neither would be a good possibility. "Taylor is a blessing sent from the flame" she proclaimed vaguely "and thus, she is under the flame's protection".

Taylor could not see Indra's reaction and she could only guess how surprised and probably doubtful the woman must be. If someone would tell her that some religious whatever thing had sent someone as a blessing, Taylor would have feared for the mental health of the speaker. She repeated what Lexa had said word for word within her mind a few times, knowing that she would need to stick to this now when she was asked about her origin.

She hoped that Clarke would not say anything. Taylor was not sure how much of what she had said to Anya during their first meeting had registered in Clarke's mind. The blonde had been mostly occupied with trying to get away and Taylor had been careful with what she had said out loud. Still, Skykru could be a problem. In contrast to the people under Lexa's command for whom the flame was something holy, Skykru would not buy this so easily. Taylor would need to be careful in front of them, so that they at best would not even think to question her origin.

Taylor had been so deep within her own thoughts, that she had completely missed Indra asking Lexa when they could finally begin the attack on Skykru, who obviously had not left. She relayed to the commander that the invaders had first prepared to leave and then suddenly changed their minds about it.

Anya turned slightly to take a look at Taylor who still had one hand pressed lightly against her back. She could not interpret the blonde's expression exactly but she seemed agitated. In front of Indra's watchful eyes, Anya did not dare to do more to reassure Taylor than allow their contact to persist for now.

Waiting for Clarke to arrive was nerve-wrecking to Taylor. The show had made it appear as if only moments passed, but time seemed to tick by slower now.

All the while, Taylor was worrying that Anya's survival alone and the fact that Jaha was in custody of Trikru right now, had already changed too much and that Clarke either had failed to safe Lincoln or was not asking for an audience for another reason.

If Indra had not been in the tent together with this unknown guard, Taylor would have discussed her internal worries with Anya and Lexa, but she kept her tongue now.

"If you so much as look at her the wrong way…" Gustus' voice penetrated the tent from outside.

Taylor breathed out a large bout of breath in relief, knowing that Clarke would enter the tent now. Her nerves were still frayed, Anya's presence would undoubtedly change something and she could only hope that the general's survival would influence something positive.

Taylor slightly stepped over to stand beside Anya. She wanted to see the exchange between Lexa and Clarke, trying to spot if there were differences or not.

Clarke looked exactly like Taylor remembered it from the show. The blonde had dressed back into her own clothes and the bruises left behind by Anya were visible on her fair complexion.

Clarke seemed relived to spot Anya standing on one side of the tent, she did not show a visible reaction to Taylor standing next to the general. She nodded slightly to the general before she turned her attention to the commander.

Lexa was sitting on the throne exactly like in the show, fiddling around with a dagger as if she was merely playing around. The silence lasted only for a tense short moment before Lexa finally looked at Clarke saying "You are the one who burned 300 of my warriors alive" in an almost casual tone.

"You are the one who sent them there to kill us" Clarke retorted, not wavering "Anya must have…" she tried, but Lexa interrupted her.

Taylor's brows furrowed slightly, knowing that the dialogue between the two leaders was already changed now from the version she knew.

"Your people were told to leave my lands, yet, you are still here" Lexa assessed in a calm tone "My warriors are only waiting for the order to attack…" she let her words tail off in a threating tone.

"We can only bring down the Mountain Men together" Clarke said quickly. Her blue eyes flitted over to Anya as if she was seeking for help, but the general remained silent.

"All your people have brought so far after invading my land is death" Lexa said sharply and her green eyes bore into Clarke's relentlessly "Your people have declared war on my people and after I give them the chance to leave peacefully, you chose to ignore that. What should keep me from annihilating your people now?"

"My people have knowledge of technology essential against the Mountain Men. I have been inside the Mountain and remember the layout" Clarke said quickly, obviously enumerating the arguments she had prepared beforehand "My people will be able to turn off the acid fog…".

Taylor's brows furrowed further. Clarke could not know yet that they would indeed find a way to do so, but she did not speak up. She had no idea what would happen if the cease fire between Skykru and Trikru did not come to be.

"… and your people are turned into Reapers by the Mountain Men" Clarke finished and her tone turned more convinced of what she was saying "We can turn them back".

Just like in the show, Indra did not believe this at all. The general said word for word what Taylor still remembered and Lexa also kept her in check.

Taylor shuddered when Indra got angry at the mention of Lincoln. She would remember not to personally incense the dark-skinned warrior, she was obviously no one to mess around with.

Unsurprisingly, Lexa demanded to see Lincoln as proof in the end.