Chapter 31
Anya scooped Taylor's unconscious body up into her arms, carrying the blonde doctor through the halls of the Mountain.
"Is she injured?" Lexa inquired, looking over at the general in concern.
Anya shook her head in the negative. She had protected the blonde woman to the best of her abilities and she knew that she could not have suffered more than a few scratches physically. She could judge though just how Taylor would be once she woke up. The doctor had already been nearly inconsolable after what had happened with Finn and how the Sky boy had shot eighteen of their villagers.
Neither of them said another word until they once again could see the clear sky above their heads again.
Lexa had not been within the control room with Anya and Taylor and hundreds of questions coursed within her mind. She had absolutely no explanation as to why the Mountain Men seemed to have magically died all of a sudden.
Clarke had made the boy at the computer reprogram the lock on the main door to the Mountain, so that they now had been able to leave the Mountain the way they all wanted to enter.
The army outside of the Mountain had of course not known yet what had happened. Apparently, the remaining generals had commanded though for all of them to retreat back to the edge of the line to where they knew the acid fog could reach. Being separated from their commander, Lexa knew that some kind of emergency plan would have been put into place. The warriors most likely would have left the perimeter of the Mountain in the next few days if they assumed their leader to have died.
Lexa could hear their warriors before she saw them. Whispers went around quickly. It was obvious that no soldiers from the Mountain were following them, so, no explanation was needed for them to conclude that the war was over.
The first one to approach them was Indra with Octavia trailing behind the dark-skinned warrior.
"Commander, what happened?" Indra asked with obvious confusion shining within her dark eyes.
"My brother…where is Skykru?" Octavia spoke up before Lexa even had the change to say anything.
Indra threw a harsh glare at her new second, silencing her quickly.
"The Mountain has finally fallen" Lexa answered vaguely. As of yet, she had no clear answer how the battle had ended before they actually had any real fight.
Anya was impatient to get Taylor seated somewhere comfortable and she shifted the blonde doctor's body slightly within her arms.
"But how…" Indra's dark eyes were filled with a million questions as she looked at her young leader.
"Later, Indra" Lexa stopped the questioning before it could really begin. She quickly ordered Indra to lead a group of their warriors inside. Many of Skykru had been hurt and would need help. She also still wanted the whole Mountain searched in case there were some unlikely survivors hiding out somewhere.
The dark-skinned warrior nodded, motioning warriors of her unit, including Octavia, back towards the entrance of the Mountain.
Lexa and Anya walked through the remaining army, without stopping to speak to anyone, directly going towards the tent they had stayed in the previous night.
Anya carefully transferred the unconscious Taylor onto the bed. She felt the other woman's forehead gently, thankfully finding the skin cool to the touch.
The slight wounds Taylor had gotten during her run-in with Jaha were still a stark contrast to her fair skin and light hair.
"I wonder how this was supposed to play out" Lexa said lowly as she paced through the tent. Her body was still thrumming with adrenaline and although she felt the wounds which had been inflicted upon her by soldiers from the Mountain, the pain did not stop her from moving. "What exactly did happen anyway?" she asked her former mentor, turning over to the bed, where the general was still sitting next to the blonde doctor.
Anya sighed under her breath. She let one of her hands rest gently on one of Taylor's arms, letting the blonde woman know that she was sitting beside here. She may not have seen everything of what had transpired, but she had been there when the Skykru boy had prepared the computer.
The general tried to describe what Clarke had ordered, telling her former second about the computer and how Clarke and Bellamy had argued about what it would do to the Mountain Men. She told the young leader how they had been attacked by the Mountain Men soldiers and how she had been knocked out for a moment. When she woke up again, Taylor had already pulled the lever and the screen had shown the Mountain Men having died in the large hall.
"So, you mean to tell me that simple air has killed the Mountain?" Lexa had listened patiently to what her general had to say, before she spoke up again. Her green eyes seemed troubled when she looked down at the unconscious doctor. She could only guess how much attention Taylor would garner in the immediate future among her people once word about what had happened travelled through the clans. Most of their people would not understand what had killed the Mountain and when it got known that Taylor had been the one to in a way single-handedly kill their greatest enemy, Lexa was not sure if she would be able to protect the blonde doctor.
"In the "other" future Yssa speaks of, who do you think has killed the Mountain Men there?" the commander wondered a few moments later, stepping closer to the bed now and peering down at Taylor. The blonde woman was too pale for her liking and she hoped that she would wake up soon.
"I don't know" Anya answered and her features were thoughtful. They had no idea if the same people would have been in the room or not. She would guess that it had been Clarke though. The blonde Skykru girl had shot Dante without much hesitation and she obviously would go to a length to protect her own people.
Taylor later could not claim that she actively noticed much of their journey back from the Mountain. Only slight clear flashes remained within her memory.
She woke up a few hours after Lexa and Anya had brought her out of the Mountain. As soon as Taylor opened her eyes, all the memories came rolling back like a tsunami, momentarily robbing her of her breath as her heart fell and her stomach coiled.
Anya heard the blonde woman gasp for breath as she had been sitting at the table in the tent, eating a meagre dinner. Lexa had left the commander's tent a while ago to oversee Skykru and their own wounded people who had been within the Mountain leave towards Arkadia or one of the closer villages. The rest and majority of their army would be travelling to Polis with them to celebrate their victory over their greatest enemy together in the capitol.
Taylor felt as if a heavy iron band had been put around her chest and it was being squeezed tighter and tighter, making her breathing come out in small frightened gasps as she was fighting to breathe.
Anya abandoned her dinner immediately, getting up from the table in such a haste that she nearly pushed over the small stood she had been sitting on.
"Yssa, breathe, you are safe here" the general said in a soothing tone once she had reached the bed.
The doctor's grey eyes were opened but they did not seem to be focused on her surroundings just yet.
"Yssa" Anya repeated the other woman's name in a softer tone, sitting down next to her on the edge of the mattress and placing her hands gently on her shoulders.
Taylor needed long moments for the horrible pictures to fade from her eyes. The smell though of the burnt and blistered skin, was still fresh within her mind, when she recognized Anya sitting right now to her. Her breathing was still elated and the weight on her chest was still there as well.
"You are safe, Yssa" Anya repeated once more "It is over" she added in a caring tone, reaching out and brushing a strand of lose blonde hair from the other woman's sweaty forehead.
Yssa closed her eyes again for a long moment, instead trying to focus all of her senses on Anya's hand touching one of her shoulders and the general's fingers softly trailing along the side of her face.
She still could not ban the horrible images from her mind and her breathing remained elated. The voice within her mind was loud in her accusation that she had failed everything she had wanted to do by being the one to kill the Mountain Men. She had wanted to save them and prevent Clarke from becoming Wanheda, now, she had taken the blonde girl's place and Taylor could understand just how difficult it must have been for her to live with that guilt. The feeling was already threatening to crush her now.
"I've killed them all…" Taylor finally opened her eyes again and her voice was suffocated, laced with tears.
Anya pulled the other woman into an embrace, hugging her close and gently letting her fingers weave through her shoulder-length blonde hair. She knew that she could reason with the blonde doctor about just how many of their own people had been captured and killed by the Mountain Men. Even if the children of the Mountain may have been innocent now, they would also have grown to do the same crimes to her own people. But Anya knew that arguing with the doctor would do no good right now. So, she only held her in silent comfort, hoping that the blonde woman's tears would soon run dry.
She silently held the doctor until she had cried herself back to sleep.
Anya had hoped that Taylor would soon feel better. But it became clear quickly that this was not to be.
The blonde woke up later again in tears and in a blind panic. She helplessly watched Lexa trying to calm the blonde doctor down.
Although Taylor stayed awake, she did not say more than "I failed".
Lexa tried for a while to convince Taylor to eat and although she succeeded after some gentle coaxing, the blonde doctor turned green after a few bites and vomited what she had just ingested.
Anya helped Taylor up from the bed as the doctor appeared shaky and unsure on her feet while a handmaid was summoned to exchange the soiled furs on the bed for fresh ones. In the morning they would start their journey back to Polis.
Lexa would have liked to bring more distance between her army and the fallen Mountain, but the night was approaching fast and they would not get far before it turned dark again. She hoped that distance from the Mountain would help Taylor as well.
Taylor was just sitting at the table now, apparently staring at nothing in front of her.
"Do you want something to drink, Yssa?" Anya had sat down directly next to Taylor and she was obviously still worried.
Taylor only briefly looked over her shoulder to the general and gave a weak shake of her head as the only answer, before she turned back to stare at the table surface mutely.
Anya sighed under her breath. It was obvious Taylor did not wish to speak right now, but she did not know how to offer help to the suffering blonde woman if she would not speak.
Taylor was very passive during the journey back to Polis. She shared a horse with Anya and the general had insisted on the doctor sitting in front of her in the saddle to make sure that the other blonde woman would not fall of.
Lexa had asked Taylor before they left the commander's tent if there would be anything happening in the next few days of which she needed to know beforehand, but the blonde doctor had just frowned and shook her head with an indecisive expression.
Anya pointed out a few things among their journey, but Taylor showed little to no interest to her surroundings at all. Neither did she complain about pain, discomfort, hunger or thirst during all of their journey.
"She is so silent" Anya whispered to Lexa during one of their stops. Taylor had just remained standing beside the general's steed, gently patting along her neck, staring at nothing apathetically.
"Give her time" Lexa answered in a calm tone, but her green eyes showed her worry nevertheless.
