Chapter 8: Watch the Night
The low setting sun pierced the thick canopy of the forest, its dying warmth sparking off the metal of the dropship and causing the bright reds and oranges of the parachute tents to glow in the dimming light. Lexa walked alone through the trees, slowly making her way around the outside of the ramshackle camp, appreciating the signs of order that were beginning to emerge from the chaos of their landing. They had made great progress that day, and it had been fueled in no small part by the new sense of unity and common purpose she had forced upon them. Brush and small trees had been cleared in an ever widening circle, feeding the small fires that now burned throughout the camp. A half dozen medium sized tents had so far been constructed in a rough semi-circle, their perimeter forming a courtyard of sorts around the open space in front of the dropship's ramp. Wells and several others had spent a handful of hours making some useable packs and tools out of materials salvaged from the dropship, and Monty had been hard at work for most of the day trying to regain communication with the Ark, though he had so far been unsuccessful.
It had been a busy day and the young Sky People were clearly exhausted from their efforts, the camp noticeably more quiet and subdued this evening than it had been the day before. After two days without a meal and all the hard physical labor – for which their young space-born bodies were greatly unaccustomed – the ex-prisoners of the Ark were all beginning to show signs of flagging energy. Tomorrow, after she and Aden had assured themselves tonight that the immediate surroundings, at least, were mostly safe, she could begin training the most promising of them on how to hunt and find edible food. If they were realistically going to feed this camp by hunting and gathering until the Ark came down, they had some serious work to do.
Lexa completed her circuit of the camp and returned to the large main fire at its center, the slightest of frowns narrowing her green eyes. Her careful inspection had revealed that everything was exactly as it should be…
Almost.
No sign of Finn yet anywhere in camp and it's nearly dark. Did something happen to him out there?
She hadn't seen him since they went to gather water that morning, and with the sun now slipping beneath the horizon, she was beginning to suspect that the reckless young man had indeed gotten himself into some kind of trouble.
I never should have let him out of my sight today.
"Black?" a nearby voice said, and it took Lexa several seconds to realize that the person was addressing her, still unused to being called by that name in this strange new life she was living. She turned, finding Wells Jaha walking towards her in the growing dark.
"Wells," she acknowledge, turning back to the fire when he joined her there.
"What tent are you and Aden staying in tonight?" he asked, and she cocked her head slightly at the question.
Still determined to keep an eye on me, I see.
"We aren't," she said simply, her voice as cool and distant as the snow-capped mountains of the landscape beyond.
"What do you mean, you aren't?" Wells insisted, and she felt her annoyance building at his persistence. As the Commander, Lexa was unaccustomed to being questioned on such trivial personal matters as where she would be sleeping.
"There are not enough tents for everyone tonight, Wells. Aden and I will choose a tent tomorrow," she explained after a moment, not letting her frustration with him show, still conscious of the fact that she needed the young man to begin to trust her. Space was short in the tents, it was true, but Lexa was more concerned with not being observed leaving camp in the middle of the night. It was important that she and Aden be free to discover whatever they might discover without having to worry themselves with giving explanations, or fabricating believable lies about what they had found when they returned.
She was saved from having to speak further on the topic of her sleeping arrangements by the approach of four people, three boys and one girl, all of them among the oldest of the juvenile prisoners. It was to meet with them, not Wells, which had brought her to the central fire at sundown.
"Good, you're all here," she told them by way of greeting, looking them each over carefully, trying to judge their level of fatigue. She had chosen these four not only because they were older, but because they had showed themselves to be intelligent and reasonably level-headed that day. She knew very little about any of these people and had no way of knowing what crimes they had committed to become prisoners, so she was instead forced to rely on her own instincts to guide her in feeling out who could be trusted and who couldn't. Many of the hundred were no doubt guilty of only petty crimes, she knew, crimes which would have earned them nothing more than a swift beating and some public humiliation among most of the clans. However, some had likely done much worse to get themselves imprisoned. Whatever their crimes, hopefully these four would prove themselves to be dependable tonight.
"Wells, meet Harper, Miller, Jones and Atom. I have assigned them to stand watch tonight."
"Stand watch?" Wells asked, puzzlement on his face. "Watch for what?"
"We were lucky last night," she explained. "I know we have yet to see anything, but it's foolish to leave the camp completely unprotected during the night. At the very least, setting a watch lowers the risk of someone getting lost on their way back from the latrine, or of an untended campfire burning down a tent with sleeping people inside."
Wells looked surprised at this, as though these dangers had never occurred to him. In truth, they probably hadn't. Aden hadn't been incorrect the day before when he likened the Sky People to children in the woods. Though intelligent and well versed in the dangers of space and station life, no doubt, they were woefully unprepared for a life on the ground and had no real experiences of its perils to draw on. Lexa wanted to avoid any more unnecessary, accidental deaths if she could, though she was certain they would lose people eventually.
"You four understand what you are doing tonight?" she asked, turning back to her new watchmen. They each nodded in turn, determination on their faces. One of them, Jones, looked a bit disinterested, and she eyed him sharply, staring him down until he too met her eyes and nodded.
"Good. If you get tired then you can take turns sleeping, but at least two of you are to be awake and patrolling the camp at all times… Stay away from the fires. They will ruin your night vision and you won't be able to see more than five feet in front of your face. No one is to leave this camp tonight under any circumstances, is that understood?"
The boys all murmured their agreement, but the girl, Harper, half raised her hand and asked several thoughtful questions in that soft voice of hers. Lexa patiently answered her, appreciating that she was thinking critically about the task at hand. Her questions caused the boys to ask some of their own, and it was several minutes before she was able to walk away from the central fire, leaving them to their duties and Wells to find his rest in one of the tents. It was now fully dark, and she found Aden tending their own small fire in the same place behind the dropship they had slept the night before.
"Aden… Are you ready?" she asked him, and he jumped to his feet with boyish excitement at her words.
"Yes, Heda."
"Good. Show me what you have."
He displayed his work for her inspection, first returning to her the knife she had given him earlier that day. It was now bound open by means of tight copper and steel wiring wrapped around its handle, red fabric folded and tied around the wire to make a more comfortable and secure hand grip. The boy had also fashioned her a functional, if somewhat unattractive, knife sheath out of materials and seatbelt straps from the dropship. She immediately fitted the contraption to her right leg and belt, and slid the knife in place, moving experimentally to test that it was comfortable and would hold without slipping or letting the knife fall loose.
"This will work… Well done," she told him, and he grinned with pleasure at her words.
"And the others?" she asked.
Aden gathered up and showed her the other weapons he had hastily fashioned that afternoon at her request, two long wooden spears, both tipped with sharpened metal at their points. The rough weapons were not exactly ideal… Lexa would have greatly preferred having at least one sword between them, but he had done well making these so quickly with the materials on hand. It was a relief to no longer be completely unarmed – not counting the pistol in her pack, of course, which she steadfastly refused to think about. She had killed without weapons before, of course, but it was decidedly more difficult. It wasn't that she planned to need to kill someone this night, or even wanted to unless absolutely forced into it, but the world had a way of not caring very much about one's hopes and peaceful intentions.
"Try to get some rest, Aden," she told him once she finished her inspection of the spears, taking a seat herself on the ground by the fire, her back against the trunk of a tree. The exertions of the last two days and the lack of food were beginning to tire both of them as well, and she could feel her own body begging for sleep. "It's going to be a long night and the moon should rise in just an hour or so… We will leave then."
As they waited for the moon to illuminate the darkness around them, Lexa stared into the depths of the fire and allowed her mind to wander for the first time that day. As was often the case in those rare moments when she could let herself relax from her duties and responsibilities, her thoughts immediately turned to Clarke. Two whole days had passed since she had died in her arms. Three, since she had last felt those same arms hold her as they made love for the first time. So far no one in this strange version of the world seemed to know of anyone named Clarke Griffin…
Did this mean she simply didn't exist here at all? Her heart ached with a renewed sense of loss at the prospect. Perhaps she did exist here, but for some reason had not been born on the Ark? Was she here on the ground already, then, living among the clans?
And it's not only Clarke… Bellamy and his sister Octavia are also missing from the hundred.
There had to be some logical reason that explained all three of them not being here among the dropship prisoners. Lexa resolved to begin questioning all of the young Sky People as carefully as she could to see if anyone was familiar with the missing three, or with anyone matching their descriptions for that matter.
When the light of the nearly full moon rose through the interwoven branches, Lexa gently shook Aden awake and slung her small pack over her shoulders. She had let the fire burn down to embers as they waited, and she quietly brushed dirt over the remains of the coals while Aden got to his feet and gathered up his spear. He nodded to her once when he was ready to go, his young face a pale oval in the moonlight.
"The sentries?" he asked in a soft whisper.
"Two asleep, the other two standing by the main fire," she whispered back. Despite the orders she had given them, she knew the young people wouldn't be able to resist the warmth of the fire while they stood watch. It was early in the spring yet and the nights here became quite chill. They meant well, but they were not warriors, and they lacked training and discipline. She had little doubt that she and Aden would be able to slip away and return undetected despite those she had assigned to stand watch.
With the faint glow of the moon to guide them, Lexa and Aden Black melted into the surrounding forest, their footfalls soft and careful, not a sound revealing their departure from the camp. They moved smoothly together through the trees, feeling completely at home for the first time since landing in the dropship. The tower in Polis might have been where they lived much of the time, but they were both Trikru at heart, and a piece of them would always live in the deepest forests of their birthplace. Once they had put some distance between themselves and their camp, Lexa paused and crouched close to Aden, speaking softly.
"We'll head to the east first. If I remember correctly, the village shouldn't be too far. If we move quickly we should be able to make it there and back in just a few hours."
"What are we going to do when we get there?" Aden asked.
"This is a scouting mission only, Aden… Let's avoid making contact with anyone until we understand what the situation is. Remember, things might be very different in this reality. It could be dangerous to make any assumptions," she told him, and he nodded in response, his expression serious and a bit nervous. She decided to try to reassure him a bit. Despite his natural abilities and training, he had yet to face actual combat and his confidence could use bolstering.
"I know you can handle yourself in a fight, but let's try to avoid one if we can. We don't want to start another war between Skaikru and Trikru if we can help it."
She expected this to calm his nerves, but his expression remained anxious.
"What about the Mountain… and the Reapers?" he asked, and now she understood the source of his fear. It was one thing to face men and women in battle, and an entirely different thing to face the monstrous cannibals that the Mountain had made.
"Anything is possible, but we should be outside of their normal territory and we'll be heading in the opposite direction. I doubt we will see any Reapers this far east… If we do, however, then stay by my side and do what I say. You are a warrior, Aden. If you stay alert and remember your training, you will do just fine."
Aden took a deep breath and straightened slightly at her words, seeming to gather himself and his young courage for the task ahead. She did not fault him for his fear. All warriors, including herself, felt fear in the face of danger regardless of how many times they had already seen battle. Fear was a natural and necessary instinct. It was how one handled that fear and continued to fight on that determined one's true strength.
Lexa felt a twinge of something like apprehension arise from somewhere deep within her. It came from the new and growing part of her that remembered herself as Aden's sister, not his Commander. Lexa Black was used to protecting her brother from the world, and had gone to great lengths to keep even his existence a secret. To thrust him into such a dangerous situation went against everything she had known on the Ark. She had also not forgotten her earlier oath to keep the boy safe. Aden was her only link to her old life, the only one who knew who she truly was, and her heart ached at the thought of any serious harm coming to him.
She hastily pushed away these unwanted and unhelpful emotions. Heda Leksa knew that there was no protecting Aden from the dangers of this world. He was a Natblida. His blood carried a greater destiny, and he could not afford weakness if he was to survive and take her place someday. Though he was young by the standards of the Sky People, Aden was of age to be a warrior's second and would soon need to prove himself in battle. Harsh thought it may be, it was their way, and so Lexa ignored her feelings of concern and clasped his shoulder briefly, giving him her most confident expression.
"You protect my back and I'll protect yours, understood?"
"Yes, Heda," he agreed, the fierceness he normally showed in training now filling his eyes.
"Good… Let's get moving, then. We've a lot of ground to cover."
With that, Lexa released him and stepped forward to lead the way, Aden following several paces behind her, both moving as quickly as they could through the undergrowth without making undue noise. Though she had been forced to spend more and more time in the capitol playing politics since the forming of the coalition, Lexa found herself easily falling back into the remembered rhythms of scouting and tracking at night. The brutal wars she had needed to fight in order to form the coalition had lasted for almost four years, and she had spent much of that time in the field herself fighting on the front lines. She had come close to losing her life many times, of course, but something about this felt very different. Here now, it was just her and Aden. There were no Natgonas protecting her, no army ready to follow her every command. Whatever dangers they encountered, she and Aden must be prepared to face them alone.
It took them nearly two hours to reach the village, and when they did they almost walked right into it before she even realized it was there. She froze immediately when the black, square shape of a small building loomed in front of them in the dark, her hand held up to warn Aden behind her.
It was the village she had been expecting, and it was just where she thought it should be, but it was strange that they hadn't seen or smelt any fires as they approached. The evening's light breeze was blowing towards them, and they should have been able to smell the smoke of the village's fires from quite a ways off.
Something is wrong here, she realized, concerned by the unusual quiet and stillness she could sense from the clustered buildings before them. It was hard to tell in the darkness, even aided as they were by the moon's brightness overhead, but the huts she could see looked to be in poor shape and the vegetation seemed to grow thick and untamed among them. The lack of smells was also remarkable. All she could detect were the scents of earth, decay and growing things. No fires, food, or the stench of garbage and latrines that always accompanied the presence of many people living in close proximity.
Lexa shared a glance with Aden, and she saw that his puzzlement equaled her own. It appeared as though the place was abandoned. After several minutes of silent observation at its edge, they cautiously moved closer, slipping between the outlying structures and slowly making their way towards the small village's center. They made a short tour of the empty village, both alert and searching for any signs of human life, tense with the odd emptiness all around them. Neither spoke as they returned to the same small forest path they had entered on, moving far enough into the trees that the silent figures of the empty buildings disappeared behind them. They stopped to talk only when she felt they had put a safe distance between themselves and the ghostly Trikru village.
"I don't understand… Where was everybody?" Aden asked softly, his eyes finding hers in the darkness.
Lexa didn't say anything at first, silent as her mind worked over everything they had seen in the village, trying to fit explanations to observations. It had been the same village as in their reality, of that she was certain, although it had seemed much smaller than she remembered. The basic structure of the huts and the layout of the village itself were unmistakably Trikru, however, and she had recognized at least one of the ruined buildings specifically from previous visits.
"No one has lived there in at least several years… There was charring on many of the huts, like they'd been burnt. Perhaps it was destroyed in a fire, and those that survived moved elsewhere."
Aden frowned at this, his grip tightening on his spear.
"Or they were attacked, Heda, and the attackers set the village on fire after killing everyone," he said, and she had to concede that the suggestion was an astute one.
"That's possible," she agreed.
The implications of that theory were disturbing. This was fairly deep in Trikru territory in their world. Fear of Mount Weather and its Reapers kept most of the bordering clans away from this region, even the neighboring Azgeda, and it was unlike the Mountain Men to destroy a village in this way. Who then would be bold enough to carry out an attack like this so far within Trikru lands?
Lexa felt her frustrated anger rising within her. Rather than the answers they had been seeking, finding the village had only succeeded in raising more questions. The threatening cloud of the great unknown still hung over them, menacing them with its uncertainty, and she'd about had enough of it already.
As she often did when faced with difficulty, Lexa let her mind relax and fall inwards, consciously seeking out the comfort and certainty that came with communing directly with the Commander's spirit within her. It wasn't until the resounding silence and the first dull, painful throbs of a severe headache began to pound within her skull that she remembered the spirit was no longer to be found. She withdrew her mind from its internal search and almost immediately the growing headache ceased, her blurred vision returning to normal. Aden was holding her by the arm and waist, she realized, half supporting her weight as she swayed on her feet.
"Heda?! Are you alright?" he asked, clearly worried for her. Lexa straightened, and the last of the sudden weakness left her as though nothing had occurred. She touched her upper lip with her fingers, relieved when they didn't come away bloody.
Just like what happened the last time I intentionally reached out to the spirit… At least I didn't bleed and pass out this time.
"Yes, I'm fine now."
"You almost fell over!" he told her, and he was so anxious for her that the words came out a bit like a scolding. It was the kind of tone Aden Black would have used with his sister, but not one she was accustomed to hearing from the Natblida boy herself. To her surprise, Lexa found that she didn't mind, and instead of getting angry at his impertinence, she felt herself smiling slightly.
"Don't worry, Aden. I was dizzy for a moment, but it's gone now. It won't happen again," she reassured him, confident now that the headaches, bleeding, and loss of consciousness she had experienced were due to her trying to reach the Commander's spirit. It was often a reflex for her and would be a difficult habit to break, but now that she was aware of it, she should be able to avoid doing so in the future and therefore avoid these new side effects.
"Come, we are wasting precious time."
Lexa stepped free of his assistance, lifting her spear to point back the way they had come.
"We're heading back to the dropship. There should still be time to do a rough search of the area around camp. Maybe we will get lucky and find Finn's trail in the dark."
She doubted they would be so fortunate. Tracking was difficult at nighttime during the best of conditions, and picking up a random trail when you had no idea where to start to look was almost an impossible task. Finn could be anywhere at this point. He might just be lost, but it was equally likely that he was already dead. Either way, they would need to go out and look for him with more people during the daytime. Her tired body ached with fatigue just thinking about it.
It took them less time to return to camp than it had to find the village, and it was only an hour later that they detected the first wisps of smoke from the Skaikru campfires. Once they had oriented themselves once again on the camp, they first skirted north for some time before doubling back, then did the same to the west. They were about a half an hour west of camp and preparing to turn around and head back when Lexa heard something that both filled her with excitement and also a sort of wary dread.
A voice ahead of them in the dark, low and definitely male, speaking Trigedasleng in guttural tones.
It was surprisingly close in the underbrush, and they both froze, their tiredness evaporating as adrenaline flooded their systems. The voice continued, speaking harsh, indecipherable words, and another voice answered it, this one also male.
Two men in the forest at night without a fire?... Scouts for a larger group, perhaps?
That seemed the most likely explanation, though she supposed they could be out hunting as well. Some animals were easier to hunt at night, it was true, but something in their harsh voices told her these men were not out hunting animals.
Lexa turned to Aden and found that he was crouched and tense beside her in the dark, his eyes wide as he searched the trees in front of them. The night was growing late and the moon was now low in the sky, causing the already dark shadows to grow deeper around them, and it was uncanny being able to hear but not see the presence of others so close nearby. It was nerve wracking for her, and must be even more so for the boy.
She motioned for him to stay put, then carefully crept forward, her spear raised and ready in her right hand. After several slow minutes during which she listened closely to the men ahead of her and tried to be as silent as possible as she approached, she finally peered around the trunk of a tree and saw their dark silhouettes standing only ten paces away. Her eyes by now were fully adapted to the night and the light of the moon that filtered through the branches above was still bright enough that Lexa was able to see the men for what they were, and her breath nearly froze in her lungs in sudden horror.
Two Reapers stood before her, the normally vivid red of the blood they wore on their mutilated faces appearing like ink stains in the darkness. The bone decorations on their tattered clothing glowed white in the moonlight, revealing them clearly for the tortured beasts they were. Kneeling at their feet was a hunched form, his arms lashed to the large tree limb that balanced on his shoulders, his handsome young face pale and bloodied from his capture.
Finn… The Reapers have taken him.
Lexa wanted to curse out loud at the sight, but their nearness made the impulse unwise.
What are they doing this far east of the Mountain?!... And only two of them?
It wasn't unheard of for Reapers to hunt in groups of two, but it was far more common for them to be in packs of five or six, especially when this far away from the safety of the Mountain and its tunnels. She couldn't help but feel that their presence here, just like the burned and abandoned village, was an ominous sign of the conditions of this world.
Lexa didn't wait to hear what the two monstrous men had to say to each other. It was clear they were collecting Finn and intended to take him back to their masters. Regardless of her uncertainty towards the young man, she couldn't very well allow him to be taken to Mount Weather, and for several very compelling reasons. If they discovered his unusual origins and the highly effective healing properties of his blood, then the Mountain Men would stop at nothing to capture the rest of the hundred Skaikru already on the ground. She may be personally conflicted about risking her and Aden's lives to rescue someone whom she had previously condemned to death, but that didn't change the fact that it was imperative that they both free him and return to the dropship without the Reapers following them back… and there was really only one way to guarantee that they wouldn't follow.
These Reapers need to die… and quickly.
Her decision swiftly made, Lexa slipped back and away from the monstrous men and their single prisoner, finding Aden waiting exactly where she had left him. She crouched next to him, putting her mouth close to his ear so that her words would not be overheard by their enemies.
"Two Reapers have captured Finn," she told him, and she heard his breath suck in with surprise and alarm. She whispered her next commands to him slowly and clearly, making sure he understood exactly what she wanted him to do. He was nearly quivering with anticipation, but she sensed that it was as much excitement as it was fear. She remembered feeling similarly when faced with true combat for the first time, and she prayed he would not need to use the spear he held so firmly.
"Do you understand?" she asked him once she had finished her instructions, and he nodded grimly at her.
"What if there are more we haven't seen?" he asked, whispering the question.
"I didn't hear any, but if there are more Reapers nearby, then we must be very quick."
They wasted no more time with questions or elaborate plans. This was always where Lexa had excelled, both as a fighter and a leader. She knew when swift action was required and never hesitated to fully commit to a decision once made. There was a time for being methodical, for slowing oneself down and carefully considering all the options and their potential consequences. However, there were also times when immediate, violent action was what was needed, and any hesitation could spell disaster.
This was a time for violence.
oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
He was probably going to die.
Finn Collins stared down at his knees where they met the black earth, his back and shoulders aching with the strain of holding the heavy branch his arms were strapped tightly to. Sweat trickled down his hunched spine, coated his forehead, and dripped into his open eyes. He shook his head, trying to clear the sweat from his vision and shake himself free of the panic and fear that was consuming him from within. On either side of him stood the large, brutish men who had captured him shortly before sundown, their strange faces still terrifying to look at despite being mostly hidden in the dark.
He had never seen men like these. They were men, of that he was sure, no matter how improbable their existence on the ground might seem, but their faces were pierced and scarred, so deformed and hideous that they hardly looked human any more. The fact that these men even lived was absolutely incredible. In the daylight, when they had seemed to suddenly materialize before him as if from thin air, he had first thought that he must be hallucinating, so unbelievable and nightmarish was their appearance. Red blood was splashed across their skin, their clothes. Human finger bones and the dried, twisted cartilage of ears and noses formed gruesome necklaces around their necks. They had shouted at him like animals, their teeth bared in an inhuman snarl, and he had been so surprised and alarmed that he hadn't even managed to make it two steps before he was tackled to the ground, their fists beating against his skull repeatedly until he nearly blacked out. By the time he had regained his scattered senses, they had already bound him to the tree limb he now carried, and then proceeded to push and prod him further and further away from camp, clearly intent on taking him somewhere.
Unless I do something, I am going to die!
Finn's mind worked frantically for any possible escape, like an animal in a trap. This helplessness was worse than the prison of the Sky Box. Worse than falling from orbit in a dropship that was nearly a hundred years old, not sure if you were going to survive the landing or not. Worse than anything he had ever felt in his life. He didn't know what their plans for him were, and as hard as he tried he had yet to make any sense of their strange language, but he was certain that his life meant nothing to them. Soon it could be his fingers and ears decorating their necks.
Maybe he should just run for it and hope to lose them in the darkness of the trees? He couldn't move very well, bound as he was, but surely it was at least worth a try? The thought of trying to run through the forest awkwardly while these bestial men gave chase made him shiver in renewed fear. Who was he kidding… There was no way he was outrunning anyone shackled as he currently was. Unless he could somehow work himself free from his bonds, he wasn't escaping to anywhere.
Finn looked around him discreetly for ideas, hoping that the two men would remain distracted in their argument with each other and not notice him for a few more minutes. They had stopped some time earlier to rest, and just as it appeared they were going to pull him to his feet and force him to march on, the two men had begun arguing. It seemed to him as though the one wished for them to wait there, while the other insisted that they go on. Finn wished he could understand what they were really saying.
He glanced to his left towards the nearest large tree trunk, wondering if he could throw his weight against it and perhaps break the branch that way and free himself. Just as he did so, Finn saw something that made even less sense in that moment than the two savage men who had captured him.
Lexa?... He wondered, her unmistakable face peering back at him from around the other side of the tree just a few feet away.
Now I really must be hallucinating!
But he wasn't, and in three swift and silent strides, she was suddenly there before him, her beautiful face fierce and determined in the moonlight. One of the men beside him made a surprised noise, turning just in time to see her arm snap back and then forward with incredible force and precision, the spear she held passing over Finn's bowed head to pierce the larger man's throat. Finn felt the spray of blood rain down across his bare arms and back, several warm drops splashing against his cheeks as he strained to look upwards. The wounded man gave a guttural, wet cry of pain, his wailing cut abruptly short as Lexa twisted and yanked backwards on her spear, further ripping the flesh of his throat and causing the brute to topple forwards. His falling body nearly crushed Finn to the ground, but in his shock he somehow managed to roll sideways and avoid being pinned, his legs scrambling and pushing against the earth as he struggled to put some distance between himself and the sudden, bloody violence that had broken out nearly on top of him.
His other captor had also turned, and seeing his companion struck down, gave a mighty shout in their strange language, calling out loudly and lifting his cruel looking axe. Finn was on his back several feet away now, and so it was that he was perfectly able to watch as Lexa turned to confront her second opponent, her slim body slipping sideways to avoid the wild swing of the man's weapon, her movements so fluid and balanced that it almost appeared as though she was merely dancing with an unskilled partner. The blunt end of her spear flew upwards as she twisted to the side, striking the back of the man's head with a loud crack, and he staggered forwards, the blow clearly having stunned him but not knocked him unconscious. He turned to chase after her again, and this time when he lifted his axe to swing at her, rather than move away as she had before, Lexa crouched and leapt towards him, thrusting out with her weapon with one arm, aiming low for the man's vulnerable groin. Finn heard the spear make contact, the sharp point embedding deeply into the meaty part of his remaining captor's inner left thigh. Again she quickly pulled back her weapon and dodged to the side as the man reacted to the wound, crying out and stumbling as dark blood began to pour down his leg. For several long seconds it seemed as though he was going to try to attack her again despite his injury, but then he crumpled, falling first to one knee, then completely to the ground as the flow of blood increased, a veritable fountain spurting from the major artery she had torn open.
Finn released the strangled breath he had been holding, a sound halfway between a gasp for air and a sob escaping his lips. He couldn't believe what had just happened. He had never seen nor imagined such savagery, and he couldn't shake the feeling that everything that had happened since his capture that night had not been real.
Lexa's dark figure stepped towards him, her face unreadable in the night, and he couldn't control the involuntary flinch that her movement caused.
"Aden," she said, her voice cold and seemingly unaffected by the carnage she had just caused, right hand reaching down and pulling something metallic and sharp looking free from her thigh, "Cut him loose… Quickly!"
It was only then that Finn finally noticed the other slender figure in the shadows beside her, though he had been right there the entire time. Lexa's brother stepped over to his sister and took the knife from her hand, then hurried to his prostrate form on the ground, kneeling beside him there and going to work cutting the thick ropes binding his wrists.
"You killed them!" Finn said, never taking his eyes from Lexa. He could hear the shock in his own voice, the disbelief.
"Yes," she agreed, not looking at him, head turning left and right as she continued to scan the surrounding trees.
Finn tried to gather his wits, not sure why the deaths of his captors had affected him so strongly. Surely they were intent on killing him as well? Wasn't it kill or be killed in this situation? He should probably be thanking her for what she did.
Somehow, though, Finn couldn't bring himself to thank her for killing two people in cold blood, no matter the circumstances. The death and bloodshed twisted his stomach, a purely visceral reaction of distaste that he couldn't control. Couldn't there have been some other, more peaceful way instead of killing?
"Thank you for coming after me… Both of you. I thought I was a dead man," he said, rubbing his wrists and climbing to his feet once Aden had finished freeing him.
"We might all be dead soon if we don't hurry," Lexa answered, and it was then that he heard them; eerie, wailing shouts in the distance, the animal screams already so familiar that he didn't even need to ask what they were.
"There's more of them?!" he moaned, his earlier fear returning.
"Yes, and it sounds like a lot of them. Let's go, quick! Aden, you lead, north first, then east. Hurry, we might yet lose them!" she barked, the commands quick and urgent, and her brother leapt unhesitatingly into action as soon as she finished speaking, turning and sprinting into the underbrush. Lexa shoved Finn after him, hissing at him to hurry up and follow the boy.
The three of them raced through the forest, Finn desperately trying to keep up with the blond youth darting through the trees ahead of him. He wasn't nearly as skilled moving through the woods as the Blacks clearly were, however, and he felt as though he crashed into every loud thicket and broke every branch he came across in his haste. The sounds of the chasing men grew louder and louder, and after only a few minutes into their flight, Lexa abruptly called for Aden to stop.
Finn stumbled to a halt, sweat pouring off his skin, glancing around them in confusion. The men were very close, and tired as he was the urge to start running again was overwhelming.
"Why are we stopping?" he demanded, panting for breath. "They'll catch us!"
"It's no use running, they'll chase us until their hearts stop beating," she told him, her own breaths a bit short from the exertion of their desperate run. Lexa gestured for her brother and Aden moved to stand by her side, both of them still clutching their spears. She had stopped them next to a low ridge with several toppled boulders at its base, a small washed out area that was clear of plants creating a bit of open space.
"We'll fight them here, Aden… You stay on my left, keep the ridge at our backs. Understood?"
Finn gaped at them.
"You are insane! There is no way we can fight that many… Aden is just a kid!"
"Aden is a warrior. He will be fine. You, on the other hand… stay behind us and keep out of our way. If one tries to get around us, do your best to keep them away from our backs," she replied. Her voice was like iron and she looked ready to fight a dozen men if need be, but he could detect the desperation there under the controlled surface, and he sensed that she was not as confident of their surviving this confrontation as she pretended to be.
He would have said something more in protest, but they were suddenly out of time for arguments. The shouts of the monstrous men chasing them abruptly rose to a crescendo. Finn spun and backed up to join the Black siblings just as their seven attackers burst out of the trees, their weapons raised before them and faces drawn into maddened, furious snarls.
oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
In a true fight to the death, there was rarely time for any real, tangible thoughts to form. Instead, action and reaction flowed without pause, the body moving as instinct and training demanded, and decisions were made so quickly that one could hardly be sure they had been consciously made at all.
When the first of their attackers fell upon them, Lexa had less than a second to decide her first move, and it almost felt as though her body reacted of its own accord. The Reaper hurtled towards them and raised his heavy sword to strike, the blow clearly not intended to land on her, but instead to shatter her roughly made spear and deprive her of her best weapon. As she had been taught, Lexa withdrew her spear from his swinging blade and twisted, using the momentum this created to spin the other end of her weapon up and under his extended guard, crushing his wrist and causing his sword to fly from his grasp. She pivoted again and stepped into him as he staggered to a halt and tried to backpedal away from her, his inhuman face now contorting in fear and surprise at the loss of his own weapon. His expression transformed into agony when the sharp metal tip of her spear found his soft stomach, piercing the thin cloth of his shirt and sinking several inches into his belly. He howled in pain, grabbing the wooden shaft of her spear with both his fists before she could pull it free and out of his reach.
Painful though a gut wound might be, and likely fatal in the long run, it was not nearly enough to kill him quickly, and Lexa felt a stab of panic when she realized her mistake. More Reapers were just behind him, and it would only take seconds for them to be overwhelmed if they didn't kill each one quickly as they came. She tried to wrench her spear free, but the stronger man stubbornly held on, his fevered eyes bright in the dark, a horrible grimace on his lips. Rather than pulling again, she shifted forward and shoved her full weight into the spear still inside him, seeking to throw him off balance and to the ground. He did fall, but he also took her spear with him, and she chose to let it go, darting down and to the right, her hands seeking out and finding the handle of the sword he had dropped a moment before.
As she did so, a second Reaper loomed up in the corner of her vision, his axe swinging for her exposed side, and she let herself fall to the earth and roll, just managing to dodge her new opponent's strike. As she recovered from her roll and came up to her feet, she heard the man cry out, and it was then that she saw Aden, his lean body bent forward and arm extended in perfect form, the graceful slash of his spear catching the Reaper in his throat, slitting it open into a gaping grin, the red blood looking black in the night. The deranged cannibal gasped a bloody breath and fell to his knees, his hands reaching up to clutch at his destroyed throat. Lexa leapt forward and swung with her new sword, the heavy blade finishing the job of killing him and nearly taking the man's head clear off his shoulders. His spine held, however, his head flopping gruesomely to the side, and his limp body fell to the earth beside the other man.
All of this happened in a matter of mere seconds, but it felt as though time had slowed and each breath was a lifetime. The first Reaper was still alive on the ground, his body curled around Lexa's spear as he howled in pain and sought to pull it free, but there was no time to finish him. Lexa's eyes met Aden's for a fraction of a second as she moved back to his side, pride in him filling her briefly, lifting her spirits. It was short lived, however, as she hastily turned her attention back to their remaining enemies. Two Reapers were down, it was true, but five more had just emerged from the trees behind them, and these men had seen their companions die and were not rushing foolishly in to attack alone. They moved forward together like a ravenous wolf pack, their eyes gleaming hungrily in the dark. One man flinched as a stone struck his shoulder, but it didn't slow their advance. Finn had not fled, she realized, but was in fact still behind the two of them, and was now picking up whatever rocks he could throw and hurling them desperately at the Reapers.
There are too many! A small, frightened part of her whispered, and Lexa's own face contorted into a snarl of anger in response to the thought. She would not give up… She would not die here, like this. Not yet! And she would not let Aden perish here either.
"Steady, Aden. We are not destined to die here!" she growled, her fury at the desperate situation quickly overcoming her momentary fear and uncertainty. She had been cornered before against impossible odds, and had thought she was certain to die before as well. This was but another one of those times, and they would prevail. She'd already cheated death once and been reborn, after all. She was the Commander, and the eternal flame of the spirit within her was not meant to be extinguished here in this place, like this. Lexa was Heda, and she refused to allow these pathetic beasts to defeat her, to bring an early end to the destiny she was meant to fulfill… To steal from her forever the chance of ever seeing Clarke again.
Then there was no more room for thoughts. The Reapers reached them, and her world descended into chaos and blood.
oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
Finn watched in horror as the five men rushed in to attack them all at once, and he searched frantically for something more to use as a weapon even as Lexa and Aden both launched into a flurry of defensive thrusts and parries with their weapons. He found another large stone and hurled it, clipping one of the attackers on the side of the head, succeeding in stunning him momentarily. Lexa's blade flashed out and slashed diagonally across the stunned man's chest, wounding him, but she was unable to finish him off as she was forced to defend herself from the two others attacking her. Aden was scrambling backwards, looking incredibly small and vulnerable when compared to the huge men attacking him, his young body turning and twisting frantically to dodge their combined attacks.
They are going to be killed!
This was the only full, coherent thought that managed to surface as he watched the disaster unfolding before him, unable to take his eyes from the terrifying sight of their impending deaths. Lexa and Aden were both overwhelmed by the number and coordination of their attackers, clearly, and it was only their incredible speed and skill which was keeping them alive. The wounded man staggered around the others and came towards him, lifting his weapon, and Finn saw his own murder in the man's eyes.
Just then, a large, dark figure appeared as if from nowhere, dropping down from the top of the low ridge and landing next to him. He didn't even have time to be surprised, as the apparition promptly slid forward and deflected the attack meant for Finn, his sword slamming into the man's chest under his ribs, killing him with one blow. As the corpse slid to the ground, Finn's rescuer didn't hesitate, but instead pulled a second sword free of its sheath on his back and jumped directly into the fray surrounding Lexa and Aden, his swords flashing cruelly in the darkness. Shouts and cries of pain filled the small clearing, and suddenly two more bodies were on the ground, their blood spilling hot from multiple wounds. The remaining two attackers bellowed in fear and confusion at this new threat, then turned and fled into the underbrush, leaving their defeated companions behind them.
Almost as quickly as the fight had begun, it abruptly ended, the croak of insects, the dying moans of the man with Lexa's spear in his belly, and their own panting, heaving breaths now the only sounds to be heard.
Finn dropped to his knees, his legs weak with relief and exhaustion. His whole body was shaking with adrenaline, and he could feel his heart pounding in his chest. He couldn't believe they had just survived that attack… That his heart was even beating at all was a goddamn miracle! He rubbed his face with his hands, his skin feeling oddly numb to the touch, and he wondered if maybe he wasn't going into shock.
"Finn…" Lexa's voice called out, and the caution in it made him look up, just now realizing that things were not yet over and the danger had not yet completely passed.
The man who had come to their aid was crouched aggressively off to one side, and both Lexa and her brother were facing him, their stances equally aggressive, weapons still raised and ready in their hands. The bodies of their foes littered the ground around them, and violence hung in the air like a promise, balancing on a knife's point, ready to tip over the edge again with the slightest provocation.
"Hey, take it easy!… He saved my life, I think," Finn told them, pulling himself to his feet. "In fact, he probably saved all of our lives, whoever he is."
He had hoped to deflate the situation, but if anything his words had the opposite effect. In hearing them, the stranger grew even tenser, his grip tightening on his two swords and feet shifting as though preparing to either attack or flee. Finn froze mid step, not wanting to do anything to make the man feel threatened.
"Thanks for helping us," he said, trying to meet the man's eyes. His lower face was covered by a mask that hid many of his features, but his eyes were bright and visible above it. His head was shaven, a dark stripe of very short hair running down the center of his skull, and his athletic body appeared to be both heavily muscled and lethally poised. Although his clothing lacked the bones and grisly decorations of the other men, he still cut an intimidating figure in the night, and Finn could understand why the Black siblings were looking at him with such distrust. Clearly he was a skilled fighter and very dangerous, but he had helped them. Maybe this man had some answers and could tell them more about who else had survived on the ground? Surely not all of Earth's survivors were like the monsters that had taken him captive and tried to kill them?
"I'm Finn. What's your name?" he tried, taking a careful step closer and keeping his hands open and unthreatening.
The man finally responded after a long moment, his words most certainly not English, and Finn thought it seemed to be the same language that the other men had used earlier. Both Lexa and Aden reacted to his words, perhaps startled by their strangeness.
"I don't think any of them speak English," he explained. "The other ones didn't either."
The Blacks still didn't say anything, and he found Lexa's continued silence to be unusual. He turned back to the unknown man, and flinched when he found that he was no longer there.
"What the… Where did he go?"
Finn took a few steps towards where the man had been standing just seconds before, though all he could see now was dark, empty forest. He stopped and turned when he felt someone grip his arm, seeing Lexa now beside him, her face drawn and pale, its expression difficult to make out in the darkness.
"We need to get back to camp, Finn. It isn't safe out here."
"But what about him? We can't just leave… Who knows what he could tell us?" he asked, amazed now by the fact of the existence of living people on the ground. With all the blood and death of the past few minutes, he had almost forgotten how incredible it was that they had found people at all.
"Obviously he wasn't interested in talking, Finn… Who knows, maybe he will be back, but we can't stay here any longer. More of them could come at any moment, we need to get out of here now!"
Despite her words, they did not leave immediately, as she insisted that they each gather up anything of use they could carry from the bodies of the men. When his own arms were full, Finn rose to his feet and turned, looking to see if they were also ready. As he did so, he caught Lexa bending over the man she had speared. He walked closer, thinking that perhaps she was going to try to question him, but was instead shocked to see her pull free the knife strapped to her thigh. He watched in horror as, without hesitation, she slipped the knife into the side of the man's throat and smoothly pulled it free. His painful groaning eased as his life's blood poured from his neck, and Lexa reached up and placed a slim, delicate hand on his forehead in an oddly tender gesture.
"Yu gonplei ste odon," she said as the man breathed his last breath, but the words were whispered so softly that Finn wasn't really sure he heard her say anything at all…