a/n Thanks to those who read and reviewed that last chapter. We're nearly at the end of this story now. Happy reading!
It's not that Raven hovers like a concerned girlfriend next to the radio for the rest of the day. No, she hovers like an engineer, just doing her duty to her people by being ready to operate the radio and waiting for Echo and her team to check in with news about these newcomers and their Eligius-branded ship.
Clarke doesn't hover like a concerned girlfriend, either. She goes to great lengths to make that clear. She is in Raven's workshop as a council member, ready to carry any message back to the Commander the moment it comes in.
Raven snorts, without humour. She knows full well that neither of them is convincing anyone.
"Aren't they due to check in?" Clarke ceases her pacing just long enough to ask, and Raven spares a moment to be impressed that she's pacing with a three-year-old strapped to her back. "Shouldn't we have heard from them by now?"
"They're fine." Raven insists, as much to reassure herself as for Clarke's benefit.
They lapse into uncomfortable silence, in which Raven tortures herself by wondering if, maybe, they're not fine. What will she do, if something happens to Echo? If she loses her now, without ever quite admitting what she feels for her, without ever quite embracing their chance at happiness?
Thankfully, the radio interrupts her burgeoning panic.
"This is Echo, checking in." Her much-missed voice fills the workshop. "We're all well. Bellamy's fine, he insisted I should tell you to tell Clarke that before I make my report."
Raven lets out a relieved laugh as she reaches for the handset. "Thank God, Echo. I was – I was starting to worry about you."
"None of that, now." She chides gently. "I promised you I'd come home, and I'll be back soon. Can I give that report now?"
"Sure."
"OK. So they've got forty-three people, mostly men. All between twenties and fifties in age, to judge from looking at them. A range of weapons, from handguns through rifles to some big things we've never seen before and we think might be some kind of artillery. And they don't seem to have a clue what they're doing. They're blundering around the forest near their landing site like – well, like Skaikru used to when you first landed."
"Great." Clarke breaks in, snatches the handset before Raven gets a chance to reply. "They don't know Earth. We can use that. You did good, Echo."
"Thanks." Echo sounds a bit stunned at such overt praise from the woman formerly known to her as Wanheda, Raven thinks. She smiles a little at the thought that, perhaps, these two people she cares so much about might have a go at being proper friends in the future, not just held together by their mutual acquaintances.
"Is Bellamy there?" Raven stifles a laugh against her hand. Even in the midst of a crisis, it seems that Clarke's priorities are the same as ever.
There is a brief crackling noise on the radio, and then his voice speaks up. "Clarke. I'm fine, stop fussing."
Clarke somehow manages to simultaneously sigh with relief and roll her eyes, Raven notes. "I'm not fussing. I'm trying to speak to my fellow council member. Echo gave us their numbers and weapons, but I want your take on what we should do now."
"I thought strategy was your thing?"
"I thought shooting was yours." She throws back at him, without much bite.
"I don't think we should shoot them." Bellamy says thoughtfully. "We'd probably win, depending on what those canon-things are. But I'm fed up of shooting people, aren't you?"
"Yeah." She agrees, and Raven cannot help but feel the same way.
"We think there might be more of them somewhere as well. This is labelled as a transport ship, which begs the question, where are the rest of them?"
"So we need a way to negotiate for peace from a position of strength." Clarke fills in what they are all thinking. "I'll go consult with the rest of the council. You guys should head home. Safe journey."
"See you soon." Bellamy confirms.
"Say goodbye to your dad, Gus." Clarke adds, as something of an afterthought, even as she is already turning towards the door.
The toddler on her back chortles happily, and apparently Bellamy hears something coherent in his words as he responds in turn. But Gus is destined never to hear him, it seems, as Clarke is already handing the radio back to Raven and striding out of the door.
"They're terrible." Echo's voice catches Raven by surprise. She rather thought that the conversation was over, now that their leaders have exchanged instructions, but it seems that her favourite person has other ideas.
"Yes." She agrees. "Do you think we'll ever be as bad as that?"
There is a loaded silence, then Echo speaks up once more. "I don't know. We might manage it, if we practise."
"Yeah. Maybe." Raven agrees with surprising ease. "Come home safe."
"Will do. See you soon."
With that, she sets down the radio, and dashes out the door to see how she can help with this peace treaty.
…...
Clarke is proud that Madi is brimming with confidence. Of course she is. But it scares her a little, too – both the fact that it means her little girl is growing up, but more pressingly the fact that it throws her in harm's way.
"I'll negotiate with them." Madi states, bold as brass, in the hastily assembled council gathering.
"Y-you?" Clarke stammers slightly. "You think I'm going to let my twelve-year-old daughter negotiate with armed strangers?"
"I'm technically the leader of Wonkru. The deal will hold more weight if I'm leading negotiations."
"She's right about that." Cooper offers, and Clarke is sorely tempted to hit her.
"It's also a strategic move." Madi continues. "They'll be surprised to have someone so young calling the shots. It will increase their fear of the unknown, make it easier for us to appear strong and back them into a corner."
Clarke gapes a little, and notes that it is the kind of trick she might have thought up, when she was eighteen. "Did you think of that yourself? Or is it that damn chip in your brain?"
"Clarke. The chip is part of my brain. I know you don't like it, but that's how it is." Madi sighs. "I don't want to worry you. But this is going to work. The Commanders tell me so."
Clarke wants to storm out of here. And then maybe to wander into the forest until she intercepts Bellamy on his journey home, and bury her face in his chest, and never resurface. But she can't do that, because she is needed here. Her daughter may be the Commander, but she's still partly in charge.
"They've got weapons, Madi." She tries, one last time, to talk her out of being the one who goes out there.
"So have we." Her daughter shoots straight back at her. "And I have a plan, remember? We're going to need a lot of those guns that have lasers. And I'm going to need a bunch of people who can shoot straight and are at home in the forest."
…...
This is ridiculous. Bellamy is convinced of it. They're taking orders from his daughter, who hardly even knows what a sniper rifle is, but has still somehow thought up a strategy that depends on a dozen of the things. He has to admit, it's a good strategy, but that doesn't do much to lessen his discomfort.
He's worried about Clarke, too. She's substantially pregnant but still threatening to follow them into the trees. He knows that she's only saying that out of concern, just doesn't like to think of two people she loves going out into danger without her, but he needs her to understand that it is, in fact, ridiculous.
"You're not going." He reiterates, shaking his head at her firmly.
"I don't take orders from you." She bristles, lacing her boots and sticking a slightly puny handgun into her waistband.
"I know." He reaches out for her, places a gentle hand on her cheek. Slides the other hand, as subtly as possible, to retrieve that handgun and discard it on the nearby table. Because, as he's mentioned, she's not going, so she has no need of a weapon.
"So you can't stop me going."
"You're right. I can't order you not to go. But I can ask you, Clarke. I know it's going to be difficult for you to sit at home while we do this, but imagine how much more difficult it's going to be for a pregnant woman to jog silently through the forest. And imagine how much danger you'll be putting our daughter in, if I'm trying to protect both of you at once so I can't do a proper job of looking out for her."
She is silent for a long moment, staring at the floor, refusing to meet his eye. And then she speaks, and she nearly breaks his resolve.
"I can't just stay here, Bellamy. I cannot sit calmly at home and look like a good pregnant housewife while the people I love put themselves in danger."
He wraps her in his arms, presses a kiss to the crown of her head. They don't really have time for it, but no way can he leave her like this.
"We'll be OK, Clarke. You trust me, right?"
"More than anyone." She confirms.
"Then trust me, now. Trust that I'll do everything I can to protect Madi."
"And to protect yourself?"
"I'll come home to you." He confirms, hoping that it is a promise he can keep. "I will. And then you can get back on with being in the thick of things, pregnant or not."
With one last, lingering kiss, he picks up his rifle and heads out the door.
…...
Madi isn't trembling. To suggest that she is trembling would be inaccurate and unfair. She's just giving the occasional shiver, which is only natural because it's chilly out here. She's certainly not feeling any excess of fear at her first taste of real commanding.
She marches straight out of the trees and into the clearing.
"I need to speak to whoever is in charge." She announces to the stunned assortment of those newcomers from the sky.
An idiot with a beard and a partially shaved head shakes a gun in her general direction. She supposes that she ought to reserve judgement on his idiocy until she's actually heard him speak, but based on the way he's waving that rifle she thinks it's not an unfounded assumption.
"Allow me to repeat that." She says, tone carefully bored. "I need to speak to whoever is in charge." She raises her hand in the signal she agreed earlier and immediately all the soldiers are fixed with those pleasing green lasers.
"What?" Shaved-head-guy really is an idiot, it seems.
"I have snipers in the trees who could shoot all of your men before you can blink." She makes it quite clear that she is speaking directly to chief idiot as she continues. "In fact, I suspect that the sniper currently trained on your heart is my father, who I'm afraid is both a little over-protective and a very good shot."
There is a pause. That laser is still fixed on his chest, and her stare is still fixed on his face, and Madi is rather proud at the job team Griffin-Blake are doing here, really. She's feeling pretty confident that her new favourite idiot will break in the next ten seconds.
She's on seven when he puts his hands in the air.
"Let's go." He admits defeat, and starts to lead the way through the trees.
It is not a long journey, and she takes heart from the steady chorus of birdsong that follows her along the way. The Eligius men just think that there is a lot of wildlife in these parts – one large guy that she's thinking of christening deputy-chief-idiot even comments on it. No one suspects that this is her army's way of reassuring her that they are right by her side, hidden in the trees.
Within minutes, they arrive at the edge of the clearing where the Eligius ship is parked. Obviously, Madi cannot leave the cover of the trees, because that would mean leaving the cover of her snipers. She therefore digs her heels in and says that she will wait here.
Chief idiot doesn't even bother arguing, this time. He just strides off in the direction of the transport with the rest of his men at his back.
She is kept waiting just long enough for the first butterflies of nervousness to start fluttering in her stomach before she sees a rather stern-faced woman approaching.
"Colonel Charmaine Diyoza." She introduces herself, voice cold. "McCreary says you want to speak to me."
Madi nods, carefully courteous, before introducing herself in turn. "Heda Madi kom Louwoda Kliron Kru, heir to Becca Praimheda, successor to Lexa kom Trikru." The woman looks at least a little intimidated by her titles, as she intended she should. "Daughter of Clarke Griffin and Bellamy Blake." She adds as an afterthought, because if this woman knows the first thing about planet Earth she ought to find that pretty intimidating too.
"Why are you here?"
"I am the leader of my people and I have come to negotiate the terms of your surrender."
Diyoza laughs in her face, a loud, unkind sound. "You're a child."
"Yes. A child with a hundred and three years of leadership advice and battle strategy on a chip in my brain." She informs her with an affected shrug. "Also with a tribe of eight hundred people who would follow me to the death. Mostly highly trained warriors, but also engineers, farmers, and doctors. If you agree to my terms you and your people will flourish." She doesn't bother outlining the alternative, because she doubts this woman is that stupid. There must be a reason that chief idiot – McCreary, she corrects herself – recognises her authority.
She is frowning at her now, a shrewd look in her eyes. "What are your terms?"
"Your people abide by our laws and respect my leadership. In return, they are welcomed wholeheartedly into our community, with access to our doctors, fair sharing of our food supplies, all that kind of thing. My head of agriculture is currently working on fertilising the wasteland so within the next couple of years we should be able to expand beyond this valley. We would hold elections so that a couple of your people join my board of advisers." She adds this last comment in a rather light tone, as if offering the woman a treat. She has to make it quite clear, after all, who holds the balance of power in this relationship.
Diyoza makes one last attempt to worm her way out of this. "How do I know you're not bluffing?"
Madi doesn't even have to raise a hand, this time. Diyoza has scarcely finished asking the question before she is fixed with a dozen green lasers and the indisputable evidence that Madi is, in fact, telling the truth.
Diyoza pauses for a moment, looks down at her own laser-flecked torso, then up into Madi's eyes. She turns to frown at the treeline, too, but of course she sees nothing. Bellamy's better than that, Madi thinks with a grin. And then, at long last, Diyoza turns back to her with a resigned sigh.
"I suppose you have this treaty already written up."
Madi nods, once, coldly. It's a move that Lexa has taught her, and this seems like the moment to try it out.
It works. Any last drop of confidence leeches out of Diyoza, and she speaks her next words with cynical humour. "Well, then. I guess I'd better go get a pen."
"No need." Madi swings her pack off her shoulder, pulls out a single sheet of paper and one slightly chewed pen. She supposes that a peace treaty usually involves a little more ceremony, but it seems to her that it is only fitting that they should seal this deal using a pen chewed by Gus Griffin-Blake when he was teething.
What happens next surprises her – she doesn't mind admitting it. One moment she's looking at Diyoza's bitter frown, and the next, she's seeing her face transform as she lets out a loud and genuine laugh.
"You're good." Diyoza says, when she can speak again. "Really good. I think we're going to get on well, Madi kom – Madi kom whatever it was."
Madi's not quite sure what to make of that, whether that is a genuine hand of friendship or a strategy that the Commanders haven't understood yet. She therefore hands over the treaty, and stands firm while she waits for Diyoza to sign.
"Do you not want witnesses?" Diyoza asks with a frown. "People to make sure I keep my word?"
"I have witnesses." Madi tells her. "You just can't see them."
Diyoza nods at that, and puts pen to paper at last. "I've only known you four minutes, Madi, but I can already say that doesn't surprise me."
Now that, Madi thinks victoriously as she reclaims her precious paperwork, is how it's done. Peace through the appearance of strength, and not a drop of blood spilled.
a/n Thanks for reading!