A/N: I finally have a BETA (Thank you S.!) ! Yay! So this chapter should be less of a mess than the others :)
Framed by "... ..." are memories, just in case it got you confused.
I apologise in advance for how badly I write battles, it's my writing weakness.
*** Happy Spoiler ***
Clexa meeting in the next chapter!
I mostly use the italic for sentences written in English but meant to be in another language, be it Trigedasleng or Italian. And if there are no " " it's someone's thoughts.
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Chapter Twenty-Eight: Civil War
... ...
The first time Nyx catches Clarke and Malaya training together, she finds them in a small clearing in the forest, Malaya trying to back the blonde against a tree, Clarke fighting back fiercely to keep up with the merciless assault of the rebel.
She watches them for a while before throwing two knives at their heads that miss their targets by little. Malaya looks annoyed at being caught sparring with the stranger girl, but Nyx grins and charges them both.
Clarke is the first one to engage in a fight and the two dance around each other, Nyx still smiling, Clarke focused on finding an opening to attack. Malaya eventually joins them and Nyx has fun facing the two together.
Malaya ends up being defeated by her friend, but as Nyx smiles smugly at her victory she finds Clarke's dagger at her neck and the blonde has a firm hold of her from behind her back. She surrenders laughing, shrugging off Malaya's pout and grinning up at Clarke who's beaming at her.
... ...
Clarke is telling Faith about space, the young girl is always excited and she soaks up everything Clarke lets her know. Yet Nyx can't help but hear the sad note behind Clarke's amused voice.
When she asks the girl about it later, Clarke tells her how she saw her father be killed for wanting the people to know the truth, she tells her about the council sending kids to a possible death to test the ground, tells her about how she hated her best friend for a long time without knowing the truth, tells her how said best friend died on the ground, tells her how the truth broke her, knowing her father died because of her mother. She tells her about dreaming of the ground when she was up there, about her drawings of forests, about how different it is to breathe real air, how much the Ark sometimes felt like a cage.
Nyx drinks every word and adds them to the messy sketch of this girl that she drew in her mind.
... ...
"Thank you"
Nyx looks up at Clarke, tearing her gaze from their companions drinking or sleeping feet away. Only yesterday they didn't know if they could have saved Clarke, just the night before Nyx told Clarke she's her people. Now the sky girl has broken a comfortable silence thanking her and Nyx isn't sure what that's for. So she asks.
"What you did, what you said yesterday, the way you live and fight..." Clarke trails off, unsure of what she wants to say. "You gave me back something I had lost", her voice returns after a break.
Silence again, then Clarke turns to look at the fire a few feet away and speaks slowly, quietly.
"After Lexa betrayed me at the Mountain, when I killed all those innocent people I did the same thing she did. I thought I had no choice, she thought she had no choice, and what's the point if when it comes down to it we have no choice but to turn into the same monsters we're fighting? Why try if in the end there's no 'doing right'? I thought it all came down to that: let the people you love die, or turn into a monster to save them. And it was unbearable, because I couldn't regret it and yet I couldn't stop hating myself for it."
Clarke stops again, as if checking whether she's making sense.
"Lexa said that love is weakness, and after the Mountain I started believing it. If it weren't for love I would have been able to kill those people without it breaking me. But it broke me and I thought that meant love is, after all, weakness."
Nyx is about to step in, but she holds back seeing that Clarke is not done.
"You showed me that sometimes there is a third choice. You showed me that if there is a third choice, love is exactly what can make you win. You gave it back to me, Nyx: love is strength. You gave me my strength back."
At that point Nyx can't do anything but smile and hug her friend tightly.
Later at night, Nyx thinks about how Clarke has called Lexa by name instead of "the Commander", she thinks about whether Clarke and Lexa had become close while fighting together just like the two of them now. She wonders if maybe they had become close in a more intimate way than the two of them and that makes her think about just how much Lexa's betrayal must have hurt Clarke, about what it meant to Clarke, how it must have meant more than just the betrayal of an ally. She falls asleep thinking about everything she knows Clarke has been through and everything she still doesn't know about the girl.
... ...
In her tent, Nyx recalls episodes from the journey, she remembers practising with Clarke back in Cristallo, the dagger she gave Clarke held firmly in her hands.
Love is strength. If Clarke is right, Nyx will find a way to save her.
She twirls the dagger in her hand absently minded, making plans and discarding them quickly in her head. She turns the dagger between her fingers annoyed, upset because she can't seem to come up with a good enough plan, a plan that would ensure Clarke's safety.
The blade cuts through skin and she finally settle down, her mind silent, her body still, hands in her lap she just stares at the thin line of blood sliding down her finger.
She doesn't want to think about what happens if she can't save Clarke. She doesn't even know what to do after they take the capital, she has no idea how to rule her people. Clarke had to improvise herself leader when her people needed her and she saved them all, but Nyx wouldn't know where to start. She is a fighter, she can lead an army, but she cannot lead a country back to greatness.
There are leaders among the rebels, yes, but none of them has any idea how to start over. Clarke had to when they landed on the ground, a bunch of kids alone. She knows how to lead a clan, the skaikru are alive thanks to her, otherwise they would have died at the hands of the grounders. Clarke knows when to pick a fight and when to reach out for a compromise, she knows how to survive.
When the Queen falls, the Ice Nation will be weak, exposed to attacks from the other clans, and Nyx wouldn't know how to handle it in any other way than fighting, but fighting would get her people killed. Clarke knows how to raise a nation from the ground, she felt the strength in the girl. Clarke might think that the rebels need Nyx the most, but to survive they need Clarke. Nyx needs Clarke.
So she's going to get her back.
{previously}
Aeryn can finally be alone with herself, she has made sure no one is injured and now she can finally give in to the tears. She broke down when Nyx was captured and Clarke was there with her. Now she can't even accept Nyx's support because her friend is busy making plans to have a chance at saving Clarke.
As she allows herself to think of the blonde, she recalls the episode with the children in Cristallo, she had watched Clarke for a while, keeping herself enough far behind that Clarke wouldn't notice her presence. She had watched her draw for them and later she had asked her what the two kids told her that would make her look so confused.
"Her passion is the leader of many", she understands it now.
Clarke is amazing, that day Aeryn could see how easily the kids liked her, how easily the children trusted a stranger. But Aeryn knows, it's easy to fall in love with someone like Clarke. She can see everyone is drawn to her, one way or another. She knows she herself is, she was drawn to the girl since the day she found her in the forest. Clarke almost killed her that day, but Aeryn offered her a safe place, a warm bed, an actual meal.
Now Aeryn looks for Clarke's sketchbook, wanting to look at the girl's art to try and feel close to her.
In Clarke's sketchbook she finds drawings of Faith playing with Astrid, Malaya fighting, Nyx looking over her people.
She even finds one of herself, Clarke drew her as she stands at the door of her home in Cristallo, probably the day the rebels left, right after Aeryn kissed her goodbye. She smiles at the beauty of the drawing, Clarke made her eyes shine and her features look smooth as the water of a silent lake.
Faith looks carefree and happy in Clarke's sketch, she's laughing and twirling Astrid around, they're in the forest, her brownish red hair alight with the sun.
Malaya looks like she's dancing with a sword in each hand, holding a perfect balance suspended in the air, her eyes dark and focused on something only visible to her, her hair flying around her head in perfect harmony with the wind.
As she looks at the drawing of Nyx, Aeryn can really see her friend, Clarke portrayed her perfectly. She's sitting in the dark, the dim light of a fire touching her face, Clarke drew her profile as she watches over the rebels celebrating around small fires, in her eyes dance reflexes of the flames, her lips are unconsciously turned upward in a small smile. Clarke caught the perfect moment, when in Nyx's eyes you can see all she's thinking, about her people, about her clan, about her friends and family, about what she thinks is her mission.
Then she finds the drawing of a brunette, green deep eyes staring up at her, charcoal surrounding and darkening them. The obviously beautiful face is stained with blood and dirt, the look in her eyes heartbreakingly cold and yet pained.
After a few drawings of rebels, there's the girl again. She's different this time, the drawing seems at peace, not a tormented mess of emotions, a sigh maybe, but a content one. It portrays the girl against a table, she's looking at someone in front of her, her hands grip the surface behind her tightly and her chin is raised defiantly. Her lips are pressed together as if she were afraid even a breath would escape and give her away, but her eyes are what capture Aeryn's attention once again. The same green, brighter, free from the shadow of the warpaint, although the charcoal is still there, it is as if in the previous drawing the eyes resembled a solid forest, while now they look like a lake reflecting crowns of trees and light. They are still conflicted, but there is a longing in them and a passion that strike Aeryn.
Of course, Aeryn knows who the girl is, the Commander of Trikru, she knows that the first drawing must portray her at the Mountain, when she betrayed the Sky People and Clarke. But the second drawing is so obviously intimate that Aeryn wonders what there was between them, or what could have been. Clarke never talked to her about her relationship with the Commander, but from this drawing Aeryn knows they were more then allies, or at least they were starting to be.
In the drawing, the Commander looks scared, although she's trying to look strong and unmovable, the emotions in her eyes dance on the surface, so visible and Aeryn marvels at how well Clarke managed to portray them. She doesn't have to wonder whether the drawing actually corresponds to the truth or not, she saw from the other ones that Clarke is very good at her art, she can portray someone's feeling on their face exactly how she sees them, and she's normally good at seeing through someone too.
She keeps skimming the sketchbook for other completed drawings and stops dead when she finds another drawing of her. This one is only a sketch, but it portrays Aeryn sleeping peacefully. She's covered by furs, but a bare shoulder peeking out suggests she's naked beneath them, as does the bare leg that sneaks out of the furs and reaches the edge of the makeshift bed. She's in a tent, so Clarke must have drawn her the night after they slept together.
Aeryn finds herself blushing as she looks at her own face, the only part of the sketch already completed, it's beautiful and it makes her feel warm to know that's how Clarke sees her. She has her eyes closed, but she looks so much at peace that it makes Aeryn long for that past day, wanting to go back to Clarke's warm that night, when her friends were still safe and the blonde girl from the sky was in her arms.
{that night}
The camp is overly silent that night, nobody feels like talking, no laughter is heard, no smile, not a joke among the rebels who normally try to stay joyful despite what they're going through.
They are all thinking about that morning, when, confident they would succeed, they followed the Sky Princess into Ice, they sneaked easily in the city, silently killing guards until they were closed enough to the royal palace. They all thought the back ups would have soon arrived, convinced Clarke's plan was to attack fast enough to get a chance at saving Nyx. They were waiting to hear the sounds of battle from the rest of the city, but the noises were the common ones, the normal ones. No screams, no swords clanging, no battle cries, no alarms.
The next thing they know Malaya is handing Clarke over to the Queen. Most of them initially thought it was Malaya's idea, they thought she had betrayed their ally to get Nyx back. Then they found out there were no back ups coming from the other camps, and they slowly realised it was Clarke's plan all along.
Now they can't even celebrate having Nyx back, because they see it on the girl's face too: they need Clarke.
They keep glancing at the dying fire nobody is taking care of, around which are seated the ones who got to know Clarke best. Nyx is between Aeryn and Faith, Wit flanking the young rebel on her other side with Chayim right at his side, Xavier, Goral and Kora sit close, then Jivin and Rokh with Malaya who just stares into the fire, never raising her eyes to look at any of them.
Around the fire the silence is starting to be too much for Faith, she can't stand to see them just sitting there instead of trying to come up with a solution. Clarke found a way to save Nyx when the rebel was capture, she made a plan, she lead them, she didn't just sit there despairing.
She scans her friends around the fire, Nyx looks absent as if she weren't there, Aeryn still has the marks of the tears that fell for a long time that afternoon, she took care of everyone and then she went to break alone in Clarke's tent. Faith knows the two had got pretty close and she admires how Aeryn managed to keep it together long enough to make sure everyone was fine.
Except, none of them are fine. Kora has a hand on Goral's thigh and the big man is still swirling around the beer in his cup, not in the mood to drink. Chayim keeps looking at Wit and Nyx with a worried expression, the other boy is still and rigid in his seat, his fists are closed and he seems to be controlling his breathing. Xavier, unlike Goral, is drinking all the beer he can fit in his stomach, until at some point Jivin reaches out to snap the cup from his hands, the boy doesn't even react, he lowers his head and stares at the ground. Jivin and Rokh appear to be the ones dealing better, Rokh looks incredibly sad, but somehow Faith thinks he's the one who understands what Clarke did best, Jivin keeps opening his mouth as if to say something but then closes it, defeated by the oppressing silence. Malaya still hasn't looked up after she moved her gaze from her food to the fire, Aeryn is not really eating, still rolling her food around her plate and taking small bites, as if afraid that she'll throw up if she gets too much food in her stomach, Faith sympathises. Aeryn also looks very pale and Faith is afraid that the girl might get sick, she looks after everyone, but nobody thought about making sure she was okay.
... ... . ... ...
Wit is the one who loses it first. He attacks Malaya, at first throwing a mug at her when she doesn't answer his verbal provocations, than physically starting a fight with her.
The girl is startled out of her stillness by the object hitting her on the shoulder. She looks up to see Wit standing, furious eyes piercing through her. He accuses her to have never cared about Clarke, to have always wanted her gone.
"Well you finally did it! She is gone!" he yells angrily.
She just looks up at him, not standing up and not retorting anything.
"We could have saved Nyx together, Chayim was ready, I had the guards exactly were I needed them, I could have shot them before they could do anything. But it was too much of a great occasion, wasn't it? Get Nyx back and get rid of Clarke at the same time, how could you pass that on?"
"Do you think the Queen would have just come out of her palace and taken Nyx with her, in plain sight if Clarke hadn't arranged that? Do you think you could have also shot the archers at the windows before they killed Nyx and half of us?"
Malaya still doesn't stand, but it's enough to piss Wit off even more. He launches on her and they roll on the ground.
They start fighting and everyone can see how sloppy Wit's movements are, how half-felt Malaya's defence is, she's just letting him get it out, not really fighting back. He keeps swinging at her, but none of his blows reaches the target, the hurt blinding him.
Faith knows Wit was the first one of them, after Aeryn, to meet Clarke, he was the first to fight at her side, the first of the rebels to become her friend, the first of them to trust her with their secret, the first to believe in her, the first rebel to really care about her. She also knows that Nyx got closer to Clarke than any of them, though, and that Aeryn should be the one allowed to actually grieve the girl.
Clarke is special, she can tell that herself, and she totally earned the trust and the friendship of the rebels, as well as most of the Ice people she has met. But Faith is surprised at how fast they all got attached to the sky girl, she can't even explained how she herself cares so much already. But they do, they all care a lot about Clarke and they all hope there were another way, they all hope she had told them about her plan, they all hope she had let them help.
Faith imagines Clarke was used to make sacrifices for her people, was used to fight harder than everyone else, was used to get hurt and risk her life. But she hopes she girl had told them.
As she looks up again, she notices that Wit and Malaya are still battling, half the time rolling on the ground. They should stop them, they should get Wit away from her, but nobody seems planning to. Nyx is still lost in whatever dark places she fell into, Chayim is watching his best friend with sad eyes and shaking his head, he's on his feet since Wit attacked Malaya, he seems to be always on the verge to do something, but he just keeps looking at the stumbling form of Wit defeated.
In the end it's Aeryn who stops the fight. She stands up slowly and makes her way near the two fighting rebels, she doesn't seem to care about getting hit by accident. She gets a hold of Wit the second he manages to pin Malaya to the ground and she roughly yanks him up before Malaya can turn them around.
"Clarke knew what she was doing. She knew that was the only safe way to rescue Nyx. She did it for us, and what are we doing? Nothing. We should be planning the time of the attack, we should be training harder than ever, we should get ourselves ready, instead you fight your own friend."
Her voice is deadly calm and low, when she's done she pushes him aside towards Chayim who catches him before he stumbles and hits the ground, then she walks away leaving everyone to stare at her back.
Wit walks away too and sits against a tree in the dark. He knows he can't be mad at Malaya, it's not her fault and it doesn't mean that she doesn't care about Clarke, but he can't stop that little bit of resentment from making its way in his mind. She should have talked Clarke out of it, they should have shared their crazy plan, together they would have come up with something better, something safer.
He knows he's wrong, he knows Clarke did the only thing that could actually ensure Nyx's safety, but he struggles with it. He is happy that Nyx is back, she's his best friend and he doesn't know how he would have dealt if she had died. But he refuses to accept that the only way to save her was sacrificing another one of them. Last time they found a third way, they kept their people safe and rescued Clarke, why couldn't they have found a third option this time as well?
As he sits there in the dark he remembers fun moments together from just weeks ago. There was that time when they had a beer challenge. Clarke easily beat him and she left Xavier a drunk mess while she could still talking without slurring, she bested Goral and even outdrunk Kora, who always kicked the boys' asses. Meanwhile Chayim was watching over them laughing at their expense and Malaya was sending disapproving looks their way.
Clarke had won against Meike and Raoul, Liri didn't deign to join and Aeryn gracefully refused, complimenting Clarke for her resistance. Faith had been dying to participate and pouted the all time as Malaya kept holding her back.
Then Katarina had joined. Soon the smug looking Clarke turned into a sorry ass.
He wishes he could laugh at the memory.
{back at the fire}
"She's right", Faith starts to say, but Nyx interrupts her as soon as she talks.
"We attack tomorrow."
She stands up, looking at the people around her for the first time that night.
"The Queen wants to kill Clarke in plain sight, she will do it in the public square for everyone to see. We attack then. There will be the whole Royal Guard, it will be way harder than how we planned, we won't have the help of the Moon soldiers. But I will lead the attack against the Queen tomorrow," she turns her gaze around, catching the eyes of as many rebels as she can,"you can follow me, or you can wait for our allies."
She stands there then, challenging the forest and the dark, the silence and the odds all against them, she stands there, solid and lethal, the dark figure of a real fighter of Ice. Proud, strong, passionate, fierce, a warrior like their people used to be.
"Clarke was never one of us," everyone turns to Malaya, shocked that she might speak up against Nyx. "she came into our lands only to find escape from the grief and the sorrow that would have drown her had she stayed with her people. She wasn't looking for a place to live, she was just surviving. She wasn't looking for friends, nor for the next battle, just waiting the next fight for survival in the wild nature. I doubt she intended to stay with Aeryn long when our friend first rescued her from our unforgiving forests."
She pauses, as if expecting somebody to attack her again before she can finish.
"She thought she found a quiet, hard land where she could just slip away unnoticed. She told me that. Instead she is the one who saw the fire beneath the ice and she poked that fire to make it roar again. Why? She was not one of us, we weren't her people, she shouldn't have cared. But the first thing I learned about Clarke Griffin is that the girl is foolish and stubborn. Then I learned what she is foolish and stubborn about. She cares, I have no idea why, but she cares. It's dumb and it's like having a death wish, and when I told her that, she just laughed and flashed me a grin and told me that life should be about more than just surviving.
"That was only a few weeks ago, she said after the Mountain she believed she had been wrong, life was just surviving for some people. She told me fighting with us made her believe again. A lot of people die to avoid someone else's death, a lot of people die going after somebody else's death, a great deal of people die chasing revenge. I think Clarke was never afraid of death, not for herself and not for others. I think what she hates is to see people not living, wasting their life, forgetting to live in their struggle to survive. It doesn't sit right with her, so she fights to change it. She doesn't risk her life to avoid another's death, she literally risks her life for another's life.
"And she was probably right: it doesn't make much sense. But Clarke saw the fire of our life, buried inside us, forgotten and mourned after what the Queen did to our Nation, and she fought for it. Because Clarke Griffin loves life, and it's such a dull thing to say out loud, but it makes sense with her."
She stops suddenly, as if realising that she's been talking too much and too fast. She looks around and tries to ignore Chayim's little smile that tells her they'll never let her get away with this sentimental crap. She sighs and decides not to make it clear that she doesn't like Clarke, she just might admire her.
"I didn't liked her, she was never one of us. But she became so, fighting at our side, putting herself on the line, leading us, pushing us to let the fire out. She is one of us now. She's an Ice rebel. And it should pain me to admit that she's probably family too at this point." she throws a look at Nyx and Faith and shakes her head, hiding the smile that threatened to surface.
"We don't leave our own behind. Not even one."
Sensing the speech is over, the rebels raise their mugs still full of the beer they didn't feel like drinking and cheered together.
They are Ice people and their spirit is back.
The sun is high in the sky when the Queen herself walks into the square with the Royal Guard lined up all around her.
The black uniforms with gold stripes falling along the arms and the Queen's emblem embroidered on the front stand out, clearly separating the royal guards from the common soldiers dressed in the dark blue uniform of the Ice warriors. The original uniform had silver embroideries on the arms and the back, while the of Ice symbol stood proud on the front. None of the Queen's soldiers wore those uniforms any more, they represented the old alliance between the Moon Clan and the Ice Nation, the loyalty of the two leaders and the bond between their people.
The soldiers surround the square, living reminder of what Ice lost, they keep the people from leaving, forcing them to watch the execution.
The Queen walks in the square, proud and confident, she signals for Ontari and Roan to leave her side, sure of her safety with the skilled guards at her side. She theatrically addresses her people, ordering two guards to bring forward the prisoner.
The people let out sounds of disbelief, some of them turns away knowing what the Sky Princess was doing in the capital, some others cower in fear, believing the Queen when she say killing the Destroyer of the Mountain will transfer to her the woman's strength.
Wanheda walks into the square, head held high, a defiant look in her eyes, she is dirty and battered, but the Queen didn't want her bloodied and already dying, so she is mostly unharmed.
The people feel the power irradiating off of her, the ones of them who know what that woman did for their people seem to expect her to free herself at any moment and kill the Queen.
But Wanheda doesn't fight, she comes to face the Queen and smiles before spitting in her face. She's immediately wrestled to the ground, but the action stole some whispered cheering from the crowd, making the Queen furious.
But the Queen's fury has always been a silent one, even more lethal because of that, so she keeps going, ignoring the offending gesture. She shows Wanheda to the crowd, claiming she will kill her in front of them and send her head to Polis, so that the clans opposing her will cower in fear of the woman who killed Wanheda, the Commander of Death.
... ... . ... ...
Nyx is hiding with a few other rebels in the crowd, Chayim and she are going to get Clarke as soon as they have an opening, Rokh is in the crowd too with other rebels and they're going to give the people a way out of what it's soon going to become a battlefield surrounded by soldiers.
Malaya and Wit are close behind, hiding in the mostly empty streets they have cleared of soldiers. Liri, Goral, Katarina and Raoul lead the bigger waves of fighters who will be upon the soldiers as soon as the war begins. Euler, Vera, Adam and Meike are staying behind to slow down the back ups that will come from outside the city when the battle starts and the remaining rebels are taking care of the city outskirts. They left a small party near Liri's camp to wait for the Moon soldiers, should they arrive today.
Nyx thought if they can prevent the guards from sounding the alarm, they should have enough time to take care of the soldiers in the city before the back ups arrive. If they are fast enough and strike hard enough, they might be able to kill the Queen before the army outside the capital can learn what's happening.
Faith is not among the crowd, Nyx only allowed her to stay close behind with Malaya. She hides in a large worn out cloak, the hood falling over her eyes once in a while. Her hand trembles on the handle of the sword and she fights to stay put, not to run into the square. She has never seen the Queen before, and she can't quite make out her features from the distance, but she has never wanted to kill her as badly.
Suddenly she ducks behind a wall. Ontari approached the border of the square and Faith could swear she was looking right at her. But she can't have recognised, she could have barely seen her behind all those people, surely she couldn't make out who she was beneath the gigantic hood that kept her face hidden.
She carefully peeks around from behind the wall and breathes a sigh of relief when she sees that Ontari has moved on and has her back to her. And when the fear of being discovered fades, the rage comes back. It's Ontari's fault that Nyx was captured, which means it's her fault that Clarke is about to killed, and Faith wants to walk over to her and slit her throat right now. But she can't, so she settles to find her focus again and concentrate on what she's about to do.
It shouldn't be long now, the Queen is in the middle of her speech, if the soldiers expected an attack, they are not expecting it now that Clarke is securely in their hands and their Queen is surrounded by her personal guards. As the Queen goes on about how she will conquer the other clans and how the south will be hers to command, Faith's mind wanders to Nyx. What is she waiting for?
And as Faith is thinking that, and the Queen is profusely describing how she will kill the Commander of the Trikru and make their rich lands her own, Nyx sends the signal.
Everything stops for a second, they all keep quiet, perfectly still, ready to push forward and fight. The archers get the first move, the others wait for them to throw the first attack against the Royal Guard, Malaya's group comes immediately after, attacking the soldiers that surround the square, at that point Nyx and Chayim, with the cover of the second line of archers, will get Clarke, while Rokh and his group will protect the people as best as they can so that they can escape from the square. Wit's group will firstly offer cover to the people, letting them run to safety behind the lines of fighters, then they will join the battle.
In the outskirts Faith imagines the battle must have silently begun already, they didn't have to wait for the signal, as long as they could kill soldiers without nobody hearing and without letting anyone escape.
Now, seconds before the war some have been waiting for their whole lives, they remind themselves what they are fighting for. Not only the safety of their families, not only to get justice for dead relatives and friends, not just to regain control of their lands. Not for revenge, not to avoid someone's death, not to get back a safe life, a easy survival.
They fight for freedom, they fight for life, they fight to live, they fight for the passion no one can take away, not even the Queen. They fight because they are the Ice Nation.
The archers shoot their arrows and many royal guards fall, the rebels attack the soldiers from behind and take down more than half of them. The Queen's archers are already answering back, Rokh is fighting and shielding people from the flying arrows and the striking swords, Malaya has already kill more than twelve soldiers when Wit joins the great battle.
Nyx is running towards Clarke, who's fighting off the guards holding her while the Queen looks with a horror stricken face as her guards fall under the flying arrows. Royal guards are already shielding her, but her screams get lost in the noise of the battle as she tries to order the guards to take Clarke to her. Dagger in hand she tries to reach the sky princess, but her guards have to retreat as Malaya's rebels advance on them.
Nyx gets to Clarke just in time, she runs through the guard who's about to put a knife in her friend's stomach and kneels to quickly check on her. Clarke nods at her and they stand up, no words said, none needing to be said.
Clarke wouldn't have left Nyx die, Nyx wouldn't have let Clarke. They don't leave their own behind.
Nyx hands Clarke her sword and a belt with her other weapons and Clarke smiles at the dagger carefully tucked in its sheath. She takes it out and holds it in her right hand, as the left is already swinging the sword at the guards around her.
They hear screams and clashing sounds coming from the outskirts of the city and they know the battle is now raging everywhere.
Nyx and Clarke fight side to side, close to them Wit and Chayim do the same, Malaya is a death sentence dancing through the sea of guards and soldiers.
Soon they see Liri reaching the core of the battle, her armour shines of the past glory of Ice. She's wearing her old armour: dark blue, silver details and the Ice symbol, which is slightly different than the one adopted by the Queen, it's still a hand, but inside the hand is represented an eye with a gem instead of a pupil. Raoul is wearing a similar armour and he immediately falls in place at her side, the two of them starting to kill man after man.
Katarina is fighting not too far away, she is wearing an old uniform that Clarke knows to be her father's, close to her there are Goral and Kora, watching each other's back.
The battle has started and Faith is holding her own, but she realises only now all the strength she will need to resist for hours, they could be fighting all day and she understands now just how hard it's going to be for her.
Half an hour in she can't feel her arms any more, she thanks whatever gods she might believe in for her people's ability to make light but sharp swords. She can't imagine having to fight with Jivin's broadsword or Rokh's axe.
She doesn't know how long it has passed when she eventually finds herself on the ground, a soldier ready to strike her head off. She panics and struggles to get back, find a way out, she can't think about dying like that, she should have stayed close to Danae as she was told. She already almost died once in this city, and she escaped that fate, now she must do it again.
She sees a dagger on the ground, she thinks if she manages to roll on the side avoiding her opponent's sword, she might be fast enough to catch him by surprise and jab the blade in his side before he can raise the sword again.
She steels herself for the blow that she knows it's coming and she gets ready to avoid it, roll on her side, grab the dagger and thrust it in the soldier's side before his sword can leave the ground again.
But she doesn't get to do any of that because the sword falls, but it doesn't hit her, it hits the ground at her side, followed by the soldier holding it. His head instead rolls away in the dirt, blood spilling from the neck like a small waterfall of war.
She looks up to thank the rebel she expects to find and is struck at the sight of Ontari reaching out to yank her up and pull her aside.
She hasn't managed to react yet when the warrior finally makes her way to the back of a house, throwing aside whoever tried to stop her, rebels or soldiers.
When Faith finally breaks free from the gasp, she falls to the ground from the sudden release of her arm. Ontari is standing over her growling at her.
"I told you to stay away!" she shouts at the girl on the ground.
Faith doesn't understand why she's still alive, but as Ontari's sword is lowered and her eyes turn upward to scan the battle they left behind, Faith sees her opening, the only opening she will get.
She jumps to her feet, quickly unsheathing one of Ontari's knives from her belt and goes to point it at the girl's throat, but her wrist is immediately taken in a vice like grip. Ontari snarls at her and twists her hand until she's forced to let the knife go. She watches as it falls to the ground with her only hope to kill the warrior.
"Why are you here, Faith? Why couldn't you stay away!" Ontari's voice is angry, furious and her face is twisted with rage.
But what Faith notices is that Ontari used her name, so she must remember. If days ago that would have pleased the girl, now it makes her even more furious. She remembers, and yet she sides with the Queen.
"Why? Because I'm not a fucking traitor! I fight for my people, I fight for my freedom! I didn't sell myself to the Queen, I didn't become a slave! I refuse to turn into death machine for her like you did!"
Ontari watches her with no interest. "It's called survival."
"Screw survival. It's called slavery, it's called defeat, it's called cowardice! I will never surrender my dignity, my freedom and I won't sacrifice my friends like you do! I am an Ice warrior and I care about my family. You're only a poor excuse of a fighter, barely a soldier, a puppet. You gave it all up for what? Huh? What did you give me up for?" Faith is shouting, if she can't kill Ontari, she will at least let her know what she thinks about her before the warrior kills her.
But she wasn't expecting to be slapped.
She looks up at the taller girl and she's shocked to see hurt in the other's eyes.
"I didn't give you up." Ontari hisses before finding her voice again.
"What choice did I have? Nobody came to save me when the Queen took me, I had to learn how to survive. I was lucky, she wanted me alive. But I didn't just betray my family, I had to survive."
Faith is still furious, she still hates her, yet she can't help but feel the need to correct her, never wanting the other to think they just abandoned her. "We thought you were dead. We were sure. We looked for you, I looked for you for so long, but you were gone for good. Then I saw you here, a personal guard of the Queen! How could you?"
Ontari looks down for a second, almost as if she were tired and didn't want to argue. "I hope you never learn that there are many things worse than death."
That gets Faith's attention. "What do you mean?"
But Ontari shakes her head and seems to remember that there's a war going on just metres away from them. "You need to leave. Now."
"No. The Queen is going to die. We're going to win, we're going to-"
Ontari jerks her arm forward and roughly pushes her behind her, then rushes to run her sword through the soldier who caught them hiding. He dies before he can register what's happening. Faith is left to stare at how lethal Ontari looks right now.
"You are never going to win. She's too strong." she snarls turning back to Faith.
"You want us to win" the redhead realises. Ontari shakes her head, but Faith presses on. "Yes. You do. Help us then, join us, it's not too late."
She doesn't know why she's yet again trying to get her old friend to resurface, but Ontari's face seems conflicted for a second and that's enough of an answer for Faith.
"You didn't kill me the first time we met when you should have, you saved me now killing the very soldiers you should be fighting with. You don't want me dead."
Ontari growls at that, but she doesn't say anything. So Faith takes a chance.
She slowly and carefully makes her way to Ontari, stopping when the other raises her bloodied sword and waiting until she deems it safe enough to gently push the blade back down and taking the few steps that still separate them.
When she's in her space, she leans in and she hugs her, she doesn't let Ontari step away, forcing her to stay in the embrace, stiff as she might. Incredibly slowly she starts to turn them a little.
"I still believe in you, Ontari." she whispers before sprinting forward, away from the hands that try to catch her.
Ontari, surprised by the hug, takes a second too long to recover and run after the girl, when she catches up, Faith is already back into the fight. She sees Ontari and smiles, "If you don't want me to die, you'll have to fight with me and make sure I don't get myself killed", she screams over the clashing of her own sword against her opponent's. Then she puts some more bodies between them so that Ontari can't attempt to drag her away again.
To her surprise, Ontari does have her back. She fights off rebels as well, but she kills any soldier getting too close to the fighting red headed rebel.
... ... . ... ...
The battle goes on for hours, soldiers have tried to reach the capital and the war rages outside as well as inside. They are deciding the fate of the Ice Nation, but some fight for death, some fight for life.
That day, Ice has its warriors back.
