Chapter 5

Clarke knew she was in trouble now. Echo had seen her blood. She didn't have a good explanation for it. She was from the stars, and as far as any of the Grounders knew, no one from Skaikru had nightblood.

But, there was something different about the way that Echo was looking at her now. It wasn't a mix hatred and respect. It was more of shock and awe. There was something almost reverant about it. Clarke couldn't place it. No one had ever looked at her like that, even when they found out that she was "the Wanheda."

"Does Lexa know?"

"Does Lexa know what?" Clarke countered.

"That you have natjus?" Echo asked.

"Vaguely, I'm sure. It isn't like I make a known thing. If I did, then they would have killed me first in the Mountain. As it was, I couldn't escape like I normally would have. I had to get creative and still get Anya out of there. It doesn't matter, though. I have no designs to take the throne of heda. Lexa can keep it and all the other crap, too," Clarke replied.

Echo just cocked an eyebrow at her words. She looked bewildered by Clarke's dismissal of her "royal" status because of her blood. Clarke knew what it could get her if she pressed it, but she wasn't ever going to press Lexa. Clarke knew that Lexa was the best heda that the Grounders had ever had.

"What do mean when you say that you could escape normally from the Mountain? You'd been in it before?"

Clarke blinked. She was still tied up. There was blood on her lip and Echo wanted to talk about the Mountain.

Nope, not happening. I am not talking to her about that. Pick something else.

"Klark, have you gone completely mad?" Echo asked her in Trig.

Clarke blinked at her again. She wasn't going to break her silence. She knew exactly what Echo had asked her, but she was trying not to respond. She knew that this tactic wouldn't really help when Nia ordered her torture, but she figured that Echo was usually a decent human and wouldn't beat her for not replying in Trig.

"If you can convince Nia not to kill you, she'll use you as a nightblood."

"She already has one," Clarke stated, once again betraying her knowledge of the future and her past lives. "She doesn't need me to try to overthrow Lexa. I'm not warrior, Echo. She'll just kill me for the power of Wanheda."

"If you give her reason, yes. But, with the knowledge of your blood, she'll push to bring your people into Azgeda. She'll promise protection and help. She'll use you against Lexa. To have Wanheda would be a boon for her, but for Wanheda to be a natblida, too...it would give her all the power she wants as long as you do what she tells you to do," Echo explained.

"Which won't happen," Clarke assured her.

"It might," Echo warned.

"Echo, she will try to break me. And, while she might succeed in breaking my body and mind, she'll never break the spirit of Wanheda, and she'll never possess its power. I can assure you of that much. Nia has no compassion. Without compassion, she would never be able to command Death," Clarke replied.

Echo just shook her head. She looked over at the bodies of those that attacked them and then back at Clarke. The girl needed warmer clothes. Echo left her by the tree and started to strip the men of anything useful. Clarke watched her with distracted thoughts. The more she watched Echo as she was just fighting to survive, the more she thought about things happened on the Ark.

"We aren't that different," Clarke mused aloud. "We never were, but I can't make them see it. Why can't they see it?"

"Because no one wants to see it," Echo answered as she returned and knelt before Clarke, again.

Blue eyes watched the spy as she just knelt there. Echo was searching her face for something, but Clarke had no idea what. She could tell that the spy was eyeing her though. It was like Echo knew something that she didn't, and maybe, she did. Clarke wasn't completely knowledgeable about all things Grounder, but she had a decent amount of knowledge to help her navigate the world each life. And, that knowledge was only expanding each time. She was making it a point to, because somewhere in all the devastation, she knew she'd find the solution.

"You have no idea the connotation that the name Wanheda brings, do you?" Echo asked her.

"The Commander of Death," Clarke replied.

"It is so much more than that. No one talks about it. It is a myth to many. To others, it is hope. You have more power than you know, but you won't use it because you are weak," Echo chided her.

Clarke just looks at her, like really looks at her. There is something beyond hatred and fear in her eyes, and it scares Clarke to her core. She can't be anyone's hope right now, she just can't. She still see's herself as a murderer, and technically she is. But, war excuses murderers for their actions when it is in the name of self-preservation and for their nation. Clarke did what she had to do. She knows that, but that doesn't mean that she has to like. She doesn't. She loathes herself more than anyone else possibly could. And, there is Echo, a spy and assassin for Azgeda, looking like she is something mighty.

"Don't," Clarke starts. "I am nothing more than flesh and blood. I am nothing. If I was something, I certainly wouldn't be here with you."

Echo cocks her eyebrow at the last statement. She wasn't afraid of Clarke and she knew that Clarke wasn't afraid of her. Clarke was afraid of herself.

"Do you know the story of Wanheda?"

"No."

"Do you wish to know it?"

"No," Clarke said with a finality that even Echo understood.

Echo looked around. The air was getting colder. She knew that she needed to rethink how she was going to approach Nia. She couldn't talk Clarke straight to her without some sort of plan now. It was still illegal to kill a natblida. Not even Nia was that stupid. If Lexa knew that Clarke had natjus and Nia killed her, Keyron wouldn't be able to help the whole of Azgeda. Lexa would burn it down and scourge the earth. Azgeda would become a memory. No, Echo needed to find something that she could use to help both Clarke and Azgeda. She looked back at the blonde and wondered if she would agree to anything that she suggested. They didn't exactly know each other, but it seemed like they knew about each other.

She knew that Clarke was stubborn, but she had to be and not only because she was the Skaiprisa and their leader. She was their savior. She'd led them to an alliance with the Kongeda. She'd taken the blame for killing over three hundred of Lexa's best warriors, and Lexa didn't wipe them off the map. She'd heard that she'd saved a Ripa and turned him back into a man, but Echo hadn't seen the proof of this and wasn't sure that it was real. She'd sent Belomi into the Mountain as a spy and possibly to his death, but the gamble paid off. From all of this, she knew that she was fierce and a brilliant tactician. She was also beautiful, but there was something dark that hovered over her. A sadness that Echo knew all too well.

"Do you have any idea what you are going to say to Queen Nia when you meet her?"

"I thought about spitting in her face," Clarke said, resolutely.

Echo laughed. It was full-bodied and melodic. She couldn't help the smile that crossed her face.

"You would. But, I think you should try something else a little less dramatic. I get that you feel you should be punished for what happened at the Mountain, but you did all of the Kongeda a service and earned the title of Wanheda. That might not mean much to you, but it does to the people."

"People want me dead for a power that I don't really have," Clarke spat back at her.

"You saved us all from the torment of the Mountain. You commanded that we would all live and they would die. That is something for us to celebrate. I can tell that you don't see it that way, but Keyron gave you that power for a reason, Skaigada. It is what you do with it that actually matters now," Echo told her.

"With great power comes great responsibility," Clarke mumbled.

"Chit?" Echo asked without thought. (What?)

"It's nothing."

"Then why say it?" Echo asked her as she rummaged through the clothes and furs she'd taken again.

"It is just something from a movie that I watched as a kid with my dad. He used to say it to me all the time and I didn't know what he meant. I do now. I think he was trying to help me with my mom, though. She had all this power while we were still up in space, but she still couldn't save my father or me."

"Then, she didn't have power, Clarke. She had the illusion of it. You have power. I've seen it. You just need to accept it, harness it, and use it as it should be used. The few times that I think that you've tapped into the power that Keyron gave you, you only did so because it was a life or death situation. You may not care, but you are in a life or death situation again. Nia might not kill you, but she will destroy you in other ways. You need to be ready."

"You sound like you know that from experience," Clarke replied.

"I do."

Echo stopped what she was doing and threw the clothes at Clarke.

"Put those on. They'll keep you warmer and I'll be able to hide you better until we get to Troi. Can't have you frozen and half dead."

"I am already half dead, Echo. Just finish me off and go to your queen. Tell her that the bandits killed me. Present my body to her. Let her do with it what she wills. I'm not worried about the afterlife."

"I am."

"And, why does that have you so worried, Echo of the Ice People?"

"Ai laik no Ekou kom Azgeda. Ai laik Ash kom Az, wichen gon nemiyon kom Wanheda. Ai fyuchan kom Azgeda. Ai laik no badannes kom Azkwin, kep klin ain sonraun. Ai wichnes kom Azgeda en Wanheda. Ai badan klin gon sontaim-de kom Wanheda. Ya laik Wanheda. Ai badan klin kom you." (I am not Echo of Azgeda. I am Ash of the Ice, devoted to the miracle that is Wanheda. I was born in Azgeda. I have no loyalty to the ice queen, save for my life. I am loyal to Azgeda and Wanheda. I am loyal to the story of Wanheda. You are Wanheda. I am loyal to you.)

"Nou, ai nou na sen yu," Clarke replied betraying her knowledge of Trig once again.

"Sha, Wanheda. There is nothing that you can do or say that will change that. I am loyal only so far as it keeps me alive. I have nothing to avenge. I have nothing to love. I want better for my people. You are that something better. I cannot do it alone. I know that. I know that there are others, but you first have to survive the Azkwin. I would let you go, but it would only serve for you to die. Let me help you. You just need to survive her long enough for the people to rise up against her. And, they will when they realize that you are the prophesized Wanheda come back to command Death. She is Death."

"Now, I am become Death, destoryer of Worlds," Clarke lamented.

Echo just stared at her. She didn't understand the words. She couldn't. She wasn't Clarke and hadn't lived the lives that she had.

"You don't know me, Echo. You don't. I could kill you in your sleep, but I won't. I kill things. I kill people. I save who I can save at the expense of others. You don't owe me anything. I don't want your loyalty. I long for death, but I'm took chicken shit to do it myself. So, who better to give my life to then your queen and let her do the one thing that I won't. I can't. I'm so angry at everything and have been for years. This planet wants me dead, so be it. I'm tired of fighting. I'm tired of losing. I'm tired of watching good people die. I cannot be who you think I am. I am nothing but a girl from the sky. Let me die."

"Ai na ste nou." (I can't.)

Clarke just hung her head. The one time that she begged for death and she couldn't get it. It figured. No matter how hard she tried, they weren't willing to either let her go or let her die. There was always someone in her way.

"If I die..."

"The world will continue, but the toll would be magnificent."

"You have no idea," Clarke lamented again.

"Put some of those on. I won't scar you, Prisa, but we need to move before nightfall. We've already stayed her too long."

"Why do you care about me so much?"

"You are Wanheda," Echo answered and expected that to be enough for Clarke.

It wasn't. It never was. She had no idea what stories that Echo had heard growing up, but she wasn't some mystical hero. She was just a girl trying to survive on Earth, just like everyone else. She couldn't stop Death any more than she could stop time. But, somehow, she'd doomed herself to repeating over and over again this life. Only this time, she was going to see Nia before the Challenge had been made. She wished for a moment that Anya was still alive. She thought that the warrior would kill her, but then she realized that Anya would have just delivered her to Lexa instead.

There was no peace for her. There was no rest. There was just learning more and more about the people of the Ground and hoping that she could do something, anything to make it all stop and save Mankind. It was a fool's errand and she was now Fortune's Fool.

"I thought you said that it would take two days to get to Troi," Clarke said as she picked through the clothes and furs that had been flung at her.

"It does."

"Then, why are you so worried about me getting there?"

"Because we are going to take the long way," Echo said as she looked deeper into the woods behind them and then to the landscape before them. "We need to move. Are you ready?"

"I can only do so much with my hands," Clarke replied.

"You haven't cut yourself free, Skaigada. Hokum? Why not?" (Why?)

"Honestly, I have no idea except for the fact that I was watching you take on five men by yourself. I would've given time and normal though, but..."

"You want to die, so you left yourself hindered," Echo stated and shook her head. "We are going to have to take the really long way around."

"Just take me to your queen and be done with me," Clarke begged.

"I will not."

"Why the hell not, Echo? It would give you prestige and power among the warriors and Azgeda. Nia can do what she will with me and go after Lexa. Everyone gets what they want, right? So, why can't you just do your job?"

"Because you are not ready to be Wanheda. You don't understand what it means. You can't. You fight a war in your head and don't understand the power that you honestly have. Taking you to Nia wouldn't prove anything except that you are the Skaiprisa. It would rankle Lexa, but it would not cause the war that Nia wants. She has nothing on you and you have no love for Lexa. Killing you is also illegal as long as Lexa is still Heda."

"Why?"

"Because of your blood," Echo answered.

"Of fucking course," Clarke said and dropped her head back against the tree she'd been leaning on.

Echo cocked her head. She reached out for Clarke's hands, but she didn't take the knife. Instead, she untied the blonde and waited to see what she was going to do. Clarke blinked at her several times, but she didn't move. She sat there with the knife in her hand, ominously pointed at Echo's chin, as her other hands gathered up the clothing she'd selected.

"Get dressed. We need to ride," Echo said. "And, I need to burn your clothes."

"Why? I've had these since I landed. There is nothing wrong with them," Clarke countered.

"Do you want to die smelling like a pauna en senen branwada? Then, that is your choice. But, while you are with me, you will bathe. And, your clothes will burn first chance I get. You don't need to look like a skaigada here, Wanheda. You mouth will do enough of that for you," Echo teased her. (Gorilla and stinky, smelly, ripe, etc. idiot or literally bad water.)

Clarke stood up. She took offense, but she said nothing about it. Instead, she clothed herself in the dead men's clothes and furs. She wondered what Echo was going to do with her if they weren't going straight to Troi and the queen.

"Are we still going to Troi?"

"Sha," Echo answered as she helped Clarke back up onto the horse.

"But, we are going to take a little detour first?"

"De tour?"

"Sadstrechplei?" Clarke tried in Trig. (Side walk...side quest.)

"Side walker?"

"Yeah, like a side quest or side mission or something like that," Clarke answered.

"Sha, Wanheda, oso ste teik sadstrechplei." (Yes, Wanheda, we are taking a side quest.)

"Do we get bonus point for this?"

"You will become Wanheda and understand what I mean when I say that Keyron chose you for a reason," Echo told her.

"Joy and fucking rapture," Clarke mumbled. "Ride on then, Echo. Lead me to my destiny and both our deaths. I'm ready."