Feeling all together out of her depth had become a familiar thing to Lexa as she slipped out of the well hidden gates of Ton DC. A small group of warriors gathered around her, each one strapped with more weapons than she could count let alone see, hidden as they wear upon their bodies.

The hastily concocted plan was simple. It probably needed to be considering it had been developed within minutes. Lexa, and who she understood to be her protection as much as they were her guards, would make their way to the Ark, find Anya and hopefully then convince her to leave a radio so that they could talk. Of course there were holes in the plan, what if Anya wasn't on that particular station that came down? What if they couldn't separate her from the others? There were more what ifs than Lexa could think about. But Lexa knew they didn't have much time. In part because Mount Weather was making moves to secure her people's alliance. In part because she knew Clarke would be more than willing to wipe her people out given the provocation. Lexa needed to make a decision as soon as she could, she needed the information to know which side, if any, was the one she'd align her people with.

Funny, she thought, that it was yet again her job to decide who suffered, and who didn't. But this time the stakes seemed so very much higher than they had ever been on the Ark.

And so Lexa sighed as she pulled the jacket she wore more tightly around her body. The wind seemed to bite into her with a little more chill than it had days earlier. She thought she imagined it more than really felt it though. The last time she had been in the forest had been different. She hadn't known the things she now did and the fact that dangers more sinister lurked in the shadows perhaps played more of a role in the chill that twisted down her spine.

Gustus, who she had come to realise was Clarke's personal guard stood by her side, the man's body large, foreboding. Ontari stood in front of the small party, a bow and arrow in her hands and the bright white furs she normally wore replaced with muted browns and greys that blended into the forest.

That difference in clothing wasn't lost on Lexa, either. She could tell there were at least two different people under Clarke's rule in the forests. She assumed more, as well. She felt foolish for never having considered it, perhaps even a little arrogant to think that if people had survived on the ground that they wouldn't form civilisations, cultures and traditions wholly unique from one another. She assumed, too, that Ontari and those dressed like her came from somewhere less forested, perhaps even arctic, simply from the colours she wore. And that thought yet again made Lexa think about Clarke, about who she must have been, what kind of leader she was to be able to unite such vastly different peo—

Gustus grabbed her forearm and pulled her to the ground, her thoughts having distracted her in the few minutes they had already spent walking through the forest.

Lexa winced, his grip firm, a little too tight for her comfort. And yet she didn't think him purposeful in causing her pain. Not when one of his hands dropped to the knife on his hip, the large sword strapped to his back perhaps a little too slow to draw in whatever situation they were in.

The other warriors around her all seemed to be listening for something. And yet, despite how hard she tried, Lexa couldn't hear, sense or see anything out of the ordinary. Perhaps she heard a bird chirp somewhere in the distance, maybe the whistling of the wind or even a twig or two snap under paw or hoof. But none of those sounds seemed odd, seemed out of order.

And that was the problem, Lexa knew. It was the very fact that she clearly had no idea what had drawn their attention, what had caused each and every one of the warriors to pause, to kneel and to remain quiet.

"It is only an animal," Ontari's voice was quiet as she rose from where she had knelt at the front of the party, her bowstring drawn halfway, eyes never leaving the forests depths. "Move."

And with that Gustus lifted Lexa to her feet and she fell into step beside him once again, her mind trying to organise her thoughts, trying to decide how she was going to convince Anya about everything she had learnt in the last few days.

Clarke paced around the building's interior, her hands clasped behind her back. Sunlight streamed in from the shuttered blinds and from its angle she could tell dusk would soon be upon them. Plans would need to change a little now that they had a potential way to convince Lexa's people to join her cause. But those changes, however unexpected, were welcomed. She thought it easier to do what she needed to do. At one stage Maya had always been intended to be sent back to the Mountain. At one stage she had worried and warred within herself as to whether she could trust Maya to do what needed to be done. It wasn't even that she didn't trust Maya. But she knew deep down that there could always be some innate drive of self preservation that could derail Maya's beliefs more than she realised.

And so Clarke took in a deep breath and let herself sift through the new possibilities, the new scenarios and the new sacrifices that would come into play.

All things considered, Clarke's plan was sound. She knew it so. Perhaps the only difference was that she needed to move faster to capitalise on Lexa's people lest the Mountain get to them first. But the one thing she didn't quite know how to put into play was Bellamy. The measure she had taken of him was sound, that she was sure. Of course she could continue to use him as leverage against Lexa, but she knew that threat would become stale. Perhaps it already had. Lexa had seen enough reason to listen, to speak with and to discuss things as openly as she dared.

Clarke wasn't a fool. She knew letting both Lexa and Bellamy spend time together would only give them the opportunities to come up with an escape plan should they desire, one she wouldn't dare even help set in motion by giving them that opportunity. Of course she could lock him up, but that would undo all the progress she had made with the woman, it would sour any relationship their people would build for the coming fight. If she wanted to bring down the Mountain she would need to make sure Lexa's people chose to align themselves with her and not the Mountain.

It was simple, really. It was the only thing she could continue to do. And that was nothing. Bellamy would remain more guest than prisoner until a use for him presented itself, if it ever did.

She came to a pause beside the window then, pushed aside those thoughts lest they pester her further. She peered out and she couldn't help but to wonder, just for a moment, what it would be like to be able to walk through the forests, to walk amongst her people without fearing that her presence would draw unwanted attention. She felt the ever present simmering angers that lit embers in the recess of her mind. Nightbloods had all but been eradicated, the Mountain more than happy to take what wasn't given.

Clarke wondered if they saw her kind as animals more than people, she wondered if they simply didn't care and perhaps they cared about their own people more than hers, were willing to sacrifice that which they did not own.

Clarke smiled, the expression joyless as she imagined what it would be like to wipe out each and every Mountain Man that kept themselves alive with the blood of her brothers and sisters.

For yet another time Lexa found herself realising just how unprepared for the forest her people were. Each step she took seemed orders of magnitude louder than the steps of those she was with, no matter how much she tried to avoid a dry leaf, a small twig or pebble that scattered underfoot.

But the noises her steps made didn't seem to worry those around her too much. Every now and then they would stop, perhaps to listen to something she couldn't hear, maybe to give her some time to breathe. A few times one of the party even let out a whistle, the sounds identical to one of many of the birds she had heard.

Yet again Lexa realised how vulnerable her people had been, each call that was made, merely an example of how closely watched she realised they had been as they had traipsed through the trees unawares.

For another reason lost to her they came to a stop in the underbrush, the moss covering the trees that sprung up around her bright as the sun's light bounced its way down to the ground from high above.

Lexa took a moment to wipe the back of her hand across her forehead, the beads of sweat that had formed enough to annoy her. She was uncharacteristically tired from walking, too. The pace set by those she was with blistering. But mentally she felt more drained than usual, her eyes tired from trying to look at the ground she walked upon in an attempt to avoid making as much sound as she. But she knew herself unsuccessful with every crunching leaf underfoot. Perhaps she'd ask someone to teach her how to walk as silently as they did once this was all ove—

A birdsong called out, close enough that Lexa could tell exactly which direction it came from.

Her head snapped up, she peered into the dark depths of the forest. Ontari brought her fingers to her lips and let out her own echoed whistle, the sound rich, quiet, piercing as it floated upon the wind.

And with that a shape emerged from the shadows.

It took Lexa a moment to register the shape as a person, it took her half as long to realise two people had slipped free from their hiding place and approached, brown leathers and furs wrapping their bodies as they moved towards them quietly.

"Ontari," Costia said with a shallow nod, her eyes clearly taking in Lexa's state of fatigue before snapping back to Ontari.

"Costia," Ontari's voice was low as she nodded her own greeting. "Lincoln."

"We were returning to Ton DC," Lincoln said as he knelt down beside her, but his gaze was pinned upon Lexa.

Ontari must have sensed his gaze for she looked over her shoulder at Lexa before turning back to face him.

"You have news?"

For some reason Lexa found herself unwilling to speak into the quiet that surrounded them, perhaps because she didn't trust her voice not to carry on the wind, perhaps because she could feel her heart beating in her chest, its rhythm spurred on by the piercing eyes of both Lincoln and Costia who both looked at her with half bemusement, half curiosity.

"There are two women," Costia said quietly. "Looking for her," this time she pointed squarely at Lexa.

At that Lexa pushed forward awkwardly, the people she urged aside more than capable of not moving should they desire. But move, they did.

"Was one of them Anya?" Lexa whispered as she came to an awkward crouch next to Ontari.

There was a pause from both Lincoln and Costia, each one seemingly taking in the question, considering whether to answer or not.

But Ontari's voice broke their uncertainty, "we are looking for her."

Lincoln nodded his head, Ontari's words enough for him to feel comfortable admitting that he must have been spying on Lexa's people. "Yes," he said. "We were returning to Ton DC to inform Heda that this Anya is looking for her," he inclined his head towards Lexa.

"Where is she?" Lexa asked.

"Near the first outpost, the vessel you used to arrive," Costia answered. "There are others who have gathered with her from the scouting party you first led."

Lexa had come to the conclusion that Costia, Lincoln, any other scouts had always been watching them intently as they walked through the forests. But she didn't think she had actually been given direct confirmation until that moment. She ignored it though. It wouldn't do her any good to feel indignant, to feel spied upon, to feel like she had been preyed upon. She had bigger issues to worry about.

"We need to get a message to Anya," Lexa said. "In secret. No one else can know."

Costia nodded her head in understanding, perhaps remembering her involvement in Lexa's kidnapping, perhaps simply taking a moment to think of a plan to make that possible.

"Treska is watching them as we speak," Lincoln added. "It seemed as though they were preparing to at least scout the forests around the outpost, perhaps to try to find a trail or sign of your whereabouts."

Ontari snorted quietly at that, the sound clearly amused, perhaps even insulted that Anya and those with her even hoped that a trail had been left.

"We need to get Anya alone without hurting any of my friends," Lexa ironed her voice. She wasn't going to let her people be hurt, not if she had anything to say about it. She wasn't even under any false assumptions that she would be able to actually command Ontari to listen to her. But something deep down told Lexa that she'd be listened to, if only because Clarke had an interest in her.

"I have a plan," Costia said with a smile as she swept her hand across the ground to clear a space for her to draw her thoughts.

Anya stood at the foot of a large tree. The moss covered bark etched itself into the trunk and flowed down across the ground. Though the sun would soon set she wanted to at least get a start on trying to find where Lexa had been taken. Perhaps she hoped that the approaching dark would give her the inspiration to put herself in the shoes of the reapers, to think like them even just a little. But part of her— most of her, really— didn't think that likely.

Truthfully, she didn't expect to find anything in the dark. But she didn't want to waste time when hours could mean the difference between life and death for Lexa and Bellamy.

"We found seeds here," Monty said quietly as he came up beside her, in his hands a map. "Not far from where we are."

Anya nodded her head as she took in the map, the locations already marked and she tried to see a pattern, anything that would give her a clue as to where Lexa was taken.

It didn't surprise her to find that most of the locations that had been marked surrounded the drops hip in a rough circle. It was the safest way of exploring out in larger and larger circles. But it did tell her that the reapers had been able to get close, had been able to sneak through whatever territory they had secured without being seen. In fact they had been able to get close enough to start a fire, sneak into the camp and kidnap two of them without leaving a single trace.

"They're smarter than we thought," this time it was Raven's voice that broke into her thoughts as the other woman knelt down next to her.

Anya looked up. In part to curb the slightest of annoyances at how much they had underestimated the reapers, in part because her muscles were tense, stiff, the weight of earth's gravity doing little to ease her worries.

"It's purposeful," Anya took in a deep breath as she sat on the ground. "It has to be, right?"

There were a few nods from those around them, Monty, Harper, even Octavia who stood with her arms crossed, frown in place as she stared off into the distance.

"What do you mean?" Raven's head cocked to the side, her face pulling back a touch in thought, the sound of a bird chirping not far away the only thing to really break the whispered words they spoke.

"If you want the enemy to underestimate you, if you want them to think you aren't as smart as you really are then you'd act like beasts, try and trick Mount Weather into thinking radiation had affected you more than it had."

"She's got a point," Monty added. "Everything Mount Weather has told us about these reapers is that they're beyond being saved. That there's nothing we can do for them," he shuddered at a memory, perhaps a thought.

"They'd be able to keep it up, too," Anya said and she rolled her shoulders to try to relieve the stiffness in her muscles. "Mount Weather lives underground, they wouldn't bump into reapers often. It'd be easy for the reapers to scout, keep an eye on Mount Weather's people whenever they came above ground."

"So undetected after all this time?" Harper asked.

"They got through to our camp without anyone noticing, Harper," Raven said. "It's not like we didn't even have sentries posted around."

"Yeah," Monty said. "They literally walked straight into our camp without being seen," he looked around them, perhaps his own words causing him a little discomfort as a chill clearly ran down his spine. "They could even be watching us right now."

There was a scoff from Octavia that Anya ignored. She knew the younger woman worried over her brother's disappearance, she knew her nerves just as frayed as her own. She'd let her get away with her emotions running free for the time being. Anya yawned then, she felt the click in her jaw and she couldn't help but to feel the fatigue from the day's walking through the forest beginning to creep upon her body with each passing second.

She knew it had been a long shot trying to find any kind of evidence of Lexa's disappearance. Especially when the sun had already begun to set. But she felt like she had to try, in part because Lexa was perhaps the only friend she had left in the world, in part because she felt like she had let them both down by giving up so easily on the Ark, when she had thought their futures were doomed, were so far gone already that nothing would even swa—

"Hey," Octavia's voice cut into the quiet and Anya's head snapped up to find the woman looking down at the ground a few paces from where she had been pacing back and forth.

"What?" Anya stood, gaze trying to see whatever it was Octavia was looking at.

"Come here, Anya," Octavia's voice seemed unsure, guarded, there was a hint of tension in her tone that made the hair on the back of Anya's neck stand up.

It took Anya not fives paces before she came to stand beside Octavia, gaze focused directly on the ground in front of them. The others had gathered around them, too, each one peering into the darkening space around them.

"That's a footprint, isn't it," Octavia's hand pointed straight down into the dirt.

It wouldn't suspicious to find a footprint in the general vicinity of where they were. They had indeed walked back and forth over the area in search of anything, perhaps a piece of torn fabric, a discarded piece of equipment belonging to Lexa, even a hastily scribbled note in the dirt that had somehow survived the days since her capture. But the thing that made it clear that that particular footprint was unique was because it was just that. A footprint. Not a the indentation of a boot's treads, not that of a shoe, but a foot, one with clear outlines of toes, shoeless and far too clear for it to be mistaken for anything else.

"Was that there earlier?" Anya asked, her hands falling to her rifle slung over her shoulder, eyes now peering out into the darkness around them.

"I don't know," Octavia's voice quivered ever so slightly as she reached for her own rifle.

"Not to add to the worry," Raven's voice sounded out from behind them. "But there's another footprint here."

Anya turned to find Raven across the small space they had been resting, her hands on her hips as she looked down at what she assumed to be another footprint in the dirt. "I'm pretty sure it wasn't here before."

"We're being watched," Anya's voice was quiet. Her words soft as she turned back to face the dark, her eyes straining to see anything she could before it jumped out at her.

Octavia stepped closer to her, rifle now in her hands as she began to look back and forth, whatever frustrations she had felt moments ago clearly bleeding into worry and fear.

Part of Anya knew danger was close, closer than she could imagine. Part of her told her to run, to get to safety, to alert the rest of the camp that they were still even now being watched. But something in Anya told her to stay, to wait for something to happen.

Perhaps the only saving grace was that every now and then a bird would chirp or whistle close by, the creature clearly not afraid. Perhaps it meant whoever was close meant no harm, meant no danger, meant that whatever alarms were ringing in her ears were simply a—

There was a grunt, perhaps a whimper, a rustling of bush and a distinct thump that echoed out behind them. Anya spun, her eyes scanned, her teeth grit and whatever thoughts of safety vanished as quickly as they had formed. In the split second she had taken to turn she had glimpsed a shadow jump out from the dark, crash into Raven and drag her away—

"What the fuck," Harper's voice was shrill, startled, it was a shout of alarm and shock, and Harper began running after Raven—

And it happened fast, split seconds seemed to exist within Anya's mind in slow motion as events unfolded before her very eyes. Monty shouted, Monty lunged, tried to race forward and stop Harper running into the dark after Raven. Octavia spun back around to face the first footprint she had found in the ground, perhaps to watch their back, perhaps to flee into the dark, give chase to whatever it was that was so clearly watching them. But Anya stared wide-eyed and shocked as another shadow darted out from the dark, smashed into Monty before he could take two, three, maybe four steps forward. Anya dared not lift her rifle and fire lest she hit Monty, she dared not run forward, try to help lest the beast of the reaper who tackled Monty to the ground kill him and move onto her, and she dared not retreat lest they give chase.

And yet?

And yet Anya didn't know what to do. She stood rooted to the ground, her eyes wide. But her feet began to move, began take step after step forward. She had let Lexa down, she had let herself down. But she wouldn't let Monty down, not when she was in a position to help him.

And so Anya began to lunge forward, she lifted her rifle above her head and she prepared to bring it down onto the reaper as hard as she coul—

Anya was tackled to the ground, the wind was knocked out of her, she saw stars, galaxies, blinding light flashed across her vision and she hit the forest floor harder than she could have ever imagined.

Whatever had thrown her to the ground caused her to spin, tumble, end up facing the the opposite way. And in that time, in those seconds she saw Octavia attacked by another looming shadow, someone, something ducked Octavia's wild swinging fist, kicked her hard in the stomach and wrapped an arm around her neck before pulling her up, back into a choke hold before dragging the woman, kicking and gasping for air, struggling to breath, into the depths of the forest.

And then Anya was alone.

Darkness crept up around Anya as she wheezed for breath, as she gasped for air. Her rifle lay strewn away from her, whoever had knocked her to the ground gone, whoever had attacked Monty gone with the man. Raven, Harper, Octavia all gone.

And Anya knew she was next. Whatever she tried to do, whatever she tried to say to the reapers would be for nothing. And she realised now what had happened. Lexa and Bellamy had been a warning, had been a message.

Leave the forests, don't come back.

And they had ignored it. They had been watched and they had been studied. These reapers had learnt their behaviours, had learnt their movements. Had watched them, studied them, knew they would begin searching for their missing people only for them to become the next missing, the next victims of the reapers.

Anya should have guessed it. She should have seen it coming.

She had let Lexa down one last time.

She had let herself down one last time.

She had let everyone down.

One. Last. Ti—

"Anya."

A pause. Quiet, Deafening in the dark.

And then a shadow slipped out from the depths of the forest, a ghost to her eyes, an answer to whatever questions had consumed her thoughts.

"Lexa?"