Anya lay on her bed. The only thing to illuminate her small room was the light of a display of a digital clock. She had stopped looking at the time hours ago, her mind unable to rest, unable to think. She'd drifted off to sleep for a minute or two a handful of times only to wake with a startle and the worry that she had somehow missed whatever distraction Lexa had planned to make.

But no distraction had come.

Not yet.

The concrete ceiling was weathered, a small crack ran from one corner of the room before spiderwebbing into nothing somewhere near the far side of the wall. She'd imagined each little etched surface a river of sorts in an attempt to distract herself, in an attempt to give herself something to do during the quiet hours on the ground.

Perhaps she was a little homesick, maybe she missed the Ark, space, the emptiness of the void. At times like this she had been able to look out into space, gaze upon the Earth as it rotated below, she had been able to look at the moon, its appearance seemingly so different on the Ark than down on the ground.

And she missed it, that much was true. She hadn't let herself think about it too much, hadn't let herself feel too homesick. There'd be time for that soon enough.

At least there was more space on the ground, amongst the trees, the grass, the wind and the rivers. She looked forward to being able to explore it some more without having to look over her shoulder at every little sound, without having to worry if friend were foe and foe were friend.

And then Anya heard it.

It was quiet, distant, barely noticeable.

A steady thump of boots against concrete could be heard if she listened hard enough. She could tell whoever it was moved a little too fast for it to be normal, she could sense the suppressed urgency lest they give away whatever it was that had alerted them.

And she knew.

Anya sat up, any feeling of sleep long faded from her mind as she blinked, rolled her shoulders and stood, the ever present ache in her space weakened body an annoyance quickly accustomed to.

She didn't need to dress more than the light clothes she wore, didn't need to put shoes on lest she draw too much attention.

Maya had told her exactly where to go, exactly what code to use. She'd been brief, barely an unneeded word shared between them in the few hushed conversations they had shared over the radio.

There'd be time to get to know the other woman, ask her the why of her actions. But that time was not in that moment.

And so Anya slipped out of her room, across her shoulders a rather weathered and worn blanket that could in some way make it more believable that she was simply wandering Mount Weather unable to sleep in case she was caught.

She moved quickly, quietly, each step she took consciously placed on the ground as she moved past door after door of closed sleeping quarters, many of them occupied by those from the Ark who had taken residence inside Mount Weather. But she stopped in front of Octavia's, she looked over her shoulder and she nocked just once.

Octavia's door opened barely a second later.

"It's time?" Octavia asked, her voice a whisper.

"Yes," and Anya nodded before she began to turn to leave. "Lose the shoes," she added quickly as she noticed Octavia was wearing boots.

And with that she began moving away.

Octavia caught up to her quickly, the girls bare feet making only a slight slapping sound against the concrete underfoot. Anya was thankful she had at least worn socks, the cold of Mount Weather not so pleasant at the hour.

They moved in silence as they continued to move from the sleeping quarters, down hallway after hallway, the memorised route to the stairway one that she and Maya had discussed would make it look like they simply wandered about aimlessly, without any real destination in mind.

To her credit Octavia didn't make much noise, didn't ask questions, simply fell into step beside her as they continued to wend their way through the halls. At times Anya could feel the younger girl stiffen at any little sound that made it their way, nerves a little more frayed than hers.

Part of Anya didn't expect to bump into anyone, part of her expected to turn any given corner to find armed guards ready for them, with the words we've been watching you the last thing they'd both hear before being shot.

It only took them another few minutes before they came to the emergency exit that led to a stairwell that could take them deeper into Mount Weather, or further up into the upper levels of the facility and to wherever the air filtration units were located.

"Is this it?" Octavia asked quietly as she came to stand next to her, gaze moving from the door then quickly past them as if she were checking for the approach of anyone else. "I thought it would be harder getting access to restricted areas than this."

"They don't have the people to guard every entrance," Anya whispered as she pushed open the door only to wince just a bit as it made a slightly too loud sound for her comfort. "And if whatever Lexa's doing they won't be looking inside too hard at the moment— I hope."

Octavia nodded before she slipped through the door. Anya was quick to follow and she glanced just once more over her shoulder. There was no going back now, if someone saw them from this point forward she knew they'd have no excuse that would sound believable.

"Let's be quick," Anya said. "Get in, see whatever they're doing with our own eyes then get out. We'll figure out our next steps after."

The journey down into the depths of Mount Weather seemed to last a lot longer than it should. Each step they took down the stairwell echoed out around them, and though Anya knew they probably wouldn't be heard, she couldn't help but feel on edge and more and more nervous as the seconds ticked by.

Maya had told her there were restricted medical areas that her people used to bleed the grounders, ones that were out of sight, out of mind of many of the people who called Mount Weather home. Anya didn't even know if Kane would believe her, if he'd even consider leaving Mount Weather behind in some way. But again, that was a problem for another day.

Before too long that came to a door, an access panel glowing in the dimmed light. A small frosted window was sat in the centre of the door and though Anya could see only an odd shape or two, she was fairly confident there weren't other people on the other side.

"Are you ready?" she asked Octavia, her hand already beginning to reach out for the access pad, the code Maya had given her quickly coming to mind. "We won't have long," she said. "If they're monitoring internal sensors— if they're even working, they'll know someone has accessed this area. We get in, see what we can then we get out. If we're lucky they won't notice."

Octavia took in a deep breath as she looked back the way they had come, up the stairs that reached high above them and she nodded to herself.

"Let's do it."

Anya didn't know what to expect once she punched in the code and stepped through the threshold. Perhaps a pristine white hallway, some kind of advanced machinery immediately present. Maybe even lab technicians looking up in confusion as they entered.

But none of that was there to greet her.

Instead, the same concrete hallway stretched out before them, its design, construction, look just the same as any hallway they had seen in Mount Weather so far. And yet there was a difference. Something she couldn't quite place at first. But as they slowly walked down the hallway, she began to realise there was a barely audible hum, a constant noise that was only just noticeable if she strained her ears. She recognised it for machinery, something that was constantly working.

"You can hear that, can't you?" Octavia whispered as she walked beside her, footsteps quiet yet too loud as they moved, one after the other.

"I can," Anya said, her gaze snapping to the first of many a door recessed into the hallway to their right, whatever illumination there was from the inside spilling out through the crack at the bottom of the door.

Anya's heart was racing as she began to walk more assuredly. She had no desire to take her time, to hang around in case they were discovered. But she didn't want to run, didn't want to make more noise than they needed to.

She didn't entirely know what to expect as she peered through the window of first door. Inside was a small room, not much bigger than any of quarters on the Ark. What appeared to be a small bed was placed in one corner, a chair and desk in another. Octavia peered inside, too, she hummed something that sounded a touch disappointed before she stepped back and began moving towards the next.

They checked each and every single room they came across, but each one was empty and seemed to lack any sign that people had even used them.

"There's nothing here," Octavia whispered as they stepped back from the last door.

"No," Anya shook her head and sighed as she began to move towards the end of the hallway. "Come on. I think what we're looking for is down there," she pointed to the last door that sat proudly at the end of the hallway, its place just a little foreboding given the circumstances.

"Maya didn't tell us the layout, did she?" Octavia whispered.

"No," Again Anya shook her head in whatever attempt to steady her thoughts. "She didn't have time to, or she forgot," and Anya chewed her lip.

"Or she purposely didn't tell us," Octavia challenged, and this time her voice was a little firmer.

Anya didn't respond to that, in part because she didn't know what to say. But mostly because she was starting to doubt, just a little. Maybe it was her own fault that she had expected to find answers immediately, maybe she had expected to see proof so openly laid out for them to see that she wouldn't need to argue her case with such strong evidence. And yet so far nothing had been revealed to either of them.

"Do you have the code?" Octavia asked and she gestured to the display.

"I hope so," Anya reached out and began to enter the same code Maya had given her. She grit her teeth as she waited for the display to flash green, each passing moment only adding to the anxiety she felt building. Green. "There. Come on," she pushed open the door and slipped inside the next room, Octavia quick to fall into step beside her.

Anya peered over their backs at the way they had come, half to check to make sure no one was secretly following them, half to give her any reason to turn back, to ignore whatever doubts she could feel building.

"Ah," Octavia made an odd noise behind her. "Anya, what is this?"

Anya turned to face the room they had entered. The floor, the walls, the ceiling was all still concrete. But this time there were lines painted on the ground, markings that seemed to indicate gathering points. Words and warnings were written across others in bold letters, their bright yellow a clear indication that something happened in the room. But Anya followed Octavia's outstretched arm to find a large stainless steel table was set against the far wall.

"What the fuck," Octavia whispered as she stepped forward slowly, and Anya couldn't blame her.

What appeared to be chains and metal collars were neatly laid out atop the table, each one seemingly well looked after, well maintained. It took Anya a second to recognise what the other instruments were that adorned the table, but as they both continued to approach she found herself recognising the sharp and wicked edges of blades, knives, scalpels, other things that could only be used to cut, slice into, dissect and open flesh with ease and clinical uncaring precision.

"Come on, Octavia," Anya said, her own voice now a whisper as she looked around the room before her gaze settled on a set of double doors on the far end of the room.

She didn't wait for Octavia to respond as she made her way across whatever room it was they had entered. Her skin crawled mostly due to the absence of whatever was experimented on, whatever was kept chained.

As she approached the last set of double doors every fibre in her body was telling her in that moment that something a little more sinister took place beyond, something she wouldn't be able to forget. She thought it partly due to the things Lexa and Maya had told her, she thought it partly because her imagination was beginning to run wild. And she thought it mostly because h—

She gasped.

She recoiled, flinched back in shock.

Anya took a step back from the window she had come to, she took a step back from the doors that separated them from the beyond.

"Oh my god," Octavia's voice was hoarse, choked, full of fear and surprise and horror as she came to stand behind her, their breaths fogging the glass, obscuring for too little time what lay in front of them.

"We need to leave," Anya hissed. "Now."

Lexa had long since regretted ever suggesting and then volunteering for the distraction. Her body hurt in more ways than she could imagine. Each step she took sent a wave of pain through her that made her want to retch, fall to the ground and curl up into a ball and die. Her eyes had stopped shedding tears what seemed like hours ago, her body no longer able to produce any kind of tears. And she didn't think Bellamy in any better a shape than her.

Or maybe he was. He at least didn't have an arrow sticking out of his thigh. She should at least be thankful for whatever medicine they had been given that helped to numb the pain enough that they could move. But still, pain was ever present.

They had been walking for what seemed like hours. The warriors Clarke had sent with them helping to carry her as far as they could before they faded into the forest to leave them alone. The only instructions being that when they heard the horn blowing was when they were to start firing the gun into the trees around them.

"Do you need a break?" Bellamy's voice sounded hoarse as he came to an awkward stumbling stop. "I do."

Lexa didn't say anything other than a noncommittal grunt as Bellamy helped her lean against a tree, any other position too painful for her to get in.

She winced in part, half from her own, and half at the way the blood had covered the lower part of Bellamy's face and had dripped down onto his shirt, the split lip and the broken nose he clearly received not at all doing him any favours.

"At least this looks real," Lexa said, and she almost gestured between them before she caught herself lest her ribs protest.

"Yeah," and Bellamy grimaced as he looked down at the arrow sticking out of her thigh. "How is that?"

"Not bad," Lexa said. And it wasn't a lie. Mostly because she had expected it to hurt far more than it did. But she thought her body had some how grown accustomed to the pain, had somehow managed to embrace it and accept it for the time being. Maybe the adrenaline had simply not worn off yet, or maybe the medicine had been far stronger than she had anticipated. "Could be worse."

"I hope Anya's getting the information she needs," Bellamy said and he looked up into the slivers of the night's sky they could see overhead. "And Octavia," he winced.

"They'll get the job done," Lexa said and she coughed before grimacing, her face pulling into something brutal as her body screamed for her not to do whatever it was that caused her discomfort.

"If you had told me a year ago that all this—" Bellamy winced, paused and seemed to struggle to catch his breath. "That any of this would happen, I don't think I'd have believed you."

Lexa knew what he meant. So many things had been shaken, so many beliefs and assumptions had been shattered and she didn't know how to make sense of them. Not in any way that could make sense. Not for the first time she found her thoughts turning to Clarke, to the woman who seemed to alien, so strange, so unlike anything she could ever have imagined.

"What do you think she is?" Bellamy asked, and he didn't need to elaborate for Lexa to know what he meant.

"I—" she paused, in part because she didn't know how to answer, in part because she didn't know if the warriors escorting them would be close enough to hear. "I don't know," she said. It was an honest answer. "She's human," a halfhearted shrug, small enough not to set her body more on fire than it already was.

"I bounce between an alien," Bellamy said, and she knew he half joked. "And some kind of medical experiment years ago gone wrong."

She didn't answer right away for the simple fact that part of her felt ill-put talking about Clarke that way. It surprised her that she felt the way she did, that she seemed to want to protect Clarke's honour — not that the woman's honour needed any protecting. But still, something deep inside Lexa told her to change the topic.

"She's kept us alive when she could have just easily killed us."

Bellamy frowned in thought, "you've kept us alive," he countered. "You convinced her that we could be helpful."

"She sees the benefit in making allies," Lexa countered, her thoughts turning to Maya, to the things they had shared.

"I guess so," Bellamy's voice seemed tired, not as firm and strong as it had been before the beating.

"How are you holding up?" Lexa winced as she instinctively gestured towards Bellamy, her at-the-minimum cracked rib or two protesting the motion.

"Been better."

Lexa nodded only to wince as more pain and aches began to protest—

A horn echoed out somewhere in the distance. It startled them both and Lexa gasped out in pain as pain splintered through her side. She tried to fight the urge to collapse, to cry and she forced herself to begin moving. Bellamy had the same idea, he reached for her to help support her weight and she saw him reaching for the rifle slung over his shoulder.

"I guess this is it," Bellamy whispered as he took hold of it in his free hand, thumb already finding purchase on its safety catch. "It's going to be loud."

Lexa muttered something more sound than word as she accepted the fact that her ears were going to be ringing, that her hearing was going to be deafened.

"Do it."

And so Bellamy pointed the rifle somewhere into the forest.

And then he fired.

Lexa lost count of how many times Bellamy fired into the trees. She hoped he hadn't hit any of the warriors who had been keeping watch over them and she hoped this had all been for something. They began to move, their pace slowed by their injuries, the image they must have presented more realistic than she would like.

But Lexa pushed every and all thought aside as they continued to stumble through the forests, every now and then Bellamy turning to fire behind them and she hoped that it seemed as though they were running, trying to escape, trying to get away, trying to keep their captors clear of them.

And then she heard it

There was a distinct click of of something mechanical, something close by. Bellamy heard it too for he stopped, managed to catch her from falling to her knees. Lexa looked up, she looked around in search of what had made the sound.

"Don't. Move," the voice sounded muffled, as if it were behind a mask, a face shield, a helmet.

Lexa's head snapped to the sound and she saw three figures slowly moving out of the forest, their bodies illuminated by the moonlight. One of them held a rifle in their hands, the barrel pointed squarely towards them. The second moved away, head seemingly swivelling to take in the surrounding forest, whoever was behind the gas mask unrecognisable.

But the one who had spoken stepped forward slowly, head tilted to the side. Lexa couldn't see their eyes, couldn't make out any features past the gas mask and the green suit, and for a brief moment to wondered why these were three were covered when Carl hadn't been.

"Who are you?" the first one spoke.

"We don't have time for this," Bellamy grunted out as his body began to sag under Lexa's supported weight. "We only just got away from those savages," he spat the words with enough venom that Lexa knew he was channeling the pain from the beating into the conversation. "They caught us. We played along and we got away."

"It's them," the first figure said as they lowered the rifle slightly. "Bellamy and Lexa. The volunteers that were kidnapped."

"Yeah," Lexa winced. "We—"

"We thought you were dead," the second figure said from somewhere behind them.

"We will be if you don't help us," Bellamy hissed. "If you haven't noticed we had to shoot them away."

"That explains them ambushing us earlier," the second figure said to the others.

"Come with us," the third figure's voice sounded less guarded as they stepped forward, an arm held out in an apparent offer to help support Lexa's weight.

"Thanks—" Lexa winced as her weight shifted.

"Jesus," the figure said as she must have come into better view. "They really beat you," there was a pause and Lexa could see that their gaze settled on the arrow protruding from her leg. "How are you still walking?" it didn't sound suspicious, but Lexa didn't like the direction the conversation was going. "There's no wa—"

And it happened fast.

One moment Lexa's weight was supported by the figure, and then the next they were gone.

It took her a second to realise that something had slammed them onto the ground forcefully, it took her another to recognise that the object that protruded from their head was a battle axe, some wicked, sharp, small enough to be thrown, heavy enough to crush and maim with little effort.

And then the shooting started.

The two other figures began firing into the forest around them, Bellamy yelped in shock and began to move, Lexa once more supported by him. One of the figures ducked what seemed to be an arrow before shouting at them, gesturing for them to follow. The remaining continued to fire wildly, blindly into the forest in the hopes of hitting whoever had killed their friend. Flashes of light, flashes of pain and arrows and spears and any other object that could kill flew through the air.

Lexa tried to ignore, she tried to fight the urge to do something stupid. Her heart beat, her eyes watered, each motion she made caused her more and more and more pain until she couldn't take it, until she couldn't stand, could't move forward, couldn't do anything as her ears rung, her hearing seemed muted, her mind unable to focus on the plan, on the fact she needed to somehow get away with it being suspicious, without it being obviou—

Bellamy stumbled, he tripped, he fell to the ground. Lexa toppled down with him and she shouted out in pain. One of the Mountain Men dashed forward, grabbed her by the upper arm and began to yank her forward and onto her feet. Bellamy quick to scramble back onto his.

Lexa was about to thank them, about to show some kind of gratitude. But she didn't as an arrow flashed forward, hit the person in the shoulder and spun them around and away from her. But it didn't kill them, didn't stop them. They cursed, shouted out in pain and began to fire their rifle in the direction the arrow had come. For a second, for the briefest of moments, through the cacophony of sound Lexa almost heard someone shout out in pain from somewhere in the forest, as if they had been hit by a bullet. But she discarded that thought, she discarded the worry—

"Move!" is was shouted so loudly that Lexa didn't realise it was the injured Mountain Man screaming into her ear, arm hanging low, the arrow protruding from their shoulder.

All thoughts of the plan began to slip her mind as adrenaline and shock and fear truly began to take hold. An arrow slammed into the ground where she had been just moments ago. Another arrow seemed to nick Bellamy's forehead and cut him open.

"Move!" it came once more, "Now!"

Lexa began to move as fast as she could, as hard as she could despite each and every injury that littered her body as gunshots screamed out all around her, as dust was kicked up, splattered into the air. Leaves and branches and dirt hurricaned around her with so much fury that it blinded her vision, hid from her sight and sound until all that was left was instinct, fear, pain and—

And nothing.

Or something.

Something felt different in that very moment and she couldn't quite place it.

She glanced over to find Bellamy moving under his own power, the adrenaline and real fear they all were experiencing enough to drive him forward in the direction the Mountain Men urged. She looked at the Mountain Man who had been giving them covering fire, who was now using a tree as cover as they continued to fire into the forest behind them. And then she looked to the one who had been helping her, had been urging her forward.

The woman, she now realised, stared at her in shock and surprise, her eyes the only thing Lexa could identify through the gas mask. It took her a second to realise the woman looked down, not at her face, not into her eyes in some kind of form of communication, but lower, down at her chest.

And then Lexa felt it.

It seemed to burn at first, something deep, as if a fire had been started in the very core of her heart.

Time seemed to slow as Lexa looked down at her chest, at where the burning in her heart seemed to be.

And she was sure something was different, something was strange, unfamiliar to her. But her vision wasn't so clear in that moment, wasn't so focused. And it took her a moment too long to realise that what she gazed upon was an arrow head protruding from her chest, its tip wicked and sharp and dripping with her blood.

Lexa had only enough time to blink once, twice, enough that she looked back into the woman's eyes to see a strange sense of acceptance before the woman pushed her aside and reach for Bellamy, the motion oddly conjuring within Lexa the image of a child having discarded a broken thing of old whenever they no longer had a use for it.

Lexa fell face first into the dirt, her vision clouding over, her heart beating more and more erratically as it slowed, as it skipped a beat or two.

And then her heart stilled.

And so too did Lexa's thoughts.