Tsing stood rooted to the spot, her eyes wide as she stared at the scene in front of her. Chris lay on the ground, his head twisted back at an unnatural angle as blood spilled from a gruesome gash that had opened his throat to the air. Bubbles and bile and froth gurgled out of the wound as his hands clasped and twitched at his throat. Blood spilled from his mouth, it pooled on the floor around him and his last gargled breaths filled the air.

Her gaze snapped to the figure who stood in front of her though and her heart froze, her mind came to a screeching halt and she didn't know what to do, didn't know what to think or even how to think.

Their test subject stood in front of her as if it were a demon, something from a nightmare and an apparition from a tale told to children eons ago. A splattering of red blood speckled its face, some of it ran down a pale grey neck and seeped into the thin hospital gown.

"Oh my god."

Tsing's voice was hoarse, shocked, it didn't even sound like her own voice to her ears as she took a step back, fear beginning to spike.

Her gaze flicked to Chris one last time as she saw him take in a single wheezed, gurgled breath, blood spat out from his windpipe and then his body began to convulse and twitch in its last throes of life before his body stilled.

"I—" Tsing's voice was quiet, her mouth dry as the subject took a step forward.

In one hand was held a long thin blade. Black dripped from the tip that was levelled at her chest. From the outstretched arm that was pointed at her dripped blood, it dripped onto the floor, seeped down the gown as if the subject had just emerged from a pool of obsidian oil. The other arm was held close to their side, that too was drenched in black blood, the fingers of that hand twitched and she could almost see a deep gash across its wrist that seemed to slowly be closing by itself.

Tsing didn't realise she had been backing up until the hard edge of the office desk hit her lower back and she almost stumbled before catching herself, her hand coming to rest behind herself on the table's edge as she found purchase.

There was a hate in the creature's eyes that looked at her. There was a deranged sneer upon dark lips that exposed grey gums. Its teeth seemed to glow in the harsh neon light and its face was contorted into something grotesque, something foul and vile as it slowly began to stalk towards her.

But Tsing hadn't lived this long on the ground, she hadn't survived all she had to go down cowering like a helpless child. There was indignation, too, something full of anger in her heart as she found her own face contorting something close to anger.

"You fucking monster!" Tsing screamed out at the creature before she glanced over her shoulder just quickly enough to spy a scalpel, her hand snatched out, fingers snared the handle as she turned back to face the creature, as she prepared to lunge, stab it, fight, kill the beast before it had a chance to regain any kind of composure in its clearly deranged sta—

Tsing coughed, she spluttered as her throat seemed to constrict.

She stumbled back a fraction as she suddenly felt dizzy, as she suddenly felt lightheaded.

She tried to speak, she tried to say something, but for some reason all that came out was a gargled mess and the strange urge to spit, to cough to clear her thr—

Her chest seized, she doubled over a fraction and her hand came up to her neck instinctively. She stared in horror at her hand as it came away covered in blood, she stared in horror as her legs wobbled, as she began to fall forward as she felt warmth wash down her chin, down her throat, as she tasted iron on her tongue that didn't quite move the way it should.

She tried to speak again yet nothing but a wheezed, ragged sound came from her mouth as she fell, as she stumbled forward.

The muscles in her neck didn't quite hold her head up the way she was used to, her eyes didn't quite seem to be able to focus on anything like they used to.

She stared at the creature who now knelt in front of her and it surprised Tsing to realise that she had somehow come to her own knees in a pool of her own blood.

Once more her hand came up to her throat but she recoiled, flinched away as her fingertips felt something wet, something loose, something warm and moist and fleshy.

The creature looked at her with a smile then and Tsing recoiled, tried to pull away only to find that strong hands clasped her shoulder, kept her rooted to the spot.

"Look," the creature said quietly and Tsing's eyes widened in horror as the creature pulled a stainless steel tray from the desk, held it up to her so she could see herself in the reflection.

What she saw made her heart seize, it made her mind scream out, it made her throat scream out a gargled mess of froth, blood and bubbled detritus.

The reflection showed her neck opened from one side to the other. Blood spilled out from the slash, her head hung to the side as if the muscles weren't strong enough to hold it up properly. She could see what she thought was a windpipe though it was hard to make out the anatomy past the bubbled blood spluttering out from a gaping hole that she realised was her windpipe. Or what was left of it.

Her lips began to slacken, her mouth seemed to be losing any and all control and she continued to look at her reflection as the muscles in her face began to relax. One of her eyes began to wander as if even those muscles that controlled it had begun to lose control.

Harsh fingers gripped into her hair, pulled her head up and then there was the strangest feeling as she distinctly felt something pull through her neck for the briefest of moments before there was a subtle pop.

And then Tsing felt weightless, dizzy, as if her entire world was turned upside down.

Though her vision was beginning to fade, though she couldn't feel her body anymore, she thought she looked down at it as it lay twitching on the floor. But it was strange.

So strange.

Where she was sure a head should be was nothing but a disgustingly grotesque stump of flesh, muscle, sinew, and bile. Her whole world seemed to swing around as if she was stuck on a swing being pushed and thrown and swung without care, without worry.

All Tsing felt then was an odd thump as her head hit the ground, as it rolled across the blood covered tile before it came to a stop against something she thought she should have been able to feel.

And so the last horrid thing Tsing laid her eyes upon before consciousness left her mind was her headless body as it twitched and spat out the last of her blood from where her head used to be.

Despite the flurry of activity that had spurred on their journey to one of many electrical rooms in Mount Weather Octavia now found it far too quiet for her liking.

She stood staring at Raven who knelt down on the ground, an old metal cantilever tool box open by her side, a small mess of tools piled within that she had been rummaging through every now and then as she worked on whatever it was she was working on.

Bellamy stood at the far end of the room where he looked out at the second entrance, his body tense as he seemed prepared for the worst to happen.

Octavia began going over the plan in her head for the umpteenth time. She knew they needed to interrupt the air scrubbers in whatever way they could. She knew that if successful they'd be able to buy Anya and Kane enough time to get to whoever was trapped and free them. And she knew it could cause mayhem inside Mount Weather, cause enough confusion to mask their trail. At least for a little bit.

But still, she couldn't help but to feel like things were going too well for them in that very moment.

"Do you know what you're doing?" Octavia asked Raven.

"Sort of," Raven said without turning to look at her, shoulder shrugging, the motion apologetic. "The systems are similar enough to the Ark's, but still, there's little differences. Plus I don't want to do anything permanent. That could cause bigger issues than we want."

"I wonder how everything's going outside," Bellamy's voice came from the other side of the dark room.

"Me too," Octavia said and she began to think about Lexa.

Though she hadn't ever met the woman, mostly because she had lived most of her life hidden away under the floor, she knew of Lexa, in part because most people knew who each station chief was. But she found herself wondering how close Anya and Lexa had been, whether they had grown up together, gone through education and duty selection together. Maybe she'd get a chance to know her better.

"Bellamy," Raven's voice cut into her thoughts. "I need you to hold this up and out of the way," and Octavia watched as Raven gestured to what seemed like a rather heavy set of coils that blocked her view. "Octavia, you stay there and keep a look out."

Octavia simply nodded her head and turned her attention back to her set of doors as she carefully positioned herself in the hopes that she wouldn't be seen before seeing anyone approaching.

"There," Raven's voice sounded behind her.

She heard Bellamy grunt, she heard Raven curse quietly and then the sound of things being pried and prodded.

"Once I'm done," Raven paused for a moment before continuing. "We'll need to get out of here quickly. They'll get an alarm that something is wrong and they'll know exactly where it's coming from."

"And if we're caught anywhere near here that's it for us," Bellamy said.

"Yep," Raven said. "Ok, I'm almost done."

Octavia looked over at Raven to find her with what appeared to be half her torso buried under wires and mechanical components she couldn't identify.

"Got it," Bellamy said and he lifted the coils higher in an attempt to give Raven some more room to move free when needed.

"Once we're done we move quick," Raven said, her voice now a little strained as she seemed to be adding the final touches to whatever engineering wizardry she had concocted. "And we're leaving through the other door. I don't want people to notice us coming to and leaving from the same place and by the same route."

Octavia nodded her head. It made sense, but Raven being smart and making sense probably shouldn't surprise her given the woman's apparent skills.

And so Octavia glanced out the door's window one last time to make sure no one was coming before she turned and began walking to the door Bellamy had initially been guardin—

There was a click. Something deafening and sudden and then the lights to the electrical room went out.

"Tell me what was you?" Octavia whispered as she stopped dead in her tracks, her vision taking a moment to adjust to the darkness, the only light illuminating the room coming from the blinking panels that dotted the room's interior.

"No," Raven whispered as she came to stand. "That wasn't me—"

"You really think we didn't have security systems in place?"

"What the fuck?" Octavia cursed as she looked up at where the voice came from.

"You tripped our sensors as soon as you walked in here."

"Shit," Raven said. "You think they can hear us?"

"Yes."

Well, Octavia thought. That's not good.

Lexa ran fast, she stayed low to the ground and she hoped she had assumed correctly. If she was wrong then she expected to be met with a hail of bullets and this time there would be no Clarke to bring her back from whatever death she had almost been given.

But no bullets came, no trap seemed to have been laid and ran she did.

The warriors with her ran, each one faster, more quiet than her. But she ignored that as she darted across the open ground. She glanced at the closest camera and though she didn't take the time to really take in what she saw, she was almost certain it didn't seem active.

And then she came to a stop on the other side of the rocky clearing. The concrete building's walls were rough, weathered from years in the elements with little upkeep. Moss and cracks coloured the walls and gave it an almost charming appearance. But all that was dampened by the now loud sound of the dam that roared out around them.

"This way," Maya's voice cut through the noise and Lexa turned to find Maya already moving along the wall as she began heading towards the rear of the building.

It didn't surprise Lexa to find that the building itself seemed like more of an entrance or beginning of a more complex structure that descended below ground. It made sense given the fact Mount Weather had been built to withstand nuclear explosions. Perhaps they should have anticipated survivors managing to stay alive underground when they were on the Ark. Maybe they should have tried to make contact with them in a more concerted manner years ago.

But that was all in the past now and she didn't think there was anything left for her people to do to change the trajectory of all their lives.

"Here," and Lexa came to a stop.

There was a rusted set of metal doors that was just large enough for someone to duck through. Their frame recessed into the bottom of the wall where it met the ground and Lexa couldn't help but to think the image so fitting of an entrance to a basement that a serial killer had claimed as their lair in a horror movie of old.

"This is open?" Lexa asked quietly as she knelt down and tried the rusted handle.

"It should be," Maya said with a frown. "It's an emergency exit so it's supposed to be always open."

"Here," Tobias said quietly as he pushed Lexa aside far more gently than she would have expected a man of his stature to be capable of.

Lexa watched as Tobias grasp the handle in his hand, braced his legs against the bottom of the wall and then he pulled.

There was a grunt of exertion from the man, a groaning of metal against metal as the rusted hinges protested the assault and then there was a quiet pop.

The door opened with an annoyingly loud grinding sound that was only partly dampened by the roaring of the dam. Lexa winced, mostly because the sound reminded her of fingers on a chalk board and then she peered inside.

"A ladder," Maya said. "Straight down."

Lexa took in a steadying breath as she looked around at the warriors who gathered around her.

"So the first part of the plan's worked so far," she said. "But be ready for anything."

Tobias nodded his head, others seemed to listen to her with a little more intent now that her assumption of the cameras proved correct.

"We're taking the dam one way or the other," Lexa continued. "But if we can secure it before they lock us out then we'll have leverage, we'll have a real advantage over the Mountain Men."

She glanced once at Maya to find her nodding, too, the woman clearly having made her mind up about what needed to be done.

"Everything will be ok," Lexa said quietly to her as she reached out and squeezed her shoulder. "We've got this."

Maya returned her gesture of reassurance with a determined smile.

"I'm good."

Lexa nodded again.

"Who's a quick shot?" she asked as she looked at the warriors around her.

"I am," one woman said.

"As am I," another man added.

"Ok," Lexa looked at both of them as a plan started to come together in her mind. "Maya, you'll go down first, lead the way," she looked at the warriors. "But you two…"

"Jasp," the woman offered her name. "He is Serka."

"Jasp and Serka, you'll be right behind Maya. You need to kill anyone you see before they can raise any alarms," and Lexa would consider the fact that she could talk about people being killed so easily at another time. "Everyone else needs to be ready for anything, reapers, more Mountain Men reinforcements."

"Some of us will stay outside," Tobias said quietly. "If reinforcements come we will attempt to slow them down."

Lexa nodded her head once more as she found her mind being made up.

"Ok," she smiled a determined smile as she looked all those around her in the eyes. "Let's do this."

Under flickering neon light and with the echo of footsteps Anya walked down the corridor. Both her hands were stuffed into the pockets of the light jacket she wore, perhaps in an attempt to hide the fact they were both shaking just a little. She had noticed it not too long ago. A number of Mount Weather's security detail had disappeared, most probably wouldn't have noticed unless they had been paying attention. But she had. And it was all she needed to know that she needed to make a move. They had crossed paths with Raven, Octavia and Bellamy not too long ago as they had also seemed to sense that the time to strike had come.

And so Kane walked beside her, his gaze settled down on the ground, maybe in an attempt to avoid eye contact lest they draw too much attention to themselves. Anya worried her lip as they continued to walk, her mind already turning over whatever loose plan they had agreed upon with Raven.

She hoped the other woman, Octavia and Bellamy would all be able to make the distraction work, would be able to do something to trigger an alarm in Mount Weather's systems to give them enough time to get in and out of the quarantine facility with their freed captive.

It wasn't even that she was worried about getting there, it wasn't that she was worried that they wouldn't be able to open the doors. They had been down there twice already now. But this time there was so much more relying on their success that Anya felt more than worried, more than stressed about whatever could go wrong.

But she shook her head, tried not to let the things she couldn't control make her fret, make her distracted. It would do no one any good.

It didn't take them long to make it to the dimly lit access stairwell nor did it take them too long to descend deeper into the Mountain. Though with each step Anya took she felt the pressure building. Part of her was sure that at any moment Mount Weather security would spring upon them, catch them where they shouldn't be and put them up against a wall.

But none of that came.

And that made her worried.

Or maybe it shouldn't. Maybe Mount Weather had truly sent out so many of their forces that internal security had become too soft.

"Almost there," Kane whispered as he paused and looked back up the way they had come. "Who exactly are we freeing?" and he continued beside her.

"I'm not sure," Anya said and she actually began trying to think about who it was. The captive she had seen with her own eyes had seemed more skeletal than person, far less able to do any kind of damage that would be needed. But Lexa had been sure in what she had said.

And Anya trusted her. That much was certain.

It only took a few moments longer before they came to the very same set of locked doors she had stood in front of twice before. That same glowing access panel and that same frosted window dominated her vision. Anya looked back behind them half expecting someone with a gun to emerge from the shadows and shoot them dead.

Even Kane seemed to do the same.

But none of that came to pass.

"Here we go," Anya whispered as she moved towards the access panel and keyed in the code.

The door clicked open and they both stepped inside quickly. That same hallways stretched out in front of her, it brought a shiver down her spine and she tried to steady her breathing as they began to make the quick walk towards the other end of the hallway and to the room with markings across the floor.

Once more they entered, this time a little quickly, and though the sight of the medical instruments used to cut and slice people apart was familiar, it still made her recoil.

"Where is this person?" Kane whispered.

"I'm assuming there," Anya said as she began walking to the last set of doors.

And so Anya took in a deep breath as she approached the last set of doors that hid the cages upon cages she had seen before, that hid the horrors that she had seen and she wondered if she was prepared to see whatever it was that she knew to be happening.

Time seemed to slow as she took step after step, the sound echoing out around them a little too loudly for her comfort. Even Kane seemed reluctant to approach, to make more noise than required but he moved forward too.

As they neared the last set of doors more and more of the room's interior became visible. She began to see those same cages, she began to see those same reclined medical chairs that had once held what could only be described as a living corpse.

And then they stopped.

Anya reached out, her fingers shaking slightly as she began to push open the door. Kane nodded at her to continue as he took in a steadying breath and got into something close to a crouched stance as if he was preparing to charge inside, attack whoever was in there if they neede—

The doors swung open and Anya gasped.

The first thing Anya saw was blood. Blood splattered across a chair with broken restraints. Blood pooled on the floor and seemed to have been flung and spurted across almost every surface within reach of that chair.

The next thing Anya saw was a person's body that lay next to the chair. Their clothed chest was covered in blood, head twisted grotesquely, throat opened up by some kind of blade that exposed far more of the person's anatomy than Anya would have liked.

"Jesus," Kane's voice was hoarse as he clearly took in everything he saw.

But Anya recoiled at the next thing her gaze settled upon. And it was a head, lifeless eyes stared up at the ceiling, mouth opened in something resembling shock, lips slackened and their tongue half hanging out in a grotesque, in human way.

"That's the doctor," Kane whispered. "Tsing."

Anya's vision settled next on Tsing's headless body that lay an arm's length away, the violence of her decapitation leaving it twisted and positioned uncomfortably where it lay on the ground.

But then Anya saw it.

A figure stood in the shadows, black dripped from their flesh, their golden hair a mottled dark grey mess of black and dripped and scarred down their body in the harsh neon from overhead light.

Eyes stared at them both with something between caution, hate, fury, eagerness to kill and confidence in purpose.

At first Anya didn't even think she saw properly until the figure slowly stepped out of the shadows to reveal pale grey flesh beneath the black that covered their body. A blade was clutched each hand, though one hand seemingly twitched a little.

It took Anya a moment longer to realise that the black that covered this person, this woman, was blood. That what she saw lined up exactly with everything Lexa had been able to convey to her over their few conversations they had been able to have.

And yet it made Anya's stomach twist, it made her mind recoil and it made her feel sick, disgusted, so many things she couldn't quite put to word or to thought.

"Are you friend?" the figure said quietly. "Or are you foe?"

Anya swallowed the lump in her throat as she glanced at Kane before back to the figure.

"Lexa sent us."