Lightning Only Strikes Once - Clexa

Chapter 46: To Bring a Gun To a Knife Fight

It worked quite well as a way to get them all there, Lexa thinks – though unfortunately with two additions. She did not particularly want Jaha to follow his son, or Finn to follow Raven, but that is the situation and she will have to work with it.

"What is the problem, Heda?" Indra says, face sharp.

"Gustus sent a message," Lexa says bluntly. "The Azgeda are working with the Maunon."

Anya blinks, taken aback. "That is not possible," she says, apparently too shocked to consider her words. Then she flushes. "Moba, Heda. I know you wouldn't -"

"Lexa knows it wasn't an insult," Raven says impatiently. Then she flushes just as Anya did a second ago. "I mean, the Commander knows."

"It is fine," Lexa says, giving a wave of her hand. "Call me what you wish." This is hardly the time to stand on ceremony.

"Oh, you don't want to give her that kind of choice," Wells says, managing a wry smile despite the nervousness obvious in his expression. "Not a good idea."

Anya succeeds in giving him a smile in return, and then looks at Lexa. "The Azgeda would not work with the Maunon. They could not. It goes against every belief they possess, to aid the Mountain Men."

Lexa shrugs. "I am aware," she says, a little coldly. Inside she is cursing herself. She thought the same. She was complacent. And by being complacent, she has risked them all. "But that is the message that Gustus sent. I trust him."

Indra growls. "Filthy natrona," she spits. "We should kill them all."

"Well, we can't," Clarke says.

"Yes, we can," Indra retorts. "We have enough people."

"I do not wish them dead," Lexa says flatly. "They have information we require – about Nia, about the Mountain."

"We'll have to surprise them, incapacitate as many as possible and take out the ones we can't," Clarke says. "They might have a radio, but we don't know who has it, so we'll need to take them out pretty fast as well."

Raven curses suddenly. "Shit. Shit! I noticed that the radio was getting weird static on one frequency but I thought it was just one of the Ark's radios malfunctioning. This is all my fault."

"Don't be a branwada, of course it's not," Anya snaps.

"Don't call me an idiot," Raven hisses.

"Then don't be one!" Anya retorts. "You have been building impossible inventions, grenades and explosives and something called an EMP, while spending hours with the radio, in addition to stripping each station of things you believe your people might require. No one has slept less than you these past weeks. None of us expect you to find something that cannot be sensed on top of all these tasks."

Lexa feels guilty for a second – she had not realised how much Raven had been working. Now she recalls Raven's quick, almost desperate intoxication with the moonshine, and how late Raven came to sleep in the tent the previous night. Looking at her now, she can see Raven is tired, dark shadows under her eyes like the ones under Lexa's own. Though hers at least are hidden by warpaint.

The night they all drank together, Wells told her of a commander who wore red, so that no one could see him bleed. Perhaps the original Heda began wearing warpaint like this so no one could ever see she was exhausted.

"Anya is correct," Lexa says firmly. "The fault is not yours, Raven kom Skaikru, but mine. I believe we should -"

"Agzeda," Jaha says, butting in. "They're the ones with scars?"