The 100 One Shots

Command and Control(Clexa)

"They offered me a deal. To free my people inside the mountain, along with a promise to take no more. I told them yes." Clarke is still, silent, not understanding. If Lexa wasn't still leading her people into an impossible battle, she would smile with her next words. "I lied."

Lexa can't work out how she herself feels about the deal, about the lie, her emotions buried too deep under layers of tactics and strategies and commands. She watches shock register on Clarke's face, then uncertainty, and finally satisfaction, and decides that will suffice for an emotional reaction.

"What will they be expecting?" the blonde asks.

"Once they release our prisoners, they will expect my army to leave. Part of the deal was that the Skaikru outside the Mountain would not be taken once we do."

Clarke nods. "What are we going to do?"

It's still not appropriate to smile at the start of a war, but Lexa thinks she could. "My army is about to betray me."

Clarke's eyes widen. "What?"

"Indra has been unhappy with my leadership for some time. When she hears of the deal I made with our most hated enemy, she will lead a coup against me and attack the mountain. There will be nothing I can do to stop her."

Lexa knows it's a good plan when it takes several seconds of Clarke's eyes studying her face for the other girl to realise the conversation hasn't moved on, that Lexa is answering her question about what they're going to do and the story she's telling is of her own construction. If her ally and friend considers that the tale might be true, why should the mountain doubt it?

Clarke hasn't yet learned that a true leader must conceal their thoughts, and Lexa can read every one of hers play across her face. Yes, it is a better plan than their initial one; it allows for the grounder prisoners to be released before the coup takes place, removes some chance of bloodshed, gives them less to do once they get inside. Yes, it also adds some danger, pausing the battle and robbing them of their momentum, giving the mountain time to regroup.

"Meanwhile" Lexa continues "a small group of loyal warriors will break me from my chains. Being unable to escape with the army at our backs, my people will be forced into the Reaper tunnels. The mountain men will be no more certain of my personal intentions than Skaikru or Indra's army could be."

Lexa can see all the pieces moving, as if she were back in the tower with her chessboard laid in front of her. The army at the gates, still vast and powerful, still the best chance they've ever had at taking down the mountain. Her secret second force, known to her people but not the Skaikru, awaiting orders at the nearest village. Herself and her best warriors, carving through the tunnels. The mountain's deal is with her, making the Commander almost invulnerable until they can be sure that either she's fully lost control of her forces, or she's turned back on their deal.

"What do I do?" Clarke questions, and Lexa turns to face her most powerful piece.

"You have several choices, Clarke.". This has somehow become Lexa's battle to win, and she accepts the weight of it as she has with all the others. But Clarke is a leader and led them here, and even if Lexa must keep creating the choices in front of them, she will not make Clarke's for her. "The most effective tactical move would be for Skaikru to make their own assault on the mountain. Our aim is to both distract their forces, and confuse their leaders as to who their potential allies are. But I'm aware that this changes the terms of our original pact. If Skaikru decided to remain with Indra's army, they would still be valuable there. I would allow it."

Things change in battle, Lexa had told her. They had planned with such care, and now the door to the mountain is opening, and the first terrified grounder is stepping out, and Lexa has abandoned their meticulous assault for ideas as abstract as the paintings on display inside the mountain. Clarke has been scrambling to survive since the first moment she stepped foot on the ground, and with the army at her back, she thought she'd finally been able to stop, plan, breathe. She watches Lexa's people step forward to claim the prisoners as they're released, wrapping them in jackets and leading them away. They would have died, she realises, if they'd followed the original plan. Clarke's people might have been valuable enough to keep alive once the door was breached, but Lexa's would not.

"I'll talk to my mother and Kane and Sergeant Miller." Clarke says, finally. There are so many people now that should be above her in the Skaikru chain of command. But the 48 prisoners inside that mountain told the President that Clarke was their leader. "Tell them what you've told me. They're the ones that would lead a Skaikru force. The decisions should be theirs. "

She hopes Kane will do what Lexa wants and lead Skaikru's own attack. She doesn't know him well, but she thinks he will. She hopes he and Indra will take down Mount Weather with their armies, and bring the grounders peace, and that taking out their common enemy will be enough to cement their alliance and keep them all safe. She hopes for all those things.

But there are 48 people, her friends, her followers, that trusted her to keep them safe.

She turns to Lexa. "I'm coming in with you."