A/N - I'm back!!! I hope you enjoy this chapter and thank you for keeping with this story for so long. Enjoy!
***
Landing in the abandoned house turned hide out for Lex, the last thing Kara expected was to see what she found.
Lena holding the gun at Lex, who was laughing at her. "What are you going to do Lena? Shoot me? That's not you."
Her hand shifted its grip on the gun, ever so slightly. Neither of them looked at her. "Isn't it?"
Cautiously, Kara stepped closer. "No, it's not."
Lena kept her eyes on Lex. "I'm a Luthor, killing each other is what we do."
"Please! You've never been a Luthor, despite what your DNA says." Lex scoffed.
Kara threw a glare his way. He was not helping. "Le, I need you to look at me. Can you do that?" Glancing away from Lex, green eyes met blue, the pain in them clear. "I want us to go home, can we do that?"
"God! Will you please just shoot me." Lex exclaimed before Kara threw her elbow back to hit him in the face. He collapsed unconscious.
"He never shuts up."
Lena laughed.
*
Arriving in Polis had left Clarke speechless; she hadn't seen it the first time Roan had dragged her to Lexa, kicking and screaming. It was beautiful from a distance, the tower reaching to the sky with the flame that stayed lit. It really was a candle.
The moment they had stepped into the tower Titus had been one step behind Lexa, grumbling about everything she had been 'neglecting' in his opinion. If only she could kick him off the balcony, but he had to train a new Flamekeeper first.
Everyone was directed to their rooms with the opportunity to freshen up before a meeting was called to discuss everything that was to happen when Skaikru arrived the next day. A process Titus once again tried to express his disapproval, his face was a picture when Lexa gave Luna and Raven one room, it was priceless.
Although, compared to his reaction when Lexa didn't show Clarke to a separate room it was the best thing Clarke had seen. But he left them alone and that was the only thing that mattered, because the moment the door closed behind them, Titus' angry face shut on the other side, Clarke sighed. The tension dropped off her, her entire body relaxing as she walked over to the bed.
"Is this your way of telling me you want to sleep before freshening up?" Lexa smiled at her from the end of the bed, coat undone.
Clarke forced herself up onto her elbows. "Can we share the bath?"
She laughed, the sound melodic and Clarke wasn't going to get tired of hearing. "If that's what it takes, yes."
Grinning Clarke jumped from the bed and passed Lexa towards the bathroom. "What are you waiting for? I don't want a cold bath, do you?"
Another laugh as her coat fell to the floor. "Of course not, hodnes."
A few hours later, the pair emerged from their rooms ever the professionals... if only the guards didn't avoid looking at them both. Okay, they hadn't been quiet, they knew that much, but had the guards really stood outside the doors the entire time? They had.
Clarke ignored it, face unreadable as she walked at Lexa's side to the main room. It was going to be a long night, all of them wanting to have all the Ambassadors up to speed with everything before Skaikru arrived. An arrival that no one in that room was going to be overly happy with after everything that had happened, the slaughter of the peace keeping force the icing on the top.
She didn't have to stew on the potential reactions long as Lexa turned them down the corridor of the main 'throne room' as she liked to think of it. It was time. Not faltering, not glancing at Lexa's profile in the dancing torch light, she stopped a step behind Lexa at the doors. Despite everything they had talked about, standing next to her in this meeting would do them more harm than good until they knew the overall tone towards the induction of a thirteenth clan.
The guards opened the doors the moment Lexa got close, the two of them walking straight into a full room that had gone silent. All the Ambassadors were stood, watching the two of them enter the room, Clarke moving to sit in Skaikru's chair, Raven trying hard not to fidget behind it.
Several glares were being directed at her as she took her place, watching Lexa move up the steps to her own seat, turning to face them all, sweeping her gaze over everyone momentarily. Clarke could already see who was going to be a problem, more clans wary of them after the latest problems.
"Thank you for coming, I know this is later than we would normally meet, but there are some pressing matters that need discussing before tomorrow." Lexa spoke English considering the few Skiakru in the room, specifically Raven.
With a gesture of her hand, everyone sat, the tension increasing tenfold as they waited for her to continue. "Tomorrow, a small Skaikru delegation will be arriving. The uprising in Arkadia has been dealt with and the man responsible killed, those arriving tomorrow I hope to introduce as the thirteenth clan."
Uproar from the Ambassadors stopped her from continuing for a minute, sitting instead and watching them all rid themselves of their initial outburst. When they realised their questions wouldn't be answered, they slowly stopped, more opening glaring at Clarke as she sat silently. Their uproar lowered into grumblings between neighbouring Ambassadors, muttering too lowly for Clarke to distinguish anything completely.
"You wish for us to allow these invaders into our Coalition?" The new Azgeda Ambassador questioned. "Any of us would have been slaughtered for half the crimes Skaikru has committed." Several nodded in agreement.
Lexa looked at him – or rather, through him. "You are correct, but you know this world and our laws, they did not. They are aware, should they do go against us again, they will not survive."
He scoffed. "Please! Wanheda would not allow such a thing."
In the past, he would have been right, her track record showed she did anything to keep her people alive. Not now. Not after they've thrown everything she'd done in her face. This was her last peace deal for them. Although, what that meant for her in the Coalition was yet to be seen in the long run.
Lexa ignored the comment. "Tomorrow, I would like to hold the ceremony to introduce them to the Coalition."
The grumbling increased until Lexa held up her hand, silencing everyone. "Skaikru will participate in the Coalition like every other clan, although, this year the supplies they can spare to us will be less than we would expect. As with every clan, this will not be a one-way affair, they already have ideas that will help with communications between clans and allow for help to be given quicker to those that need it."
"Why would we want to allow their tek into our clans?" The Desert Clan asked, the older man not looking towards Skaikru as he spoke to Lexa.
"Their ways of communication will help save lives and allow for quicker responses to problems within the clans instead of waiting days for riders to reach Polis, a day for a decision to be made, and then the time it would take to organise the help needed. Instead, in one conversation, each clan would be able to relay their problems to their ambassadors and a decision to be made in the meeting that day or the next."
Several of the ambassadors in the room slumped down, she was right, and they knew it, they had lost people with the time it took for messages to reach Polis before a decision was made. "Also, their medical knowledge would allow for more lives to be saved if taught to healers within the clans. Before they fell, all our attempts to save Reapers ended in death, now we have a few that have been brought back to us alive."
Even Azgeda slumped back in their seat, the winters were getting harsher in the north and the time to Polis was almost doubled during that time, bandits using the time to raid some of the more isolated villages. Regardless of what problems they had with Lexa being Commander, they wouldn't have survived in the numbers they had this last year without help from the Coalition.
"How would such communication be set up?" The Blue Cliff Ambassador questioned.
Lexa turned marginally towards Clarke, differing the answer to Skaikru themselves to answer. "One of our mechanics will travel to each clan to set up a signal booster and radio to allow communication for any that wish to have the technology. She will also set it up and show you how to use it. If there's a problem, she will return to fix it as soon as possible, but the ones she set up in Arkadia are still working after several months."
"How can we trust this mechanic won't use this time to plant tek to spy on the clans?" The Shallow Valley Ambassador directed to Clarke.
The blonde didn't get the chance to ask as Raven failed to suppress a laugh. Everyone's attention fell to her. "Sorry."
The Shallow Valley Ambassador Clarke wished she knew the name of scowled at her. "You think my concerns are funny?"
Raven swallowed the smile on her face. "I don't, I'm sorry for laughing." She glanced to Clarke and Lexa. "I'm the mechanic that would be installing the radios and I have no need to spy on any clan and not just because I don't understand your language." She chuckled, stopping short when no one else looked amused. "I'm not Skaikru anymore, at least I don't believe I am, and I won't be returning to them once I'm done, at least not permanently."
Having turned to look at her, Clarke didn't miss the flick of brown eyes towards a certain ambassador across the room, but it seems like everyone else did as she looked at a few others to cover it up. "As long as I can salvage technology and find the right parts, I don't need to be in Skaikru territory to gather the necessary equipment."
"Where will you go, if you do not wish to return to Skaikru?" The Lake Clan Ambassador asked, tilting her head slightly.
Before she could answer, Lexa cut in. "Raven has a place in Polis." She didn't expand on the statement, and no one asked her to, Raven too occupied with hiding her shock to question it. "If there are no other questions concerning tomorrow, this meeting is over." She swept a glance over everyone, stopping on the Rock Clan Ambassador. "Yes?"
The older man visibly swallowed. "How are we to know Skaikru will not reject their place in the Kongeda in a week? A month? We have no assurance they will abide by our laws."
"I have Wanheda's word they won't."
"And if she leaves again?"
Clarke glared at the older man. "That isn't going to happen."
"How can you assure us of that? You made an alliance with our Commander during the war with the Mountain and then left, leaving your clan to follow through on promises you made. How can we be sure you won't make promises to Skaikru only to leave us to deal with the fallout?" He argued, obviously not noticing the eery calm that had settled over the room.
Clarke leaned back in her chair, the picture of relaxation even if her body was screaming at her to move. "You are referring to an alliance your Commander broke first, leaving me to free my people at the death of your enemy. If that is your only argument, shouldn't the question be how could I trust your Commander not to betray my people again?" She smirked when he paled. "You have my word, you want more?"
Many of the Ambassadors looked at one another but Clarke kept her eyes on the Rock Clan Ambassador. She could see the questions jumping between them all, wondering how much they could trust her, trust her people after everything. Whatever unspoken conversation they were having wasn't a good one, not if Lexa's stoic position staring ahead was to be believed.
"It would be more... comforting, if we were to have more assurances that you will not leave when things become too hard for you." He hedged, obviously trying not to say something that could offend her. He failed.
Clarke narrowed her eyes. "If I left when things got hard, I wouldn't have killed everyone in Mount Weather, wouldn't have given the plan to burn three hundred grounders alive in a ring of fire, I wouldn't have killed the boy I loved at the expense of my friends and potentially my alliance with Heda. For you to believe leaving my people was weak of me, perhaps you should recalculate what you consider weak. Surviving three months alone with a bounty on my head having been on the ground for a little over a month... seems to me someone weak wouldn't be sat here now."
He paled with each mention of murder she had committed, almost white by the end, eyes wide. The rest in the room wisely stayed silent, letting the two of them have it out, although, Clarke was clearly winning. "You left, that fact does not change. How can we know you will not do so again when you feel it convenient?"
Groaning, Clarke dropped her head back against the seat. "Fine, if you want to be stubborn. What can I do to prove I will not leave Polis without notice?"
The Ambassadors looked between themselves, Lexa still adamantly silent. Luna broke it. "There is one solution, but it is extreme." She turned to look at Lexa. "My clan would agree to such a solution."
Several Ambassadors nodded, all knowing exactly what Luna was talking about while Raven and Clarke looked at her in confusion. What were they talking about? This meeting was not going as she had expected, everyone was more concerned with her leaving again than the possibility of peace with Skaikru.
"You cannot be serious?!" Azegeda exclaimed. "Such a tradition is not to be shared with these invaders." He threw his hands up towards Clarke. "It would make a mockery of our ways."
Fed up, Clarke looked at Lexa, who still refused to look at her and slammed her hands down onto the arms of her chair. "Would anyone care to tell me what you are all talking about instead of assuming I'm going to do whatever you agree on like I don't have a choice!"
The tension in the room tripled, none willing to tell her what they were discussing. Luna stared at Lexa, a conversation happening in the second of eye contact. Green eyes turned to Clarke, emotionless. "A Unification."
A Unification? "What?"
Lexa glanced back at Luna who explained. "Specifically, to Heda."
Clarke froze. WHAT?!
She wasn't the only one stunned, Raven had a similar reaction, just not silently. "WHAT!?"
Glad one of them was able to vocalise their shock, Clarke did her best to control herself, so her jaw didn't hit the floor. Why was that the only option?