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HUNDRED CUTS
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JINNY WAS BROUGHT BACK OUT into open air, the chill touching her skin like a lost lover, and she allowed herself to inhale the lingering scent of smoke and damp earthen soil. The Grounders holding her captive pulled her roughly towards the middle of the courtyard. The charred ground where the pyre had laid hours earlier was now covered in a thick layer of ash. To think that the dark dust used to be a living person, now returned to the elements of the earth, brought a sense of melancholia. Lexa awaited next to the blood stained pole, her eyes narrowing when she saw Jinny and not Raven being brought before her.
"What is the meaning of this?" Raulf asked almost angrily. "Where is Raven?"
"She was not the one who carried the poison," Lexa observed.
"The Fake Commander volunteered herself in place of her friend," Indra informed.
Lexa's face smoothed back into a mask of indifference. "Very well."
"Wait, wait!" Jinny called. "Hear me out, please. It wasn't us who tried to poison you. If it was, then why would I end up being poisoned too?"
"Someone must have thought you were expendable," Indra retorted. "Poisoning one of their own to act as if they hadn't done it. We have seen it all."
"Raven is one of my best friends, she would never do that to me," Jinny implored. "It wasn't us, I swear."
"Do you have proof that you weren't the one who did it?" Lexa asked with the air of a judge passing verdict on her. "Can you show me that it wasn't yours?"
"No... but if you let us figure it out—"
"You have had plenty of time to figure it out," Indra interjected harshly. "Heda, teik dison bilaik odon."
"Lexa," Raulf started to protest but she raised her hand to silence him.
"I can only believe what is in front of me. Tie her to the pole," she commanded and the Grounders tugged Jinny forwards. She attempted to resist but one of them struck her in the middle, causing the wind to be knocked out of her. They quickly tore her jacket off, grabbed her wrists and tied them with thick rope high above her head to the pole. Her legs were locked in place with chains at the base. Jinny swallowed thickly when she saw Bellamy finally exiting the cellar, his face paling with terror that wrenched at her soul. He made to run forwards but Kane stopped him by grabbing his jacket and hauling him back.
She was starting to have regrets about this.
Lexa stood in front of her with fingers curled over her mahogany hilted knife. "I take no joy in this, Jinny. But this time, justice will be done."
"Get it over with then," she spat.
With cold, emotionless eyes, Lexa raised her hand and pressed the blade against her skin. She could almost hear it tear when the knife sliced into her flesh, drawing blood that dribbled down her arm in rivulets. Jinny gritted her teeth at the searing pain coursing through her inner forearm, sharp breaths leaving her lips as she refused to cry out.
"Jinny!" Bellamy cried loudly, his anguished voice twisting its own dagger into her heart, as he struggled against both Kane and Lincoln's restraints. "Stop it! No! Let her go!!"
"We have to stop this, we have to think of something!" Octavia exclaimed.
"I'm telling you, it was him," Raven said loudly. "He searched me, he put the poison in my pack!"
Indra came next, a sadistic smile on her twisted lips as she pulled Jinny's shirt up to reveal her midriff. Her blade sank deeper, harder and longer into her stomach than Lexa's. Jinny tensed her entire body until every muscle to the tips of her toes were stretched taut, small grunts escaping her throat with laboured breaths. Her chest shuddered with every sound she suppressed from her parched throat as she gripped the rope tightly with trembling fingers.
Then a villager that she didn't know came forwards; the woman held little sympathy for her suffering in her dark eyes as she brought her blade onto Jinny's other arm. A deep slice, that made her hiss out loud from the searing resentment behind it. The Grounders revelled in their retribution.
Another blade, another cut. On and on, until her nerves were completely set ablaze with pain. Still, she refused to give them the satisfaction of hearing her scream, to show that she was completely at their mercy. The pleasure they gained from the act of torture disgusted her, and she wondered how humanity could be so barbaric. She averted her eyes from Bellamy, unable to look at the anguish on his face any longer, raising them instead to the heavens above. The blue open plains were dull and empty, as if the stars had abandoned her too. If there were really any gods out there, she would tell them to go fuck themselves.
"Clarke?" Bellamy questioned hopefully, drawing Jinny's gaze back to them just as another villager slit her skin open again. She winced at the sharp burn that bloomed across her chest as she watched the blonde cross the distance towards them.
"Stop!" Clarke shouted loudly to gain their attention. Two warriors crossed their spears in front of the girl's neck.
"Let her past," Lexa ordered. The torture stopped briefly as she and the others hurried forwards.
"One of your people tried to kill you, Lexa!" Clarke said. "Not one of mine."
"You should have run," Indra told them with cold fury.
"I can prove it," the blonde persisted, taking the bottle of liquor from Nyko's hand. She uncorked it and took a large swig from the opening. They waited for her to choke and fall to her knees, but she merely stood there staring back at the Commander.
"Explain," Lexa demanded, a confused frown on her brows.
"The poison wasn't in the bottle, it was in the cups," Clarke said.
Gustus leaned forwards, speaking in Trigedasleng, and Bellamy glanced down to the ground in thought. Jinny recognised the face he made and the clarity in his eyes when things finally clicked in place in his mind. He looked back at Gustus accusingly and said, "It was you. He tested the cup, he searched Raven."
"Gustus would never harm me," Lexa rebuked angrily.
"You weren't the target," Bellamy responded with confidence. "The alliance was."
"We didn't do this and you know it," Clarke insisted lowly.
Lexa turned around sharply to her bodyguard. "Yu don ge finga au, Gostos. Ron ai ridiyo op."
To their surprise, he confessed readily. "This alliance would cost you your life, Heda. I could not let that happen."
The Commander's lips parted slightly in discountenance. "This treachery will cost you yours," Lexa told him, her voice frosted with ice. Gustus nodded slightly, accepting his fate. "Teik em set raun ona tri."
Bellamy, Octavia and Raven immediately ran forwards to release Jinny from the pole and she cried out as her knees buckled once she was freed of the suspension. Bellamy caught her before she could touch the ground and carried her towards safety. They poured alcohol over her wounds and she finally let out a whimper when it burned her open lacerations, tears pricking her eyes and spilling over her cheeks. Bellamy gently wiped the blood that stained her skin before Abby bandaged them for her. Nyko had handed her a blanket, wrapping it around her shoulders for warmth or comfort, Jinny wasn't entirely sure.
When they placed Gustus on the pole and continued the punishment on him instead, Jinny couldn't bear to watch because she could still feel the ghosts of the cuts on her own body. His grunts of pain filling her ears was enough to tell her of his misery.
"That would have been Finn..." Raven muttered when she watched the spectacle, then turned to look at Clarke. Even if she understood what had to be done, a part of her had still died with Finn, but maybe it was still a step forwards to forgiveness.
One hundred cuts had been made when Lexa drew her sword with concentrated finesse; the hollow ring of the blade sliding out of its scabbard was like a cry of bloodlust. It gleamed hungrily as she positioned it over her arm with sophisticated grace. Gustus peered back at her, his entire body soaked in his own blood, streaming freely from the cruel wounds. He was barely holding himself upright, not even an inch of his skin was spared from punishment.
"Ste yuj," he told her, and Jinny recognised the words. Stay strong.
"Yu gonplei ste odon," she uttered the farewell words of her people, a blessing for the afterlife, and pierced his heart with deliberate precision.
Lexa gave beauty to a violent act, an elegance that was entwined with devastation. Jinny couldn't help but feel in awe as the blade slid out of Gustus' chest and back to the Commander's side.
"We're not so different after all, are we?" Abby asked.
Jinny thought they were as different as the sun and moon, but both celestial beings inhabited the same treacherous sky. The same bygone world.
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That night, they had been sitting around the campfire talking about the events of the day. Bellamy had his arms wrapped around Jinny as they huddled together across from Octavia and Lincoln. The crackling flames warmed their skin, reflected in their dark eyes.
"How did you know it was Gustus?" Lincoln asked in contemplation.
"He'd do anything for her, to protect her," Bellamy replied, and Jinny felt him squeeze her tighter as if on a subconscious impulse. "It just made sense."
"Look at the thanks he got," Octavia commented cynically.
"Guys! Listen to this!" Raven ran up then with a discovery on her radio. Somehow, out of some kind of miracle, a single channel had been cleared from the jamming signal. A familiar voice that none of them had thought to hear again was set on loop with words that spurred them all into action.
"This is Jasper Jordan. Forty-seven of us are trapped inside Mount Weather. We don't know how much time we have left, please hurry."
Jinny felt a chill run up her spine, sending her hairs on end. What was the mountain doing to their friends? But there was still hope, the delinquents were still okay.
"We need to do this now," Bellamy said imperatively. "We've got the alliance, now is the time to use it."
"First, we need an inside man," Clarke said and Jinny looked at her in disbelief. "You were right, Bellamy. Without someone on the inside to lower their defenses and turn off the acid fog, an army's useless. You should go."
"No, absolutely not!" Jinny exclaimed heatedly.
Bellamy raised a sceptical eyebrow at Clarke. "I thought you hated that plan. That I would get myself killed."
To Jinny's horror, the girl replied, "I was being weak, it's worth the risk." She pulled a folded piece of paper out of her pocket and handed it to Bellamy. "My map of Mount Weather. Find a way to get on that radio and talk to us. Good luck."
"Clarke, no!" Jinny repeated, then turned to the man she loved pleadingly. "Bell, please don't do this."
"It makes sense, Jin, we need to get our people out of there," he told her gently. "We can't do that without shutting off the acid fog."
"You could die!" she cried in dismay.
"They'll all die if somebody doesn't do this," he said. "Monty, Jasper, Miller, Harper..."
She shook her head, voice turning clipped. "Then I'm going with you."
"No," Clarke objected smoothly. "I need you here to help me keep peace with the Grounders."
"Screw you, Clarke!" Jinny shouted at her angrily. "I thought you were on my side! Bellamy is not worth the risk, he is not expendable! I am not losing him!"
"You won't," he tried to assure her but she breathed out an incensed breath.
"Love is weakness," Clarke told her.
The words rendered Jinny speechless, a cold numbness seeping in through the low blow they struck. Something had changed in the girl, a monster lurking by the surface, uncoiling its appendages as it awoken from its slumber. They held each other's gaze for a moment before Clarke whirled around and walked away. But even with all her ambitions and thirst for power, Jinny knew one fact for certain.
If loving Bellamy Blake made her weak... then so be it.
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ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © KAYE CEE
DO NOT STEAL, COPY OR TAKE ANY PART OF THIS WORK.
Translations:
"Heda, teik dison bilaik odon." - Commander, end this.
"Yu don ge finga au, Gostos. Ron ai ridiyo op." - You have been accused, Gustus. Speak true.
"Teik em set raun ona tri." - Put him on the tree.
[ author's note ]
poor jinny omg i initially thought to just let raven get cut so raulf would be the one begging lexa to stop (because raulven?? what's a better name for this ship?), but then i decided i wanted to let jinny suffer a bit ha...
i've been waiting for so long to unleash my onslaught of lexa textposts on you guys lmao they're pretty funny. and yes, jinny is not going to mount weather with bellamy!! prepare yourselves, lexa & clarke :D
i literally just woke up in the middle of the night to throw this chapter together and now i'm going to sleep right after i hit publish. A++ dedication to me.