chapter 10 - treachery
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Sometime later, after Finn's execution, Clarke found herself waiting in the Commander's tent. She observed the dried blood that coated her hands like red gloves, as she pondered over her most recent actions. Eventually, her mind and heart went to battle inside of her, overbearing her with thoughts of guilt and remorse, but also, of relief and solace.
She was content with her decision of avoiding a torturous death for the boy she loved, but that didn't mean that it hurt any less for her. It didn't mean that she wasn't second guessing her every decision as the night's events replayed over and over in her head. It didn't mean that the stained red hands that she saw before her, were going to come clean anytime soon. No matter how hard she scrubbed them.
Because unfortunately, that crimson color would evidently soak into her palms, becoming invisible to the eye, and stay with her forever. Clarke knew that Finn's blood would be on her hands until the day she took her last breath. And that thought haunted her the most...
At some point, her mother, as well as Kane, entered the tent to wait with her, but the blonde didn't pay any attention to them. Instead, she remained seated in the corner, desperately and ferociously attempting to cleanse her hands with a wet cloth. She continued to do so, until Gustus entered the tent a few moments later.
"The commander is ready to talk." He informed them all.
He then stepped aside, and allowed Lexa to enter with Indra following close behind her. The commander took a seat on her throne, and immediately Clarke wiped the tears from her eyes and stood up straight.
"Blood has answered blood." Lexa stated, looking towards the blonde. "Some on my side say that's not enough. They wanted the murderer to suffer as our tradition demands. But they do not know, that your suffering will be worse." Clarke looked directly into Lexa's green eyes, as she continued to speak to her. "What you did tonight will haunt you until the end of your days. Still, there will be restitution. The body will be given to Tondc, where murderer and murdered will be joined by fire. Only then can we have peace."
"When do we leave?" Clarke questioned, pushing back her tears for now, after realizing that their next priority was Mount Weather.
"Now." The commander replied, taking notice of how the blonde was trying to hide her feelings for the time being. "Choose your attendants." She then stood up from her throne, and exited the tent. Leaving Clarke, Abby, and Kane to get ready and inform their people.
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As the grounders and the Sky People walked back to Tondc, Clarke had started to see hallucinations of Finn watching her from the bushes. She saw it earlier too, when they took his body away and wrapped it up. The first time, she imagined that his eyes opened has they carried him away, but this time he was just staring at her with an emotionless expression. She didn't know what to think of it, but she had an idea that his lingering presence was existing because of the guilt that still resided in her. And because she didn't know how to make the guilt go away, she was also clueless on how to make Finn's ghost-like presence go away as well.
"Hey, you doing alright?" Bellamy questioned from beside her, prying the blonde away from her haunting thoughts.
"Yeah." She responded, barely giving the boy a glance which only led him to believe it was a lie.
"You did the right thing." He stated sincerely, but it didn't make her feel any better.
"Now I get to live with it." She sighed, keeping her eyes ahead as they walked. "You still think this truce is a bad idea, don't you?"
"I think we're wasting time with politics while our friends are in trouble."
That statement caught Clarke's attention, as she looked over at him incredulously. "We need their army to get to Mount Weather Bellamy, and you know it."
"Their army has been getting their asses kicked by Mount Weather forever. What we need is an inside man. Someone to be our eyes and ears."
"Forget it. It's too dangerous."
"Clarke, if you can make it out, I can make it in."
"I said no." The blonde snapped, making Bellamy furrow his eyebrows.
"Since I don't take orders from you, I'm gonna need a better reason."
"I can't lose you too, okay?" She stated truthfully, instantly making him go silent. They continued to walk amongst everyone else, with both of them deeply in thought.
Meanwhile, just a few yards ahead, Lexa led the people on her white horse, with Gustus saddled up beside her.
"Nou get yu daun, Gustus." [Stop worrying, Gustus.] Lexa stated in their native tongue, breaking the silence between them. "Like you've always told me, all alliances are risky."
"This is not the same as uniting the twelve clans." He replied. "The Sky People are different, they're more like the Mountain Men than us. It could kill our coalition."
"Our coalition, or me?"
"You are the coalition, Commander."
"Then do your job, and protect me." Lexa spoke, ending the conversation on that note.
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Later on, once night had fell, both groups decided to set up camp and rest until morning. On one side of the clearing, Lexa and the rest of the grounders gathered, while Bellamy and the Sky People set their tents up on the opposite side.
So, it was definitely a surprise for Bellamy to see Clarke setting up her sleeping bag on the ground between both parties.
"Clarke," He called out to her. "It's safer on our side."
"There are no more sides. We need to trust them, Bellamy." She responded, before laying down on to rest. Although, she knew it was going to be hard for her to relax when she was still hallucinating and seeing Finn everywhere that she looked. There was no doubt that the boy would probably show up in her dreams as well, and so the blonde really wasn't in a rush to shut her eyes.
Dakota, on the other hand, was more than eager to get some rest. She had been struggling throughout the day with overbearing thoughts of her own, and she had never really gotten the fully required sleep that she deserved since returning from her reaper state. She had originally been avoiding closing her eyes too, just as much as Clarke had, but now she knew that she just couldn't fight it anymore.
The grounder girl made her way to the spot that her and Octavia had claimed their own for the night, and on the way she passed Indra.
"Natrona." The warrior had mumbled under her breath, when she walked by the young girl.
Dakota quickly looked over at her in disbelief. She had planned on just ignoring the comment, however, her brother had other ideas.
"What did you just say to her?" Lincoln questioned angrily, as he made his way over from getting more firewood. Dakota put her hands on his chest in attempt to make him stand down, but once someone comes at his little sister it's hard for him not to unleash all of his protective big brother instincts.
"I said natrona," Indra spat, once more. "Although, I should have said natronas." With that, she proceeded to walk in the direction she was headed, leaving the two siblings to feel like outcasts even more than they already had.
Once Dakota got her brother to calm down, she walked him back to where the tents were.
"Natrona?" Octavia repeated, trying to remember what it meant in the language that Dakota had taught her.
"It means, traitor." Lincoln clarified for her, as he threw some more wood in the fire.
Dakota sat down and made herself comfortable next to the brunette. "My people fear me." She spoke sadly, as her voice wavered just above a whisper. "They think the Reaper's still inside." The grounder girl then shifted to lay on her back, where the stars were now in her line of vision.
"You know, you can talk to me." Octavia told her, comfortingly. "About what happened."
But Dakota instantly shook her head softly, as a single tear escaped from her eye. "I can't." She breathed out.
She quickly wiped the tear away, and cleared her throat, but it was too late to hide her emotions. Octavia had already seen the tear, and her heart ached to see the girl in so much hidden pain. She never actually saw Dakota cry to the point where tears were falling from her warm hazel eyes, not even when she was being tortured by Bellamy. And so, to see her cry twice in just two days all because of what happened with the reapers, it made Octavia despise the Mountain Men even more for hurting the girl she loved so badly to the point where her mask of strength was cracking. She knew that the grounder girl hated it when people thought she was weak, so these emotional and rare moments were indeed heartbreaking. If only the girl knew how strong she really was for having to go through so much.
"Hey, you are not that monster." Octavia reminded her, as she wiped another tear from the girl's eyes.
Dakota looked over to the brunette, and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, before placing a soft kiss on her lips. "I hope you're right."
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The following morning, the group woke up at dawn and traveled the remaining ten miles back to Tondc, where the rest of Trikru were expecting them. The only problem was, they weren't expecting Skaikru to walk in right behind the Commander. After some trouble with calming the people down from the sight of one of their supposed enemies, everyone finally gathered around to begin the funeral ritual. Finn's body was placed on a pyre, that was also surrounded by the multiple wrapped bodies of those who he had murdered in the massacre.
"Kru gon tondc. In faya, osir cleanse the pain gon the past." Lexa declared, while lighting a torch to begin the ritual.
"People of Tondc. In fire, we cleanse the pain of the past." Dakota whispered, translating for her friends at Skaikru.
To the people's surprise, Lexa then handed off the torch to Clarke, so that she could be the one to finish it off. But what surprised the people even more, was when Clarke restated their native phrase as they watched the pyre burn.
"Yu gonplei ste odon." [Your fight is over.]
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After the ceremonial ritual, Clarke remained standing by the smoldering ashes. She was so deep in thought that she didn't even realize the Commander had walked up to her.
"I lost someone special to me too." Lexa began, gently. "Her name was Costia. She was captured by the Ice Nation who's queen believed that she knew my secrets. Because she was mine, they tortured her, killed her, cut off her head. I thought I'd never get over the pain, but I did."
"How?"
"By recognizing it for what it is." She replied, glancing over at the blonde. "Weakness."
"What is? Love?" Clarke asked in confusion, and the Commander nodded. "So you just stopped caring about everyone?" Lexa nodded once more, making the blonde scoff. "I could never do that."
"Then you put the people you care about in danger, and the pain will never go away." She explained. "The dead are gone, Clarke, the living are hungry."
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That night, the Sky People and Tree People gathered in the dining hall, where a feast was prepared and stretched out on top of a long table to officially commemorate the start of the new alliance. Lexa stood in the center, with Indra and Gustus on either side of her, as they waited for Dakota to lead Clarke and her people towards the opposite side.
"Please accept this gift, Commander." Kane spoke, handing her a bottle of liquor. "We drink this at special occasions, I believe this qualifies."
"Thank you, Marcus of the Sky People."
"You're welcome, Leksa kom Trikru. Just, uh, don't drink too much of it." He smiled, encouragingly.
"Clarke," Lexa spoke, turning to face the blonde across from her. "Let us drink together."
"It would be my pleasure."
Gustus handed Lexa two goblets, and she proceed to fill each of them with the liquor that Kane had gifted to her. She offered one to Clarke, who didn't hesitate to accept it.
"Heda, allow me." Gustus stated, before picking up her cup and taking a cautious sip from it. Being her designated bodyguard, he wanted to make sure the drink wouldn't harm the Commander in any way.
"Today we celebrate our peace, tomorrow we plan our war." Lexa spoke to everyone in the room. She then lifted up her goblet in a toast-like manner. "To those we've lost, and to those we shall soon find."
Clarke lifted her cup as well, but before anyone else took a sip, Gustus had began choking and suddenly collapsed to the floor. Everyone in the room gasped, as the Commander's eyes widened drastically at the sight.
"It's poisoned!" One of the grounders shouted, as all hell broke loose in the dining hall. Bellamy quickly knocked the drink from Clarke's hands, so she wouldn't be poisoned as well.
"It was the Sky People!" Indra bellowed, immediately unsheathing her sword and aiming it at them.
The grounders pushed away the table and glared at Clarke and her friends, all with their weapons raised.
"It wasn't us!" Clarke exclaimed. "You have to know this wasn't us!"
Lexa ignored the blonde's cries, and demanded that Nyko take Gustus away and heal him.
"Everybody out!" Indra ordered the other Trikru warriors in the room. "Search them!"
"No, no! We didn't do this!" Clarke tried once more, but Lexa cut her off.
"Gustus warned me about you, but I didn't listen!"
"Lexa, please--"
"Tell me something Clarke. When you plunged the knife into the heart of the boy you loved, did you not wish that it was mine?" She gritted.
Clarke was speechless, as the grounders continued to search her friends. Soon enough, one of them happened to find a small bottle of poison in Raven's pocket.
"That's not mine!" The mechanic cried.
"It was in her coat." The grounder informed Lexa.
"I'm telling you, that's not mine! He put it there when he searched me!"
Lexa looked around the room angrily and anxiously. "No Sky Person leaves this room!" She declared, before rushing out of the hall and glancing over at Dakota on the way.
"Do something." Octavia spoke, looking towards the grounder girl and her brother.
Dakota sighed before turning around. "Indra, wait!" She called out to her right before she closed the door. "Teik ai shish op kom emo." [Let me speak for them.]
"Yu laik em." [You are them.]" She spat. The warrior then shut the door, locking her in the room with her brother and the rest of Skaikru.
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"Lexa needs this alliance just as much as we do." Kane stated, taking a seat next to Clarke. "She's shown herself to be flexible. She listens to you."
"She thinks we tried to kill her."
"But we know we didn't. So let's figure out who did. Who would want her dead?"
"Too many to count." Lincoln cut in. "Forming an alliance with you was a risk. Especially after what Finn did to this village."
"So it had to be someone trying to break the alliance." Octavia noted.
Suddenly, the doors to the dining hall re-opened, and Indra stormed in with a few warriors behind her.
"How's Gustus?" Kane instantly asked Nyko.
"Gustus will live."
"Take her away." Indra ordered, and immediately the guards seized Raven.
"Wait, she didn't do anything!" Bellamy claimed, as everyone jumped in to try and protect the mechanic.
"I argued for all of you to die." Indra stated, dryly. "But the commander is merciful. She wants only one."
"She's innocent!" Dakota exclaimed, but the warrior woman cut her off.
"I. Don't. Care!" She gritted through her teeth, before motioning to the other grounders. "Bring the girl. If anyone else moves, they bleed."
The warriors managed to drag Raven away, leaving the others standing in the room completely powerless.
"The rest of you are free. When she's dead, so is the alliance." Indra then walked back towards the door, in order to exit but before she did, she spoke to them one last time from over her shoulder. "You all should run."
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Not even an hour later, Raven was tied up to a tree where Lexa and the other grounders surrounded her, waiting for a turn with the knife.
"I take no joy in this, Raven." Lexa informed the distraught girl. "But this time, justice will be done."
"I didn't do it." Raven cried. "How is that justice?"
Without anyone else to blame, the Commander just ignored her and proceeded to slowly drag the knife down Raven's raised arm, causing the girl to release a blood-curdling scream as it sliced open her flesh.
Next in line was Indra, and the warrior woman wasted no time in having her turn carving into the girl's abdomen. Raven continued to cry out in agonizing pain, making all of Skaikru cringe from her constant screams. They wanted to help her, but there wasn't anything they could do.
"We have to do something." Bellamy said, causing the others to turn to him.
"Dakota, talk to them." Octavia urged her, but the grounder girl just shook her head.
"I don't know what I can say." She sighed in frustration. "They won't listen unless we find out who really is to blame. All I know, is that we can't let her die for a crime she didn't commit."
"But you can talk to them. These are your people."
"Not anymore." Lincoln cut in. He then walked over to Nyko.
"You're no longer safe here, my friend." The healer spoke. "I'll do my best to make sure you get away. But then you'll be on your own."
They shook hands and quickly hugged, before Lincoln walked back to the group.
"Link, we can't just leave!" Dakota exclaimed, grabbing a hold of her brother's arm. "Raven's innocent! We have to find out who did this before its too late."
"It already is too late, Kota!" He snapped. "I don't see anyone else turning themselves in, do you? I have to get you out of here and somewhere safe before Trikru turns on us next."
"You're wrong." The girl stated, frowning at his actions. "As long as that girl is still breathing, it's not too late. Why can't you just stop trying to save only me all the time, and start trying to save other people for a change!?"
Lincoln was about to respond to her, but before he could, Clarke busted out of the dining hall with Bellamy hot on her tail. Her dramatic entrance caused everyone to look over at her, as she approached the torture circle.
"STOP!" She shouted, and Lexa surprisingly let her pass. "One of your people tried to kill you, Lexa. Not one of mine."
"You should have run." Indra uttered.
"I can prove it." The blonde spoke, before grabbing the bottle from Nyko, and taking a few confident gulps from it.
When nothing happened to her after a few moments, the crowd grew confused, just like the Commander had.
"Explain." Lexa ordered her.
"The poison wasn't in the bottle, it was in the cup."
"Its a trick Commander, do not be fooled." Gustus whispered to her, causing Bellamy to eye him suspiciously.
"It was you." The boy concluded, making the man look over to him. "He tested the cup, he searched Raven."
"Gustus would never harm me." Lexa stated in denial.
"You weren't the target," Dakota spoke up, finally realizing what the warrior's motives were. "The alliance was."
"We didn't do this, and you know it." Clarke added.
The Commander took a deep breath, and turned to her so-called protector. "You've been accused, Gustus. Speak true."
It was silent for a few seconds, before the grounder finally replied to her. "This alliance would cost you your life, Heda. I could not let that happen."
Lexa's eyes widened only slightly at his confession, before she managed to hide any sort of hurt or betrayal she might have been feeling at that moment.
"This treachery will cost you yours." She stated, before turning to the other warriors. "Put him on the tree!"
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A/N:
The news about Chadwick Boseman is so heartbreaking. 2020 is a year that I had thought would be special, but I never guessed it would leave us with so many losses and tragedies. Boseman continued to fight cancer for 4 years, which is only ONE of the reasons why he will be remembered as such a strong individual. RIP to the man who gifted us with representations like Jackie Robinson, and the great King T'Challa, our beloved Black Panther. Another legend gone, but never forgotten. #WakandaForever 🖤
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