Chapter Text
Chapter 4
A loud knocking at her door woke her.
A quick peek out the window told her she’d only been asleep for a few hours before being disturbed.
When the knocking persisted, Lexa reluctantly got out of bed, donned her house shoes and robe and went to answer the door.
“Titus.” He was standing there in his robes, looking like he hadn’t ever retired for the night. “This had better be important.”
He stepped into her apartment, not waiting to be asked. He shut the door behind him. “Another ship fell from the sky, close to where the original one did, only this one carried a single occupant, an alpha female.”
“Has this woman been apprehended? Is she like the others?” Lexa had a dozen questions but started with those two.
Titus shook his head and told her that unlike the others, this woman wore armor, was heavily armed, and had technology that she had thus far been able to use to evade capture. When two of Heda’s gona (warriors) got close to her, she easily dispatched them with something none of the others had ever seen before, something that rendered them immobile but conscious. “From what the messenger told me, the woman kept referring to a piece of tek in her hands. It seemed to be leading her somewhere.”
“Do we know where that somewhere is?”
“Sha, Heda. It seems to be leading her here.”
Normally, Lexa didn’t mind sitting on her throne. It was not uncommon for her to have to spend hours at a time sitting there while her ambassadors argued one point or another to settle disputes that mattered little to her, but on this day, she found herself sitting there rather uncomfortably. The ambassadors were arguing the fate of the ninety-nine sky people that currently occupied the dungeons below them.
“The humane thing to do would be to put them out of their misery,” the emissary from Podakru suggested.
“They are nothing but brutes, savages,” another insisted.
“We are wasting precious resources on them. What we use on them should be stored for winter. When times become lean, it will be our fault that the people starve.” This came from Azgeda’s ambassador.
Lexa had heard enough and lifted a hand to stop the arguments. “We aren’t here today to discuss those currently being held beneath us. You have been called here as a courtesy to let you know that another ship has landed very near where the original one hundred did. She is alone, but she is not like the others. She is armed, relies heavily on tek, and she is not afraid to use it.” Lexa explained how two of her men were easily taken down by the woman. “She is to be considered very dangerous, and if she enters any of your clans, she is to be approached with caution, not that I believe she will make it out of Trikru.”
“Why is that, Heda?” Luna kom Floukru asked.
“Because it appears she is making a beeline for Polis, probably for her people.”
“If she is as you describe her, it doesn’t sound like those we have captured are her people. They are primitive and feral. This one sounds more advanced and sophisticated, if you will pardon the use of the word.”
“I want to know what is being done to capture this woman. If she is as dangerous as she sounds, she’s a threat to everyone.”
All her ambassadors were speaking at once, and for a few minutes, she let them. She’d already increased security in and around Polis, dispatched two units of gona to inspect the new dropship, and sent her best trackers after the woman. For now, she wanted the woman to be observed, to see what she was all about, however, the moment she became more of a threat, every soldier was instructed to take the woman down.
“Where is General Anya? Shouldn’t she be here for this, or is she already out looking for the woman?”
“Anya has a more important mission that she is dealing with.” Lexa sat up straighter in her chair. “As you know, yesterday we returned to Polis with the last of the skai twichas (sky rats), only this one is different. She is cunning, and certainly as wild as the others, but she is capable of understanding us. She also speaks. With her, I believe we will be able to learn vital information about why her people are here, what happened to them, and what threat might lie ahead in the future. Through her, we will acquire the knowledge we need to make the correct decision about the fate of these newcomers.”
“So, Anya is with this girl now?” Luna, the leader of Floukru, asked.
“She is.”
“I’d like to meet her. What is her name?”
“At this juncture, meeting her is out of the question. Her behavior, while better than the others, is erratic. She’s still a danger to all of us, except for Anya that is. She seems to have taken a liking to her, which is why Anya has been charged with taking care of the girl. I thought she had taken a liking to me as well, but we had a misunderstanding.”
Lexa thought back to the previous evening when the omega had lost it over being asked her name. She didn’t divulge this information to the others, nor did she tell them that the girl refused to give up her name. Luna she might trust with the information, but not the others. “Until the omega can be trusted to control herself, no one but Anya or myself will be dealing with her.”
“Isn’t it unsafe for you to be around her if she is still such a wildling?” The ambassador from Azgeda asked. “We would hate for our Commander to be hurt by such a creature.”
Yeah, sure you would, Lexa thought. Matti kom Azgeda would dance on her grave the first chance he got.
“Do not worry for me,” Lexa said with feigned sweetness. Then with a hard edge to her voice, she reminded all of them that she was perfectly capable of taking care of herself and would be happy to show any one of them if they desired. As expected, there were no takers.
“Now, if there are no other pressing matters to attend to, I’d like to go see how Anya is faring with the skai omega. If I learn anything new, you will be the first to know. If there are any updates on the newest person to land here from the sky, we will reconvene here.”
Lexa got up and walked out of the room, not waiting to see what the others did or said. Overall, the morning had gone well, but she was worried about this newcomer to the ground. From the reports, this woman was smarter, stronger, and far better prepared to survive on the ground than the other hundred had been. It had Lexa wondering if this woman was sent to look out for the others or if she was some sort of enforcer sent to the ground to get the others in line.
She wouldn’t know until she got the chance to speak to the woman, that is, if she ever did. Because of the omega, who now resided in the rooms across from her, she had no intention of leaving Polis, not unless it became absolutely necessary, so unless the woman was brought to her, it would be some time before they would be meeting. She only hoped that this new woman would shed some light on how it came to be that one hundred people fell from the sky and why they were so out of control.
She took the elevator up, stopping in her room to dress in something more comfortable, and then she headed across the hall, entering the rooms without knocking. She was Heda. She did not knock on doors.
As she strode into the main living area, there was nothing that could have prepared her for what she was about to see. The omega was bent over the table, bare from the waist up. Anya, who was standing behind her, also bare topped, had her hands on the omega’s back. Whatever she was doing had the omega moaning either in desire or pain.
She was just about to open her mouth, about to ask her General just what the hell was going on when Anya spotted her. She lifted one hand from the omega’s back and placed a solitary finger against her mouth, silently asking Lexa not to speak. She used the same finger to call her over to take a look.
As she got closer, she smelled the distinct scent of a medicinal ointment that had been used on her many times after various injuries, and once she got a good look at the omega’s back, she understood what Anya was doing, though not why she was doing it topless.
The omega had multiple injuries, some of them new, but she also had numerous scars, some of them poorly healed, but what was most upsetting was that the girl had been branded, and whoever had done it had done a poor job of it.
Across her back were three large numbers. 3 1 9.
It was hard to tell when exactly she had been branded, but it couldn’t have been that long ago for the three numbers on her back were scabbed over and only just beginning to scar. Did the others from her group have numbers or was it just her? At some point, Lexa would have to ask, but realizing the delicacy of the situation, she kept her mouth shut.
“Heda is here to see you, strik omega (little omega),” Anya whispered. “Would you like me to cover you up, or should I continue?”
The omega, who had been resting her head in the other direction lifted it up and turned so she could get her eyes on Heda. She didn’t look pleased to see her, but she silently indicated that Anya should continue.
Feeling as if she had been given permission, Lexa moved to stand next to Anya, taking a better look at the girl’s exposed skin. She was riddled with scars; ones Heda was familiar with because she had many scars that looked just the same. They were battle scars. This girl had been wounded in fights.
She would never have guessed that the girl lying prone on the table was a fighter, not in the sense that she was. None of the people who had landed appeared to be, but what did she know? She could only base what she knew of the sky people on appearances and behavior. With hope, she’d be able get some answers from this omega soon.
“Are you in pain, little one? We have pain medicine that can help.”
“No.”
The single word answer didn’t tell her if the omega was in pain or not, but she clearly didn’t want any medicine.
“She’s a stubborn one, Heda. She is in pain but refuses to take anything that will alleviate it. Sounds like someone else I know.” Anya chuckled as she put more ointment on her fingers and started working it into the areas of skin she hadn’t yet addressed.
Blue eyes found Lexa’s.
“Yes, I am stubborn too, and I hate pain medicine. I do not like the way it makes me feel, like I am losing control.”
The omega closed her eyes but opened them almost immediately and yelped when Anya touched a sensitive spot. A hand reached back and slapped Anya’s.
“Moba.” Anya moved her hand away from the sensitive spot.
Lexa watched the scene for a few minutes without further interruption, but finally addressed the elephant in the room. “Would either of you like to tell me why you are both topless. I see no reason for my General to be half bare.”
“Our new friend would not allow me to see her scars unless she got to see mine. We were at an impasse, but seeing as she needed medical treatment, I thought it was best to give into her wishes.” Anya stood up tall and pushed her chest out proudly. “Personally, I think she was trying to get me naked.”
The omega let out a bark of laughter and stuck her tongue out before clamming up again.
“Don’t let her fool you,” Lexa said to the girl. “Anya loves to flaunt her body.”
Anya shook her hips. “Hey, when you’ve got the goods, you may as well use them to your advantage.”
Lexa appreciated that Anya and the omega had gotten to a point where Anya, at least, felt comfortable being playful, but there was an important matter that Lexa needed to address. “When you two finish here, I’ll need you both to put on shirts and join me in the sitting area. We have something important that needs to be discussed.”
Anya arched an eyebrow at her, but didn’t ask any questions. The omega didn’t react at all.
“Later, if she agrees,” Anya began as she applied the last of the ointment to the areas that needed it, “she’s going to need to see a fisa (healer). She has a serious injury to her torso, a very large bruise. I believe it is fine, but it’s best that someone check to make sure she doesn’t have internal injuries.”
The omega groaned and sat up when Anya told her they were finished for now. “We’ll have to reapply the medicine before you sleep tonight.”
Lexa went and sat in an overstuffed chair while the two put on shirts. When they joined her, she got right down to business. “I’m here to tell you that another ship, one much smaller than the one you arrived in, has landed.” She described the woman who had arrived in as much detail as she could, only being able to go on what she had been told.
The omega, already quite pale, lost all the color she had. Her eyes started dancing around the room like those of a caged animal looking for an escape.
“Is this woman a danger to you? If she is, we can keep you safe. We will not allow anyone else to hurt you.” Lexa tried to assure her.
“You can’t promise me that,” the omega whispered, voice and body trembling.
“I can, especially if you tell us as much as you can about her. The more we know, the better prepared we will be.”
The omega didn’t stop looking around.
“Except for the balcony, there is no way down unless I allow it.” Lexa didn’t mean for her words to sound harsh but they did. “That means if someone wanted to get to you, they would have to climb. To go up or down would mean certain death. It is impossible to scale the tower, and that’s if they made it past my guards.”
“She knows that already.” Anya stated, sharing a look with the omega.
Lexa didn’t bother asking what that meant. She would get a full report from Anya later.
“Will you tell us about her?” Lexa asked.
The blonde said nothing.
“Will you at least tell us her name?” Anya prodded gently. “You told me last night that giving away one’s name means giving away power. If you know her name, and you tell us, wouldn’t that mean you are giving us some power over her?”
The omega sat rigid in her seat and would not look at them. “It doesn’t work like that.” Her voice remained difficult to hear.
“Then tell us what will work to keep you protected. We can’t help you if you won’t help us.” Anya was practically pleading, and Lexa could tell this girl had already come to mean a great deal to her. That was who Anya was. Once she took someone under her wings, she got protective of them. She was a mother hen to all she loved, and Lexa could see that it would be the same way with this omega.
“Nothing you can do will help me if she’s here. The alpha you are describing is my handler. She’s here for me and no one else.” A tear slipped down Clarke’s cheek.
Anya hated seeing the spunky omega in fear for herself. “Clarke, please talk to us.”
Lexa and the omega’s heads whipped to stare at Anya, and Clarke jumped to her feet looking as wild-eyed as ever. She pointed at Anya, eyes narrowed in suspicion. “How do you know my name? I didn’t tell you.” She took a defensive stance, hands up and ready to claw Anya’s eyes out if she had to. Her chest started to heave.
“Clarke, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to learn it, but I overheard you talking to yourself in the bathroom. You said it then, but I promise, it didn’t give me any power over you. It just lets me know who you are a little.”
“You know nothing about me,” Clarke argued, and Lexa could tell she was slipping back into the girl they had first seen in the forest. Terrified blue eyes were searching for an escape again.
“On the contrary, I’ve learned a lot about you since we met.” Anya countered. “You are smart, fierce, and protective of yourself and your identity. You adore reading, have an affinity for art if how much time you’ve spent in front of the two canvases on the wall says anything, and you enjoy looking outside. You are rebellious but also kind. You are secretive, but I don’t think you want to be, and by the look in your eyes, I know you have been loved.”
Clarke opened her mouth to speak, but she didn’t get a chance because Anya kept going.
“You are fast, have an unusual tolerance to pain and to my poisoned darts,” she winked at the girl, “and your desire to live your life the way you want trumps everything else, as it should. Those are the things you are based on my observations. “
Anya paused briefly but went on. “Here’s what I think you want. I already said you want to live, but I think you want to know a life free of pain, sorrow, and loss. I think you want to find love. You want someone to cherish, but you won’t settle for just anyone. When you find your person, that person will need to be strong and caring. That person will take on the world to make sure that you are happy, and in turn, you will do the same for them. I think you want a family. I also think you have lost a family.”
Lexa was shocked by Anya’s speech. She’s not sure she’d ever seen the alpha speak so much at one time, and the woman had practically raised her. When she turned to look at Clarke, her shock turned to sadness. The girl was crying freely, and by the look in her eyes, she knew that everything Anya had just said was correct but that the omega either thought all those things lost to her or that she wasn’t deserving of them.
Instinctively, she reached out and took Clarke’s hand all while filling the room with her scent. She wasn’t sure if Clarke even noticed, but she hoped it soothed her some. “Klark, when Anya speaks, it’s a good idea to believe her. She is very rarely wrong, loath as I am to admit that, and she is a good judge of character. She would also never offer help unless she thought it deserved. Beja, won’t you let us help you?”
“It…” Clarke paused, “…it is very hard for me to believe that what you say is sincere. Where I come from, there were about 2400 of us, but there was a problem with our home. We were losing air, and it was beginning to get difficult to breathe. People were getting sick. My…” her voice broke, “…my father was the one who found the problem, but he was murdered to keep him quiet because there was no way to fix it. The leaders who remained first thought to send a bunch of us here to see if Earth was survivable, we didn’t know that it was, but then one day out of the blue, the Ark, my home, received a message from a mining ship, a ship we didn’t know existed because we thought ourselves the last of humanity. The men and women on our council thought that ship would be our salvation. The people on Eligius IV promised to help, they promised that they could fix our problem, but when they boarded the Ark, they started killing us. The ones they didn’t kill became their prisoners. A great many of us became their entertainment.”
Lexa hard a hard time grasping what she was saying, but it all sounded sinister and dark, and she knew it was never good when people were forced to entertain others. It had her thinking of the books she had read about the gladiator arenas in Rome. She wondered if she wasn’t too far off the mark having seen the scars on Clarke’s back.
“So,” Clarke went on, “if I have a hard time believing you after learning that people can be so cruel, you’ll have to just live with that.”
Lexa, who was still holding Clarke’s hand, let it go. She got up and started to pace. “I can understand why you would have a hard time, and I can only hope that with time, we can earn your trust. In the meantime, if you could tell us about the woman, it would go a long way toward helping you, but it would also help us. If, as you said, she is here for you and no one else then she will do what she must to get to you. That means that this entire building of people could be at risk, not just you, and if she is as cruel as you are saying the others from Eligius are, then she’s going to hurt anyone who gets in her way. If not for you, then tell us what you know so that we can help the innocents who might cross her path.
Clarke relented. “Her name is Raven, and she isn’t one of them, at least not at first, she wasn’t. She was one of my people. She was my friend.” Clarke wiped at her eyes with the sleeve of her shirt. “The people of that mining ship, every one of them was a criminal, and they worked hard to turn us against each other. They elevated some like Raven because she’s a genius and was able to help them with just about any problem they had, and others they turned into victims. Then there were people like me, the ones who rebelled. We are the ones they broke and had fun while doing it. They did everything in their power to strip us of our humanity. They tried to turn us into mindless beasts, and with some, they succeeded. They almost succeeded with me. If you hadn’t captured me, I don’t think…” She trailed off. “I guess I should thank you for making me your prisoner. Without Anya’s help, without yours, I’d probably be exactly what they were trying to turn me into by now.”
“You are not a prisoner.” Anya looked as emotional as Lexa had ever seen her. “Didn’t I prove that last night?”
Clarke huffed. “You mean when you told me I could leave but would have to go over the balcony railings to do so and that I would die if I tried?”
Anya shrugged. “I wouldn’t have stopped you.”
Lexa steered the conversation back to the newcomer but would be having a conversation with Anya later about the event on the balcony. “Can you tell us, is this Raven person an alpha?”
“She is.”
“Did she hurt you?” Lexa asked, already guessing the answer.
“Yes.”
“Is she responsible for the numbers branded onto your back?”
Clarke looked down at the floor and wouldn’t answer.
“Is she responsible for the numbers on your back?” Lexa asked again, more sternly this time.
“Yes,” Clarke mouthed. “It was the first thing they made her do to me. She didn’t know what she was doing and ended up hurting me worse than she was supposed to. It’s why the burns won’t heal.”
“If she was your friend, then why…”
“Can we not talk about her anymore?” Clarke walked to the far end of the room and wouldn’t face them. She was understandably distressed, but unfortunately, they needed to press on.
“We don’t have to talk about that, but I do need you to tell me the danger she poses to you and to us. We know she is heavily armed and wears armor like we’ve never seen before, and she took out two of my men with a weapon that immobilized them but left them conscious.”
“A shock baton.” Clarke experienced a whole-body tremor.
Anya walked over and gently put her hand on Clarke’s shoulder, turning her to face them. “I take it one has been used on you before.”
“Many times.” Clarke told them how the baton worked, horrifying the two alphas.
“If she is an alpha, why didn’t she just make you submit? Why did she have to use her weapon on you?”
Clarke looked away, gritting her teeth. “I guess it’s a little-known fact that continually forcing someone to submit eventually breaks that part of them. After a while, the body doesn’t react anymore. I think that part of us turns off, not that the mind does. Get forced to submit enough times by someone, and eventually you submit every time that person walks in the room. It becomes instinct.”
Lexa began to growl. “That might be the most heinous, most criminal thing I have ever heard. That someone could do that to another person…”
“That was the point. We were no longer people to them. We were stripped of what made us human. They mind-fucked us until we forgot how to speak, how to think, how to do anything but fight. That’s where the entertainment part comes in. They began having us fight each other, and there was no walking away. Either you fought or you died, and you had better make sure you killed your opponent in the ring because if you didn’t, they would kill you.”
Lexa thought she was going to be sick. This sweet omega had been tormented and tortured by people, one who she had counted as a friend. She had been forced to kill, and Lexa knew, she just knew that this omega wasn’t a killer, and any death on her hands would trouble her for a lifetime. She would never be free of what she had done.
“Why were the hundred of you sent down to the ground?” Lexa hated asking. All she wanted to do was give the girl a hug.
Clarke shook her head. “I guess we became uncontrollable and too dangerous. I don’t really know though.”
“Why didn’t they just kill you?” It had to be asked.
Clarke shrugged.
“Why would they send your enforcer here?”
“Because I don’t think I was supposed to be on the first dropship. They hadn’t fully broken me yet. I think she put me on the dropship by mistake, and now it is her job to find me and provide more entertainment. I’d bet my life that they are watching her every move from above. They might be watching all of us, kind of like the way they watch the contestants in the book you gave me to read, The Hunger Games.”
Clarke’s story was harrowing and more than a little overwhelming. Lexa wanted to vomit. She wanted to ask how they were watching, if Clarke thought the other ninety-nine skai people could be rehabilitated, and if she thought the enforcer would find her, but the omega needed a break. She might not react to alpha pheromones anymore, but she was giving off plenty of her own, and it wouldn’t be long before it took a toll on her, not that it hadn’t already.
It was time to put a stop to things.
“I think that’s enough for today. You’ve been through so much. I am sorry I had to add to that,” Heda apologized. “We will have to revisit this topic, but not today.” She glanced out the window. “It is beautiful outside. If you would consent to it, Anya and I could show you our city. We can visit the pedestrian mall where you can get a few things for yourself, and then we can get a meal.”
“So, I am no longer a prisoner?”
Lexa sighed. “You never really were, despite how it may appear. We didn’t know what to make of you and couldn’t risk you injuring anyone or yourself.”
“Heda, I hate to disrupt the plan,” Anya interrupted, “but I will not be able to attend Clarke’s tour.” It didn’t get past Lexa or Anya how Clarke flinched at the use of her name. “I have training with the novitiates in an hour. I need to go and prepare.”
Lexa looked over at Clarke, who seemed mildly upset that Anya wouldn’t be with them. “If you would rather we wait until Anya can join us, that would be okay. You’ve got plenty of books, or I can bring you more if you would that better suits you.”
Clarke thought about it for a long while, glancing at Anya as if she were trying to get the alpha to stay. “I would like to see the city,” she finally said. Turning to Anya, she asked if she would be able to meet them for their meal.
“I wouldn’t miss it, strik omega.”