Chapter Text
“This is not an attack just on Trikru, or just on Skaikru. This is an attack on all of the coalition!” Titus’ voice boomed across the war council, as this general argued with this one, over who should join the war and who shouldn’t. “Will you just submit yourselves to Nia? You swore an oath to Heda!”
Clarke watched as the bickering slowly quieted down and soon the war council was completely silent. All the generals and ambassadors seemed to just be thinking.
“How do you expect us to make this decision now? Without our leaders here. What will they say to us when we return to them with news of war we dragged them into?” The Trishana kru ambassador spoke up.
“If they have an ounce of honor in them, they will say that the choice was clear.” Lexa stared the man down.
“Azgeda has never been challenged by so many clans at once. They always win because they fight us separated. Ingranronakru will be happy to bring the fight to them again, united this time!” The general from the plains spoke and Lexa nodded.
“Sankru. You have lived in fear of their shadow your entire lives. What do you say?” Titus asked.
The woman was silent until then. Faced with a direct question however, fear flashed across her eyes and she breathed out to steel herself. “We have lost too much to Azgeda. But if Nia was to rule over us, none of us would be safe anymore. Sankru stands with Heda.”
Various murmurs of agreement could be heard, as Shallow Valley, Rock Line and Broadleaf all declared their support. The rest of the room was silent, Brennt not saying a word the entire council meeting so far, just watching their reactions.
“Brennt, what about Blue Cliff?” Clarke asked.
He looked between her and Lexa for a few seconds, before he stood up. “Clarke has saved us from the mountain. And now Nia looks to take their place, to enslave all of us. They attack only Skaikru now, but who’s to say Delphi won’t be next? Or Podakru? One by one she’ll war with us all again.” He sighed. “We wanted to put an end to the meaningless death of our people. And Nia’s death is the only way. Jus drein, jus daun. ”
And suddenly, Clarke felt like she was encamped before the mountain again, as all the grounders around joined in the chant. Unlike before, she didn’t join in. It was hard, with all the adrenaline coursing through her, but she had to keep a calm head. She implored Lexa with a look, hoping the Commander would understand her.
She raised her arm, silencing the room, “Mobilise your armies, get every able-bodied man and woman ready to fight. March them to Polis only. Let her think it’s just a show of power. Clarke will assemble a small group, try to save her friends while Azgeda will be busy reinforcing their borders. And after they are safe, we go to war.”
Warcries erupted again, as Anya leaned in to whisper to Clarke, “We will kill them all.”
And Clarke put a hand to the sword at her hip which was not there and nodded.
---
Clarke had to choose the people that would go with her, deep in Azgeda territory, to help her find her friends when no one knew where to even look. The people she wanted to take with her the most were the ones she would be saving. She didn’t want to put Anya in danger, but knew there was no point in arguing. Me and Anya. I wish it was enough. She thought. She needed at least one more, if not two. An idea popped into her head of who would work great for a mission like this.
Right away, she went to Indra, knowing she has a radio connecting her to Arkadia. Indra of course handed the device to her and left to make preparations.
“Clarke?” Raven’s voice came through, surprised.
“Raven, could you please get Murphy?”
“Murphy, what do you want with him?”
“I am going to save our friends. And I can’t do it alone.”
“So you ask Murphy and not me for help? That hurts Clarke.” Raven said seriously.
Clarke actually felt bad for a little bit, “No… I…” She stuttered.
“C’mon.” Raven actually laughed. “I know I wouldn’t be much use out there. But if you want, I can get you some guns with silencers. Wait here, I’ll go look for him.”
“Thanks.” Clarke smiled back, still feeling a little bad for not asking Raven first.
A couple of minutes later, the radio crackled back to life, this time with Murphy's voice, “Heard you need help.” She could hear the smirk.
“It would be just me, you and Anya. I assume Kane already told you all about the war with Azgeda. I want to save our friends before we attack.”
“So I’d be stuck with you and your girlfriend in the Ice Nation territory? Do you even know where to look for them?” Murphy said.
“I don’t. But do you want to just leave them there?”
Murphy was silent for a while, looking at Raven who offered him a small smile, “So what’s the plan?” He said.
---
Only a day later, they were outside of Polis. Murphy arrived alone, with all the necessary equipment, for once clothed like a soldier, with the most camouflaged clothes they could find at Arkadia, all of it as warm as possible. He of course couldn’t miss the remark that he looks ridiculous, but Clarke knew he was glad to be prepared. She watched him hand a small device to Lexa, before he came in front of Clarke, to push a similar one to her gloved hands. “From Raven.” He said to her before addressing everyone, “It’s just a simple comms thing. Raven told me if you,” he pointed to Clarke, “push that button, the light on Lexa’s will light up. To let her know if something goes wrong.” He looked between both of them, “Basically, if that lights up, you can just assume we’re dead and go to war.”
“Then I’ll pray it won’t come to that.” Lexa responded.
“I’ll press it after they’re safe. Maybe we can fight them from the other side.” Clarke thought aloud.
“The seven of you against an army? John Murphy, I don’t know you, but Wanheda must have picked you for a reason. I think Azgeda will find a reason to be afraid of you all. Don’t die.” She looked first to Anya, then to Clarke and lastly to Murphy.
“Let’s go,” Anya said, “We can make it to Azgeda borders in two days.”
They set out, Anya with her sword and spear, Murphy with his handgun and a rifle strapped over his shoulder and Clarke a combination of both, a sword at one hip, a handgun at the other and each a small backpack with some food, water and a sleeping bag.
The trio made their way through Trikru territory, meeting a number of patrols, with the first day entirely uneventful. Clarke found a way to talk with Murphy, discussing all the things that happened at Arkadia while she was away.
“Jaha left. With a bunch of his crazies, looking for some City of Light.” He said.
“The same one he wanted to call the Exodus for?”
“Yeah. I almost went with him.”
“Did you believe him?” She asked.
“I don’t know.” he shook his head. “But I didn’t want to chase his crackpot theory.”
They walked silent for a while, Clarke glancing at Anya, who was looking at a map currently. “Thank you though. For coming with us.”
“Yeah, well… Bellamy would have tried to save us too.” He responded and Clarke smiled.
Anya led them through the forest until the sun was barely visible, at which point she decided to stop. The visibility between the trees was worse than it is at night, so Anya wanted to set camp here for the night.
“I hope you don’t plan for us to sleep on the ground.” Murphy asked as he looked around to see if there was an inch of ground not covered in a layer of snow.
“Not today.” Anya kicked away some branches covered with leaves to reveal a trapdoor in the ground. She lifted the hatch and gestured for the two of them to wait outside while she went in. Clarke looked around a bit, to see if she remembered any landmarks from when she was in the wilderness, but nothing seemed too familiar. Either the snow was thicker than before, or she hasn’t been around here at all. Not like I went through the entire forest, she thought.
“It’s safe, come down!” Anya’s voice came from the hole in the ground.
“Ladies first” Murphy smiled and gestured for Clarke to go down the ladder, at which she just rolled her eyes, but went first anyway, Murphy behind her.
Once Clarke stepped off the ladder, she saw that it was much like the bunker she was last in with Finn. Without the rotting smell of death however. The air was stale and dusty and she had to suppress a cough with almost every breath for the first couple of seconds. Clarke and Murphy set down their bags and got out their sleeping bags.
“Hey.” Murphy tapped Clarke’s shoulder with something.
Clarke turned to him and saw he was holding out a silencer for her. She smiled and took it with one hand as the other unstrapped her gun to screw it on.
“Another gift from Raven. She assumed we may need to be more quiet than we usually are.” He said as he started doing the same, installing a silencer on both his rifle and handgun.
“We can all sleep tonight, we won’t need to set up patrols for at least three more days.” Anya said while spreading out their map on the only table in the room, gesturing for the two of them to come join her. She pointed at a couple of spots, “Our best chance is moving bunker to bunker, and this is the last one we know of.” It was beyond the Azgeda border.
“And after that? Any idea where to start looking?” Murphy asked as he put away his guns.
“Maybe. Through the years, we sent a few spies to Azgeda and we know of a few locations that Nia would hold prisoners in. Some of them are worker’s camps and I don’t think she would leave them there, so it has to be a place for important prisoners.” Anya went silent for a few seconds as she looked over the map. “Here.” She pointed at a spot that was about a day’s walk from the last bunker. “We start there, and if they’re not there, we keep moving north by the mountainside.”
“What do we do with any patrols we meet?” Clarke asked.
“We have to avoid them if possible. The moment we kill one of them, it’s only a matter of time before news gets to Nia and then she’ll definitely know we’re coming.” Anya sighed. “And who knows what she’ll do then. For now, all her scouts told her is that some armies are on the move, but war hasn’t officially been declared yet.”
Clarke hoped they would go unnoticed as long as possible. But, she knew she had to be prepared for the worst. She put her hand on Anya’s shoulder, “We have a plan for the next few days, let’s go to bed. I want to start as soon as we can tomorrow.”
Anya smiled at her and folded the map. She stood up and looked at the beds as she realized there were only two. She looked at Clarke and then at Murphy “Right, I can sleep on the floor if you…”
“Nice of you to want to preserve my innocence, but I’m a big boy now, I can handle you sleeping in the same bed.” Murphy said as he faceplanted on his bed, before he started shuffling his way into the sleeping bag.
“Sorry, I didn’t know if you wanted people to know.” Anya looked down at her feet.
“I’m not ashamed of you. And I think he would have figured it out anyway.” Clarke smiled and lifted Anya’s chin with her fingers. She pressed a kiss to her lips, “Come on, let’s go sleep.” And she led her by her hand to the bed.
Next three days went approximately the same, the trio got up before sunrise and walked until sunfall, sometimes stopping to eat, sometimes eating on foot. On day two, Anya caught a deer with her bow, but it only resulted in two meals for all of them, as they couldn’t spare the time to prepare any more of it.
It was the morning of day four and they were getting ready to climb out of the bunker.
“This is as far as I’ve ever been.” Anya said. “Ahead of us is unknown territory. We got through the border, where most patrols should be, but that doesn’t mean we can afford to be reckless now. We have to continue slowly, and quietly. Same rules like yesterday, no talking, if you have to, whisper. If you see anything move, or hear anything even slightly out of the ordinary, let the rest of us know.”
Even Murphy seemed to take it seriously, his usual snarky behaviour replaced with a grim expression, as he seemingly realized it was getting serious now. They got out of the bunker and started moving through the forest. The further north they moved, the colder it was getting and the thinner the forests seemed, but they were still relatively warm in their clothes and hidden by the trees.
The sun was directly above them as Anya’s hand shot up, making Clarke and Murphy stop immediately. Without the crunching of snow below her, Clarke now heard what made Anya stop them as well. Voices, in the distance. She could make out about 3-4 different ones, but there was no way to tell if there weren't more who weren’t talking. The echo of the forest made it difficult for them to pinpoint where exactly the voices were coming from, but once they were able to at least somewhat figure out the direction, they started quickly walking in the opposite direction. They barely made it 30 steps before the group came into view over a small hill. There were maybe 10 of them, but they were not walking directly toward them.
“Down. Now!” Anya whispered and pointed at a bare withered shrub next to them. They all quickly got down and shuffled behind it. Clarke was almost not breathing from how quiet she tried to be, even though the men kept talking and most likely wouldn’t hear them anyway. They thankfully kept walking straight and soon enough disappeared behind the trees.
“I think they’re gone. Let’s go before they loop back.” Clarke said and Anya nodded.
“I don’t think there should normally be any patrols in this area. Unless they have a reason to be here.” Anya said.
“Reason like some important prisoners nearby.” Murphy nodded.
“Or they’re just on their way to reinforce the border.” Clarke countered. “Which means we’ll meet more of them like this. Let’s not get our hopes too high up.”
Anya knew she was right, so she just nodded and picked up the pace. She knew they were maybe two hours from the first outpost where prisoners could be held. They did see more Azgeda soldiers, all of them walking out in the open where they could see them from the forest, but they couldn’t see them very well, not when they stopped behind the trees anyway.
The forest around them was silent, the military movements driving the local wildlife deeper in, away from the main roads. Anya navigated them through by following the mountainside, until about two hours later, they finally arrived at their destination.
It was a mine shaft entrance, supported by rotted wooden beams, with rusted and broken cart rails. There were no guards around and no light was visible from outside, but they still approached slowly.
“The mine is shallow, there was a cave-in that hasn’t been cleared in years. Nia has since used it as a checkpoint for transporting prisoners. It’s… unlikely they would still be here, but I thought it would be worth to check anyway.” Anya whispered as they stopped in front.
“I’ll take even a long shot.” Clarke whispered back and Anya nodded.
There were two barrels at the entrance, one with a few torches and one with oil, although not much remained there. “One of us should stay here, to keep guard.”
“I’ll do it.” Murphy said and leaned against the cold stone wall, his assault rifle in his hands. “But don’t take too long. I don’t like how fucking quiet it is and I’d rather keep moving.”
Clarke and Anya both nodded and grabbed a torch. They were able to quickly light them on fire using Murphy’s lighter, and made their way inside. After about a hundred feet in, Clarke asked, “How do you even know of this place?”
“One of our spies was stationed here during the last war with Azgeda. She reported that the few prisoners that were taken were always brought here. Then it was up to Nia to decide if they were important or not. If they were, they were taken somewhere else. If not, she just executed them.”
Clarke was about to respond, but she saw the space around them open up, as they entered a large open space in the cave. “This must be the end, look.” Anya said as she hovered her torch before the obviously caved-in continuation of the mine shaft.
“Let’s look around then.” Clarke said.
The light from the torches illuminated a good portion of the cave, but not enough for them to say there’s nothing there right away. Clarke saw chains and shackles nailed to the stone, dried bloodstains all over the place, remnants of a campfire and a broken spear lying on the ground. Nothing that would tell her that her friends were ever there. She made her way along the wall to the other end of the cave, and only found one small empty burlap sack.
She was about to say there’s nothing there, when she heard Anya’s voice.
“Clarke, look.” She was kneeling down over a spot on the ground.
Clarke walked over and saw that it was another bloodstain. Except… “It looks recent. A week old, maybe?”
“A little more I think, but yes, much more fresh than the rest. They might have been taken through here.” Anya said. “Let’s go outside, I think I have an idea where to go next.” She turned around and started walking towards the exit, but noticed that she wasn’t joined by a second pair of footsteps. She turned around and saw Clarke still staring at the blood on the ground. “Clarke?”
She was silent for a couple of seconds and Anya walked back to her. Finally, Clarke turned her head, and asked, “What if she killed them already?” There were no tears in her eyes, but the slight shakiness in her voice told Anya that Clarke wasn’t even remotely as ok with that possibility as she tried to appear.
“Clarke.” Anya brought her hand to Clarke’s face and brushed a few stray hair strands behind her ear. “If she did, then… We follow the rest of the plan. We kill her. And anyone who chooses to follow her. But, I believe they are still alive.”
“Why?”
“Because, it’s Nia.” Anya smiled sadly. “If they were dead, she wouldn’t send their fingers. She would send their heads.”
Clarke looked at the stain on the ground for a last time before she nodded to Anya. “Thank you.”
Anya smiled more honestly this time, “Let’s go. Murphy must be freezing out there.”
They made their way out of the mine to find Murphy crouched down, looking through the scope of his rifle into the distance. He heard their footsteps, so he briefly glanced at them, but quickly turned to the scope again.
“About damn time.” He said, “I saw more soldiers, not even a minute after you went in. You’re lucky the fire wasn’t visible anymore.”
“They just passed?” Anya asked.
“Yeah, same way the others went.”
“We have to move quickly. The longer we take, the more prepared Nia will be for war.” Anya took out her map and unfolded it against the cold stone.
“We are here,” she pointed at a spot next to a mountain range, “I knew the chance of them being here would be low, but I wanted to be sure.”
“If they’re not here, then where do we go next?” Murphy asked, now looking at the map as well.
“We think they were here.” Anya said.
“And it wasn’t that long ago.” Clarke added.
“So they’re probably not that far.”
“That’s what I think. Nia sent a demand for Clarke to give herself up in exchange for her friend's safety. And even if she thought the chances of that happening are small, she still wouldn’t take them far in case Clarke did actually come to her. There is a village, only two hours away from here to the northwest. Nia might be using it as a base to organize her military.”
Clarke released a shaky breath. Two hours. We could get there before sunset, she thought. Despite what she thought back in the cave, standing in the cold winter air now with this piece of information fresh on her mind, she felt hope swell up within her. Her hand reached for her sword, and her breathing evened out.
“The main host will be marching through this valley.” Anya again pointed at a map, this time at a spot between two forests and next to a hill. “If Nia is using this village, then the soldiers we’ve been meeting were coming from there, with their generals reporting to her. And most of them would be coming through this valley. We’ve met... maybe 60 of them? In here,” she tapped the spot before she folded the map again and tucked it away in her backpack, “there would be hundreds marching through.”
“And how the hell do you want to get us through that?” Murphy asked.
“Not through. Around.” Clarke said and Anya nodded.
“We’ll continue through the forest,” Anya looked ahead, “we’ll have to stick close to the mountains for another hour and then continue west. It could be more dangerous, being closer to the valley, but I think their patrols should be less spread out that close to the village.”
“Alright. Let’s say we get there. We still haven’t talked about what we do then.” Murphy said, tapping his fingers on his rifle. “I assume we aren’t just going to open fire and pray we don’t run out of bullets.”
“No. Shooting is our last resort. We’ll get there before sundown, which gives us some time to monitor the situation, then we can go in at night. Do we have an idea where exactly in the village they would be?” Clarke asked and Anya shook her head.
“Our reports from this area were never that specific.”
“Well how big is the place? Are we gonna spend the whole night going door to door?” Murphy inquired.
“It’s 20 houses at most. But they’re going to be either chained somewhere outside or in a tent. Even Nia, as cruel as she is, wouldn’t throw her people out of their homes to make room for prisoners.”
Clarke saw that Murphy was still unsure, but she knew they had to move out soon. “No plan survives first contact with the enemy.” She remembered the quote from a book she read back on Ark. “We’ll know what to do when we get there. And if we don’t, we’ll do something anyway. We’ll get them out and let Lexa know she can go to war. And then we’ll see if we can end Nia right then and there.”
Murphy, seemingly satisfied with this, slung his rifle over his shoulder again and started walking in the agreed upon direction.
Clarke wanted to set out as well, when she felt a hand snake around her back, settling on her hip and lips press against her temple. “I think you might be the scariest Trikru general I’ve ever met.” Anya whispered to her, a ghost of a smile tugging at the corners of her lips.
Clarke turned and chastely kissed that ghost away, a full smile left in its place. Clarke couldn’t help but smile as well. “Sometimes I feel like I’m just pretending. Like I’m just bullshitting my way through every situation I get into. And my luck has to run out eventually, right?” Her expression shifted more and more to worry as she spoke.
“We create our own luck, Clarke. We always have.” Anya said as she leaned her forehead against Clarke’s and looked into her worried blue eyes.
“Yeah I don’t want to interrupt you lovebirds, but we really have to go.” Murphy said from a few meters ahead, only half looking back at them.
Clarke kissed Anya again, for a heartbeat longer this time, before they set out.