❛ empire now ❜
★ ₊˚. ❪ the one you call ... ❫
˗ˏ⋆ ˎ˗⠀┊ 2x7⠀┊ ⠀❝ oxv ❞
▅▅▅ ▅▅▅ ▅▅▅ ▅▅▅

" NO ... "

Gustas, one of Lexas most respected guards and trusted allies, stood at the gate of Skaikrus home. Clarke stood there, ready to talk to the commander and attempt to negotiate a truce. She believes that because of everything, she was at the position to negotiate. But Gustas has strict commands to not let her through on her own, but with someone else. "The commander won't see you, unless you are with Marie Kane."

Clarke, puzzled at why they wouldn't see her unless Marie was with her, turns on her heels and steps towards the two closest people near her — Bellamy and her mom. "I need Marie."

Bellamy nods and runs off, finding Marie with Everlee, the two chatting as they lean against the fallen ship. They're talking about what they would do, if Marie would go and join Anakin if the camp fell apart, or if she would accept her death as a member of Skaikru. "Marie!" He yells out when he reaches the two, reaching out and grasping her hand and pulling her along. "Clarke needs you."

Marie, with her sword swung across her back in its sheath, hurriedly matches Bellamy's steps and follows along beside him until they reach Clarke.

"I can't go unless you're with me." Clarke states as she sighs. Part of her wanted to do this on her own, part of her wanted to be the one who saved her people. But now Marie had to go with her, and apart of her wondered if it was because the grounders liked her more. "They won't even let me leave the gate."

Marie doesn't say anything, just walking forward to the open gate and steps right through. She knows there's grounders all around her that have their arrows and spears targeted right at her body. "You coming?"

Clarke nods and walks forward, keeping her head held up high. She walks behind Marie, who is walking along the path to where the grounders had a camp set up. When they reach the doorway of the camp, Gustas holds out his hand before he allows them in, glancing towards Clarke. "If you so much as look at her the wrong way, I will slit your throat."

He lets them in, stepping in behind them and standing guard at the door. Lexa continues to sit on her thrown, her finders fiddling with her dagger, war paint across her face as she stairs the blond down. "Clarke Griffin, you're the one who burned three hundred of my warriors alive."

Clarke side eyes Marie, "You're the one who sent Marie to lead them to our doorstep, having her invade our camp and have us leave so you could pick us off one by one."

"You are well?" Lexa looks to Marie, tilting her head and waiting for the brown haired girl to answer. "No harm?"

"No, heda." Marie nods back, and keeps her stance still and in front of the commanders thrown, eyes darting around afterwards to see if she can spot Anakin.

Lexa smirks, a small look in her eye that makes Marie eye her curiously. "Do you have an answer for me, Clarke of the Sky People?" Lexa questions, slowing down the fiddle of her knife and staring at the girl.

"I've come to make you an offer instead." Clarke announces as Lexa stands, keeping a hand raised to silence the other grounders around her.

"This is not a negotiation." Lexa looks at Clarke and the looks at Marie then back at Clarke. "You are here because of Marie, she has proved herself to me. If she chooses that what you want is worthy, than I will listen."

Indra, a grounder who had stood beside the thrown, snapped and extended her sword towards Clarke. "Let me kill her and get this over with." She was furious that her commander would even suggest listening to the one who murdered her sisters and brothers, and she was still skeptical of Marie.

Marie stepped forward, weary of the grounders around her who were trained to kill. "Clarke Griffin believes she can help you beat the mountain men. Your threat is the reapers, she has shown me how we can turn them back." Marie takes a moment for the commander to nod, so she can continue what she has to say. "You have all the reason not to trust her, but trust me, Heda."

Clarke ignores what Marie says and moves around her so she faces the commander. "Why wouldn't you see me without Marie?"

"Because every grounder in this tent and in the surrounding area ... they want your blood to soak the earth." Lexa, almost showing she is annoyed by what she had said, turns her attention to the blond again. "The grounders respect Marie because of her place among us as Anakins second."

Marie chose to have this moment for Clarke to think about what she said. She could see the wheels turning in her head by the way her face twisted in thought. The female Kane looked at the commander, watching as her cape flowed on the ground. "Hundreds of your people are trapped inside Mount Weather, kept in cages. Their blood is used as medicine."

Although Lexa placed her trust on Marie, she was still skeptical about what she was saying. No one survived the horrors of the mountain, and those who managed to become reapers were killed by their brothers and sisters. "How do you know this?"

"Because I saw them. My people are prisoners there, too. I was one of them." Clarke confirms, her blond hair falling in front of her face when she turns towards the commander who continues to move around.

"Lies." Indra exclaims. "No one escapes the mountain."

"I did. With Anya and another member of Skaikru, Oslo Blane. We fought our way out together."

"Another lie. Anya died in the fire. You killed her." Indra snaps, stepping forward, ready to kill the blond haired girl for lying to the commander.

Marie knows it's true, because she saw Anyas body, she helped Oslo burry her. "She's truthful. I helped burry her body, I can take you to her grave."

Minutes of silence pass before Lexa finally moves back to her thrown and sits down. She raises a hand, and a grounder steps out of the tent and drags in Anakin. His body is bruised and anyone around can tell that he has suffered a cruel fate for the act of disobedience. He stands tall beside his sister, despite the feeling in his chest that screams to murder her and await his death afterwards. "Ready brother?"

Anakin nods and rolls his shoulders. "Yes heda."

"I'm still waiting for an offer, Clarke."

"The Mountain Men are turning your people into Reapers. I can turn them back. I've done it with Lincoln."

"You say you can turn Reapers back into men."

"Yes."

"Then prove it. Show me Lincoln. And if you fail, Anakin has the honour of being the one to deliver the heads of every member of Skaikru." Lexa states, and when Clarke looks to the bloodied grounder in shock, he smirks.

" DELIVER ... "

Lexa pauses. Her eyes locking with Clarke's. "... me the one you call Finn." Clarke, who still stands beside Marie, the two having been close to death when Lincoln's heart had stopped but Clarke had managed to bring him back to life. "Our truce begins with his death. He will suffer the same fate all the ones he slaughtered did." Lexa finishes, and with one final look at the grounders, Clarke takes a step out of the tent.