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It took almost three weeks to get rid of the smell of blood that had stained Polis during ALIE’s takeover. It had quieted down a lot since Raven had managed to bug ALIE’s central programing and shut her down, and even through Lexa didn’t really understand, even with Clarke’s explaining, the only thing she was happy to hear was that the chipped grounders would be back to normal and that ALIE had been defeated. The only thing that still lay uncertain was what should happen to the “Commander’s Spirit.” Titus had taken it when he had shot Lexa, but since then it had stayed in the box next to Lexa’s bed after she ordered Titus’s arrest for trying to kill Clarke.
She remembers the fiery pain that coursed through her entire body at the feeling of the bullet embedding itself in her flesh. She remembers Clarke crying, she remembers the slow numbing as her world slowly turned black. She had thought that she was going to die, but maybe she shouldn’t have underestimated Clarke’s abilities as a healer, or her abilities as an Ambassador.
How Clarke managed to convince Luna to come back to Polis was a feat in itself. Clarke had said she needed to convince Luna to come back because Lexa needed a blood transfusion and that the younger night bloods were either too small or unable to give enough blood.
Luna stayed after Clarke left to go back to Arkadia, and to say Lexa was surprised was an understatement. The fact that Luna was still in Polis shocked Lexa even more. She was sure after Luna knew her people were safe that she would go back, but she was still there.
When Luna purposed the idea to take a walk through The Hall of The Fallen, Lexa had been slightly suspicious as to why Luna would want to go down there. But with their history Lexa couldn’t bring herself to say no to Luna when she had made a seemingly simple request. She had cleared her day and had asked Clarke to look after the Nightbloods for the day.
Luna meet her at the bottom of the staircase leading to the hall, a torch in her hand as she nodded in greeting as soon as Lexa was in sight. The Hall wasn’t the most common place for people to go in the tower, the only thing that resided there were the armors and weapons of Commander’s past as well as weapons or trinkets from the Nightbloods who lost their lives in the Conclaves. The addition of the Nightbloods’ weapons was something Lexa had added early into her ascension. It was something she had told Luna on one evening when they had been talking about the changes that were made from their previous Commander to Lexa.
The walk to The Hall is a silent one, the light of the torch Luna holds like a vice the only source of light after a while down the hallway. Lexa had dressed more casually then usual, still healing from wounds from ALIE’s attack as well as her gunshot wound. Part of her didn’t want to appear as Commander when it was just her and Luna. Luna was her friend, longer then anyone else had been and despite everything, Lexa had missed her company. Especially after Anya’s death. Luna was the only person alive, other then Titus, who knew Lexa before she was Commander. Outside of Clarke, Luna was the only other person who knew Lexa better then anyone.
“Why do you wish to travel to The Hall of The Fallen?” Lexa had asked as the door came into view. It was one of the older rusty doors that needed more encouraging then others to open.
“Something the Sky Girl had said when she was persuading me to come back to Polis.” Luna started, “Something about not running away from things that needed to be faced.”
“You feel like you need to face them?” Lexa asked as she turned to Luna, the girl sporting a stoic look that could rival Lexa’s own.
“They would have died either way,” Luna tries to pass it off as disinterest, “But I feel I owe it to them to see them to rest properly. To say goodbye.”
“They’d like that.” Lexa agreed and Luna turns to her for a moment, “Most of them.”
The smirk that tugs at Luna’s lips is knowing before she sets the torch up on one of the holders on the wall before helping Lexa open the door, the creaking echoing through the darkened hallway. Luna retrieves her torch and lets the light flood through the hall. It’s dark and dusty and clearly not as maintained as Lexa would like it to be.
Lexa knows they made it when their greeted by the sight of a large sword hanging from the wall. The darkened blade and red finishings on the hilt make it clear who it belonged to.
“Jox,” Luna stated, eyes narrowing, “I’m surprised Titus hung his sword so proudly.”
Jox was a few years older then Luna and Lexa. He was a much larger boy who lacked intelligence, but made up for it in sheer strength and force. He wasn’t particularly close with any of the other Nightbloods from Lexa’s conclave and surely wasn’t anyone’s shoo-in for Commander. He was particularly cruel and had taken joy in breaking the bones and bruising the younger and smaller Nightbloods. Because of that Lexa and him would get into fights regularly. Lexa had always been particularly protective of the other Nightbloods, especially the younger ones. Luna always backed her in such fights, which Lexa was thankful for otherwise she may have been dead long before the Conclave even began.
“Titus liked using him to push us harder.” Lexa started, the name of her former teacher held a bitter taste in her mouth.
“I was rather shocked when you managed to sprain his wrist during training,” Luna recalled, “That’s when I believe Titus starting seeing so much potential in you as the next Commander. I remember Jox’s face when you had knocked him on his back.”
“He broke my arm an hour later.” Lexa recalled with distaste. “We were not in practice anymore, he was just angry I beat him.”
Luna hums an agreement.
“Remember he used to threaten to kill us in our sleep because we were the only ones who could hit him in training?”
He had actually attempted to kill Luna once, Luna had managed to yell for a guard but if she had waited a few more moments Jox would have likely strangled her.
“We used to sleep in the same bed, back to back, so if he tried he wouldn’t succeed.” Now he didn’t seem as scary as he did back then. Back when Luna and Lexa were half the size they were now and only had a fraction of the battle prowess that had come with age and practice.
“Titus hated it.”
“Titus learned to deal.” Lexa snorted while only caused a bittersweet half-smile from Luna.
“How did he die?”
“I don’t remember.” Lexa answered honestly, “I killed him, but I am unsure how. He hit me in the head pretty hard close to the end of the fight. I remember swinging my sword, but then nothing.”
Luna nods and turns to the next weapon displayed, a hatchet hung on the wall. Lexa watches as Luna brushes some of the dust from the weapon.
“Blight,” Lexa started recognizing the weapon of the former Trikru warrior. Him and Lexa were the only two from Trikru that were blessed with black blood, the two had something akin to a brother-sister relationship being from the same clan. Blight wasn’t a very good fighter, he was more interested in plants and healing rather then killing. He was a year older then Lexa was and she had looked up to him in her early years of training in Polis.
“He was sweet,” Luna recalled, the first sound of remorse entering her voice. “Did he die well?”
“He killed himself during the second round.” Lexa states feeling bail raise in her throat. Since Luna fled Lexa was paired to fight Blight in the next round. It had been a particularly hard round for both of them. But Lexa couldn’t bring herself to kill Blight, so Blight had taken his own life so that Lexa could live. She chokes down the pain at the memory and turns her attention back to Luna. “During our fight he snapped. He couldn’t take everyone killing each other.”
Luna nodded. Blight was the softest of the group, despite his age and size, it was clear that out of all of them he would be the one to lose early into the Conclave.
“We all had different responses to having to kill each other.” Luna started, her gaze turned to a familiar trident hanging from the opposite wall, Lexa followed her gaze.
“Solaris would be happy that you lived.” Lexa pointed out as she noticed the familiar weapon. Being able to grow up with family was a luxury as a Nightblood. Luna was lucky that her brother shared the same blood, she got to know at least one person in her family. It also seemed to be a curse as Titus had them fight each other early in the very first round of the Conclave.
“Would he be happy that I lived or angry that I ran?” Luna fixes Lexa with a glare and Lexa knows Luna doesn’t want her to answer. Lexa bows her head in submission before looking back up to see Luna’s expression had softened. “It feels like he died for nothing.”
“They all did,” Lexa pointed out and Luna pulled her gaze from the trident, “We were told that the spirit would choose one of us. That whoever won the Conclave was chosen by the spirit. But that has to be false not only because the spirit is no more then a piece of tech, but also because you lived. The spirit still chose me, yet I had not been the last Nightblida alive.”
“You knew the old ways don’t make sense, that is why you change many of them when you became Commander.”
Lexa hums in agreement, after the Conclave she was sure the spirit would still pick Luna even though Luna had ran. Yet she had woken up after her fight with Jox a Commander, with Titus asking for Luna’s blood. Lexa hadn’t allowed him to go after her, simply because there was no reason to. Luna went back home to her people, and she had been good to them ever since. She was still a strong ally even though they hadn’t seen much of each other in the years that followed the Conclave.
Lexa looks over at some of the other weapons, Nora’s knife hangs close to Blight’s hatchet, and then Cato’s sword, Zach’s knife…Lexa’s boot suddenly hits something in the darkness, causing it to skid across the floor. Luna turns away from her brother’s weapon, eyebrows coming together as Lexa retrieves that object that had been placed thoughtlessly on the ground.
It’s a bow, Lexa realizes when her fingers come around the object and pulling it up so the black weapon catches the light of the torch. Her heart sinks, she vaguely registers the sound of Luna’s boots on the ground coming closer.
“Shadow?” Luna asks as she gages Lexa’s reaction. Shadow was the youngest of the group, all black hair and blue eyes. She was no more then twelve when the Conclave took place. Titus thought she was a lost cause because she preferred a bow to an “actual weapon” as he said. Lexa had a soft-spot for her, but after spending time in Polis is was clear to Luna that Lexa had a soft-spot for kids, period. Shadow was spirited and usually trained with Lexa since Lexa was the only one who was interested in training the younger Nightblood.
Lexa runs her fingers over the bow, it’s beautifully crafted like the many other Nightblood weapons.
“She was twelve.” Lexa started, “And she died because of a piece of tech.”
Luna remains silent, she feels Lexa’s anger and frustration. The people they grew up with, the people that they trained with, the people that they spent almost every hour of their days with, all were killed because of a piece of technology. A chip. That was it. And now it didn’t feel like anything someone should have had to die over.
“She killed Zach in the first round.” Lexa stated recalling the other young boy. He was thirteen and all shaggy hair and lanky limbs. “Jox broke her neck in the second round. He beat her until she couldn’t stand, until her blood smeared across the entire arena. Then he broke her neck. He was the only person in the Conclave whom I ever wanted to kill.”
Luna reaches forward with her free hand, placing it over Lexa’s that has a death grip on the bow in her hands. The touch causes Lexa’s green eyes to snap up to Luna’s.
“I think we could both use some fresh air.” Luna’s voice is soft as she rubs the back of Lexa’s hand. “Come on,”
Lexa turns and mounts the bow on the wall where it deserves to be rather then being forgotten on the ground. She turns to follow Luna out.
Luna ends up cutting through a familiar path the leads underneath the city. They had discovered the tunnels one day when they were fooling around as children and had learned where all the tunnels led. Titus had called the series of tunnel The Catacombs once before when he told the Nightbloods that they weren’t to go down there. Of course Luna and Lexa had done so anyway in secret.
One of the tunnels leads outside of Polis walls, close enough to the ocean that the smell of sea salt filled the air. Polis wasn’t far from the beach, and within a short walk the grass underneath their boots turned into white sand. They kick off their boots and seat in the sand a few yards from the water.
“I can hear you thinking,” Luna stated as she turned to face Lexa,
“They all died for tech, and Titus knew.”
Luna sighed, she didn’t like Titus, but she didn’t enjoy watching Lexa lose faith in him. After his attempted assassination on Clarke, Lexa had forced him to vow never to hurt Clarke again. Then he was sent to jail until Lexa could think of a reasonable punishment.
“And he hates you,” Lexa continued, “He thinks you wouldn’t have made a good Commander.”
“You say that like you know I would have won.” Despite Luna taunting Clarke about how she would have won the Conclave, deep down Luna knew her fight with Lexa would have been a close one. Both of them were evenly matched in many ways and the fight would have been horrific.
“I do,” Luna looked at Lexa in confusion as she continued, “You would have won. If you beat Jox you would have been Commander.”
“And you know this for a fact?”
“Luna,” Lexa started as she finally turned to her friend, “I know because we were all ready to die for you to take Command. Nora, Blight, Shadow, Me, we were all ready to die by your hand to ensure that you became Commander because we knew you would be the Commander that our people needed.”
Luna hadn’t known that, and the thought made her feel sick, “Solaris?”
“He wanted you to be Commander, he’s the one who made us swear not to kill you if we faced you in the Conclave.”
“And you swore?”
“I did.” Lexa stated, “Because I knew you’d do better then I. You were not nearly as temperamental or as impulsive as I was when we were younger. You were always calmer and more logical back then. Everything you already were I had to learn to be. I caused the deaths of many people so that I could learn to be a Commander-“
“Stop,” Luna put a hand up, “For what it is worth, you won the Conclave fair and square. You had one thing I didn’t, you are committed to our people. I was selfish and I ran because I didn’t want to kill. You kill because that is what our people needed you to do. You have done amazing things as Commander, and I admire you for that.”
“People still died because of me.”
“People died because of both of us.”
Silence washed over the two and for a few minutes only the sounds of the waves filled the air.
“There were some days that I really hated you.” Lexa admitted and Luna turns her attention from the water to Lexa, “Because I had to watch the people I love die, and you were off somewhere with your people safe and happy. I had wished you had killed me so that maybe the people I cared about could be alive. But I always regretted thinking that way because you are my friend, and I didn’t want you to have to face the pain of losing someone you cared about.”
Luna didn’t know how to respond to that. She was still processing the fact that the other Nightbloods had been willing to die for her back in the Conclave.
“What do we do now?” Luna asked and the question held promise. What do WE do now, together? Lexa seems to be mulling something over in her head, eyebrows coming together and green eyes hyper focused on the ocean in front of them. Lexa fishes something out of her pocket and holds it up in the warm sunlight. Luna recognizes it as the box that holds the flame.
“This is a good place to start.” Lexa suggests, the only other person who had access to the Flame throughout the ALIE events was Raven, briefly, so she could copy it and use it in her virus that she infected ALIE with. Lexa stand up and Luna watches her walk towards the water until she is standing ankle deep. She pulls back and launches the box through the air and into the ocean which a quiet slash into the waves.
“It’s a great start,” Luna agreed as she met Lexa in the water,
“No more people will die for it.” Lexa says, “My Nightbloods will not kill each other for it.”
Luna smiles at the mention of Lexa’s Nightbloods, “We will find another way to select a Commander.”
Lexa smiles in return as the two make their way back up the beach and towards the Tower.