Lightning Only Strikes Once - Clexa

Chapter 64: Kos Kongeda

"Is everyone gathered?" Lexa asks quietly.

"Sha, Heda," Anya says, face set. "We are ready whenever you wish to address us."

Lexa nods. She grabs a nearby square of blue fabric, tucking it into her belt, and picks up the small mirror she left close by. Clarke takes it off her wordlessly and holds it up, allowing Lexa to use both hands to apply her warpaint, and then to apply similar warpaint to Clarke. When she finishes Lexa looks as much the Commander as she ever has, a spirit of war instead of a person, and as she washes the excess warpaint off her hands a strange sort of dread creeps up on her.

She notices suddenly that she is still wearing the watch Clarke gave her, and for some reason that makes her feel a cold weight in her stomach. It's wrong to be wearing it today, when she will walk out of this tent and order the death of hundreds, when she will slice into flesh and hear agonised cries and pleas. They might be Maunon, murderers by default, but as she condemns them she knows for a flicker of a moment she will see something else – she will see a sibling, a parent, a lover, a child. It does not matter that she lost count of the deaths she ordered long ago, she always sees that, with every single execution, and she thinks she always will.

"Hey," Clarke says softly, taking Lexa's wrist gently as Lexa struggles to take the watch off. She removes it herself, hands deft. Lexa raises her eyes to meet Clarke's, and her words of explanation die in her mouth. Clarke's expression holds nothing but understanding. She remembers that though Clarke had Lexa braid her hair today she did not ask for Costia's sheath to be put in.

Clarke looks at her steadily. "We're doing the right thing," she says, so quietly Lexa can barely hear her. There's a faint tremor of uncertainty beneath her words, but she clears her throat and says it again more decisively.

"We're doing what is necessary," Lexa corrects, because they are. The right thing is irrelevant, in this case. When she thinks of watching them all die – that odd moment when suddenly the whole world changes a little, when a life extinguishes like a blown-out candle and the person's eyes become eerily dull and unmoving – her heart clenches a little. There is something that seems so harmless about them, the Maunon civilians, pale and weak as they recover from their illness, as scared and defenceless as goufa now they are outside their little world. She reminds herself that inside that world, inside the Mountain, they ended her people's lives as if it was a treatment akin to putting a bandage on a wound. They have developed their defencelessness by hiding away in luxury, never questioning the deaths of those who enabled that luxury. She inhales sharply, glancing at her reflection one last time. "Let's go."

People stretch as far as the eye can see. There's the gona, the villagers of TonDC, and the Skaikru who came with them, but Lexa suspects that in the past few days all of her people within travelling distance have also come. Perhaps they came just to see what had caused the explosion, originally, but when they got closer and realised the Mountain had been destroyed – well. Of course they stayed.

The Maunon are in a group, on their knees with their hands tied, surrounded by gona with spears. Indra stands in front of them, expressionless. Abby is standing near her as well, surprising Lexa – she thought Abby was still unconscious. She leans hard on Jackson, but is still pale from the pain and stress on her knee.

Anya follows her gaze. "She just woke up ten minutes ago," she murmurs to Clarke and Lexa. "And insisted on coming. Clearly stubbornness runs in the blood."

"I'll have to see her afterwards," Clarke says, strong emotion showing until she breathes deeply and schools her face to blankness again. "I checked on her while she was still out, but we haven't had a chance to actually talk."

"Afterwards," Lexa echoes, glad that Clarke hasn't asked her to delay this for their reunion. She wants to get this over with.

Lexa steps forward and every single conversation quiets immediately. The only sounds are distant bird calls and a couple of quietly whimpering babes. The crowd of people stare at her. The silence seems to pull at her words, sucking them out into the world. "For years, the Maunon have terrorised us," she says, her voice ringing out clearly. "They have burnt us, and they have bled us. But they have not broken us. The Mountain is gone, and we remain!" She pauses while the crowd cheers, waiting for silence again. "Today, we decide what happens to the survivors. It has always been our way to meet force with force, seek an eye for an eye, to say that blood must have blood."