Warpaint | Clexa (Completed)

Chapter 13: Blood Must Have Blood

Clarke helped Luna put on her armour, and handed her the sword.

"I didn't think you'll fight." She said to Luna.

"Neither did I, Klark. But there's no avoiding war. It comes for us all."

Clarke nodded.

"Are you ready for this?" Luna asked Clarke.

Clarke shrugged. "Does it matter? I'll do what I do best - go and kill people."

"And then?"

"And then nothing. Everything goes on as usual. Nothing ever changes, does it?"

Luna smiled a little. "You sound like me a few years back when I escaped the Ascension ceremony."

"We're both outcasts, aren't we?" Clarke said.

"Maybe after this is over, you should travel. There's a lot to see, in this country, you know. Apparently there's this place called City of Light. As long as you steer clear of Azgeda's boundary, you should be good."

"You think I'm not strong enough to fight Azgeda's gona?"

"No, I think you aren't stupid enough. Now go get ready, and give me a gun."

***
Clarke pulled her double edged sword out of a man's throat and blood gurgled out.

"Yun gonplei ste odon" she whispered and ran for her next target. The attack on the Glowtree clan lands were going much smoother than they had thought it will. If Clarke didn't know better, she'd say that it was as if they were almost holding back. They seemed to lack the edge and aggression that Grounders usually possessed.

Clarke hadn't noticed their Heda in the battlefield yet, and realised that the best warriors and their Commander must be on some other side of the battlefield.

She hacked and slashed her way through the common foots soldiers, without even needing to make use of her guns. Bathed in blood, she threw her knife at another Grounder who was coming running at her.

She walked over to the man, slightly whispered a prayer, and slashed his throat for a quick death. Clarke smiled to herself. She had wanted to be a healer once upon a time. It seemed like another lifetime away. This almost felt like a comfortable rhythm. She didn't have to think. Just hack and slash.

"For I am become death" she whispered as she kicked the machete out of a warrior's hand and drove a sword right through his heart.

Suddenly, the battle got a little more intense as a few new wave of warriors joined them on the field. Clarke looked over to Luna, on the other side and realised that Luna was shouting something for her. The din and noise of the battle was too loud to hear what Luna was saying. Clarke decided to run over to where Luna was standing, similarly covered in blood and guts, to hear her out. Suddenly, they were cut off by a fresh wave of warriors, much stronger and much skilled than before. She could hear Murphy shoot at them blindly, as they came closer. She wondered if she should go and help Murphy out, but the path in between were flanked by enemy warriors.

Clarke hauled herself up on the branch of the nearest tree and decided to swing over to the next tree to cover the distance between her and Murphy. A slight drizzle had begin to fall, and it worsened the visibility. As she positioned herself to jump onto the next branch, she suddenly saw a hooded figure hacking and slashing at the Arkadian soldiers almost in a rhythm. It was like the figure -  tall and slender - was in a terrible dance of death, and everyone around fell under the two swords, cut cleanly and in single strokes. Clarke wondered why the figure looked familiar, and then saw the red cloth across the shoulder,  flying in the wind. The Glowtree clan Commander, she realised. Only the Commander's office held that red cloth. She had seen it on Lexa. And she had seen Luna put it on whenever she went to Arkadia.

A kill to end all kills. Commander Killer. Clarke smiled to herself viciously. With the Heda down, most of the warriors are going to drop their weapons, she knew. She could almost see the disappointment on Pike and Jaha's face when they'd hear it was Clarke who'd done it. Again.

She waited silently on the tree branch, for the perfect moment to strike. The Commander, face hidden under the hood, weilded the two swords as if they were a part of her arms. The swords glinted in the moonlight and the blood shone and glittered as they slashed across throats and stomachs with equal ease. An Arkadian warrior took a shot with a gun, and the Commander blocked the bullet with ease, and it clanged with the sword and fell. The very next moment, the same sword was deep inside the stomach of the soldier, and he fell, intestines splattered on the soft soil.

Clarke knew it was her moment to strike. Breaking out from the transfixed way she was watching the Commander fight, she jumped down right behind the Commander, knife ready to be shoved across the throat. The Commander turned around in a flash, sword ready to defend, and the hood fell.

The knife and the sword met in a clang and Clarke gasped. "No!"

"Clarke?"

Lexa lowered her sword, disbelief written all over her face.

"No. No." Clarke repeated to herself.

Lexa's shoulders slumped, and she visibly let her gun down. Clarke saw Murphy raise his gun from behind Lexa, and she started to shout to Murphy to stop. Lexa turned around in confusion, and the bullet caught her squarely in her left arm. A sharp pain shot across her body and she bared her teeth in anger.

But it was too late. The few moments had cost them the edge they had in the battle. Lexa and Clarke was surrounded by Arkadian and NouKru warriors on all sides. It was over.

Lexa scanned the area quickly, before conceding defeat. She dropped her sword, looked up at Clarke and said, "Looks like you'll always be my weakness."

"I'm so sorry Lexa... I didn't know..."

Lexa smiled ruefully. "I got distracted Clarke. You cost me my happiness first. And now you cost me my freedom too."

---

A/n:

Hello beautiful people.

I'm on the other part of the world, still reeling from the shock of the elections, like everyone else. It is painful, and devastating. It's like waking upto a nightmare. America had been beautiful and gracious to me when I had lived there. I hope it'll be the same when I go back. It's not one person, but the people who voted for this that scares me. But now is the time, like Dumbledore said, to choose between what is right and what is easy. Stay strong. You will always have friends all across the globe.

I love you all.
Charlie.