Star Wars x The 100 - Rise From Darkness

8- Aden, Madi, and Lexa

The commander had called for the Night Bloods to stop what they were working on and come introduce themselves to their guest. Clarke felt bad for interrupting whatever lesson they were clearly in the middle of but the commander reassured her that it was alright. There were 13 Night Bloods, all between the ages of 7 and 12. Clarke was beyond excited to meet them, knowing that the Night Bloods were probably what was drawing her to Polis. Clarke didn't quite know how it worked, but then again she didn't understand a lot of the things she had experienced since arriving on Naboo and she decided she would think about it all later.

The commander decided to lead everyone back outside to one of the sparring fields she had taken Clarke to on Clarke's tour. There, the commander had the Night Bloods take turns in combat training exercises to demonstrate to Clarke. The training that the Night Bloods were doing was extremely impressive and Clarke knew that the commander's statement about how even the 7 year old could take her down in combat was absolutely true. These Night Bloods seemed to be incredibly talented fighters thanks to the commander's training.

Of all of the children Clarke had met, there were two that stood out to her the most. The first was the eldest of the Night Bloods. His name was Aden and he was 12 years old. When the Night Bloods had come up and introduced themselves back in the school building, Aden seemed the most hesitant out of everyone to meet Clarke. He was incredibly hesitant to even give her the traditional Theed greeting that all of the others had given her and it made Clarke very curious as to why.

Now standing here, watching The commander instruct him through combat with one of the other Night Bloods, Clarke had realized two things. The first was that Aden was a very talented fighter and great at hand to hand combat. Every Night Blood that the commander had matched him against was usually pinned to the ground within 30 seconds. Clarke was amazed at how his takedown style was both patient and aggressive simultaneously.

The other thing that Clarke had noticed about Aden was his relationship with The Commander. She was very hard on him. Even when there were times that Clarke thought Aden had executed something perfectly, the commander always had something to say. It could even just be be a small correction of his footing or the timing of his attacks, but there was always at least something wrong.

Something that Clarke found more impressive than Aden's fighting skills was his eagerness to take what The Commander said to him and learn from it. He was never bothered by her criticism; or if he was he never let it show. He seemed the most disciplined by far of all the Night Bloods and Clarke began to realize just how special this group of children were because of him.

There was one other Night Blood that definitely caught Clarke's attention. A seven year old girl named Madi. She was the youngest of the Night Bloods and definitely the most out of place. When Clarke was greeting the Night Bloods, instead of shaking Clarke's hand, Madi jumped into the Arkadian's arms, giving the 18 year old a massive and extremely tight hug. Clarke was surprised but gave the little girl a hug back.

The Commander seemed both frustrated and embarrassed, quickly pulling the seven year old off of Clarke right after it had happened, but Clarke also noticed the way in which the Commander picked up the small child. Her grasp was delicate and her hold on Madi was soft. Instead of reprimanding the small child the commander just shook her head at the young girl and even gave her a tiny smile she thought Clarke didn't see. Clarke was glad she did though. The commander clearly had a soft spot, and that soft spot was for Madi.

As Clarke continued to watch the combative exercises that the commander was running with the Night Bloods, she would notice Madi whispering to the other children and distracting them when they were supposed to be paying attention to demonstrations and other such lessons. She was an incredibly strong contradiction to Aden who seemed to hang on every single word that came out of the commander's mouth. Madi didn't seem to care as much though.