Fixing Clexa's story to give them an ending they deserved (an *ending, not the journey they deserved). They are clearly endgame but it turned into a bit more of an adult-themed journey to get there so just a warning it takes a slightly dark turn ar...
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"Octavia I said I want her alive."
Lexa casually scolds the young warrior as soon as she emerges from the tunnel to find the girl beating the absolute shit out of Ontari while her hand is still pinned to the tree. The dagger is tugging on the hole in the palm, widening it with each punch she takes. Black ooze has dripped down the full length of her arm to her shoulder.
"Get those wrapped up." Lexa gestures to both the nub hanging limp also dripping and the hand pinned by the dagger, "We can't have her bleeding out."
Lexa sits herself down against one of the tall, mossy trunks, keeping Clarke snuggly in her lap. Now that they are out in the open, she's able to take the girl in better, and her heart sinks in her chest at the fragility in her arms. She knew to expect the shorter hair, the once long blonde strands now wavy and darkened with dirt and grime. She's lost a noticeable amount of weight as well, her once toned arms are thinner and no longer defined, her face slightly gaunt, the cheekbones a bit more pronounced. She had the same dark circles around her eyes as Lexa.
The rush of relief from discovering the cave is short-lived, as Lexa curls over the blonde's sleeping body, pulling it even closer into herself. She nuzzles into the girl's temple, tears threatening to seep out again.
"I'm so sorry Niron." She whispers against the side of Clarke's face, "I'm so sorry it took me this long."
When she hears another crack of knuckles crashing into bone she calmly raises her head back up.
"Jesus Octavia I said she better stay alive. We aren't even close to being done with her, don't worry."
"Fine." The girl huffs, wiping blood off her knuckles. She tugs the dagger out of Ontari's hand, and her nearly lifeless body drops into the dirt like a sack of potatoes.
Octavia gets a tourniquet around Ontari's bloody stump, and wraps the other hand to stop the bleeding, but there's no real conversation otherwise as they sit waiting for Lincoln to arrive with their horses to make the trip back to Polis. Ontari's eyes can barely stay open, and Octavia was plenty eager to stop any attempts at snarky remarks with the back of her hand across the girl's mouth.
"What are you going to do with her?" Octavia asks.
Lexa had barely taken her eyes off the sleeping girl in her arms since she sat down, but she looks up at Octavia, then over to the battered body next to her.
"17 days." Her stomach is instantly churning again at the number. "17 days she had Clarke." She looks back down at the blonde, who looked so at peace nuzzled into her.
"She will suffer the pain of 17 deaths."
Lexa ordered Ontari to be tethered to Octavia's horse and forced to walk all the way back to Polis. At random intervals she'd give Octavia a nod and the girl would take off at a canter, dragging Ontari for a stretch over the rough forest floor before stopping again and forcing her back to her feet to resume walking. Lexa couldn't deny the girl certainly had a high threshold for pain, and she looked forward to further testing those limits.
