Wild

8.

*A MONTH LATER*
*Dinah's POV*

It was time. Time to face the demons that the soldiers had created. Time to face friends, allies and for some of us lovers. Lexa was struggling to hold herself together but at least she was doing better then Camila. As we saw the soldiers approach us, day by day, step by step, Camila grew weaker and weaker. Lexa deemed her unfit for the battle and banished her to her grounder friend Lincoln's cabin so his wife Octavia could protect her if anyone entered the cabin. 

I looked over my left shoulder to see Rusty stashing knives in her boots and clothing. Lexa had gotten the grounders to make extra weapons and armor for us to have. In the past month she trained us and welcomed us as her people. Each of us took the brand and now as we head into war our faces have been painted black around the eyes, somewhat resembling a raccoon. Rusty looked up and caught my eyes before sending me a supportive smile. The smile soon dropped from her face as the soldiers now stood about 500 meters from us. Weapons hung from their bodies and hands as they moved towards us in a structured formation.

Lexa called all of the troops together and we began to approach also. The war music drummed through my ears as I held my sword tightly with my right hand, my other hand was firmly gripped by Rusty. I turned to face her and noticed her face had turned a pale white.
"We'll be ok," I tried to say reassuringly to her. She nodded her head slightly but then her eyes widened in shock.
"OMG, their eyes," she whispered in shock. The soldiers now stood 100 meters from us and many of them had eyes that glowed an unnatural gold. "Lexa told us they get brainwashed into it through torture but she never said they did something to their eyes."
"It's a drug," Lexa said from a few people over, I hadn't even noticed her. "They only use it on the people that resisted the brainwashing. On the strong ones," her words hung in the air for a second before her demeanor changed," LET IT BEGIN," she yelled to the army and we all rushed forward into battle.

My hand separated from Rusty's making me loose her in the crowd of soldiers and warriors. In my distracted state a soldier managed to get the jump on me and I felt their blade sink into the skin of my lower back. I turned, blade raised, and made eye contact with the unnatural gold glow. I raised my blade to strike but was blocked by another. I turned quickly to push the intruder away but paused when I was faced with a golden eyed Lauren. Only it was no longer Lauren. Her eyes had a murderous fire behind them and her smile was malicious. She was out for blood.

I unfroze from my movements and pushed Lauren to the floor before turning and stabbing the other soldier in the chest. They fell to the floor as their eyes lost their unnatural glow and revealed the scared child behind them. A child I remembered seeing long ago on the boat. A child with a family, an imagination, a soul. The sword feel from my hand as I fell to my knees. I had a sister his age once. A sister who has probably given up hope in the search to find me. Whose broken. Who'd never forgive her sister for killing a boy, a child.

*Rusty's POV*

As I pulled my blade out of another soldiers body I noticed a hunched over body through the crowd. Left defenseless as a soldier stalked towards them. I squinted and recognized the long blonde hair that fell to her hips and the deep blue armor, it was Dinah. I sprinted towards her and at the last second leapt in front of the blade that was about to strike her back. I felt the blade pierce through my armor, as if it was specially designed for this type of armor, and then I was hit with a deep, excruciating pain as it sunk deeper and deeper into my skin. I looked up at my attacker meeting the golden eyed version of Lauren. I wanted to apologize to her in that moment. For not fighting hard enough to save her, to get her back, to save her. For a moment I saw something in her eyes flicker. It was like she was trapped inside herself. Trapped behind whatever they did to control her. She was very aware of what she'd done.

I felt my body hit the ground and felt Dinah's hands lightly touch my cheeks as she held my head still, forcing eye contact. Her tears hit my face and ran down my cheeks, along with my own, causing puddles to form where her hands are.
"No Rusty, you can't die," she said in a stern voice.
"Then hurry up and get me to the village or I will," I replied as tears continued to stream down my face. She nodded quickly and lifted me up into her arms so I could be carried. As she stood I noticed Lauren's figure retreating, along with the rest of the soldiers. "Wait," I gasped out as blood ran down from the corner of my mouth, "we need to get Lauren," I said, pointing off into the distance where her figure had disappeared.
"Another time Rusty," she lifted one arm up a little higher to remove some of the blood from around my mouth, " It's your turn to be saved," I barely heard what she said because the world around me was becoming blurry and my eyes struggled to remain open. "No,no,no," I heard Dinah say repeatedly as she began running to the village.

*Dinah's POV*

I ran desperately into the village and barged down the door to Lincoln and Octavia's cabin. I noticed Octavia spring into action pulling out her blade before the ring of metal falling to the ground met my ears as she rushed to find Lincoln, the village healer or Abby, a doctor and Mother of Clarke. I had only met Abby once before and that was after Lexa accepted us and asked her to tend to the wounds I had on my back.

Camila stood from her seat in the corner and cleared the light brown wooden table that Lincoln prepared meals on so I could place Rusty down. I rushed to the table once it was cleared and placed Rusty on it gently moving her hair out of her face and placing a soft kiss on her forehead.
"You can do this," I whispered to her.
"Who did this?" I heard Camila ask as she looked with concern at both Rusty and I.
"You wouldn't want to know," I said, refusing to remove my eyes from Rusty. The Cabin became eerily quiet for awhile before I heard Camila softly whisper.
"It was Lauren, wasn't it." I was going to reply. To tell her it wasn't Lauren. It looked like Lauren, apart from the eyes, but it wasn't her mind, her choices but Octavia had returned with both Lincoln and Abby in tow and I stepped back from the table to allow them the freedom to work. After a while Abby politely asked Camila and I to exit the cabin as the procedure wouldn't be pretty. After slight protest I decided that if it could save Rusty that was enough.

When I exited the cabin I could hear a distant scream. It wasn't a painful scream, more of a desperate angry scream. I made my way into Lexa tent where I heard it and was faced with a chained up Clarke. Her eyes were distant and had that unnatural glow to them, but her eyes looked as if the soul was trapped as well. I reached forward to touch her face but a firm hand gripped my wrist to stop me. I turned and met Lexa eyes, they were bloodshot and her cheeks were stained.
"They did this to me once before," she said softly as she released my wrist, "they did it to my Mother. Made her into one of them. I never got her back," Lexa said as she sniffed slightly, "I fear the same will happen to my beloved Clarke."
"Clarke's strong, she'll make it," I replied in a reassuring tone.
"I know she's strong," Lexa said stepping away from Clarke," they knew it too. I can't even touch her without risking injury. They turned her into a death machine. Take away her weapons and she'll use her teeth, feet or fists to kill you."
"We'll find a way to fix this."
"We'll save your friend," Lexa met my eyes in a strong gaze, "I'm making plans now. First we find a way to fix Clarke, to make sure it's possible then we will go," her tone was full of authority, she was in this moment the Commander.

I exited the tent to provide Lexa with privacy and returned to Camila, who was accompanied by Octavia.
"Any news?" I asked hopefully. I saw Camila gulp before Octavia spoke up.
"She's alive but she's not waking up." I nodded sadly before opening the door and walking to the table were Rusty was, immobile. I sat on the edge of the table and ran my right hand down the right side of her face in soft, affectionate strokes before leaning in a kissing her lips.
"Wake up so I can kiss you for real," I whispered as I pulled away and grabbed her hand.