Blodreina

Betrayal

Sage's POV

Whether it was my quick thinking of Lincoln's amazing shot a wave of silence falls over the wooded area. Even the Mountain Men stopped shooting momentarily because they were amazed someone was able to make that shot while they were firing down upon us ruthlessly. But once the amazement wore off the gun fire only picked up where it left off, and now they're actually trying to aim at us instead of firing randomly. "That was amazing you guys," Clarke said to us with a huge smile on her face, obviously surprised my crazy plan even worked. We take a few moments to take in the chaos surrounding us before trying to come up with a viable plan to get to the door. Storming it will only result in our people being gunned down so that's out of the question. "We need to take the gunners out," Lexa says while scanning the mountain side, counting how many people she barely can see from here. She may not see them clearly thanks to the darkness but one is already too many and she's already coming up with a plan. And the moment she announces that we'll be surprise attacking them from behind multiple people including Lincoln volunteers to join her. But they're all our strongest warriors that Clarke needs to down here to help open the door once we get the shooting to stop. "No you all, including Lincoln, will have to stay down here," she says while calling out the names of her guards instead. Then before giving the signal for the four men to follow her she turns towards me with a smile because this will be the first time we officially fight together side-by-side. Now she'll see all thr training her and Indra put me through in action. With a small head nod I tell her that I'm ready and without a word she takes off towards the mountain with us all following closely behind. Within seconds three of her guards or warriors are shot down but we all keep on running so we're not the next ones caught in the crossfire. When we reach the cover of nearby trees we stop to scan the expanse which the gunners are standing on in front of us. During this time Lexa kneels next to me and gets my attention off of the task at hand which means whatever she has to say is important. "You made us all proud back there Sage kom Trikru." All I can do is stare back at her with wide eyes because after months of her training and proving myself she's officially called me one of her own people. To top it all off her usual icy gaze is replaced with a smile that I've only seen a handful of times. I'm now a part of her clan along with being her second. "You're one of us now," she says while quickly refocusing her gaze upon the massive group of men in front of us. Her smile is now replaced with a look of pure disgust and rage at what these men have done to our people for no good reason over the years.

Suddenly she takes off running and the rest of us follow her, taking out gunman after gunman without batting an eye or breaking a sweat. We each must've killed over five people before Lexa herself reached the last gunman and held her sword up to his neck. "Get whoever's in charge out here right now," she says with a blank expression, waiting for the man to call her bluff. When he does she cleanly cuts his throat and asks me to use the radio to get someone to talk to us. But that's not needed when the man Clarke released just over a month ago walks out of the trees and right up to us with an offer. If we call for a retreat and stop the deadly attack that could destroy the mountain they'll give us our people back unharmed in exchange. Although it's an offer that seems completely harmless there's something about it that puts me on edge. The definition of our people can mean everyone that's not a Mountain Person, or he could be referring to only all of the grounders that they have. Knowing Emmerson and how he's acted towards us all in the past he's definitely just talking about only releasing the grounders which now puts me in a very awkward position. My friends are still trapped in there but after being told that I'm officially part of Trikru now and also being Lexa's second there's no way I can go against her orders. Knowing Lexa she's been repeatedly thinking this deal over and over in her head the moment he presented it to her. It's not an easy decision to make since she'd be betraying someone she has feelings for and an alliance she worked so hard to create in the first place. Based on her decision it could all go down the drain but on the other hand if she doesn't take the deal then he could kill her people. Either option has dire consequences. "You have yourself a deal," she says while looking him in the eyes, making him visibly uncomfortable. My eyes widened in amazement because for a moment or two I really thought she wouldn't take the deal. That she'd kill the man instead because of how much she hates the Mountain Men. Even her warriors seem surprised because they were ready to keep on fighting but she doesn't care about what they think. She cares about what I think and now more importantly how I'm feeling. After watching him run back inside the mountain she slowly turns towards me with what could be called a sympathetic look on her heavily painted face. It's very obvious she's worried about my reaction so when I don't give her one she now seems deeply concerned. "Sage is everything," she starts to say but my quickly raised hand cuts her off in the middle of her sentence. "It's probably best that we don't talk right now Lex," I say with a pained voice knowing that I won't be able to stay behind with the others and get the rest of the people out. She knows that I understand her decision because it's the same one I'd make if I was in the same position as she was in. That's why we became good friends right away and then why she asked me to be her second. We think and act almost exactly the same.

————————————————————————

"Chil yu daun," (Stand down!) Lexa has me yell with her while we walk down the hill towards the large group of people trying to pull open their massive door. Part of the deal was that we'd stop all attempts at opening the door and although I didn't agree with her accepting it she's still in charge and as her second I still had orders to follow. If the door even opened an inch then the deal would be called off because that could spread radiation onto the people escorting the grounders there and that would end up killing them all. Our loud voices cease all attempts of the door being opened and now they watch while we walk up with Emmerson close behind, tied up. "What's going on? They surrendered," Clarke asks with a hopeful look but the smug smile and sinister laugh that leaves Emmerson wipes all hope off of her face. Now the look of betrayal takes over her features especially when she sees me still standing next to Lexa with a blank expression on my bloodied face.
Obviously we fought the gunners because that's the only way Emmerson knew we were up there, but what happened next was what made Clarke look at us with disgust. Lexa betrayed her. Technically with my presence at the deal and not putting a stop to it meant that I betrayed her just as much as Lexa did too. On the way down the commander tried to get me to understand why she made the decision but nothing stuck in my mind more than her bringing up something Clarke said earlier. Above all else Clarke will do anything and everything to save her people, and that's what Lexa ended up doing in the end. But what made me officially forgive her for what she decided to do was when she gave me permission to stay behind with the Sky People and save my friends without getting punished. "You didn't even try to stop her," Clarke yells at me angrily while lunging at me, getting pushed back by Lexa's guard, because she thinks that I gave her the okay or just stood back and kept my mouth shut. Waving them off I allow her to get right in my face and once she does my icy gaze and how similar Lexa and I look makes her back off right away. It's taken her this long to notice the similarities that people have been talking since the first time we've been in the same room together. Now she directs all of her anger at Lexa since her antics aren't getting a rise out of me in the slightest.

"I made the same decision as you would Clarke. The duty to protect my people comes first. Just be happy I'm allowing Sage to stay behind," she says calmly. With one last look at me she calls for a retreat and within seconds her excited and bloodthirsty warriors put their weapons away and turn their backs on the door. Once it was announced that I was the only grounder allowed to stay behind Lincoln tries to talk his way into staying as well, knowing my skills alone won't help keep my people alive in there. A small argument breaks out between them because although I'm now a grounder I'm also still a member of Sky Crew and can stay back because of it. The deal said all grounders had to leave but they didn't say anything about making people who are both grounders and sky people leave. When Lexa calls for him to be detained the fight turns physical when he attacks the two guards who try to take hold of his arms, knocking one of them out. But he's no match for the two others who join in and eventually they get his arms tied behind his back with rope. During this time Clarke tears her eyes off of the senseless violence and watches Lexa and I look over at Lincoln with blank expressions that make her grow visibly uncomfortable. We're both covered in blood and are essentially desensitized to this amount of violence. It's almost creepy and unsettling to be so close to us. After double checking the ties they placed on Lincoln the guards ask Lexa if she's ready to go and with a nod she sends them ahead of her. First she offers me a hug and a few encouraging words along with telling me she was proud of how well I fought alongside her before turning towards Clarke who's still trying to plead with her. Although she knows Lexa well in this moment of weakness mixed with pure desperation she's hoping that the feelings that the commander has for her will help. But after hiding and compartmentalizing all of her feelings for years, this is a piece of cake. Nothing that Clarke is saying is even registering in the commander's mind anymore, that's how much she can block people out and it's honestly just making her feel empowered. She likes having control and this is the ultimate amount that a person can have over someone else, but she also knows she made the right decision. She knows that this was what's best for her people and because she took the deal she only lost a handful of her warriors at most. So now she's just patiently waiting for the blonde to give up with her begging so she can say her official but temporary goodbye. With a small smile, which visibly unsettles the blonde even more she says, "May we meet again," before quickly walking away from us.