Chapter 125 - A message

When I found Clarke and Bellamy, everything was already a mess. Echo, Roan's spy had her sword pointed at Clarke's neck, luckily for her, as soon as she saw me, she froze before pushing Clarke away, sending her stumbling towards Bellamy, who had no trouble catching her before she could fall to the ground.

"Look around you. Skaikru did this to us. Because of them, Ontari, your rightful Commander, is dead! This imposter stole her Flame."

Just as Clarke was about to argue back, Kane walked forward, surprising everyone but the grounders.

"No, you are wrong! Wanheda saved us, all of us. Grounder and Skaikru alike. If not for her we all would have been still under her control!"

"There would've been nothing to save us from if your people didn't exist!"

"It doesn't matter what you or your people think, Azgeda has no authority here!"

"We do now! In the name of King Roan, as rightful caretakers of the throne of the Commanders, Polis is now under Azgeda rule!"

As soon as Echo said those words, two Grounders walk up, a man and a woman, and if my memory serves me right those two were the grounder equivalent of what Kane was for the coalition. Unlike the man who was slightly less aggravated by those words, the woman, on the other hand, shouted at Echo, not accepting her declaration.

"Why in hell would we accept that? What gives you the authority to decide such important matters by yourself? Where's your war chief, girl?"

"Our war chief is dead, Ambassador. As a member of the Queen's guard, the command of our army has fallen to me until my king awakens."

"If your king ever awakes. That's a big If, girl. Until a new Commander can ascend, Polis is to be ruled by the ambassadors of the Coalition. If Azgeda wants to rule, they must take it by force."

Unfortunately, for everyone, Echo wasn't exactly keen on letting this chance slip through her fingers. Before the woman ambassador could react, she fell to the ground as blood start spurting out of her body.

"Consider it taken! No Skaikru leaves this city alive. Gon Azgeda!"

How sweet of her to say for Ice Nation as soon as she declared war on us. I have to say, despite not being on good terms with them, Echo was probably one of the women from Ice Nation that I can say I might be able to befriend at other times. One of her guards thought that it would be wise to attack now, and before he could put his hands on Clarke, a bullet found its way into his head. Echo gave us one last glance, not caring at all that I have just killed one of her people in cold blood before walking after the grounders that took Roan away.

"It seems that we are at war, once again."

"Looks like saving the world will have to wait. What are we going to do now?"

Kane turns to the guards that gathered around when Echo threatened them, and he quietly orders them, getting them ready for a fight, just in case Echo decides that she had seen enough Skykru in her new city.

"Gather every one of our people that you can find and bring them to the temple. We'll be waiting for you there."

"Yes, sir!"

Even with those guys bringing our people to that temple, there's no way we can get out of here with all of our people alive. For once, the grounders have the advantage over us. However, there might be a way for us to get our people out of here with minimum casualties if I manage to utilize their fear in our favor.

"You guys go ahead. I'm going to create a safe passage for our people out of this city."

"You're not leaving alone, Leon. Despite your strength, you won't be able to take on the entire Ice Nation by yourself. Besides, we still need to find Octavia."

"Don't argue with me, Clarke. We both know that if we don't do something, our people will die. Echo's different, she's not Roan, and that means that she would kill everyone if that means the survival of her people."

Surprisingly, she didn't argue afterward, but she still glanced at me as if I killed her mother. A few minutes goes by until we reached the temple and as soon as we reached it, Clarke walked up to me before looking me dead in the eyes.

"Go, Leon, but please don't kill Roan, he's not our enemy. You aren't alone anymore, people are waiting for you both here and at Arkadia, so once again please don't do something stupid."

"I know that princess, besides I don't plan to die just yet."

"I hope so."

"Be safe."

"I will."

A few hours later and tens of Azgeda warriors were dead, I was sitting on a chair looking at my target. She wasn't dying fast, but she was certainly dying, that if I let her bleed out. As for why this happened? Two people that I consider dear to me were lying on the floor, without their heads. I don't know how, but somehow Echo managed to find Anya as well as Finn, Clarke's boyfriend or better said ex-boyfriend and killed both of them as revenge most likely. As a result, for that, I let myself fall into a rage, and much as I'd hate to admit, what I had done to her body had been sloppy cruel work. With those horrible wounds on her body, it wasn't a doubt that she might succumb to the pain and blood loss and die within an hour or so if not treated. She tried to turn the whole coalition against us, but instead, she was dying, wheezing out her life through multiple wounds, as her blood was slowly pouring out of her.

There was nothing any grounder could do for her, either. Almost forty Azgeda warriors lay dead between the entrance and her room, and let's be honest what's dead can never rise again, at least I hope so. Despite everything I have done tonight, strangely enough, I didn't feel bad or sick at all, it felt right? For some reason, I was slowly getting used to this bloodshed and meaningless killing.

In the end, I wasn't a monster that would give her mercy, no, Echo will live with this fear, that one day I might come to claim her life for what she had done. Before she could succumb and die, I cleaned her up as well as I could, patching all of her wounds to the best of my ability before leaving the room, but not before leaving a message to her.

"This was the only time I spare you. Next time Azgeda kills someone dear to me, it would be the last day on Earth for your people."

She could barely nod at me, but by sheer willpower she did, fear written all over her face as she glanced at me leaving the room, leaving her alone knowing that the only reason she was alive was that she had become a living message for all clans.

By the time I returned to the temple, the whole city heard of what happened to the Azgeda and how tens of their best warriors lay now dead after the unofficial declaration of war between them and Skykru. Obviously, Clarke and Kane were the first ones to approach me after they had heard what happened.

"I can't believe you have done that. Do you realize that now there is no way Ice Nation would peace out from this war?"

"Kane, I understand your fears, but Azgeda wouldn't have accepted peace no matter what we would have done. Besides, none of their leaders are dead just yet. Their prince is still unconscious while Echo is probably still too scared to do anything against us. We can leave this place if we use our cards right."

Kane gave one last look before leaving Clarke and me alone. Even though my actions might have destroyed any bridge that would have led to peace, the Ice Nation wasn't known for being merciful to its enemies. Because of that as well as because of what Echo did, I thinned out their numbers, evening the odds.

"We both know that Kane's right, Leon. While I have no doubt that you had a good reason for doing it, maybe this wasn't the best time to attack …"

"Echo killed Anya and Finn, Clarke. You don't know how much I want her dead, but that won't benefit us at all."

Clarke's eyes went wide open when she heard that Finn died before tears start to fall down her face. Even though they were no longer together, Finn was still a friend, a close one at that, but now? He died, most likely in a painful way considering the amount of blood that was on the floor when I found Echo. Clarke didn't stay long after she heard my reason, and who would blame her.

A few hours later, all of us left Polis, unsurprisingly without any problems thanks to what happened in the Ice Nation camp last night. While we, the ones that could walk and fight went on foot, the injured and old people were put in the rover so that they won't slow us down. By the time we reach Arkadia, almost three days passed since A.L.I.E was destroyed. While Arkadia was in no shape or form prepared for the Praimfaya, Mount Weather, on the other hand, had almost everything needed for us to survive for at least a few years under lockdown. Despite having a safe place to shelter our people from the death wave, we still have to find a way of saving even more people. We have almost six months left to figure out how to save the grounders as well as some animals. Sadly, our meetings always failed to find a proper way of saving the human race.

Today was no different, with Monty, Raven, Clarke, and Bellamy, trying to figure out how to save the human race.

"We've been at this for what now? A few days. There must be something we're not thinking of. What if we could reach the nearest nuclear reactor?"

"I told you, the meltdown started months ago. There's no magic button to turn them off. Besides we don't have time even if we could have somehow shut down the reactors. While today this isn't black rain, it will be soon. That's why we have to focus on riding out the radiation. Mount Weather is under extensive repairs and upgrades, but it won't hold our people and grounders alike. It can barely hold five hundred people."

"Raven, I don't think the grounder even wants our help at this point."

"It doesn't matter if they want it or not. This is about the survival of an entire race. We would force them to work together if that's what it takes for humanity to survive."

Clarke spins around at the suggestion that the plan only has to save the Coalition, and sighs remembering what I've told her almost a week ago.

"This isn't just about saving us. I made a promise to Roan, it's about saving everyone."

A look of exasperation flashes across Raven's face when she retorts back to our princess, who apparently likes to make promises without our consent.

"That's why we need to tell everyone. If there's a second place like Mount Weather out there, the Grounders will know about it."

"After Pike and A.L.I.E, you think they're gonna tell us? Just like that?"

"If you tell everybody they're going to die, the Coalition is over, Roan falls, and the Grounders will be at our gate."

"That means people will die defending Mount Weather once again…"

"Then we just tell our people about it. We need more minds on this problem. On the Ark, people volunteered for the Culling because they were told the truth and given a choice. A choice your dad died for Clarke, please for once have some faith in our people."

"You think I've forgotten that? You think I don't know how much my father sacrificed for the Ark?"

Bellamy holds up his hands, trying to calm the tension before Clarke and Raven start fighting before I do. "Okay, girls, we'll tell everybody the truth as soon as we have a viable solution. Without one, it'll just start a war. However, we need to tell our people to keep it to ourselves."

"You don't know that."

Suddenly, Monty, who until now was silent, going through some reports, yelled out. "That's it!"

"What are you talking about?"

"Think about it guys. Alpha Station survived for 97 years in space, through elevated radiation levels and extreme temperature fluctuations. Sound familiar? All we have to do is patch up the ship and let the grounders take shelter inside of it."

"Would you look at that, Clarke? We are standing in our viable solution. So, we need to tell the grounders about it now."