luna was strapped to the medical table, her wrists held firmly by restraints. she wasn’t fighting anymore.. not physically, anyway.

her eyes were dark, distant, staring up at the white ceiling as if she wasn’t even in the room anymore.

she looked broken, stripped of the calm power she usually carried.

you stood by the wall, arms crossed tightly over your chest, watching abby and clarke work. they were taking samples, running tests, talking about bone marrow extraction like she was just a supply crate they’d found.

"her levels are stable," clarke said, checking a monitor, her voice clinical. "if we extract correctly, we can synthesize the serum."

luna didn’t look at her. she just spoke, her voice low and rough, like gravel.

"you speak of saving lives," luna said, her eyes finally moving to lock onto clarke.

"yet you act exactly like those you fought against. mount weather took what they wanted. now you do the same."

"we don't have a choice, luna!" clarke argued, stepping closer. "the radiation is coming. if we don't do this, everyone dies."

"and what of me?" luna pulled against the restraints, her jaw tight. "am i nothing to you but a solution? a walking cure?"

you couldn’t stand it anymore. the hypocrisy was burning a hole through you.

you pushed off the wall and stepped between them, your voice sharp and angry.

"she’s right, clarke. and you know it."

everyone looked at you. you gestured wildly at the table, at the needles sticking out of luna’s arm, at the bags of her dark, black blood sitting in the stand.

"look at this!" you shouted. "we’re tying her down! we’re taking parts of her without asking! that’s not science, that’s kidnapping! that’s exactly what the mountain men did! they thought they were saving themselves too! does that make it right?"

"y/n-" abby started.

"no!" you cut her off, your eyes burning. "you guys are so desperate to survive you’ve forgotten what line you’re not supposed to cross! she’s a person, not a lab rat!"

the room went silent. luna turned her head slowly to look at you.

for the first time all day, there was something other than pain in her eyes: recognition.

she saw that you were the only one who actually saw her.

"you speak truth," luna said softly, her voice hoarse. "they see only their need. you see me."

you walked over to the side of the table, ignoring the warnings from clarke. you looked down at her, at the exhaustion and betrayal on her face.

"they’re going to keep doing this, luna," you said quietly, so only she could hear. "they think the end justifies the means."

luna closed her eyes.

"then there is no difference between us and them," she whispered. "in the end, we are all just monsters."

you looked back at clarke and abby, who were avoiding your gaze.

you knew they wouldn’t stop. they were too far gone. but as you looked at luna, strapped down and bleeding for a cause that wasn't even hers, you felt sick to your stomach.

she was the strongest person you knew, and right now, she looked completely defeated.