the cold air of the Grounder camp stung your cheeks as you sat alone on a fallen tree, your fingers trembling as you clutched the necklace your mother used to wear. The sunrise spilled across the horizon, a golden contrast to the chaos still lingering in your mind. You hadn’t slept since the night of the Tondc bombing. Since the moment abby had been caught in the blast, her face frozen in shock as you screamed for her to move. It had been too late.

lexa stood at a distance, watching the figure she’d come to admire crumble beneath her grief. The commander had tried to speak to you earlier, but she was met with silence and turned away. For someone who ruled with strength and strategy, comforting someone in mourning felt foreign. Yet, she couldn’t walk away.

lexa finally approached, her footsteps light but deliberate, stopping just outside your bubble of isolation.

“You have not eaten,”

lexa began softly, her voice cautious.

“The others worry for you. So do I.”

you didn’t look up. You rubbed the pad of your thumb over the smooth surface of the necklace, willing the memories of your mother to flood back, though they only brought more pain.

“I don’t need food,”

you muttered. Your voice was hoarse, brittle.

“I just need her back.”

lexa hesitated, her heart clenching at the raw vulnerability in your words. She sat down slowly, keeping her movements deliberate, like one might with a wounded animal.

“She fought bravely,”

lexa offered, her tone steady.

“She would not want you to waste away like this.”

your head snapped up, anger flashing in your red-rimmed eyes.

“Don’t you dare tell me what she would have wanted. You don’t know her. You didn’t even try to save her.”

lexa flinched at the accusation but held her ground.

“I did what I thought was necessary to protect my people, clarke. That does not mean I do not regret what happened.”

“She was my mother. She wasn’t just some casualty in your war. I watched her die, Lexa. I screamed for her, and she couldn’t—”

you burst out