"We need to evacuate this whole village immediately," Kane said the moment Clarke finished speaking. He spun around, looking directly at the Heda, his hands outstretched in an urgent plea. "We don't have time, Lexa. We need to get every single person away from here as soon as possible before they launch that missile."
"No," Jason said flatly.
The single word cut through the rising panic like a blade. Kane froze, staring at him in disbelief, and Octavia stepped forward, her brow furrowed with sudden anger.
"What do you mean, no, Jason?" Octavia demanded as her voice cracked with tension. "They are going to bomb us. If we don't leave right now, we're all dead."
Jason turned his head slowly, looking at her with a calm, utterly grounded expression. "Come on, Octavia. Didn't you listen to a single word Clarke just said? They are monitoring us. They have scouts on the ridges, thermal relays, and eyes in the sky if I'm not mistaken. They know our every move."
He took a step closer to the war table, gesturing to the map. "Think about the mathematics of panic. Should we go out there right now and tell the people of Tondc that a sky-bomb is coming, what do you think happens? They will panic. They will scatter into the woods in a frantic, uncoordinated rush. Cage will see the thermal signatures breaking formation on his monitors, realize his target is slipping away, and he will launch the missile immediately. They will be slaughtered in the open canopy."
Jason leaned his palms on the table, his eyes scanning the room. "And say we try to slip away quietly without coordination? The moment a mass exodus of bodies begins to move away from the village center, the monitors in Mount Weather will flash red. The result remains entirely unchangeable: we still get bombed, only this time, we die running like rats. We cannot do anything hasty right now. We need to keep a cool head."
After letting the grim reality of his words settle over the room, Jason turned his head toward the Commander. "You understand this too, don't you?"
Lexa remained perfectly still, her green eyes fixed on the map before she slowly raised her head. "If we do not move... if we stay, the strike will happen. And the deaths of those in Tondc will motivate the clans. The coalition will be forged in blood that cannot be undone."
"Heda..." Indra whispered, her deep voice tight with a rare trace of horror as she fully understood the sacrifice the Commander was implying.
"What do you mean by that?" Kane asked, his eyes widening as he looked between Lexa and Jason. "What are you saying?"
"She is saying," Lexa stated coldly, her voice devoid of emotion, "that the leaders must slip away from here in secret. And when that missile hits—"
"No, Lexa!" Clarke interrupted fiercely, taking a step toward her. "If that missile hits, hundreds of your people die! My people die!"
Jason let out a soft, dark chuckle, shaking his head. "Oh, she knows exactly what will happen should that missile hit Clarke. She's counting the bodies."
Kane snapped his gaze to Jason, horror etching lines into his face. "And you agree with her? You're going to let them burn?"
"No," Jason said smoothly, his eyes hardening as he looked directly back at Lexa.
Lexa narrowed her eyes, staring at him with an unyielding intensity. "This is the only way, Jason. Besides, you said it yourself, should we try to move the people, the enemy will know that we know. And should that happen, Cage will realize we have someone on the inside providing us with operational intelligence."
She turned her sharp, calculating gaze toward Clarke and Octavia, her voice dropping into a harsh, absolute truth. "They will find Bellamy. They will hunt him down in their home, they will kill him, and every single one of our plans to bring down the mountain from within will be for absolutely nothing. We choose between the village, or the war."
Indra's hand clenched the hilt of her blade until her knuckles went white. "Heda," she rumbled, her voice thick with a fierce, protective anger. "There must be another way. We cannot simply hand the lives of our warriors over to those Maun men. Sacrificing our own people to those filth is not the way of the coalition."
"I agree completely," Kane intervened as he looked between Lexa and Jason. "We just solidified this alliance. If a missile strikes Tondc and wipes out the heart of our leadership and our frontline troops before we even march, the coalition will break. We will receive a devastating, demoralizing blow before we're even ready to fight. It's exactly what Cage wants."
Octavia ignored the political debate, her eyes locked firmly on Jason. She noticed the slight, calculated tilt of his head. "Jason," she asked, stepping past Indra. "What's on your mind? You said 'no' to Lexa, but you said 'no' to an evacuation. What are you thinking?"
Clarke and Indra turned their gazes toward him as well, the room falling into a suffocating, expectant silence.
Jason let out a soft, measured breath, his face turning entirely serious. "Lexa is right," he murmured as his voice carried a cold, analytical weight. "And at the same time, she is entirely wrong."
"Speak clearly, Sky-demon," Indra growled, her patience utterly spent.
"Even though we cannot immediately initiate a mass evacuation without tipping off their thermal surveillance," Jason explained, looking directly at Lexa, "that does not mean we are entirely powerless to minimize the death count. We don't have to choose between total slaughter or total exposure."
Lexa's green eyes narrowed with her stoic facade fracturing as a trace of genuine curiosity grew on her face. "What do you mean? If we move the people, the eyes in the mountain will see."
"They have surveillance watching our every move from above, yes," Jason said with a slow, dangerous smile beginning to curl the corners of his lips. He turned his gaze to Indra. "And they have a vanguard of at least ten snipers currently infiltrating the high ridges around this valley, specifically tasked with making sure I stop breathing. But think about it, Indra... a massive gathering of various Grounder clans, all celebrating a newfound alliance in the heart of Tondc. It's an occasion worthy of a grand hunt, don't you think?"
Lexa frowned deeply, watching the dark, erratic brilliance flashing in his eyes. "Jason..."
"What are you implying?" Indra demanded, stepping closer.
"Well, what I mean is—"
Jason was cut off entirely as a sudden, violent rustle erupted from the corner of the war table. The massive, heavy bundle wrapped in coarse clothing, the dead-weight shape he had carelessly dumped upon his arrival suddenly convulsed. A harsh, panicked gasp tore through the heavy fabric as a hand violently ripped through the knots, exposing a dirt-streaked face underneath.
The entire room gasped in unison, weapons instantly sliding from their sheaths. Clarke's eyes went completely wide, her breath catching violently in her throat as she stared at the choking, terrified man struggling out of the constraints
"You," Clarke whispered as her voice trembled with absolute shock.
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The doors of the command room parted, and Lexa stepped out into the crisp evening air of Tondc. Her posture was regal and the look on her face was of an absolute command that commanded instant silence across the bustling village square. Indra emerged a step behind her as her sharp eyes scanned the hundreds of warriors gathered around the roaring bonfires.
Lexa walked to the edge of the wooden platform, looking out over the sea of faces representing the various factions of the coalition.
"Warriors of the Twelve Clans!" Lexa's voice rang out, clear and powerful, echoing off the stone walls and rising into the canopy. "For the first time in decades, the blood of our people beats as one heart in this valley. The final hour of the Mountain Men approaches, and our plans for their destruction will soon commence!"
A low rumble of approval rippled through the crowd, weapons rattling against leather shields.
"But before we march upon their stone fortress," Lexa continued, her green eyes flashing with an ancient fire, "we must honor the soil we stand upon. We must show our new allies, the Sky People, what it truly means to be a force of nature. Tonight, we do not simply wait in the shadows. Tonight, we celebrate our unity with a Grand Hunt! We will bleed the forest of its beasts, and we will bleed our doubts before the real war commences!"
The crowd shifted, a collective wave of confusion washing over the seasoned warriors. They looked at one another, muttering in low, gruff tones. A hunt? On the very precipice of a full-scale siege against the deadliest enemy they had ever known? It was a bizarre, unprecedented deviation from standard traditions before a war.
But as Lexa's unyielding gaze swept over them, the confusion rapidly morphed into a primal, infectious fervor. A single chieftain raised his axe, letting out a deafening battle cry. Within seconds, the entire village erupted into a roaring chorus of cheers, swords clashing against shields in a deafening display of bloodlust.
Lexa raised her hand, instantly cutting the noise. "We split our strength to cover the valley. Indra will command the western vanguard. I will lead the eastern front." She then turned her sharp gaze to Octavia, who had come out of the room to stand near the weapons rack. "And we will trust Octavia of the Sky People with the northern ridge."
Indra stepped forward, looking towards Octavia with a fierce, challenging nod. "Show them what it means to be a warrior of the woods, girl. Do not let your line break."
Octavia gave a tight, determined nod, her fingers wrapping around the hilt of her blade. At Lexa's subtle signal, a Grounder scout whose face was entirely obscured by a grim, bone-carved hunting mask stepped out from the shadows of the command room. He bowed deeply before Octavia, presenting her with a beautifully crafted recurve bow and a quiver of black-fletched arrows.
"And the final, smallest pack..." Lexa said, her voice dropping into a cold, resonant register that drew an immediate hush over the platform. "The final pack will hunt the deep south. With the Butcher."
Right on cue, Jason strolled out of the room, his hands tucked casually into his pockets. He wore a breezy, entirely carefree smile that felt profoundly out of place amidst the grim solemnity of the Grounder ranks. The warriors nearest to the platform immediately shifted on their feet, their eyes tracking him with a deep, palpable unease.
After a while, Lexa had divided the warriors into groups and behind Jason, a meager group of only twelve warriors formed his unit, by far the lowest number assigned to any commander. Jason merely chuckled, looking at his small, intimidating entourage. "Twelve? Oh, excellent. A perfect disciples-of-doom scenario. I've always preferred quality over quantity anyway."
With the assignments delivered, the village dissolved into a flurry of movement. Indra moved out rapidly, her massive troop of warriors filtering into the western treeline, with Marcus Kane trailing closely behind her to maintain the Ark's presence. Clarke fell into step directly behind Lexa as the Commander's vanguard marched toward the eastern paths.
Within minutes, nearly eighty percent of the camp's total fighting force vanished into the thick, dark woods, leaving Tondc hollowed out and eerily quiet under the flickering starlight.
High above the valley, deep within the thick boughs of a massive, ancient pine tree on the farthest southern ridge, a Mountain Man sniper adjusted the high-powered optics of his rifle. He pressed his tactical headset, his voice a low, static-laced whisper.
"Command, this is Whitman. I am in position over."
Deep inside the operations center of Mount Weather, Cage leaned over the master control console, staring at a massive digital map flashing with dozens of thermal signatures. "Whitman, copy that. Are you in position over?"
"Affirmative, sir," Whitman replied, his eye glued to the thermal scope as he watched the glowing heat signatures below split into separate, distinct groups. "Confirming target coordinates now... But sir, we have a significant change in plans down here. Over."
"Report, Whitman. What's changing?" Cage's voice snapped back, laced with immediate irritation.
"The targets are dividing, sir. For some reason, they're launching what appears to be a mass hunting party into the woods. They aren't staying in the village center." Whitman tactically adjusted his scope, tracing the moving lines of heat. "The vanguard has split into four distinct sectors. A large force is moving west with Indra and Marcus Kane. Another unit is heading north under the Blake girl. The main contingent is moving east with the Heda and Griffin... and a small, isolated pocket of twelve signatures is heading directly into the deep south. Sir, that group is led by the Butcher."
Whitman paused as his breath fogged slightly against his visor. "Sir, with the targets scattered across the entire valley, a localized strike on the village center won't eliminate the leadership. Are we still on for the launch? Over."
In the bunker, Cage stared at the thermal map, his jaw clenching as he realized the Sky People and grounders were actively fracturing his targeting grid. He took a long, heavy breath, his eyes narrowing as he locked onto the specific thermal signature heading south, the one identified as the volatile anomaly that had broken Emerson's wrist.
"The launch proceeds as planned, Whitman," Cage finally commanded, his voice cold and absolute. "We wipe the village to destroy their infrastructure and break their spirit. As for the hunting parties... let the missile take the center. You and the rest of the vanguard focus your scopes entirely on the Butcher and the Heda. Do not let either of them leave those woods alive. Out."
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