Jason paced the small cell before explaining to the two, "Clarke told me what she saw inside that Mountain. It's not just a bunker; it's a slaughterhouse. The Mountain Men have been using the Grounders as literal livestock for generations. They don't just kill them, they drain them of their blood. They use Grounder blood as a temporary 'cure' for radiation poisoning because their own bodies can't handle the surface. To the people in that mountain, every warrior out here is just a walking blood-bag."
Kane paled at the morbid information, his gaze dropping to the floor. "Harvesting them... like animals."
"Exactly," Jason said as his voice went hard. "And it gets worse. You've seen the Reapers, right? Those mindless monsters that haunt the tunnels? They aren't some separate tribe. The Mountain Men have something to do with them as well but whatever it is? I don't know."
"If this is true," Jaha whispered, "then the Grounders have been fighting a ghost for a hundred years."
"They've been fighting the symptoms, not the disease," Jason agreed. "That's the common ground. The Ark wants its people back. The Grounders want their people to stop being turned into drugs. If we can show the Commander that we have the tech and the intel to actually hurt the Mountain, something they've never been able to do, then we stop being invaders. We become the only allies they have left."
Kane looked up, his brow furrowed. "And you think a culture built on the kind of mentality they have, after everything that they are just going to shake hands because of a common enemy? They blame us for the bridge, for the fire and now for the village you said Finn almost just tore apart."
"I'm not saying they'll like us, Marcus. I'm saying they'll use us," Jason countered. "A truce isn't a friendship; it's a tactical necessity. We offer them the Mountain, and in exchange, they give us a map and a ceasefire. We prolong the stay of our people without having to look over our shoulders every time a scout goes for water. It's the only play on the board that doesn't end in a massacre."
Jaha looked at the ceiling, his mind clearly weighing the cost. "It's a massive gamble, Jason. If the Commander thinks you're lying to save your neck, she'll kill us all just to prove a point."
Jason shrugged, "Life's a gamble, Thelonious. I'd rather bet on a war with a target we can actually see than wait for the mountain men to finish what the atmosphere started."
"Well then," Jaha sighed, his eyes fixed on the heavy door. "If that's the case, let's hope their leader, whoever he is, is a man of logic. Because if they only understand blood, we're already dead."
Clang.
The door swung open, framing the massive, scarred silhouette of Gustus against the torchlight of the corridor. He stepped into the cell, his presence sucking the air out of the small room.
Jaha stood up immediately, his voice echoing with a much needed respect and caution for one in his position. "What's going on? Where are you taking us?"
Gustus ignored Jaha entirely. His cold, dark eyes locked onto Jason, who was still leaning against the wall with his hands in his pockets, looking like he was waiting for a bus rather than an executioner.
"The Commander will see you. Now," Gustus rasped.
Jason pushed off the wall and a slow smirk spread across his face. He tilted his head, giving Gustus a look of mock flattery. "The Commander? Really? And here I thought I'd have to wait until the weekend to get a formal invite. I hope there's an open bar."
As Jason stepped forward, two Grounder warriors moved in to grab his arms. Jason stopped dead. He didn't tense up or even raise his voice. He just looked at them with a sweet, blindingly bright smile that didn't reach his eyes.
"Gentlemen," Jason whispered, his tone as smooth as silk. "If you lay a hand on me, you'll be meeting whatever entity you view as God much sooner than scheduled. And trust me, I'm not going to think twice before arranging the meet."
The warriors hesitated and Gustus gave a sharp, subtle nod to his men, signaling them to stand down.
Jason winked at the guards and stepped past them. "Smart move. Don't worry, if I actually wanted to break out of here, there isn't a person in this village or this world who could stop me. I'm here because I want to see the Commander. That's it."
"Wait," Kane said, his voice hushed with disbelief as he watched Jason walk freely toward the door. "You could have broken out anytime?"
Jason paused at the threshold. He didn't say a word; he just looked back over his shoulder before he vanished into the corridor with his escort.
The walk through the settlement was a gauntlet of hatred. Jason passed rows of warriors sharpening blades and mothers clutching children, their glares were sharp enough to draw blood. As he moved, his mind was a whirlwind of tactical maps. 'Six guards at the perimeter. Three on the roof. If this goes south, I'll cut my way to the treeline.'
He suppressed the thought as they reached a massive, ornate place at the center of the ruins. Gustus pulled the flap back, and Jason stepped inside.
The interior was dim, lit by low-burning braziers that smelled of pine and ash. At the far end, sitting on a throne of twisted wood and fur, was the Commander.
Jason's head throbbed as a sharp pain raced through his brain, a sudden spike of recognition as a fragment of his fucked up memory surged to the surface. 'Lexa.' The name echoed in his mind like a bell.
He didn't let the shock show. Instead, his eyes drifted to the woman standing to the Commander's right. Her face was a mask of stoic fury, her hand resting on the hilt of a curved blade.
Jason's smirk returned, wider and more devious than before. "Oh, look at this. How good to see you again, Indra."
Indra's eyes narrowed into slits, her knuckles turning white on her sword.
"What's the matter?" Jason joked, his voice echoing through the silent room. "Aren't you happy to see me? You should be thanking me, really. I didn't make the forest quieter by not plucking your life from you back in the woods. You're welcome, by the way."
Indra's hand white-knuckled the hilt of her sword, her gaze was burning into Jason with a hatred that could set the room ablaze. She turned to the young woman on the throne, "Heda, lof em op. Chon em bilaik, em don sen em soun op en tondc. Breik em au." (Commander, let me kill him. This is the one who brought death to tondc. Let me cut him down.)
Lexa didn't move at all at the request. Her green eyes were fixed on Jason, dissecting him with a terrifying, calm intelligence. She raised a single hand, "No, Indra."
Lexa then stood up, her charcoal-stained face looked indifferent to Indra's anger. She stepped down from the dais, "Your people landed in our territory," she began with a steady and cold voice, "You killed hundreds of my men at the bridge. You brought fire from the sky and burned my warriors where they stood."
Jason didn't flinch at all as all the achievements they had made since landing on earth were listed out to him. He leaned back slightly, "To be fair, 'Commander,' we didn't exactly have a map with 'Property of the Grounders' written on it. As for the bridge? Anya tried to double-cross us during a parley. In my world, we call that 'asking for it.'"
Lexa's jaw tightened at the casual expression on the man's face, "And the village? You burned it to the ground with your 'flares.' You murdered families in their sleep."
Jason's expression became a somber shadow, "That... was a mistake. A catastrophic one. Those flares were meant to signal the Ark, our home, to let them know the air was safe. We were trying to save our people up there." He paused as his voice dropped lower. "We failed that as well, and hundreds of my people died because of it. So, I'm so sorry for what we have done but you're not the only ones bleeding."
"You butchered and slaughtered my people with joy!" Indra shouted, stepping forward and coming closer to the butcher. "Three hundred burned at the dropship because of your cruelty!"
Jason turned his head slowly toward Indra, a sharp, mocking glint returning to his eyes. "Joy? No, Indra we did that to survive. There's a difference. If I wanted to 'butcher' your people for fun, I'd still be out there in the woods turning your scouts into lawn ornaments. I'm standing here, in the middle of your hornet's nest, trying to prevent a war that neither of us can afford."
"He is a monster!" Indra hissed at Lexa. "He only knows death. We cannot trust a word that drips from his tongue!"
"Silence, Indra," Lexa commanded.
Indra's chest heaved in anger, she looked at Jason, her voice trembling with rage as she again. "How can you even stand here? After all you have done to our people, you dare to breathe our air?"
Jason gave her a slow, head-to-toe look before his lips curled into a devastatingly arrogant smile, "I breathe the air because I'm better at staying alive than the people you send to stop me, Indra. Maybe if your warriors spent less time painting their faces and more time practicing their aim, we wouldn't be having this awkward chat."
Indra lunged at him, but Gustus's hand clamped onto her shoulder like a vice. Jason kept looking at her without blinking, he just tilted his head slightly, "Careful, Indra. You're one bad decision away from becoming a memory."
"Enough," Lexa snapped.
Jason sighed, rolling his shoulders. "Okay, look. Let's be serious for a second. I know you want nothing more than to kill me and every 'Sky Person' behind those walls so you can get back to focusing on the real threat, the one you've been losing sleep over since long before we fell from the sky."
Lexa's eyes narrowed. "Oh, yeah?"
"Yeah," Jason said, his voice turning cold and professional,"The Mountain Men."
Lexa remained still, before asking a question. "And what do you know of them?"
"I know that they have my people and one of them along with one or yours, Clarke and Anya made it out of the cages they were rotting in," Jason stated. "I know the Mountain Men aren't gods; they're parasites. They're using your people as cattle, slaughtering them for their blood just so they can step outside of their cave without dying of radiation."
"Lies!" Indra barked. "Anya would never work with you. She would never ally herself with the 'Butcher'."
"True," Jason nodded. "She hated my guts. But she was smart enough to know that a common enemy makes for strange bedfellows. She worked with Clarke to escape."
Lexa stepped closer, her gaze searching Jason's face for the slightest hint of a deception. "And where is she now? Where is my General?"
The silence stretched. Jason looked at Lexa, then at Indra, his expression turning uncharacteristically grim.
"She's dead," Jason said quietly.
Indra let out a sharp, choked sound, "How? The Mountain men caught her?"
"No," Jason said, his voice echoing in the sudden stillness of the room. "I killed her. That's how."