CHAPTER FOURTEEN - THE LINEAGE OF THE COMMANDER

Bekka Pramheda

Was the one name that had started the linage of the strange black-blooded humans, and the creator of The Grounder Commander. Deceased: Burned alive by the Second Dawn Cult members which was lead by Bill Cadogan. 

 A vision clouded behind her closed lids of red, hot flames licking towards the body that had been tied to a post. Her brown eyes raced back and forth as her own pain flooded through the Commander's own body, like she was feeling what she was injuring at that exact moment. 

 "Stop! Wait!" Becca screamed as they got closer towards her, she was struggling against the post, trying to just loosen her binds. She just wanted them to understand her, she wanted to help. "Don't do this, Cadogan!" She sobbed out as the cult members looked at each other while she cried out in terror.

   "With my serum, you don't have to live in the bunker anymore. The flame can change everything!" she yelled at him. She hoped that he would believe her that she had humanity's best shot in thought here, but he didn't believe and instead saw the flame as a threat to humanity.

     It was strange, she knew that it wasn't real but she couldn't make herself wake up from the dream state the Flame had put her under.

 "NO!" Becca screamed out when they wouldn't listen to her. She just wanted to help the human race survive the radiation outside, and some of them agreed with her but they wouldn't dare speak or share the same fate as the woman. 

 "You think he's saving you, but he's killing you!"

 Her brown eyes stared back at several men dressed in hazman suits while a torch lowered to the wood below her feet. 

All at once, burning and blistering pain.

The brunette could feel the blisters covering her skin as she was trapped within the body of another woman and there was no escape from the pain she was sharing with her. Dakota screamed out, whether she could be heard in the real world or not was questionable. 

  She could hear another voice in her ear but couldn't see the source of it. "Learn from her mistakes and don't automatically trust those whom you don't know. Don't assume that everyone in this world could be trusted." A image of a brunette stood in front of her eyes and the horrible pain had stopped. The flames that were licking her skin raw had disappeared and her legs were no longer numb. 

 Her face was beautiful and Dakota swore that she knew her from the City of Light. Her face was no longer plagued from blisters, but there was pain still in her expression.  "that was my downfall - don't let it be your own." she spoke as softly, barely coming in form of a whisper.

   Toria kom Ouskejonkru

 A woman whose heart was way too soft to lead the people, someone who didn't understand the sacrifices that came with connecting the future together after witnessing the horrible fate of the first Commander. The Heir of Bekka Pramheda, the same woman who took the flame out of her head and took it for herself after the flames went cold.

 She believed in what the woman was telling her, that humanity could be saved from her serum of black liquid but Cadogen didn't. She then killed Cadogen and then spread the famous imagine of the First Commander with a shrine dedicated to her willingness to help save the human race, but that automatically put a target on the red-head's back. 

   What once was an empty abyss of blackness behind Dakota's eyes, turned into an open field behind her closed lids. Bodies upon bodies scattered across the bunker before everything turned to ruin. 

 She wanted to run out and help her but her feet wouldn't move. It was almost like her feet were nailed to the floor, her feet stuck in the concrete of the floor. The woman stretched her arm out to grab a sword that was too far from her, but that didn't stop her from trying. Dakota saw the sword protruding from her back, and then a familiar figure stood behind her body with a victorious smile. 

 Dakota's soul went into the Commander's body as soon as the sword was pushed further into her back, making the brunette cry out in pain while black blood gurgled from her lips. Her eyes rolled up into her skull before her body went limp, and then her eyes went black again. 

   "Steel your heart and you'll have no weakness." The woman with fire for hair stood infront of her, some say she had hair to match her explosive personality but under all that fire was a heart of gold - to smart for a Commander."My softness was my downfall - strengthen your heart and those you call friends won't betray you."

 The flame didn't have a host for a time before another nightblood was found, and three more successors were found years after Toria passed away, but the linage of Bekka Pramheda never died with her. She was worshiped more than every, and the people looked at her as the mother of their black-blooded children.

    A boy barely above the age of eight after killing those with stealth had gained the flame's knowledge after winning the conclave, and he served as Commander for two years before a woman with a vicious personality poisoned her competitors the morning of which her conclave took place.

 Another man that had a scar above his eye. All three of them proven that they were brave and worthy of Commanding the Grounders but what they did lack was the strategy that came with leading an army into war, and how to protect the people that looked up to them effectively - which caused thousands of deaths on their part.

Lexa kom Trikru

 A name that Dakota knew too well, someone who she confided in when she found out she had and would eventually carry out the linage of the black-blooded humans. Her vision started to cloud, white light from the candles that spread across the room was what she could see in the position she was in.

    A vision of a past, old pain, a shadow wants to be forgotten from dreams too real but she means too much - her first love. 

 A woman with dark blonde curly hair, pulled back  from her pale face as cold blue eyes stared back at her. "I lost someone special to me, too. Her name was Costia." She could hear the voice of Lexa, but all she could see was the girl sitting in front of her, staring back at her with lifeless eyes - like she was dead. She supposed that this woman was Costia, but before she could even blink, the girl vanished through thin air and replaced with someone who was much more familiar. 

 Clarke stood to the side of Lexa, sad faced and looking down at the pyre which had a lifeless body on top of it and then she vanished too, and instead her eyes were looking back at a shocked Clarke. The pain erupted through her stomach was suddenly on fire and her own knees felt numb as her legs forced herself to go through the door. She didn't know where she was going, but she was in a hurry and suddenly she was through the door with a shocked look on her face. 

 A bullet that was not meant to be for her but for her lover and then the sounds of a cry from in front of her as Lexa fell to her knees.  A woman with no weakness since love made her stronger, made her wiser, made her realize that life is about more than just surviving. She taught her that.

But then she left and left her behind wanting, wounding and she let's it keep hurting, because she thinks hurting is who she is. Her imprint was already in the flame from the moment she entered the City of Light, which ignited her will to fight when she reunited with the love of her life.

 And then suddenly she was elsewhere.

 Dakota's eyes scanned the room. Her obvious questions racing across her face with a creasing of her brow and a deepening of a frown. Unknown to her, Becca was standing behind her, unable to stop from smiling proudly at the young girl, who stood there trapped in confusion. 

 "Don't be afraid." Becca said, and Dakota spun around quickly with her fist in the air to grab the throat of whoever was standing behind her, but her hand went through the body of the woman. 

 Dakota took a breath to try and understand what the hell was happening to her. She couldn't quite recall what she was doing, it was almost like she was trapped elsewhere and couldn't get back. 

 Her eyes flickered up towards the woman who stood in front of her, and she blinked for a second at the recognition of a familiar face. Someone who she had met before but this woman standing in front of her was different. 

    "I don't understand. I watched you die." Dakota furrowed her eyebrows while looking back at the woman who caused the end of the world, who was the first Commander and who also stuck the chip inside of her head.

 "An imprint of your neurological input has been saved to the drive of Verison 2.0 of A.L.I.E." she replied as her hands went behind her back to give a more confident stance. 

 Dakota stared at her for a second before lifting her fingers, "You may want to go back a bit, because I have no idea what the hell you just said." she mumbled, trying to wrap her head around the whole situation. 

  She briefly remembered taking the flame and then her whole world went black - was her mental state not strong enough, or did the flame destroy her all together? So many questions, and she was not getting the answers for them.

 Becca looked at her with a certain amount of pride, but her lips went up slightly. "We have been going through the histories of the past Commanders, now that the flame has lodged itself into your brain successfully."

 Dakota's eyebrows furrowed and she only blinked once, and then noticed that they were in an entire different room than before. It was something she was familiar with, her room back at Arkadia, the one she shared with Bellamy before she left. 

 "How did I do that?" Dakota questioned while looking around the room, her heart had grown more steady with something she was familiar with but everything around her still freaked her out. "I'm dead aren't I?"

 "Not dead, no." Becca took a brief pause while watching the brunette's hand go through the furniture. "This you isn't real, Dakota, the same you in reality is rendered unconscious while the flame becomes compatible with your blood mutation."

 "Blood mutation, you mean Nightblood?" Dakota turned her head around to look at the brunette with a questionable eye. 

 "Yes, the same mutation that I have created." The woman replied back and then waved one of her fingers, the room around them had changed in an instant, almost too instant for Dakota's liking. "The same mutation that your mother had and was killed for."

 That made Dakota literally freeze in her place as her eyes widened like saucers. "W-What? My mother was floated for a crime."

  Becca shook off the the girl's questions. They didn't have much time until Dakota's soul fully uploaded into their database. Becca had to go through this quickly. Her questions would have to wait for another time.

    "We don't have much time until the You in reality has awoken up. Your memories will be saved into the database of the past Commanders.  It's been too long since the Grounders have had a Commander who was raised in space like myself, Dakota Kane. I believe you possess the skills to lead the human race to a safety zone from the incoming radiation." 

 Becca told her while Dakota gave her a wide-eyed look when Becca lifted a transparent monitor into the invisible wall and held her hand up towards the files with each name onto it, searching for one name in particular. 

 "I'm literally going insane..." Dakota muttered under her breath and took a look around the room, noticing that they were now in the Commander Tower back in Polis, but this one was empty. 

  "You are one with the flame now, Dakota. You can travel in this realm was much as you like and the past commanders can advise you while you are still living, but taking the flame comes with the burden of being permanently stuck here upon death."

 Dakota turned her head after Becca stopped talking but her eyes were immediately glued to the screen placed in front of her, showing a picture of a face that she had met before. "You've met her before, yes?" Becca questioned her upon noticing the reaction she had gotten.

 Dakota's eyes flickered over towards the brunette standing beside her. "She stopped me in Polis before my ascension." and that's when it clicked for her. It was almost like a tiny light bulb went off on top of her head. 

 Now she knew why she thought the woman was familiar but couldn't quite recall. It was the same woman who crept into her dreams at night, the one who was continuously killing her night after night.

  "She's from the Ice Nation." A voice said from behind the two women, which made Dakota turn around quickly and her eyes lit up from the sight of the brunette standing there with a smile on her face. 

  "Lexa?" Dakota breathed. She fully turned around to face the former Commander and threw her arms around the woman. Expecting for her limbs to fall right through her but by her surprise she touched a solid body. 

 "I told Clarke my spirit would choose wisely and I see that it has." Lexa pulled away from the girl but held onto her by her elbows. "It's an honor to be present of the New Heda." she spoke back in Trigedasleng and was surprised when Dakota spoke back with fluency. 

 "I can't believe you are standing in front of me. How did you know it would choose me?"

 "I didn't. The Flame chooses who it thinks would make a good Commander, and it seems like it chose right." Lexa smiled down at her. Her green eyes flickered down to her red sash, and weaved it through her fingers before turning her gaze towards the monitor.

  "She ran away from her conclave when her mother had been assassinated. She's dangerous, Dakota, unlike anyone you've fought before." Lexa told her with concern in her voice when her eyes glanced at the brunette again, and then towards Becca.

 "She does have one weakness through, someone who is still alive: her father and he is quite close to home." Becca's words lingered on her tongue as she studied Dakota's concerned face, her eyes staring back at the photo of the woman. 

  "If you lose, you will be stuck here for eternity." Becca told her. "You wont just lose your life but your daughters."

 Dakota's head turned to look at the first Commander with a glint in her eye and by instinct, moved her hand on top of her stomach. She could feel the dread deepening a pit into her stomach, like she wanted to throw up but it got stuck on the way up. Fear was creeping into her thoughts, fear for her baby, her daughter. 

 "I -- We will help you defeat her. All of us." Becca took hold of her arm to turn her body towards the bodies of old Commanders staring back at the brunette with hope in their eyes, appreciation for another ascension of the Commander, a flicker of hope to write their wrongs. "We will find a solution to help the human race win against the melting nuclear power plants. We won't fail you." 

 Dakota held her stare when she saw the flicker of guilt within Becca's own eyes. She was obviously still haunted by the failings of her past self, and the limitations of her current self. 

 "I'll help save the human race, Becca." She held onto her arm with a firm grip and nodded her head back at her before turning to face Lexa. "Clarke misses you." she saw the small smile that turned her lip upwards before it disappeared from her face entirely. 

 She then turned towards the many unfamiliar faces of the past Commanders and held their gaze as she stood in front of them all before they bowed their head in respects. 

  Dakota had the whole weight of the human race on her shoulders, and now she had her baby's life on the life along with her own. 

 "Keryon kom Heda don sad in."

 The Spirit of the Commanders have chosen.

This took days of research, so I hope ya'll like it. I hope you guys are excited for part 2, and what's to come because I am. xx