Broken Souls

|| Two weeks ago
Her legs hurt but she kept moving forward. She was a long way from home but refused to take a cab. Raven needed to clear her head and so she walked. It helped, if only a little. To be fair, the only reason it helped was because the pain kept her mind preoccupied. She felt almost calm, zen-like.

A guy she didn't pay attention to, bumped into her. She knew it was largely her own fault for walking on the wrong side - and that was why he was lucky enough not to get hurt by her that day.

The sun made way for the moon to take up space in the sky hours ago. When she felt hungry beyond belief she stepped into a diner. Before the waitress could even greet her, she ordered a burger with whiskey. They only served one kind, and somehow she was sure they have it especially for her, but it was all the same to her anyway.

She had once broken a chair in two when they told her they didn't have any hard liquor. In her defense, she had a tough day - week actually and got into a fight not an hour before.

After eating all of it in record time, she left a twenty on the table and walked out. She didn't notice a man following her out. Or in, for that matter.

"Target did not take the bait, I repeat target did not take the bait. Further instructions?"

The man listened closely to the voice that spoke directly into his ear and nodded to himself.

"Roger that, sir."

|| Present time
Raven drags the unconscious man into his own apartment with a flabbergasted Lincoln in tow. "Search the apartment," she orders Lincoln before she goes and does the same.

The apartment is vacant, save for a mattress with a pillow in the middle of the leaving room and a telescope fitted with a camera that is pointed directly at Raven's apartment.

A small notebook laid on the floor next to the makeshift bed. Raven picked it up and started to flick through it. Apart from dates, she couldn't tell what it said as it was written in some kind of foreign language.

"What's that?" Lincoln asks after he comes up empty.

"Some sort of code. Maybe detailling when I was home, what I was doing or whom I was with?" She replies and hands him the notebook.

Lincoln makes a noise that doesn't sound like confusion, but more like recognition. "Do you know what this is?"

"No, I don't.. But I think I've seen something like this before. My old boss used something like this but he said he made it up himself. Said that if you want something to be truly secret, you need to start from scratch and build it up."

All Raven hears is that he doesn't know what it is. Her mind is working overtime trying to figure out what her next move should be. She looks over to the floor and sees that the guy is still out cold. So much for interrogating him.

"Wait, Raven," Lincoln says while his eyes are still fixed on the notebook.

"This right here," he taps one of the pages near the end of the book, "is an actual language."

He allows Raven to look at it, but she doesn't see what he does and she's getting a little impatient with him. "What is it?!" She says, a little too loud.

"It uses the Latin alphabet. Everything is written backward. See, it's because every sentence still begins with something you would say is a capital 'letter' you wouldn't look passed it. It's actually every last letter of the last word that's capitalized. He tried to mask the fact by obscuring where he started to write but this isn't that advanced now that I see this page."

Raven ignores his ingenuity and asks him to type out what it says on her phone. He types in the first sentence and she throws it into Google translate.

"It's gibberish, it's not a known language, damn it," Raven says.

Lincoln just stares right at the phone as he cannot believe his eyes. It most definitely is a language.

"I need to speak to my sister."

**

"OK, she's here, we're all here. Now tell me what the hell is going on," Raven demands as soon as they get back to Clarke and Lexa's apartment. The whole way back, Lincoln refused to say a word, lost in his own mind.

Lincoln walks up to Lexa and shoves her into the bedroom before closing the door.

Raven looks at the display with an open mouth and her fists are starting to get real itchy. Luckily, Clarke's voice draws her back to Earth.

"What?" Raven asks.

"What is going on?" Clarke asks.

"We confronted the person keeping an eye on me. You know, the one I saw looking into my apartment..." She resumes when Clarke nods her head in acknowledgment, "He had a message to me. Where to go if I wanted to see O again. We searched his apartment and found a notebook with weird scribblings in it. I think it means something to Lincoln but he refused to say anything."

Clarke asks to see the notebook and Raven hands it over. "I.. I can't read this?" Clarke half asks half states.

"I thought so too, but apparently something in there translates to this," she grabs her phone and turns the screen to Clarke.

Clarke's nose scrunches up in thought.

Lok kom hodness  //target in love//

"Love?" Clarke breathes out in confusion.

 Just as Raven is about to ask what Clarke means by saying that, Lincoln and Lexa step out of the bedroom.

"Raven, do you recognize this language?" Lexa asks.

Raven flings her hands into the air around her in frustration, as if it wasn't completely obvious this whole situation has taken an 180 and she no longer has a clue what's going on.

"No!" she yells out, not caring that she's making a bit of a scene.

"It's the language Lincoln and I have been taught as kids," Lexa continues.

"I think this kidnapping might not have exclusively to do with you anymore. Maybe it's about me instead," Lexa says. She sits down on the couch and Lincoln, and Clarke follow. Raven stays put right where she's standing. Lexa takes a steadying breath, clearly disturbed at having to relay information about her past she would rather keep buried away. As Clarke takes Lexa's hand in hers, the brunette shares her story.

She tells Clarke and Raven about her early childhood and how she was meant to be the next leader of not only their clan but of the alliance of clans known simply as the Twelve Clans. The spirits had chosen her even before she learned how to fight properly. When the leader of a clan, known to have a shaky alliance to the other clans, found out that Lexa was being recruited and trained heavily they plotted a plan to kill her and thus take control of the Twelve Clans by force. Lexa's clan tried to reason with them, but when that didn't work they had Lexa run and promise to never come back again. They made Lincoln come with her as protection but couldn't afford any more men as they had to defend their selves while making sure that no one was following them."

Raven listened closely to the story that peaked her interest the more Lexa shared. Clarke was torn between being there for her girlfriend and feeling sad or even betrayed that Lexa never confided the whole story to her. As Lexa finished speaking, Clarke let go of her hand and got up to rummage through the kitchen cabinets. The action didn't go unnoticed by Raven, but she had more pressing matters to attend to.

"So, what does this mean? Why were they staking out my place and not yours?! Why didn't they take Clarke instead?! Raven was fuming with anger that she directed at the wrong person. It was a low blow to hope that Clarke would've been taken instead.

There must be some kind of connection they've been missing. It was more than mere coincidence that Raven was being watched. But the notebook confirms that Lexa plays a part in this as well. Everything was just a big mess that no one could seem to figure out.

"Wait, what did you guys do with the guy this notebook belongs to?" Clarke asks from the kitchen.

Raven and Lincoln share a look before he clears his throat and shares he's still in the trunk of Lexa's car.