Chapter Text
“I am leaving. Right now. Octavia is waiting for me. Just let me take Murphy and we’ll go” said Clarke with her hands raised as she stared at the barrel of the gun and the man holding it. Titus had the expression of a zealot. He was beyond reasoning.
“Lexa will never execute her duty if you live”. Titus aimed at Clarke.
“Titus, think. She’s gonna know it was you” argued Clarke.
“She’ll think it was him. Skaikru weapon”, he added showing the gun, “at the hands of a Skaikru thief. She might be angry enough to declare war!”.
Titus started firing the gun and Clarke ran for the door.
Clarke heard the gun jamming and Titus cry as the gun bit into his flesh. But it did not deterred him. He looked for something to hit the Sky girl with. Clarke reached for the door just as Lexa opened it. The Commander saw Titus branding a large candle holder at them as if it were a sword. And she reacted on instinct. She pushed Clarke aside taking the brunt of the blow in her chest.
Lexa gave two steps back. Her face suddenly expressionless. She looked at Titus and then at Clarke.
“Clarke”, she murmured.
Her eyes went blank and she dropped dead at Clarke feet.
“No, no, no, no” Clarke grabbed her breaking her fall.
Titus stood frozen in place. “Heda”, he murmured with the candle holder still in his hands.
Clarke deposited Lexa on the floor and checked her. She wasn’t breathing. A wave of anxiety and dread started to grip her mind, to numb her. She maneuvered Lexa’s body so she rested on her back and put her ear to Lexa’s chest. She listened. And prayed.
“Her heart stopped” she said to no one.
“Have to take her to the bed”, said Titus.
He let go of the candle holder and he started to kneel down next to Lexa.
Clarke stopped him. “No! It’s better here”. Clarke rose on her knees and extended her arms, interlacing her hands. She started to give CPR. She started muttering, counting the times she compressed Lexa’s chest in an effort to bring her back. She tried to reign in the wave of rising panic that threatened to overwhelm her.
“She is dead” said Titus.
Clarke killed him with one look. “No! I don’t accept that! Her heart just stopped. She is not dead! I can bring her back!”
Clarke fought the tears that were beginning to form in her eyes. It could not be happening. Not now. No after everything they had gone through. She kept the CPR but she knew that after a blow like that Lexa needed something else to restart her heart. She started looking around her.
Titus’ demeanor suddenly changed. He was eerily calm. He knelt at the other side of Lexa and produced a small redish satchel from within his robes. He deposited it next to him.
In her search, Clarke noticed a small bundle of things that did not belong to the Grounders right where Titus had been hiding. A metallic object got her attention. An electric baton. Like the ones security used in the Ark. Like the one her mother used on Lincoln when…
“Titus!”. The man opened the satchel with reverence. “Titus, listen to me! I can bring her back. I need the baton. The metallic stick that’s over there!” Clarke said gesturing with her head towards the metallic object.
Titus stopped for a second, unwilling to listen to the woman who he believed was guilty of clouding the Commander’s judgement. Of making her weak.
Clarke knew she was running out of time. After a blow to the chest like that CPR was not enough. She jumped to her feet and run for the bundle. When she turned around her blood froze in her veins. Titus had cut Lexa in her forearm. Enough to draw blood. He was painting a thick line that went from the top of his head down his forehead to between his eyebrows. A black line. Lexa’s blood. Clarke had had enough of the guy.
“Get away from her or I swear to you Grounders will find out why they call me Wanheda” Clarked said. Her tone of voice carried all the weigh her words hinted.
Titus looked at her. He despised the idea of violating the Commander’s body any further. He was doing his job as a Flamekeeper. Much as it pained him. He had a duty to fulfill. An obligation to the next Commander. But Wanheda… Titus backed up a step.
Clarke wasted no time. In a couple of strides she stood next to Lexa’s unresponsive body. She extended the baton and in a swift movement she directed it towards Lexa’s chest and pressed the button.
The baton sparked with electricity jolting Lexa’s body off the floor.
Titus reeled back in surprise.
Clarked knelt down and pressed her ear to Lexa’s chest. And listened. It could not end like this. She refused to let it end like this. She thought she heard the faintest of gasps but it could have been the body reacting to the electrical discharge. No change. Still no heartbeat. Lexa was deathly white. She was running out of time.
She squared her shoulders and hit Lexa again. The Commander’s body lifted off the floor for a second once more before collapsing again. Only this time, Clarke heard an intake of breath, albeit weak.
She stopped with the baton still raised above her head, ready to strike again if she had to, and watched Lexa’s face.
Lexa’s eyes fluttered. Her chest heaved once, then rose and fell again. Her breathing slowly returning to normal. She even began to recover some of her color. Her lips were half opened and they moved. She was muttering something.
Clarke started sobbing. She dropped the baton and hovered over Lexa, silently willing her to open her incredible green eyes.
“Hey… hey. It’s okay” said Clarke in between sobs. “You’re gonna be okay.”
Lexa turned her head towards Clarke’s voice and opened her eyes. Her expression was pained, her eyes cloudy. She was trying to say something. Clarke got closer to her.
“Hurts” Lexa gasped.
Clarke could not help smiling and chuckled. “Yes, I know. I am sorry. You’re gonna be okay, Lexa”. She caressed Lexa’s cheek and gave her a quick kiss on the lips.
Seeing Lexa respond gave Clarke all the energy she needed.
She looked up at Titus. Her expression stern, controlled. “Help me get her to bed. And then you will free my friend”. Her tone of voice brooked no arguments.
It took Titus a second before his body could react. He didn’t know what Lexa’s recovery would mean. But she was alive and that was enough for him. For now. He kneeled down and picked Lexa in his arms, carrying her to Clarke’s bed and depositing her with the utmost care.
Clarked pushed him aside and began to explore Lexa looking for injuries. She was aware of Titus moving over to Murphy and releasing him.
The young man stood up but remained still, debating whether he should run away to who knows where or help Clarke with whatever was going on. If she could keep Crazy Guy under control, he was all up for it. He was fed up with visionaries. He decided to check the bundle that was at the other side of the room but then he saw the jammed gun lying close to the bundle. He made a beeline for it.
As Clarke proceeded to examine Lexa, her worries lessened. There was nothing broken, no signs of internal injuries, no cuts aside from the one in Lexa’s left forearm. She was aware of Lexa studying her. Following her every move. Clarke raised her head to look at her and smiled. The brunette answered with a smile of her own.
“You scared the hell out of me” Clarke whispered.
“It was not my intention” said the Commander with a slight smirk.
Clarke looked at her and then focused her attention in the cut to the forearm. “It’s not too deep. I can stitch it up.”
Lexa gave a slight nod in response. Clarke not even bothered to ask her if she wanted to use herbs to help with the pain. Not after seeing her fight with Roan.
A sudden loud gasp of pain got her attention. She looked at Lexa. The woman had a grimace of pain and began to breath hard. All her limbs suddenly tensed up. Almost to the point of breaking. A seizure?
“What is it?” she asked. She was positive she hadn’t missed anything. But then again, she was no doctor. Not like her mother.
Lexa closed her eyes trying to deal with the searing pain that extended throughout her body. She clenched her teeth. Her body was completely rigid.
“The neck… It burns. It burns” she said gasping.
Clarke did not want to contemplate the possibility of a neck injury that would leave the Commander bedridden for the rest of her life. She had clearly missed something. But what?
Her fingers reached the back of Lexa’s neck and started to traced the skin. Looking for any protuberances that could indicate a lesion to the vertebrae. She opened her eyes in surprise when her fingers noted a small lump in the back of Lexa’s neck. A lump that wasn’t there when they had made love not a couple of hours ago. But it didn’t feel like a bone fracture. What the fuck was going on?
“What is this?” said Clark out loud. Her fingers were tracing the lump that seem to move beneath the skin.
Titus approached the bed tentatively.
Clarke was too worried to say anything. “May I?” asked Titus.
Clarked looked at him. He looked beyond worried. There was no trace of the anger and zealotry that had clouded his eyes before. She gave him a subtle nod.
Titus looked at Lexa. It was the first time they looked at one another.
“Heda?” Lexa nodded.
With loving care, Titus traced the contour of Lexa’s neck. His brow burrowed in concentration. He touched the lump at the back of her neck. He dropped his head in consternation. The weight of the world had suddenly been thrusted upon his shoulders.
Clarke watched nervously. “What is going on?”
Titus exhaled softly. He had a pained expression. He looked at Lexa in the eye. “It’s the Commander’s spirit, Heda”.
Lexa looked at him. Understanding dawning in her eyes. “You know what to do… Flamekeeper”.
Titus gave a slight nod, stood tall and went to retrieve his satchel.
Clarke looked at him and then at Lexa. What was going on?
Lexa gave her a small smile. Her body was rigid, in pain. Her breathing was getting more labored. It could not be from the small cut in the forearm. Had Titus poisoned her? A sudden gasp made her look back at Lexa. She began to cry.
“Lexa, beja” she begged. “
Shhh… Don’t be afraid, Clarke” whispered Lexa. It was getting increasingly difficult to talk. It was too painful.
Titus returned and extended the satchel on the bed. Clarke saw the Grounder’s version of several scalpels and a small box, its color weathered by the passing of time. Titus looked once more at Lexa waiting for permission.
“Dula yu job op. Badan neson-de op kom we yu don badan ai op, Fleimkepa”
Titus nodded and then he rolled Lexa until she was face down on the bed.
Clarke protested. “Hey… what are you—?
Titus looked sternly at her. “The Commander’s spirit has rejected Lexa”.
Clarke did not understand. The Commander’s spirit was in the back of Lexa’s neck?
Titus saw her incredulity. “If I don’t do this, the spirit will kill Lexa”
Clarke could not understand. But Lexa seemed to trust him. She had given him permission. Clarke gulped and nodded. Murphy came behind Clarke and watched.
Titus grabbed a small scalpel and pushed aside Lexa’s hair from the back of her neck. He held her neck with a strong hand and with a steady pulse made a cut, not too deep, into her skin. Lexa grunted in pain.
A small piece of metal emerged from Lexa’s neck and seemed to support itself on a web of thin blackish tendrils. Titus picked up the object with his fingers. The tendrils detached themselves from Lexa’s body and began to retract and disappear into the small metallic piece.
“What is that?” asked Clarke with a feeling between curiosity and disgust.
Murphy saw the symbol and put the pieces together.
“It’s an AI” murmured.
Titus held the object between his fingers with reverence. His face showed determination. He was the Flamekeeper. He had a duty to fulfill.
“Wrong. It’s the spirit of the Commander” he announced.
He placed the AI inside the box and closed it. He put it inside his robes.
Clarke saw the gash and grabbed a piece of cloth. She tore it to make bandages.
Titus picked up his satchel, went to the door and opened it. “Nou Heda noumou. Teik Sadgeda stot au” announced with a solemn voice that echoed into the halls. The Conclave had been summoned.
As soon as he closed the doors behind him, Murphy reacted. He bolted towards the doors only to find them locked from the outside. He exhaled exasperated. He had spent most of the time on Earth locked down somewhere.
Clarke looked at Lexa. She seemed to have passed out. And it worried her. She looked around her. Her bag had to be somewhere. She carried a small medic kit with her. She hadn’t spent those months in the wilderness without learning a thing or two.
“Murphy! Murphy, my bag. You see it?” asked Clarke. She looked at him. She needed to make him react. “Murphy, please. It’s a small bag. Brown leather.”
Murphy put the gun in the back of his pants and looked for the bag.
Clarke bend over Lexa.
“Hey… stay with me, ok?” she said with a tremor in her voice.
Lexa’s body had relaxed. She had her eyes closed and was breathing normally. Clarke was worried about any other effects the removal of that AI could have had on the Commander but first she needed to attend to that cut.
Murphy dropped the bag onto the bed. Clarke immediately rummaged inside and found what she needed. She began to stitch the wound. If Lexa had passed out, she wouldn’t feel the needle and the thread. Once she was finished, she applied an algae salve that would prevent infections and protected the area with a bandage. With Murphy’s help, she turned Lexa around. She then stitched the cut in the forearm.
The woman was unconscious. Her features were relaxed which made her look like the young woman she was and not like the Commander of the Twelve Clans she had been. Clarke had only seen her like this once. When Lexa fell asleep after they had made love. She smiled at those memories.
She held one of Lexa’s hands and caressed her knuckles with her thumb. She knew Murphy was waiting for her to say something.
“Thanks” she murmured. She lift her gaze to look at her friend.
Murphy gave her a lopsided smile. “Obviously, I’ve missed a lot “ he said gesturing towards Lexa. Clarke smiled softly. “Now what?” he asked.
Clarke looked at him. She hadn’t thought about that. She noticed the multiple cuts and bruises that covered his face and probably the rest of his body. She placed a soft kiss on Lexa’s lips, covered her with a fur and got up from the bed.
“Now, I’ll take care of those wounds and then we’ll wait. We’ll think of something”.