Chapter Text
“When do you leave?”
Late afternoon daylight was muted by see-through curtains on one end of the room. It was allowed to pour in through the small spaces between the grates on the uncovered windows on the other end, but it still did nothing to warm the room or the two people who stood in it. They squared off, staring into each other’s eyes, almost as if surprised to see each other there in that space and in that moment. As if the weeks that had passed hadn’t been leading up to this standoff.
Clarke’s mind had rehearsed her response to the inevitable question the entire walk down the hallway. She had passed guards without acknowledgement because it was all she could think of.
Now. Now now now.
She was leaving now, and she was officially letting the Commander know. Octavia would only wait so long, so she had to keep her goodbye short. Fifteen minutes had passed since Octavia had delivered her ultimatum. Fifteen minutes where Clarke mulled over her decision to ensure it was the right one. Fifteen fewer minutes to spend with the person who had irrevocably changed her life.
Now. Well, a little bit from now, factoring in some goodbye small talk and the walk to get to-
Clarke raised her eyebrows slightly, mentally shaking out her thoughts. Details were not necessary. Just an answer. One word. This was a watershed moment, where the wrong choice could change the pace and direction of her life forever. She could either start a new paragraph or start a new chapter.
Now. I’m leaving now.
Why was it taking her so long to eke out one meagre syllable?
The initial question still rang in her ears, travelling deep into her head and down into her heart. She stared sadly, guiltily at Lexa’s face, which had just displayed a series of emotions over the course of one second, from surprised to pleased to forlorn. Lexa knew what was coming. She could read Clarke’s expression, and she knew what kind of person she was – accountable, determined, loyal. There was no way she was going to shirk her responsibility. She would leave the city for the sake of her people.
Clarke was obligated to give her an answer. She just had to open her mouth and say the word. Put her tongue to the roof of her mouth, sound out the N, the O, and the W and just be done with it.
“I’m staying.”
Lexa didn’t recoil at the word, as that would suggest a lack of emotional control that she had meticulously honed nearly her entire life. She was, however, taken aback, and she showed this by letting her eyebrows knit together ever so slightly. Her face then made a reverse journey back from confused to forlorn to pleased to surprised.
“But you have to go back. They’re your people.”
Lexa didn’t know what had compelled her to say this, other than the fact that it was true. Balancing the good of society versus what was good for the individual was something she did every day. However, she had specifically and selfishly asked Clarke to stay, ignoring whether or not that action was good for society. The irony of trying to undo an answer she had wholeheartedly campaigned for was not lost on her. And now that she heard the words she wanted to hear, it made no sense to her why she would try and backtrack.
But a tiny, hidden part of her did understand why she was trying to recant her invitation. Lexa was wary – scared, even. Clarke was fickle, always pulling back when they got too close, always raising her defences. She needed to ensure Clarke was making her decision based on what she wanted, not because of any pressure she might feel from Lexa. She wanted Clarke to look into her eyes and see a human being, not the all-powerful Commander, and agree to stay. Otherwise, she would risk Clarke pulling away and resenting her, and that’s the last thing she wanted. She had done enough damage to her already.
Clarke was still reeling from the surprise of what had come out of her own mouth. On the other hand, she wasn’t surprised at all. This was what her heart wanted. She had spent so long leading generously and without complaint that she had finally snapped. She needed to have something for herself, something that nobody could dictate or take away.
She took a few deep breaths to process what she had done. With several short but confident strides, she closed the distance between the two of them. She didn’t have a plan, and she didn’t know what to say next, but she knew she needed to be close to say it. Lexa watched Clarke’s sudden movements. For the first time in a while, she couldn’t read the girl she had spent so much time watching, studying, and getting to know. Clarke started to reach out with her hand but then stopped. She dropped her hand and simply stared at Lexa with an almost manic hardness.
“You’re my people now, too.”
And it was in that moment that Lexa understood the gravity of Clarke’s decision. It flew in the face of a kill order, a family of lovable but damaged misfits, and a nuclear apocalypse that had fractured societies, nations, and lives. Lexa was lost for words and didn’t feel comfortable with that fact. To hear Clarke’s affirmation satisfied her to no end, but she felt excruciating guilt. She still felt like she had exposed Clarke to an impossible choice out of selfishness, loneliness, and a little bit of rebelliousness against her Flamekeeper, who surely would have more harsh lectures ready for her once he heard the object of her affection was remaining in Polis.
“I still owe them a lot, but I’m making this decision for me. I know peace can work, but I can’t do it without you. I do my best work when I’m here with you. You… inspire me. If I left now, I’m afraid everything we’ve worked towards would fade away.”
Clarke stopped talking. None of this had been rehearsed or expected, and yet she knew in this moment that it was the right decision. Octavia would be angry, but she couldn’t possibly care about that right now when Lexa was looking at her with the widest, gentlest eyes she had ever seen on a person. Lexa remained silent, and Clarke’s heart suddenly stopped. The corners of her mouth dropped slightly as she realized that Lexa may not want her to stay. The look in her eyes may have just been pity. Something might have happened to cause her to retract the offer to stay – a threat, a plan, a change of heart. She took a breath to blubber out some kind of excuse or an exploratory line of questioning to figure out what she’d read so wrong.
It was then that she saw several tears pooling in the centre of Lexa’s eye. They were so close to spilling out that any movement would have set them off. Clarke realized Lexa’s stillness was done in an effort to hold back her tears. In a fit of compassion, Clarke reached a hand up to Lexa’s face and gently wiped the tears away before they had a chance to fall, squeezing the salty liquid between her thumb and pointer finger until it had dissolved.
Lexa blinked, surprised by the gesture and trying to suppress the overwhelming fear that had now taken hold of her heart. She knew this moment wouldn’t last. It couldn’t. Something would happen to destroy it. They would be pulled apart. Clarke would never be able to truly be at peace beside her. Lexa would then harden her heart further, and it would become more and more difficult to open up to anyone else.
Clarke did not notice any of these thoughts because she was too full of her own to be able to read Lexa.
Now. I was just supposed to tell her I was leaving now, not commit to staying in a city where the people want me dead, she berated herself.
The thought was fleeting, however, and she quickly realized that she was happy despite everything that had happened and was happening. Of course she had to stay. There was no other option. They were in the middle of something. And who else understood her the way Lexa did? Nothing else made sense but this.
Lexa had recovered control over her tear ducts, but she blinked, and two residual tears fell from her eyes and trailed down her cheeks to her lips. Clarke brought her hands up to either side of Lexa’s face and used her thumbs to wipe away the damp trails. Clarke looked at Lexa and noted that the dampness left behind by her tears illuminated and enhanced her eyes, making her look even prettier.
I really should just kiss the damned girl, Clarke thought idly to herself.
And so she did. She tilted Lexa’s head with her hands gently and moved her own head in slowly. When Lexa did nothing to stop it, their lips met. It was a soft, familiar sensation. It was a little salty from the tears, and it felt incredibly perfect in the moment. Standing so close to Lexa, she could feel the heat coming off of her. She was always warm, never cold. Clarke pulled back after a few seconds. Lexa’s lips were parted in a surprised manner.
“Clarke, I-”
She stopped. She was lost for words. She just knew she had to say something in response. She took a beat and restarted.
“If you’re sure about this, then I would like nothing more than to have you continue being my guest here.”
It came off very formal considering the two girls were standing in a bedroom, one crying and scared, the other spinning out over her rash decision, both hearts completely vulnerable. Clarke nodded her head, her lips slightly upturned in a tense smile that did not quite match the situation. Inside, her heart was beating like a carbon dioxide scrubber working overtime. Here she was, feeling like she was abandoning Skaikru, abandoning Octavia, Lexa was crying, and the last time they had kissed, they had ended up on opposite sides of the battlefield.
The two stood in the waning sunlight, staring at each other, neither knowing how to proceed. Clarke had long since retracted her hands, and they now lay clasped in front of her. Lexa’s hands were at her sides, a fact that she was starting to feel very self-conscious about, as the more she thought about it, the more unnatural it felt. Then Clarke broke the silence with a small exhalation. Lexa’s eyes widened microscopically.
“Seriously, we’ve been through hell and back since we met, and this is how it goes?” Clarke asked.
Lexa shook her head slightly and looked deep into Clarke’s eyes.
“It feels like we’ve known each other forever,” she murmured quietly.
And in that moment, Clarke sobered up. This was Clarke, who had resisted Lexa’s initial advances. Clarke, who had needed to go at her own pace. Clarke, who heard her heart loud and clear but forced herself to make decisions with her head. Clarke, who had sworn she would kill Lexa once upon a time. Clarke, who had never felt more alone than when Lexa had walked away from her. Clarke, who had obviously taken her time to forgive and had ended up falling for someone who had first shattered her heart and then rebuilt it to be even more resilient.
Clarke’s smile disappeared, and her face fell dark. What she felt in that moment was so intense that she couldn’t put a word or an expression to it, only an action. Lexa was surprised when Clarke grabbed her hands, pulling her in close, and she suddenly understood that the darkness was not darkness but unbridled passion that the girl hadn’t permitted herself to feel before.
The pair embraced furiously and passionately, clawing at each other’s bodies, removing clothing messily, and not wasting a second more of the time they had together. Clarke pushed Lexa down onto the bed, climbed on top of her, smiling down, and for the next while, they were lost in each other, unable to understand the concept of an outside world, unwilling to look away from each other, perfectly content for the first time in a long time. Nothing else mattered, nobody else mattered, just two burning souls that had waited long enough.
******
“Lexa?”
“Mmm?”
Clarke lay on her side, faced away from the centre of the bed, perfectly content as Lexa lay behind her, dozing off, a hand on Clarke’s hip. Clarke’s skin, which seemed to have been on fire for weeks, now felt like it had been cooled by water for the first time. She could feel Lexa’s slow, steady breaths against her back, and it almost threatened to reignite the fire in her. Almost. She was still too exhausted, too satisfied. She needed a moment to rest, unworried and unpressured.
She turned her body over slowly, settling on her other side. Lexa opened her eyes and retracted her hand, studying Clarke’s content face. Her heart swelled as she watched Clarke watch her. This was someone who had fallen into her life (almost quite literally) and, battle after battle, had won her heart over without trying, without knowing. This was someone who Lexa could see herself worshipping for the rest of her life, as short as it might be. This was the only person on Earth that she could see toppling the mighty Commander over, bringing her to her knees, and not being punished for it. This was someone she knew she could adore so purely that she didn’t even understand how it could be. It was impossible to convey the depth of her feelings, and she feared Clarke would never truly understand just how important she was.
Lexa kept this all to herself and smiled a full, bright smile that Clarke had never seen before. She was completely unguarded and entirely genuine. Clarke’s breath left her lungs, and she almost felt like she was drowning. She finished her thought.
“Let’s never leave this room.”
Lexa’s smile widened, if possible, and she inched over closer to Clarke so that their faces were within millimetres of each other. She took Clarke’s face in her hands and guided her lips to her forehead, kissing the centre softly and without any sign of condescension. She pulled away to see Clarke had closed her eyes, the corners of her lips turned up in satisfaction. When she realized Lexa was done, she opened her eyes again and blinked slowly.
Lexa’s smile was gone from her lips, but her eyes still spoke of satisfaction. She turned around and slid backwards under Clarke’s arm, which wrapped around her in a firm hold. Clarke’s arms were cool against hers. They stayed like that, huddled under the sheets, for what seemed like hours but was only a few minutes. The last tendrils of sunlight were still going strong, but not for much longer, and Clarke suddenly remembered where she was and what was happening in the world outside these four walls. She began to panic. She had left Octavia out there alone. Was she still waiting, or had she kept her word and left? Would she make it back to Arkadia on time?
Lexa felt the girl stiffen behind her, and she knew that this signalled the end of their rendezvous. For now. She shifted out of Clarke’s hold gently, turning around to lock eyes with her. Clarke looked like she was starting to spiral into her own thoughts.
“Octavia?” Lexa asked.
Clarke nodded.
“I have to let her know I’m not coming. It’s the least I can do.”
Lexa poked her arm out from under her body and offered it to Clarke. Clarke questioned it for a moment with her eyes, then took hold. Lexa pulled them both up, guiding them from the bed and to their piles of clothes they’d left so unceremoniously strewn on the floor. With quick movements, they both dressed. Clarke glanced over at Lexa, taking in a full, close-up view of the tattoo on her back, wondering what it meant. She was about to ask, but Lexa interrupted her thoughts.
“Where are you supposed to meet her?”
“At the central market square.”
Lexa nodded.
“We’ll take guards to clear a path. It’ll be quick. Come.”
She gestured towards the door, waiting for Clarke. Clarke hastily finished zipping up her pants, admonishing herself briefly for the dalliance that had run overtime and could endanger her friend’s life. She knew Octavia was stubborn and loyal enough to wait longer than necessary. She quickly padded over to the door as she expertly shoved her boots on, hopping several times to adjust them with one hand while trying to smooth out her messy hair with the other, letting out a curse under her breath when she almost fell over. Even after what had just happened, she felt like she had to put on an air of strength and composure in front of Lexa.
From behind, Lexa let herself smile silently. She briefly wondered if Clarke looked like this every morning when she got dressed, or if she was just frazzled because of Lexa’s presence. She had no answer, but her breath caught in her throat as she realized that after eons pursuing someone that she had felt worthy to be more than just a casual acquaintance, she had finally found a moment of peace and happiness. It felt good, and she wanted more.
Lexa emptied her head of thoughts with a shake. This was no time to think about these kinds of things. She had to focus on the here and now. She blinked and looked at the door, which Clarke had just started to open. She watched Clarke’s arm move back as she tugged at the doorknob, watched how her hair moved softly from side to side in perfect synch with her footsteps, studied Clarke’s confident gait as she walked through the doorframe, watched Clarke’s head kick back in surprise-
“Hnnnggg.”
Lexa snapped out of her reverie a second time as Clarke stopped abruptly, almost causing a crash. Luckily, Lexa’s instincts were sharp, no matter the daydream she was having.
“What-” she began to ask, but she peered over Clarke’s shoulder and quickly realized what had caused the stop.
Someone was tied up just opposite the door of her room. She didn’t recognize him, but Clarke obviously did. As she ran up to him, his head rolled to the side, and he appeared to begin regaining consciousness.
“Murphy? What the hell are you doing here?”
Murphy. John Murphy. Lexa recognized his name. This was the boy Clarke had told her about. The one who caused trouble everywhere he went. Clarke always said his name with such bitterness that she had pictured him differently – bigger, meaner looking. Instead, she saw an injured boy tied up and struggling to take a breath. When he opened his eyes, she saw a fire in them.
“ITTS NNE LL II HA AAA JJS!” Murphy suddenly screamed incoherently, now fully awake, his mouth bound by a gag.
Clarke looked at him in confusion, and Lexa, perplexed as to what was going on, took a step forward and removed the gag. As soon as his gag was off, Murphy went ballistic.
“He’s crazy! He’s absolutely frickin’ crazy, Clarke! Get me out of here!”
A chill ran down Lexa’s back, and she took a step back as Clarke started to untie Murphy. She scanned the hallway. She saw nothing. At least not at first. She thought she caught a brief glimpse of fabric floating around a corner, and she took off to follow it.
Lexa turned the corner and saw a robed figure speeding down, almost at the end of the next hallway. She saw a metal object – a gun? It looked like a gun – in hand. She felt adrenaline rush through her veins, and she assessed the battle and the risks as she took off at full speed towards the figure. She then felt a heart-stopping chill go through her as she realized who she was chasing.
“Titus!” she roared.
All sense left her, and all she could see was red. She may as well have closed her eyes for all the good they did her in that moment. The figure froze, turned around, and locked eyes with Lexa. Titus brought the gun up to his waist, and for a brief moment, Lexa had a firm understanding of her utter helplessness in the face of a weapon that allowed men to kill from such a distance that they could not even see the eyes of their victims. She watched Titus’ hand on the trigger tighten, and she tensed her body, preparing to dodge a bullet or die trying.
The bang didn’t sound. Lexa watched, as if in slow motion, as Titus turned the gun sideways, knelt down to the ground, and placed it in front of him, bowing his head in shame.
“Heda…” he managed to croak as Lexa jumped back into action, taking the final few paces towards him.
“What is this treachery?” Lexa growled, kicking the gun viciously away from the man.
Titus looked up at his Commander, his charge, his child, and choked down a sob.
“Heda, forgive me. I-”
He didn’t get a chance to finish his sentence. Heart cold as stone, Lexa kicked him in the face, causing him to fall to the side, blood now pouring out of his nose and onto the floor. She put her foot over the side of his neck.
“What are you doing? Two seconds.”
One.
Two.
“I was only trying to make you see reason. If Clarke was gone, she would stop poisoning your mind with what could be so you could focus on what is.”
Lexa’s eyes narrowed, unable to believe that yet again, someone charged with protecting her had betrayed her.
“And you choose this cowardly weapon to, what? Threaten Clarke? Threaten the boy? Teach me a lesson?”
She emphasized her last question with grit teeth and a kick to Titus’ ribs, which he endured with a grunt.
“No, Heda. It was to kill Clarke and frame the boy,” he confessed, tears running down his cheeks as he realized he had betrayed his ruler and the whole reason for his existence.
Here was someone he had helped mold into the leader she was today. He had advised her, cared for her when she was injured, and he had vowed to be there at her side to see her into the next world. And now he may only have seconds left to live, having poured it all away on one hunch that loving Clarke was the path to Lexa’s downfall.
If Lexa had seen red before, she now saw black. She saw death. She saw Titus’ head on a pike outside Polis’ walls. She could already feel the fire that would burn his body for days. She felt the rage and misery of an alternate world where he had been successful and killed Clarke.
She felt a tentative, calming hand on her forearm. In her rage, she hadn’t noticed Clarke join them. She turned slightly to see Clarke standing beside her, John Murphy at her side. He was bloodied and battered, but he stood tall, facing off against Titus, thirst for vengeance clearly in his eyes. Lexa locked eyes with Clarke, who was looking at her pleadingly.
Don’t kill him, her eyes begged.
“He’s done nothing but threaten you since you arrived. He was going to kill you with one of your own weapons. And look what he did to your compatriot,” Lexa snarled, pointing to Murphy’s injuries.
“Eh, Clarke probably thinks I deserved it,” Murphy quipped.
Clarke gave him a death stare, and he shut up. He went back to observing just how familiar Clarke was being with the Commander, and despite his grievous injuries, his mind began to churn with questions.
“Lexa,” Clarke said.
Lexa.
Even the way she said her name drove Lexa crazy. She looked again at Clarke and then drew herself to her full height, taking full command of the scene. She faced Titus, who lay cowering on the ground, knowing his time was up and waiting for the death blow.
“Titus,” she said with just a hint of a bite in her tone. “Stand up.”
Titus looked up at his Commander and carefully stood to attention, waiting for the end. He thanked his kind leader silently for the honour of a death on foot. However, the death blow never came. Instead, Lexa walked over to the wall where the handgun had landed, and she picked it up. She walked back over to Clarke and handed it to her without looking at her. Clarke immediately secured the weapon and tucked it into her waistband, to the dismay of Murphy, who eyed the gun and wished he could blow Titus’ brains out with it.
“You will be locked up until I have time to deal with you.”
Titus let some of his astonishment show on his face, but he was careful not to tempt fate. A Commander’s desires could change at any moment. He bowed his head low, and he waited. With the roughness of a soldier handling a petty crook, Lexa grabbed Titus by the arm and forced him back down the corridor, Clarke and Murphy bringing up the rear to ensure he didn’t run. They arrived at the elevator door, where her two personal guards stood watch. They were oblivious to what was going on, having assumed Titus, a member of Lexa’s inner circle, would not have brought the violence he had just attempted to bring. They stiffened when they saw the group.
“Cassius, Ari. Take Titus to the dungeon and chain him up,” Lexa ordered, pausing for a moment and then adding, “Take him the long way.”
The two guards nodded their assent, and they each took a hold of one of Titus’ arms, not questioning the order but seeming perplexed that they were restraining the Flamekeeper, the most trusted member of Lexa’s council. They led him down the corridor to a private set of stairs that were reserved for Lexa and her advisors’ movements between upper floors.
“I am sorry, Heda,” Titus whispered as he was led away, but Lexa made no indication she had heard him.
The truth was that she felt too hurt and betrayed to even look at him for fear of her true feelings showing. She held her head high and looked at Clarke and Murphy.
“Let’s go find Octavia.”
Clarke was pleasantly surprised that Lexa had listened to her and not killed Titus on the spot. She had looked so angry and ready to fly off the handle that she hadn’t thought she could pull her off the ledge.
Murphy, a reluctant and unwilling participant in all of this, shrugged.
“Damn, Octavia’s here, too? It’s a party.”
“Would you shut up, Murphy?” Clarke snapped acerbically, yanking her eyes off of Lexa for the second it took to chastise him.
It made Lexa turn her head a quarter of a degree to hear Clarke speak like that to one of her own people. But if the stories she’d heard of Murphy were true, it wasn’t entirely surprising that Clarke had little love for the boy. Still, she was curious how he had ended up in Polis as a pawn in Titus’ crusade to get rid of Clarke.
The three boarded the elevator. Lexa tugged on a signal line to indicate they were ready, and the guards at the bottom of the Tower began the slow process of lowering the cab down to the ground floor. Lexa turned to face Murphy.
“How did you get into the Tower?” she asked.
Murphy made a great show of pretending to be confused about who Lexa was talking to, that he had thought she would never deign to speak to a pleb like him. Inwardly, Clarke sighed and rolled her eyes. Five minutes ago she had been happy and safe with Lexa tucked in her arms after having had the most satisfying sex of her life. Now she was on the heels of an assassination attempt and stuck in an elevator with John Murphy, who was sassing the Commander of the kingdom that had been trying to beat their people back since their incursion into their land. Life couldn’t just be easy for once. She may have sighed outwardly, because Lexa looked at her quickly, a slight frown on her face. It was just a passing look, and then she focused her attention back on Murphy.
“The usual. Got caught scamming and stealing to make ends meet. Got dragged into a dungeon and beaten because I don’t believe in your hokey religion. I’m sorry you got the memo late, but humans outgrew cave paintings thousands of years ago.”
Lexa suddenly understood the vitriol with which Clarke always spoke of Murphy. He was rude and insulting. She stole a quick glance at Clarke, who pursed her lips and shrugged slightly as if to say “That’s Murphy for you.” Lexa straightened out. She could play this game. If Murphy wanted her to lose her cool, she would show him frozen. She put a neutral face on.
“I’m sorry your thievery skills are not up to the task.”
Murphy rolled his eyes, and Lexa almost laughed. Not even the boldest general would have rolled his eyes at her in an enclosed space, yet this boy had no fear.
“You wanna talk no honour? How about abandoning your gal pal at the gates of Mount Doom and basically telling her to go float herself?”
“I didn’t grow up with her on the Ark. You should be a hundred times more protective of Clarke than I am, and yet here we are.”
Clarke watched this verbal tennis match in disbelief as the most mismatched duo in the history of time traded banter. And they seemed to like it. What in the world was going on? Could they just rewind the day back to about half an hour ago when none of this was a possibility and she was high on endorphins?
“The Ark? If you’d been on the Ark, you’d be best friends with the other weirdo chick under the floorboards-”
“Guys,” Clarke suddenly interrupted. “I can’t believe I’m gonna say this but shut the hell up. Both of you.”
Lexa looked taken aback while Murphy looked like it was just a regular Tuesday.
“Murphy,” Clarke continued without waiting for a response. “Where was Titus holding you? Why was he torturing you? It can’t be just for robbing some travellers.”
Murphy sobered up. Sometimes he knew when it was important to be serious, and now he had a stinging need to seek revenge for what had been done to him.
“He tied me up in some junk-filled temple, and he was going on about his sacred symbol, which is really just the logo from Jaha’s microchip that I had on me. Somehow it’s the symbol of these guys’ religion.”
Lexa’s ears perked up.
“The sacred symbol?” she asked, dropping the bantering tone and turning to Murphy in earnest.
“Yeah, you know. The infinite logo?” Murphy responded, tracing the symbol in the air with his finger.
Lexa looked troubled. Clarke turned her head towards her.
“What is it?”
With one smooth motion, Lexa reached to the back of her head and swiped her hair away, turning slightly for Clarke and Murphy to see. Just at her hairline on the nape of her neck was the infinite symbol. Clarke had noticed it before when they were in bed, but she hadn’t had the bandwidth to study it deeply, what with Lexa’s hands all over her. She flushed as she thought about it and quickly shook her head to focus. Murphy took one look at the tattoo and let out a whistle.
“That’s it. That’s the sacred symbol.”
Lexa let her hair fall back against her neck and looked between Murphy and Clarke.
“This represents the spirit of the Commander and is our holiest symbol,” she explained, then focused on Murphy. “Why would Titus be asking you about this? What are these microchips you’re talking about?”
Murphy eyed Clarke warily. He wondered how much Clarke knew about Jaha and how much she might have shared with Lexa. Apparently not much. He looked back at Lexa.
“It’s a long story, but basically, our former esteemed Chancellor is recruiting people to his cult by having them eat these microchips. They sort of brainwash them into following him,” he began.
Lexa maintained a perplexed frown as he spoke.
“What is he making them do?” she asked.
Murphy shrugged.
“So far they’re kinda peaceful. They’re on a mission to find paradise. But there’s some real bad vibes going on with them. They got cranky when I tried to pry.”
At this point, the elevator came to a stop, and Clarke, anxious to get out, cut in.
“I swear to god if we don’t make it, Octavia will never forgive me,” she said, eyeing the door as it opened slowly.
Lexa turned her attention to their immediate mission, and once the doors had opened enough for her to squeeze through, she did so, barking orders to the guards on the ground floor.
“You three, accompany us to the market square now. You two,” she said, softening her tone as she looked back at Clarke and Murphy, “follow me.”
Two guards flanked Lexa, a third waiting to follow behind the group. Together they all took off at a fast pace.
******
“Octavia of the Sky People,” a clear voice called out.
Octavia was standing in the square, looking in the direction of the Tower and waiting for Clarke. She had not expected to hear Indra’s voice, let alone her voice filled with such strength and conviction. She had not had much hope after their conversation earlier in the day, but now she heard something different. She closed her eyes and gave a silent thanks to the universe. Opening her eyes again, she turned around in the direction of the voice. She saw Indra standing down the street from her, arm in a sling but sword ready. Vendors and shoppers passed in front of them, but they locked eyes, sharing a knowing look.
Indra strode up to Octavia, reached out her arm, and clasped Octavia’s in a shake even stronger than her voice. Octavia returned the shake with gratitude in her eyes. They both disengaged, and with a synchronized turn, they began walking down the main street out of the square.
The sun had just started to set, and they knew they would have to keep a fast pace the whole walk. Octavia was beyond disappointed at Clarke’s absence, but she wasn’t entirely surprised. She’d seen the way Clarke scrambled to justify Lexa’s actions, defending her constantly and speaking more highly of her than anyone from the Ark had any right to. She had fallen under some kind of thrall, and there was nothing Octavia could do if she wouldn’t willingly come home. She would have to enlist the help of others from Arkadia to convince Clarke to come home safely.
“Indra,” called a voice suddenly from behind them.
Octavia’s blood froze, and Indra, who was rarely caught off guard, turned in surprise. They both recognized the voice immediately.
“Heda,” Indra said, bowing her head slightly in deference.
Lexa, flanked by her guards, Clarke, and Murphy, stood in the middle of the road looking at her general. She wore an inscrutable expression, and Indra wondered how her Commander had known to look for her in this exact place at this exact time. Octavia, on the other hand, was flummoxed. She was pleasantly surprised to see that Clarke had shown up, but she was puzzled as to why she had brought others to their meeting place, including a very pale and sickly looking Murphy. Before anybody could make a move, Clarke ran up to Octavia, closing the gap between them quickly. They were both painfully aware of the setting sun.
“Octavia,” Clarke started once she was close. “I’m not coming with you.”
Octavia’s eyes narrowed.
“And you came here to tell me this with backup?”
She tossed a suspicious look at Lexa and her guards. Clarke shook her head.
“I can’t explain it all right now,” she said hurriedly. “But I need to stay here. Murphy’s gonna go back with you.”
Octavia shook her head, refusing to hear this. Additionally, she was absolutely bewildered at how Murphy, who had disappeared with the former Chancellor one day, had ended up in Polis, but she left that as a secondary concern. She had been right that Clarke had fallen under some kind of spell and wasn’t thinking properly. On the other hand, she grudgingly respected Clarke for coming to tell it to her face that she wasn’t going home.
“That’s not happening. We need you in Arkadia, Clarke,” Octavia pushed.
Her brother was going off the rails, bigot Pike was in charge, and Jaha was recruiting people to his religious cult. They couldn’t afford to lose one of their most level-headed minds, even if she was currently persona non grata in the settlement. Clarke smiled softly.
“I’m needed here. I promise you I can make this work. Trust me.”
She looked pleadingly into Octavia’s eyes. Octavia took a moment to think. She truly did have faith in Clarke. She always managed to persevere, and she had even managed to find a way to work with her stubborn brother to keep their group safe from day one. Clarke also trusted and respected Lincoln, which counted for a lot, especially in these days of tension between the ground and the sky.
“You do realize that Lexa can’t keep you safe if twenty of them decide to attack you,” she said, gesturing to the people in the market.
Lexa, who had walked up slowly to the two girls over the past minute, stepped forward.
“Clarke will be safe here.”
Octavia glared at her distrustfully, her eyes flicking to Lexa and then to Clarke again. She walked a fine line between wanting to serve in Indra’s army, ultimately under the command of Lexa, and protect herself and her friends from a leader who wouldn’t hesitate to kill one of them off if it served her interests. Clarke tried her best to put on her most reassuring expression as if to echo what Lexa had said.
“Fine. But don’t expect me to explain this to your mother,” Octavia mumbled, and with a sigh, she pulled her radio out from her belt, handing it to Clarke. “Take this.”
Clarke gratefully took the radio. After the exchange, she was lost for words. Frustrated at the awkwardness, Octavia reached out to Clarke and gave her a quick hug, pushing her away when she was done. Clarke gave her a small but grateful smile and then looked back at Murphy.
“Ready?”
Murphy shook his head, a defiant look on his face.
“No way in hell I’m going back without Emori.”
“Who’s Emori?” Clarke asked with an exasperated sigh.
For the first time ever, she noticed Murphy look lost for words. He always had a sarcastic quip ready at the tip of his tongue, but now, he became thoughtful.
“She’s a Grounder who saved my life. I’m not going back without knowing where she ended up.”
He spoke with such conviction that Clarke instinctively knew there would be no convincing him to leave. Octavia and Indra could take him by force, but he would hold them back, and it could result in Octavia not getting back home in time before the blockade went into effect.
“John Murphy will be safe here, too,” Lexa called out unexpectedly. “I’ll ensure it.”
Octavia shrugged. She didn’t really care. He wasn’t her problem. Murphy turned back to Lexa and bowed exaggeratedly.
“Thank you, oh mighty one.”
What have I done? Lexa wondered.
Clarke could read the look in her eyes, and for a moment, the whole situation seemed so absurd that she almost burst out laughing. Quickly clamping down on that feeling, Clarke turned back to Octavia and Indra.
“Be careful. And tell my mom I’ll be in touch soon. We’ll figure this out.”
Indra bowed her head to the group, locking eyes with Lexa as she took her leave. Clarke, Lexa, and Murphy watched as the two warriors walked off into the sunset. It would have been very poetic had it been the end of a story.
But it was just the beginning of one.