Hello hello! So as it says in the summary, this is a quick fic (probably 5-7 chapters once it's all wrapped up), which diverges from the actual storyline (not in some insane, out of the question way-I tried to keep the characters true to themselves as I perceive them, and hope it kinda reads like an episode of the show would). I'm a big fan of the show, and think so much of the characters I included in this story. This fic is a re-do of the dreaded 3x07 episode (dun dun duh!), without the Lexa dying and all that. (Really, it takes off from the ending of 3x06). Now, yes yes, I know Lexa Deserved Better, and while rest assure she survives in my story, this fic does not serve to replace the importance of that episode. I love the actress and the character alike and I think it would have been amazing to see her continue in the show, but at the same time I appreciate how the writers used her loss to advance the storyline. I wrote this fic with the hopes of creating a chance of reconciliation between Lexa and Abby, as I feel they deserve. I hope y'all enjoy; feel free to comment thoughts, concerns, criticisms.
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CHAPTER ONE
To say she was unnerved would be an understatement. She looks to the young woman walking lithely beside her—maybe she is actually a pace or two in the lead. It's dark, but in the weak illumination of the moon she studies her form incredulously.
The commander seems uncharacteristically at ease, she thinks.
While she is still learning the importance of caution and constant vigilance, she is aware that the commander should be more uncomfortable at the exposure their current situation has left them privy to. Even in the shield of the night, they are traveling on an open road, covered for nothing—no trees, no settlements, no people, just bland exposure to whatever may lurk in the dark. There's supposedly a cluster of buildings they're approaching, but if it's out there it's impossible to discern from the starless backdrop and movement one's imagination creates on the blank canvas surrounding them. There is no way to see—and more importantly, to hide from—any predator or enemy in any direction. But, alas, she watches as the commander moves with light, inaudible steps, small but surefooted. A dull gleam of her armor, the hilt of her sword glinting in the moonlight. Her breathing is just as undetectable. It is in the things that are absent that make her unnerving—so unlike the grounders are her small, purposeful movements, the way she yields her quiet rage, the thoughtfulness of her words before she speaks. It makes her dangerous, a beast of prey.
It doesn't do anything for the other woman's nerves that the commander does not speak, or look in any direction but forward, her eyes locked on the goal.
It also does not help that it's just the two of them.
"That feels like a branding iron." Lexa suddenly speaks, making the other woman jump a little. The commander's voice has a tone beyond her years, like scars on the bark of a tree that has weathered years of wind.
She recovers and clears her throat, "What?"
"You boring holes into my back with your eyes."
"Oh." Is the only reply.
"You don't strike me as the quiet type, Abby." Lexa says, still not breaking eye-contact with the void ahead.
The older woman has inexplicable goosebumps. She somewhat prides herself on being unshakable, but there is something about the young commander that has Abby gnashing her teeth. She's not sure she's ever heard Lexa say her name before, or maybe now it was so silent she just noticed the sharp connections Lexa's tongue makes on the back of her teeth when she spoke.
"What exactly do I strike you as, Commander?" Abby asked shortly.
"Amongst other things, a woman of action." Lexa offered a sideways glance. "And if you've passed anything on to Clarke, one who speaks her thoughts."
"Now is not the time for this conversation." Abby muttered, "We should go over the plan on how to get the girls back."
The Grounder clenched her jaw in mild annoyance. They had already 'gone over' the plan before leaving Arkadia. She did not understand Skaikru's neurosis with details and repetition. The Chancellor, despite her shortcomings in patience and emotional attachments, was obviously a sharp woman. She knew the plan, the details, the expected outcomes—continuously discussing them would only open space for doubt and changes. There was a difference between adaptation and interference, and Lexa would not tolerate the latter.
"It's a long walk." The Commander had her doubts that this journey would end without one of them throttling the other. She was not one for reconciliation where it was not welcome, but she knew—for Clarke's sake, and more importantly the integrity of the coalition—that she and the Chancellor would eventually have to tolerate each other. Though she and Abby's relationship was far from the noxious one her and Nia's had been, it would be for the benefit of all it they could at least stand shoulder to shoulder in their alliance.
The Chancellor was not blind to the Commander's intonations, and it irked her somewhat that the teenager was actually being the bigger person between the two of them, but she did not have it in her to discuss her reservations of trusting the young woman responsible for a large majority of the Arkers' deaths, and Clarke's emotional break. She responds, "Then we'll have plenty of time."
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FLASHBACK—LEXA INFORMS ABBY THAT THE ICE NATION HAS CLARKE
The Commander of the Twelve—no Thirteen—Clans' arrival is not perceived as a welcome one. They dismount their horses well before the gates and approach on foot. She hears muffled orders and sees armed individuals trading places along the fence. She and her warriors halt and wait silently at the gate. A sentry, instead of greeting her or asking her to state her business, disappears from his post.
Leksa kom Trikru was many things, endlessly patient was not one of them. She bellows, "I need to speak with the Chancellor."
Several visible guards stare uncomfortably behind the wire that separates them from the Commander.
Lexa notices that each of them is armed, but also each of them had shouldered their weapons.
Beside her, Lexa notices the most of minute shifts of weight from one foot to the other of the warrior at her right hand. Indra was undoubtedly in pain, but Lexa knew her change in stance was not for that reason. Indra did not do 'nervous', but she was well practiced in 'suspicious', and that is what the Commander sensed from her.
Lexa somewhat regrets not having a more in-depth conversation with the woman before ordering her along, but besides herself, there was no individual in Polis that this situation did not matter more to, "You're uneasy, Indra?"
"I am alert, Heda." Indra was not a woman of many words, her strengths lied within her actions.
Their exchange ends there as the gates suddenly begin to swing open. Marcus Kane stands on the other side.
In fact, he is the only thing that stands to greet them, the compound behind him is void of all other Skaikru, save for the fence detail.
"Commander," Kane says, panting a little, obviously having sprinted from wherever he was to greet them. He steps several paces closer, so that they are within a comfortable speaking distance but not so much as to earn threatening glances from four the grounders flanking the Commander. "We weren't expecting you." It was not the most profound thing Marcus had ever said, he'd admit.
Lexa likes Kane; she cannot help it. He was set apart from the other Sky People, namely because he tended to think before he spoke, but there was something both wise and world-travelled about the man who grew up amongst the stars.
She surprises him by extending a hand, repeating, "I need to speak with the Chancellor."
Marcus clasps her forearm, but is cautious as he speaks, "I can go get the Chancellor for you, Commander. Please understand why I am not immediately inviting you inside. I do not know that you are safe here—"
"I am not here in retaliation for the massacre, Kane. Something has happened; I need to see the Chancellor, as well as Dr. Griffin."
Kane feels his stomach hollow at her words, Clarke, and immediately orders the nearest sentry at the fence, "Go get Abby."
The teenager nods without question and takes off towards the Ark.
"You have my word no harm will come to him, but this involves Pike as well."
Kane scratches at the back of his head, "It's not that, Commander. If you need Pike I can take you to him, but if you need the Chancellor, well, then Abby is one in the same."
Lexa cocks an eyebrow, "What happened?"
"Uh, it's a long story. There was more or less a coup, and the armory was broken into and all hell broke loose here last night. I can tell you Pike and his apostles are in lock-up, for now. Abby is acting as Chancellor again until things get back in order. Not all the weapons stolen from the armory have been recovered, and not all of Pike's more radical supporters have been subdued, so I think it safer that you all stay out here."
As he finishes speaking, Abby Griffin emerges with the sentry sent to fetch her.
"Commander, Indra," Abby greets the two she knows formally, and gives a curt nod to the other three grounders. She can't stop herself from swiveling her head in search of two things: the familiar faces of Clarke and Octavia, or a horde of warriors come for retribution. She finds neither and is immediately worried. Just the Commander and four warriors?
"Chancellor," Lexa greets, again extending her arm. As Abby returns the strange handshake Lexa speaks, "I need you to listen very closely." Abby was well aware of the importance of eye contact, but Lexa's was something otherworldly, it always had been. When she spoke, the Commander captured the other person's gaze, with bright eyes, the color of the trees she serves, constantly reading and searching and calculating—not disarmingly so, but in a way that speaks where her words do not.
"I do not wish to add insult to injury in light of whatever happened here last night, but we must act quickly, and quietly, to resolve what happened outside of your walls yesterday.
"Please understand the coalition is fragile. So, the actions we take will not be without reaction. I hope to resolve this before it spreads too quickly. In order to maintain peace, we must not let the other clans think we are making a move against Azgeda, must not let anyone know we can be easily shaken. Peace requires sacrifice.
"King Roan of Azgeda has been killed. The details of the events are still unclear, but it seems his rightfulness to the throne was called into question, and he failed to defend it. Ontari stands in his stead as queen. Her first call to action was to imprison Clarke and Octavia on their way to return behind the blockade. The messenger she sent with this news has guaranteed that they are not to be harmed."
Abby and Marcus stand side by side, both open-mouthed and reeling.
"Wha—" Abby struggles to sift through her racing mind and find what is to be her first question, "What does she want?"
"For Skaikru to be denounced as the thirteenth clan, and removed from the coalition."
"How can we be sure they are actually safe?" Marcus asked.
"The messenger that Ontari sent is being detained in Polis."
"So?"
"It's her younger sister."
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