Chapter 2
Elyza Lex
Nightfall promptly came, swallowing the forest in a sheet of darkness. Everything always looked so different at night, especially the woods. As Clarke made her way deeper and deeper into the vastness of trees that is exactly what the blond leader began notice. In the cover of night the trees as well as the plants seemed to take on a more ominous form with the help of shadows from the pale moonlight. However, to her it was still quite a beautiful sight. Even more so since she had lived most of her life in space with dreams of one day placing a foot on the earth's surface. Making drawings of places and things she had seen only in books. It has been years since the day she had first landed on the surface and yet she still was able to appreciate all of the earth's natural beauty.
The trees swayed and moved as a brisk wind blew through their branches and right through Clarke. She pulled her hood even tighter around her head as the chill in the wind tried to take every lick of warmth from her body. The weather was definitely starting to get colder which she wasn't quite found of. While she liked the winter because of the snow and how beautiful it looked. She didn't like the other things that came with it, like the cold. She carried on her journey admiring the moon as well as stars and how they shone so brightly against the inky blackness of the night sky. She soon found herself at her destination only to find she wasn't alone. Out of curiosity, she moved closer to the silhouette. Once they were in view she removed her hood upon realizing who the mysterious person was.
When the person reached out to her she grabbed their forearm, in greeting before either one spoke," Klark."
"Indra," Clarke nodded.
"Here to pay my respects," the skaikru leader firmly stated as she glanced over at Lexa's grave. She assumed that Indra had been doing just the same before she had shown up.
The older woman nodded back in response,"keryon."
Just as she was about to do what the warrior had said and carry on Indra's sudden voice stopped her. She turned toward the woman once more as she began to speak," Klarkkom Skaikru."
"Heda, she was special, not like the others before her." Clarke gave a slow nod in agreement. Lexa was most definitely special, to her in more than one way.
"She respected you, saw that you were special and she was right. You are,"she told the sky girl knowing that she was the one to carry on Lexa's legacy and united their people. Clarke was surprised to receive such a complement from Indra. It was no small feat and wasn't taken lightly. The skykru leader had not expected to hear such words from the female warrior and it left her somewhat speechless.
"Mochof or chof, Indra," she said in a soft whisper. A thank you was all she could muster up at the moment. Indra turned to leave but than hesitated for a second as if in thought.
"She was lucky to have you, you both were lucky to have each other. I'm sorry for your loss, Klark,"and with that said the female warrior left a rather shocked blond.
Clarke redirected her attention to the grave in front and stood there for a few moments in silence not really knowing what to say. She knelt down to put the flowers she had in hand on the pile of dirt that was meant to be her love's grave. She reached into the pocket of her pants and pulled out a book of matches, taking one and striking it against the side of it. She watched as the head of the match was engulfed by a small flame and placed it over the wick of a candle she also had brought.
The golden haired woman let a out a chuckle,"I brought you a candle, I know how much you love your damn candles. I would have brought you more but we are running a bit low on them right now."
She placed the candle down on the ground, letting the orange glow of the flickering flame guide her to past moments and memories. Ones she dared to think of. But with good memories also came the bad. As she watched the flame softly swayed side to side they too came rushing back. The flood gates had broken letting all the pain she felt escape through pearl shaped tears. She stayed at the grave for a good while letting the brisk breeze carry her soft cries through the trees.
Clarke knew it had gotten late when she looked over at the candle to see that the small flame had gone out and a pool of wax had hardened at the base of it. With swollen and wet eyes she also noticed it burned a fairly decent way down. She hadn't planned on staying that late but she ended up losing track of the time in the admits of everything. She stood up from the cool ground and brushed the dirt off her pants. She wiped away the remaining droplets on her tear stained cheeks and pulled the hood back over her head.
"In peace may you leave the shore. In love may you find the next. Safe passage in your travels. Until our final journey to the ground. May we meet again,"her voice cracked as she took one last glimpse of Lexa's final resting place. She left for her journey home but not before leaving behind some flowers, an unlit candle and a single, yet hot tear on her soul mate's grave.
"Well, the machine is ready whenever you are Clarke, its not too late if you want to back out. We would understand." a woman in a white lab coat told her in a reassuring manner.
Clarke bit her lower lip in thought, it certainly did seem that the cons out weighed the pros and that she was really questioning her sanity right now. Truthfully, she couldn't believe it herself. The once leader of Arcadia was really going to be the first one to test out this time travel machine. But she had entered in a time of her life where she didn't actually seem to care what happened to her anymore. She had been through hell and back, almost died a million times and somehow came through alive. But at what cost? She might have made it out alive but she didn't make it out unscathed. Every time she had fought her way out she lost a piece of herself in the process as well. By the time peace finally came, it was too late. She didn't recognize herself anymore.
"Well, if I'm going to die, at least it will be doing something cool," she smiled.
"Words of encouragement if I may?" a man in a white lab coat coughed. Clarke just nodded and listened to his words while she tried to prepare herself mentally and physically for the time jump. He spoke with a thick English accent and she couldn't help but let a smile slip. She could tell by the way he spoke that he was a lively and chipper fellow.
"There have been a many great pioneers throughout the years! Both of brave men and woman. That to this day their legends carry on still!"he flung out his arms wide in excitement.
He swiftly made his way over to Clarke, eyes full with pride,"And you my dear! You will be among them! As a great pioneer of this time!"his mouth snapped shut and his speech came to an abrupt halt when a woman came busting through the door of the building.
"You got to be kidding me! You really do have a death wish Griffin!" Octavia stormed towards her friend.
"Are you that miserable that you want to die!"
"Octavia, please clam down and listen to me,"Clarke begged.
"And you two!"she pointed at the two scientists, "How could you let her do this!" the female scientist hunched forward looking down guilty.
"O, relax, I volunteered for this."
"Why the hell would you volunteer for something like this! This is crazy Clarke. Bat shit crazy! The Clarke I know wouldn't do something so stupid!"
"Because that Clarke is dead!" the muscles in her face tightened.
"That Clarke has been long gone! That Clarke died when Titus shot her!" she screamed, her voice trembling with anger. Her sudden confession was enough to shock Octavia into silence for a moment. She inhaled deeply trying to clam herself down, letting the brief moment of anger subside.
The blond lowered her tone and spoke just above a whisper, "When Lexa died a part of me died as well."
"I have been trying to be the same person I once was. I tried to hang onto what was left of the Clarke you knew for as long as I could."
"I Kept pushing through no matter how much I suffered or how much I just wanted to slip away. I kept fighting to make sure you and the rest of Arcadia would survive. And we have, we are surviving."
Clarke walked closer to her friend, anger clearly evident on Octavia's, face, "I'm tired O, I'm tired of being in pain, I'm tired of missing her, and I'm starting to forget what she looks like and its terrifying. If I can just see her one more time and tell her how I felt, no how I feel than maybe I can get passed this. I know this is crazy and dumb and out of character but I just don't care anymore. Please just let me do this because you and I both know sooner or later its going to happen."
"This is what you want? To risk dying after all the shit we have been through? This is what's going to make you happy?"she crossed her arms in front of her chest.
Clarke smiled,"Yes this is what I want and I'm not sure what it will do for me, but if I get to see her one more time than that would make me happy."
"This is insane but fine go, its not like I can really do anything to stop you. Your just going to end up finding a way to do it anyway,"the shorter girl motioned to the machine with her hands. In many ways she could relate to Clarke's feelings. Lincoln had been taken from her much like Lexa had been taken from Clarke. She knew that pain all too well and if she was given another chance to see him, she most definitely would give it some serious thought.
"Thank you," she hugged Octavia.
"If you see him, tell him I love him," the whispered pulling back from the embrace.
The male scientist cleared his throat out of nervousness from the the evil glare he was receiving from the ebony haired girl, "Uh, right then, please step onto the platform and when we give you the go ahead you can just walk right through."
O's eyes narrowed, "And what happens when she walks through this thing?"
"Well, with our calculations when she walks through she should be in the time frame somewhere before the commander's timely demise," the English man informed.
"Ok, you may walk through whenever you are ready my but remember the watch we gave you. It will bring you back here or in your case will bring you back to the future. So take care of that watch,"the female scientist told her.
Clarke shook her head positively and with one last look at her friend she disappeared into the glow of the machine. If someone were to asked to describe what it was like stepping through the machine, she would tell them it was very much like stepping through a door. The moment she stepped into the machine she found herself stepping out of it and into a new room.
"Well ok, that was different,"she thought.
She scanned the room observing that she was now standing in what appeared to be an attic. The place was in bad shape and a compete mess having been abandon long ago. Papers were flung and scattered across the room in all directions. A part of the ceiling hang limp letting a portion of the sun's rays shine through the small holes. There was a pristine layer of dust laid thick on every surface like dirty snow. While some particles floated effortlessly in each golden ray of light that peaked through the only window in the room. She made her way cautiously around the room, she wasn't too sure about how strong the floor boards were. They looked worn and weak. She causally made her way over to inspect the desk when one particular piece of writing caught her eye.
"Calculations and formulas for creating a parallel universe portal," she cocked her head curiously.
Soft creaking of the floor boards and a soft moan had caught her attention. Clarke drew her eyes in the direction of the noise where a figure was slowly making its way into the room. Something just didn't feel right and out of instinct she brought her hand down to where she had her gun holstered, wrapping her fingers around the grip tightly. Her pulse quickened as the beat of her heart began to race with every step the figure took. Her breath got caught in her lungs for she had never seen something so horribly disfigured and still capable of moving. She hastily pulled out her gun and pointed it at the being once it had finally entered the room.
The weight of the gun in her hand felt heavier than normal which helped her realize that this wasn't the gun she had originally before stepping through the machine. She had brought with her a Glock 26 but now held a 9mm in her hand. Where it came from she didn't know and she didn't care. Clarke's attention was focused on the snarls that were coming from this deformed person.
The blond slowly drew out the gun pointing it in front of her and called out a warning,"Stay back, Don't make me shoot."
Instead of being hesitant like she thought it might be, it sprinted towards her knocking the gun from her hand and sending it flying across the wooden floor boards. Clarke, caught off guard by the thing's quickness found herself on her back with the grotesque creature now only mere inches from her. Her nose wrinkle from the nauseating aroma that oozed from her attacker as if he was rotting away. As she struggled against the foul creature it lunged forward in a biting motion. She held it away with her hands keeping it as far away from biting distance as she could.
She looked to the right of her and noticed a small, pocket sized knife. She took a brief glance on the being in front of her before stretching out an arm to reach it. With the clicking of teeth and moans of hunger so close to her ear she was finally able to grasped the knife. In one swift movement she gripped the knife hard, digging her nails into the handle and drove it all the way into her assailant's eye socket. Upon contact it immediately cease all movements and heavily dropped onto Clarke's small frame. With a soft Grunt she rolled over the lifeless corpse and stood. She pulled out the knife from its eye socket and wiped the blood from the blade before inspecting it further. The black and sliver knife had the initials E.L inscribed on the blade.
"Well, its mine now," she huffed in thought.
"What is this thing?"she questioned. It was by far the worst and my disgusting thing she has ever seen. It's skin peeled away from its body like an orange peel. The skin on it's face had been long gone just leaving the muscle bare. Its limbs were distorted and bent in ways that weren't physically possible. She was both horrified and confused. She had never seen any such creatures in Polis before. She tore her eyes away from the beast to retrieved her gun that she lost in the shuffle when there was a loud snap. Clarke let out a shriek as she fell through the floor and onto a couch underneath.
"Fuck in' 'ell!" she blurted unconsciously in raspy Australian accent.
She scrunched up her face in confusion when she heard herself speak out loud," I have an accent now?" She gave herself a once over making sure she wasn't hurt anywhere and that's when she noticed her attire. It too was different, much like her gun and new accent that confused her to no end.
Clarke slightly lifted the white V- neck shirt she was currently wearing to inspect the area that was hurting her the most. There was a purple welt the size of a golf ball on her side from the impact of it hitting the wooden arm of the couch.
"Damn that hurt," she winched in pain.
She thoroughly inspected the black leather jacket and found a secret pocket just along the inner lining of the coat. She unzipped the compartment only to find a series of small pocket knives. She also hadn't realized there was another 9mm pistol strapped to her other leg until she started to brushed off the dirt that had adhered to the rough and worn fabric of the black jeans.
"Talk about a one man army," she thought, seeing as there was numerous amount of weapons and knives that she was presently carrying. Her thoughts were abruptly interrupted when she heard more moans, and even more growls that echoed passed the hall.
She scowled,"That doesn't sound good."
Clarke made her way slowly, and as quietly as humanly possible out of the room and into the hall. She peeked over the railing of the narrow staircase only to find a horde of the creatures hobbling there way up.
"Shit,"she cursed and hasty retraced her steps back into the other room.
"I may have enough weapons to take out the lot of them, but I most definitely can not take them all out,"she tugged at her lower lip in thought and glanced around the room. There had to be another way out because if there wasn't she was as good as dead.
She ran to the window and saw that she could get onto the roof from this point. With the ever increasing moans and now creaking floor boards, Clarke didn't think twice. She opened the window and climbed out onto the roof. She closed the window behind her and made her way very carefully to the edge of the roof. She looked toward the ground and noted there were a few of the grotesque creatures that she would have to deal with. She had more of a chance of surviving down there than facing what was inside the building.
"Looks like the only way to the ground is to jump, great. This is going to be so much fun,"she grumbled before she jumped off and rolled forward to ease the impact of the ground. She popped up just in time to drive the engraved knife into the side of one of the creatures that had inadvertently ended up right in front of her.
"Whoa, too close for comfort!" She stated with surprise. The sky girl quickly made her way across the yard killing a couple more of the humanoid beings on her way until she was finally at a safe distance from them.
"Shit,"she exhaled trying to catch her breath,"Ok clearly those things are not friendly!"
"And this is definitely not Polis. So where the hell am I?"
Out of shear confusion she searched all pockets that she had in hopes of finding some kind of answer. The blond stopped when she felt the smooth leather of a wallet in her back pocket. There wasn't much in it, a few cards, a piece of paper that said IOU and no money, not that she would need money in a place like this anyway. However to her amazement and confusion there was a picture of a younger her with her mother and her father. A type of picture one gets when it is professionally taken. She took it out of its holder and looked at it in disarray. She brushed her thumb over the worn picture softly. It was then as if the picture triggered something.
Visions of that day started to play in her mind like a movie. She was six years old and had been fighting with her mom all morning about not wanting to wear a dress for their family portrait. Little, cute Clarke,with the face of an angel sat on the steps in front of her mother with her lower lip fully extended in a pout. Her mother begged and her father even tried to bribe her into wearing it with going to the store and getting her favorite watermelon candies with no luck. Her mother was frustrated, they were running out of time and were going to be late for the picture. She didn't understand why her daughter didn't like to wear dresses. She could dress her in anything else with no fuss but when it came to dresses it was like pulling teeth. There was always a fight. Eventually her mother gave up on the dress and compromised to something that still looked nice but most certainly wasn't a dress.
These visions felt more like memories even though she never actually partook in them. It felt so strange and familiar. Clarke felt the hatred for dresses bubble up as if she hated them all her life. She felt the joyfulness that filled her when her father surprised her by stopping at the candy shop. She even remembered the sweet and tartness of the watermelon candies that danced on her tongue. It was like being in a coma and waking up with amnesia while memories you never knew existed started to reveal themselves to you.
She shook her head negatively, pushing away the strange visions or memories,"What else is in here."
Clarke took what appeared to be a driver license with her picture on it and held it up. She stood slack jawed and eyes rounded in surprise. It was indeed a driver license, an Australian driver license with her picture on it. However, it didn't read Clarke Griffin but Eylza Lex.
"Who is Eylza Lex and why is my picture on her license?" she forked her hand through her hair, baffled by the sudden find.
"Unless...I need to find a mirror," she ran to a near by abandoned car looking for something she could see her reflection in.
When she finally found a car with an intact side mirror she intimately looked herself over. The very first thing she noticed was her eyes. She slowly brought her hand to her face in disbelief and touched the dark paint that surrounded them. She stared at her reflection in the mirror stunned. The color and the shape was exactly how Lexa wore her warpaint. The blond let out a breath she didn't realize she was holding. Other than this new discovery and a few minor differences she was still very much the same. She looked slightly younger as if she was back in her late teens, early twenties and her golden locks gained back its radiant glow. Her eyes that had lost their luster were once again crystal blue and shined with vibrancy.
The once skaikru leader sat down on the hood of a car parked on the side of the street with so many thoughts running through her head. A good twenty minutes went by where she just sat there letting the sun beat down on her in utter confusion. Who was this mysterious Elyza Lex, and why did she look like her? How did she in a matter of minutes develop an accent, one that she assumed from the license was Australian. Was she even really still Clarke Griffin? Than there was the matter of what those things were that attacked her earlier.
She shuttered at the thought. Those horribly, disfigured, rotting messes of mass, whose only goal seemed to be to her unruly demise. She flashed back to that room where she had first encountered that thing. Than she remembered the room with the scattered papers on parallel universes.
"Well I guess that's where the accent came from."
Was she indeed in another universe not as Clarke Griffin but as Elyza Lex? It would explain her sudden inheritance of an Australian accent as well as her new found vocabulary. It would also explain why she looked younger since the diver license had indicated she was twenty two when she did the math. But could such a thing really exist?
"Maybe,"she expelled her breath, holding her hand above her head to block the sun's rays from her eyes. After all, there was a point in time where she thought time travel would never exist and yet here she was. To say the least it had opened her mind to the possibilities of even considering this as a possible answer to her questions.
Clarke took a brief moment and scanned her surroundings. It became more and more clear to her that she was not even close to where she should have been. Maybe she went too far back in time, a time before the bombings.
The blonde shook her head negatively in thought, that wouldn't explain what those creatures were that attacked her earlier. As far as she knew everyone on earth at the time were fine. She rubbed her temples in frustration and hopped off the hood of the car.
"I probably should find a place to crash before it gets late," she dawdled down the road of the abandon suburbs.
