46
Lexa excused herself to take a much needed and well deserved nap leaving Clarke and Raven alone. "How do we always end up sitting together Clarke?" Raven joked. "Were not like best friends or anything like that right?!" Clarke joked back pretending to be horrified. Raven smiled at her and looked skyward wistfully. The skies were becoming gray. "Is it crazy to feel such a connection to somebody you've only known for three days?" Raven asked Clarke. Clarke thought of her reply, she had felt an instant pull to Lexa from the moment they met. It was like they were magnets. Lincoln and Octavia were crazy about each other since they met too. "Yes, I think so." Clarke finally told her. "Maybe it's a grounder thing" Raven said biting her lip getting lost in a flashback of Luna in the ocean with her. Clarke laughed and pushed her shoulder gently "perv" she said laughing. "So what about Wick, are you going to end things with him or stop seeing Luna?" Clarke asked, her tone becoming more serious. Curiously the thought of not seeing Luna again made Ravens stomach flip uncomfortably. She wasn't sure if that was a good or bad thing. "I don't know, If I'm being honest with you and myself I think I like Luna a little bit more, but Wick was there through the mount weather deal and he's been there since. I couldn't hurt him." Raven looked at Clarke knowing what she was going to say and beat her to it "I'm not with him out of gratitude. I genuinely do like him, I find him attractive and annoying. He's a great guy, I just..." She trailed off. "Find Luna's sexy body just a little better!' Clarke finished her sentence. They both laughed and shook their heads. "Women" Raven stated. "Yeah" Clarke replied looking dreamy. Just then they started to hear thunder rumbling in the near distance.
"We had better make sure that everyone heads downstairs" Clarke says looking at Raven worriedly. They were thankful to see that their shipmates had the smarts to take it upon themselves to seek refuge in the lower cabin. Clarke told Raven she would see her in a bit, she wanted to check in on Lexa. She crept silently into their room and saw Lexa laying down asleep, with a smirk on her face. Clarke grabbed a blanket and covered Lexa, kissing her forehead before heading back upstairs. She went to the captain and asked if there was anything she could do, he nodded no. He had it under control. The rain started coming down hard, little cold bullets pelting her skin. She was drenched instantly. Waves started rocking hard against the ship. Clarke stumbled and thudded against the railing bending halfway over the boat. "Sky Heda go downstairs, it's not safe" the captain warned her. Clarke didn't need to be told twice, and scurried down. Lexa would kill her if she fell overboard. She went back into their room to see Lexa sleepily pushing the covers off, sitting up blinking the sleep away. "It's getting rough up there" Clarke told her. Lexa nodded knowingly. "Clarke you're all wet" Lexa observed, her voice still husky from sleep. She got up and started taking the layers of wet clothes off of her mate. Clarke stood shivering not realizing how cold she was. Lexa went and took out a warm long sleeved shirt from one of their supply packs. She pulled it over Clarkes head and arms. She grabbed pants and handed them to clarke who changed quickly wanting to get as warm as possible. She curled under the covers beckoning for Lexa to cuddle her. Lexa obliged happily as she slipped her hands up the back of Clarkes shirt. "Mmm your hands are so warm" Clarke said. Lexa fell tumbling off their bed and Clarke landed on her as a hard thud rocked the boat. They started laughing but were abruptly cut off when a second and third hard thud knocked against the boat viciously. "Those aren't just waves" Lexa said, her eyes wide and worried.
Lexa ran upstairs to the captain and asked him the question she dreaded hearing an answer to "water beasts?!" He nodded gravely. Her eyes scanned the darkened water desperately. "We have guns!" She thought to herself. She ran back to the entrance downstairs nearly colliding into Clarke. "Clarke talk to your mom and make sure she's ok, ask her if their ship is feeling similar thuds. Tell them to get their guns ready!" Clarke stood in shock. "Now Clarke!" Lexa ordered. Lexa didn't wait for a reply and ran into the rooms commanding the skykru to get their guns and go upstairs. She then went into the stock room and grabbed all the rope she could carry. Once back upstairs she instructed the crew to tie themselves to the ship so as not to fall over. Clarke seeing what Lexa had done instructed her mother to do the same. She ran up and tied herself off after grabbing a rifle for herself and one for Lexa. Lexa tied herself next to Clarke and looked questioningly at the two weapons. "The mountain can't hurt you now my love" Clarke told her and handed over a gun. It didn't feel as awful in her hands as Lexa imagined it would. Clarke looked at her and decided that Lexa looked sexy holding it and bursted out laughing at the absurdity of her thoughts while they were in so much chaos. Lexa looked at her worriedly. "I'm okay I promise" Clarke assured her. Lexa saw one of the beasts and pointed it out to Clarke. "Look there!" Clarke saw a shadow rippling under the water alongside the ship. She gasped at the size of the monster. It was nearly half the length of the ship. "Protect the ship!" Lexa screamed at the crew "this may be our only way to get back home!" They all nodded in unison training their guns to the murky waters. "Come on beasts show yourselves" Lexa urged silently "this isn't how I die".
47
Authors note: one awesome guest posted this comment and I had to share! "Oh no, it will probably take up a lot of ammo to kill those crazy water beasts. Pull a Jaha and push the most panicked person overboard as a distraction." Lol that was excellent. Thanks awesome guest reader!
Waves crashed against the ship making it rock unsteadily, made more uncontrollable by the constant thumping from the water beast. There was only one that Lexa could make out in the dark water below. Occasional bolts of lightning illuminated the water and abled them to see the beast better and take a few shots on it, causing it to swim away for a few minutes before returning. The other ship wasn't fairing much better. They had two beasts attacking their ship. "This ship won't hold together for much longer if we don't do something" Clarke told her. Lexa knew she was right but before she could answer a huge wave and slam from a water beast hit the boat simultaneously and tipped the boat dangerously sideways causing four of their people who were tied together to fall overboard. Clarke screamed and tried to make her way to them. They were dangling over the edge of the boat being held in place by just the rope. Wick struggled to make his way to help and reached just as Clarke and Lexa did. They desperately tried to pull the four men up but the weight was too much for them. The warriors and soldiers begged for help, causing Lexa, Clarke and Wick to become more frantic. They pulled hard at the rope to no avail. "We've got to try something else!" Wick shouted to them. They heard a piercing scream and looked down to see the beast emerge and sunk it's jaws into the closest man ripping him off the rope. The three remaining men started to scream louder. Lexa grabbed the rope pulling again feeling the burning pain searing her palms. Clarke and Wick joined her again, this time the weight was a little more bearable and they were feeling the rope start to budge. "We can do this!" Clarke shouted encouragingly. They gave one more solid yank before feeling the rope snap and all three men fell into the water. "No!" Clarke screamed horrified as the beast rose up again and chomped through the men with ease. Lexa grabbed her weapon and started firing off bullets into the beasts head as he shrieked trying to continue his meal. Clarke and Wick joined her shooting until all they saw was a pulpy mass where the creatures face should be. They watched the beast as it floated away making sure it was dead.
Clarke slumped to her knees breathing hard as the tears flowed. They had lost four of their people in a matter of minutes. Lexa knelt in front of her and wiped her tears. "Clarke we did the best we could" she told her softly. "All we can do is make sure the rest of our people stay safe". Clarke nodded knowing Lexa was right. She took out her walkie and radioed her mom "mom are you guys ok over there?" "Clarke!" her mom shouted "there's two of those monsters attacking our ship. The bottom cabin is slowly taking in water. We are doing our best to patch it up but they keep ramming us." Clarke looked at Lexa with terror in her eyes. "Lexa we have to help them!" They heard a loud crashing sound coming from the other ship. Clarke untied herself and ran to the other side of the ship in time to see a massive chunk on the side of the other ship being ripped away by a beast. She heard screams of pain and terror as a few people fell out into the water. As their boat neared closer to theirs she saw Kane hanging off the side holding on for dear life. Her mom was trying to throw a rope down to reach him. Clarke trained her gun near Kane just in case another monster attacked. Lexa, Raven, Wick and a few others had joined her. The storm was beginning to die down. They saw one of the monsters swimming close to Kane and they started shooting it. Seeing blood pool up in the waters surface. They all cheered as Kane was able to finally grab ahold of the rope. The other ships crew began to pull him up when out of nowhere another beast rose out of the water and ripped Kane off the rope in one bite. Everyone stood there in complete shock and horror as the monster was ripping into Kane's body. Clarke started shooting and so did everyone else until there was nothing but chunks of the monstrous fish littering the water.
The storm was all but gone as the waves calmed and the ship was gently rocking. There was nothing but silence and lapping waters. Nobody daring to speak for some time. Raven got up and said "that ship isn't going to hold for much longer, we have to get our people and all of our supplies over here as quickly as possible." Lexa nodded and started giving out orders. They grabbed large nets and tied them together as she told the captain to move to the other ship as closely as possible. Lincoln and Octavia grabbed the nets and were able to jump into the other ship. Lincoln tied the nets to the ship and Lexa did the same on her side. They started dropping the wrecked ships supplies into the net and Clarkes crew started grabbing and stowing away the items. Clarke caught a glimpse of her mom and they locked eyes. She could see the amount of pain Abby was in and felt powerless to help. "The water is coming in quicker, we have to hurry and get everything and everyone over there now!" Abby shouted to Clarke. Both ship crews worked quickly and were soon helping people over. Lexa took notice in how few people there were. They must have lost at least eight crew members. The sun was slowly rising over the horizon by the time they were done. Everyone stared at the sinking ship silently in disbelief. They had lost twelve people in total and one of them was Kane. This didn't seem real to anyone. Most people retreated to their rooms and others figured out the new sleeping accommodations. Clarke went looking for her mom, she found her crying quietly in her room. Clarke sat next to her and hugged her, Abby cried into her daughters shoulder. "I can't believe he's gone, after everything we have all been through together he's just gone." Abby softly shrugged out of Clarkes embrace and told her she just wanted to have some time alone. Clarke nodded and went back up top. She found Lexa who was staring silently out at the sea. She went up to her and Lexa automatically pulled her in for a hug. "Lexa, we need to finish this. I can't keep seeing our people suffering and dying." "I know my weakness" Lexa replied "in all of my years of living I have never seen something like what we have just witnessed and I never want to again".
48
Authors note: sorry for the wait guys! Here ya go!
In the middle of the night Clarke awoke from troubled sleep only to find Lexas side of the bed empty. She headed to the upper deck and found her at the front of the ship staring at something blinking in the near distance. Lexa was holding on to the ship with her right hand and she rested her left hand on the hilt of her sword, fiddling with the handle. Clarke grabbed Lexas left hand and wrapped Lexas arm around her waist. Lexa looked at her and smiled softly. "What is that?" Clarke asked, pointing to the blinking light. Lexa shrugged her shoulders showing she didn't know either. The sun was peeking over the horizon as they neared the object of their interest, and Clarke gasped. She knew what it was. She had seen it in books and paintings. It was a lighthouse, a functioning light! Clarke was excited as she explained to Lexa what it was. Lexa kept her face impassive but her eyes were bright with curiosity and worry at Clarkes words. Clarke grabbed Lexas hand and ran to the captain telling him to follow the light. He nodded and kept this hand on the helm. It was about an hour later when most of the crew was already upstairs that they were reaching the shore of the lighthouse. Clarke and Lexa were the first to step on land. Lexa ordered everyone else to stay on board while they checked out their surroundings but not before taking five men with them. They walked cautiously Clarke readying her pistol,and Lexa brandishing her sword. They saw a few strewn boats on the land and some electronic looking pieces buried in the sand. After a few minutes of exploring they found an open door. The two leaders looked at each other taking deep breaths before entering.
Clarke could hear music playing softly as they descended. She could see that there were lights on further down the stairs illuminating a foyer. Clarke looked around, her eyes adjusting to the room and light as she scanned the area. She saw a person asleep of the couch of what looked like a living area or common room. She pointed her gun and silently stalked toward the person on the couch. She nudged the body with the muzzle of her pistol. The body shuffled and cuddled again finding a comfy spot. Clarke nudged again and Murphy shot up In annoyance and surprise. "Woah!" He screamed seeing the gun pointed at him, then Murphy looked up and saw Clarke. "Princess?" He asked incredulously. He sighed "I should've known you'd be the one to find me". "What is this place?" Clarkes asked him "and why are you here?". As he explained to her how he had gotten here Lexa walked around looking at everything. She found a decanter with brown liquid in it, she took off the top and sniffed it scrunching her nose slightly. She knew it was liquor. She took a cup and filled it, she sighed as she took a deep gulp and closed her eyes. Letting the burning wash her insides. She took her cup and continued her tour stopping at the motorcycles. She knew what these were, she had seen them in books. Lexa wondered if they were still rideable and decided she would like to try one later on. She stared at the pool table wondering what the balls were used for. She made a mental note to ask Clarke about it. Lexa made her way back to Clarke and the boy called Murphy. "It seems relatively safe here but not big enough to accommodate everyone" Clarke told her "so maybe we can set camp outside the lighthouse or stay in the ship if that's preferable to everyone.
Everyone agreed to setting up a minor camp just to cook and eat but they would sleep in the ship. Hundreds of bottles of wine lined shelves in the lighthouse, Murphy generously offered everyone to help themselves. Mostly because he was happy to have the company but also because he knew he was still a screwup in their eyes and wanted to start making amends. It was early afternoon when the ship was anchored and camps were set. Everyone was exhausted from their ordeal in the sea. Still unable to process the horrific night before and think of the people they had lost. Lexa decided it was a good idea to allow a day of rest even though the situation called for urgency. She knew her people would be ineffective without it. Lexa grabbed two plates and filled them with fish, cheese, grapes, nuts and bread. She sat by a fire and waited for Clarke to find her. Clarke had grabbed a bottle of wine and two cups from the lighthouse before telling Murphy to come out and get some fresh food. He scurried hurriedly behind her not having to be told twice. Clarkes face broke into a sweet smile as she saw her love waiting patiently with two plates of food on her lap. "Go ahead Murphy go grab some grub" Clarke nodded towards a table set up with tons of food. As he scurried off she took her place next to Lexa and planted a sweet kiss on her cheek. She poured out two glasses of wine and handed one to Lexa. Lexa in turn passed her a plate and looked at Clarke longingly as their fingers brushed lightly. Clarke bit her lip before replying "I know". They probably shouldn't even be thinking of having sex Clarke thought, with the gravity of the situation but she wanted Lexas comfort more than anything right now. They ate together in silence painfully aware of the others closeness. Once they were both finished eating Clarke took their plates and dropped them with all the other dirty dishes. When she turned around Lexa was right behind her with the bottle of wine and two glasses. "Let's go back to our room in the ship" Lexa told Clarke arching her eyebrow suggestively. Clarke grabbed her arm and led the way. She was going to be with Lexa any chance she could, end of the world be damned. Well especially If the world was about to end. She couldn't imagine a better place to die than in her lovers arms.
49
The sun had risen, both Lexa and Clarke got up grudgingly to meet it. The heavy tension in the air was almost palpable. It was almost like the earth itself was readying for what lay ahead of them. As they exited the boat they saw some of their people already at work starting a large campfire and preparing the morning meal. "Ugh I can't even think of eating" Clarke grumbled Lexa nodded knowingly before replying. "I know you are Ill at ease Clarke but you must eat and keep your strength up. Remember that I cannot do this without you." Clarke smiled softly as she gazed into those beautiful green eyes she adored. "As if I'd ever let you get all the glory commander!" Clarke teased. Lexa walked over to the table with food and started loading her plate with fruits cheese and bread, Clarke did the same. They sat beside a campfire and began eating quietly engrossed in their thoughts when Raven came and sat beside Clarke. "I miss Luna" Raven sighed. Lexa smirked and politely excused herself not wanting to listen to Ravens woes over Luna. Clarke dutifully listened to Raven weigh her options between Wick and Luna. "I like wick but I honestly haven't seen you as happy as you were with Luna in a while. So I guess maybe that should say something" Clarke helpfully added. Raven groaned and leaned back into the log behind her. Clarke was grateful for the distraction, her mind was terrorizing her but all too soon she heard Lexa shouting orders to pack up camp and get ready to move out. Clarke groaned in frustration and the nausea she was fighting to keep at bay bubbled up in her chest pushing up. The food came rushing back out of her body with force. She dropped to her knees heaving violently for a few moments as a worried Lexa ran over with a cup of cold water. "Are you not well my weakness?" She asked, her eyes filled with worry. "It's just nerves my love. I am scared of what we are walking into. I'm afraid to die Lexa. I'm afraid to lose you, I'm Afraid of losing any more of our people". She took a sip of the cold water, grateful to rid herself of the vile taste in her mouth. "Come Clarke, gather your strength. Let us see this through to the end, we've come this far." Lexa was right, it was time to be brave no matter how frightening this situation was. Clarke straightened up finding her resolve return as she stared at Lexa. It was time to go.
The camp was packed and ready to go, this was it. There was a feeling of finality in the air. One way or another after this day was over lives would be drastically changed. Murphy pointed in the direction Jaha had set off all those weeks ago and they began their journey. Every now and then they saw drones flying overhead. Raven told Clarke that whoever was operating those drones was probably well aware they were all coming. "So much for the element of surprise" Clarke grumbled. They trekked for a couple of hours stopping twice for water. The group began climbing up a mountain when they heard the buzzing of several drones. Once at the top they saw a beautiful sprawling mansion. Drones were hovering overhead. Lexa looked at Clarke apprehension in her eyes. She stared at this amazing house, there were some houses like this in Polis but none of them looked so clean and new and intact. This home had been cared for. Clarke told Lexa they maybe not everyone should come in. Just in case something happened at least the other group could try and end this. Clarke chose Raven, Monty, Wick for their tech expertise. She told Abby to stay outside just in case she needed to help any injured. Abby didn't say anything just nodded quietly looking broken. Clarke wanted to hug and comfort her mom but now wasn't the time. They took six more men and marched to the front door of the mansion. Lexa stood in front of Clarke and jiggled the doorknob. It was unlocked. They walked in silently, sweeping left and right checking corners. Everything looked pristine and sterile. There was classical music playing softly through intercoms. They came to a room with large glass doors, Lexa took a deep breath as she opened one of the doors. This room was also empty of people but there were many computers and monitors. They're were about twenty screens showing different places. Clarke spotted camp Jaha, then TonDc, Mount weather was also there. Lexa pointed out the Trikru, then the deadzone, and the Water tribe. She pointed out several others and the. There were a handful she didn't know. These must be much farther from them, it perplexed Lexa to know there were more people, more clans. In just a few months everything she had known about the world was drastically stripped away. For a fleeting moment she felt smaller more humbled, she hated it and pushed the feeling away immediately. She was the Heda, leader of the twelve clans. Possibly making it thirteen once back home. She would not be intimidated. Clarke brought her out of her musings when she looked in a monitor and saw Jaha in a room with a giant metal object. "That's a nuke Clarke!" Raven shouted. "What's a nuke?" Lexa asked. "Commander this can do one hundred times the damage than the missile of TonDc" Raven told her gravely.
Lexa's face was grim as the realization of what Raven said set in. "We have to find that room" Clarke said determination filling her voice. They started searching , opening every door they passed. Most of the rooms were bedrooms and sitting rooms but some rooms had more monitors and lab equipment. "What is this place?" Wick wondered out loud. "I don't know but I don't want to stick around and find out" Monty mumbled. Raven opened a door and saw another monitor room but one screen caught her eye as she saw people in tubes or pods. They seemed to be submerged in water or some sort of liquid. Electrodes stuck all over their bodies. She pulled Clarke to look at the screen. Clarkes eyes widened in horror unsure of what they were seeing. "My god, where are we?" She whispered. Just then a woman's voice came over an intercom. "Welcome Clarke Griffin, Commander Lexa and present company. I've been waiting for you."