They are all in Strand's room discussing the generator when it happens. Elyza is the first to realize something is wrong, and she peaks her head down the hallway. "Strand?" she asks to the back of the stock still man. Then he starts crumbling and Elyza rushes forward in an attempt to catch him, crying out, "STRAND!"
They struggle to get him onto the bed, and Elyza immediately jumps into action, treating the wound in tandem with Andres Diaz. She may be different from Clarke Griffin, but the medical knowledge still stayed with her.
Elyza is the one who stays with Strand as they all head out to get the medicine. "You got medical training aye? You never mentioned that", Strand wheezes out, peering at her from his laying down position on the bed.
"Didn't seem important at the time", Elyza answers with a murmur, peeling back the blankets a bit to check on the wound once again.
Strand nods with an understanding chuckle, "Perhaps. We all have painful things from the past." He doesn't need to say what it is that's hurting him, and he doesn't, as if to show that it's not important what Elyza went through to become who she is. What's important is who she is now.
-0-
Elyza is waiting with Alicia, watching her pace back and forth when the truck comes back in. Madison flings the door open and dashes off before anybody can stop her. Not that anybody was going to stop her to begin with. "What happened?" Alicia questions.
"They mentioned a gringo. She thought it was your brother. Could be anyone", Elena answers.
Alicia turns tail and rushes off after Madison at this, pain and hurt flickering through her face. Elyza can't help but be angry for Alicia. She didn't understand how Madison could care about Nick so much more, perhaps because she had been an only child, and only ever had one child.
"Did they say something?"Elyza queries. She's skeptical at best that it was Nick. There could be so many white boys that they could be referring to.
"He traded drugs with them. He was a gringo with ratty hair", Elena supplied, discontent at Madison's attitude completely unmasked.
Elyza sighed and considered her options. She could stay and help, but that wouldn't do much. They had enough hands. With that she started bounding up the stairs after Alicia and Madison. She might not like walking into an argument that she knew was coming, but Alicia might need a shoulder to lean on after confronting her mother.
She arrives on the rooftop just in time to watch Madison pull the switch. "Turn it off!" Alicia demands. Elyza however, is preoccupied by the sky. It is storming, as if the eye of a storm suddenly formed over them. The lightning started to crackle. This wasn't good.
Elyza starts forward as daughter and mother continue to argue.
"You don't understand, your child is always your child," Madison answers, a frantic look in her eyes. Elyza could sympathize. After all, she had given everything for Madi to live. Except, Alicia stood right there as Madison said it, and that was what was wrong with the phrase.
"I'm your child", Alicia answers, her big green eyes raw. "I don't understand. He chose what's out there over us."
Madison refuses to give up. "Maybe he changed his mind." Elyza is only about six feet away now, slowly approaching but both of them are too wrapped up in their argument to notice. The sky continues to look worse, the clouds now an inky shade of black, crackling and booming.
Alicia has reached her breaking point and Elyza's heart wrenches at the emotion that courses through her words, "I never changed my mind. I'm here. Why isn't that enough?"
There isn't enough time for any sort of reply, because the sky splits open, a giant lightning bolt coming down on the rooftop right next to the generator, and with it a giant box. A machine. A time machine.
As it crashes with a kaboom and splinters into metal pieces, Elyza leaps forward and grabs Alicia, pulling her close and twisting around so that she can shield her the best she possibly could from the impact. When everything has settled, Elyza slowly separates herself from Alicia and surveys the damage. Alicia is okay, a little surprised but okay. Madison has been tossed back a few feet. Despite the fact that they just argued, Alicia runs towards Madison to check if she's hurt.
Elyza's attention however, is caught by a leg sticking out of the wreckage that crashed next to the generator. To be specific, a leg with a familiar brace strapped to it. Elyza's heart stops. She runs forward, grabbing the debris without care for the sharp edges and tossing them to the side until she uncovers the person fully. It is Raven Reyes in whole. Unconscious and bleeding from a gash on the forehead, but still Raven nonetheless.
-0-
Elyza refuses to move from Raven's side after they check her injuries. The bleeding on the forehead is simply a small cut. Luckily the worst injury she has is a dislocated shoulder, which Elyza can easily set even without Andres.
Alicia is around to ward everyone and their questions off. A thousand things swirl in Elyza's mind. Did something go wrong in their time and timeline? Why now? Was Raven here to bring Clarke Griffin back? Did Elyza even want to go back? Was she even Clarke Griffin at all anymore? How could she leave Alicia? She loved Alicia, and would give anything for her.
Soft footsteps approach where Elyza is situated beside Raven. Alicia hands a glass of water to her. She doesn't ask or demand anything of Elyza. She is just there with her hand on Elyza's shoulder. It feels like she owes her an explanation of what passed, why Raven could possibly be here, crashing into their life together.
She turns to Alicia, reaching for the hand that rests on her shoulder. Alicia silently folds her hand into Elyza's. Elyza raises her eyes to look into Alicia's. Strength radiates from within. Where does one even start? "After you died…I…I fought for our people again and again, but in the end it was never enough. I made awful decisions to save people time and time again. I lost you, Luna and Lincoln died, I lost my adoptive daughter Madi, I killed Bellamy myself protecting her."
Alicia raises an eyebrow and starts caressing the back of Elyza's hand with her thumb but doesn't say anything to interrupt. Lexa may have never particularly liked Bellamy, but Bellamy was important to Clarke. It was important for Elyza to get this off her chest and Alicia understood that.
"I-. I did everything for the people but in the end I got punished, and my friends with me. I love them, but in the end it always hurt that you weren't there. It hurt that Madi wasn't there. So I convinced Raven to make a time machine. Something must've gone wrong in the process because I ended up in Australia two years ago", Elyza continues, struggling through her words and memories. There was so many things that had happened since Lexa's death. Elyza could go on for a lifetime just recounting the years she had spent raising Madi.
Alicia's eyes shift to Raven's sleeping form, "So you don't know how she ended up here either." Her gaze is calculating, as much commander as it is Alicia, but then her gaze turns to Elyza and it is soft, and understanding.
It is as if she knows exactly what Elyza needs to hear, "You're not a monster Elyza. You're Elyza Lex, badass zombie slayer who charms the pants off of everyone. Whatever decisions you made as Clarke doesn't change that." With that, she pulls Elyza's head close so that she can rest her head on Alicia's bosom and Elyza does. She lets all the pain come through, knowing she is safe in Alicia's arms. For the first time as Elyza Lex, she cries. Ugly sobs that choke out.
-0-
When Raven finally wakes up, it is Elena who is looking over her because Alicia has managed to convince Elyza to eat something. Raven sits up, panicking at the unfamiliar sight and person, attempting to get out of bed and push Elena off her. Luckily, Elyza and Alicia were returning and just down the hall. They came barging in and Elyza ran forward. "Raven! Raven, it's me! Raven!"
Behind them, Alicia has ushers Elena out of the room. Raven slowly comes to, her eyes focusing on Elyza and becoming less frantic. "C-Clarke?"
"Yes, it's me", Elyza answers, pulling Raven into a comforting hug. Who did it comfort? Not really sure. As much as Raven was confused, Elyza hadn't seen a friend in two years. Inwardly, she cringes because Clarke Griffin is inadequate to describe her now.
Raven's eyes come up to wrap around Elyza. Her eyes drift and her face twists into a frown, "Lexa? Fuck, I must still be dreaming if she's here. I wonder if Luna and Lincoln will show up too."
Clarke has to chuckle at how easily Raven takes the change. Perhaps things could be worked out. "No, this isn't a dream, Raven. The time traveling went wrong and now we're in an alternate timeline with...undead people."
Raven scowls, "Well shit, that explains the room. Undead, huh? I must've messed up the calculations big time on both of our time travel machines." Unconsciously, Raven's hand goes to her leg to rub it, sorting through her thoughts.
Elyza's eyes drift to Alicia's green ones. It is like being caught in the gravity of a planet. It is like being a moon that can't escape the orbit, and quite honestly she doesn't want to. Alicia stares right back, the corner of her lip quirking upward a tiny bit.
The clearing of a throat cuts through the silence and Alicia's cheeks go red, her eyes darting away as Elyza looks back at Raven, who is smirking at them knowingly. "You two are so lovesick it is gross."
Elyza can't help but grin cockily, "You know it. She's all mine this time." Raven studies Elyza closely and she knows just how different she must seem to the girl. They were once like sisters. Could they ever go back to that with how different Elyza was from Clarke Griffin?
A knock sounds on the door. "Alicia? Elyza? Elena told me the girl woke up. Do you need any help?" Madison asks from the hallway, hovering like a mother hen as always.
"No, Mom! We're good!" Alicia yells back without hesitation.
"Alicia and Elyza? Did I miss re-name yourself day or something?"Raven queries jokingly. "Maybe I could rename myself something completely random too, like Lindsay."
Elyza really doesn't want to explain. She doesn't know how to explain, but she still stumbles through her words, "Just a really ironic series of coincidences in this timeline. It just kind of happened and... we've kind of become them. We're different." How do you explain that a mere two years has turned you into a completely different person?
"Well I was kind of born here as Alicia Clarke, so it's more like that's who I was first, before I remembered my life as Lexa", Alicia interjects, plopping herself in an armchair across from the bed and tossing her hair back out of her face.
"Alicia Clark?" Raven asks incredulously. She stares at Alicia, waiting to be told that it was a joke. Raven was struggling with disbelief of this seemingly impossible situation, because just like Elyza had thought the first few months in this universe, it could possibly be true right?
Alicia however, is not nearly as sensitive. She snorts and rolls her eyes in her typical sassy fashion. "Yup Clarke without an e. Wait until you hear Elyza's last name. Ready? It's Lex."