Alicia finds Magna sitting on the roof of a trailer, overlooking the ranch. Her eyes are squinted against the sun and her mane of hair is tossed back. Alicia can see it now; the things that Lexa never got to see. Her nightblood sister sitting overlooking the sea every day, perhaps the wind of the oceans blowing her already messy hair into a puffier affair. Titus had always said that her hair was absolutely impractical, completely skipping over the fact that this was Luna's natural hair and something she couldn't control.

"It's funny how you're the one advocating for peace now",Magna says to Alicia, still looking out, eyes not moving. The ranch now seems bleak and void of energy like how Magna is. Sulking.

"Hope is all we have now. Hope that the world is better. You used to tell me that everyone deserved a chance",Alicia answers. It's true. Luna would spend hours alone, and when little Lexa, who was too small to be considered a worthy opponent by the others joined her, they would talk about the peace they wanted. Only, they had two very different ways of achieving it. In the end they both got killed and wronged for their efforts.

Magna shakes her head, eyes dark and stormy. They are angry and so different from what Alicia remembers in the memories. Perhaps Magna sees the same in Alicia; the stark contrast of a teenager versus a warlord. "How do you cling on to that? Even after the worlds we've been in?"

Alicia laughs then, because there is no question how she clings on to hope. She nods her head towards the blonde haired figure far far away on the ground. "Her."

Lexa killed hundred of thousands of people. The pain she caused in her lifetime could never be atoned for. Yet, at the end of her life, she got one hour with the person she loved. At the end of it all, even though she didn't get long, she died feeling all the love that Clarke tried to convey as she pressed her soft and full lips against Lexa's for the last time. So Lexa had been more than satisfied with life, but life had granted her more than that. Life had granted her a second chance to see her love again.

It didn't matter what their names were. Something indescribable pulled them together and made them each other's salvation. So if even she could have a second chance with her soulmate, then there was nothing that was actually hopeless.

Magna nods, her curls bouncing, "I used to think like that."

"Yumiko?"Alicia asks. It is only to keep the conversation going. After all, who else could it be?

Magna shakes her head.

Nevermind, Alicia is wrong. She frowns in confusion and her head snaps to face Magna. "What?"

Finally turning to face her, Magna answers, "Miko believed in the good of people… even when they didn't deserve it. I didn't deserve it. If she knew the truth… she wouldn't react well. But I lost hope in that other world that humanity could be good at the very end. That's how I died. Didn't Elyza tell you?"

Alicia shakes her head. She's not angry. There's a lot of things they have missed, a lot of things she probably missed in Elyza's life too. Even weeks of explanations and recounting couldn't encompass every second. "No. But if it wasn't Yumiko, then who was it?"

"Lindsay… or back then she was Raven. She cared. She tried so hard to save humanity, and still does. That's what made me believe in her",Magna answers simply.

Alicia smirks in typical sassy fashion at Magna's response. Magna blanches and tries to sputter that it's not like that but Alicia is already nudging her suggestively and wiggling her eyebrows, and they end up nudging and lightly shoving each other. Was it the smartest thing to do while they were sitting precariously on a roof? Probably not. Did it remind them of simpler times that didn't involve the end of the world? Yes.

-0-

Nerves are starting to fray, and it is visible. The people of the ranch glare at Taqa's people and Taqa's people murmur insults under their breath. Friends are constantly pulling each other back from punching the other side, if only to prevent all out massacre and war.

Madison and Taqa have their hands full trying to keep a revolt from happening.

The sun bears down on Alicia, Jake, and Nick as they are on a patrol. Alicia squints against the sun as Jake not so discreetly sneaks glances at her. "Stop eyeing my sister",Nick murmurs as he surveys the desert splayed in front of them with binoculars.

Jake's ears flushes and coughs. He snaps his binoculars up to his face in a poor attempt to hide his obvious shame. That's when he sees it. The heart stopping horror that follows. "Shit",he curses under his breath.

"What?"Alicia asks, the only one out of them that doesn't have binoculars. It isn't smart to look far away without a guard. Walkers were shuffling and groaning meat sacks but that didn't mean that they couldn't sneak up on a preoccupied person.

"It's a horde", Nick explains. "We have to go see if we can stop it." His jaw clenches at the idea of doing absolutely nothing. Perhaps once upon a time he would've, but Alicia knows he's found a purpose in this apocalypse, a purpose like her counterpart in another world had. Fighting for people was what they did because they couldn't face the inner part of themselves.

"What? It's a giant horde, what are you going to do? Stand in the way and give them another body for sustenance? We need to warn the ranch,"Jake scoffs at the idea, too caught up thinking about the wrong things.

Alicia rolls her eyes, tired of their stand off before it even starts. "I'll warn the ranch. You two, don't die. You're both good men." This is where, maybe if Elyza wasn't in this world, if Lexa had remained an incarnation of her dreams, Alicia would've kissed Jake. What else was there to lose? There didn't have to be emotions attached, just wishing a good man farewell. A kiss would be a good thing to remember as one died.

Instead, she turned on her heel and hopped into her rover, leaving them with the pickup truck. As she drove away, she looked in the rearview mirror. Nick had always protected her like the big brother he was. If she were dying on her knees, he would be the one to rescue her. Just this once, she wished she could protect him. Instead, she wondered whether or not she would ever see him alive again, because if she didn't drive away right now, the others that she loved and the kids and families and innocents would die without even a warning.

-0-

Elyza knows it isn't going to work. The RV's are a desperate move, one that she voted against. Even now, Alicia was the one to care about the good of all and not just one person or one people.

Pausing after helping to hook a trailer to a pickup truck, she looks up and wipes her brow. The sun beats down on the hot day. The worst part of all of this was probably the lack of water. Half of them were probably partially dehydrated by now. A slam of a screen door is all that's heard as Magna storms out of one of the ranch houses uphill. Tears shine in her eyes and even Alicia who has been the most adamant dropped what she was doing to run over to Magna. They converse in hushed whispers before Alicia wraps her arms around the taller woman in a long hug.

Glancing over at her friend, Elyza sees Lindsay watching with rapt attention. Despite the circumstances, Elyza was glad to see Alicia with a genuine friend, somebody who she trusted enough to open up to. Lexa had never had that and Clarke was the one who had made sure of it with Gustus and Anya.

That's why, later as the RV's tipped over and Elyza's head snapped over to see Alicia back to back with Magna, a wave of relief washed over her. They were twin furies, but even they could not fend off all of the walkers that were pouring over the toppled vehicles. Everyone struggles through the crowd, retreating little by little. Cries of parents, loved ones, and injured fill the air. Groans of the brain seekers echo with them in a symphony of life, death, and something in between.

Elyza can feel her heart thrumming in her ears as she whips around, taking down three walkers in succession with her shotguns. She makes her way slowly to Alicia, and the three of them stand in a row, fending off the walkers and slowly retreating to buy time for those not so versed at fighting to make it into the storage bunker. All three of them have fallen into distinctly different but familiar stances, stances that haven't been invented yet, stances that would've been invented in another 100 years.

100, what an ominous number. Yet it is a familiar number, and so it is the one Elyza chooses by default. She counts starting from 1.

She swings the butt of her shotgun as she hits twenty. Magna gives a roar of strength like a lion pouncing with its fierce mane flaring out as she dives at the walkers at thirty. On fifty, Elyza and Alicia stumble back, pushed by the horde. That's when Elyza loses count because she sees Magna being swarmed and as Alicia helps an older man to the bunker door, Elyza roars, firing shot after shot and pushing forward. Putting all the effort she can into her burning muscles, she cuts through the swarm until she is back to back with Magna.

It places her facing the bunker, watching as Alicia is dragged back by Yumiko and Lindsay screaming and crying her name. The door slid to a close around the time that Elyza would have finished counting to 100.