Manifest Destiny: Choice
By Ryu Niiyama
Ok so apparently this is a four-shot. Also character death incoming.
Klark would not eat.
The Doktor sat in her cell staring at the walls…waiting for death to claim her; still attempting to run to the woman that had fallen in battle. Both Heda and Leksa were furious, they would not let that woman have Klark any longer. When her guards found Klark unconscious and weak from hunger she had the blonde woman drug to a healer and food forced into her listless form. The Heda was uncompromising but Leksa cried bitter tears at watching her Klark choose death over her. When Klark woke again, those dead eyes only stared into nothing and with great pain Heda had the Doktor returned to her cell.
She knew that Klark had a brilliant mind that needed to be engaged so she had the guards leave charcoal with her food. It took two days but the guards told Heda of constant scratching as the Doktor began to draw on the walls. Still, she would not eat. Frustrated and afraid, Leksa went to her Klark and for a moment she wished she had not given the skaiprisa her charcoal. Klark drew where ever she could reach but it was what she drew that gutted the Heda. The honored warrior had not lied about the second Griffin's beauty. Clark had drawn her…them, over and over, putting her memories in tangible form. She saw Klark lay her head on the second Griffin's lap as they watched the sunrise, saw them work side by side healing and leading their people, watched them get lost in one another as the Doktor held her mate's naked form close. But there were words as well and the words alone almost ended the fight of the Heda.
"I am Doctor Clarke Griffin, wife, friend, healer. I will not be broken."
The statement was written just as much as the Second Griffin's smiling face was drawn. This quiet, lifeless thing was not weak, this Doktor endured the pain of hunger to show that she was strong enough to stand when The Heda would have her kneel. The Heda grew distraught but Leksa grew desperate. Leksa slammed into her Klark, the Wanheda's svelte form had become gaunt and weak with her enforced starvation. Leksa would not let this ghost woman have her mate…would not let her soul be taken from her without a fight. Leksa pressed her lips to Klark's with all her rage, and pain and longing, her hands ripped at the Doktor's clothes, reaching inside to feel the body she'd dreamed of for so long.
Klark did not respond.
Even when Leksa bit her bottom lip hard enough to draw blood she did nothing. Leksa howled and pushed the other woman away, and Klark sunk to the ground just as lifeless as always.
"What do you want Klark? Are you trying to push me to end your fight? Would ending mine bring life back to you? What do you want?!" For once the Heda and Leksa were one and they were afraid. Their Klark was fading and they could not reach her. Their Klark would rather die than feel their touch, or know their love. The Heda tried not to flinch under Klark's lifeless gaze, but she could not stop the strangled whimper that issued from her throat at the first words Klark had uttered in weeks.
"I want to go home. I was free…far enough away that you could never reach me. Far enough away that I could live, could love…as myself. You take and take from me Heda but I won't let you have this. I am Doctor Clarke Griffin…and I will die Doctor Clarke Griffin."
Then the Wanheda returned and she moved faster than Heda expected given her state. But it was not towards the Heda that she ran, but towards the opposite wall. She ran with all her might, all her pain, all her honor and slammed her head into the wall. Leksa moved to catch her but it was too late, Klark began to shake and seize and her eyes rolled into the back of her head.
"Klark! Stay with me! KLARK!"
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Five days.
It took Doktor Griffin five days to die. The Trikru didn't have Skai healing so they could not keep Klark's fight from ending. The sight would stay with Leksa until the end of her own fight. The sight of Klark's golden hair being stained with her own blood, surrounded by images of the woman she loved that wasn't Leksa. She remembered the golden ring that she had been told was Skai custom to share amongst mates. Somewhere, in the city her Skaiprisa called home another Griffin had her fight ended while wearing a matching ring. Heda held Klark's lifeless form and inside Leksa howled and tore at her hair at losing her Klark for a third and final time. The Heda had commanded but Klark did not obey.
And now the Heda was alone. Her Nation could not bring her comfort. Her people and their prosperity could not lighten her heart. She gave Klark a pyre worthy of her place as Wanheda and as the Heda's chosen mate. The Heda never took another to her bed or into her heart. In time the new nation that Klark had helped build spread enough to be a threat to the Trikru. Yet they did not attack, they would honor Clarke Griffin's last wish and not destroy all they had built with war. And the Heda wept, knowing that even though Klark's love had not been for her, Klark's kindness protected her still. So long as the Heda drew breath the Trikru Nation would never again harm those that Clarke Griffin loved.
So the Heda commanded…so it would be.
Ok I honestly am not a fan of the majority of the characters on this show. Lord of the Flies situations have never been a hit with me. However I really like Clarke, I like all the different identities that are forced upon and her struggle to figure out who she really is. While I don't like Lexa I think she is true to herself and I respect that. I think she also struggles with what she feels is her manifest destiny as Heda and what she wants for herself as Lexa. Unfortunately I think both aspects are a bad fit for Clarke.