Chapter 32
Echo woke. She was on fire. She smelled the sickness surrounding her. It was faint, but it was there. She was also drenched in sweat. She hated the feeling, but her entire body hurt. She really didn't think that she could move. So, she decided to take stock of what was around her. She felt the sheets of linen that she was wrapped up in and a blanket that wasn't her normal fur. Under her fingers, she found the fur blanket that she'd been sharing with Clarke, on top of the pile she was buried in the bed under.
Her mind stopped there as everything from the last few weeks came at her, hitting her brain hard. Her body wanted to convulse and writhe, but she managed to keep still. The last time that she felt similar to this, and sheets like it, too, was in the Mountain. She knew that she couldn't be there. Clarke destroyed it. And, she doubted that the younger woman would have taken her there for any reason, besides the fact that it was too far away. She knew that she needed to know more before her mind went into a spiral and her fight or flight response kicked in. She wasn't prepared to fight, and her body wasn't responding completely to her commands. But, she needed to know what was going on around her.
She opened her eyes and looked to her left. She saw Clarke resting there next to her. She noticed that they were both scantily dressed. She didn't question it because Clarke was there. She knew the younger woman was a fisa before she was a gona. If Clarke had undresed her, there was reason.
She lifted the blanket and looked down her body to see that Clarke had treated all her wounds. Then, she saw the one on Clarke's left leg. It was because she had it draped over Echo's legs. Clarke was cuddled up with her, holding her close, like she needed to know that Echo was going to make it through the night. Echo knew that if they weren't in such a dire situation, she would have smiled at the returning-blonde's antics.
What she wasn't prepared to see was the tubing stuck in their bodies, though. One tube was black and the other was red. She took a deep breath and pulled her anxiety down. She knew there had to be reason, but for the life of her, she couldn't think of one. She knew that she didn't know Skai medicine, but this didn't sit right with her. She tried breathing slowly to calm herself more, but finally she couldn't take it anymore. She reached over and woke Clarke.
"Mmm...hold on," Clarke said sleepily as she started to wake. Her hand drifted down Echo's body and found a small pool of sweat. It managed to rouse Clarke faster and she stated, "I'll get you some water. Don't move too much. It'll pull on the catheters."
Clarke reached down to tie off the catheters to keep from making a huge mess out of their blood. She didn't notice that Echo was watching her with fire in her eyes. Clarke rolled off the cot and stood up. She moved across the bunker to the table. She gathered up some supplies to change out Echo's bandages and a fresh water skin. She handed Echo the water skin and moved to lift the blanket. She folded back the blanket a little to look at Echo's shoulder when she realized that the older warrior was staring at her hard. Clarke met her brown-hazel eyes and held them.
"What?" Clarke asked her.
"There are things in me and you," Echo stated in Trig.
"Yeah, there are," Clarke said nonchalantly.
"Why?"
"It was the only way that I could cure you of the poison."
"Poison?"
"Yeah, the arrows were poisoned. I took them out and treated all your wounds. You got a fever and were sweating pretty bad. I did what I had to do to make sure that you were going to live," Clarke informed her as she started laying out the bandages to change.
"What do you mean?"
"You've been out of it...basically asleep for three days. The first day scared the shit out of me because you started convulsing. You were thrashing so bad, and I didn't think that I was going to be able to get you calm. I held you until you stopped. Then, I set up the blood transfers to clean your blood."
"You gave me natjus? Klark, you can't. Your blood is sacred. You can't just give me your blood."
"Well, too late, I already did and it saved your life. I told you I wasn't going to let you die. I commanded your death," Clarke stated and then took a deep breath. Echo could tell that she was trying to center herself a little more, but her anger was winning. "I am WANHEDA after all, so deal with it," Clarke hissed at her as she dropped her medical supplies in her hands and moved to another part of the bunker.
Clarke was angry but she didn't know at who. She understood on some levels what Echo was upset about, but at the same time, she'd saved Echo's life. She huffed. She knew that she needed to go back over to the other woman's side and finish changing her dressings, but she couldn't make herself do it.
"Klark?"
"Chit?!" Clarke yelled back.
"Okay, so I deserved that," Echo started, purposefully using Gonasleng. "Was I really out for three days?"
"Yes, you were. It wasn't until last night that your fever finally completely broke. I've bathed you down and changed the sheets a few times. You also didn't make it easy for me to hold you," Clarke answered.
"You held me?"
"Sha, I did."
"Why?" Echo asked, not pointing out that Clarke was slipping in and out of Trig and Gonasleng.
Clarke spun around and looked at her harder. Echo was truly curious. Clarke knew that she shouldn't be that surprised that Echo wasn't used to being coddled or treated as anything more than a possession, a piece on the battlefield to be wielded at Nia's choice and whim. Echo had a rough life as a spy for Azgeda, but that didn't mean that she wasn't human. It didn't meant that she didn't deserve some care every now and again.
"You're asking why I cared for you?" Clarke inquired, the look on her face was incredulous.
"Sha," Echo replied.
"Because I do care about you, Echo. You're my only friend now," Clarke answered and pause, forcing herself not to feel the pain of losing her entire people at Nia's hands. "You're my fos, so that makes you like family in my book. And, as far as I know that even family cares for family on the Ground like we did in the sky. But, then again, some of you take it to an entirely different level."
"Klark…" Echo said to stop Clarke's ranting.
"Sorry," Clarke replied as she gathered up more gauze and headed back to the beds to tend to her.
Echo watched her. She could see the fear in Clarke's eyes. She knew that the younger woman wasn't being completely honest with how bad things had gotten. She knew that Clarke knew more about medicine than she did, but she was still upset that she'd tainted herself by giving her natjus.
"Can you tell me why you gave me the natjus?" Echo asked her.
"I don't know if you'll understand it completely. It was just something I thought of because of a procedure that we would do on the Ark a few times. It is called dialysis. It is basically where we hook tubes like that up to you and pull your blood out of your body. It goes through a machine that cleans it."
"Cleans it?"
"Yeah, removes some diseases, things that would make you sick, poisons that your body naturally makes and sheds. Your blood moves around your body to keep it running. So, it picks up things and helps clean out the rest of your body. And, you have these organs called kidneys. They clean the blood and flush out the bad stuff in your pee," Clarke explained as she turned and pointed to her back. "That is why getting stabbed there is very bad."
"Oh, that makes sense. But, I don't understand. Are my kidneys not working?"
"As far as I can tell, they are, but they needed help," Clarke stated. She paused and then continued. "I remembered drinking all that tea that Ontari gave me. I thought it was helping me heal, and maybe it does for natblidas. I don't really know. I would have to do more research on it. But, I knew that it didn't hurt me. So, I figured that I could process it. I couldn't smell the poison either. I guessed that if I let my body clean your blood it would help. The only problem was that I needed to be able to give you my blood while my body cleaned yours. So, I made a closed circuit of sorts. I had your blood come in to me and my blood go into you. I was cleaning your blood and keeping you alive that way."
"It will not make me a natblida?"
"No, it would take marrow to do that."
"What is marrow?"
"Bonejus," Clarke answered.
"Can you do that?"
"Not here, no, I can't."
"But, you know how to do that?" Echo questioned.
"I do, but it is a long process and we don't have the equipment here."
"But does Arkadia?"
"It might, but I'm not worried about that…yet," Clarke replied as she went back to treating Echo's wounds.
"Why not?"
"Because there are other things that I need to be worried about. First of all is getting you better so that we can leave. The second, today, is that I'm going to go hunt and find a place to cure the meat and burn all the rags and bandages that I've used on you. And, before you ask, it is to keep us from getting sick."
"You are going to hunt?" Echo questioned as she started to sit up.
"I need to get us some fresh meat. The berries and the nuts are gone, too. We need supplies, and while this bunker has a lot, it doesn't have viable food. We need to eat."
"I'll hunt," Echo stated as she tried to move to the edge of the bed.
"You will stay here and rest," Clarke commanded.
"Klark…" she warned.
"Nope, not going to work. You need to rest. I won't be gone long."
"Klark, be careful."
"I will, fos."
Echo just nodded. Clarke finished her duties of caring for Echo's wounds and removed the catheters. She dropped them in the growing pile of crap that she needed to burn. Echo could see that it was all laid out on a blanket. She assumed that Clarke was going to tie it up and carry it out. It would be the easiest thing to do with the trash. She just watched Clarke as she moved. She knew that the younger woman was still upset about her being hurt. She realized that Clarke was still waiting for something else to happen. She couldn't blame, especially with everything that had happened to them over the last few weeks.
Echo sat there and watched as Clarke cleaned up around the beds. She gave Echo some more water and what was left of the dried meats. She handed her some clothes, too as she got dressed. When Clarke made her way over to the other side of the bunker, Echo finally saw all the gear that Clarke had brought down with them. The oil lambs were especially bright, so she knew that they would take them with them. She looked around and wondered what else that Clarke had deemed useful while she was out of commission.
"Be careful. Don't hunt for anything too big. And, make sure that you use a Kodafaya." (Dakota Fire Hole)
"I will. Stay in bed and rest. I know that you feel like you can get up, but don't. You are still weak from the poison. I'll be back as soon as I can."
"I promise not to leave the bunker," Echo replied and Clarke just nodded because she knew that it was the best that she was going to get.
Clarke gathered her bow and quiver. She went to the blanket with all the used bandages and tied it up. She gather a little pouch and her knife. She grabbed the tied up blanket and dropped it by the base of the ladder. She grabbed the rope and coiled it around her right arm. She looked back to Echo before she started her ascent and stopped. She crossed the little area again and sat down on the bed beside Echo.
"I'll be back as soon as I can," Clarke assured her.
"I know."
"I'll be safe."
"I know."
"You've taught me well," Clarke told her.
"I know."
"I'll be okay, Ekou," Clarke stated.
"I know, ain Skaifaya. Yu laik Wanheda. You are truly the commander of death," Echo replied, with a smirk and hoped that Clarke didn't take it the wrong way.
Clarke's head reeled back. She saw the fire in Echo's eyes. She knew that Echo was going to be insufferable about her being Wanheda now and she had no one but herself to blame for it. Clarke just smiled and nodded. She had no idea what Echo really thought about it all, but she knew that Echo had been afraid while she was out of it. It was something that she wanted to talk to her about. Clarke figured that they could do that over dinner when she got back.
"Ekou?"
"Sha, Klark."
"When I get back, I want you to tell me about who the other Ekou was and why you were afraid of her," Clarke told her.
Echo's eyes went large. She hadn't realized that she'd spoken of her past. She had those memories locked tight inside her, or so she thought. Clarke reached out for her hand and held it. She leaned her forehead against Echo's and stared deeply into her eyes.
"Don't worry too much about it. It could have been a fever dream, but I don't think that it was. You seemed very upset. Sometimes that happens with a fever, though. We'll talk about it later and hash through it. But, know that nothing you tell me will hurt me, Ekou. You are safe with me. I promise you that. Yu laik ain fos, ain Azgona, ain bigasis," Clarke stated, trying to reassure her.
She tilted her head up slightly and kissed Echo on the forehead. She rubbed her hands down Echo's arms and then got up from the bed. She grabbed the bag and her stuff slinging them over her shoulder. She climbed up the ladder and was out of the bunker before Echo could properly react.
"En, yu laik ain Skaifaya, ain Wanheda," Echo finally replied as she rubbed across her stomach, feeling the new scars there.
Echo felt herself getting sleepy again. She moved back further onto the bed. She figured that Clarke was right. She needed more rest. She knew that Clarke wanted to move on, but she wasn't going to leave without her. Echo knew that she had to get better as quickly as she could, so they could go. She pulled up the blankets and laid on the bed that Clarke had been using up against the wall and fell asleep.
She woke up sometime later to hearing Clarke moving around again. She saw that she did indeed have some fresh meat. She knew that she couldn't have been out long enough for her smoke it, but then she smelled it. She just roasted it over the fire. It would keep for a few days. They would have to hunt more on their way to Becca's. She also saw a small plate full of berries and nuts. She was grateful that they were further south and the weather hadn't turned too bad against them. This meant that they would still have some fresh food.
"I didn't mean to wake you," Clarke told her as she turned to face Echo, probably to check on her.
"You didn't. I just woke," Echo replied and then asked. "Is there somewhere that I can relieve myself?"
Clarke nodded and pointed to the corner of the bunker furthest from her. She squinted but she saw an old world chamber pot of sorts there (think toilet). She knew better than to ask, so she didn't. She worked herself up and got off the bed. Standing was tedious, but she did it. It took longer than she wanted, but she managed to get there and back on her own. She knew that Clarke was watching her, waiting and willing to help, whether Echo asked for it or not. She was proud of herself for making in her own though and smiled when Clarke pointed for her to sit at the table and not get back in bed.
"It looks good."
"I hope so. I managed to get a few rabbits. Figured I should stay small like you suggested. Didn't want to waste anything, you know," Clarke replied.
Echo nodded and took the plate that Clarke had offered. She'd done well in getting her bounty for them eat. Clarke smiled as Echo ate.
"You want to know more about what I was saying in my fever?" Echo questioned.
"I don't if you don't want to tell me, but you seemed really upset about it. I know that you don't have to tell me, Echo, but maybe talking about it will help. I know that you helped me deal with all my demons while we were in Azgeda just because you let me talk. Sometimes, it unburdens the mind to let it out."
Echo nodded as she picked up a few berries and popped them into her mouth. She knew that Clarke was watching her, but it wasn't to see if she was going to talk. She was looking at Echo with a fisa's eye. She was cataloging what Echo was eating and trying to decide if it was enough to sustain her. Echo wasn't a fool, but she also knew that Clarke would only push her if she really needed it.
"Do you remember me telling you how Nia found me? How my parents died out on the Ice Floes and in battle? Do you remember?"
"Sha, I remember," Clarke answered.
"That part of my life is true. But, name isn't Ekou. Ai liak Ash kom Mordo."
"Ash?"
"Sha, that is the name my parents gave me. Ekou was my best friend in Troi. She was originally training to be a spy and a royal guard for Nia."
"What happened?" Clarke asked as she looked at Echo very concerned.
"Nia came one day to where we were training. To Nia, I was a burden, but she was happy to have me training Ekou how to use a bow. That was all I was good for, but it was time for Ekou to go to Sangeda and start her spying. Her final task, which neither of knew about, was to kill me to prove that she was loyal to Nia and to Nia alone," Echo told her.
"Oh my god..."
"Ekou and I fought. We only had knifes because that was all we were allowed to carry. We fought hard and my best friend, some one I thought of like a sister, turned on me and tried to kill me. In the end, I won. I killed her. Nia was surprised. I hadn't really been taught to fight, but somehow I won. Ledo was with her and reminded her that Sangeda was waiting on Ekou to come."
"So you became Ekou?"
"I had no choice. Either I went to Sangeda as Ekou, or Nia killed me. I didn't know what my life would turn into, but I decided that I would go."
"And, now you are here with me."
"So, I am."
"Well, if it means anything to you, Ash, I am glad that you are here with me."
"Me too, Skaifaya, me too," Echo replied with a small smile.
