Author's note: This story is coming to an end soon. I hope you have enjoyed readying it.

It was warm. There was a subtle whirring that broke into Lexa's thoughts and she couldn't quite place what it was or where it was coming from. Consciousness hadn't fully taken grasp of her just yet, her mind seemingly happy to drift between the waking and the asleep.

There was a subtle pressure against her head. Something she thought not supposed to be there but still, with her mind absent and her worries not fully formed she didn't think that something to worry about.

She rolled over onto her side only for a more poignant stab of pain to jar down her neck and it made her wince. Maybe that woke her up, maybe that brought her consciousness back to full strength for Lexa's eyes opened, she blinked and she tried to understand.

It took her so long to realise that the blinding light in her eyes was a neon light that shone overhead. It took her a moment longer to realise that the whirring she could hear was the Ark's systems breathing life through the station. Lexa could feel the subtle strumming of the Ark's systems even through the bed she lay in, the constant noise and vibrations something that she had come to find comfortable, familiar, a steady friend in the quiet nights spent looking out the Ark's viewports.

She didn't remember how she had got where she was. She didn't really remember what had happened. She looked down her body to find herself dressed in a loose fitting hospital gown. An IV drip was placed in her left arm and on her finger a little device she truthfully didn't know the function of other than to tell the doctors and nurses if something was wrong.

Lexa looked to her left to find a few other medbay beds full of people, she looked to her right to find others occupied too. She frowned because she was certain she was missing more information. She frowned because she couldn't remember getting hurt. But some of the injuries she saw were serious, perhaps there was an explosion, perhaps a section of the Ark had decompressed and she had been caught in it.

That would probably explain it.

It would explain the extent of the bandages she saw, it would explain her momentary lapse of memory. Days seemed to be missing. Maybe it was good she couldn't remember whatever put her where she was.

Lexa leant back into the bed and sighed. The exhale sounded muffled, distant to her ears and as she reached up she realised her head was bandaged, it wrapped over her left ear and left eye and she realised only her right eye was left exposed to the world.

She frowned again. There was a spike of worry about what that would mean. There was a spike of panic, but she stamped it down, she forced herself to remain calm and she wouldn't panic. It wouldn't do her any good. She would need to heal. She would need to find her feet before jumping back into her responsibilities and duties.

Lexa settled back into the bed. She tried not to bend her arm lest it disrupt the IV drip and cause a commotion. She didn't want to disturb the others who were more seriously hurt.

Lexa let herself settle, she let her initial panic die down and she found herself looking at the IV drip. There was curiosity and interest settling within her mind as she watched the liquid slowly drip. She wondered what it was. Saline, it wasn't. Not from how thick and black the liquid was. That black fluid made something wriggle in the recesses of her memory like she should remember what it was.

But still, despite that and despite everything else she wasn't entirely sure what it was in that moment. There was that ever present warmth, perhaps a subtle burning at her fingertips that she hadn't realised was there until she had laid eyes on the liquid. She looked back at the others who lay wounded and she saw each one of them had their own IV bags filled with that same black liquid.

As she continued to look she found it so strange that all of them didn't wear the clothes she was used to seeing. She realised they wore furs, leathers. Fabrics that seemed weathered to the elements and carefully treated over the years.

That made Lexa frown.

She should remember. She really should. Her mind was telling her she was missing something. But perhaps it was the drugs. Perhaps it was the fatigue of whatever had put her where she was. Maybe her imagination was playing tricks on her. And maybe she just needed to sleep.

"Lexa."

A man's voice spoke out to her. She looked to her right to find a familiar face looking down at her. In his hands was a clipboard and draped over his body the familiar white gown of a doctor.

"Jackson?" Lexa's voice was hoarse.

"How are you feeling?" he asked.

She frowned once more, the expression perhaps more permanent feature of her face for the time being.

"I—" she trailed off as a wave of dizziness hit her. It made her lie back on the bed and close her eye for a good moment. "Tired."

It was a truthful answer. Her mind ached. Her head throbbed.

"The drugs will do that to you," Jackson said quietly. "We're making do with whatever we have on hand," he said.

"What happened?"

Lexa opened her eyes and looked up at the Ark's ceiling. It looked a little strange to her though. Where normally she would expect to see the cold metal plating riveted together she saw what could only be described as polished concrete.

"Ah," Jackson said.

Lexa didn't quite like that sound. She turned to face him despite the ache and throbbing in her head and neck. She watched him make a note on his clipboard before he met her gaze with slightly narrowed eyes.

"Ah what?" she asked.

"You took a serious blow to the head," he said.

Lexa reached up and let her fingertips run against the bandage she could feel wrapped around her head.

"How serious?" she asked.

"You had a traumatic brain injury," he said. "TBI for short," he paused for a moment moment. "I assume you're missing the events that are lead up to the event?"

She frowned once more.

"Yes," she said it simply. Carefully.

"The good news is your memories will more likely than not come back," he said. "But for now you just need to rest."

Lexa sighed. It surprised her that she was taking things so well. Should would have thought it more likely that she'd panic, that she'd freak out at the news. But for some reason she didn't feel the need to. Perhaps it was the drugs. At least she remembered Jackson. She was thankful for that.

"Thanks," Lexa said as she settled back onto the bed. She sighed at how soft it was beneath her and it was only then that she realised she lay on a bed of furs, they were soft. Gentle against her skin and she couldn't remember the last time she had ever seen fur, real or fake on the Ark.

"I'll check on you later today," Jackson said.

And so Lexa bid him a quiet farewell and thanks before he stepped away. And Lexa was tired. Her mind felt foggy and clouded. But that fur beneath her, the other injured around her who didn't wear quite what she expected all seemed to wriggle in the back of her mind as if they were burying themselves deeper and deeper into the recesses of her consciousness.

And for whatever reason she thought it important not to worry for the time being.

Lexa didn't know how long she slept for but she woke sometime later to find herself in the dark. As her eye opened the first thing she saw was that the IV bag was almost empty and that many of those who lay on beds around her were asleep.

It took her a moment to reorder herself. She remembered Jackson talking to her. She remembered him telling her about the injury, about the memory loss.

And she frowned. Lexa sat up. There was a subtle wave of dizziness before it settled and she propped herself up on the bed with her free arm. The light from the medbay was dimmed, but there was still enough that it cast gentle shadows far and wide. It made her movements dance against the room in shadows and she tried not to make a sound as she tried to stretch, as she tried to shake loose the aches that had taken hold of her body.

But as Lexa stretched to her right she froze.

A chair lay next to her bed. But she froze because a corpse was propped up in it.

Lexa blinked. She thought she was seeing things as her gaze settled on a young woman's body that had seemingly been left beside her. Even in the dimmed light Lexa could tell her skin was pale grey with no signs of life. Lexa cursed quietly. She felt sorry for the woman, she shouldn't have been left like that and it made her realise things must have been much worse than Jackson had let on if they were forced to leave corpses propped up in chairs.

The woman's hair glowed a gentle gold in the dimmed light, it framed a face that seemed both weathered from pain and a harsh life yet there were still barely there signs of youth in the roundness of her cheeks.

Lexa continued to take in whoever it was that had been left beside her. She realised the woman had her legs tucked underneath her in the seat she had been placed in. One arm was tucked under her chin as her head lay sightly to the side as if she had passed away in peaceful sleep.

Perhaps Lexa could feel a little sense of relief that whoever it was had died peacefully in slumber. It would be better than suffering in pain and anguish at injuries too severe for anyone to bare.

But the woman wore clothes that made the confusion grow a little more strongly within her mind. A thick fur coat was draped over her shoulders. It was held closed around her torso by leather buckles and there were knives held in sheathes that were strapped close to her body.

As Lexa continued to look, as she continued to stare she was sure she was missing something, she was sure she was forgetting—

The body murmured. It shifted in the seat and Lexa froze.

She didn't think she had seen it. She couldn't have.

The body shouldn't have moved or made a sound but it did and Lexa's eyes widened. She saw lips purse and a slight frown grow on the woman's face as her dreams turned sour briefly before they settled and were replaced by the calm youthfulness that had been there not two seconds ago.

And Lexa swallowed hard. She winced as she forced herself to sit, she winced as the needle in her arm pulled and she cursed quietly as she felt it pull. She turned back to the IV bag, she reached out with her free arm to steady it before she pulled the needle free from her arm. She probably shouldn't be doing that, but the bag was almost empty and she wanted answers.

Another wave of dizziness hit her, it made her fall bag onto the bed with a quiet oof and she cursed quietly. Her heart was beating more firmly in her chest at whatever it was that was happening around her. Her mind was trying to put memories in order, emotions she was feeling into focus and—

"You should not be doing that."

The voice was quiet. Warm. There was a gentle timber in it that seemed to wriggle into the back of Lexa's mind.

She turned to face the corpse to find it in that same position but this time their eyes were open, the hand propping up their head was tucked into a large pocket, and the imprint of tired knuckles pressed into grey flesh.

Lexa frowned.

She should be feeling fear. Fear at what she was seeing. Fear at the fact a corpse was talking to hear. Fear at the unknown.

But for some reason she felt none of that.

"Clarke?" she didn't know why that name fell from her lips.

But it did.

"Lexa."

She knew her name. That gave her another answer.

"Clarke?" Lexa frowned as she tasted the name on her tongue. She frowned as she stared at piercing blue eyes that seemed so very vibrant against her pale grey flesh.

"Lexa?"

She knew Clarke was mocking her from the tone, from the echoing of her confusion. A subtle lifting of Clarke's lips came next and Lexa couldn't fight her own confused smile as she closed her eyes and tried not to laugh lest her head swim.

"Don't," Lexa groaned.

"Then I will not."

"What—" Lexa swallowed. She blinked and she rolled onto her side to face Clarke more fully. She tucked her arms beneath her head and she realised she was smiling oddly at the woman who sat beside her. "What happened?"

"We were victorious," Clarke said quietly.

"We were?" Lexa found herself remembering that there was something she had been doing. She realised she had been doing something important. Something violent. Something bloody. Dangerous and full of pain, anger, fear.

"You destroyed the dam," Clarke said quietly. "You allowed me to destroy the Mountain from the inside."

Lexa remained quiet for a long time as Clarke's words slowly formed within her mind. She let her thoughts organise the chaos of faded moments and she slowly began to remember more of that something.

There was the dam.

There was the explosives.

Something needed to be destroyed.

Something needed to end for her people's sake. For Clarke's people. For both their people.

And then Lexa remembered.

She remembered crashing to the ground. She remembered meeting Clarke. She remembered Mount Weather, the reapers, the plan to destroy the dam, the army beneath ground, Anya. Bellamy. Carl Emerson. She remembered taking the dam. She remembered the fighting, the explosives. She remembered Tobias, Maya. Serka. And she remembered setting the last explosive, the remembered walking back to meet the others. And then she remembered that one figure who had ambushed her and fired at her face pointblank.

"Serka?" she asked.

He had been with her. He had caught her after she slipped of the ladder and he had been there with her before being shot.

Clarke stared her in the eyes for the briefest of moments before she shook her head sadly.

Lexa blinked back the sudden tears that welled up in her eyes. So many people had died in the last few days, she was sure of that. She had hardly even known him but he had been there. He had seemed kind. Willing to do anything to help rid the lands of Mount Weather and its pain.

"I am sorry," Clarke's voice was gentle.

"Maya?" Lexa asked. "Anya? And everyone else?"

Clarke settled back in her chair more comfortably before answering.

"Your healer," Clarke said. "Jackson," she paused as if she was trying to recall something important. "He calls it a coma. Maya was wounded severely defending the dam."

Lexa swallowed hard at that. She felt a lump in her throat and she felt the tears returning more strongly than they had just moments before.

"Will she be ok?" Lexa asked.

"I do not know," Clarke said. There was a touch of sorrow in her tone and Lexa could tell Clarke truly felt something from the way she blinked back her own pain for the briefest of moments. "We are giving her natblida in the hopes it will heal the damage done."

That made Lexa remember the others around them and their own IV bags of blood.

And then Lexa remembered why this whole conflict had even started.

"The others," Lexa said quietly. "Are they ok?"

She knew Clarke understood who she spoke of from the sad smile that touched her lips.

"Traumatised," Clarke said. "Weak. They have sacrificed much," Clarke paused in thought. "The will need months to heal. To regain their strength and to walk amongst their people once more," Clarke paused once more in thought. "But they are free."

"I'm happy to hear that," Lexa truly was.

"You need not worry anymore, Lexa," Clarke said quietly. "You are safe."

Lexa smiled in response.

"I guess I'm in Mount Weather?"

"Yes," Clarke answered. "My warriors have secured it."

"And my people?" she asked.

"Those who helped my warriors and who aligned themselves with us initially are free. The others are under guard until we can decide how to deal with them."

Lexa did't entirely know what she expected to hear. But what she did made her happy. Or not quite happy. But content at the answer. Perhaps it told her things would be ok in the future. That the fighting could stop and that the world could be rebuilt in some way going forward without the bloodshed.

But she also didn't think it would be that easy.

"We've all sacrificed too much to start another war," Lexa said.

"Yes," Clarke answered her. "We have. Now sleep, Lexa of the sky people," Clarke said as she stood quietly. "You must gather your strength."

And with that Clarke lent forward and pressed her grey fingertips against Lexa's cheek softly before she bowed her head and walked into the dark.