Flatlined Heart

Chapter 2

A/N: Heyyyy it's a chapter two! No, I haven't abandoned it. I just really want to get this right because there's so many ways I could possibly write this, and it didn't feel right the first few times I tried.

Elyza let out a sigh, wind rippling through her blond curls as she surveyed the ocean through her sunglasses. She sat on a cliff, rocking back and forth while hugging her knees. A sense of deep contentment permeated through her as she relished the peace. Two years, and she still couldn't get over the idea of peace and not having to constantly fight.

After much research in the last half year, she had realized that America was this world's equivalent to the land of the coalition. At first she had visited Washington D.C., stunned to find out this world's version of TonDC. It was so different, even the statue of Lincoln was different. It was well kept, grand in a less haunting way.

Slowly after realizing there wasn't much to do, she'd mapped out place by place where Arkadia, Polis, and other landmarks were in her life. Overall they weren't very interesting. Just small random towns in Virginia and Maryland where people went about their everyday lives. Mount Weather was the weirdest one. It wasn't like she could visit it, or see it, but knowing that it was still standing here was an odd idea in itself.

After a while, she bought a van and traveled as Elyza Lex all over the USA. Part of her was glad for this new identity. Donning all leather, speaking in an Australian accent she had picked up in her time with the Lexes, she was overall badass. The stark difference from Clarke Griffin made it easier for her to live this life.

Elyza shook her head. There was no use in letting her brain clog with things she could never confirm nor control. She pushed herself up onto her feet and dusted off her pants before falling into form, remembering all that she had been taught to protect herself. Elyza went through the stances and exercises that she now knew by memory. She had managed to fit them so well together out of sheer practice, that it almost looked like she was dancing as she practiced on the cliff.

-0-

Lexa was gasping, looking into her eyes. "Ai gonplei ste odon." Panic spiked within her. Lexa never gave up, she never gave in. She was the Commander.

Clarke's heart broke as she heard her repeat what she had once said. "Life is about more than surviving." She wanted to scream, scream that this wasn't what she meant. She'd meant to have fun, to live a little, but not death. Except all she could do was murmur a feeble, "No" and smooth down Lexa's hair. She knew what was coming, she knew every time it plagued her dreams.

Lexa gasping in pain, her labored breath becoming shallower and shallower, trying to put on a brave face for Clarke. She was painfully aware of her heart cracking as she repeated her farewell and Lexa just smiled up at her. Painfully aware that it would be their last kiss (with Lexa alive) when she leaned down to kiss her. Painfully aware of the cold, lifeless eyes that reflected back at her as she pulled away, her heart shattering, shards of it raining to the floor in an irreparable mess.

Lexa was so cold, so lifeless. There was no more fire in her. Just an empty shell. She had reciprocated her feelings too late and now Lexa was dead.

Then Elyza Lex jolts awake in the driver's seat of her van, tears running down her cheek to form twin tracks. The hole in her heart ached and she let out a sob before wiping away the tears from her cheeks. She was Elyza now. Clarke Griffin was as dead as Lexa. There would be no Lexa in this world, and she was stuck here for an eternity. There was no Raven to bring her back and there would be nothing to go back to anyway.

She took a deep breath in and then let it out before looking out the window to take in her surroundings and then Elyza's world froze. In the warm, late afternoon light of fall, shadows fell over her face as skater boys whizzed by her and blocked her from view momentarily. Headphones were stuffed in her ears, a black backpack bouncing on her back with every step she took. It couldn't be.