Lightning Only Strikes Once - Clexa

Chapter 57: The Ultimate Cure

It feels odd to Clarke to be carrying a pack that is so much lighter than her usual one. In the weeks of travelling around she's almost forgotten what it feel like to only carry the basics. Right now 'the basics' is some medical supplies, her knives, and, oh yes, Raven's device.

It makes her seriously nervous. At any moment she could be adjusting the weight of the pack on her shoulders or fiddling with her hair and accidentally set it off. Alternatively, it might not go off at all – for obvious reasons Raven hadn't exactly been able to do a test run. Of course, she's never lost a battle due to one of Raven's contraptions before, so maybe she should stop worrying about that so much.

Then she can go back to worrying about whether her mother's still alive or whether Emerson will just show Clarke the body to torture her instead of making her witness it personally. And worrying about whether the Reapers are in these tunnels right now or are out looking for the others. Worrying about whether the twelve gona with her will survive this. Worrying about every noise she hears.

Worrying about Lexa's safety.

Lexa's tough and she's smart. But if Clarke screws this up, if she doesn't understand Emerson or Cage as well as she thinks she does, or even if they're just really unlucky, then there's a pretty good chance Lexa will die today. Clarke can deal with her mother dying, if she has to – she survived her father's death, after all, and she dealt with it when she thought her mother had died on the Exodus Ship in the original world. It will be agonising, the grief will be a weight around her, she will cry and suffer and lean on Lexa, but it won't destroy her.

But she's not sure she can live through Lexa's death again. The first time she didn't even really live through it. Maybe this time she won't be able to convince herself that she needs to go on, needs to try and build the world they would have built together by herself. If the Mountain kill Lexa and Clarke survives, she thinks she'll destroy them, whatever it takes. She will burn them to ash, every single one of them, spit on their graves, blow up the whole place, make it so there's not a single thing to remember any one of them by – the strength of her hatred almost surprises her. If they kill Lexa, she won't be Clarke anymore, she'll be Wanheda, and she'll bring death to all of them. And then when they're all dead maybe she'll go up to the top of the tower in Polis and wait. She'll wait for the lightning for as long as she can, until one day, she won't be able to wait for Lexa anymore. And then she'll just step off.

"We should have seen Ripa by now," the gona nearest to her says nervously, and Clarke shakes herself out of her morbid thoughts. The gona are spread out, moving quickly in the half-crouch they only do when expecting imminent battle, glancing at Clarke every few seconds as if waiting for further orders. Of course, a plan of 'wander into the Ripa caves' probably seems a little incomplete to them.

"That's a good sign," Clarke tells him. "It means things might be going as planned." She understands his nerves, though – there's something creepy about the bare, empty tunnels. It would almost be less worrying if there was a group of Reapers, at least then there would be something to fight. Their huddled, anxious advance through the dark and echoing corridors feels like something from a horror movie, the tension rising and rising until a monster would nearly be a relief.

One gona hits a rock with his foot as he moves forward, sending it skittering loudly into the darkness ahead. All of the others have their weapons pulled in a moment and he curses quietly. Clarke alone remains calm. "Steady," she says quietly.

Then there's a noise ahead, a yell. It's not a fearful one or a Reaper's howl, it's the sharp yell of a command, and Clarke knows they've been found. "Now," she orders.

They sprint ahead towards the threat, spacing themselves as best they can. The tunnel's too narrow for effective evasion tactics though, and there's three cross-tunnels ahead that make their odds even worse. A grenade flies from the left and clatters to a stop next to Clarke so she kicks it as far as she can towards the source. They're using non-lethal methods – excellent. And it's the Maunon, not the Reapers. This sharply increases the odds that Octavia's still alive. From the thuds in the direction she kicked the grenade, they're also not wearing suits – too eager to be out of their suits to remember that this leaves them vulnerable to their own gas grenades, the acid fog, and similar threats.