Lightning Only Strikes Once - Clexa

Chapter 61: All Fall Down

She knows the second she says it that she's gone too far. He leaps up with a cry of rage and throws himself at her, hands closing around her neck. His weight presses down her legs and her arms are still bound, leaving her nearly helpless. She thrashes against him, choking, trying desperately to breathe as he roars wordlessly. She tries to throw him off but can't.

Clarke manages to get her bound hands up to his throat as well somehow and squeeze. "You'll die long before you can choke me," he gasps out, blood trickling from his mouth down over her hands.

I know, Clarke thinks. She lowers her head, and uses her grip on him to pull his head forward to meet hers quickly. Just like Lexa taught her. The strongest part of her head hits one of the weakest parts of his. He yanks back, yowling, clutching at his head – it looks like she's caved in a part of it, but that could just be a hallucination. Suddenly there's the noise of gunfire and Emerson staggers and collapses on her, blood blossoming from two wounds on his right shoulder. Then Jackson's crouching there, rolling Emerson off her – why is she hallucinating Jackson? "He'll live," Jackson says.

"I don't care," Lexa snaps, appearing in Clarke's vision. Clarke blinks and Lexa's covered in blood, then she's not, then she is again. Lexa leans down over and gently fixes something over her face. For a second Clarke is fighting against Roan trying to gag her, then she realises it's Lexa and Lexa would never put something on her face that didn't need to be there. "Clarke? Clarke, this is a gas mask. Jobi nuts work quickly like this but they wear off quickly as well. Just breathe, ai niron. Breathe." She turns and looks at Jackson. "Find something for her," she orders.

"What?" Jackson says, confused.

"They will have medicines for viruses, will they not?" Lexa snaps, "Find some. Now."

Then there's Jackson in front of her. No, it's her mother, about to give her an injection. She always hated this as a little kid, her mother suddenly turning into someone she couldn't trust, pushing a needle into her arm as she fought against it. But Clarke obeys Lexa when Lexa tells her to stay still, to breathe, that it's all right, and slowly her mother fades back into being Jackson. The injection stays though, pushed into her arm.

"It should work pretty quickly," Jackson says, "But it won't cure it, it will just get her up and moving better for a while. It works by -"

"There are others who need help as well," Lexa interrupts him, iron command in her voice. "Sedate Octavia and Abby kom Skaikru before they injure themselves more. And you are needed downstairs to begin injecting bone marrow."

"I like it when you do the Commander voice," Clarke says through the gas mask, starting to feel more normal. She notices Lexa's team is all here, Skaikru and Trikru, efficiently moving around to tie the wrists and ankles of everyone. Jackson's giving Octavia and Abby some injections.

"Mochof," Lexa says, peering at Clarke. "Are you back with us?"

Clarke blinks. "For the moment, it seems like it."

Raven appears there as well. "Hey, Clarke, good to see you're still alive. And Octavia too. Even Abby. This is turning out to be a pretty good attack. Nine out of ten, would invade again. It loses a point for the colour scheme though."

"Good to see you too," Clarke says dryly. With Lexa's help, she manages to stand up.

"I believe we have now successfully taken the place," Lexa tells her. "We must clear out the two levels above, but I think we have encountered nearly all the Mountain's forces." She clears her throat. "May I leave you for the moment? I wish to continue upwards. I have sent a gona back to get Anya and her team to come help. We think it is time to begin removing all of our new captives from the Mountain. The mechanism that controls the fog from inside here seems to have been knocked out by Raven's device, but I would still like to ensure there is no one here to try and remedy that."