The Commander of Death

Chapter Twelve

Clarke found herself in a field, the dead grass that still remained being a mixture of brown and yellow. She lifted her gaze in front of her. She was at the plant closest to the west coast. She recognized it, having poured over the details of every single plant. Her ears buzzed with the sound of a deafening pulsing, and the air was thick. It smelled like ozone and there was a metallic taste in her mouth almost immediately.

Feeling alright, she walked closer, hastily wiping her tears with the backs of her hands and sniffling. She had to do this. If she succeeded, maybe she could neutralize the other plants. If she did that, she could control the trajectory and minimize the damage the death wave would cause, therefore saving a lot of the earth's surface. She hoped that these plants were just the first step to a larger solution that would completely stop the death wave, and even though she had no guarantee, it was better than sitting back and doing nothing.

Lexa's words still stung, but she shoved it down. She had to focus right now, and thinking about her argument with the girl she loved wouldn't do anything but distract her. 

She walked carefully with measured steps, continuously checking in with herself to make sure she wasn't experiencing any effects from the radiation. Anyone with red blood would have died by now, so clearly her mother's nightblood serum had worked.

Her eyes turned black and wisps radiated off of her, ready to get this done. When she reached the tattered, rusted chain-link gate, she shot a dark beam emission at the chains to break them and swing the gates open. She walked through with an expression set in stone. She narrowed in on the location of the source of the dangerous and festering radiation, more than familiar with the layout of the plant. She used her powers to lift herself in the air, rising high until she hovered a couple dozen feet away from the top of the plant from which the radiation was emanating, and honed in on it.

She wondered if she could instead speed up the meltdown and contain the blast when it exploded. She had contained and absorbed the explosion of the missile, and she wondered if she could absorb the radiation without retaining the damage. Raven was right; the controls were certainly far beyond functioning. Everything was smashed, and she didn't have the skillset to repair it, so this was really her only option.

She took a deep breath and closed her eyes before extending her hands. Wisps of darkness traveled in spirals towards the radiation, destabilizing the already degrading containment system and speeding up the process. She felt the pulsing grow louder and pick up the pace, and she knew it was about to explode as the darkness eroded the containment system.

She opened her eyes and suddenly lifted her hands to her side, instantly forming a huge dome over the entire plant before any radiation from it could be dispersed. The explosion was deafening.

It knocked her back in the air, but, despite her flailing, she concentrated on maintaining the dome. The ground shook and trembled as she was hurled towards it, gritting her teeth as she pushed her powers to keep the dome up and absorb the radiation. She couldn't afford to focus on cushioning her blow, diverting all of her attention and focus to the dome as she braced for impact.

She flipped in the air so that she wouldn't land on her head, because, despite the fact that the initial explosion had already happened, if she was knocked unconscious, some of the residual radiation would escape.

She screamed in pain when the sensation of burning consumed her entire body, traveling from her fingertips throughout the rest of her body. Her blood felt like it was on fire, her veins sparking with excruciating electricity and heat, but she still managed to focus on the dome. 

She couldn't let go. She couldn't let her pain distract her.

That was made significantly harder when she landed on the ground, several bones in both of her legs shattering upon impact. With her powers focused on the radiation, she hadn't been able to use them to cushion the blow. Still, as another scream tore from her throat, she gritted her teeth and pushed away the feeling of dizziness, she honed in on the dome.