Battlefield

There is no gunshot. They say goodbye in their bed. Clarke gets her things and meets Octavia at their spot, nodding at Indra. Lexa watches the crowd in the market, unable to see individuals but pretending to see a speck of blonde weaving in and out until it’s through the gate.

Clarke goes back to save her people, Lexa continues in ruling hers. Both seeking peace, but Lexa knows. Sometimes for peace there must be war.

The final battle, after months of conflict, is at Arcadia itself. There are enough people who have realized Pike is crazed. They surrendered for mercy to the grounders, but there are still enough that the fighting is long. Lexa has never been a cowardly leader, never sending her soldiers where she herself is unwilling to go. She’s in the thick of it, fighting and weaving between Arkers and nomads who had joined their cause, their fight against the clans who threw them out. Add in Jaha’s painless puppets, and it’s almost evenly matched.

But they breach the gates and are slowly but surely they are taking the camp. Building by building, section by section Arkadia falls to Lexa and her army of ground and sky alike. And in the midst of the fighting Lexa has one thought, lurking in the back of her mind.

Where is Clarke?

Lexa has seen what remains of the Hundred. The majority joined against Pike once Octavia got back to camp and told the horrors he had done. How he had lied about the grounder army sent to protect them, the innocents he had planned to slaughter. How his winless war was actually based in fear and hunger for power.

They fled to the woods. Taking refuge in their old drop ship, their first home, the Hundred fighting for survival again. More would see reason and come to join them, and the Hundred would take turns getting them out while sabotaging what they could and gathering information on the camp until Lexa arrived with her army. 

There are still some of the Hundred who fight for Pike. Mostly they are the ones who follow Bellamy. But they do not see what Lexa sees.

Lexa sees Bellamy holding down one of the last strongholds, lost in himself. Even across the battlefield she can see he has lost his conviction that this is what is right, that he fights now to prove his actions were not for nothing, that he is notwrong. Lexa knows that conviction is gone when his gun finds his sister and he cannot pull the trigger, does not even fight when she disarms him and knocks him unconscious.

Even Pike is seen, throwing out orders though it is clear the battle is lost. This is not the action of a brave man, but of one fighting in hopes of delaying his death.

(When Lexa captures him she will grant his wish and delay his death. Delay it for days and days so he might feel the pain of every action he has committed. Jus drein nou jus daun might be their new way, but no trial will ins him innocent)

But in all of this Lexa cannot find the one face she needs to find. The one face to quell the ache that has been in her breast since a blond speck left the gates so many months ago.

When she finds her blond speck, she wishes she hadn’t.

In the midst of battle, time does not slow down. It speeds up. Fight or flight, it was called in the old world, and every instinct Lexa has is to fight, to live, to return to her people and lead them to a better way.

(To return to her bed so that she might find her lover waiting once again)

Swords flash and bodies blur together. Faces mean nothing, until one means everything.

Lexa is surrounded. A last effort to take her to death with these traitors. As the last man falls to the earth taking Lexas sword with him, an arm grabs Lexa by her shoulder.

Lexa spins-

-blade coming out of the holster on her thigh in a single move-

-and blue eyes stare at her in surprise beneath hair that shows like sun.

Now, time moves slower.

Lexa feels her heart shattering in her chest as Clarke stares, her lips moving, trying to speak but no sound comes out.

(Later Lexa will think of that moment, of the way Clarke’s lips formed her name over and over and she will hate herself more)

Clarke crumbles to the ground and Lexa goes with her. The battle is done, the war is won, and everyone watches their Heda fall to her knees for the girl who fell from the sky.

‘Clarke! Clarke, Clarke, look at me. Stay with me!’

Her voice rings in the area, warriors from both sides not so much as breathing as this girl is so close to falling apart.

'Stay with me, Clarke’ Lexa pushes the wet hair from Clarke’s face. 'Bring a healer, now!' 

Octavia is the one to move, knowing where Abby is likely to have kept hidden. But Clarke’s eyelids are fluttering and Lexa can see she’s struggling to focus. She puts her forehead to Clarke’s 

'I’m sorry. I’m so sorry, Clarke, please don’t leave me. Please don’t leave me.’

Clarke lifting her hand to cup Lexas cheek. Thumb brushing tears Lexa hadn’t known were falling. Lexa puts pressure on the wound, refusing to think about how Clarke’s blood is soaking her hand.

Abby gets there as Clarke’s eyes close. She gets to work immediately. Has Lexa help get Clarke on the stretcher that was brought and walk, run, with them keeping pressure on the wound. They get to the med bay in the ark and even though Jackson isn’t there to help, being chipped by ALIE, Nyko is there and Octavia and Lincoln. 

Lexa wants to stay, fights to stay, but Abby needs room to work. Octavia has to physically drag Lexa out of the room and the last thing she sees before the doors close is Clarke lying pale on the table, Lexas knife mocking her from its place in Clarke’s side as the one to put her there.