Lightning Only Strikes Once - Clexa

Chapter 49: Sky City

By the time they reach the new Arkadia – or whatever they'll decide to call it – Clarke is messy, grouchy, hungry, thirsty, tired, has a hundred tiny scratches, desperately wants a bath, and is seriously wondering if she should stop dosing Finn and allow him to wake up.

Keeping someone unconscious for days at a time is not a highly recommended medical strategy, as far as she knows, and even though they've been taking turns, carrying him hasn't exactly been doing great things for their pace. They couldn't risk the agonised noises he started making every time it seemed like he was close to waking up, though, not with the Maunon around. It was just too loud. So she's been dosing him – and devoutly hoping she hasn't gotten him addicted to a wonder drug or given him some kind of overdose.

One of Indra's scouts is the first person to see them, and he's almost overawed by Lexa's presence. Apparently three of the gona have made it there before them, and all of them reported that every Reaper had gone after Lexa and there was no way she could have survived. Turning up unharmed with more than thirty people in tow has probably added another story to the Commander mythology.

Indra's expression when she sees Lexa and Octavia is so clear that Clarke wonders how she could have ever thought the Grounders were emotionless. They don't express themselves like Skaikru, but that doesn't mean they're not expressive – they let their eyes and slight gestures and inflections say everything they need to.

"Heda," Indra says, clearing her throat. "I see you have returned my Seken to me."

"She acquitted herself well," Lexa says idly. Octavia glows at the praise. "We have much to speak of."

Indra looks at Zion. "I see that we do," she says thoughtfully. Clarke remembers when Indra last saw them, the Azgeda were the enemy.

Arkadia is mostly made up of tents at the moment. It's in the middle of a large clearing. They've arrived at lunchtime, thankfully, and the place is bustling with people – most of them muddy and tired-looking, but relatively cheerful. There's multiple animals being cooked over a large central fire, as well as some plants being chopped up with knives nearby – she wonders if any of them were gotten by her people or if Indra's gona are still providing for them. Hopefully the former.

Clarke has to search the crowd for quite a while to find the one she's looking for, but eventually she does, even out of the thousand-odd people around. "Jackson!" she calls out. "Jackson!"

"Clarke?" Jackson manages to get through to Clarke's relatively sheltered position. "What's the matter?"

"Finn was injured," Clarke says, swallowing hard. She's washed and re-done the bandage four times out of fear of it sticking and being difficult to remove later, but every time it never fails to make her feel sick. There's just something about eye wounds that she finds more disturbing than most injuries. "His eyes. I don't know what to do. Can you come have a look?"

"You're the one in charge," he says, gently teasing her.

Clarke manages a grim smile. "Even more so now than I was before. Jaha might be dead."

"Might?" Jackson asks.

"Yes," Clarke says. "I can't really give a more definite statement than that, unfortunately. I'll fill everyone in later. I've ordered Cole, Fuji and Jay to make sure everyone's gathered tonight so I can talk to all of our people at once."

Jackson hisses when he takes off the bandages. He does the best he can with his medicine, but eventually says, "I can't do much about this, Clarke, I'm sorry."

"There must be something you can do," Raven says insistently. "Come on. We have so much technology."

"I'm sorry," Jackson says again. "This is – the damage is much too severe. I can give him some injections to hopefully stop him getting an infection, a tetanus shot, and maybe some localised shots for the pain instead of the general sedation you've been putting him under, so that he can wake up without it being as bad."