Lightning Only Strikes Once - Clexa

Chapter 53: Just Don't Blow It

"So you fell from space in it," Clarke says, "And bringing it with you seemed like the next logical step?" She can't suppress a smile at the absurdity.

Kane shrugs. He's leaner than she remembers, and a little more tanned, but otherwise about the same. Apparently he fell not far from the ocean and the Boat People were very helpful and kind. He's already learnt some Trigedasleng and seems to have made friends with half the Trikru who escorted him here. She's glad to see him like this, glad that he's the good person she remembers him being underneath all that stiffness. "The other option was leaving a nuclear device in the middle of nowhere. I was a little concerned about bringing it back here as well, but I thought that we would be more likely to know how to disable it completely than the Floudonkru." He sets down the cup he's been drinking from and tilts his head slightly, studying her. "So the Chancellor and your mother..."

"Like I said. They might be alive." Her smile dwindles though. 'Might be' isn't 'definitely'. Her mother has much better odds than Jaha, though – Emerson will want to kill her family in front of her, she thinks. Besides, Jaha won't be nearly as useful to them. Except that he's spent time with Clarke and Lexa recently, unlike Alpha Station. Maybe Emerson will assume Jaha knows their plans. It's possible.

"And you've taken charge until they come back," he says carefully.

"Yes, I have," she meets his eyes, wondering if he will react like Jaha.

He rubs the slight beard he's grown. "All right," he says finally. "If you need any advice, I'm here."

"You're not going to say how young I am?" Clarke raises her brows at him in challenge.

"I assume you already know that. You were taking charge before we came down, I did notice that. And the truth is..." he hesitates, then forges on. "The truth is, lately us 'adults' have done a pretty poor job." He gives her a wry smile. "Sending children down to die, nearly executing hundreds of people, and according to what you said letting Diana Sydney take off with weapons and supplies. I'm sorry that you've taken charge, but that's because I know how hard it is, not because I don't think you know what you're doing."

"I don't know what I'm doing," Clarke admits quietly, compelled to honesty by his bizarre faith in her. He seems to have softened even more than he did last time. She remembers thinking in the old world that spending time with the Trikru – people he had no authority over and therefore no responsibility to enforce the law with – was good for him, making him calmer and more reasonable. It seems like in this world spending a while with the Floudonkru has been even better.

"Then you're doing it very well," Kane says. "Did you know the gona already have stories about you? They're very poetic. Hair like the sun, eyes like the sky, all of that. They say you flew down from the stars and saved the Commander's life. That you've met the Maunon and survived. When we were leaving, there was already a new one starting about how you and the Commander were attacked by a hundred Maunon and a thousand Ripa and escaped anyway."

Clarke blinks. "Why would they – I haven't done anything, really, it's mostly been Lexa. Some of it together, but I assumed they would give the credit for everything to her."

Kane shrugs. "From what they told me, the Commander is a legend, a visionary. They see her as more than human, supernatural, nearly. But she doesn't trust many people. Despite that, she gave you authority over her people straight away and takes you everywhere with her, which already made you a mysterious figure to them. Since you also came from space and have apparently decided to declare war on the most powerful and vicious faction in this whole place, a certain degree of renown should probably be expected."

Clarke wonders if she was talked about like that in the last world before the Mountain. She never had the chance to talk to many people apart from the gona she fought with – they certainly hadn't travelled around as much as they have this time. Maybe it's not surprising that running around the country collecting people from space stations is making her noticeable. Not as infamous as destroying Mount Weather made her, of course, but still noticeable.