Children of the Blood

Time

Chapter 3 - Time

Three Months Earlier - Polis

Clarke frowned, her forehead furrowing deeply as she and Lexa watched the information being presented to them.

On the screen were small triangles representing each clan village location, Polis, Arkadia, and the mansion that had once held ALLIE near what they'd been calling the Solar Sea.

Four circles began small and grew larger, each overtaking the inhabited regions and eventually overlapping. The time-lapse clocked the entire change in five months time.

She glanced up at Kane. "All of them?"

Kane nodded, closing the tablet he'd been showing them. "All of the habitable regions we know of are going to be contaminated with lethal levels of radiation. Un-livable, even to Skaikru," he said.

*****

Clarke closed the door to their room, resting her head on the frosted glass a moment. The information was overwhelming. How do you explain the end of the world to thousands and still prevent chaos? How would they maintain the peace in the face of the tidal wave of fear it would cause? Fear of the unknown. Fear of the future. How could she ask them to trust her when she had her own fears plaguing her?

"Lexa," she said before turning. "Promise me something."

Lexa had gone to the balcony, looking out blindly into the sun as it hung low on the horizon. She looked back at Clarke, the strain of the news visible on her face. Clarke moved across the room, took her hand and pulled her to sit on the bed.

"Promise me that whatever happens, we'll stay together through this."

Lexa's brow furrowed, not understanding.

Clarke squeezed her hands. "Promise me that we'll do what's best for our people. Together. But in the end, that we won't... that we won't sacrifice each other for them."

There gazes locked, Lexa studying her. She didn't know if she was asking to be reassured or to be convinced by the promise. But after a moment, Lexa nodded. "I promise to always put you first. Even before our people."

It was only later they would realize that Lexa's answer was just as complicated as the question itself.

*****

Clarke pulled her thoughts from the memories and allowed her hands to wander aimlessly over the warm skin under her fingers. She was having a hard time accepting the idea that Polis was gone. It had seemed so indestructible. So virile. She realized that she had come to think of it as home. As the center, not only of Grounder civilization, but of her life with Lexa.

Her gaze travelled back to the skin under her fingers as she brushed them over the tattoos on Lexa's back. Lexa slept deeply, her weariness so overwhelming that they hadn't spent much time talking before sleep claimed her.

Clarke allowed the hint of a smile to cross her lips, knowing Lexa only slept like this, allowed herself this vulnerability, when they were together. The confidence in her safety with Clarke stirred the now familiar warmth of love that spread through her limbs.

Her hands drifted up to the back of Lexa's neck, brushing her dark hair to the side revealing the symbol of the Commander. Clarke's gaze travelled over it and the scar beneath, now all too familiar with what lay just under the skin. She now had an identical tattoo over an identical scar on the back of her own neck.

The symbol, so sacred to the Grounder culture, had been everywhere in the building that had once housed ALLIE. Having spent so much time steeped in the Grounder world, it was jarring to realize the sacred symbol was nothing more than a corporate logo. She tried to separate that idea of that symbol from the one branding her neck.