Just Surviving (#Clexa)

Commander No More

I apologize for ditching you all with a cliffhanger last chapter, but that may happen more often... sorry...

I'm in the process of writing the next few chapters, so updates may become weekly instead.

Thanks to everyone who's been reading and voting!

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Clarke POV

'Your fight is over, Lexa of Trikru,' Titus begins. Tears are flowing down his face, and he doesn't look once at the Commander as she watches him. He can't. 'The Commander's fight goes on.'

He grabs Lexa's arm and leg and rolls her onto her side, making the girl gasp from the pain.

'What are you doing?' I demand through my tears, reaching out to stop him. Lexa's breath is already very laboured – she may only have minutes left to live. And I want her to die in peace.

But Titus is already drawing her hair to the side, exposing a tattoo on the back of her neck. A tattoo that I'd kissed and traced with my fingertips hardly an hour ago, and that Lexa had told me was the sacred symbol of the Heda. A tattoo that was drawn over a long scar below her hairline.

'The sacred symbol,' Murphy whispers.

I turn to stare at him, not understanding how he could possibly know about it. My tears are momentarily frozen as Titus picks up a scalpel and readies it over the infinity tattoo.

'What are you doing?' I repeat angrily, though I already know he won't answer me. I watch with only surprise as he draws the blade down the scar, following its jagged line exactly. As more black blood begins to well out and Lexa lets out a slight murmur of pain, I whisper, 'Oh God...'

It's not only blood exiting the wound.

'What the hell?' Murphy hisses.

A metallic object no larger than a fingernail has risen from the cut, moving as if it has a life of its own. Titus, using nothing more than his fingertips, grasps the thing and pulls hard. As it disconnects from the back of Lexa's neck, I see dozens of wispy tentacles that move and twist in the air.

'What is that?' I whisper in horror.

To my surprise, it's Murphy who answers: 'It's an A.I.'

'Wrong,' Titus mutters. As we watch, the tentacles retract into the main body of the object, leaving it pill-sized. 'It's the spirit of the Commander.'

And then we hear the groan from Lexa. She shakes all of a sudden, like someone awakening from a nightmare, and Titus takes a shocked step backwards. He looks from the thing in his hand to her trembling body, eyes wide and disbelieving. 'She's... still alive,' he says softly.

'Yes, she's still alive,' I hiss at him, reaching out to grab Lexa's arm and roll her onto her back again. She's convulsing now, almost like she's having a heart attack, and I have no idea what to do. My tears are returning as I look down at her, brushing a hand over her face. It's the end. This is the end, and I'm not ready.

'You don't understand,' Titus mutters to me, sounding almost fearful. 'The Commander cannot live once the flame is removed. Once it is gone, they never survive...'

I press my fingers to her neck and can still feel her pulse; it's very weak, but present nevertheless. After all of this blood loss, she's still alive and breathing. 'Get me more bandages!' I snap suddenly, setting my mind solely on the impossibility of her survival. 'And water!'

Neither Titus or Murphy move for a moment. 

'Now!' I yell.

Murphy jogs off to collect more from my bathroom while Titus continues to stare at his Commander with the little metallic A.I. held gingerly in his hand. Hurriedly, he turns back to his instruments and tucks it away in a little box to keep it safe. When he spins to me, he still seems lost for words. 'I don't understand,' he whispers again.